by Mia Harlan
It really is something. For a few seconds, all I can do is sit there and gape at her. Then I start to grin as warmth and happiness radiates through my entire body. “You’re going to let them turn you?”
“I didn’t say that, dear.” Violet clicks her tongue.
“But...”
“But she’s willing to get to know us,” Bert says. “Hopefully we didn’t bore you too much?”
“Bore me?” Violet gasps. “I’ve had such a lovely morning with you three.”
“We did too, little dove,” Hugh smiles lovingly at her.
“You’re a great dance partner, duck,” Aldo chimes in.
Her three mates all stare at her adoringly, and I wish I could freeze this moment forever. This is how I want to remember Violet after I leave. Sitting on the couch, smiling with her mates... or dancing with Aldo, while Hugh plays the piano and Bert reads on the sofa.
“You’ll be safe here,” I whisper. I won’t be, but I’ll be able to start over somewhere else, knowing Violet is okay. Hoping she chose immortality.
I glance at Liam, and that’s when the real pain hits. It doesn’t matter how I remember my troll—sitting on the sofa, squeezed into his squad car, or walking through the library doors—because wherever he is, he won’t be with me.
I’ll also never get a chance to say goodbye to Cash. Not in person. And I don’t think there’s a goodbye in the world that won’t make me regret leaving him behind.
And then there’s Nole, who will always hate me—and who I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive. But despite all that, I know that I’ll miss him too.
“Take care of her,” I tell Violet’s mates and get to my feet.
Chapter 22
Violet
“Whatever you’re thinking, stop it this instant,” Violet scolds. She starts to stand, and Aldo instantly jumps to his feet, scoops her up by the waist, and sets her down in front of me.
“Letty...”
“Don’t you Letty me.” She wags her finger at me. “I know you, Violet, and I know you’re planning to run.”
“You were planning to run?” Liam demands, scrambling to his feet. Trapping me between his huge body and Violet’s frail one.
“It’s for the best,” I tell them softly. “Violet will be safe here—you’ll all be. They won’t come after you if I’m not here.”
“You don’t trust me to protect you?” Liam demands with a mix of hurt and outrage. “I’m a troll, Violet.”
He crosses his arms in front of his chest, arm muscles bulging, and glares down at me like he thinks he can intimidate me with his size.
“Liam...” I place a gentle hand on his arm. “You don’t know what I’m up against.”
“What we’re up against.” Liam scowls. “And why don’t you tell me?”
“Because...” There’s no point. I’d just be wasting time when I need to get out of Silver Springs, now.
“Liam’s right, sweetie,” Violet says softly. “Tell the guys everything. Maybe they can help.”
“We’re vampires,” Hugh says, his heavy British accent making the term sound more distinguished and less frightening. “Of course we can help.”
“And we can call for backup,” Bert adds. “Only reason we haven’t yet is Birdie asked us to talk to you first.”
“See.” Violet guides me back down onto the love seat. “Just tell them the whole story. Maybe they can help.”
I already know they can’t, but I want Liam to know why I’m leaving. I want him to understand that I have no choice.
So I nod, wait for everyone to get settled, and let myself get lost in the memories.
“I was at the campus library at college, studying late.” I take us back to that fateful night almost one year ago. “There was this little hidden alcove I liked, and I don’t think the librarian noticed me when he was locking up.
“I had my earbuds in and I must have fallen asleep, because next thing I knew, it was dark and there was no one around.
“The full moon was shining through one of the upstairs windows, illuminating the statue on the second floor. And the three figures—all dressed in black—gathered around it.”
I feel myself grow tense, and Liam gives my thigh a gentle squeeze. I think he means to offer support, but all he does is cause heat to travel up my leg straight to my core.
He seems to realize how high up his hand is, because he jerks back a second later, and I swear there’s a light blush tinging his cheeks.
“Were they witches?” Bert asks impatiently. “The people around the statue?”
I nod. “It was actually kind of funny at first. The statue was this little penguin, arms outstretched, holding a globe, and the three witches were copying it.
“I knew they were casting a spell, but I didn’t think it was anything serious. A dare. Maybe some sort of ritual for the local coven.
“I didn’t want to interrupt, so I took out my headphones and watched. Nothing happened at first. I actually started to wonder if maybe they were a human cult praying to their penguin god—or whatever human cults do—when I saw a purple light emanating from their fingertips.
“I don’t know how long they stood like that before the penguin’s globe suddenly opened. One of the witches stepped forward...” I cringe at the memory, “and he removed a glowing orb from inside. The globe closed, and I figured that was it. They were done, now they’d leave.”
I shake my head.
“I was actually excited to have a story to tell my roommate,” I add with a self-deprecating laugh. “She always said I needed to get out more. Have some fun, instead of spending all my time at the library.”
“There’s nothing wrong with spending all your time at the library,” Violet clucks.
All three of her guys nod in approval. So does Liam, which makes me smile.
“I know there isn’t, Violet. But at the time, I wanted to impress her. I think I even wished I’d taken a picture. Maybe if I had, I could have gone to the cops.”
“Why didn’t you go to the cops?” Bert asks, like the idea is unfathomable.
“She’s getting there, dear.” Violet pats his hand affectionately. “Go on, Violet.”
“Right... so the witch holding the orb raised it and started casting. Then, purplish-black magic shot out, and it... it turned his companions to dust.”
Liam tenses next to me.
“I must have made some noise, because he spun around to look at me. I don’t think I’ll ever forget his face, or the crazed look in his eyes.”
“Can you describe him?” Liam, ever the cop, asks.
“Blond shaggy hair, long, narrow nose, and a scar right here.” I touch the spot above my right eyebrow. “Well, actually, he was facing me. So I guess here.” I move my hand above my left eyebrow instead. “And I think one of the other witches called him ‘Raicus,’ but I was never sure.”
“I haven’t seen anyone who fits that description around town,” Bert says, glancing at Liam, who shakes his head. “But we could put out an APB.”
“You should let Violet finish her story first, Bert, dear,” my friend tells him.
“Very well,” he nods, and I continue.
“He pointed the orb at me and started to cast, so I fled. If I were human, I don’t think I would have gotten away. As it is, it was a close call.”
“What happened?” Liam demands, gripping my hand tightly in his.
“I shifted into a rat.” I shrug. “There were a few of them living in my dorms—rat shifters, I mean—and they loved shifting in the kitchen and scaring the humans.”
“Good thing, too,” Violet chimes in. “Because he was shooting at her.”
Liam lets out a throaty growl.
“It was black-purple magic,” I confirm. “But I was fast, and I could squeeze under bookshelves... and fit through the book drop.
“When I got to my dorm, I woke my roommate, but the witch—Raicus—found me before I could explain... and he wasn’t alone. He’d brought cop
s.”
“Cops?!” Bert demands.
“I didn’t see them at the time, but they were banging on doors, shouting that they were the police. They had my name—I’d left my student ID back at the library, so I guess they’d checked it—and they sounded really official.
“My roommate said I should just talk to them, and I almost did... until I heard them tell a girl on my floor that I was wanted for murder.”
“Murder?” Aldo gasps, as if he’s never heard of such a thing.
“I think Raicus blamed what he’d done on me. I just didn’t stick around long enough to find out. I turned into a cat shifter, jumped out of my third floor window, and fled.
“There were cops with flashlights all over campus, searching for me. I didn’t know if they were actual cops, or chameleons, or supes wearing costumes, or what.”
I swallow hard, because the next part—the betrayal—hurt the most.
“I snuck into a sorority house and borrowed a phone so I could call my mother. I was sure she’d know what to do, but she just... she... she told me I sounded hysterical and I should turn myself in.”
“I’m so sorry, gorgeous.” Liam pulls me into his side and holds me close.
I nod. “I don’t know if she didn’t believe me, or she just didn’t care.”
My voice breaks, and I lean into Liam and struggle to hold back tears.
“So she came to me,” Violet says. “Showed up in the middle of the night, crying, the poor thing. I had to help her.”
“And she did,” I whisper as tears start to flow down my cheeks.
“I’d been on the phone with an old coworker of mine earlier that week, and she told me about the job opening in Silver Springs.” Violet turns to her guys. “I was a librarian before retiring, you see. And the job was at Spell Library.”
“So you went back to work?” Hugh asks her.
Violet shakes her head. “I called in a favor and the job was mine... but I couldn’t have young Violet sitting at home all day. And, quite frankly, I was tired of working.”
“So she taught me everything she knew.” I smile at my best friend through the tears.
“And you shifted into her,” Bert says.
I nod. “But I loved that job so much.”
“You can keep it if you stay,” Violet says, and I realize that I haven’t even had a chance to tell her about this morning.
“I can’t. I got fired.”
“But why?” Violet gasps.
“Mayor Shchnarl found out I wasn’t you.” I stare down at my lap.
“I’m so sorry, my dear.” Violet’s face falls. “How did he—”
“Nole.”
“Who’s Nole?” Liam growls.
“My assistant. He was really upset when he found out I was a chameleon.”
“Because he’s her mate,” Violet adds helpfully. Then, before I can stop her, she adds, “And Violet has a third mate, too. His name is Cash, and he’s a wampitch.”
“A what?” Liam, Bert, and Aldo all ask at the same time.
“Bless you, little dove,” Hugh says instead.
I’d laugh, but I feel too raw, too gutted, after reliving what happened.
“He calls himself a blood mage.” Violet chuckles. “Half witch, half—”
“Vampire,” Aldo says proudly.
“Yes, dear.” Violet gives his hand a squeeze.
I sneak a peek at Liam to see if he’s upset at the mention of my other mates, and he looks furious.
“Do you trust him? This blood mage?” he demands.
I nod.
“Then why isn’t he here?”
“I couldn’t reach him. I left my cell at the library, and Betty’s number was the only number I know by heart. She’s the one who gave me yours.”
“Do you have any other way of reaching him?” Liam asks.
“On Screech.”
“Then look him up and tell him to get down here.” He takes his phone out of his uniform pocket and shoves it at me.
I should be glad he’s okay with me having another mate, but it doesn’t matter. None of it matters when I have to leave.
“Violet...” Liam growls when I start to hand his phone back.
“There’s no point. It’s not safe, and I won’t risk all of you.”
“If you leave, I will follow,” Liam announces.
My eyes widen.
“I’ll come too,” Violet chimes in.
“And if our mate leaves, we go,” Bert adds.
The other two vampires nod.
“You can’t all go,” I cry. “They’ll find us!”
“Then you’ll just have to stay,” Violet says, like it’s the simplest thing in the world.
“Then they’ll definitely find us!”
“So let them.” Liam scowls. “We’ve got three vampires, a troll,” he pats his chest proudly, “and your wampitch.”
“Blood mage,” Aldo corrects.
I can’t help it. I smile.
“And we’ll call for backup,” Bert adds. “Cops we can trust.”
“Bert’s been on the force since before I was born,” Liam tells me. “He knows what he’s doing.”
“I—I have a really bad feeling about this.”
“Just trust me.” Liam stares at me intently. “And tell your blood mage to get his ass down here.”
My troll looks so determined that for a split second, I actually feel hope. Hope that I can stay in Silver Springs. Hope that everything will work out. Hope that I’ll live to see another day. And that’s when everything goes wrong.
Chapter 23
Violet
I barely have time to send Cash a private message with Liam’s phone number and our address when I hear several cars pull up outside. I pray that it’s something harmless—like a surprise pizza delivery, courtesy of one of Violet’s vampires—when a beam of the purplish-black light shoots into the room and smashes Hugh’s piano.
The vampire lets out a keening moan that melds with the sound of glass shattering as sun streams in through a giant, gaping hole in the thick velvet drapes.
Aldo lets out an enraged shriek, grabs Violet, and zooms out of the room. Bert follows, and Hugh gives his piano one final, longing look before disappearing after them.
One second, Violet and her vampires are there and the next, they’re gone.
“Oh, Violet... Come out, come out wherever you are,” a voice straight from my nightmares echoes from outside. I almost drop Liam’s phone. Almost.
The phone is our only means of getting help... and I still have a Screech chat open with Cash. I send him a quick SOS and wonder if he’ll even see it. I did log into my account, instead of messaging him as Liam, but he’s the creator of the damn app—he probably gets hundreds of messages a day, if not thousands.
I hand the phone to Liam next, and he quickly calls for backup while the man outside continues his taunting game. “Come out, mousy. Kitty wants to play,” he shouts, and I realize he’s using some sort of amplification spell to be heard inside the house.
“That the asshole who’s been after you?” Liam demands after hanging up with the station.
“It’s Raicus.” I shiver as I picture his face: thin nose, blond hair, and that scar.
Liam takes a menacing step forward.
“Don’t! He’s only after me. He won’t—” I mean to tell Liam that he won’t hesitate to hurt him, but the troll cuts me off.
“No one hurts my mate!” he booms, and I swear the walls shake.
“Oooh, goody. A challenge.” Raicus chuckles. “Come on out, Violet’s mate.”
I suddenly think I’m going to be sick. Now that Raicus knows who Liam is, he’ll use him to get to me. And if Liam goes out there, one shot from that orb and he’s dead.
I have to do something, and fast, so I do the only thing I can. I shift into Aldo and zoom out of the room at vampire speed.
I take the hall Liam and I came in through, throw open the front door, and race down the front steps. The s
un burns my skin, and I hear an enraged Liam charging down the hall behind me, but all I can think about is distracting Raicus.
Then I finally spot him... and realize how badly I’ve miscalculated.
If he’d been alone, or maybe with just one other witch, we could have stood a chance. But I count six of them in all—two leaning against Liam’s squad car, one sitting on the hood, another on the roof, and one standing next to Raicus, who’s leaning casually against the hood of a red sports car.
“Well, that was so much easier than I thought,” he says when I shift back to my own body so my skin stops getting burned by the sun.
“I’m here to surrender,” I tell him. “Promise you won’t harm anyone else, and I’ll go without causing any trouble.”
“No, you won’t!” Liam shouts as he races out of the house and shoves me behind his back. “I won’t let you lay a finger on her!”
“You don’t say?” Raicus casually examines his fingernails. Like a troll and a chameleon don’t pose much of a threat... and honestly? We don’t.
Which is when the mansion’s front door crashes open, and three figures zoom out of the house, clad from head to toe in black. Bert, Aldo, and Hugh.
“You shouldn’t have come back,” I cry. Because now it’s not just Liam I have to worry about. Now Violet will lose all three of her mates before they even have a chance to turn her. Before she could get to know them. Before she could agree to spend eternity with them. Before she could have her happy ending.
“Looks like we have company.” Raicus chuckles. “Shall I wait on anyone else, or are we all here?”
I know he’s trying to goad us, but it works. There’s no way I can protect Liam and Violet’s guys. No one could pull it off, not even Deputy Dragon.
Or maybe...
Before I can talk myself out of it, I shift into Deputy Mayor Drayca Lee... Dragon Style.
“Well, isn’t this an interesting twist,” Raicus’s latest taunt turns into an enraged cry as I take to the sky and spew fire.
The sports car’s upholstery goes up in flames, and Raicus dives out of the way seconds before the car explodes. His minions raise their hands to cast, and I douse them all with fire the best I can, smoking Liam’s poor car instead.