by Lelana Croft
I picked up my glass of beer. “Already got one.”
He smirked a little and nodded toward the waitress, who looked like she was about to run toward him.
“A bottle of Barreau Chamboursin and four glasses, please.”
The waitress nodded and scurried off.
“I hope you ladies don’t mind sharing a glass of wine with me,” he announced as he stood tall and scanned our faces before coming back to me. I looked off toward the bar as if something else was more interesting.
Patty giggled. “We’d love to!”
Katie and I looked at each other and tried to hold back a laugh. Patty was obviously pining for his attention and for all I cared, she could have it. As much fun as he might be, I’d bet he would be more trouble than I needed.
The waitress returned quickly with four glasses and the wine, along with the wine opener. Miles grabbed the bottle and held out his hand.
“Allow me,” he said and the waitress handed him the bottle opener.
We watched as he skillfully pulled the cork from the bottle with a pop.
“Normally, you’d let the wine breathe, but this vintage is old enough that it should be exquisite right out of the bottle,” he said as he handed me the first pour.
The way the word ‘exquisite’ rolled off his tongue told me he’d probably been raised with money. Lots of it, and probably old money to boot. Unlike me, who was clueless about wine, other than I liked the pink stuff in the box.
I held the glass up to my nose and took a sniff. It smelled heavenly. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was supposed to smell like, but I pretended and nodded my head as I held the glass to my lips and took a sip.
The slightly sweet and mellow flavor washed over my tongue. I’d never tasted anything like it.
“Well?” Miles asked, awaiting my response.
I shrugged as if it was just okay. He chuckled. I think he knew I was being coy.
He poured Patty and Katie a glass. Patty gushed over how delicious it was, almost to the point of being annoying.
I took another sip and noticed the undertones of honey and oak. It was a bizarre combination, but worked so well. So this is how the other half live? I could get used to this.
“How about you let me show you how this is made?” Miles asked me, leaning into my space and sipping the wine.
I raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Do you own the winery or something?”
“No, but I know the guy who does. We’re good friends. I could take you on a private tour. And I promise, I won’t spill your drink on your top,” he replied, his soft smile working hard to charm me.
Patty leaned back into her seat and looked over at me, nodding her head yes in big circles. Katie just smiled and winked.
“Maybe. I’ll have to check my schedule,” I said, nonchalantly.
“Good enough. Maybe I can get you to loosen up a bit and not be so uptight.”
I recoiled. I wasn’t uptight. I just didn’t like arrogant assholes who thought they could get anything they wanted.
But before I could protest, two men and a woman entered the bar with a dark power that could only be described as putrid. It was something I had only experienced a few times before. The last time, being the human trafficking guy I’d killed that’d gotten me into this mess.
Chapter 11
I bristled at their approach, and looked over at Katie, who felt it too. She looked at me wide-eyed and I tried to tell her to stay calm with my mind.
“Miles! Hello there, good buddy. Didn’t expect to see you here tonight. What brings you out of your hole?”? the leader said as he walked over and swung an arm over Miles’ shoulder.
He was dressed in black leather from head to toe. Even the riding gloves. His jet-black hair was greased back with just an Elvis curl on his forehead. If he wasn’t so full of dark energy, he would actually have been quite stunning. But he wasn’t human. I could tell that much.
“Sebastian.” Miles said, his tone cold as he pulled away, leaving the space between Sebastian and me wide open.
Sebastian moved in closer, reaching out his hand to touch my face. I immediately stood and slapped his hand away. Nobody’?s gonna touch me without my permission. I don’t care who you are.
“Well, now. We have a feisty one here. I’ve not seen you around before. You’re fresh meat,” Sebastian snarled as he gave me a gritty side grin.
“Try touching me again, and you’ll have one less hand,” I spat as I reached back into my waistband and fingered my dagger.
Sebastian stepped back and raised his hands, feigning surrender. Miles stepped back into the space between us, which only irritated me more. But I decided to just keep my cool and see what happened next. My anklet tingled around my leg as I tried to resist summoning some of my powers of protection.
Sebastian went back to his brood and they went over to the bar to get a drink. Anyone within arm’s length went the other direction and the people parted and let them through. Apparently, this guy was some hot shot here. I imagined he was the biggest bully in town. I hated bullies.
“You need to steer clear of Sebastian and his ilk. They are bad news any way you slice it,” Miles said as he looked over in their direction and then back at me.
I looked over at Katie and Patty who’d sat frozen and wide-eyed during the whole thing. Both of them nodded their heads simultaneously as if they were synced together. I let out a little laugh.
“He doesn’t scare me,” I said, taking another sip of my wine. He didn’t scare me, at least not in the normal sense. I could see he was evil and probably did a bunch of bad things that I couldn’?t do anything about at the moment.
“I’m serious…” Miles repeated and looked directly into my eyes, but this time, it was a look of concern, “?If he bothers you, let me know. He has a tendency to want to get his way, and doesn’t like it when he can’t.”
“And that’s different from you, how?” I snarked, crossing my arms over my chest.
Miles cocked his head to one side and sighed. “I never try to make people do things that they don’t want to do. It’s not my nature. Sure, I like to get my way, we all do. But I won’t do it to hurt anyone or at someone’s expense.”
He finished the rest of the wine in his glass, set it on the table, and smiled.
“Well, you think about my offer for the winery tour. It could be a fun evening. You ladies have a good evening. I’?m gonna go mingle. I have a reputation to keep up,” Miles said as he pushed away from our table.
I watched as he went over to the other side of the room where there was a couple of young women sitting at a table, talking. He slipped in between them and wrapped one arm around each as they both kissed his cheeks.
I scoffed. He was the obvious playboy I had figured he was. I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to Patty and Katie.
“So, you’re gonna go, right? Because if you won’t, I will!” Patty said, gleefully.
I laughed out loud. I wasn’t sure at the moment what I was gonna do. I didn’t want to let Miles think I was the least bit interested in him, but in this small town with nothing to do, having someone like him as a friend could have some advantages in other ways.
“What does he do? I mean, does he have a job or something?” I asked, hoping Katie or Patty would know.
“He owns the newspaper here in town. In fact, I think his family own several newspapers throughout the state. Like all the small-town newspapers. It’?s like this big conglomerate of small newspapers,” Katie supplied.
That was not only interesting, but could have huge potential benefits. With the recent discovery of the mummies, I could use someone in the business of keeping files on all things historic in this small town. I might have to take him up on his winery tour offer after all. If for no other reason but to gain access to old records. Then, maybe I could find out who Marilyn really was.
“Do you know if he has any connections to the law enforcement in this town?” I asked.
Both Katie and Pat
ty frowned a bit and looked at each other, then back at me.
“Not sure, why?” Patty asked.
Crap. I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about the mummies, but I felt like I could trust Katie and Patty. Katie did show me her magic, after all. I leaned in to keep the conversation down.
“There’s something strange happening at the morgue. Two days ago, there was a young girl who’d been drained of all her blood, but neither me nor Hobbs could find out how. There were no marks on her. Then yesterday, Marilyn Hastings died. Apparently, she’?s some kind of big wig here in town?”
Patty nodded. “Yeah, she was filthy rich and quite philanthropic. She was always donating money to things that needed to be done around here. Her money kept half this town afloat. I didn’?t know she’d died. She wasn’t that old. What did she die from?”
“Not sure yet. She came in last night and I was supposed to prepare her this morning but when I got in, she’?d…well, she’d turned into a mummy. At least, we think it was her. I’m not one-hundred percent sure. Hobbs seems to think that it was a body switch. That someone is digging up old graves and switching the bodies. I am not so sure,”? I said, leaning back and looking around to make sure no one was listening to our conversation.
Katie leaned in. “Could it actually be Marilyn? And how would we be able to find out?”
I shrugged. I knew that I needed to do some research to find out more about her. Like where she’d come from and her history here. I figured I could go to the library in the morning and see what I could find out.
The volume of the music was turned up as people began to gather on the dance floor. I was surprised at how techno it was, considering I assumed most people in the country listened to country music. Boy, did I read that one wrong. This place was as happening as any of the ones I’?d been to in the city.
A local boy came over and grabbed Patty and dragged her out onto the dance floor. They looked cute together, even though she had to keep pushing his hands away from her ass.
Katie and I tried to keep talking, but the music was just too loud. We decided to wait and talk later, and enjoy our Friday night out. We decided not to wait for anyone to ask us to dance and we went out and got lost in the crowd of moving bodies on the dance floor. It was nice to let the music carry me away.
There was a sensation of power that came up behind me. I kept dancing, but turned around to find Miles moving closer to me on the dance floor. The boy had a few moves that were impressive, but I didn’?t let him know that. The two women he’d been with earlier were trying to move in closer as they sandwiched him between them. I just laughed and turned my back to him.
Sebastian and his crew didn’t stay very long. I’d watched them slither out with three younger women in tow, all looking like they’?d been had many times before. I was glad to see him leave.
The hours flew by as we danced until last call. We gathered our things and decided to make our getaway. I had a slight buzz, but had been drinking only water for the last hour or so and just felt mellow and ready for bed.
The music stopped and my ears were ringing. They turned on the house lights and made us all very aware of our late night. If there was anything to cure someone from beer goggles, it was bar house lights.
“Can I walk you to your car?” Miles said from behind me. Apparently, he’d hung around as long as we had. I looked back and smiled, giving him a shrug.
“Sure!” Patty said with energy. I wondered where she got so much energy from. I was beat and ready for sleep.
We gathered ourselves and made our way out the front doors. Walking over toward the car, I felt a dark presence outside, similar to what I’?d felt when Sebastian and his gang had entered. Miles and Katie felt it too and we all looked around to see where it was coming from, but none of us could pinpoint it.
“You ladies be safe driving home. And go straight home,” Miles said as he opened up the car door for me. “?I’ll chat with you later.”
He closed my door and then Patty’s as Katie slid in the driver’s seat.
“You okay to drive? I can call an Uber…” I asked her, not knowing if there was anyone who drove for Uber out here.
She giggled. “I’m totally sober. I stopped drinking hours ago. I don’t drink much anyway, clouds the senses.”?
I knew what she meant and that was the exact reason I didn’t drink a lot either. At least, not unless I was at my own house where I could get shit-faced if I wanted and pass out in my own bed. But even that was a rare thing for me.
I looked back to see where Miles had parked and couldn’t see him. Turning my attention back to the front, I asked if there was any place to get breakfast. I always like to go have a waffle after being at the club all night. Something about bacon and waffles always made me sleep better.
“Yeah, there’s The Roadhouse Diner that’s open all night. It’s the only thing, other than the gas station. The gas station has donuts,” Patty explained.
“Miles said go straight home. I think maybe we should do what he said,” Katie said, trying to persuade us.
“Miles isn’t the boss of me,” I spouted, hoping to win this debate. I was hungry and didn’t feel like cooking anything at home.
“I could go for a chicken salad. They have really good chicken salads there,” Patty voted.
Katie sighed. “Okay, but it’s against my better judgement.”
Katie turned the car to head to the opposite side of town. We took one of the country lanes since it was faster and we wouldn’t have to go through the multiple four-way stop signs.
“So tell me more about this mummy. Hobbs thinks it’s a switch, but what makes you think it’s actually Marilyn?” Katie asked.
“Well, I decided to memory walk her…LOOK OUT!” I yelled and Katie hit the brakes, almost hitting a woman stumbling in the middle of the street, blood oozing out of her neck.
Chapter 12
The SUV stuttered to a stop right before the woman in the road collapsed. We all jumped out of the car and ran over to her, trying to understand what she was mumbling. She was incoherent, perhaps drunk. I rolled her over on her back and could clearly see the fang marks in her neck. She was on the edge of death. I could heal her and use my powers but if I did, Tony would know. I just couldn't let this woman die, even though I had no idea who she was.
Shit. I’d already told them about my memory walk powers and now I’d have to reveal my healing powers, too.
Katie was on one side of the girl and I was on the other. I reached my hand up and put it on her chest right below her neck. I closed my eyes and summoned my healing powers. The anklet began to burn quickly as my healing power was the primary power that I possessed. I slowly began to build it as I transferred it into the girl. But for some reason, it wasn't working. There was something that wasn't allowing my power to heal her.
“What are you doing?” Katie asked.
I opened my eyes briefly and looked at her. “Well, I have another power that I didn’t mention. I can heal people. That is…if they aren’t already dead. Or so close to death that I don’t have enough power to heal them.”
I removed my hand and the pain in my ankle stopped.
"I don't understand. This usually works, but something is blocking my power from healing her. If I don't heal her, she'll die,” I said.
"Guys? … Guys?! We have company," Patty said with a scared, whispered voice.
Katie and I looked up from the girl and could see three shadowy figures off in the distance, moving towards us. I could feel their darkness before I could see their faces, but I knew who they were.
"Sebastian," Katie said under her breath.
She obviously sensed the same thing I had. It was that same darkness that was in the club when they’d walked in.
I moved in front of Patty, and Katie moved behind me. I reached down and pulled one of my daggers from my boot, as I pulled a second one from my back waistband. Both daggers in hand, I waited for their approach. I could feel Katie and Patty move c
loser to me, one on each side.
"Well, well, well," Sebastian roared as they strolled up. "Looks like you found something that I lost. Well, she was outliving her usefulness, so good riddance."
"You horrible, horrible creature, man!" Patty yelled.
I gave a slight backward glance and rolled my eyes. I needed to teach her how to throw better insults.
"What do you want, Sebastian? If you’re not interested in this woman any longer, then don't you have some other place to be?" I smirked.
The woman that was with him walked up to me and began to reach out to touch me. I took my blade and sliced toward her forearm, the silver blade causing a gash and making her scream. She grabbed her arm and exposed her fangs, but I was immovable.
"You fucking bitch! I’ll drain you dry!" she snarled as she lunged towards me.
Suddenly, there came a large white flame from behind me and forced the female vampire backwards. I stepped sideways away from the heat as I looked back at Katie, who had managed to increase her firepower. She aimed her hand at the vamp and it was like a blow torch had been opened on full blast.
Sebastian waved his bitch back as I repositioned myself in between Patty and Katie.
"Looks like we have a new witch in town now, isn't that right, Katie? So, you finally got your powers. Glad to know that you’re learning how to use them. But you'd better keep them in check, or this may turn into another Salem. People don't love witches. They do love vampires, though," Sebastian boasted.
He walked closer to me and grabbed his manhood, giving it a tug. He reeked of old beer breath as he leaned into my personal space. “I know something you’d love, if you’d give it a chance.”
I wrinkled my nose and could feel myself lurching at the thought of him even touching me. Eww.
“Never in a million years,” I said, bringing the silver blade up in between our faces.
He let out a gruff chuckle and took a step back. I had been so focused on what he’d been doing, I hadn’t realized the other two vampires had surrounded us.