by Ruby Loren
There was a jagged mark making his face look a far cry from his usual male-model perfection.
“Please tell me I set it straight,” he said, noticing her stare.
January nodded, not daring to speak. She couldn’t quite believe he was still alive and suspected it had been a very near thing. The sword couldn’t have completely severed everything, or he’d be dead. To her knowledge, no creature - supernatural or otherwise - survived getting their head chopped in half.
“Where are they?” January’s eyes scanned the park, looking for movement.
Nothing stirred.
Gregory was still feeling his face to make sure it was fixing back in the right place. “Gone. I think the sword was their way of seeing if it really was that easy to get the job done.”
“They almost managed it,” January said, feeling sick. “You nearly died. I would have been dead if you hadn’t pushed me down.”
“I’ve had worse,” Gregory said, somehow managing to mimic Ryan’s words exactly.
She sighed.
“So, this is the new hunter. At least the wolves came at us head on. After that, I have a feeling that one day I’ll wake up dead and not have a clue about it.”
“We’ll have to find them before they try again,” Gregory said, reaching out and brushing back a strand of January’s white-blonde hair.
She froze and looked at him, her pale blue eyes wide in the waxing moonlight.
“I’m glad it was me and not you that got their head cut in half,” he said, simply.
January found she couldn’t look away from the vampire. “You’ll have to add it to the favours I owe you,” she told him, trying to lessen the tension.
Gregory frowned. “That’s not the way things work between us. Anyway, you saved my life when we were fighting the wolves.”
“But your life doesn’t even need to be in danger! As far as I can tell, all of these bounty hunters are targeting me. Perhaps my dear ex-employers have forgotten they wanted you dead, or just haven’t reassigned the job yet. Either way, you don’t need to do this, Gregory.”
The blonde vampire frowned and looked out across the empty park. The swings were still twitching in an imaginary breeze.
“It’s in my interest to help you - logically, I mean. I may not be high on the list now, but if you go, I guarantee I’ll be next. We should stick together. Secondly, and most importantly, I don’t want you to die,” he said, turning his gaze back upon her. January felt the full force of his sincerity.
“Gregory… do you…” She couldn’t find the words to ask him if he had feelings for her. It was just too embarrassing to ask a goodness knows how old vampire a thing like that!
“Do I like you? Yes,” he said, his lips curving upwards slightly. “I am also extremely disappointed that you have traded my company for that of the jaguar, but I’ll wait. Patience is one of my better virtues.”
January tried not to choke in surprise. “I thought you just wanted… you know,” she blurted and then blushed to her roots as all the memories of what she and Gregory had done together came flooding back.
His fangs glinted in the moonlight and she knew he was right there with her.
“Oh I do, but there is definitely more to you than just that. I am… interested,” he said, and January desperately tried to ignore the shiver that had just run up her spine.
“Gregory, I…”
His hand covered her mouth. January froze and stopped talking. The intense mood vanished, replaced by one that uncomfortably smelt like fear. January knew she’d stopped breathing. Her ears picked up on the slightest of rustles in the trees on the opposite side of the park and she knew that the bounty hunter must have still been there only moments earlier.
They’d been watching everything.
“We should follow them,” Gregory said and slid out of the bushes.
“What if it’s just another trap?” January hissed, feeling half-terrified and half-furious because she hated being so scared.
“This hunter doesn’t want to show themselves and meet us on open ground. There’s probably a reason for it. They’ve got brains, but not fighting skills. That’s what I suspect. This is our chance.”
January nodded and crawled out of the bushes. Her phone vibrated in her pocket and she suddenly realised what time it must be. “Curses! The gig! I’ve got to go Gregory. There’s a gig…”
He gave her a look that said ‘seriously’.
“I can’t let the rest of the band down!”
“Their lives will go on if you miss one gig… yours might not if we don’t find out who just tried to kill us.”
“I’m meeting Ryan there and he doesn’t know about our meeting tonight,” she confessed. “I have to go, Gregory. I’m sorry. Are you still going to go after them?” She bit her lip. After Gregory’s speech about wanting to help her, she felt like a complete flake for even suggesting he went after someone who had nearly killed him, all by himself.
“I will follow but be careful to remain undetected.”
“Could you maybe… call me later, or something?” She said, feeling like she was somebody’s mother.
Gregory smirked. “Maybe I could knock on your bedroom window… if you put the cat out for the night.”
Just like that, January’s guilt vanished. “Happy hunting,” she said and then set off towards her car at a jog. She was going to miss soundcheck.
9
Ryan’s face coloured with relief when he saw her walk through the door. In the corner of the pub, Mike and the others brought the song to a close. It sounded curiously flat without the bass line.
“I am so sorry,” She said, when Mike marched over. “I had an important meeting that I couldn’t miss. It turned out to be really hard to cut short,” she said, thinking about the flying sword.
Mike shrugged. “You’re here now. Get your stuff set up. We’re on in five.”
“How’s Cherri?” January asked, trying to show that she did care about the band.
“Just worry about what you’ve got to do,” Mike said.
January winced. She was definitely in the doghouse.
Ryan was frowning at her. “An important meeting?” His voice told her he suspected exactly who she’d been meeting with.
“I will tell you everything right after this gig, I promise.” She bit her lip and looked around the pub. It was full of people who seemed just like your average pub goer, but that didn’t mean a thing anymore. “Let me know if you see anything,” she said, knowing Ryan would pick up on her worries.
Cherri seemed to be back to her normal self, January observed. As soon as the first set had finished, she’d jumped straight in-between two wiry men whom she’d been flirting with the entire gig.
January decided to move her bass case into the room out the back, not having had time to tidy up before they started playing. She walked into the backstage room and put it in a corner.
A flash of pink caught her eye. A bottle of sparkling rosé, with a glitter encrusted label, sat on the table. January flipped the label.
To Cherri, from your secret admirer xxx
January rolled her eyes and was about to walk away when she remembered the razor wire. She glanced towards the door to check that no one was coming and then swiftly unscrewed the lid of the bottle, noting that the seal had already been broken. She had a bad feeling about this. Her nose twitched as she took a careful sniff. It made her flinch.
She was no poisons expert, but there was definitely something stronger than sparkling wine lurking in this bottle… and she didn’t think it was vodka.
January chewed her lip, wondering what to do. This pretty much confirmed that someone was trying to kill Cherri. They were a complete bungler, and January wasn’t even sure their heart was truly in it, but all the same, it was dangerous. Cherri wasn’t exactly Mensa material and if January hadn’t got to the bottle of wine first, there was every chance the pint-sized singer might have downed the lot in a single sitting.
But
why would anyone want to kill Cherri?
A long list of plausible reasons flashed through January’s head. She sighed. The problem with Cherri was that she might have mortally offended someone without even knowing she’d done it.
“I’d better try to warn her,” she said aloud, already knowing it wouldn’t go well. She was pretty certain that the singer wouldn’t even believe her.
“Warn who? Are you talking to that bottle of wine?” Leah walked into the room, stress still etched on her face. January suspected she’d only just managed to shake Mike off.
“I know it sounds crazy, but I think someone’s trying to kill Cherri,” she told the drummer.
Leah’s face grew thoughtful. “No, I can totally see why someone might want to do that.”
January nodded, finding it hard not to smile. “Last gig someone had taped some really nasty razor wire across the fire exit door that Cherri walked through to have a cigarette - only, they taped it at a normal person’s neck height, so it went straight over her head. Now someone’s left this bottle of wine for her, but the seal was broken and it doesn’t smell like normal wine to me.” It felt good to be able to talk to someone about this. January only wished she could share her own problems in the same way.
“It doesn’t sound like this someone is very smart,” Leah said, seconding January’s own opinion.
“I know, but that doesn’t mean they won’t luck out and end up killing her in the end. Cherri may not be a saint, but she doesn’t deserve to die. At least, I don’t think she does. We really should find out what she could possibly have done to inspire this kind of attack…”
Leah nodded in agreement. “I could try and talk to her if you want? Maybe she’ll remember having an argument with one of her long list of ex-lovers? It’s got to be a guy, right?”
January shook her head. “I don’t know. A guy wouldn’t usually think of pink sparkling wine, and he probably wouldn’t use sticky tape to fix razor wire in place, either. I think this could be an angry girlfriend, or wife.”
“I’ll have to ask. Someone needs to warn her about it. Of course, there’s every chance she’ll just call me crazy and try to get me kicked out of the band,” Leah said, raising an eyebrow at January.
“That’s the reason you’re talking to her and not me. There’s no way Mike will kick you out of the band, even if you were the one running around with razor wire,” January joked.
Leah raised her gaze heavenwards. “Lucky me.”
January made eye contact with Ryan when she walked back out on stage to start the second set. He gave his head a minute shake and she knew that he hadn’t seen anything suspicious. After what she’d been through earlier that night, Ryan’s reassurance didn’t mean a lot to January. Whoever they were dealing with now was smart and sneaky. There was no telling when they’d spring their next trap. She only hoped that Gregory had managed to catch up with them.
Two songs later, she saw the man in the suit again.
January had to resist the urge to rip off her bass and run through the crowd to lay her hands on him, before he disappeared for the second time. The mysterious stranger wore another tailored suit and was once again staring at her so hard, she was worried she might burst into flames. She thought about signalling his presence to Ryan. Unfortunately, after the drama of their fight with the wolves, she’d never got around to mentioning the man who’d disappeared after leading her in their direction. If she drew Ryan’s attention now, he’d probably just assume that the stalker-esque stare was upsetting her.
She looked back at the man, wishing she could read his mind. There were plenty of questions she wanted to ask him. Had he known about the bounty hunters and had wanted her to find them? Or was he working for the people who wanted her dead? There was always a chance he was a hired killer himself. January couldn’t afford to trust anyone anymore.
“Did you manage to talk to Cherri?” January asked Leah when they’d finished playing and were finishing the packing up.
The tiny blonde singer was nowhere to be seen, but then she never hung around to help with the packing.
Leah let out a sigh that seemed to go on forever. “I gave it a shot. I managed to tell her about the wire and the poisoned wine. I swear I was literally about to ask her if she might have upset anyone recently when she asked me how I knew about the stuff. I said that you were the one who’d found it all and then she started saying that you’d probably made it all up, just to freak her out, and where was the proof?” Leah massaged her temples with both hands, struggling to deal with the stupidity. “I was tempted to go and fish through the bin for that bottle of wine, so she could take a swig or two and find out if she got her proof or not.”
“I still haven’t figured out why she doesn’t like me,” January said, wondering if there was anything more they could do to get Cherri to take this threat seriously.
Leah raised an eyebrow. “Maybe because you’re the one everyone in the audience is looking at whenever we do a gig, and not her?”
January frowned.
Leah rolled her eyes. “You’re hilarious. Anyway, I figure we’ve done all we can do. Maybe she’ll think about it and realise I wasn’t kidding around.”
January nodded, but didn’t hold out much hope. The only advice Cherri seemed to listen to was her own.
“Almost done?” Ryan asked, hefting her bass amp with his arms, like it was nothing. January made a mental note to invite him to far more gigs in future.
“Yeah, just got to get paid,” she told him with a smile.
It was only then that remembered the mysterious man. Her eyes scanned the dwindling number of people in the pub, but she saw no sign of him. Curses! She thought. He must have disappeared during the time she’d spent talking to Leah.
“Gregory’s head was sliced in half, and he’s not dead? That is - more permanently dead?”
January frowned at Ryan’s reaction to her retelling of the evening’s events. That was what he was wondering about? “It was a near thing. Some of the vital bits must have stayed attached, I suppose? Anyway, the important thing is, he’s alive and I’m alive, and now we know something about our next adversary.”
What had happened was in fact all they knew about their next adversary.
January checked her phone again but found no new messages or missed calls. Gregory hadn’t made contact yet.
“Do you really think he saved your life?” Ryan asked, breaking the silence that had suddenly stretched out.
January tried not to think about the uncomfortable moment she and Gregory had shared while they’d waited in the bushes. What would have happened if the bounty hunter hadn’t made a noise when they’d left the scene?
“I do. I think it was an instinctive thing,” she said, trying to be casual about it.
Ryan’s forehead furrowed. “A vampire as old as Gregory probably doesn’t have any instinct left. He calculates everything. No doubt, at some point in the future you’ll be reminded of this incident.”
January nodded, seriously, knowing it was best not to mention what Gregory had said on that matter. This was one of the few times she was glad of the prejudice that existed between their two species.
“I can’t wait for this all to be over,” she said, leaning back against Ryan and enjoying feeling safe and happy,with his arms wrapped around her.
Her phone rang.
“Did you find them?” She asked, not bothering to say hello first.
“Yes and no,” the vampire replied, and January knew the news probably wasn’t going to be good. “They were easy enough to follow. As far as I can tell, they aren’t a shifter. I was tracking them through the woods and I got to a break in the trees that led out to fields. I thought I’d get a good look at them in the moonlight, but that’s when I hit the wall.”
January frowned, wondering if she’d heard that correctly. “The wall?”
“That’s what it felt like. It was like walking into an invisible brick wall. I’m not sure if my nose will ever be
the same again. The thing is, it’s happened to me before… when you decided to spread that stuff around the house to keep me out. Only, this was a much stronger version.” He paused to let the implications of what he was saying sink in.
“Oh,” was all January could manage.
“It looks like our new bounty hunter is a witch,” Gregory confirmed.
All thoughts of picking up the trail Gregory had lost and going after them herself were wiped from January’s mind. They may be able to best their adversary in brute strength, but there was no way they’d stand a chance against someone who knew how to use magic – especially when it was clear they even knew how to stop vampires in their tracks. Yet again, January was reminded of the urgent importance of getting to grips with her own gift.
“So, now we’ve all got to look out for death curses and more traps,” she said, feeling daunted. How could you avoid all of that when it was really hard to know when you were being targeted?
“Yes, but what we really need to do is to kill them - and to do it fast - before they can get to us.”
“How do you plan on doing that?” January asked, knowing that she was fresh out of ideas.
“I’m working on it,” Gregory said and hung up.
That didn’t sound promising.
She looked up at Ryan, knowing he’d have heard the whole conversation. His expression echoed her own. This was bad. This was so bad.
“I found out how the bar got to be so in debt. Luke was siphoning off big chunks of money every month to one person,” Ryan said.
January blinked at the sudden change of subject but knew it was because there simply wasn’t anything more to say about the new bounty hunter. They had to just get on and hope for the best.
“Did you find out anything about the person receiving the money?” She asked.
Ryan nodded, slowly. “I did some asking around. It was hard to dig up, but the man Luke was paying has a reputation for being a really powerful witch. I think he was taking lessons from him.”