by D L Blade
“Did you kill him?” I asked as I awoke in Caleb’s bed the next morning.
When he didn’t respond, I looked at him and an unsettling feeling hit the pit of my stomach.
Caleb’s hands rested on his face, his elbows on his knees. His shoulders slumped, and when he finally looked at me, his stare was empty and distant. The last time I had seen Caleb like this was when I told him we couldn’t be together.
He wouldn’t answer, so I pressed for another question. “Where is Sarah?” I just needed to hear him speak.
“She slept in the guest bedroom downstairs,” he said finally.
She was safe. We were both safe.
“Is she okay?” I asked.
He nodded. “I think so. She hadn’t woken since I had laid her into bed, so you’ll want to talk to her when she’s awake. I slept in Roland’s room. He’s still out of town,” he explained as if he had been reading my thoughts. He probably assumed I thought we shared a bed together. I wouldn’t have cared; we had just slept. I trusted him with my life.
“Does the coven know where I am? They’ll worry since I didn’t come home.”
He nodded and moved in my direction. He laid down next to me, but created enough distance so we didn’t touch. “Yes, he’s dead. After his body turned to ashes, I swept him outside the back door into the parking lot. Your cover isn’t broken. He’ll just be a missing person to them.”
“To my father,” I corrected. I watched as his expression turned from somber to surprise as his brows raised.
He pursed his lips and blinked. “Your father?”
Still staring at him, I said, “Alexander is alive.” His eyes grew wide.
He tipped his head to the side. “He was there?”
“He’s their leader and the owner of the club,” I explained. “He never knew it was me, though. The spell Sarah cast didn’t fade until we left the main dance floor. He didn’t see me transition back.”
“Good,” he said, letting out a heavy breath. “But this changes things a bit, doesn’t it?”
“No. I’m not going to let emotions change things. He is a vampire who runs one of the most dangerous vampire clans on the east coast. I won’t hesitate if I have to kill him,” I said.
Caleb’s phone beeped, pulling his attention away from me. I waited as he read an incoming text message, then turned to face me again.
“It’s Melissa. She found a fresh tattoo on the inside of Tippy’s lip. She thinks it was done postmortem by the person who killed him. She’s sending me the image now.”
We waited a minute and the image came through. He clicked on it, opening it to its full size. It was a black horse with red eyes. We looked at each other and back at the image. “A vampire murderer is leaving us a signature. That’s a new one for us,” I said.
“At least we were right about who’s doing this.” Caleb closed down his phone. “It’s obvious that whoever did this wanted us to know he’s part of The Black Horse clan. They’re drawing you out,” he said. “Let’s be one step ahead.”
“We always are.”
My phone rang, but I didn’t answer. I didn’t even look down to see who it was. “I don’t want to train today,” I said. “My body feels fine, of course, but after last night, I—”
“I know. I mean, I don’t know what you’re feeling, but I understand. No training today.” He shifted his body to face me, nuzzling his neck into the pillow. “I wanted to kill everyone in that club last night after I saw what he was going to do.” He closed his eyes tightly, and when he opened them back up, the amber in his eyes was brighter, more vibrant. “You mean more to me than anyone or anything in this world.”
“I know.” I placed my hand on his cheek, but as soon as I touched his skin, he shifted to turn away from me and sat up on the bed. He was upset . . . again. “I care about you, Caleb,” I said. “Taking my feelings away didn’t take away my humanity. I am still a human being who feels things.”
He scooted off the bed and looked down at me, but I stayed down with my head still on his pillow. “I have somewhere I have to be,” he said. “Stay as long as you need. I drove you back in my car last night, but I had Sarah’s car towed here.”
“I’ll leave her the keys and order a driver to take me home,” I explained.
He nodded, but wouldn’t look at me again. My heart ached as he walked away. It killed me to see him in this much pain. As I heard the front door shut, my mind immediately drifted to the day I left him alone in front of my house. Everyone had been waiting for me inside.
After I took away my feelings for him, Caleb had fallen to his knees, his knees digging into the driveway gravel, but he didn’t move. I didn’t feel the need to comfort him or tell him it was going to be okay. For him, it was never going to be okay. Nothing I said would have mattered.
My phone rang again, pulling me out of my memory, and this time, I looked down. It was Dorian.
Dorian!
Why was he calling? We’d agreed he’d never call me; only text messages.
“Hello?” I said, my voice shaky.
“Mercy, it’s Noah.”
My heartrate sped up, and butterflies fluttered my stomach.
“Noah, what’s going on? Why are you calling from Dorian’s phone?” I asked, panicked.
“Dorian’s fine. He needs you, though. Can you get to Three Brother’s Tavern after sundown?”
“Of course I’ll meet him.”
Noah snickered on the other line.
“What?” I asked.
“He’s just really excited to see you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Bye, Noah. Tell him I’ll be there at six.”
I hung up and headed for the shower. After getting ready, I sent a text to Laurie to let her know I’d swing by tomorrow afternoon to help with a few household items and take Cami out.
As I exited the mansion, I glanced at Sarah, who slept peacefully in the downstairs bedroom. She was stronger than most, but I knew after last night, she’d need some time to process what had happened and had almost happened.
I sent her a text to call me when she awoke.
When I entered Lily’s Café, I spotted Bradley sitting at a table toward the back with a book in his hand.
“Hey, what’s going on?” I asked.
He placed the book down on the table and looked up at Lily, who had just finished helping a customer. “After she locks up the shop, we’ll head to Salem Harbor.”
I looked through him as the realization registered with me. We had spread my mother’s ashes over Salem Harbor. I looked down at my phone and eyed the date on my clock.
His eyes widened, and he placed his hands in his lap. “I’m so sorry. I thought that was why you were here.”
I shook my head. “I understand why she didn’t tell me. It’s fine.”
Lily interrupted us. “Hey, Mercy. What brings you here? We were just heading to go do some shopping.”
“I’m coming with you to Salem Harbor,” I said, cutting her off from continuing her lie.
Her eyes went wide, and she glared at Bradley. He looked down as if she scared him. It’s not his fault she was keeping this from me.
I killed my mom a year ago today. I missed her, regardless of what she did to me. Being there where we laid her ashes would be hard, and I did understand why Lily didn’t want me to go, but I hated that I wasn’t given a choice.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know if you wanted to go.”
I stood and walked to the cash register, and Lily followed. When I turned around to face her, I asked, “Do you blame me for her death, Lily?”
She gasped. “No. God, no. Mercy, you did what you had to do, but I know you blame yourself for what happened. You could barely stand the last time we were there when we put her ashes in the harbor. I didn’t think you could handle it, especially with everything going on right now with you and the coven.”
I secured my purse over my shoulder and flashed her a warm smile. “I want to go.”
When she
smiled back, Bradley, who had been watching us from across the café, walked toward us and handed Lily her keys.
As hard as this was going to be, I had my family to get me through it.
We picked up Joel on the way, who looked surprised to see me in the car, but I flashed him a smile, hoping it would help everyone relax and stop being so weird around me.
Once we reached Salem Harbor, we hurried over to the lighthouse where we sprinkled her ashes and sat on the rocks.
For the next hour, we talked about her life before she started changing into someone we didn’t recognize. Because Bradley was with us, we had to tread lightly when we spoke about my mom. For all he knew, she had a mental illness and died of a brain tumor. We actually weren’t far off from the truth.
“I wish I had known her,” Bradley added.
“You would have liked her. She was a huge fan of Star Trek,” I said, giggling under my breath.
“I like Star Wars,” he said, and everyone busted out laughing, except Bradley. I laughed so hard that tears welled up in my eyes. I wasn’t sure if the tears were from grief or happiness, but either way, the sudden change in my mood was what I needed to relax and not care about anything else.
“You’re such a nerd, sweetie, but I love you,” Lily said, squeezing his hand. He finally joined in on the laughter, but I could tell there was a slight discomfort beneath it all.
“Well, they are different,” Bradley said, and this only made us laugh harder.
I tapered off my laugh and stood up, wiped the tears from my eyes, and walked toward the water. I placed my hand on top, my fingers lingering above the water, and swished around. “Goodbye, Mom. We’ll be back in a year.”
Joel and Lily suggested we grab a drink or two before heading back. Bradley didn’t drink much, so he volunteered to drive us home. I handed the bartender my fake ID, and she made my cocktail. I knew I should keep my drinks to a minimum today, but I didn’t expect to face any vampires right now, and I really needed that drink.
“We should have teleported,” I suggested, once I had downed my third cocktail.
“True,” Joel agreed. He and Lily snickered. They were about four beers in and obviously drunk.
“We should probably get going, guys. We’re going to hit traffic,” Bradley said.
We all agreed, closed out our tab, and headed toward the parking lot.
As we neared the car, it dawned on me that I had to meet Dorian in less than two hours. “Hey, Bradley. Can you drop me off at Three Brother’s Tavern? I’ll get a driver home after that.”
Lily looked at me.
I smiled, wondering how she’d take this. “Dorian wants to meet with me.”
She smirked. “Really?”
I shot her my best fake smile. “It’s nothing. He just wants to talk.”
“Uh, huh,” Lily mumbled, narrowing her eyes at me.
I rolled my eyes. “Stop. Goodness, he hasn’t seen me in a year, and here I show up buzzed as hell.”
“Oh, you’re drunk,” Lily teased.
“I have two hours to sober up. Let’s go.”
As I climbed into the car, my eyes darted to a restaurant on the other side of the street. I was tipsy at this point, maybe even drunk, but I could have sworn I saw Maurice.
Maurice!
My stomach lurched, and I tapped Lily on the shoulder. “Lily, it’s Maurice,” I said as I pointed to a man sitting at a table with another woman inside the restaurant. I shook my head, squinting my eyes again. Was I just being paranoid?
“There’s no way he’s still in Salem,” Lily said, pulling my attention toward her. “You all agreed that his threat was empty and he’d be long gone by now.”
I looked in that direction again, but the man I thought was Maurice was gone. The sun shined brightly outside, so, rationally, I knew it wasn’t him. He’d have burned up.
I had to be seeing things, so I shook off the thought and got in the car.
I entered the Tavern and spotted Dorian sitting in the corner booth. I had gone from wasted to extremely buzzed and I didn’t want him to see me this way, so I focused on walking straight and prayed he wouldn’t notice.
His head was down and his fingers lightly tapped the table. As I approached, I noticed he looked a bit different from the last time we had seen each other, a year ago. His hair was slightly longer, almost to the bottom of his ears. He wasn’t wearing all black like he always did. Today, he wore a red t-shirt and blue jeans, and he sported light scruff above and below his mouth. He almost looked normal. I would never pin him as a vampire, but maybe that was his point.
As I sat down and barely missed the seat, I caught myself and scooted down the booth. He chuckled. “Have you been drinking?”
I huffed. “No.” I fidgeted with my fingers under the table. “I had a few drinks a couple hours ago, but I’m fine.” He opened his mouth to speak again, but I cut him off. “Is everything okay? Why did you have Noah call?”
“You asked me not to.” He smiled, his lips pinched together as if trying to hold back a laugh.
I kicked him hard under the table, and he winced. “Dorian, that’s not funny. I thought something bad happened to you.”
“Did you worry about me?” he asked. “Can you even feel concern for others?” I didn’t think he meant for those words to come off so harshly, but it hurt to hear them, especially coming from Dorian. He did seem to be genuinely curious about the spell when I’d first performed it, and I didn’t give him that much of an explanation when I told him what I had done.
“Just because my romantic feelings are gone doesn’t mean I don’t care about you. I’ll always care about you, Dorian.”
That was deep. Too deep for us right now. It had to be the cocktails talking because, though I truly cared about Dorian and Caleb, I avoided telling them. I didn’t want them to get the wrong impression and think there was any way to win me back. Especially since I wasn’t able to give either of them my whole heart.
A slight smile pulled at his lips. And that was exactly why I should not have said that. He was pleased with what I said, though I hoped he understood there was no hope for us.
“Why am I here, Dorian? And where have you and Noah been living?”
He ignored my questions and waved down a waitress. Once she came to our table, she handed Dorian a menu. “She’ll be ordering,” he told her, handing the menu over to me.
I looked up at her. “Just a coffee, please.” I handed her back the menu.
She huffed. “Are you sure? We’ve got a lot to choose from. We’ve got burgers, and breakfast is all day. We even have salads—”
“Just coffee,” I said.
She squinted, snatched the menu from my hands, and walked off toward the kitchen.
“I heard about what happened in East Greenwich,” Dorian said.
I studied him for a few seconds before I asked, “How did you know about that?”
“Sarah called me. She felt you and your coven would need all the help you could get. Don’t get mad at her.”
“I’m not mad,” I said. “I just didn’t realize the two of you talked.”
“We don’t, really. Not like you think. She checks in every now and then. We did know each other the entire time she was at the lair, Mercy. She was my friend, too.”
It never crossed my mind that, though she was a prisoner, she had made friends while inside, even with those deemed enemies.
I wondered how much she actually told him. I hoped she hadn’t mentioned what happened last night. I still hadn’t spoken to her since she awoke. She’d only sent a quick text telling me she was okay.
“You think it’s that clan in Providence?” he asked, changing the subject. He probably sensed how uncomfortable this conversation was making me. Also, how much did she tell him about what was going on?
I nodded. “We think so. They just opened their club. There was also a tattoo of a black horse on the inside of Tippy’s lip. That’s their logo. From what we’ve learned, they moved he
re a year ago from New Orleans. They’ve been quiet since they came here, but the murder happened just a few weeks after the club opened. We all know when vampires are up to no good, they create a secured lair.” Since I wasn’t sure how much she had told him, this could be a surprise. “The leader is—” I shifted in my seat.
“Is?” he repeated.
“Alexander,” I confessed.
Dorian’s eyes went wide. “Didn’t see that one coming.”
“Yeah, none of us did.”
“Let me help you. For all they know, I’m on the vampires’ side. I can help get information.”
I shook my head. There was no way. He had already sacrificed himself by helping me get out of Maurice’s lair a year ago and almost got himself killed. I wasn’t going to have his life on my hands again.
“No,” I said. “It’s too dangerous. We already had an incident last night, so we need to regroup and decide what we’re going to do next.”
“What incident?” he asked, the pitch of his voice rising a notch.
I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t need him worrying about me, too.
“Nothing,” I snapped. “We have it handled. Sarah shouldn’t have called you.”
“Let Noah help,” he suggested. “He’s a shapeshifter. He would be extremely beneficial to your coven.”
That was one refreshing thing about Dorian. He didn’t argue with me. Didn’t question me when I made a decision about something. He respected it. He was also right about having Noah help us. Having as many supernatural beings on our side as possible would give us the upper hand. “I’ll think about it,” I said as I climbed out of the booth. He moved next to me so swiftly, my hair blew to the side. “Show off.” I smiled.
He placed his hands under my jawline. The coldness from his fingers caused goosebumps to form on the back of my arms.
“Why do you have me text you, Mercy?” he asked. “If you feel nothing, why do you care so much if I’m okay?” He brushed my cheek with the back of his fingers, and slid his hands to the back of my neck, but I stopped him from inching closer to me by pressing my hand to his chest, creating a gap between us. His hand dropped to his side, and he flinched.