by Izzy Shows
I scowled. “You’re cutting.” I handed him the blade and turned to face the tree again. I knew it would be easy for me to jump up and catch the tree limb, my weight would bring it back down with me. I was suddenly self-conscious though, that perhaps it wasn’t natural to be able to jump like that, that maybe it would give something about me away. If Shawn had been anyone else, if he’d behaved differently today, then perhaps I wouldn’t have worried about it so much. But even now I could feel his eyes on me, and I knew that if something looked out of the ordinary than he would pick up on it without missing a beat.
I shook my arms out, pushed the warring thoughts out of my mind and crouched down. I sucked in a breath and launched myself up, hands outstretched above me, and caught the tree limb. I took it a little higher, though, my momentum carrying me and the limb up for just a moment before gravity kicked in and brought both of us back down to ground. I held on to the limb and looked at Shawn. He was staring at me with amazement in his eyes, and I resisted the urge to curse and run away.
“OK, get to cutting,” I said.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, stepping forward and gripping the limb with one hand, his fingers brushing against mine. I felt my cheeks heat again and couldn’t help but to look at our hands. He didn’t seem to notice, or perhaps he had decided not to say anything. He sawed at the limb as far back as he could without it being so thick that we’d be there for an hour straight.
“That was impressive,” he said, his breath hitching in between words as he worked on the wood.
“Not really,” I said with a shrug.
“No, it was,” he glanced up at me, his eyes serious and curious. “I’ve never seen anyone jump like that.”
“I thought we already agreed that I wasn’t normal?” I grinned at him, hoping to distract him.
One corner of his lips tilted up in a smile. “Yeah, we did.” His voice was soft and he looked down at the limb again so he could focus.
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, waiting impatiently for him to finish with the wood. I felt antsy, wanting to get away so that he would stop staring at me like he had. It wasn’t that it creeped me out, far from it, it just…it wasn’t something I was used to.
I’d been invisible to the world for most of my life, and that’s the kind of thing you get used to. Attention was new to me and, at least for now, not welcome.
The limb fell to the ground at last and I grabbed it, a sigh of relief escaping me.
“Are you in a rush?” He asked.
“No. I just didn’t want you to break my blade,” I said with a laugh.
“Cool. Let’s go find your other trees then.”
“All right,” I said, taking the knife back from him and putting it in the bag. I slung the bag over my shoulder and grabbed up the large piece of limb.
We walked away from the grove, heading deeper into the trees.
I was walking a step ahead of him this time and I could feel his eyes on my back. “What?” I asked, unable to ignore it any longer.
“Oh, sorry, am I making you uncomfortable?”
“No one makes me uncomfortable.” It was true, for the most part. Situations made me uncomfortable, but no one on their own had done that.
“Ah, so I’m not special, then?”
I looked back and he had that grin and look in his eyes again. I stopped short.
“Shawn, are you flirting with me?” I sounded shocked. Hell. I was shocked. I mean. Me? Shawn? Flirting?
“And if I am?” His grin took a wolfish turn. “Would you object to that?”
Would I? I was dangerous, a lethal weapon in my own right, that wasn’t the kind of thing that lent itself easily to expressing interest in someone.
“I could snap your neck with my thighs, you know.”
“I would worship the experience,” he said.
I stared at him for a moment, then looked to the side and back to him again. “You’re crazy.”
“I sure am,” he laughed.
“Come on, I need to get the rest of this wood.”
He nodded, looking quite pleased with himself, and we walked on.
10
The house was a welcome sight as soon as I got out of the taxi. I paid the cabby and as soon as he drove away I felt the relief of being home wash over me—when had Aidan’s house become home? And I was quick to cross the distance from car to house, remove the wards and put them back up once I’d slipped inside.
Fred was in the living room, messing around in the bookcase.
“Looking for something?” I asked as I threw the pile of wood I’d had to carry with both arms down on the ground beside the couch. I took off my thigh harness and tossed it on the couch, I’d hang it up later when I felt like it.
“Hrrrrm?”
I’m not sure what that noise was supposed to be, but it came from his direction, so it must have been him.
“I’s be looking for a book, of course.”
“Right. That was obvious, but what book?” I asked.
He sighed and looked over his shoulder at me, a despondent look on his face. “Books that have never been here and will never be here.”
I stared at him, almost smiling but not quite sure if that was the right reaction. “What does that even mean? If you want a book, I’ll get it for you.”
His eyes lit up. “Do you mean it? For truth?”
“Of course,” I said, laughing.
“Spaceships, Mis—Blair! Aliens. Battles.” His eyes had widened impossibly and he was giddy with excitement as he ran over to me. “I wants books with these incredible things.”
I burst out laughing, clutching at my stomach, tears brimming my eyes. “Oh, wow.” I tried to calm myself down when I saw the almost hurt look on his face. “No, I’m sorry, I can get you a book about spaceships. I just never would have expected an imp to love science fiction.”
He frowned at me. “They are goods books,” he said sternly.
“Of course they are.” I sobered. “They are great books, and I promise to get you one, OK?”
“Thank you,” he said, hugging himself. “Oh, thank you so much!”
“No problem.” I smiled, happy that he had called me Blair and happy to do something that might make him feel a little more of a person. “Now, I need to carve these stakes, OK?”
“Mhm!” He chirped.
I dug my knife out of my bag and grabbed one of the limbs, hacking it into three pieces of uneven lengths, all about the size I figured would be good for a stake. It wasn’t something I’d done before, so I was doing my best. I started by slicing the bark off and then began to shave down one end, hoping to get it to a point eventually. “Am I doing this right?” I asked, keeping my eyes focused on the wood.
He peered over the couch at the wood I was working on. “Seems good,” he said. “You will need to add sigils, I think.”
“Sigils?”
“Yes. Theys would help to amplify the effect. For sunlight, for fire, perhaps.”
I sighed. More core magic, then. It wasn’t a focus I would be making, but the enchantment itself would still require that I pour magic forth from within myself.
“OK, we’ll get to that then. After I get a few good stakes carved up.”
I saw him bob his head out of the corner of my eyes. “That’s a good idea”
“So, hey, something weird happened,” I said, glancing up at him for a moment. I hadn’t had a chance to talk to him about the mugging that had occurred the other day, the vampires had been much more important. “I was attacked when I left the murder scene.”
“By vampys? Theys should not have been out in daylight. Why didn’t you say?”
“No, it wasn’t vampires. They were just regular people, I think. I didn’t notice anything weird about them, but I didn’t talk to them or anything. They were just there, out of nowhere, and I was exhausted by that spell I did to see the woman’s last minutes. I barely got away from them,” I said.
“Hmm. So, what is strange?�
�
“Well, don’t you think it’s a little weird that someone would just attack me? I’m not exactly a prime target for a good mugging, no one’s going to get money off me.”
Fred was quiet, so I stopped carving for a second to look up at him. There was concern in his eyes, and he was hesitating to say something.
“What is it?” He looked concerned.
“Blair. You’re a beautiful woman…”
I snorted. “Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m attractive. What does that have to do with anything?” I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was very beautiful, but I wasn’t misguided at all about the fact that I was conventionally attractive. It was me that turned people off, not my looks. I started carving again.
“Well.” He sighed. “Did it not occur to you that the attack was motivated by that?”
I froze, clutching the blade tightly in hand as my mind whirled to process that statement. It was a logical conclusion to come to, so I didn’t know why I hadn’t seen it as a possibility, perhaps because I hadn’t wanted to. That’s not something to be comforted by, that someone would attack you on the side of the road for…for that. I couldn’t even think about it.
“No, I suppose I hadn’t thought about that.”
“I am sorry, Miss. I knows it is not a good thing to think.”
“No. Humanity is disappointing as ever.” I shook my head. “But that is nothing I can be blind to. Thank you for clarifying that, Fred.” I didn’t want him to think that because it was something I hadn’t wanted to hear, that it meant I wouldn’t want to be told such things in the future. If he couldn’t give me horrible news, I couldn’t trust him to give me important news.
My carving took on a more aggressive, determined strategy.
Almost like I was cutting into the men who meant to harm me.
11
I rolled up to Dudley’s estate shortly after finishing my work. My thigh holster now had a stake in either holster, my wands tucked into my boots by my ankles, and in my bag, I had two more stakes. I did not anticipate needing them in this house, but I wasn’t going to fool myself into thinking that it was OK to go into a vampire’s lair unarmed. And there was always the chance that he wouldn’t let me into the house with my magic.
As well, the only time I’d been here had been with Aidan, and he had so thoroughly pissed Dudley off just by being there that we’d almost been killed.
I didn’t want to repeat that experience, and I didn’t know how to carve wooden bullets, so the presence of a stake would have to do.
I knocked on the manor door, stepping back and to the side after doing so. It was several minutes before the butler came to the door, and his expression shifted to one of deep displeasure when he saw me.
“I did not think to be seeing you again,” he said.
“Well, that’s me for you, constantly surprising people,” I said with a cheerful grin. “Look, I don’t come bearing any ill will, I just want to have a conversation with your Lord, and then I’ll be on my way. Scout’s honour.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the most truthful thing I’d ever said. I deeply suspected that Dudley knew about the vampire attacks, if he hadn’t orchestrated them for some reason. I wasn’t going to attack, though, and I wasn’t going to antagonise him. I was going to wait and see if he was going to be a total wanker about it before I made any of those decisions.
His eyes slid down to my thighs, the look not sexual in the slightest, and they widened when he took in the sight of the stakes there.
“You are not dressed as one bearing no ill will, Madame.”
“If you recall, sir, I was not treated as a guest when I visited the last time. I have taken precautions.”
“You ask to see our Lord while bearing the deadliest of weapons. I cannot allow it.” He stiffened his back and was clearly about to slam the door in my face.
“Why don’t you let your Lord be the one to make that call?” I snapped. “I don’t mind him telling me to shove off, but I’m a little tired of arguing with you. I’ll wait out here,” I added, not wanting to go sit in the parlour and end up being told to get lost by his buffoons again.
The butler sneered at me, but nodded his head. He closed the door and I heard his footsteps retreating on the other side.
There was the distinct possibility that he was just going to leave me out here, maybe turn on the sprinklers to send me on my way. But that was a risk I had to take. I wasn’t going to leave unless I’d spent a good hour out here waiting for him.
Time ticked by slowly, I’m not sure how long it took, but the door finally opened again.
He looked even more unhappy than he had before. “You may enter.” He stepped back and allowed me into the house. I crossed the threshold, felt the tension ease as my magic carried into the building with me. I wondered why he’d done that, why he’d invited me in instead of simply waiting for me to walk inside. I would have had to leave my magic at the doorstep—though granted, I would still have the stakes with me regardless. Perhaps the stakes were more intimidating than my magic was.
He led me up the stairs and to Dudley’s office again, I was grateful for that as I did not entirely recall the way. Then again, he was likely preventing me from walking around the estate unsupervised. That made more sense.
“Sir, Miss Sheach is here to see you,” he said after opening the door.
Dudley gave him a nod and the butler left us alone.
I walked into the room, but left the door open. You never know when you’re going to need to make a hasty retreat.
“To what do I owe the pleasure, Miss Sheach?” Dudley said, exuding false charm.
I was surprised, and certain that the way my eyebrows jumped showed that. “Uh,” I said, having lost my footing just a bit in this conversation. He was supposed to threaten me like he did last time. “I have something that I had hoped had already come to your attention, but the way you’re addressing me…” I waved a hand between us. “I would have expected a different greeting.”
He frowned. “What news would you need to bring to my attention?”
“OK,” I said, sighing. “Let’s cut to the chase. There are vampires killing indiscriminately in London.”
His face hardened. “I can assure you, not even one of mine would be so careless as to do something like that. It is forbidden.”
“I understand that, I’m aware of your rules,” I said, nodding and walking closer. “But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s happening. If it isn’t some of your people, then it’s someone moving in on your turf. This is something that you need to be aware of and take seriously.”
“How do you know there are vampires attacking? You are new blood. You were Aidan’s apprentice before he died.”
“Not even his apprentice.” I snorted. For some reason, I smiled.
He did too.
“I am aware of how difficult your position in London is, Miss Sheach. It could be easy to see things that are not there.”
I rolled my eyes at his condescending tone. “I’m not some hysterical child, sir. I know a vampire when I see one. I know one when I kill one.”
His eyes turned icy. “You killed a vampire?”
“Yes, but what should it matter to you? Did you not just say that none of your people would be mixed up in this?” I smiled sweetly at him.
He laughed then, catching me by surprise. “You are a worthy adversary, Miss Sheach.” He stood up and called for the butler. “Send Carmen in,” he said, waving a hand to dismiss the man. “You are right, I did say that, and I know you may not believe me, but it is true. My children would never dare to break the laws; they know what would happen to them if they did. If you have killed an interloper, that is fine. As a gesture of goodwill between the two of us, I will provide one of my own to accompany you on your investigation, and assist you with anything that you might need. I hope to have a better working relationship with you than I did with your predecessor.”
I stared at him, not quite comprehending. It took a minute
to sink in, but when it did I frowned. He wasn’t giving me help just to make things good between the two of us, he was doing it because he wanted to keep an eye on me. Still… “Why should you want there to be good will between the two of us? You have just said that I am new blood, and therefore I must know nothing of what I am doing.”
He smiled at me again, like the predator he was. “If you are trying to play innocent now, it will do you no good. I am aware of what you have been doing around the town, and as you have just mentioned the vampire you killed, I know that you are not as fresh as I would like. I do appreciate your efforts. It is good, for me, to have another threat out there that will keep my vampires in line. There are those that are too young to fear me yet, those with the human belief that family matters most, but they knew to be afraid of Aidan. An outside threat has its benefits. It would not be the worst thing, for word to get out of your kill…” His voice trailed off as he thought about it. “No, not the worst thing at all.”
“My Lord.” A woman’s voice sounded behind me, and I turned to see an attractive woman there. She was shorter than me, with lightly browned skin and dark hair, her eyes were an almost golden shade of brown. It occurred to me that she should be enchanting, but my knowledge that she was a vampire prevented her from being so.
“Come, Carmen.” He beckoned her into the room and she obeyed. “This is Miss Sheach. She is a Wizard.” He made eye contact with me when he said that and I understood his point—he knew that I was not a titled Wizard, but he also knew that I needed to be one to maintain order in the community. If he wanted his vampires to fear me, then he needed them to believe I was someone worth fearing.
“She comes into our house with weapons, how is this allowed?” She hissed as she took in the sight of me.
I straightened my shoulders and levelled a look at her. “Do not speak of me as if I am not in this room.” My voice was soft, threatening, and I thrilled at the sound of it. I hadn’t done the threatening thing too many times, so it was nice to pull it off now and then.