by Ruby Raine
The third ring... William, telling her to close her eyes as calmly as if tucking her into bed and cradling her to sleep in his arms. All while his body hung useless against the torture surging at him; his concern Melinda’s well-being. Always this first.
Him, a day later, feral determination to take out the evil responsible. Fighting through the pain and bloodlust from the human blood he’d drank, to break free and save her life.
The fourth ring... Lucas picked up the phone, tapped it on, and slid it up to Melinda’s ear.
“Melinda.” Charlie’s voice trembled. “It’s not William. It’s not him.”
She did not hear anything else.
Charlie might have continued talking, or hung up, she had no idea.
Blood rushed to her ears, heart strumming in full orchestral performance.
Charlie might have told her the world was about to implode in on itself, but she didn’t hear a word. A sob pushed out of her and Lucas dropped the phone, surrounding her with himself.
“I’m so sorry, Melinda.”
She sobbed, unable to tell him. Her brain soaking in this news. Trying to put meaning to the words Charlie had spoken.
It’s not William.
It’s not William.
It’s not William.
Melinda wanted to tell Lucas but only sobs came out of her. She collapsed against him, relief seeping into her veins. The pain and relief of it all, falling out with every tear. Lucas embraced her tightly, wishing there was some better way to comfort her. How did you keep someone who’d just lost someone they loved, from slipping away, without a bit of them dying, too.
He’d lost his parents and still had no answer for this.
So much loss.
Death was a reality of living. But never easy to accept even you’re expecting it.
Melinda lifted her head.
Lucas put some space between them.
What the hell?
Melinda was smiling. Weakly. So exhausted she might pass out. But smiling. Eyes a blue ocean of softness and relief. She opened her mouth to say something, but it took a minute for the words to reach her tongue.
“Not. William.” She finally articulated with great effort.
“Oh my God. Um, that’s... wow.”
“I was so sure I’d lost him,” she let out breathlessly. “It’s not him.” The reality of this still swam around the surface, barely sinking in. She pulled back to clean her face. It took a few more minutes to get the tears to subside.
Lucas let go of her, baffled. Thrilled. Shocked.
“Sorry, Lucas,” she cried a minute later. “I didn’t mean to make you think he was gone, I was just so...”
“Relieved,” Lucas imagined.
She sniffled. “Relieved doesn’t even come close. More like, I think I can keep living.”
Death... it’s what Melinda had looked so close to minutes ago. Like a piece of her had already died, and the rest was waiting to catch up.
“It doesn’t fix everything,” Melinda sniveled. “There’s the whole Courtney thing. But he’s not the one killing all these people.” She’d given up hope it wasn’t him. There had been too many coincidences. Too much evidence pointing to William.
She sighed, happily. Eyes closing from blissful weariness.
She wasn’t losing her mind. Not completely. William really did come to her and say goodbye. He did leave the Isle. She hadn’t dreamed it all up. He wasn’t gone from her for good, she hoped. At least for now, cleared of this heinous charge and alive. Somewhere.
But this also revealed an equally deadly truth: there was another vampire loose on the island. Which meant everyone was in danger.
But life could move forward. It hadn’t come to an abrupt stop as she’d fully expected it to. Even with this killer vampire on the prowl, and the task of that hanging over them like a volcano about to erupt, she’d never been so relieved in all her life.
Her William was not a coldblooded killer.
Courtney was an accident. One they still had to deal with, but he wasn’t out killing because of a cold hard need for blood. He hadn’t transformed into the monster he was always reminding her he was.
A wet snout pushed against her arm. Her eyes fluttered open.
“Hi Finn. I’m okay.” It was like the gargoyle was checking up on her, just to make sure. He pushed his head into her and she chuckled lightly, petting his giant globe of a head.
“You’ve named them now?” asked Lucas.
“Just this guy. He’s the only friendly one.” Finn shuffled away after a minute, off into the shadows rejoining the other three gargoyles.
“So what happens now?”
“I guess we wait. My brothers had a plan, if we go in now we’ll somehow get in the way and disrupt things. I’m guessing they’ll be home soon to regroup if they haven’t caught the vampire yet. Charlie may have said but I didn’t hear anything beyond, well, you know.”
“Yeah. I get it. Waiting. More waiting. The two of us seem to do that a lot,” he noted bleakly.
“Yeah, but look what happened the last time we ran in all unprepared.”
“Right. Waiting. Sounds like the safe plan. The smart plan.”
Melinda let out a long sigh.
“We won’t be like this for much longer, Lucas.” She patted his thigh. “Not if Lizzy has anything to do with it anyway.”
Lucas cast her a despondent frown.
They were really going to do this, weren’t they? Study magic, together.
A little more of that newly resealed dam broke apart, the water hovering around his ankles. Man, this was a bad idea. He wondered if there was any way out of it at this point. The water rose to above his ankles. Nope. He was stuck. Hoped he didn’t drown. Pictured himself already treading water.
Melinda leaned back, the cool Demon Isle mists a welcome blanket soothing her wracked nerves. Easing the tension in her muscles. The ache in her bones. William was out there somewhere. And when he returned, he’d find a whole new Melinda Howard waiting. No longer on the sidelines. But a kick-ass, revenge taking, witch extraordinaire.
She could do it.
Right?
She glanced at Lucas.
He looked as discomforted as she felt.
At least they’d be hovering on the verge of utter failure together.
CHARLIE’S BROTHER HAD stood up from the death reading, stared at them all, eyes wide as his baby-faced skin permitted, stunned by the truth. They were wrong. They had pieced together all the evidence incorrectly. William had been the easy answer. The obvious answer.
Then Michael uttered the words, Not William.
Chop. Chop. Chop. Chop.
Someone cut the ropes and a house-sized brick lifted off Charlie’s chest. Relief splicing through him so deeply, he swore everyone watched him fall in two different directions at the same time. He excused himself silently, walking away, needing a few minutes to sew himself back together... make that a week, or a month, to rise up from that dark place he’d made himself go. This might require a double or triple stitch to sew up this wound properly.
The very moment he was capable, Charlie had dialed his sister and spoken the words to her. It’s not William. All he heard in response was a sob, followed by her phone going dead. There was no need to explain anything else. Not yet. She’d be okay. Her world wasn’t ending. Or crashing in on her. And she wasn’t alone since Lucas was with her.
William was cleared of killing these tourists.
And what to do about Courtney Jessup? He had killed her, by accident, and now she was forced into life as a vampire. Charlie would focus on that later, they still had a murderer on the loose. The Isle’s first vampire other than William or now Courtney in longer than he could recall in Howard history.
Protective instincts kicked in.
Like it should have when he’d believed William their enemy.
Charlie would have done the right thing, fulfilled his duty, ended his friend’s life.
Now that it
was not William; surprising how much easier it is to wipe out a nameless face. Almost too easy. With no regard to the person and life behind that face. Killer or not, even a vampire was a human being at one point, most likely with family and friends who loved them, as dearly as they loved William.
It harkened back to when William killed Eva Jordan’s mother, and the chain reaction of events that unfolded over those years after. Their actions had consequences, but so did inaction. They’d have to take out this vampire threat and make sure the island and the power source remained safe.
Damn his wrong choices. He should have let Michael do a death reading sooner. It was never a sure thing, to see the killer. Sometimes only the manner of death. The timing had been so messed up and none of them ready to see the truth until they’d had no choice, plus the evidence all pointed William’s direction. They’d all but condemned their friend, needlessly.
When Charlie’s heart beat normally again, he picked up his head and gazed back at the others, still surrounding the dead victim. The young woman, her life snuffed out. They were standing around letting the news sink in, same as him.
Not William.
Courtney looked forlornly down at the lost victim. Charlie imagined it was a bittersweet moment. Glad she, herself, had survived, and yet sad this other woman had not, and then still completely lost and stuck in the middle of a new life she didn’t ask for. To her credit, she was being a good sport so far. And helping them. He had no idea how to make it all up to her, how to make this unasked for change, okay.
William would still be utterly devastated once he discovered what he’d done. He still might have a death sentence hanging over him, one by his own design. But at least it was not today, and not because he’d gone rogue. Funny how accidental death was so much more acceptable than gone wild with bloodlust, murder spree.
Recomposed and ready to get on with things, Charlie rejoined the rest of his hunting party.
He, Lizzy, Michael, and Mack exchanged sympathetic gazes, but said nothing more about William. It was going to take some time to sink in. How close they’d come to losing him. How much they realized they did not want to. How much they owed him. How much they needed him. And not purely for research, or the job, but in their lives, period.
If he returned from wherever he’d gone to.
Charlie’s gaze fixed on Courtney.
“So, um. What now?” She twiddled the wooden stake in her hand like a plaything.
“This doesn’t resolve what happened to you,” he told her. “I haven’t forgotten about you in all this mess, or the relief we’re all basking in at the moment. Our deal still stands.”
“And that’s all I want. For now.” She wasn’t sure what else to say on the subject. Her feelings regarding William were mixed. She didn’t know him. Clearly he was loved severely by this family, who were good witches to the core. And even if she decided this becoming a vampire thing was the best accident to happen, shouldn’t punishment still be dealt out to the one who did it?
He was under extreme duress.
He took away my human life.
Later, Courtney. Think about this later.
Still a super scary vamp on the loose.
Could just as easily kill you as anyone else here.
Charlie aimed his gaze at Michael. It was time to hear what else his brother had to say. But his brother’s attention was flitting between the victim and Lizzy.
“Um,” Michael eyed his brother. “Maybe we should talk alone.”
Charlie wondered why he’d need to and out of pure instinct to protect, his body inched closer to Lizzy. Muscles hardening. Ears perking up for unfamiliar sounds.
“You don’t trust me.” It wasn’t Lizzy, but Courtney who made the claim. Assuming Michael didn’t want to share with her around, the untested stranger. “I get it. It’s okay.”
“No,” this time it was Lizzy. “You’re trying to hide something from me.”
“What did you see, Michael?” Charlie growled, natural instinct kicking in, his body creating a shield in front of Lizzy.
“Yeah, what he said,” stated Lizzy, popping around him. No way she was hiding behind the overprotective wolf.
“The vampire mentioned your name,” revealed Michael.
“What?” said all the others at once, including Lizzy.
Charlie took his stance behind her, ready to pounce on anything that came close. His body an instant brick wall between the witch he loved and this vampire.
“That makes no sense,” exclaimed Lizzy. “No one even knows I’m here, or alive. There could be a few Lizzy’s around.”
Michael cursed under his breath. “He didn’t use Lizzy. The vampire claimed to be under some kind of curse, like my Lisbeth...” he’d used her formal name.
Lizzy’s breath stilled like a countdown just finished and the world stopped spinning, and air stopped circulating.
Michael continued. “I didn’t see his face. Only heard his voice. He claimed to be under a curse only my Lisbeth can break. Any idea what that means?”
Lizzy’s legs faltered, she fell back into Charlie’s tensed muscle wall of a body, his hands gripping her shoulders to keep her upright.
“Impossible,” she whispered in muted shock.
“What’s impossible?” begged Charlie.
What she was thinking was beyond absurd. He was dead. She watched him die.
Burn. Jump. Die.
He’d killed himself.
“Grayson...” the name slipped across her tongue in a wave of solemn remembrance and devotion.
Michael frowned. “That’s what the vampire called himself. Grayson Moone.”
Lizzy’s head lifted upward, eyes fixed on Michael.
The emotion pouring out of her was confusion. Utter confusion. Lined with adoration. Longing. Disbelief.
Charlie’s senses were on high alert. Lizzy’s heart palpitations were trigger enough to tell him something was happening that was about to rock his boat, and not in the manner he was dying to.
A flinty echo raged through the mist and fog.
“Lisbeth...”
She gasped, hand clutching her heart. That voice... there was no way.
“Lisbeth,” it rang out again. Bouncing around the night. “I need you, my Lisbeth.”
Through the shock and disbelief, there was something else...
Familiarity. A closed flower blooming to life. Sparks reigniting.
Charlie released his grip, touching her a sudden sting upon his hands. She spun around, fixed on him. Too many unsaid words right then, the only ones that mattered to him: I’m not yours. I belong to someone else.
Somehow, in the matter of a few blinks, he’d lost her. He didn’t have all the pieces put together, but Lizzy didn’t truly belong to him. Walls he’d dropped too fast threatened to rebuild themselves. Begrudgingly so.
Blast it all to hell. Maybe he was reading this all wrong. More like hoped he was reading it all wrong. Even with those words coming through so perfectly clear a few seconds ago were no longer present in her silent conversation with him now. But it was more like she didn’t have a clue what was going on and was caught in the middle of something.
The rest of this conversation would have to wait.
The voice flinted out at them again. Begging Lizzy for help.
Charlie crouched down letting out a snarl. He’d protect her no matter what crazy ideas were going on in her head right now. Or his.
He readied a vial of the werewolf blood in his palm, scouring the area for their vampire opponent. Mack darted to the trunk of her car and grabbed her crossbow. Taking aim. Everywhere and nowhere. Michael put his back up to hers, left palm raised and at the ready, right hand with a vial of werewolf blood. Courtney gripped her stake, ready to strike. Her keen vampire ears listening for the first sign of movement. Lizzy in the middle of them all, silent. This wasn’t the type of speechless Charlie enjoyed.
A flash of movement.
A rush of breath.
Court
ney sprinted at the shape only to grind to a stop a second later.
Snap. Crack. Her new vampire body slumped to the ground in a heap.
She was too new to this life. Charlie shouldn’t have asked her to help.
A second later, she’s a vampire. She’ll heal. Bigger problems.
They’d have to leave her for now as there was no room for error in dealing with this killer. Courtney had been their best chance at catching this thing without casualties and she was already down.
Charlie had his ring. He assumed this meant even vampire venom would not harm him. And even if this were true, Michael Lizzy, and Mack were still at risk. If he could find a way to slide his Guardian ring onto Lizzy’s finger.
Another blaze of movement.
The vampire, this Grayson Moone, was toying with them, thought Charlie.
Grayson had taken out the other vamp, the only one capable of potentially capturing him. But he hadn’t attacked or hurt anyone else. Yet. What was he trying to do? What was his plan?
Other than protect Lizzy, and take out the vamp, nothing else came to Charlie’s mind.
His body twisted, silver scouring into the fog. He’d take the bastard down with his teeth if he had to. Hopefully, he was correct, in that the ring would keep him from getting poisoned with vampire blood.
Mack and Michael breathed heavily, searching and searching for a target. All they caught were shadows dancing under cloud cover and fog.
“Lisbeth,” the voice called out again. “Help me, Lisbeth.”
“Grayson,” she muttered under her breath. That voice. His voice. She’d never dreamed she’d hear it again. It was impossible and yet, happening. Her gaze caught a sharp movement near the edge of the woods.
Charlie went to lunge, he’d seen it too.
“I’d stop if I were you,” a voice warned. No longer an echo of flint. Clear. Crisp. Edged with desperation. And behind them... bodies swung in that direction, palms aiming and on high alert. Charlie stood erect, a towering powerhouse ready to smash anything that came close to Lizzy.
“Let’s be nice witches now, and put down the werewolf blood,” the voice didn’t so much ask, as instruct. “Unless you want to join your vampire friend?” They all glanced at Courtney, her head bent at an uncomfortable angle.