“That’s not important right now,” John said to me under his breath as he stroked the back of my hand with his thumb. To Josiah, he said, “With regards to Blake, Mr. Larsen didn’t ask for specifics. He said it’s not his job to uphold the law and told me to deal with the problem in whichever way I saw fit.”
“Then you should have dealt with the problem when you had the chance, Mr. Kelly, because what you have now is an even bigger difficulty than some half-dead girl. She’s worthless to our kind now. I suggest you end it.”
My stomach clenched. “End what?”
Josiah rolled his eyes. “Your life, of course.”
“My life? No! I-I rescind my complaint! I didn’t—”
“Be quiet,” John hissed under his breath. He stepped in front of me, never letting go of my hand.
I looked over his shoulder at Josiah, ignoring John’s warning to keep quiet. “I made a mistake! I was mad and I wanted to get back at Ian for what he did to me. But it really doesn’t matter now because John is going to change me. I’m not a liability to your kind. I promise!”
Josiah took a deep breath, as though John and I were on the verge of exhausting his patience. “I exist to uphold the law. And as it happens, Mr. McAvoy has broken a very important one. You came to me, and now I have no choice but to see to it that justice is served.” His eyes cut threateningly to John. “I suggest you tell me where he is or I’ll go straight to—”
“You won’t find him here,” John interrupted, raising his chin to Josiah. “He left nearly an hour ago.”
Josiah smirked. “I’m no fool, Mr. Kelly. The other Watchers have been notified. Word is out. We will find him with or without your help. But for your own good, I suggest you expedite the search and tell us where he went.”
I laid a hand on John’s back and felt a tremor pass through his body. He glanced at me over his shoulder, and for the first time I saw true fear in his eyes.
“What are you going to do to him?” he said as he turned back to Josiah.
“That’s none of your concern.”
“Tell me!”
Josiah tilted his head to the side as a slow smile spread across his face. “I’m nearly two hundred years old, Mr. Kelly. You’re good, but your mind games won’t work on me, or any vampire for that matter. You should know that.” He focused on me then. “Go home. I’m taking him with me.”
My stomach tightened again. “What do you want with John?”
“He knowingly housed a criminal. Had he a mind to do the right thing, he would have turned Mr. McAvoy over to my custody the moment he set foot in town. It’s my understanding that there are others looking for him.”
“But, but—”
Josiah grabbed John’s arm and yanked him forward, out of my grasp. “But nothing.”
I grabbed John’s other arm and yanked back, though I was no match for Josiah’s vampire strength. “He’s not going anywhere with you!”
Josiah bent forward until we were standing at eye level. “I assure you he most certainly is.”
“It’ll be okay,” John whispered in my ear.
My eyes never left Josiah, and I didn’t miss the look of amusement that crossed his face at John’s empty assurance. An air of suppressed hilarity hung about him, and the corner of his mouth lifted. I didn’t believe for one minute that everything would be okay.
I held even tighter to his arm. “No, John. Please don’t go with him. You can’t.”
“I don’t have a choice, Blake.”
“That’s right,” Josiah said. “You don’t.”
My fingers slipped out of John’s and my heart raced in my chest as Josiah towed him down the front steps like a criminal. All that was missing were the handcuffs. “What’s going to happen to him?” I called after them, but Josiah acted as though he didn’t hear. “Tell me where you’re taking him!”
John tried to turn back to say something, but Josiah jerked him forward, causing him to stumble. I ran down the steps after them and watched helplessly as Josiah shoved John into the backseat of an idling vehicle. The car started to pull away before the door had even fully closed.
I jumped and waved my hands over my head screaming, “Wait! Come back! Please!”
As the car rounded the corner, John managed to get the window down and stick his head out. “Find Andrew!” he yelled at me before a pair of unseen hands pulled him back inside.
Patty, the receptionist at Kinsey Real Estate, looked up when I barged in to the small waiting area. “Blake,” she said, obviously surprised to see me. “You know your mother’s not working today, right?” Her eyes cut to my neck where my tattoo blazed in brilliant red. “Oh my goodness! Is that blood, dear? Are you bleeding?”
I flipped up the collar of my coat and pulled my hair around my neck. “No. It’s just um, it’s just um nothing. Is Mr. Larsen here?”
Patty’s mouth turned down as her brow puckered with apparent confusion. But before she could respond, Andrew appeared from around the corner.
“I thought I heard my name,” he said, his eyes raking over me with a critical gaze. His nose wrinkled, as though he smelled something disgusting.
I lifted my chin. “Mr. Larsen, can we talk?”
Andrew smiled and turned his gaze on Patty. “It’s past lunch time. Go on and take your break now. I can see to any clients that come in.”
The wrinkle in Patty’s brow deepened as she looked from Andrew to me and back again. “But I don’t think . . . I mean, I’m sure Mrs. Kinsley-Ehlert . . . What I’m trying to say is . . .” Her voice trailed off as she struggled to get out exactly what was on her mind; that it probably wasn’t a good idea for a grown man and teenage girl to be alone together with no one else around.
Andrew gave her a knowing smile. “Blake is quite safe with me, Patricia. Isn’t that right?”
I tore my eyes from Patty’s concerned expression to see that Andrew was waiting expectantly for my corroboration. “Oh. Yeah. It’s okay, Patty. I just need to talk to Mr. Larsen about, um, about—”
“Apartments,” Andrew supplied. “As you know, Blake will be eighteen soon. She would like to move out, but her parents are obviously not in favor of that decision, her being so young and all. Blake has asked for my discretion as we try to sort this out, and now I’m asking for yours.”
“Oh,” Patty said, puffing up at being in on the secret. “I see. Mum’s the word then.”
She locked her lips with an imaginary key and put it in her pocket. She patted it for safe-keeping and gave us a closed-mouth smile, a conspiratorial twinkle in her eyes. Then she logged off the computer, grabbed her coat and purse, and slipped out of the building without another word.
Andrew bolted the door behind her and turned to face me. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“I know what you are,” I blurted out.
Andrew leaned back against Patty’s desk and clasped his hands in front of him. “Oh? And what is that?”
“Don’t play games with me,” I said, knowing full well that he knew what I meant.
The smug smile fell from Andrew’s lips and he wrinkled his nose again. “You reek, by the way.”
I ignored the comment and instead asked, “Do you know a man named Josiah Butler?”
Andrew snorted. “I’d hardly call him a man.”
“So you know him?”
“Of course I know him.”
“Then maybe you’d be interested to know he’s got John.”
Andrew stiffened. “John Kelly? What’s he done to attract the attention of the most experienced Watcher in town?”
My shoulders slumped and I sat down heavily in a nearby chair. “Everything is such a mess. And it’s all because of me!”
“Don’t flatter yourself. You’re only human,” he said, with not a little condescension.
I met his eyes. “The vampire who attacked me—Ian McAvoy—he’s John’s maker, or whatever you all call them.”
“Go on,” he said, his eyes narrowing.
I clenched my hands in my lap. “Well I, uh, I sort of told Josiah about Ian. And then I told Ian that I told Josiah, so he ran off. And then Josiah came to John’s house looking for Ian, but Ian wasn’t there, so he hauled John off because he said John was harboring a fugitive, or some nonsense like that, and then John told me to come find you.”
Andrew closed his eyes and held up his hand. “Let me get this straight. John was keeping the vampire who attacked you under his own roof?”
“You didn’t know?”
Andrew opened his eyes. “I knew that a vampire had attacked you, of course, but I had no idea who had committed the crime. When John told me that you were no longer a prospective Donor, I thought it a great shame.” He smiled at me then. “You’ve always been a particular favorite of mine. You had a very . . . unique scent. More potent than the others; something I’ve never come across before in all my years. We could have fetched a great price for you.”
I curled my lip at him. “Gee, thanks.”
“However,” Andrew went on, “the unlawful biting of Donors does happen from time to time. Ingrates like this Ian McAvoy think they are above the law. They say they can’t help it, but they can. All it takes is a bit of willpower.” He shrugged. “I told John to deal with the problem as he saw fit.”
“Meaning that you thought, or hoped, he would kill me.”
Andrew rolled his eyes as though I were being ridiculous and temperamental. “I suggested it, of course, but he spouted off some nonsense about being in love with you and wanting to change you. I always knew John had a romantic streak to him that would land him in trouble one of these days.” He shook a finger at me as the smile came back. “But you’ve been playing hard to get, Miss Ehlert.”
I seethed. “That’s not what I’ve been doing.”
Andrew lifted his shoulders. “Tomatoes; tomahtoes.”
“John was just about to turn me when Josiah showed up,” I insisted, trying to make my point.
Andrew turned his mouth down in a dramatic frown and clucked his tongue. “Oh, that’s too bad. And from the smell of you, I gather you’re running out of time.”
I didn’t need Andrew to remind me. I stood up and crossed my arms over my chest, angry that he was taking this all so lightly. “We need to get John back. Then we need to find Ian.”
Andrew balked. “We?”
I motioned between the two of us. “You and me.”
“You mean you and I.”
I screwed up my face in impatience. “That’s what I said.”
“I don’t think so,” Andrew said, laughing in my face as if I’d just suggested we steal the Crown Jewels.
“Why not?”
“You’ve met Josiah Butler,” he said, all traces of humor gone from his voice.
“Yeah. So?”
Andrew bowed his head and slowly shook it back and forth. Then he raised his eyes and gave me a hard look. “Forget about John, and forget about that piece of scum who sentenced you to death two months ago.”
He made his way to the door and unbolted it. Then he opened it wide and tilted his head to the parking lot. “You should go. It was really nice knowing you, Blake, but I can’t help you.”
“Wait. No!”
Andrew put his hand in the middle of my back and gave me a hard push so that I went stumbling out into the afternoon light. “Please! I don’t know what else to do!”
For the first time, Andrew turned a pair of sympathetic eyes on me. “Go home to your mom and dad. Enjoy what little time you have left together.”
He began to close the door, but I wedged my body in so that he was forced to listen. “John told me to come find you. Don’t you care about what happens to him?”
“I’m sorry, Blake. John’s a good one. Maybe a little too good.”
He gave me another push and barred the door before I could protest any further, and I watched helplessly as he turned his back on me and disappeared from sight.
October 27
I sat behind the wheel of my car with no idea where to go or what to do next. My life sort of depended on getting John back. But where had Josiah taken him? Considering the only other vampires I knew were either MIA or flat-out refusing to help me—
Wait a minute . . .
I jammed the key in the ignition and gave it a hard twist. Then I put my cell on speaker and dialed home as I pulled away from Kinsley Real Estate.
“I just wanted to check in,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief that my dad had answered the phone instead of my mom. “I’m, uh, I’m going shopping for a Halloween costume.”
“A Halloween costume? Aren’t you a little old for trick-or-treating?”
“There’s a big dance coming up at school, remember? I’ve been feeling a lot better, so I promised Olivia I’d go with her. She’s sort of boyfriendless at the moment.”
“I’m glad to hear you’ve made some plans, Blake. Your mother and I have been very worried about you. Do you have your pills with you?”
“Yeah.”
“All right. We’ll see you later.”
“Bye, Daddy.”
I ended the call and stepped on the gas.
The Marauder’s Cove was a lot less busy during the day than at night. Still, every head swiveled in my direction the moment I walked in. Mutterings of “get a whiff of that” and similar greetings assaulted me from all sides.
I took a seat at an available table and closed my eyes, willing my heart to slow down. I especially didn’t want to consider that I might be the only human in the joint that wasn’t currently serving as some vampire’s lunch.
The booth shook as someone slid into the seat opposite mine and I opened my eyes to see the same dark-skinned waitress who’d waited on me the last time. “Dang, girl. Do you know you smell like—”
“I know exactly what I smell like,” I said, my voice coming out sharper than intended.
The woman twisted her beaded necklace around the tip of her index finger as she stared across the table at me. Finally, she shook her head and laughed under her breath, a deep and velvety sound. “I knew I liked you from the moment I first saw you. But from the looks of you, you in a world of trouble.” Her brow shot up in the shape of a question mark. “Why are you here?”
I leaned across the table so that barely a foot separated us. “I know what this place is and what goes on behind that curtain back there.” I tilted my head toward the rear of the building. “So let’s cut to the chase. Where would Josiah take a vampire who’s broken one of your laws?”
The woman blinked once as her eyes widened so that the whites showed like crescent moons. She started to get up, but I snaked out a hand and grabbed her wrist.
She looked down at my hand on her arm and shook her head again, this time in warning. “Listen, little girl. Don’t go stickin’ your nose where it don’t belong.”
I let go of her wrist with some reluctance, but at least she stayed put. “What’s your name?”
She looked over her shoulder, but those who had watched me walk in had already lost interest. “Donna. Why you wanna know?”
“Because I don’t want to die, Donna. And I need your help if I’m going to save John.”
Donna’s mouth opened and closed as she sat down again. “Why would Josiah take John?”
I launched in to the events of the last two months and finally ended with how John had been on the brink of turning me when Josiah interrupted. “And Andrew Larsen won’t help me.”
Donna took another look around the bar before settling her attention back on me. “You lucky you stink as much as you do. No vampire in his right mind would ever dream of taking a hit off you now.”
“Well that’s a relief,” I said, my voice full of sarcasm.
“Listen,” she said, ignoring it. “Andrew Larsen’s not gonna do
nothin’ to jeopardize what he got goin’ on.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mr. Larsen, he gets a percentage of all the new Donor blood, not to mention a nip of the
fresh stuff whenever it suits him. Dude has more blood than he knows what to do with. Wouldn’t surprise me none to find out he’s sellin’ his own personal stash real cheap on the side just to make hisself a few more dollars.”
I visualized Andrew’s mini-fridge in his office at Kinsley Real Estate overflowing with bagged blood and cringed. Maybe he even kept a few Donors at home for his own personal use.
“Do you know where Josiah might have taken John?” I asked to get my mind off of blood.
“To the Head Watcher, I suppose.”
“You mean there’s someone above Josiah?”
Donna threw her head back and laughed. “Josiah might be scary, but he ain’t all that.” She narrowed her eyes at me then. “What you think you gonna do? Just bust through the front door and demand for them to hand John over? You a lot crazier than I thought if you think that’s how it’s gonna go.”
My stomach dropped as I realized whatever I had to do to get John back probably wasn’t going to be as easy as making a simple demand. “I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought about it. But you’re going to help me, right?”
“Honey, I’ve been what I am for some thirty-odd years now. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of them. I honestly don’t know how I can help you out.”
My hands had begun to sweat. If Donna turned me down, I had no one else to ask. “Please. You’re my only hope. You’ve got to help me.”
“No, I don’t,” she said. “Sorry, but this is something you gonna have to do yourself.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but she held up a hand to stop me. “I will tell you one thing. The place you’re looking for—it’s the Abernathy mansion. You know the one?”
I nodded. Everyone did. It was only the most well-known lakeside property. It had belonged to the Franklin family for a few hundred years, passing from one generation to the next. The previous owner died three years ago, and that’s when Conrad Abernathy and his family moved to town and bought the place.
A thought occurred to me suddenly at Donna’s mention of the Abernathy mansion. “You’re not suggesting—”
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