Switch of Fate 2

by Grace Quillen

  They were talking about her like she wasn’t there and Goldie hated it. Cora nodded as Flint spoke, then she aimed her response at Goldie. “You should stay out of Shady Pines, then, if you’re not ready to fight them. You won’t be able to stop yourself. Believe me. It’s impossible.”

  The distress on Goldie’s face must have been obvious, because Cora’s tone softened. “I know, it’s shitty not having any control. That’s why we train. You should come.”

  Train? No. Control was good, but Goldie wanted to have it over her whole life, and vampire assassin training didn’t sound like the way to get it.

  Goldie was about to decline the offer as politely as she could when Cora’s eyes lit up and her hands fluttered in front of her body. “Wait, I’ve got it! Why don’t you move in here? I mean, we already know you belong here, and you could just learn as you go.”

  Goldie shook her head, a knee-jerk response coming to her lips. “Here? No, I couldn’t. My roommate, Darby, I can’t leave her at that motel, it’s way too sketchy.”

  Cora brushed it off. “No problem! Jameson’s place is free now that he’s moved here. Darby moves there, you could move here. Done. Decided.” The high-wattage smile on Cora’s face said she had it all worked out and she didn’t lose arguments often.

  She was about to. Quitely, Goldie said. “I couldn’t do that. She needs me.” Which was the absolute truth.

  Cora rolled her eyes. “Shit, you’re totally right. I got so excited over meeting another switch I did exactly what I told them not to do.”

  Jameson had been silent and still, but now he animated, looking at Flint first and raising his eyebrows, then back at Goldie. “Let me ask you something. Flint told us your car broke down and you were forced into staying in town. That true?”

  Flint growled, like a real animal growl and Goldie snapped her head that way. He was snarling at Jameson. Jameson held up his hands, throwing Flint a look that Goldie could not decipher. “Cool it. I’m not accusing anyone of lying. I’ll rephrase. Is there anything more to the story of you being here, anything you can’t explain?”

  Flint stopped growling. “Right, good question. Are switches being pulled to Five Hills like shifters are?”

  Goldie didn’t want to admit it. But the truth was in front of her face. This was real She nodded. “I had a woman dressed like a voodoo priestess stop me on the street after my grandmother died and tell me about a white wolf that would lead me to my new life.” Like the white wolf she’d seen upstairs. Dangit.

  Flint and Cora both glanced at Jameson, then back to Goldie. White wolf. He was the white wolf. She swallowed hard. Men who could turn into animals. And that would make Flint what? She remembered the bear he’d flipped off.

  She kept the shake out of her voice as she spoke. “My roommate and I, were driving on our way to a job I had lined up in New Jersey. We took the scenic route because it seemed like the perfect opportunity, but… I swerved to avoid a wolf in the road and hit a cement flood guide that bent my axle and left us stranded.”

  Silence met the end of her story, broken by Jameson clearing his throat. “You know, Goldie, that place Cora mentioned is a two-bedroom and it really is just sitting there empty. All furnished and everything. You and your roommate can both stay there. I insist. It’s safe. It’s furnished, and I know the guy who lives next door. Nicest guy you’d ever want to meet.”

  Chapter 12 - Carick’s Bromance

  “She did what?” Carick’s bellow carried down the hall and into Flint’s bedroom, where he’d just gotten out of the shower and was pulling jeans on. He went to his dresser for a shirt so he could see what the Steward was making a fuss about.

  An index card lay on top of the dresser, under the enameled white-and-yellow daisy pin that Flint had carried as a memento ever since his family died. It had belonged to his older sister, Daisy, a trinket she bought at the mall on one of their rare trips into town from the wilds of Yosemite, and she had worn it constantly until the day she died. Flint rubbed the tips of his fingers across the petals absentmindedly as he took a closer look at the card.

  It was lemon yellow with red whorls at the corners, and written on it in even, flowing script was a recipe for “Zucchini Sunrise muffins”. Cool, someone had dropped him the recipe. But who? Maybe someone had brought Molly to the house.

  Flint pulled his shirt on and strode out to the common room where a few shifters - Aven, Dario, Bryce, Jameson - were held captive to Carick’s continued ranting. “Impossible! No switch could refuse her coven. What excuse did she give?”

  Jameson rolled his eyes. “She’s got a roommate she won’t leave. Anyway, it doesn’t matter, the point is she’s not ready. They’re moving into the duplex today.” He gave a nod in the direction of Bryce, who was standing by the bar, oblivious to the conversation, eyeing a pitcher of thick green liquid with suspicion. “Bryce is next door, he’ll be able to keep watch.”

  Carick made a sound of disgust.

  Flint stood. “Bryce will do a great job, right Bryce?”

  Bryce sketched a salute. “I’m all over it.” He went back to eyeing the smoothie.

  Flint grabbed the pitcher and poured one. Bryce’s expression changed to one of confusion and horror. “Bro, what are you doing?”

  Carick grunted, then changed the subject. “We need a watch on Vernon’s house.”

  Jameson shook his head, confused. “Who?”

  The Steward gave an impatient flick of his fingers. “Vernon Bunn, the human in charge of Triumph Over Victory. The vampires were at his house. I have been speaking with him since the incident, and I believe Vernon could prove to be a great asset. He will be protected.”

  Dario looked surprised. “Oh. First names.” Then his face broke into his trademarked wide grin. “Okay, then. I didn’t know it was serious like that.”

  Jameson kept a straight face, but Flint could tell it took effort. “Aven, can you add Mr. Bunn to your surveillance schedule, get enough shifters to cover?” The raptor nodded to his superior, but his eyes remained fixed on the Steward, studying him for flaws, for motives.

  Carick motioned to Flint, thundering his question. “Any other progress to report on the switch? Anything you’ve learned that might be useful?”

  Flint nodded. “You don’t have to yell inside. Yeah, a bit. She can do magic.”

  A murmur ran around the room. Next to him Bryce laughed. “What, did she pull your rabbit out of his hat? That’s not magic, bro. Lots of women can do that.”

  Flint punched Bryce in the shoulder. Hard. Bryce sulked and went back to glaring daggers at the green smoothie.

  “She was chasing a vampire-” A collective straightening of spines in the room had Flint addressing the obvious. “Yeah, in Shady Pines again. Shit is going down. We need patrol or something. Back to Goldie, she almost got hit by a car, but she did this-,” Flint mimed how Goldie had placed her hands, elbows out, fingers pointing toward each other, one forearm above the other. “-and green magic shot out of her hands, and then she was flying. I caught her.”

  Carick was nodding his head. “Good. Magic is natural to the switches during the hunt, but strongest with one in each coven. This Goldie is very valuable if she is the most magical of the Breath switches.”

  “Magic leaks out of her fingertips, too, or at least it looked like the green air bubble she made in the street, but this was here, no vampires around.”

  The Steward’s eyebrows were raised, his eyes sparkling for the first time that Flint had seen. He might have smiled. “It has been many years since I have seen magicks flow from the fingers of a strong switch.” He broke eye contact to look at the walls and ceiling surrounding him, then fixed Flint with a meaningful look. “She must join us. Entice her if you have to. You have what she wants.”

  Flint swallowed hard. Freaky shit.

  Carick pressed forward, staring directly at Flint. “You offer her protection, stability, strength, and adoration. You cannot help but to do so. All switches desire such from shif
ters. Show her your natural fascination with her, display your simple heart that wishes only to be of service, and she will come. She will join us. If that fails, bring her a vampire.”

  Flint snorted, but didn’t speak. Carick did not get how the real world was, he was still living in that cave. But Flint couldn’t deny that desire to be “of service.” All kinds of service.

  He would start by cooking for her. “Yeah, I’ve got an idea. See ya.” He dropped his smoothie on the counter.

  Bryce looked at it. “Why’s it green, man? Kale and shit?”

  Flint laughed as he headed for the stairs. Okay, Resperanza, where do you keep the springform pans?

  Chapter 13 - Moving In

  Goldie hoisted another box from the small stack of her and Darby’s belongings and turned to carry it inside. She was in the driveway of the brick duplex Cora and Jameson had offered her, for as long as she needed it, no strings attached, not even green ones. Which was the only reason she’d agreed to do it. She believed she was what they had said she was. She believed she had magic. She believed there were many more surprises in store for her, but for now, she really needed to pretend she was normal for a bit. Just a regular woman, doing regular things, trying to figure life out, that was her.

  The duplex was nicer than she’d hoped, on a quiet street that dead-ended at a thick forest. Goldie could imagine taking a solitary walk through the trees early in the morning, when there was still mist collecting close to the ground. The place felt safe, and homey, and as long as there were no bears in the woods, she felt much better here than in that motel. Plus no rent meant she had a bit of money to get by until her first paycheck.

  Arms full of box, she headed back inside, passing Bryce. She studied him as he passed and deliberately watched the trees so he could turn his head far away from her. He was a strange one. Sweet, but strange, and she could not figure him out for anything. He was big, big like Flint, but without Flint’s hard edge, Flint’s intense stare.

  A cabbie had dropped her and Darby off, dumping their boxes in the driveway, and then Bryce had driven up, Foo Fighters blaring from the stereo of his red Jeep. She’d seen him before, but couldn’t remember where, until she’d seen the bear in the canoe logo on the back of his jeep, like the one Flint had.

  “You work at the BBOC! I was there yesterday for a tour. We met, remember?” she’d said.

  Bryce had scrunched his nose up in a poor imitation of thinking. “Oh yeah, you were with the school group. Sorry, I see so many people every day it can be hard to remember everyone.” He’d turned to Darby, leaving Goldie scratching her head. It was like he had rehearsed a speech and she didn’t understand why.

  She went inside, dropped her box, and watched out the window as Bryce grabbed the last one and brought it in. Darby was there, leaning over the clean kitchen counter, bored.

  Of course Bryce had taken one look at Darby’s bombshell body and magenta hair and instantly gone starry-eyed, practically tripping over himself to get closer. Goldie was used to her sister’s charisma, and anyway she didn’t care who Bryce was attracted to, but Darby didn’t always know her power over the so-called stronger sex. When she asked Bryce if he knew of any jobs around town, Goldie prayed he knew Darby didn’t mean blowjobs.

  His response would have had Goldie locking her sister up, if he hadn’t sounded so darn innocent. “That depends, what do you know how to do?”

  “I’m a hairdresser. I also do makeup, glamour and special effects. But right now I’ll settle for just about anything that pays,” Darby said.

  Goldie bit back a giggle as Bryce scratched his stomach through his t-shirt, legitimately deep in thought. Then he said, “They’re down a waitress at my parents’ restaurant. How do you feel about waiting tables?”

  Goldie’s antennae went up. “Down a waitress? Why? They have a high turnover? Mean bosses? What?”

  Bryce shook his head. “Nah, just this one waitress went off camping in the deep woods a little east of here with her boyfriend a couple weeks back and now they can’t find her. Search & Rescue involved and everything.”

  Goldie’s gut clenched. “How scary for her family.”

  Darby clapped her hands. “When can I start? I’m bored as shit sitting around this town doing nothing for a week.”

  Bryce laughed. “I could take you in tomorrow, let the folks get a look at you.”

  Darby grinned wide at him, and Goldie could almost see the dazzle in his eyes. Another one bites the Darby dust.

  Darby’s newly-operational phone chimed, and she pulled it out to swipe at the screen, then raise it to her ear. “Lance! We got a new place. Yeah.”

  Goldie wheeled on her sister, more angry than she’d been in days, and mimed furiously. You aren’t supposed to tell anyone! But as usual Darby just rolled her eyes and turned her back, still talking. “No, it’s nice. Way better than that jacked-up motel.”

  Goldie jabbed at Darby’s shoulder, enunciating her whispered words clearly. “Get. Off. The. Phone.”

  Bryce took off, sensing the impending fight.

  For a moment Darby looked like she was ready to argue, then Bryce’s voice carried in from outside. “Whoa! For real?”

  Her sister narrowed her perfectly drawn cat’s eyes at Goldie and spoke into the phone. “Hey, Lance, I gotta go. We’re pretty busy. Okay, later.”

  Before she’d even hit “end” on the phone call Darby was pushing past Goldie, aiming her attention outside with a loud call. “Bryce, what is it?”

  But Bryce had moved away from their door and was talking to someone in his driveway. “Bro, you’re the best. How did you do that so fast?” Goldie and Darby stepped through the front door to see Flint walking over, carrying a box stacked high with plastic containers and foil-wrapped packages.

  Goldie’s stomach fluttered as Flint looked at his brother and growled, “It’s not for you,” before looking at Goldie and winking. “I wanted to welcome the new neighbors. Figured you would be hungry.”

  Darby spoke up. “Wait, you’re his brother? And you cooked for us?”

  Goldie almost elbowed her sister in the gut for her rudeness. Okay, so it was a surprise to her too that Bryce and Flint were brothers, but Flint lived up in that big hacienda. And, since when had any man ever cooked for Goldie? She was pretty sure the last one was her father, and that was probably a box of mac-n-cheese. If Flint was going to be leaving soon to go off vampire-hunting, she was going to enjoy every spoonful of food cooked with his hands.

  “Thank you,” she said softly, meaning it.

  He nodded. Didn’t smile. Looked adorable anyway. “I made too much.”

  He and Bryce unpacked all the food it was clear that Flint had definitely made too much. Jambalaya, red beans and rice, turnip greens, maque choux, fresh baguettes, and a bananas foster cheesecake for dessert. “I thought you might be missing a taste of home,” he said with a shrug. “I hope I did it justice.”

  Darby was all smirks as Flint stacked the containers in the fridge. “Ballsy of you, cookin’ Creole.” She turned away from him and rummaged in the drawers. “There’s got to be a to-go menu in here somewhere.”

  Goldie winced but Flint didn’t respond at all.

  Bryce laughed. “You gotta admit, Bro, that was a solid burn.” He aimed a thumbs-up at Darby that had her winking slyly back.

  Goldie gaped at her sister and started in on a scold. “Darby!” Then she remembered Darby wasn’t supposed to be her sister, and abruptly changed tacks, smiling at both younger siblings in turn. “I’m hungry. I’ll eat it all myself.”

  Darby’s smirk deepened and she nodded in a knowing way. “You have looked hungry lately. About time you put some weight on ya.” Goldie didn’t miss the look Darby threw at Flint as she said it. Goldie tried not to blush. She failed miserably, so she looked at the wall.

  Bryce shook his head and grabbed at a container. “A tiny thing like you? It’ll spoil before you get to it all.” He popped it open and dug in. “Let’s eat.”


  Goldie’s mind raced. She’d love to share a meal and get to know Bryce, and maybe get Darby to chill out on Flint, but how much did them moving in here have to do with her… uh… “little green problem”? Did Bryce know? Goldie had to assume he did.

  Ah, that was why he pretended not to know her! Was he supposed to keep an eye on her and Darby, report their movements? That was the last thing Goldie wanted anyone doing.

  She didn’t want to think moving in here was a mistake, but Bryce worried her. But it was so much better than that horrible, scary, seedy motel. This place was clean, fully-stocked, and the furniture was gorgeous. And she and Darby could eat real food they bought with the little bit of money they had left.

  It was just that now she also kind of wanted to check the place for recording devices.

  She put on her I’m-tired face. “I’m sorry, guys. I’m so drained after packing up and moving, and we still have to unpack, and I start my new job tomorrow…”

  Bryce looked set to argue, but Flint took the hint and pushed his brother toward the front door. “No problem. This one’s always looking for a free meal.”

  Goldie followed them, closing and locking the door on Flint’s sad puppy dog eyes.

  Chapter 14 - Vampire Orders

  Vlade Van Allen stalked down the hallway in his brother’s wing of their ancient family lair, his lip curled in disgust at the depressing surroundings. A far cry from the modern high-rises and penthouses where he and his many thousand brothers spent most of their days behind specially-treated tinted glass, the concrete walls of the family lair were almost unbearably humdrum, lined with hackneyed tapestries Vlade had been staring at for hundreds of years, put there to absorb the dankness as well as the sounds coming from behind the doors. It was breeding time again.

  It was never difficult to find which room his brother was in. He simply followed the metallic smell of blood.