After a few moments, I realized we were running in the opposite direction of the cabin. As I glanced over my shoulder to confirm, I was torn, wanting to run the other direction. One or more of Chief Lincoln’s officers were going to be at the cabin. Or, were already there. Were they still in danger? I couldn’t be sure and the urge to race to them and warn them off threatened to overwhelm me.
I forced myself to continue on. It wasn’t like there was anything I could say to make them leave their post. They answered to the chief, not me. It wasn’t like I could tell them there was a maybe-possible vampire on the loose, shooting wolves and tricking locals into becoming dinner.
A yell ripped my attention away from thoughts of the cabin. Claws of panic tore at me but I pressed on, sticking as close to Adam and Nick as I could. Evangeline was a step ahead, still charging forward at full speed.
The sounds of a fight became louder as we raced through the forest. Flurry screeched again and dropped back into view. “Just ahead!” Evangeline interpreted, pointing her wand. A beam of light flashed from it and Lacey’s silhouette flashed in the distance. She was tumbling with someone taller and broader.
Magic pooled in both hands and I readied a blasting spell. I broke through the final low-hanging branches and got a clear shot. Lacey’s assailant glanced over for a split second as Evangeline and I burst through the trees. Lacey didn’t waste a moment. She used the distraction and kicked out, planting her booted foot in the center of the attacker’s chest. He hissed out a grunt as he fell back.
“Lacey, stand back!” I yelled.
She ignored me, lunging for the man. Her hands went for his neck and the power of her impact sent them both to the ground.
Adam and Nick charged in behind us but stopped short, both sizing up the fight. Adam had far more experience in the arena and was the first to move. He grabbed Lacey around the waist, hauled her back, and simultaneously bellowed for me to fire my spell.
The stunning spell flew from my fingers and the pulse of magic took my breath away.
Lacey screamed every curse word I knew—and then some—as Adam yanked her back.
My spell hit dead center and Evangeline came in a half-second later, whipping her wand at the ground. Two tree roots lifted and locked around the man’s arms, pinning him to the ground.
“Nice one,” I panted.
She wiped her brow. “Thanks. You too.”
Lacey roared with frustration as Adam released her. Before he could get a word out, she turned on him and punched him. “What do you think you’re doing? You never get between two vampires when they’re battling!”
Adam stared at her, steely-eyed and silent. Blood trickled from his nose but he didn’t make a move to wipe it away. “Hit me again, vamp, and I’ll make sure it’s the last swing you ever take.”
She met his cold stare and for a panicked moment, I waited for her to take a second swing, but she backed off and circled to the other side of the downed vamp.
I released the breath I’d been holding and my heart kicked back into gear. They’d had some verbal brawls, stars, they’d been a weekly occurrence when I’d first moved into the manor. But that … what had just transpired … was above and beyond. I had no doubt Adam meant every word of his threat. A fact that shook through me, reverberating long after the words left his lips.
There wasn’t time to deal with it though. Not when the stunning spell was wearing off the vampire lying pinned to the forest floor.
“Who are you?” I demanded, summoning up another ball of magic as I moved in closer.
The vamp thrashed, hissing violently with every move. “Release me, witch.”
I laughed. “Not a chance. I’m content to leave you out here as long as it takes for you to tell us what you’re doing out here in the middle of the night.”
His pitch-black eyes flicked to each face, and I got the impression he was memorizing every detail. Messing with a vampire was never a good plan. They rarely worked alone and usually had large houses to back them up if things went south.
“Is he alone?” I asked Lacey, not taking my eyes off the vamp before me.
“Yes,” came her clipped reply. “I was getting close to the cabin when I sensed him. He was watching me. I didn’t want to get too close to the cabin and risk some human getting in my way. I backtracked and pretended I was lost.”
The vampire scoffed. “I knew you weren’t lost.”
Lacey hissed at him and with a flick of her hand, produced a wooden stake from her belt. It had been wrapped in a sheath before. The sight of it made me gasp. “Do you even know who I am?” she demanded, stepping closer to the vampire.
I reached for her shoulder but my fingers fell short.
She squatted just out of the vampire’s reach and pointed the stake at his heart, letting it hover an inch above his chest. It was so close, the vampire drew in a short breath, his Adam’s apple bobbing even as his eyes remained stony and cruel, fixed on hers. “I’m Lacey Vaughn.”
Something registered on the pinned vampire’s face. Terror? Surprise? Revulsion? Maybe it was a blend of all three.
Lacey let out a cold laugh. “I always love this moment. I can smell the fear on you. It’s smart, really. You should be afraid of me.”
Adam looked to me, his eyes dark and narrowed in question.
I was just as confused as he was. I had no idea what Lacey meant, or why her very name was enough to reduce to vamp to a pool of fear. Or was it just the stake pointed at his chest?
“Now, I’ll forgive your … mistake, but only if you tell my friends everything they want to know. But if you’re in league with Sasha, the deal’s off the table and I’ll rip out your fangs and turn them into a pair of pretty little earrings. I’ve been trying to come up with something to send my niece for her birthday, anyway.”
The vampire curled his lips in.
She didn’t wait for him to agree to her terms before bouncing up to her feet in a fluid, effortless move.
The vampire tore his eyes from Lacey and flicked them to me. “Sasha, who? I don’t know anyone named Sasha. Please, you have to believe me.”
“What are you doing out here, then?” I asked, stepping forward.
“I’m looking for a leprechaun.”
Of all the answers he could have given, that one wasn’t even on my radar. My lips moved, trying to latch onto a follow-up question. “A … leprechaun?”
The vampire’s lips twisted into a sour look. “He’s a trickster. A thief!”
A startled laugh slipped from my lips. “You don’t mean Barnaby, do you?”
The vamp’s sharp eyes locked onto mine, blasting me with a chill. “Is that his name of the week? No one knows who he is, but I tracked him here, to these woods. I’ve been looking for him for days.”
“Two and a half feet tall, dark hair and beard, stocky shoulders, no trace of an Irish accent?” I asked.
“Don’t forget the creepy giggle,” Nick added.
The vampire ground his molars, his jaw flexed tight as a drum. “Sounds right.”
I folded my arms, suddenly feeling protective of the small pain in the rear. He was annoying and I could whole-heartedly agree on the trickster part, but I wasn’t about to turn him over to an irate vampire. “Why do you want him?”
“He stole something from me.”
“It wasn’t a lawn gnome, was it?” Nick ventured.
I smirked and quickly drew my lips together to conceal it.
“No!” the vampire snapped, turning his glare to Nick. “It was ten thousand dollars’ worth of gold from my family’s safe.”
My smile died instantly. “What?”
“He used some trick to get past my security team. They’ve since been dealt with.”
The way he said it made me shiver. I didn’t think he meant they’d been demoted or fired.
“Two weeks ago, we found the safe wiped clean, nothing but a pile of paper shamrocks inside! We hired a wizard who used some kind of tracking spell. I followed it
here and saw his damned notes all over town. I got close one night but then I picked up wolves in the area and had to leave without him.”
My heart lurched. “You were out here the night of the full moon?”
“Stupid, I know.” He shook his head, chiding himself. “It’s the one night that a vamp isn’t safe to wander alone.”
I looked to Lacey and she offered a slight nod.
“Did you see any wolves?” I asked.
“No. But I smelled them.” He soured again. “Several of them.”
His eyes drifted to Nick. “I can smell you right now.”
Nick shuffled back half a step and Evangeline raised her wand in defense of him. Evangeline didn’t have a mean bone in her body, but the look she gave the vampire made my eyebrows arch.
“I sensed the wolves and left.”
“Did you hear the shooting? There was someone out here with a shotgun.”
He shook his head. “I must have been long gone. Didn’t hear a thing. I went through town and stayed at a vampire safe house until the next night. That’s when I decided to try and beat that filthy little leprechaun at his own game.”
Recognition dawned. “You’re the one who put out the fake clues. Trying to get Barnaby out here.”
“I’ve found it’s best to beat them at their own insane little games.”
Lacey cocked her hip. “You sure you weren’t trying to get yourself a midnight snack?”
The vampire hissed at her. She bore her gleaming canines.
I rolled my eyes at the pair of them. “As productive as that is, I think it’s safe to say this was a misunderstanding on our part. I’m sorry for any trouble.”
Lacey put her fangs away but didn’t add on to my blanket apology. “Let him go,” she said with a dismissive flap of her hand.
Evangeline released the vines gripping the vampire’s arms and he broke free, jumping to his feet so fast it was a blur.
Lacey was on him just as quickly, one hand gripping his collar. “Don’t ever come to these woods again.”
He stammered something and was gone in a flash as soon as she released him.
Adam stared at her, not bothering to close his gaping mouth.
“Wow, Lacey! That was amazing!” Evangeline gushed, hurrying to her friend’s side. “Are you all right? He didn’t hurt you, did he? We found your knife in one of the trees and we thought … well, we thought the worst. I’m so glad you’re okay now.”
“Thanks.” Lacey brushed her hair back behind her shoulders. “I’m fine. I threw the knife when he came at my back. I missed, just by a hair.” She pursed her lips, as though disappointed.
There were so many questions whirling through my mind that pinning one down was like trying to jump on a merry-go-round pitching at full speed.
“Who are you?” Adam spat, boiling down my complex, tangled thoughts into three words.
Lacey looked at him. “My family name carries a lot of weight in vampire circles. Let’s leave it at that.”
“Would you really have taken his fangs?” Evangeline asked. “I didn’t even know you had a niece. I’m sure I have something you could send to her.”
Lacey tossed her hair and looked down at her belt, mentally taking inventory. “I don’t have a niece. At least, not that I know of.”
I frowned. “You don’t know if you have a niece?”
She looked up, her expression cold. “I don’t want to talk about my family tonight.”
“Come on,” I said, tugging at Adam’s arm. “Let’s get back to the cabin and make sure this wasn’t all some kind of diversion. Chief Lincoln’s men could still be in danger.”
We reached the cabin in ten minutes and didn’t find any signs of an officer or anyone else. The cabin itself was dark and the small parking spot along the side didn’t show any signs of tire prints in the mud. To be safe, we circled the cabin and the surrounding woods for another hour but neither Lacey nor Adam could pick up a trace of anything. Adam offered to change into his beast form to do a more thorough search, but we decided to call it a night and trooped back to the manor. The police officers weren’t in danger, and that was all that mattered for the night.
Chapter 18
Nick got a call from Chief Lincoln the following morning. The victim’s brother had identified the body after going in to report him as missing, last seen in the woods near the manor. Chief Lincoln wanted Nick to come in and consult for the police as they were running low on manpower and under pressure to get the matter resolved before the county sheriff’s pending visit. Chief wasn’t the type to leave things undone in the first place, but especially not when his boss was breathing down his neck for results.
I insisted on tagging along, though I knew the chief wasn’t going to be thrilled about Nick’s plus-one.
As expected, his eyebrows hit the middle of his forehead when I came in half a step behind Nick mid-morning. Luckily, I’d come prepared. I produced a box of pastries (one oversized danish marked just for him) and handed over a large cup of chai latte. Helps to work for the chief of police’s girlfriend sometimes.
He took the pastry and coffee cup but kept the skeptical look plastered on his stern face. “I didn’t expect to see you this morning, Holly.” He shifted his gaze to Nick.
Nick smirked. “You know what she’s like, Chief. There’s only so much I can do.”
I needled him with my elbow. “Hey!”
Chief Lincoln sighed and pointed his chin across the room. “Go ahead and wait in my office. I’ll be there in five minutes.”
The corner office was far less grand than the title suggests. It barely had a window wedged in one corner. I smiled at the framed picture of Chief Lincoln and Cassie, taken on his birthday. She’d thrown him a massive surprise party at Siren’s Song with the entire BHPD and all of his extended family. Even some old Army buddies had flown or driven in for the occasion. I loved that he kept the picture on his desk, face out, for everyone who entered to see. He wanted to show off his woman. It was a sweet, if not surprising, gesture from a man who spent so much of his time locked in solemn contemplation.
Nick waited for me to take a seat in one of the wrinkled vinyl chairs opposite Chief’s desk and then he took the other. He crossed one ankle to the opposite knee and glanced around the small, wood-paneled room. “You ever think about how much easier all this would be if people like the chief knew about us?”
“Are you kidding?” I gawked. “We’d all be locked up in some facility that would probably make Alcatraz seem like a Four Seasons!”
Nick shook his head calmly, still looking at the bookshelf beside Chief’s desk. “I don’t know about that, Holls. I think we could find a way to work together. I mean think about how much they would benefit from using our services.” He stopped and his expression rearranged itself, puzzlement settling into a line between his eyes as they moved to mine. “When we busted Gretta, that drink you gave her, it was laced with something wasn’t it?”
I smiled. “You’ll never know.”
“Holly Boldt!” He barked a laugh. “And what about the next case we worked? That missing girl, Paisley’s cousin. You were the one who found the body.”
I shrugged. “She was a ghost, asking me for help.”
“You talked to her?”
I nodded. “Let’s see, then with Paul Banks, it wasn’t actually a crazed hooker or his soon-to-be ex-wife. The SPA covered that one up on the human side. He was actually killed by a powerful vampire.”
Nick’s foot fell to the floor with a solid thump.
A laugh slipped through my lips. “I’m sorry, Nick. I couldn’t tell you the truth about all those cases.”
He shook his head. “But see, you’re proving my point! None of those cases would have been solved without your magic.”
I flapped a hand. “Oh, sure they would have. Well, maybe not the vampire one. You’ve met Lacey, they tend to do whatever they want and get away with it. Not that she would murder anyone … except perhaps Adam.” I smiled
. “Actually, if anyone should worry about being carried off to her vampire love nest, it’s you.”
“What?” Nick barked, a little too loud.
I laughed. “She’s got a crush on you. Come on, don’t pretend you didn’t notice.”
He blinked. “No! I most certainly did not!”
His stunned expression only made me laugh harder. “I think my friend Anastasia knows a few dating coaches. Remind me to have her introduce you to one when all this is over.”
Nick narrowed his eyes at me. “I’ll pass.”
My smile faded slightly. “Oh, come on, Rivers. I was only kidding.”
“About the dating coach, or Lacey?”
I twisted my lips to one side. “Both?”
He sighed. “I thought you told me vampires hate werewolves?”
“Generally, yes, but Lacey isn’t exactly a typical vamp. For one, she lives alone. Well, at least, not with other vamps. Normally they live in cloisters. Pods or colonies. Whatever you want to call it. She doesn’t talk much about her family, but her last name is Vaughn, a powerful name in the vamp world. The Vaughn family runs most of the East Coast. I don’t know exactly how she’s related to them, but let’s just say they usually wouldn’t let one of their bloodline vamps just waltz off into the sunset. Or, well, you know what I mean.”
Nick started to form his next question but the door opened. He clamped his mouth shut, but from the look he shot at me, the conversation had only just begun.
Chief Lincoln entered the room, still working on the last few bites of his pastry, and took a seat behind his desk. He placed the coffee cup to one side and laid the danish on his mousepad. “Holly, I’d ask you to leave, but I imagine whatever I say would find its way back to you anyway.”
Nick frowned. “Not necessarily. I can remain confidential, if the assignment requires it.”
Chief Lincoln considered me and then dismissed it. “It’s all right. What I need you to do isn’t all that secretive. I just don’t have the manpower to get it done. We’ll pay your standard consulting fee, capped at eight hours. Clear?”
Lucky Witch: A Beechwood Harbor Magic Mystery (Beechwood Harbor Magic Mysteries Book 5) Page 14