“We were supposed to meet for lunch, and he never showed up. And then not long after, I got a call from Scott’s girlfriend, Ella. She told me a wild story, one she didn’t think I’d believe.”
Ella slinks forward. “W-what did you do to him?”
“Nothing he didn’t deserve,” Lucas hisses. “Though if you ask me, Callie was too nice. I know what you did to her.” Lucas inches forward, pulling his hand out of mine. “You’re lucky Callie is as merciful as she is. I could rip your throat out in ten seconds with my teeth. And she could do it even faster without ever having to touch you.”
My father stiffens and leans back.
“Please,” Ella tries. “I don’t know what happened, but I just want Scott back. I saw you…I saw you…”
“Turn him into a cat,” I finish and shake my head. “Lucas is right. I am too nice.” I close my eyes in a long blink, feeling magic swirl at my fingertips. “You know what I realized? Scott didn’t want me to go to Penny’s birthday party because of you. He doesn’t care about Abby or Penny…he cares about himself. You’re pretty, Ella, and probably come from a rich family too. You look good on his arm, and losing you would hurt his reputation.”
I swallow hard, angry tears burning in my eyes. “He didn’t want you to know about me, but not because I’m a witch. It’s because he didn’t want you to know about what he’s done.” I point a finger in my father’s direction. “Scott was a teenager then, but trust me, he’s just as guilty.”
“Don’t listen to her,” my father says. “And don’t look into the vampire’s eyes.”
Ella shakes her head. “I…I don’t know what’s going on. What did they do that was so bad you…you…”
“Just fucking say it,” Lucas huffs. “She turned Scott into a cat.”
“Yeah.” Ella’s head bobs up and down. “That.”
“Why don’t you tell her, Dad,” I say through gritted teeth. “What don’t you want her to know?”
“Nothing. All we want is Scott.”
Lucas turns to me. “You could give him back in his current state.”
“He’s still…still…” Ella brings her hand to her chest.
“A cat,” Lucas and I say at the same time.
The anger swirls inside of me, growing in intensity as I stare at my father. He took so much from me, years that I can’t get back. I tried to tell myself it was over the day I left, but my father has been trying to silence me ever since.
“That man,” I start, and bright white magic sizzles as I point at my father again. “That man that you might call your father-in-law one day…” I stop, letting out a shaky breath. “He sold me to a medical research laboratory when I was nine. All because I was different. He left me there, being tested and treated like an animal, for a year before someone came and got me out. That is the real reason Scott and my father don’t want people to know about me. They don’t want their dirty secrets coming out. Wouldn’t look too good in the next election, would it?”
“That can’t be true.” Ella quickly shakes her head back and forth.
“Of course it’s not,” my father spits. “She’s lying! I knew right away there was something wrong with that one. She’s always had the Devil inside of her, and now look, she’s laying with vampires! It’s unnatural, what she is!”
Lucas speeds forward shoving my father back against the hood of the SUV. Ella screams and ducks away, going around the back. Holding him by the throat, Lucas towers over.
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t rip your throat out,” Lucas growls. “You blood isn’t worth drinking. But I will take satisfaction watching you choke on it as before you die. Though I think a quick death is more than you deserve. I’d rather take you back to my house, lock you in the basement, and see how you like being a human lab rat for a year before I finally sink my fangs into your jugular and watch you bleed out in front of me.”
I suck in a breath but can’t move. I should stop Lucas. He doesn’t threaten anything he won’t follow through with.
But I can’t.
I can’t move.
Can’t breathe.
Can’t let myself acknowledge that part of me wants Lucas to follow through with his threat.
“Enough!” someone yells from behind me. I turn and see Tabatha and Evander standing behind me. Magic pours from her, sending a shockwave through the air. With a growl, Lucas straightens up but keeps his hand wrapped around my father’s throat, pressing him down against the hood of the SUV.
“I believe I told you,” Tabatha starts, speaking to my father, “if you so much as harm a hair on that girl’s head I will turn you inside out, starting with your asshole and ending with your mouth.”
Lucas grins. “I like her. She’s the one who raised you?”
“She is,” I answer, feeling a new strength. “She taught me everything I know.”
Tabatha looks from Lucas to me, and I know she’s putting herself in a precarious situation. The less she knows of us the better. As my High Priestess, she should punish me if she were to find out I’m dating a vampire.
Evander comes over, setting a bag down and wrapping one arm around my shoulders. “Are you all right, sister?
I put my hand on top of his. “I am.” I hear Kristy’s shoes scuffing on the sidewalk as she rushes over.
“That escalated quickly,” she whispers, standing at my other side. “Though I kind of assumed it would.”
“I should have brought some popcorn,” Evander says. “Between my mother and your vampire…only a fool would cross you.”
“That man is a fool.” I stare at my father as I speak. “And everyone knows it but him.”
Tabatha strides over to the SUV, holding out her hand as she conjures a dark blue string of magic. “You can let him go,” she tells Lucas. “We’re going to be civil here. Though civil is not a word Mr. Martin seems to comprehend.”
With a growl, Lucas lets go of my father and steps away, retracting his fangs.
“You see that!” My father scrambles up and over to Ella. “They’re monsters, all of them!”
“The only monster here is you.” I step forward, and Lucas moves aside. “And if you want Scott back, I’ll gladly let you take him. But if you want me to turn him back, you have to do something for me first.”
My father stiffens, adjusting his tie and trying to regain his composure. “I don’t make deals with the dead.”
“You’re not making a deal with Lucas. You’re making one with me. And if you don’t, well, I hope you like cats.”
“What do you want?”
“First, you need to make a charitable donation to FONTA, anonymously, of course. We don’t want people thinking you went and did something nice.” The Friends of the Night Association, or FONTA for short, is an organization that promotes human-vampire relationships, both personal and professional. “And the size of the donation needs to be at least half of the amount you sold me for.”
My father does his best not to recoil from the thought of doing anything to help FONTA. “What else?”
“You need to fix two things Scott fucked up. Not only so you can get him back before he starts coughing up hairballs, but before I go to the Vampire Council and let them know an up-and-coming politician bribed government officials to go after a vampire-owned business.”
“What?” Ella asks, and I almost feel bad for her. Though sometimes we choose how blind we want to be. How she could not see that Scott and my father are awful people is beyond me. “Why would he…he wouldn’t…no.”
“Now that’s a funny story,” I start. “Scott bribed someone at the Health Department to say the bar Lucas owns has a bunch of fake violations. I don’t think bribery will go over well during the next election, now, would it? I have video recorded evidence of me confronting Scott about it and him admitting he just went after Lucas because of what happened at Penny’s party,” I lie. “Which reminds me, I have video evidence of Scott hitting me too.”
I take another step forward
, comforted and empowered knowing my friends—my family—are behind me.
“After you make a sizable donation, you’re going to lift all the violations from the Health Department. That bar is pristine, and temporarily shutting it down will hurt the humans who work there. You and Scott both claim to be all ‘pro-human’ yet you’re willing to put them out of a job.” I cross my arms over my chest.
“And the second thing?”
“This bill Scott was proposing or getting people to vote on—whatever—the one about regulating vampire housing. Get rid of it. If I hear one thing about it, if I find out just one person is trying to push it, I will teach you all a lesson.” I hold up my hand, and blue magic ignites around my fingers. It slowly turns red, burning brighter. “Chicago has enough human-on-human crime for you to focus on. The gun violence the last few months has been scary. Work on that.” I narrow my eyes and let the magic go. It breaks apart into tiny little pieces of glowing magic and is absorbed into the air.
My father blinks and goes to move around the car.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Lucas speeds over.
“I…my…I need to go to my office to make the appropriate calls.”
“Callie has an office. Use it. You can leave after you’ve called back your goons, and I have my bar back up and running.”
“You think I’m going in that house?” My father shakes his head. “I’m not walking into a trap.”
“Trust me, the last thing I want is you in my house.” I cross my arms. “So get in there, do whatever you have to do to fix it, and then get the fuck out and never come back.”
“What about Scott?” Ella asks.
“I’ll change him back as soon as everything has been taken care of. Don’t worry, he’s quite comfortable. And at least someone is using that avocado-shaped cat bed I got.” I look at my familiars, who refused to curl up in it since they’re not actually cats. But it was too cute to pass up when I saw it.
Ella walks a few paces forward and stops, looking back at my father. “What are you waiting for?”
“Be my guest,” I say, motioning to the house. “Oh, wait.” I turn, hold up both hands, and whisper an incantation to create a door in the warding. The entire circle glows bright blue.
“Oh my God,” Ella whispers, watching the circle slowly fade away, going invisible again. She hesitates before stepping over the threshold of where the circle just was and lets out a breath of relief once she’s past. It’s obvious that she’s scared yet is pushing through for Scott’s sake. He doesn’t deserve someone who loves him this much.
My father follows behind her, glancing at Lucas but never looking into his eyes. Freya shadows up ahead, showing off. Ella screams and turns toward my father, but if it came down to it, I’m sure he’d throw her right into the line of fire to buy himself more time to run away.
“Freya,” I say, smiling. “Stop showing off.”
Kristy goes in the house first, followed by Evander. She goes into the office and turns the light on. Ella goes in next, stopping just a few feet into the foyer. Lucas’s hand lands on my lower back, fingers inching under the fabric of my shirt. Feeling his cool skin on mine sends a rush through me, making my heart flutter while comforting me at the same time.
“Before you come inside,” Tabatha starts, holding up one hand and extending it toward my father. “I think a little insurance will make us all feel better.” Waving her hand, two strands of magic leaves her fingers and wrap around each of my father’s wrists. “Ad imperium,” she chants and snaps her fingers. The bands of magic are pulled together like handcuffs.
Then she opens up her hand, releasing the hold. The bands stay around my father’s wrists, but he’s able to move them apart now. “Try anything, and I’ll cuff you.” She flicks her eyes to Lucas. “Well, if the vampire doesn’t get you first.”
“The office is this way.” I walk through the foyer and into a room I don’t use that often. It’s tidy enough, though it’s in need of a dusting. I type my password into my computer and quickly close the ten tabs I have open. “All yours.”
Moving away from the desk, I go back to Lucas, who wraps his arm around me knowing that my father finds human-vampire relationships wrong and unnatural.
“Callie,” my father starts, going toward the desk. His eyes meet mine, and it’s like he’s looking at me—really looking at me—for the first time in over ten years.
“If you’re even going to attempt to apologize, save it. You sold me when I was only nine years old, and if Tabatha hadn’t gotten me out, I’d still be there. You never had any intention of coming back for me, and you know what, I’m glad you didn’t. It’s because of the hell you put me through that I learned how to fight and how to be strong.”
My father’s brow furrows, and the words I’ve longed to say but didn’t think I’d ever find the courage for burn inside me.
“What you did was unforgivable,” I go on. “What you did will forever speak volumes about your character—or lack thereof. But I came out stronger and found my real family because of it. And you…you’re going to have to live never knowing if I’m going to come out with my story. If I’m going to tell the world how much of a monster you are. How their beloved and trusted politician has been lying through his teeth for his entire career.”
I let out a breath, realizing that I’m only a foot away from my desk now. My father sank down into the chair and is staring at me with an unreadable expression. I truly believe the only reason he might slightly regret selling me like livestock is the fear of the story getting out.
“I’m proud of who I am, and the fact that you can’t see how incredible I am will forever be your loss.” The lamp in the corner of the room flickers. “Now get to work.”
I whirl around and march out of the office. Lucas steps in, drawing his fangs. He’ll watch every move and make sure my father is doing what he’s supposed to be doing.
I keep walking, going down the hall and into the kitchen. My nerves are shot, and my stomach has been clenched since the moment I saw my father walking up the sidewalk. I put my hands on the island counter and lean forward, letting out a deep breath.
“Holy shit,” I pant. Squeezing my eyes closed, I debate pulling out the wine and taking a big drink. Because I could really fucking use one right now.
“That was incredible,” Evander says from the threshold of the kitchen. “You’ve talked about telling him off for years and, you finally did.” A smile spreads across his face.
“It felt really good.”
“You’re right, you know. You are incredible and you are strong. Which is probably due to growing up with me as your fill-in for an older brother.”
I smile, and my eyes fill with tears for some reason. I’m not sad, but the overdrive of emotions is getting to me, and it’s like my brain can’t process them all.
“You did a good job. It’s so easy to start feeling sorry for myself or get angry, but when I think about how everything played out…maybe it was supposed to happen this way.”
“You rose from the ashes.”
The floor creaks, and I look through the kitchen into the living room. Tabatha and Kristy are in there with Ella.
“I kind of feel bad for her,” I tell Evander.
“She does looks quite helpless.”
“But she’s dating my brother.” I wrinkle my nose. “Speaking of, I should make sure he hasn’t scratched up my walls or anything.” He’s in the bathroom upstairs, and is huddled behind the toilet, looking so pathetic I almost feel bad for him too. I really shouldn’t have gone with a cat. But it’s fun seeing Scott get his just desserts. He hates cats…Binx especially.
He growls and hisses at me, reaching out and swiping a paw out.
“Keep that up, and I’ll have them declaw you too,” I sneer. “Eventually you’ll make a nice house cat. Though I’m going to draw the line with you sleeping in my bed. Or my room.”
I shut the door behind me and sit on the ground. “We’ve never ha
d a heart-to-heart and seeing how you can’t go anywhere or talk back, this is the perfect time.”
I rake my fingers through my messy hair. “Like I said back at the office…I never did anything to hurt you or make you not like me. I was born different, and I still don’t know why you and Dad hate me so much just because of that. I can’t help who I am.”
Reaching forward, I pick up a fur-covered plastic mouse that has catnip inside and shake it. My familiars often come to work with me, and thinking they’re just regular cats, Betty gave them all cat-toys for Christmas this past holiday. “I used to be curious. First because I thought if I found out why you hated me so much then I’d be able to fix it. You’re my big brother, after all. I wanted you to love me just like I loved you. Which I did for much longer than you deserved.”
I toss the cat toy and Scott’s ears perk up, almost as if he’s starting to pick up on real cat-like behavior.
“But then Dad sold me to that medical research laboratory, and you did nothing to stop him. If anything, I think you encouraged him. And when you all came to visit…I’ll never forget that look in your eyes.” Shaking my head, I let out a sigh and lean back against the wall.
“Now, I’m not telling you this in hopes that you’ll feel bad and suddenly stop being scum. You know how they say, ‘there’s no cure for stupid,’ well the same applies for people who are mean-spirited assholes. That’s just how you are. So, let this serve you as a reminder. I am not weak. I am not powerless. There are many who are, and I will stand up for them. Picking on people just because they’re associated with me…” I shake my head. “Let’s just say, if there is a next time, you won’t be so lucky to be a cat.”
I stand and bend down, reaching a hand out to Scott. “Now be a good cat and come here. Someone is here looking for you. If I get what I want, I’ll change you back.”
Scott growls and refuses to get up.
“I could always change you into a slug.”
With a hiss, he gets up and slinks over.
I pick him up and go downstairs, slipping into the kitchen before Ella has a chance to see me carrying Scott in my arms. Man, that’s weird to think about. Evander is still in the kitchen raiding my fridge, and probably being terribly disappointed.
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