by Blake, Kasi
Cowboy said, “We’ll talk later when we have more privacy.”
The vampire lifted his hand in a short-lived wave while walking backward. He turned and headed for the street. His vampire-speed kicked in as soon as he reached the curb. In a flash, he was gone.
Summer nodded at Matt before following her friend.
“What was that all about?” Matt asked. “Are they hunting you now?”
“Worse.” Trick pursed his lips in a grim line. “They want me to hunt with them.”
♫
An hour later he was in Baxter’s office, still shaken by the unexpected news. During times like these he had no idea what to do with himself. Instinct pushed him towards violence, but that wouldn’t solve anything in this case. You couldn’t undo the past. If his father was dead, staking a million vampires wouldn’t bring him back. Trick didn’t have a standing Saturday appointment, but he told Baxter he needed to talk about his father. She invited him in with obvious reluctance. Dark circles underscored her eyes as if she hadn’t slept in a while. It was the first time he had seen her looking anything other than organized.
After he sat on the couch, she held her hands out. “Well? Give it to me. What’s so important that you had to interrupt my day off?”
“Is my father dead?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Why would you ask me that?” When he didn’t answer, she shrugged. “I have no idea what happened to Ian Carver, Patrick. John and I only know that he fought in the Great Werewolf Battle and—”
“When was that? Do you know the date of the battle?”
She pursed her lips, and her hands went to her narrow hips. “You love to ask questions, but you never want to answer them. That doesn’t seem fair.”
He sighed. “I think my father is dead. Can’t you understand that I need to be sure?”
“You’ll have to ask John if you want an exact date, and he’s hunting with the group in Michigan. All I can tell you is that werewolves ceased to exist about three years ago. Your father was still alive at that time.” Her eyes bore into him, searching. “What makes you think he’s dead?”
If he told her vampires had revealed the information, she’d tell her group. As much as he wanted Cowboy and Summer dead, he wanted information about his father more. He needed to know how his father had died. At the moment it looked like Cowboy was the only one with that bit of news. He was going to protect the vampires no matter what the cost.
He’d kill them later.
Trick said. “It would explain why he never returned for me.”
Baxter took his words and added her own slant. “Oh, I see. You don’t want to hate your father, so you’re trying to give him an excuse for his long absence.”
Trick’s jaw tightened. “I just want the truth. When can you hypnotize me again?”
“At your next official appointment.” Before he could argue, she said something that blew his mind. “Our hunting group wants to meet you.”
Speechless, he stared at her with unblinking eyes.
A lopsided smirk turned up a corner of her mouth. “You’ll be eighteen soon. They want to check you out in person.”
“Why?” The breath died in his throat halfway through the word. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Why?”
“They want to see if you’re a hunter worthy of their attention.” The smirk grew. “And they probably want to see if you have your grandfather’s power. They’ll test you.”
“What happens if I fail?”
She shrugged. “Simple. They’ll kill you.”
He paled. “They’ll just kill me on the spot as if I’m nothing more than... a monster?”
“If you have your grandfather’s power, you are a monster, at least in their eyes. They won’t outright kill you. John says they have a special faerie metal, an opposite of your talisman.”
“Opposite how?”
“Your talisman puts a damper on powers. This one will amp them up about a thousand-fold, and you will die instantly. Problem solved.” Baxter gestured to his jeans. “Are you carrying the bracelet Dani gave you?”
He nodded.
“Good,” she said. “I advise you to keep it with you at all times. When they test you, even if you have abilities, they may not be able to tell. Of course, there are no guarantees in life.”
The fact she was helping him to fool her husband’s hunting group stunned him more than the news of his father’s death. Before today he’d been sure about a few important facts. One, Baxter was loyal to the hunters. Two, she was secretly a villain in disguise. Three, she didn’t like him.
A lot of firm ideas and beliefs were getting shot down today.
He pulled the bracelet from his pocket to show her and to confirm it for himself. Yes, it was with him. It felt heavy in his hand. That was a good sign. But how could he be sure it really worked? It hadn’t seemed to affect his vampire intruders.
“We should make a necklace out of the charms for you to wear. Less likely to get misplaced that way.”
Baxter reached for it, and he purposely touched her fingers while giving it to her.
Nothing happened. He remained in his body and in the present. If the bracelet wasn’t working, he would have seen a vision through her eyes. Definitely a good sign.
She turned it this way and that in the light, checking each charm as if she expected to see something wrong with them. After a moment she handed it back to him. “Put it in your pocket for now,” she said. “John will be gone for at least two weeks. My advice to you, get that made into a necklace, and don’t take it off.”
“Dani will want it back.”
“John told me he’s having something new made for her. Besides, you need it more than she does.”
“Why are you helping me? Aren’t you on their side?”
She stared at him without answering, stared until he shifted in his seat, uncomfortable.
Finally she said, “Let’s just say I don’t agree with the group on every point and leave it at that.”
Trick dreamed of being a full-time hunter. Working with professional hunters would be a great learning experience and start him on his way. Problem was, he did have his grandfather’s powers. Somehow he needed to get rid of them before he met with the hunters. He didn’t care what Baxter said. In his gut he knew there’d be trouble if he met them while his powers were in tact. They would know. Somehow they’d figure it out.
Baxter glanced at her watch. “Crap. It’s time for me to pick up Dani from her gymnastics class, and I have so much to do. I really can’t spare a minute.”
“Doesn’t she have a car?”
“It broke down. John took it to the garage before he left.”
He suggested, “I can give her a ride.”
She made a face as if having a silent debate in her head and probably weighing the pros and cons of giving Trick permission to go anywhere with her stepdaughter. For some reason, she didn’t like the idea of the two of them together.
“Bring her straight home.” As an afterthought she added, “And no one tells John about this. The mere thought of his daughter on the back of your motorcycle will drive him to homicide. I’m serious. If you value your life, keep your mouth shut, and tell Dani to do the same. Oh, and drive safely please.”
“I will. Don’t worry.”
He headed for the door.
“I mean it, Patrick. Drive slow, like turtle slow.”
He waved her off as he left her office. Of course, he would drive slowly. He wouldn’t do anything to put Dani’s life at risk. Plus, he’d want to make the ride home last as long as possible; she wouldn’t have any other choice than to wrap her arms around his waist. The thought made him smile.
♫
When Trick arrived at school, he found the parking lot empty with the exception of a dirty red truck covered in dents and rust. The truck was as notorious as its owner. The janitor, Marty Dern loved his job, but hated the students with a passion that bordered on the psychotic. He didn’t mind if they made huge
messes for him to clean. That was his job, and he did it with pride. It was when a student talked to him, asking for any sort of help that he hit the ceiling. The guy just wanted to be left alone.
Trick tried to find Dani on his own. He checked the gym and found no sign of her or anyone else. Next, he went to Dani’s locker. No one there either. The entrance to the school, both front and back were also void of human life. In the end he was left without a reasonable choice. He had to ask Marty.
Finding the janitor was a lot easier than finding a sixteen-year-old girl. All Trick had to do was follow the sound of loud, tuneless humming.
Marty mopped the floor while doing a little dance. Back and forth, he glided across the wide hall from one row of lockers to the other. Headphones kept him from hearing Trick’s approach. Rumors that the guy fought in a war—which war changed with the teller of the story—and was liable to remove your head if startled kept Trick from getting too close. Although he could handle vampires without breaking a sweat, people were different. A dead janitor might be hard to explain.
He stood off to the side and waved his arms to get Marty’s attention.
Wearing tidy overalls that seemed freshly washed, Marty jumped nearly a foot off the ground at the sight of what he probably considered an unwanted annoyance.
Marty pulled the headphones off and grumbled, “What are you doing here? Only the cheerleaders and the coach are allowed in here tonight. Better not be here to paint graffiti on stuff.”
“Dani Foster’s mom... uh, stepmom asked me to give her a ride home, but I can’t find her.”
Marty shook his head. “If that girl was my daughter, I sure wouldn’t ask you—”
A mini-explosion rocked the building, and the back door blew off its hinges. Marty got hit by what looked like streaks of red lightning. He flew through the air, bounced off the wall, and landed several feet from Trick, his body twisted in an unnatural pose that didn’t leave any doubt.
The janitor was dead.
A dark figure entered through the unfettered doorway. Tap... tap... tap went his cane. He moved with a slow yet intimidating gait. The kind of fear Trick thought he’d outgrown returned with a vengeance. Hunters weren’t supposed to be afraid of monsters. In fact, Trick remembered his father telling him that smart hunters quit when fear took away their edge.
Trick stood tall, feet firmly planted on the shiny floor, and clenched his fists. All he had on him was a stake. Would that work against a Shadow Faerie when a sword hadn’t?
The cloaked shadow lifted an arm and pointed at him. “Found you, boy. Smell power. Want it.”
“I got the power from my grandfather, the Dark Wizard.”
Trick cut the explanation short, hoping the Shadow Faerie might get the wrong impression. Maybe it would think he was a faerie. Could they smell their own kind? Or maybe it would believe he had more power than he did.
The Shadow Faerie removed his hood, revealing his hideous face.
An old man—if Trick had to guess, he would put the guy at three hundred years or more—his skin appeared paper thin and just as dry. His eyes were sunken holes, black and empty, and his hair came in sporadic tufts of white. Without the hood the Shadow Faerie didn’t look menacing, just ugly. Trick’s fear abated. He wondered if he could tap into his magic. Perhaps he could throw lightning or a fireball, something.
Trick pointed his finger and concentrated. Nothing happened. He tried flashing his palm at the faerie while thinking about setting the thing on fire or blowing him up. His father used to burn werewolves with a mere touch; Trick had no intention of getting that close, not until he knew more about the Shadow Faerie. He needed to know how to kill the thing.
The Shadow Faerie’s cheeks filled with air like a hamster storing food. Worse. His cheeks continued to inflate, much larger than a normal person until Trick was sure the faerie’s entire face would explode.
A strong gust of wind blew out the Shadow Faerie’s mouth along with a tiny man the size of a quarter. The man flew through the air while growing. Once his feet hit the ground he was taller than Trick. Dressed in a black suit with dark sunglasses, the man resembled the Secret Service agents Trick had seen on TV during a presidential press conference.
The man approached Trick with a confident, steady gait.
Trick removed the stake from his ankle sheath and prepared for a fight.
The man stopped, and Trick smiled. At least someone was still afraid of a stake. If the guy was frightened by the weapon, maybe it could kill him.
“Go,” the Shadow Faerie said. “Give him gift.”
The man in the suit wavered. “He has Fellulite. It’s pulling on my powers.”
“Move, weakling.” The Shadow Faerie shoved the man aside. He spoke to Trick then. “Faerie metal. Not yours. Drop it.”
Dani stepped from a classroom at the end of the long hallway. When she saw Trick, she shouted, “What was that noise? Did you blow up something?”
He’d forgotten Dani was in the building.
No time for explanations. He raced towards her, heart in his throat. She was his to protect. If she died because of him, he wouldn’t be able to live with it.
“Find someone, a single person that you know will live longer than you, someone with a safe lifestyle. Then when you lose people, and you will lose people, think about your person. Be grateful they are alive. Focus on them and on the people you manage to save.”
The memory’s voice belonged to his father.
Behind him, lockers exploded like confetti guns, shooting books and papers into the air at unsteady intervals.
Dani jumped, screamed, and covered her mouth with one hand.
Determined to keep her safe, Trick pushed her at the gym doors. She could hide inside, behind the bleachers or in the laundry hamper with the dirty towels.
Her eyes narrowed on something over his shoulder, and she visibly swallowed. “Who is that?”
Trick slowly turned to see the Shadow Faerie coming at them.
The thing hobbled down the hallway in their direction resembling a Sith Lord reject from a Star Wars film.
Tap... tap... tap.
The Shadow Faerie’s thunderous voice bounced off walls and echoed in their ears. “No escape, boy. Agree to inherit.”
Trick shoved Dani through the gym doors and chained them shut. “That ought to buy us a few minutes,” he said.
He leaned against the right side door.
Dani glared at him. “Do you really think this is funny?” When he stared at her in silence, confused by her lack of understanding, she threw her arms into the air. “You have got to be the biggest jerk on this planet. Did you hire that idiot to scare me? When are you going to grow up?”
“I didn’t—”
“Then it was Claudia.” Dani shook her head with a resentful twist to her mouth. “When is that woman going to stop tormenting me with her stupid tests?”
“This isn’t—”
“My father leaves town, and she thinks it gives her the right to experiment on me. She’s done stuff like this before, you know? She uses me to prove her theories on how the teenage mind works. This time she has gone too far. I’m telling my dad.”
One glance at the other doors took away Trick’s hope. The janitor had already chained them. He and Dani were trapped. Unless...
He took a lap around the gym, searching for the familiar symbol that meant freedom. Up, down, all around he looked without finding anything. Maybe the Shadow Faerie had some sort of magic that prevented the door from appearing.
“What are you doing?” Dani asked. “Is that guy working for you or for Claudia? Someone needs to put an end to this joke before I call the police.”
Trick continued to search for the symbol.
“Answer me!” she shouted.
If they were going to make it out alive, he needed her to be on the same page with him. He took her by the shoulders and forced her to meet his desperate gaze. Whether she wanted to hear it or not, she was about to get a load o
f truth dumped on her.
“This isn’t a joke or a test,” he said. “Monsters are real, and we have a nasty one called a Shadow Faerie after us. Now you need to stow your disbelief for a few minutes and help me find the symbol. It’s a weird, twisted thing that looks like my talisman, same language.”
“That’s it.” She shoved him backward. Then she fished her cell from her pocket. “I’m calling 911. You had your chance.”
She tried to get a signal while he took another lap around the gym. Where was that damn symbol? Why couldn’t he find it?
Tap... tap... tap. The Shadow Faerie was right outside the door now. Any second the creature would break it down and kill them both. Something had to be hindering Trick from finding the symbol. But what?
Dani ran up the bleachers and held her phone high, trying to find a signal. His eyes dropped to her bare wrist. The bracelet. He still had it in his pocket. That’s what was stopping his magic from working.
Feeling stupid for not thinking of it earlier, he dragged the bracelet from his jeans. He hated to lose it at this point, but they were in a dangerous situation. If it was anything like his necklace, the power would be broken once he lost contact with it.
With a silent prayer that his plan would work, he threw the bracelet hard. It slid across the shiny floor and under the bleachers. Perfect. No one would find it, especially with the janitor dead, so he could retrieve it later.
Trick turned in a circle, searching for the precious symbol.
A glowing blue, it appeared in the middle of the gym floor.
He ran up the bleachers, grabbed Dani’s arm, and dragged her down them.
She shouted, “What are you doing? I almost had a signal.”
Once again he took her by the shoulders and forced her to meet his eyes. “Please don’t freak out when I show you what I need to show you.”
“What are you babbling about?”
“Follow me.”
He pulled her to the symbol and dropped to his knees. This exit was different. It had a large black metal dial that resembled a combination lock. He turned it until it clicked. Then he pulled a large wood square of the floor up. The symbol split in half, and that section of the floor parted to reveal a narrow tunnel.