“Shh, none of that,” Lawrence said as Thomas doubled over. “Here, just drink, kid. Drink.”
Thomas did as he was told, the excess liquid dribbling down the sides of his mouth and onto his chin as he guzzled.
As he drained the last drop, Thomas could feel the healing accelerate. He closed his eyes, his consciousness slipping again. Julia held his unstaked hand; her grip was tight. Warm. Thomas squeezed back, but his fingers’ strength seemed weak. He squeezed tighter and slipped into oblivion.
When he awoke, he felt almost better. Almost.
His chest, though the skin was uninterrupted and unblemished once again, ached with a duller version of the fire that had burned his veins earlier. It wasn’t healing. At least, not fully.
Thomas winced as he shifted in the bed.
Now that he wasn’t on the verge of fainting again, he was able to look around at the inhabitants of the room.
All three of the Foxes were present. Lawrence and Julia hovered near the bedside. Sara stood near the back, her hand over her mouth. Her eyes were oddly bright.
“There was nothing I could do. I tried to stop him,” Thomas whispered.
“Kid, there are two things you never need to feel sorry over. Bein’ who you are and what others are,” Lawrence said firmly, looking him square in the eye. “Why’re you apologizin’ for what that bastard did to you? That big palooka blindsided you, didn’t he? Then kicked you when you were down and stabbed you. That’s his style. He could never stand a fair fight, school yard rules, even when he was human.”
“He killed—” Thomas couldn’t say Gary’s name. It was too fresh. “He killed him. Right in front of me. There was nothing I could do.” He felt tears threaten.
Julia crawled onto the bed. She pulled Thomas into her arms, hugging him with the fierce strength he’d come to know in his own body since he was turned. Thomas winced slightly, and Julia relaxed her grip but didn’t let go.
“It’s not unheard of for Ernest’s goons to kill, I mean there is a reason the whole town thinks there is a serial killer on the loose. He chose someone close on purpose; he wanted to send a message,” Sara said grimly, speaking for the first time. She wore a deep scowl and was glaring at the floor with enough fire to burn right through the carpet.
“Ernest just asked for war, kid. He openly attacked you and a friend of yours on neutral ground to threaten us. Sara and I have worked hard to keep this city peaceful for folks like us, but we both know that sometimes a bad dog needs to be put down,” Lawrence said. He reached over his daughter’s shoulders and tousled Thomas’ hair. “He’s a fool if he thinks we’ll take this lying down.”
Thomas shook his head, “No, you can’t. You can’t fight him.”
Julia pulled away, her features fierce. Her fangs were slowly extending until they reached her bottom lip.
“Can’t?” she snarled. “Ernest attacked you, Thomas.” Julia paused, breathing hard. “We will destroy him for this.”
“He said that every day we stay in this city, humans and vampires will die,” Thomas pleaded, but no one listened. His heart was racing in his distress, causing an outpouring of fiery pain to surge through his chest.
When Lawrence spoke, his voice was so cold that for the briefest of moments, Thomas was more afraid of him than he was of Ernest.
“Get some sleep, Thomas, and recover your strength. You’re gonna to need it, kid. War is hell, and Ernest fancies himself the devil. It’ll take each and every one of us to prove that bastard wrong.”
9 Taking up Arms
“Pick up, pick up, pick up.”
Thomas had been reciting this particular mantra ever since the Foxes had left the room. His voice was nearly hoarse, and his ear throbbed from how hard he was pressing his phone against it.
Each passing second felt surreal, like he wasn’t part of a growing turf war—his attack and Gary’s death were only part of some play or movie he’d been sucked into. Then the sight of Ernest’s cold smile would flash through his mind, and his chest would ache where the maniac had driven the hawthorn stake through his body. He needed to accept the harsh reality of what had happened.
Thomas finished firing off a slew of text messages and calls to all of his friends, demanding them to meet at Artemis’ place. Everyone agreed to go immediately.
Everyone but Sean.
Distracted from trying to contact Sean, Thomas forgot about the threshold magic on Artemis’ apartment and slammed into the door hard enough to nearly shake the entire building.
“Thomas, is that you?” Artemis’ voice cracked from inside.
“Yes! Let me in, quick,” Thomas shouted, tucking his phone into his pocket.
The door swung open, revealing an exhausted Artemis.
“Yeah, come in,” Artemis said, stifling a small yawn.
It was only then he realized how late it was. Penny and Nelson drooped over at the table, Penny looking equally tired but also concerned, whereas Nelson fumed as he rubbed his eyes.
Thomas reached out, grabbing Artemis by the shoulders. “Where’s Sean?”
Sheer panic rattled in his voice. Both Penny and Nelson jumped in their seats.
“I—I don’t know. His phone keeps going straight to voicemail,” Artemis said, not quite shrinking back from him, but her nervous fidgeting alarmed Thomas.
Realizing how intense he must have looked, Thomas released Artemis and took a step back, feeling guilty. He needed an outlet to release his own mixed emotions. He stomped into the main area of the apartment and began to pace. His chest burned with each frustrated breath.
“Did anyone try his apartment?”
Penny shook her head. “The lights were off when I drove by.”
Cursing under his breath, Thomas continued to pace. “No one knows where he is?”
Shutting the door, Artemis returned to the table. She shot Penny a look, which Penny returned with a shrug. Swallowing, Artemis turned back to Thomas.
“Thomas, what happened?” she asked, her heart racing. “Has something happened to my brother?”
Stopping, Thomas spun and read Artemis.
Fear and worry clouded her eyes. Her face was gaunt, and her heart rate skipped faster while she waited for his answer.
Guilt churned his stomach.
This was his fault. They were all in danger because they’d been dragged into this bizarre world of vampires, werewolves, and curses, and it was all thanks to him. As he learned to control his monstrous appetites, he damned his friends to horrendous nightmares from their own concern for him.
“I don’t know. I hope not.” He dropped his hands in defeat.
Nelson slammed his hand on the table in frustration, tiredness evaporating into fear. “What the hell, man? You call us like the world is going to end, and all you give us is ‘I don’t know’?”
“Simmer down, Nelson. Can’t you see he’s upset?” Penny snapped sharply. “Keep that mouth of yours shut until he can explain what he knows.”
“Tom,” Artemis said, over her friends’ bickering, “What’s going on? Why are you so worried about Sean?”
Thomas opened his mouth to reply but froze when his heightened hearing heard a soft noise outside the window well.
It sounded like footsteps passing the small window.
Had he been followed?
Thomas cursed himself for being stupid. He could have led the enemy right to his friends.
His lips peeled back into a snarl and Artemis, Nelson, and Penny gasped as they saw Thomas’ fangs extend while his hands curled into fists.
The door swung open.
“Heya, gang. Who has two thumbs and just spent a fantastic night with the hottest bookworm there is?” Sean said as he stepped inside. “This guy—”
Thomas moved like a blur, materializing in front of his best friend and grabbing him by the front of the shirt. With almost no effort, Thomas hoisted a startled Sean several inches off the ground.
“Where were you? Why didn’t you answer your phon
e?” Thomas demanded, his voice a guttural growl.
Sean’s jaw dropped as he stared down at his friend.
“Thomas,” Artemis cried.
The frantic racing of every single heart in the room cut through the stunned silence, and Thomas felt disgusted with himself. He’d let his anger and fear take control.
Thomas set Sean down and cradled his face in his hands. His chest burned with fire from extending his arms with Sean’s weight. He took a few ragged breaths, trying to calm himself and blink away the pain and rage boiling through him. Slowly, his fangs retracted into his gums.
“Dude,” Sean said, the slightest tremble in his voice. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
After several breaths to steady himself, Thomas looked up at all of his friends. They’d be happier in ignorance—he knew that. But it was too late; they expected answers now, and he couldn’t stop himself from relaying the horror he’d recently been through.
“Ernest attacked me and Gary in an alley,” Thomas explained. He looked up at his friends, and they stared back with haunted expressions. “Gary’s dead.”
◆◆◆
Artemis kept her hand atop the hand-carved wooden box, refusing to move it. Thomas glared at the box, his heart pounding in his dry throat and his palms sweating. Panic clouded his mind as the urge to knock the box away and run grew.
“I still think this is a bad idea,” she whispered.
“I think Thomas knows better than any of us right now,” Penny replied, a steely edge to her voice. “Maybe we should try listening to what he says.”
“Are you all stupid?” Sean yelled. “We need to call the cops. Hell, you should’ve done it hours ago.”
“And tell them what?” Nelson asked with acidic sarcasm. “That our friend’s ex-coworker was murdered by a vampire?”
“I think the part about him being murdered will be enough.” Sean said icily.
Penny sighed. "If we file a report, it’ll bring a lot of attention to us. We can’t predict how Ernest’s crew would react. If this is a turf war between vampires, we have to trust our vampire.”
There was a lull in conversation, filled with heavy breathing and pounding hearts. Thomas listened, unable to look away from the wooden box.
“Right, Thomas? This is a good idea, isn’t it?”
Swallowing, Thomas finally managed to rip his gaze from the wooden box and regard his friends around the table.
“It’s better to be safe than sorry,” Thomas said at last, his gaze returning to the box. “If anything happened to you. . . . Anyway, you should stay behind thresholds as much as possible and carry protection. Just to be safe.”
“We don’t even know if any of this will work,” Sean protested, exhausted and terrified all at once, “I’d be more comfortable with a gun. Or at least pepper spray.”
“No, this should work,” Artemis said, giving Sean an annoyed glance. “The community I am a part of is nothing if not prepared. This is the best way.”
“Besides,” Thomas said, reaching down and beginning to roll up his sleeves to reveal his pale skin, “There’s an easy way to test if it works. Open the box.”
Artemis hesitated.
“Please,” Thomas said, meeting her eyes. “It’ll hurt, but it could save your lives.”
Pausing to glance around the table, Artemis finally sighed and pulled back the box’s lid.
Resting neatly inside the box was an odd collection of religious memorabilia Artemis had collected over the years, some of which had inspired her more profitable art projects.
Thomas’ skin began to itch.
Carefully, Artemis began to divide the contents of the box among Penny, Nelson, Sean, and herself. There were crosses of various designs, ranging from golden ones favored by Roman Catholics to Celtic crosses made from old driftwood. Penny picked a necklace for herself and Nelson and Sean each got a small vial of blessed water for their key chains.
Artemis herself took an ivory Liturgical comb and a brooch made from a font that had supposedly come from the Vatican.
Thomas didn’t know whether or not the brooch was holy, but when he touched it, his fingertip split open, drawing a cry of alarm from his lips.
The pain was excruciating, the same as when he’d touched the doors of the church.
“Oh my God, Thomas. Are you okay?” Artemis cried, reaching out to inspect the wound.
Waving her off, Thomas stared at his injured finger, watching it begin the slow, painful healing process. The blood he’d drunken earlier was still in his system, though hindered by the hawthorn in his chest. Despite the pain, he grinned.
“I’m fine,” he said, looking up at his friends. “And if this stuff will do this to me, I know it will against other vampires, too.”
“This is ridiculous,” Nelson groaned, planting his face in his hands. “I can’t believe we’re part of a vampire turf war.”
“You might not be,” Thomas said, trying to reassure himself as much as the others. “The point is I don’t know. Ernest said humans and vampires would die every day we don’t leave. I want to make sure none of you end up in the body count.”
Thomas’ words settled heavily on the group. They fidgeted in their seats, avoiding each other’s eyes.
It was finally Sean who broke the tension.
“And I was worried that asking Clara out for a second date was going to be the hardest thing I did this week,” Sean said with an exaggerated sigh. “Guess that’s going to be a cakewalk after being involved in a vampire war, eh?”
Artemis giggled nervously. Penny rolled her eyes. Even Nelson and Thomas managed to crack smiles. Leave it to Sean to lighten the mood.
“I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that. I’d be perfectly content if this whole thing gets sorted out in a few days,” Thomas admitted. “In fact, if you guys stay behind the threshold and lay low for a few days, I think it’ll all work out. These are all just precautions, remember.”
Before he could continue, Thomas’ phone vibrated.
Pulling it from his pocket, he let out a sigh of relief when he saw it was a text from Julia, but the feeling didn’t last long. His heart sank into the pit of his stomach when he read her message.
Meet me at the bar ASAP! BE CAREFUL!
“Gotta go. Just for some precautions,” Thomas said.
No one at the table looked convinced. Thomas didn’t blame them. After trying and failing to think of something comforting to say, he left them at Artemis’ and headed to the Red Lightning Pub. He tried not to wince as he realized he’d only visited his friends long enough to bring bad news and had left at the first sign of Julia. Nothing could be done about that now.
◆◆◆
Thomas embraced Julia underneath the dingy canopy in front of the Red Lightning Pub. Her touch brought with it a mixture of emotions he wasn’t sure how to interpret. He was relieved nothing had happened while he was away, apprehensive about why she’d called him, and corroded with fear and guilt for what might happen to his friends.
If the way Julia returned his fierce embrace was any indication, she was as anxious as he was.
Thomas wasn’t sure whether that reassured him or not.
“Where did you go? I was terrified,” Julia said finally, pulling away from him. “Mom and Lawrence have been running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Everyone is on edge. They needed my help, but I was worried about you. And Lawrence told you to rest.”
Her fingers ran up his arm to his chest, and he winced at her gentle touch.
If Lawrence was right, there were slivers inside his flesh that would prevent it from healing completely. It would take a long time for the wound to stop bothering him. In the meantime, it sapped his energy. He got tired quicker than usual. Now that he knew his friends were safe, his adrenaline was fading fast, leaving him unsteady and shaking.
“I swear to God, I will send that man to hell myself if I get the chance,” Julia whispered, her fist clenching over Thomas’ chest. “If Lawrence�
��d just—”
“I’m okay. You and Lawrence know what you’re doing. It’ll be okay.” He smiled as he said this, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt. “After the mess I’ve been through, sorting through this should be easy, right?”
Laughing nervously and shaking her head, Julia stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek.
“It looks like things have gotten complicated, doesn’t it? And complicated with vampires is about a hundred times more complicated than it is with humans.” She turned toward the door, taking Thomas’ hand and pulling him along behind her. “I hope you’re ready for the fight of a lifetime.”
Thomas exhaled as he saw how many vampires crowded into the pub. It was fuller than he’d ever seen it, despite not a single drink being served. He spotted several of the regulars, such as Vivian and Charles and a handful of others, but the majority of the faces in the crowd were strangers to him. They must have numbered in the dozens. Had there always been so many human-friendly vampires in the city?
These were the ones who were willing to fight for their humanity. The ones who didn’t use their supernatural powers to harm humans like Ernest and his crew did. And for this many human-friendly vampires to be nervous, there had to be a lot more of Ernest’s crew than were in this room.
Leading him to a table, Julia took a seat and bid him to do the same. Thomas did so silently. The heavy atmosphere discouraged the slightest sound. Some of the gathered vampires were stock-still, their figures taut. Thomas thought of snakes, coiled and ready to strike. Vivian was one of these, looking calm but determined.
Her partner, Charles, did not share her calm and was wrapped in an aura of hostility. His shoulders and jaw were tense and his eyes searching for weakness among the vampires. Thomas looked away when he met his gaze, disconcerted at Charles’ fully extended fangs.
Expecting to see Lawrence running the show, Thomas was surprised when Sara stepped from the crowd. She stood with her back toward the bar counter, regarding her fellow vampires with a cool glance. Dressed in a slim pantsuit, Sara looked as regal as any queen in her royal court. When she straightened up, so did several vampires in the crowd, including Thomas. He realized why she was in charge—her influence was powerful enough to make people subconsciously emulate her.
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