Her host smiled. He looked to be in his late sixties or early seventies. “Young lady, I am a witch and you are in my home. I know thirteen ways to kill you without poisoning the coffee I paid so damn much for.”
Lexi took a sip. She put the mug down and opened her mouth to speak.
“I have a situation I’d like a little help with,” he said before she could say anything.
“I’m here because I need—”
“I know why you’re here. We’re discussing the price.”
She didn’t doubt that he somehow knew exactly why she was there. “I’m happy to pay your price but I’m not shielded right now, and—”
“There are more ways to protect you than a mage’s shield. You have been under my shield since you entered the bar a week ago.”
That startled her and she raised an eyebrow. “You’re remarkably well informed.”
“Louis told me you’d arrive the day before you showed up. Although he didn’t say any more than that.” Mike shifted his gaze briefly to the other man before he returned it to her. “Why did you think I don’t get bothered by Kindred?”
“I don’t know. I assumed you were small-fry.”
Her boss’ jaw dropped. “I thought you wanted my help.”
“I did. Now I want his help.” She nodded at Louis.
Mike shook his head. “Louis, I know you have cream and sugar around here somewhere.”
Lexi scowled. She wanted cream and sugar too.
The old man turned his head to the end of the table. “Heidi, pass the milk and sugar, would you?”
When she turned, she saw a figure seated about three feet from her. “Jesus!” She almost fell out of her chair.
The old woman pushed a sugar bowl and cream jug up the table. She would have bet money, if she’d had any, that neither the woman nor the cream and sugar had been there a moment before.
She thanked her and glanced at her hands with a frown. They looked young but when she looked at her face, the worn, wrinkled skin, teeth missing, hair missing told a contrary tale. Something was wrong.
“This is my granddaughter, Heidi. She’s eighteen.”
Lexi looked at Louis. “What?” She turned and addressed the girl directly. “What happened?”
“A boy. Or, to be precise, another girl who liked the same boy.” Heidi shrugged but it looked like even that was painful.
“Another witch?”
She nodded.
“We both liked him. He asked me out on a date. The next morning, I woke up spitting a tooth out. I had a pile of hair on my pillow, and my hands—”
Lexi looked at her hands and realized that although they appeared young, they were arthritic. She was outraged. “What can I do?”
The two men went to the porch to speak while Heidi gave her the details.
“If you ask Grandpa, he’ll say to kill her. I don’t want that. If you can’t get her to fix me, leave it be. I’m resigned to this now and I don’t want to be the cause of another death.” The girl went on to give her all the information she would need to find the girl. “I’m tired now. Please watch yourself.”
Louis walked them to the car. “I suppose she told you not to kill the girl.”
It didn’t seem like it needed a response so she remained silent.
He continued in a calm tone. “Do your best to stay true to Heidi. But if that devil can’t fix this, rub this on the sword first and don’t clean the blade.” He handed her an oily pouch in a small, clear, plastic bag. “Keep it close to you as it will also shield you until your charm is repaired.”
They had made good time given how late it was and were close to the bar when she looked out. “You can drop me here.” The last thing she wanted was for Mike to see where she lived.
“Your stuff’s still at work, remember?” Lexi had forgotten. She nodded.
He let them into the bar which had long since closed, and she retrieved her bag. When she returned to his office, he held some notes out.
She looked at the money. “That’s twice what we agreed.”
“You might need it. I wouldn’t like this job to go south for want of a few dollars. Heidi’s depending on you.”
With an inward sigh, she took the money, nodded her thanks, and left. She stood in the shadows and waited for his car to pull away. It had taken much longer than usual. She crept to the bar and inched to the back. Quietly, she hopped the fence, took her knife out, and slipped it along the edge of the ground-level window, feeling for the catch. It opened, and she slid into the basement.
Lexi had slept on a pile of collapsed boxes at the bar from the first night she arrived. She crept through the darkness to the corner where the boxes were usually stored but something was different.
A little anxious, she took her cell phone out. It was a cheap burner and had never rung. The only text messages were updates from the service provider, but it had a flash that she used as a flashlight. She flicked the light on. Instead of the pile of boxes, a camp bed had been set up with a sleeping bag, a sandwich, and a couple of cans of coke.
“That sneaky sonofabitch.” With a grin, she climbed into the sleeping bag and lay back to wonder if she might dream of Bryan. She took a glass vial from the lining of her leather vest. When she held it up to the light, she could see it was almost empty. It had been a few weeks since she’d managed to get it from a vamp in a Portland, Oregon, blood den. She pulled the stopper out, placed her finger over the opening, and carefully shook a little of the vampire blood onto her fingertip, then drew it down the middle of her tongue.
The blood coursed through her. The night turned into day, but she no longer worried about her eyes as she’d grown accustomed to the blood. She stoppered the bottle and replaced it in the lining of her vest. With her eyes closed, she tried to find the memories that had been taken away from her over the years through countless Kindred counselings.
Lexi awoke to the smell of breakfast. She rolled the sleeping bag and pulled clean underwear from her bag. For a moment, she considered keeping up the pretense by climbing out of the window and walking into the bar through the front door. Instead, she headed up the stairs and entered through the cellar door.
The bar was still locked but Mike moved around the kitchen. “Good morning. Are bacon and eggs okay?”
“Bacon and eggs are always okay.”
He passed her a coffee and she sat at the bar. “What will you do about the girl?”
She drew her katana and began to sharpen it. “Heidi wants me to give her a chance and not kill her.”
“But you’re Kindred, so…” He made the finger across the throat gesture.
“I don’t do what they tell me to do anymore. I do things my way.” This new life had been a struggle for her since day one. She couldn’t deny the fact that she wanted to kill this girl, though. When the blade was sharp enough, she withdrew the oily pouch, gave it a sniff, and ran it along her blade. She looked up to see Mike staring at her. “Hope for the best, expect the worst.”
“What time do you want to leave?”
“Apparently, there’s a graveyard where she likes to do rituals. If I can catch her on her way home, she should be magically spent. Heidi says nightfall, so that’s good for me.”
“I’d like to drive you there.”
Lexi had expected this. “I’ve worked my route out. There’s a bus that gets me into Chicago for eight pm.”
“Won’t it be easier if I take you? And didn’t Louis say you’d need to go back there? His place isn’t on a bus route.”
It was obvious he wasn’t going to give up. “Okay, thank you.”
She slid her katana into the saya and put it into her British military kit bag. It had proven to be the best length for keeping her katana hidden.
With that out the way, she turned her thoughts to breakfast.
She worked the door for the day, even though it was usually peaceful at the bar in the daytime. At five pm, she told Mike she was going to prepare for the job, headed to the cellar,
and gathered her belongings. She made sure she had everything because she’d already decided she wasn’t coming back. By 5:10 pm, she had pushed the kitbag out of the window and climbed out.
When she turned, she stood face to face with Mike. “Well, this is awkward.”
They walked to his car. She couldn’t see any way out of it. Resigned, she threw her bag on the backseat and climbed into the front. Her boss climbed in and attempted to start the engine, but its response wasn’t inspiring.
“Shit. I’ll borrow Chuck’s truck.” He ran inside.
Lexi turned to where Louis sat in an old-ass car at the side of the road and signaled to her. She scrambled out with her bag and dove into his vehicle, and he peeled away. When she looked back, Mike ran out and flapped his arms. She turned to Louis. “Thank you. I tried to ditch him.”
The old man kept his eyes on the road. “This isn’t his path.”
They reached the entrance to his property and Louis climbed out of his car, leaving the engine running. She walked around, climbed into the driver’s seat, and pulled away.
Next stop Chicago
Her senses alert, Lexi crept through the cemetery. It was easy enough to find the mausoleum she needed by the light and giggling from within.
A conversation between two girls struck up. “Take a bigger piece. Take a whole bone.”
“I don’t want to take more than we need.”
“If you take more, we won’t have to keep coming back to shave bits off.”
“And where will I keep it? What if my mom finds it? Can you imagine? What’s this bone from, Stacy? Oh, it’s only Grandma. She’d freak.”
Peals of laughter came from the girls.
“Besides, I like this part.”
“Can we do the ritual tomorrow night? I have to be home before Mom comes back from work.”
“That’s fine with me. I’m supposed to be with my study group. If I’m any later, Mom will start calling the other moms.”
“Jeez, we’re eighteen now. They need to cut us some slack.”
Lexi had been certain only the two girls were there, but a third spoke. “Has anyone heard how Heidi is doing?”
“No, Marci, because no one gives a shit how Heidi’s doing. She got what she deserved. Okay, that’s enough. Let’s shove her back in. I’ll have to go along the river to get home in time.”
She listened to the sound of the girls heaving something heavy as she crept away toward the river.
Stacy walked between the back of the factories and the river and didn’t see anything until it was too late. Lexi’s fist drove into the side of her head and she landed hard, unconscious. She took a binding ribbon from her pocket—one of the pieces of Kindred equipment she had taken with her—and wound it around the girl’s feet. Her captive didn’t stir as she dragged her away from the path, through a fence she’d already cut a hole into, and dropped her behind a factory wall. She sat on the ground cross-legged with her katana sheathed across her knees and waited for Stacy to wake up.
She began to wonder if she’d done the girl a permanent injury when she stirred briefly. Her quarry lay motionless and pretended to still be unconscious, but she knew she was awake.
“Here’s the thing. I’ve been sent to ask you nicely to remove the hex from Heidi. So, I’m asking you nicely.”
Stacy lay still.
“I know you’re awake. I’ve fulfilled Heidi’s request to be nice. Everything else from here on in is my choice. How attached are you to your toes?”
The girl opened her eyes. Her hand darted out. “Agonia…” She was immediately outraged. “You bound my magic, you bitch.” She scrabbled at the ribbon and yanked her hand away with a scream. A searing burn had appeared on her fingers.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Let’s get back to Heidi. You need to remove the hex.”
“All this over that silly piece of trash?”
Lexi backhanded her across the mouth.
“Her hair will grow back.”
“Grow back? Do you honestly not know what you’ve done? I’d say she’s very close to death.”
“No, her hair was only supposed to fall out, that’s all.”
“She looks about a hundred years old.”
A giggle bubbled from Stacy’s throat, and Lexi’s expression settled into cold anger.
The girl seemed to sense another slap on its way and she held her arm up. “I didn’t mean that to happen. I don’t think I can remove it.”
She rested her hand on the handle of the katana. “You think you can’t or you know you can’t?”
Stacy stared at the katana. “I think… I-I don’t know.”
Lexi could see in her face that the girl thought she wouldn’t be able to undo the spell. She was fairly certain the witch had known exactly what she had done but she had promised Heidi she’d try to let her live. That might be a difficult promise to keep, though. Every moment she spent with her convinced her more that Stacy’s life should be ended then and there.
“I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you a few minutes to think about it. When I come back, I want you to have found a positive response. Perhaps your grandma could help.” She stood and walked to the edge of the factory building.
When she heard the girl shuffle, she sensed something was coming. Instinctively, she dived to the right when a sudden blur struck her and tried to pull her in the opposite direction. It swung her and put itself between her and the witch and only then did she realize it was a vampire. The hex pouch Stacy had thrown hit him and a cloud of…something spread over him.
He froze for a moment and she unsheathed her katana but paused as her brain caught up.
This idiot was trying to save me.
“What the fuck is on my jacket?” He spun wildly, trying to see his own back. She almost giggled. He looked like a dog chasing its tail.
Lexi looked at her katana and the strange oil on the blade. She decided the vamp could wait. After all, she had a job to do.
“Whatever it is was probably intended to kill me. Since you’re already dead, I’d say you’re lucky.”
Calmly, she walked to the witch.
“Wait, I think I can remove the hex—”
She swept the blade in a brutal arc and Stacy’s head sailed into the darkness.
“Is that mouse droppings? This is a three-thousand-dollar Gucci suit.” The vamp looked apoplectic with rage. “I’m going to—” He stormed to the witch but noticed belatedly that her head was elsewhere. “Oh. Well, good.”
Lexi looked at the body and tried to decide the best way to get it to the river.
“Allow me.” The vampire picked the corpse up easily by the waistband of the jeans and stepped through the hole in the fence. She heard a loud splash as he threw it into the river. The head was easily located and she held it by the hair, threw it from where she stood, and was rewarded by the sound of a smaller splash.
“She shoots, she scores.” The vampire stepped through the fence. He smiled and stuck his hand out as though they were meeting at a cocktail party. “William Levin. Dashing vampire, private investigation, and corpse removal. The first one’s free.”
She raised an eyebrow and shook his hand. “Lexi. Freelance exterminator, apparently.”
“Oh, goodness. I know who you are. I’ve been asked to find you.”
Lexi scowled.
“Let’s get a drink. A toast to my dearly departed jacket.” He held the garment at arms’ length.
“Can I get a raincheck? I’ve had kind of a busy night.”
His face became serious. “I think we need to talk.”
“Come on then, Dick,” she agreed with a sigh.
“That was uncalled for,” the vampire muttered.
They walked through the cemetery. Her car was blocked in by his and she stared at him.
“What? I didn’t know if you’d put up a fight.” He opened the trunk and threw the jacket into what looked like a body bag, then zipped it decisively. With another sigh, she climbed i
nto the passenger seat.
The server placed their drinks on the table—coffee for Lexi and an obscenely large bourbon for the vamp, who she had decided to call Dick. The waitress was very pretty. She smiled at the vampire and batted her eyelashes but he didn’t notice.
“I’m sure you’ve guessed that I was hired by Kindred to find you. But I must admit, I’m terribly curious to know why you absconded. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
Lexi poured sugar into her coffee and stirred, thinking as she did so. “I assume you’ve already contacted them.”
“No. Why would you think that? Like I said, I’m curious.”
She couldn’t work the guy out. “So, I could get up and leave right now.”
“You could. I was asked to find you and I did that. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve done my part.”
“If they get here and I’m gone, I can guarantee they won’t pay you.”
Dick pulled the white ribbon from his pocket. “Proof.”
“Actually, I kinda need that,” she said and rolled her eyes.
He wound it neatly around his fingers and placed it in front of her.
She looked at it, then at him. The vampire was as confusing as hell.
Lexi leaned back and folded her arms. “So, what’s your angle?”
“Call it an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.” His topaz eyes glittered.
Despite her reservations, she began to talk. She told him about the vamp blood, about Bryan, and finally, about Bobby.
He nodded when she finished speaking. “Welcome to the world beyond Kindred, where we’ve all learned the hard way that your former employers are the bullyboys of the supernatural world.”
She looked away.
“I like you, Lexi Braxton,” he continued. “Of course, I’d like you more if you stopped calling me a dick.”
“I’m not calling you a dick.” She smirked. “I’ve merely decided your name’s Dick.”
“That makes absolutely no sense.” He shook his head. “Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll drop you at that dreadful car and I’ll tell your former employers that I couldn’t find you.”
The Fugitive Legacy Page 3