“Not going to happen,” I counter.
“Then you’ll be dead.” Mabel’s voice goes up a notch – a bit too perky for my liking.
“Why do you love them so much?” I pause. “I can take the webs off your brain.”
“Webs? Is that how you see them?” Mabel laughs. “Oh no, keep them in place. They save me.”
“What do you mean?”
“When Olivia found me, I was in an abusive relationship. I was ready to leave the guy, and I told him I would go. He didn’t like that. She broke into my house that night when she could smell my blood – he was raping me again. He was savage. Tore me up inside with a knife.” She works her jaw for a moment, and I wait for her to speak. “The only way I can function is the webs because she put them in place so I wouldn’t wake up screaming,” Mabel says.
Great, now I am being introduced to a positive side of Olivia. Apparently, she likes to save battered women. Or at least Mabel, as I’m sure there are others she just destroyed.
“What about the humans she gets for her buffets?” I ask.
“What about them? She picks people the world would want to forget,” Mabel says with a confidence I’m sure is another little web on her brain. No human could live amongst this much death without going mad. I saw what was happening to Vincent, and I’m sure Mabel heard all the screams. Unless she is a genuine sociopath – which I do not believe – Olivia glamored her a lot more than she thought. If I took the webs off her brain, she would probably go mad. I wonder what will happen when they let me free Cara.
“Okay, now that we’ve got all that out of the way, is there coffee anywhere in this house?” I ask.
“Coffee? No. Olivia hates the taste of coffee in the blood. She says it makes her jittery,” Mabel says. My heart sinks a little; I’m in desperate need of coffee. Haven’t these vampires taken enough from me?
“Well, can we go to Starbucks and get some?” I plea. “Or a gas station? Look, I don’t want Olivia biting me, you don’t want Olivia biting me, so let’s fill me up with some coffee.”
Mabel stares at me uncertainly. I let the gears turn ever so slowly in her mind before she lets out a frustrated sigh.
“Fine, we can go to the gas station and get you coffee. I need you up to snuff, showered, and dressed before nightfall. You are leaving your knife here, and we are taking my car,” Mabel says.
All I can think is, Yay! Coffee! My world isn’t completely over. I look at the dress beside me.
“I’m just going to put my old clothes on,” I say.
Mabel nods her head and stands there with her arms crossed in front of her chest. Guess this means I’m changing in front of her. Not that this lingerie is doing anything to cover what my body looks like. I slip it off me and grab my clothes from the night before, putting them on and feeling a bit of my confidence come back. I can do this task, and who cares if there is another? Vincent will be better and he will fix it. He can do that, right?
After putting my boots on I follow Mabel out of the room. The house is still pitch dark, and I stumble in the hallway because there are some boards in need of fixing. What Olivia really needs is a contractor to fix this place up, not a witch to cast spells around it. I hope she understands that I have no idea how to do that type of magic and I’m pretty confident Faye is going to do all she can to keep me away from that knowledge.
Mabel flicks on a flashlight, and I follow the narrow beam down the stairs as I grip the railing. Her steps are of confident, mine sound like they could wake the dead at any moment. We get to the bottom and walk towards the door. I have the compulsion to run and check on Vincent, but I swallow it down like a jagged pill without water. The sun nearly blinds me as she just barely cracks the door open for us to get out.
I step into the sunlight and fresh air, taking a deep breath. Mabel does not seem as pleased as me to be in the light as she puts on some seriously dark sunglasses, like she is not used to stepping outside. I follow her down the steps towards her car, a run-down Beetle that’s a fading yellow and probably twenty years old. I turn back to look at the house and in the day time it is actually quite charming, even with needing a new paint job. The swing on the porch looks like something an old couple would enjoy rocking in together while they are holding hands.
Mabel pulls out a key and unlocks the door for me before going around to the other side. I slide into the seat, which is really cramped. There’s stuff all over the car, old papers, receipts, plastic bags. I brush a few items of trash onto the floorboard so I can sit and buckle up. Mabel gets in on her side and tosses more trash in the backseat that no one could possibly sit in. Cleaning must not be one of her talents. I’m halfway expecting a spider to crawl up on me in this cool weather.
It takes two tries of turning the key to getting the car started, and Mabel backs out of the driveway. I look at the radio, just knowing it doesn’t work and probably hasn’t played a song in years. I manually crack the window to let fresh air into the car and shiver in my seat. Apparently, there is no heater or A/C either. Great. This is going to be a miserable ride.
“So, how long have you been with Olivia?” I ask, trying to distract myself from how uncomfortable I am feeling.
“About three years I think. I have a little concept of time with them,” Mabel replies.
Probably from being in the dark all the time, I think. I don’t imagine that she leaves the nest much, only to do small errands. From the looks of it, she only leaves to get food for herself and whatever humans are staying with them.
“What happens when a vampire drinks the blood of an intoxicated human?” I ask. Might as well find out more vampire knowledge.
“Oh, they can become drunk off it. Sometimes Olivia holds parties like that and brings in the drunk ones. On rare occasions, bad things tend to happen if a vampire is too intoxicated,” she says.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, a typical human can only do so much damage when they get angry drunk; an angry vampire can destroy a house. She tries to make them unusual cocktail events, has the humans drink different things,” Mabel says. She turns onto the highway, and I listen to car scream to just keep to the minimum speed limit. This car needs some love, probably an oil change, all those human things vampires don’t think about because they don’t really need a car to get places quickly.
“I saw Vincent drink wine once. Does that affect him?” I ask, nudging the trash with my foot.
“No, I think Master Vincent just likes the taste,” Mabel says thoughtfully. “He is a bit different than the others, not a big fan of the dinner parties. Olivia says he is too human.”
I could believe that. I want to understand that at least. He still has the predatory edge to him. I mean, he did kill James Roberts without a second thought. He just acted. I wonder how many humans Vincent has actually killed over his lifespan. Apparently, he has not drunk anyone to death in over a century. There is so much I do not know about Vincent, so much I do not really want to know about Vincent.
Mabel pulls off at the first exit, heading towards a gas station. She pulls into the parking lot, and I begin to open my door when she snaps at me to stop. But I don’t want to sit in this dirty car.
“You have to stay in here. No one can see you. I’ll get you a large coffee. Do you need creamer with it?” she asks.
“No, just black is fine,” I say, trying not sulk.
“Roll your window up,” she says as she gets out of the car and slams her door shut.
I roll up my window, sinking down further in my seat and putting my boots on the dashboard with arms crossed. I guess if they did have to kill me they wouldn’t want police asking if anyone in this area had seen me. I close my eyes and wait, enjoying the silence, trying to keep my teeth from chattering. It is so sunny outside I did not think of grabbing my jacket.
Mabel returns to the car with an extra-large coffee, the biggest the gas station had to offer, I imagine; more than I usually drink. I take
the cup, and it warms my hands. I breathe in the aroma and sigh.
“You really enjoy that stuff,” Mabel says as she begins to back out of the gas station.
I nod. I realize she could have just locked me in my room instead of taking me out. Is that a bit of niceness she is trying to offer me? I would take whatever I could get. At least it doesn’t feel like she wants to murder me anymore. It must be my winning personality, or more likely the thought that Olivia would kill me when I did not come at her every beck and call.
“I do. Did you drink coffee before?” I ask.
“I can’t remember,” Olivia says, brushing the question off, but I can see her brow furrow. As if I am trying to prompt in her a memory that is no longer there. I know there has to be a cost for so many webs to be delicately laid. I wonder if Mabel had kids in her old life, but she seems young. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a baby somewhere. Mabel is a tragedy, and it makes me feel just a tiny bit empathetic towards her. Not that I could see us ever being besties.
We drive back to the manor in silence. I began to sip the coffee before it has cooled enough to not burn the hell out of my tongue, but I do not care. It starts to warm my body and makes me able to live with the decision not to grab my jacket.
“Come on, we’ll eat,” Mabel says as she turns the car off. It gives a little cry as it settles down.
Oh goodie, they are going to feed me as well. I hop out of the car, the coffee starting to work its magic, and wait for Mabel to take the lead. I follow her into the house, but this time to a large kitchen that seems barely used. It does have a microwave, though. I sit at the table in the center that looks a little more modern than most of the pieces in the house, like it was bought as an afterthought from Ikea. I sip my coffee as Mabel makes microwavable oatmeal. Okay, nothing fancy, but it is better than going hungry.
“There will be steaks for dinner,” Mabel assures me as she puts the bowl down in front of me.
I could look forward to an excellent steak. I blow on the oatmeal to cool it down while I sip my java juice of life. I think if I were a vampire, I would need my meals to drink coffee. Except I am never going to be a vampire, so bad thought, Amy.
“So what is it I have to do tonight?” I ask as I bring a cooled off bite of oatmeal to my mouth.
“Oh, you have to find out which vampire is plotting against Olivia,” Mabel says quietly.
“I have to what?”
“Olivia is having a nice party tonight; she’s inviting quite a few vampires here. One of them we suspect is plotting to overthrow her rule of the area, she wants to find out who and then kill them,” Mabel says, beginning to eat her oatmeal. She smiles at me between bites – it’s not a nice smile.
Chapter 9
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I finish my breakfast in relative silence after that, trying to go over how I can accomplish my task. I have yet to master the ability to read vampire’s minds, mainly because not a lot of vampires exactly offer up what is inside their heads. Trying to find an exact thought would be harder. I doubt anyone is just going to come on inside thinking, Yes I’m going to take down Olivia. She actually is setting me up for an impossible mission. I get a queasy feeling in my stomach and ask Mabel to take me back up to my room. My discomfort puts a skip in her step. So much for being allies or even partial friends. Shouldn’t she be rooting me on to find the vampire? It could mean her death if I don’t get the information Olivia needs.
Then there is Damon to worry about. He has been put on an impossible mission that the undead have engineered for him. Would they kill him too if I didn’t do my job, right? Will I stay his lover when he finds out I am doing this for Olivia? Nothing is looking hopeful. I want to call Faye, but I imagine she is not willing to help me unless it is to kill all the sleeping vampires inside the house and to get out of it. A very hunter-ish approach. I guess it is easy for her since she never had to kill anyone before – at least that I know of; a lot of her remains a mystery I’m not sure I want to uncover.
Mabel leaves me in my room and tells me I have an hour to dress for the dinner party. She’s also brought me a pair of black leather boots that lace up to my knee but have an impossibly high heel. No idea how any of this is going to help me with my mission if I am going to put all my concentration into walking in these.
“Olivia will do your makeup when she gets up,” Mabel tells me. Great, I get to be one of Olivia’s dolls. She sure does enjoy dressing humans up. It’s as if she’s one of those strange people who dresses up pets to make them look more adorable, when really they’re probably miserable.
I take a shower where fancy shampoo, conditioner, and body wash await me: the high price stuff that I guess will make me smell like a delicate flower. I could never afford this stuff. The shower water comes out clear, and I indulge myself as much as I can under the spray before it goes cold. There is no hair dryer in the room, so I am stuck with wet hair in a cold house. I hope I don’t get physically ill from all of this. A witch with a cold doesn’t sound like something the vampires would want to deal with.
With my hair wrapped in a towel, I begin trying to figure out how to put on the dress. She has provided me a provocative black bra and a matching thong, neither of which I feel comfortable wearing. Neither of which I plan on showing off to anyone. Last time I was here, there is a human buffet of naked people just begging to be fed upon. The scenes I saw made me blush. I am trying to brace myself for the weird and erotic scenes waiting for me at nightfall. And drunk vampires. Does Olivia think they would be more open to me if they had alcohol in them, or is she just trying to make things a little more dangerous for me?
I manage to get the dress on. It barely covers my bottom, and the heels make it perk up so it looks…I guess tasty would be the best word. The dress has a collar around is that hides my neck but leaves my shoulders bare. There are chunks of the dress missing around the sides, showing other places a vampire could just bite into, but I am not going to be a meal at the party. I do find that the boots allow me to slip my dagger inside completely hidden and surprisingly easy to reach. Maybe it is her intention that I am armed. Is maiming a vampire okay tonight? I know killing is off the list.
I stand at the window and watch the sun set. It would be beautiful if not for all the things that are going to follow after it. I hope Damon is watching the same sunset, alive, in one piece. I even hope Tristian is enjoying it. Damon always gets a little bouncy, giddy almost, when the sun sets. He would always drag me into a deep kiss, curling his fingers in my hair. I always enjoyed those kisses, sharing the beauty of life with him, even though he was going off to face death. He is an odd one. Thinking of Damon makes me smile. I guess I still love him.
“Be safe,” I whisper, hoping somewhere in his heart he can hear it.
I feel it the moment the vampires wake up. There are four in the house. I know Charlie is here, Vincent, Olivia, but I’m not sure about the fourth vampire. With Vincent awakening, the thirst and pain collide over my skin. Just one more thing I am going to have to figure out how to block while walking among the vampires.
I sit on my bed and wait, casting my mind about with the dagger in my hand to see what I can find. Charlie is happily feeding on Cara. He knows I’m here, and tries to show me mental pictures of what he is doing. He wants me to feel Cara’s pleasure because he knows it will sicken me. I quickly pull out and shake my head. I hope Cara won’t be part of the party tonight.
I don’t look into Olivia’s mind. I touch the edge of it and feel a viper bite back at me mentally. How am I supposed to read minds when they can just attack me back? I rub my head and pick up the remainder of my coffee that sits beside me. It’s cold, but I don’t mind. I want to make sure my body is full of things Olivia doesn’t like. Should have asked for some garlic to down? I’ve never eaten straight garlic, but I’m sure my breath would send them running even if it wouldn’t actually harm them.
I’m about to peek into the unknown vampire�
��s head when my door flies open, and Olivia is standing there looking quite pale and pissed. Yep, should not have tried to look into her mind. Before I can utter a word, her hand is in my throat and she is picking me up.
“Never do that again,” she hisses.
I can’t breathe, my hands go to hers, trying to pull them away. She just squeezes tighter.
“You’re here to look into the minds of my guests, do you understand?”
I try to nod my head, but I can barely do that. I see spots in my vision. After forcing me to look into her angry eyes, she drops me on the bed.
“Good, now that we have that out of the way, it is time for you to eat; then we can start preparing,” Olivia says as her voice goes to the soft purring of a kitten. One minute bitch, one minute a lovable kitten with very sharp claws.
I gasp for air, rubbing my throat. I’ve got tears at the corners of my eyes from how hard she squeezed, and I start wiping at them frantically.
“I was just seeing what I could do,” I say between breaths. “I have to see if I can just dip into a vampire’s head. I don’t know how I am going to do it without them slamming their mental shields shut like you did.”
“Oh, sweetie, that’s why I’m getting them drunk,” Olivia says, like that should be an obvious thing for me.
I had a feeling. Then another thought consumes me. “No one bites me tonight.” Like I really have a say.
“Of course not, you’re my special guest this evening. You’ll act as a server and be that delicious piece of meat they can’t have. They’ll all want to be near you,” Olivia says.
“And if they do bite me?” I ask.
“Well, you’ll be able to see into their mind better. I won’t let them drain you, they’ll only get a little taste, and will then be kicked out with a few broken bones to show I’m displeased with them. I can also put them in the basement to keep Vincent company if you would prefer. If you do a magnificent job, I’ll even let you torture them,” Olivia offers.
Paranormal Vampire Romance: Fatal Allure Box Set (Books 1-3) (Vampire, Alphas, Werewolves & Shifters, Detectives, Mysteries Romance) Page 29