Scary reason to let him live considering my hands were full with Remi and Aaron.
I tightened a towel around myself and went back into the bedroom where Remi was now awake, watching local news. Pausing in the doorway, I looked him over to determine whether he was still Remi.
His metallic blues pinned on me. “It’s me,” he smirked, “the one who needs a cigarette pretty bad.”
Sprinting towards the bed, I wasted no time jumping into his arms, completely forgetting both of our injuries. He grunted. I eased up…after planting a big fat wet one on his lips.
We talked about everything that had happened over the past twenty-four hours and why we were at Saybree’s house. I also told him about Lil’ Aaron and my plan to keep Aaron off meds and the alternates from shifting randomly.
When he yawned, I thought of everything he had been through to save me. He looked dirty and tired…and totally irresistible. I was thinking sex therapy…
When I heard a familiar voice on television. It had gotten both of our attentions. Apparently, a well-known athlete was coming out of the closet, admitting he was attracted to men, had been dating one awhile and was ready to freely be himself. He asked his fans for understanding, saying even though it would be a shock, he was still the same footballer they knew and loved.
Looking at Remi, I expected to see shock on his face and it was there. But only because he was a fan of the athlete. There was no other recognition on his face.
Well, duh. Remi hadn’t been there when I’d taken the blackmail photos. Aaron had.
I shook my head disgustedly. After everything Aaron and I had gone through that night, it had all been in vain. Despite my best efforts, Cin had just lost her leverage with Rafe and I was sure it was coming back to bite me on the ass.
Chapter 38
Hadn’t seen that one coming. Best to be cool until Cin approached me pissed off ’cause Rafe had reneged on the deal. She wouldn’t know his coming out had anything to do with it.
Once I heard Saybree’s client leave, I figured she would get to us soon. She did.
Walking in with an icepack, she motioned for me to apply it to Remi’s head, then walked back out. A moment later, she handed me a folded t-shirt and cut-off shorts and walked out again. I was grateful for the hospitality, but I wanted Remi to have that medallion more than anything.
What’s taking so long? I wondered as I changed in to the clothes. I hadn’t expected us to be here for the rest of the night. Once Remi and I rested a little more, I’d take some of his blood, give him some of mine…and you can imagine the rest. We needed the privacy of his place for all that.
When she came back in with a tray of food for Remi, I’d had it. I grabbed her arm and asked where the amulet was. She wasn’t phased. Said she was still working on it and left.
Huh? It was supposed to be ready last night.
Something wasn’t right.
Or maybe I just needed to chill. Magic took time and patience. And Remi seemed to appreciate the steak and potatoes.
I decided to call Dr. Floyd and let him know I was okay. Since I had never missed a support group meeting until tonight, I knew he’d worry. I would leave a message if he was still wrapping things up with the group. Aaron would have to give his own excuse to Dr. Floyd later.
Picking up the phone on the nightstand, I nearly pressed the first digit until I was stopped by the sound of Saybree’s voice on the other end. Covering the receiver with my palm, I listened in.
“No! I told you there’s nothing I can do for you now,” she said.
“But Mom! There has to be a spell or ritual. It hasn’t been very long,” said a familiar masculine voice.
“Your chest is already healing, correct?”
“Yeah, but—”
“You’re hungry for flesh, correct?”
“Yes, but I’m surrounded by drained body parts. I haven’t eaten anyone yet.”
She sighed. “Not yet. But it’s only a matter of time.”
“Don’t say that,” he said softly.
“Listen, Dario. I’m sorry this happened to you. I really am. But you knew the risks when you decided to go after her. I warned you. Now you must live with the consequences of your vengeance.”
There was silence on both ends while I digested the conversation. Contained my fury. Kept from going ballistic. Accepted Saybree’s betrayal.
“So I’m really turning in to a werewolf?” said Dario.
“There’s nothing I can do. No spell. No ritual. Nothing. Once you’re bitten, your body locks up. That’s only temporary, but when their blood gets in your system, you’re infected. Permanently. The infection lays dormant until your first victim—”
“So as long as I don’t eat anybody I won’t turn?”
“The hunger will be too strong. I’ve never known anyone to fight it and win.” She paused. “It’ll be better for you to find a pack to help with your first transition before the next full moon. I can make some calls.”
Gently laying the phone back on the receiver, I sat still and contemplated my next move.
Never felt rage like this before. Not when Ivan had cheated. Not when my parents had sold my pet rabbit. Not when Dario’s bandits had tortured me for info they were never going to get.
I was so infuriated, I began trembling.
Remi looked concerned. I wasn’t sure whether he was reading my body language or my thoughts. Either way, he knew not to speak…not to even blink his thick, curly lashes at the moment.
First thing first—I needed that amulet. After all, that’s why we were here. Was she delaying us so Dario could come finish what he had started? Then again, she probably hadn’t prepared it yet because she hadn’t expected me to survive. Second thing—Did I pretend I had no idea what she’d done or did I confront her?
An undeterminable amount of time had passed before Remi finally reached his hand out to me. He touched my shoulder timidly at first, then pulled me to his chest for a hug once he encountered no rejection.
“I’m sorry, Willow. I can see how much you trusted her,” he said.
I didn’t realize just how much until tears rolled down my cheeks. I was really hurt.
“I can’t believe she did this to me,” I cried. Then I had another thought. If I had trusted her and this was the result, I couldn’t trust anyone.
I pulled away from Remi, but he wouldn’t let go. “I swear on my life, I’d never betray you. You can count on me forever,” he said.
Too vulnerable to analyze or reject what he was saying, I decided to accept it for the time being. So far, he had proven his loyalty. Had to trust him until shown otherwise. “You realize that sounds an awful lot like marriage,” I teased.
“If you weren’t already married, it could be.”
We laughed…and as we did, the double-crossing witch bitch walked in with a protection medallion.
“I’m glad you kiddos are feeling better,” she said as if she really meant it. “Young man, you must keep this on at all times. When you shower, when you sleep, when you jog, always wear it,” she said while snapping it around his neck.
And no sooner had she finished, than I was on her like urine on snow, both hands around her neck, tightening until her eyes popped like a black moor goldfish.
She deserved to die. Tonight.
“O spiritus mortuorum audite me—” she began to chant.
“Speak another Latin word and I’ll snap your neck in two pieces,” I said, squeezing even more to emphasize my point. She could be strangled or she could be decapitated. Her choice.
“Wait! Wait! Please don’t kill me!”
I loosened my grip a bit so she could talk. Part of me wanted a good explanation. The other part wanted her to feel psychological pain like I did by her betrayal. Make her think I would be empathetic then kill her anyway. She should feel physical pain too, like when I was tortured by Dario and his best buds.
“Are you the same witch whose son’s name is Dario?” I started.
“Yes, but—”
“And you told him where to find me, right?”
“I was between a rock and a hard place, Willow. He’s my son. His family was murdered. He was grieving.”
Save the drama for your mama, Saybree. “So that’s it. I’ve meant nothing more to you than that.” She had nothing better to say for herself than don’t kill her because she had helped her son? Poo!
I looked over at Remi who was watching me with excited eyes. “Do it,” he whispered.
“You know what, my boyfriend here’s gonna fuck your skull once you’re dead. And I’m gonna send your rotted body parts to your son’s blood lab each of the twelve days of Christmas.”
“Please don’t. He doesn’t need to lose another family member.”
“Like I give a shit!” I squeezed again, taking pleasure in her pain.
“What about the Ten Commandments? You can’t kill me.”
“We all sin and fall short.” How dare she throw that up in my face. “You wanna know what Dario did to me?” I held up my maimed hand. “Wanna know what he allowed to happen to me?” I pulled up the borrowed t-shirt to show her my nipple-less breast. “Save the sermon for your son!”
“I’m sorry. That was not supposed to happen. It was supposed to happen quickly,” she said.
Remi stood behind me, pressing his groin against my back, his erection straining for release. As sick as it was, his reaction to my violence was a turn-on. Our own twisted foreplay.
“I know…I was wrong and…you have no…reason…to trust me, but if…you let me live, I’ll give you something…you want,” she was having trouble talking, but I heard everything just fine.
“What do you have that I could possibly want?”
“I know…how you can break…the bond…with Max.”
Chapter 39
I threw her on the bed like she was a bristling porcupine. “You what?”
She started rubbing her neck and coughing like she was going to lose a lung. I impatiently tapped my foot.
Once her coloring had returned to normal, I said, “What the hell do you know about breaking a maistre vampire bond? It can’t be done.”
Cough, cough. Yada yada. “It can be done. I can tell you how if you let me live.”
“You don’t even know how to reverse a werewolf infection, how could you or would you help me break free of Max?”
“I betrayed you, yes, but I have never lied to you. Everything I have ever told you has been the truth. That’s why you still trust that medallion to work, no?”
“You’ve been telling me my bond with Max is eternal. That it can’t be broken. You have lied!”
She didn’t miss a beat. “I only recently discovered the loophole. Had I known before, I would have told you.”
I didn’t believe her. How could I? “How can I trust anything you say?”
“I have proof.” She stood, raising her hands in the air to show she was making no suspicious moves. “Come.”
I followed her to her bedroom…where I got stuck at the door. My feet could not breach the threshold. “What’s going on?” I said, feeling like a sap for following her…probably straight to a trap.
“There’s a mixture of garlic, silver, lemon juice and human blood at the door that keeps anyone who isn’t human out,” she said as she walked inside to a locked trunk at the foot of her bed. “Don’t worry. It’s not a trick. I mean you no harm.”
Humph. Made myself a mental note to never bring her human blood again.
Remi walked up behind me as she took an old spell and magic book from the trunk and brought it into the hallway.
“I don’t know how to keep my boy from howling at the next full moon, but I do know how you can be rid of Max.” She coughed up blood then continued, “It’s just not going to be something you’re going to want to do.”
“I’ll do anything for freedom. Tell me what it is.”
“Promise you’ll let me live.”
I studied her long dark hair, large dark eyes, tanned skin, petite frame. Didn’t know why I hadn’t noticed the relation sooner. She and Dario looked just alike.
Their biology was of no importance now. Important thing was that if she could prove there really was a way to break my bond with Max, I needed her around. Whether I believed she didn’t know about it until recently was of little consequence.
“Can you promise your son won’t come after me again?” I said.
She shook her head. “He won’t rest until he feels his family’s deaths are avenged. But if you’re no longer under Max’s bloodline, you can help Dario find him and kill him. You’ll survive it.”
“So all you have to offer is your life in exchange for bond-breaking info?”
“Isn’t that enough?”
I paced the floor, thinking. “Okay. But your info is good for one save. I let you live after your heinous betrayal one time. I catch you slipping again, you sure as hell better have something else to bargain with. Letting you live is not a perpetual deal. Got it?”
She nodded and opened the huge book to a withered page near the back.
Remi sighed like he was disappointed he wouldn’t witness Saybree’s murder. Not yet anyway.
I folded my arms across my chest, and said, “I’m waiting.”
Saybree took a deep breath and pointed to the smeared Latin words. “If you no longer want Max to be your maistre vampire, you have to become a maistress yourself.”
I looked at her like she had said I was Jesus’s sister. I couldn’t read a lick of Latin but I read diagrams just fine. There were plenty illustrating the language, showing she wasn’t making it up. “I just want to be free of Maximilian. I don’t want to be a maistress. Besides, I’m not old enough.”
“That is the only way to be free of him. You have to become strong enough to animate yourself. You have to accumulate power. How long you’ve been a vampire won’t matter then.”
“How do I do that?”
She pointed to the page. “You first have to get your heart back. Whoever possesses it, rules you. You possess it, you rule yourself.”
I almost burst out laughing. There was no way Max was going to give me back my heart. “What else?”
“Then you have to drain a virgin.”
“You mean kill.”
“Yes. You drink every drop of the virgin’s blood and you will be purified of Max’s blood for a short while.”
I did laugh that time. “You know how hard it is to find a virgin these days?” I’d waited until I was eighteen but that was because I couldn’t date until I was out of my parents’ house. Then I had to meet a guy who was okay with my disability.
“I didn’t say the virgin had to be an adult,” she said matter-of-factly.
I stared at her, horrified. She was telling me to kill a child if I had to. “Unbelievable.”
“I told you you wouldn’t want to do it. But that’s not all. After that, you must turn six willing humans to vampires within the following six full moons. And it must be done at six o’clock. Morning or night.”
The 666 pattern had not gone unnoticed. It made me cringe. It raised the hair on the back of my neck. I should have been used to that whenever black magic was involved, but I wasn’t. “You mean kill a child for its innocent blood then kill and take the souls of six men and bind them to me forever…the way Max bound me to him?” This bitch had lost her mind and this book was full of Satan.
“I don’t make the rules, Willow. They’ve been around for millenniums. I’m just the messenger...and a witch who can help you complete the rituals.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
“You would be maistress of your own clan, powerful enough to animate and protect them. Powerful enough to govern them with love and understanding instead of cruelty if you so choose. You will grow in strength with each soul you take…like your demon boss, so it would be advantageous to keep adding to your clan even after you obtain your freedom.”
“What do you know about Franco?”
“Lots. But unlike Franco, who will never die, you will gain supernatural abilities that will make it harder for you to die the final death. No one knows what those abilities will be, just like you don’t know the extent of Max’s gifts. He can do a lot more than turn to mist, I assure you. ’Course you know your clan will die with you…should the time come.”
This was too much to comprehend. “Let’s say I manage to steal my heart back, won’t Max discover it’s missing and kill me before I emancipate myself?”
“No. He will not be able to kill you without control over your heart. He will still be connected to you psychically. There’s no way around that. It will not be easy to keep him from your mind and dreams, but your day companion can help keep Max at bay.”
“How?”
“By invading your mind and dreams himself. As a regular blood donor and receiver, he would have a strong connection to you. His psychic influence would interfere with Max’s.”
I looked at Remi who looked at me and shrugged. His involvement would be a commitment for himself, Aaron, and all the others. I couldn’t ask that.
“Where in the hell would I find six willing humans within six months after I killed a virgin?” I said.
“Max found you didn’t he?”
“Actually, I found him. With your help. And vampirism didn’t become illegal until a month after I’d turned. Those were different times. I can’t exactly post a want ad on Craigslist, can I.”
“You’re at Hades. You know people are still willing to go against the grain. People still want what you have. They just have to be smarter about getting it.”
I shook my head. I’d be condemning others to soullessness. Leading others astray. For the sake of my independence from Max. “I can’t condemn others to my fate. And you’re wrong about Hades’s clientele. Just because they’re different doesn’t mean they want this curse. Remi doesn’t even want it.”
She glanced at him then back at me. “But the ones who do—you’d be doing them a favor, Willow. They will know the risks and still want it…just like you did.”
1 Dicey Grenor Page 22