“Hey, you’re immortal. You’ll figure it out along the way. And right now, I think just being here is enough. I’m sure Delilah appreciates it.” Red wanted to pull him back into her arms and tell him that it would all be okay, but they would both know it was a lie.
“I’ve seen her drink from a heart, but I’ve never seen her cry before. She’s the original iron fist in a velvet glove. I never thought it would be the two of us left together in the end. If we had the time and the wine, I’d tell you how hilarious that is.” A ghost of his usual impish smile rose on his face. He reached out with gentle fingers before pausing. Concern flattened his lips. Lucas glanced behind him, forehead puckered. “Did we wake you?”
Delilah stepped into the room, long blond hair in unkempt waves, arms crossed over a crinkled designer black dress that looked like she had been wearing it since the wake. Thick eyelashes framed a numb gaze. Dried streaks of reddish tears covered her cheeks. The clouded grief cleared to clarity as she walked up to Red. Nose wrinkling, she narrowed her bloodshot blue eyes.
Red held her breath, chest panging to see the vampiress like this. She shared a worried look with Lucas.
“I know why my boy did it even if I hate it. You’re lucky I don’t hate you for it.” Shoulders trembling, Delilah shook her head and disappeared back into the gloom of the private office. Her shuffling steps retreated into the basement apartment where the specter of her lover hung in every corner.
“Delilah…” Lucas sighed, tugging at his hair. The messy locks escaped through his fingers. He smoothed it back, fidgeting. His eyes darted between Red and the door.
“She needs you right now.” Red nodded and shifted in her sneakers. “Are you going to stick around LA after she gets on her feet? Or…” She looked away, flush rushing up her neck. “None of my business. I, um, well…” She stuttered, jerking her thumb toward the exit. “I should go.”
“I’m not dodging off, Red. Not anymore.” Lucas stepped to her, kissing her on the cheek. Smiling sadly, he backed away with his hands in his pockets. “I’ll be here when you get back.”
Red touched her cheek. The ache in her heart didn’t feel metaphorical. Her lungs seized, trapping the goodbye. All she could do was nod. Feet dragging, she walked to the exit. She paused at the threshold, but he was already gone.
With one last look, she closed the door of Quinn Investigations and left the building where she had made some of the best memories that she could remember. She rubbed her arms as she entered the chill of the winter night. The Millennium Falcon waited for her. She slipped into it, feeling that warmth of home, soothing her even as her heart felt like it was cracking. Backing out of the parking lot, she had the wild urge to just keep driving out of Culver City and hit the highway north to find that mysterious diner in Oregon.
Her vibrating phone broke her musings. Cora’s name popped up on the screen. I found Basil Bansko. He’s just fine. Come to headquarters to pick him up.
Red turned south at the next intersection. Pulse kicking up, she forced herself to sit through the stop and go traffic on the way to Moon Enterprises. Basil had been revealed as a soulmancer to the Blood Alliance, and he had committed the crime of soul cursing vampires. If he didn’t already have a target on his back, he would soon.
Speed walking into the building, Red nearly barreled into a woman in khakis and a white peacoat. “Sorry!” She did a double take, squinting. “Aisha?” She had never seen Detective Callaway smiling so widely. She wasn’t even in a sternly tailored pant suit with a badge on her lapel. “You’re glowing!”
Aisha laughed, brown eyes crinkling. “I got a good reason. I was just laid off with a severance check I can buy a house with.”
Red grinned. Aisha might have started working for the supreme and her vampires out of some desire to limit their damage, but the job of being a double agent inside the LAPD had weighed on her. This was some of the best news she had heard in weeks. What had gotten into Cora while Red had been sleeping? The supreme had released one of her most valuable human assets. A shred of hope rose in Red. “Couldn’t have happened to a better person.”
“I found a little town that needs a sheriff. I’m getting the hell out of this city. See what the country life is all about.” Callaway put out her hand. “Good luck, Red.”
“Be safe out there.” Red shook the detective’s hand before heading to the elevator, passing the murals in the Moon Enterprises lobby.
The front desk clerk waved her along with a distracted glance.
Red stepped into the elevator, pressing her thumb to the scanner. The latest hit by Mr. Hyde serenaded her on the ride up to the penthouse. “…primitive duality of man. Radically both. I let my brother go to the devil in his own way.”
The rapper had been one of Nevaeh Morgan’s victims. Seeing the lengths the dark witch had gone to hurt him and her other enemies… It had more than sickened Red. It had made her doubt herself. She’d held the other witch as a dire warning about magic and pushed her own talents aside. How much of a difference would it have made against the Dague if she had learned to use her gifts? Who would be alive today? Red shoved aside her internal critic as she stepped into the retro-looking hallway and walked to an open door at the end.
“There’s my girl.” Cora waved her in from a squat white velvet couch. Casual in black leggings and a tank top, she looked like she was fresh from the yoga studio. “Chica, you got here earlier than I thought. Basil was still tormenting my personal shopper under the guise of packing when I last checked, but he should be done soon.” She gestured to the cushion beside her. “Sit.”
“Where did you find Basil?” Red asked as she sat.
“Half conscious at a motel with DVA agents at the door. I put some pressure on to get him free. An informant at the mage hospital revealed him to the Blood Alliance. It’s how Hilde found him. I made sure to erase that record.” Cora smiled. “I’d like to see him somewhere safe. It’ll be a favor, but the last one.”
Red arched her brow, holding her breath in hope.
“The tribunal’s verdict was thrown out too. You’re a free woman, Red. I release you from any bonds. You can leave LA.” Cora cocked her head to the side. “Maybe go on vacation? Self-care is so important.”
Hand on her heart, Red grinned. Her chest expanded with relief. “Thank you. I have some ideas.” A chuckle escaped her throat as she leaned back against the couch. “It sounds like you’ve gotten your clout back.”
Forehead creasing, Cora nodded, lifting a shoulder feebly. “After bringing down Higbee, no one thinks I am weak now. I crushed her followers and helped install souled vampires as supremes in both Utah and Oklahoma. I didn’t just secure my city. I redrew the map of power in the west.”
“You sound enthusiastic.” Red commented sarcastically. She didn’t get it. The supreme master of Los Angeles had won. Her tottering throne had been nailed back into place.
“I manifested what I wanted, but I don’t like how I got it.” Cora bobbed her afro, eyes closing briefly as she lowered her face. “You said you were paranoid about me, thought you were projecting. Your gut wasn’t lying to you.” Cora lifted her head, guilt thinning her lips. “I fought to be supreme because I wanted to be a different kind of ruler. These last few months made me realize that I failed. Sure, I don’t kill innocents, I do good deeds, but the things that I have done to save face or maintain my rule… Justified or not, I’ve been using people as pawns. Joe, Aisha, and even you….”
“You were a little pushy in asking for help, admittedly, but your check had just hit my bank account and the world was in peril, so…” Red lifted her hands, miming a balancing scale. “I’m cool with it.”
“I’m not.” Cora stood, walking to the wide windows, face tilted down toward the streets below the skyscraper. The lights of Los Angeles silhouetted her slender form. “I have to confess something. You were right to be suspicious of me.”
Pin-pricks dancing on her arms, Red shifted in her seat, bracing herself.
&
nbsp; “When I sent you to the Pandora Hotel to do recon, I did it because I knew Kristoff would be there. He wanted to see you. I know him, he’s solid, but I still put a vulnerable human in the path of an infatuated vampire. I wasn’t thinking of your safety, I was thinking about how I needed his connections. I was moving chess pieces.” Cora looked over her shoulder at Red, the city’s glow dappled across her delicate features. “That’s not who I want to be.”
Stomach hardening, Red wrapped her arms around herself. “What else did he ask you to do to get closer to me?”
“Nothing.” Cora shook her head. “He’s crushing on you hard, girl. I wanted to use that as leverage to keep him on my side. Told myself that I was just steering you toward a vamp without commitment issues. A manipulation for the greater good, I thought.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I want you to trust your gut. You weren’t wrong in being suspicious of my motives.” Cora faced Red; a fervor grew in her voice. “You’ve got good instincts, chica, keep using them.”
“I will.” Red nodded.
A faint smile grew on Cora’s full lips. “Basil should be ready in the lobby now. He needs to leave Los Angeles tonight. I don’t want to know where.” She turned to gaze over the penthouse view of her domain. “Thanks again, Red.”
Red stood, saying a quick goodbye, and left on unsteady legs like a dog uncertain off its leash. She barely remembered stepping into the elevator; the next thing she knew, she was walking out. Scanning the lobby, she snorted when she saw the thin man in the dark wig and lime green suit decorated with palm fronds. That was definitely a Basil Bansko outfit.
Basil jerked a quick wave at her, then lifted a large rolling suitcase. He tapped his foot.
Jogging over to him, she eyed the silver streaking his wig. “You look so distinguished. Did Cora take you on a shopping spree?”
“Har-dee-har.” Basil lifted his nose up as he stalked out the double doors. “Get me the devil out of here.”
Red led him to the Millennium Falcon, keeping an eye over her shoulder as he tossed his bag into the back. The footage from the Genesis Machine must have been destroyed, but too many local vampires had seen him. Hyperawareness honed her focus. She started the van and sped into the street, double-checking the mirrors for tails.
Basil shifted the front seat, scratching his wig. Dark circles lingered under his blue eyes. Digging his nails into the door handle, he peered at every passing shadow.
Letting the soulmancer get his bearings, she drove in silence. At a red light, she texted Vic to grab their go bags and be ready to take Basil to a safehouse. She flipped idly through radio stations after they hit the highway toward her apartment. It was an abrupt order, upending her routine in LA. She should be irritated. She had movies to watch and scarves to knit in her quest to craft a real life. And yet a trill of freedom sang in her heart at the idea of hitting the road again.
The danger pressed on her as they passed familiar billboards and shops. Basil had to leave tonight. The only question was where. The best she could come up with was Stan, a hunter in Colorado with a zombie-proof weed farm. Red glanced at Basil out of the corner of her eye.
He rested his elbow on the door, chin on his knuckles. Tense shoulders bunched underneath his loud green suit. His reflection looked thin and wan in the window.
“You’re concerned. Just say it already,” he said.
“Obviously, but you’ll have me and Vic with you. We’ll drive you to… um, do you have a direction in mind?” Red quirked an eyebrow at him, then merged into traffic to turn onto an exit ramp. “I have some ideas, but you’ll have to be open-minded. At least about Stan.”
“I know how to hide. I’ve been doing it since I was twenty-one. Changing names, changing cities. It’s all I know.” Basil sighed, pushing his dark wig back, revealing a beige skull cap. He ripped it off, flicking it roughly on the wig in his lap. “I’m tired, Red. Henry Constantine killed the first vampire who found me out. He told me to run. In eighteen years, I never stopped.” He glanced at her.
“We’ll keep you safe.” Sympathy tightening her throat, Red turned onto her apartment complex’s street.
His eyes glittered with unshed tears. “I don’t want to stop being Basil. It’s more than the British accent. I like who I am. Running means giving this life up.”
“There has to be somewhere you can go.”
“There could be, but it depends on if they have a use for a notorious soulmancer. And if I want to see my old boyfriend…” Basil sniffed, smoothing over his mussed hair. “Bother, they might make me teach.”
“Care to share with the rest of the class? Because I’m not following you.”
“There’s a magical academy where I could find sanctuary. You might find it interesting.” Basil smiled at her, a sly twinkle brightening his tired eyes. “I can sense I’m not the only one who’s tired of running from themselves.”
“I can’t fool a soulmancer.” She wet her lips. It wasn’t an easy topic. Father Matthew had told her that her true path was the one she had been resisting. She had to finally trust herself to walk the line. “Magic is inside me. Its who I am. I gotta start making friends with it.” Red pulled up to the curb in front of their apartment building. The headlamps illuminated Vic waiting on the sidewalk with two duffle bags in his hands. She put the van into Park, leaning her elbow on the steering wheel. “So, where is this academy?”
“You’re going love it!” Chucking, Basil stuck his head out the window and bellowed to Vic. “Get in, we’re going to Vegas!”
The Red Witch Chronicles Continues in Witch on the Run.
Go here to order a copy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083SQL7M9
About the Author
Sami Valentine is an urban fantasy writer who grew up in the desert and now wanders in search of wifi and coffee.
Formerly a mild-mannered librarian, she had a quarter-life crisis and shook everything up. She started working in an LGBT homeless center, shaved some of her head, and got really into tarot. After realizing that her goal in life was to get out of her small town and she only made it 30 minutes up the highway, she filled a bag and left. That was two years and a dozen countries ago. Find out more at samivalentine.com
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