“Why?”
“I already told you, I like you. If you want more, I like your ethics, I don’t like Kindred, and finally, they don’t pay very well.”
Lexi leaned forward. “That’s very decent of you. Can I ask—how did you find me?”
Dick tapped the side of his nose. “Tip-off.”
She realized that not returning to Mike’s bar was the best decision she’d made all day. Still, she was disappointed. He’d seemed okay.
True to his word, the vampire dropped her at Louis’ car.
As she stowed her bag, his window slid down. “Good luck, Lexi Braxton.” He sniffed. “I can still smell that hex pouch.”
Lexi smirked. “It’s all over the back of your trousers too.”
“What? Motherfucker. It’s a shame we can’t stick her head on and kill her all over again.”
She laughed. “If I ever learn that particular skill, you’ll be the first to know.”
Dick drove away. She waited for a few minutes and started the drive to Louis.
Reluctantly, she retrieved her sheathed katana and walked to the house. Louis opened the door and let her in and she found Heidi at the kitchen table with a deck of tarot cards. Lexi was sure she looked even older.
The girl looked up to see the weapon in her hand and sighed.
She shrugged. “I tried.”
Heidi nodded.
The old man signaled for the katana and she held it out to him. He took it to the kitchen counter and wiped it with what looked like an eraser. The blood and oil dripped into a bowl.
The other girl turned a card. “You are at a crossroad.” She turned another. “You can return to Peoria. You will be safe and your life will be uneventful.”
After a moment, she turned the third card. “If you choose anything else, you will find answers to the questions you have never spoken.”
Was I stolen, like Bobby? Where is my real family?
Lexi had already decided she wouldn’t return to Mike. “I guess it’s door number two.”
Heidi nodded as though she had known what the answer would be.
Louis returned the katana and saya to her. “We kept dinner for you and made up the spare room if you’d honor us by staying.”
It was after one am and she was tired. She thanked them and went to wash up before eating.
Lexi woke in the dark and the clock beside the bed told her it was 3:30 am. An orange light flickered outside the window. She climbed out of bed and hurried to the window. A group of people with torches stood in a circle around a stone altar and when she squinted, she saw Heidi lying on it. She hoped they’d be able to reverse the hex and continued to watch as the people stepped forward as one and lowered their torches to the altar.
In an instant, the girl was aflame.
Appalled, she raced through the house and out onto the porch, running at full tilt toward the fire. She drew to halt, pushed back by the heat.
Louis put an arm around her.
She rounded on him. “What did you do?”
He looked into the flames. “It was necessary. We had hoped the witch responsible could reverse it, but this was our last resort. It doesn’t always work and requires great preparation and considerable magic.” He smiled, his gaze still focused on his burning granddaughter.
His attitude seemed unnatural and she spun and gaped when she noticed movement in the flames. Heidi swung her legs over the side of the altar and stood. The blaze died down to reveal a black crust. The girl took a few steps and it crumbled away from what seemed to be young skin.
Her jaw slack, she stared as the coven stepped closer to break the black shell around the girl. She suddenly felt that she was intruding on something private, turned without another word, and walked into the house. Although she returned to bed, it took a while to fall asleep.
Having showered and made the bed, Lexi walked through to the kitchen. A pretty young woman flipped eggs in a frying pan.
“Heidi?” She wasn’t sure.
The girl turned and nodded. She pushed the pan off the heat, crossed to her, and hugged her. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome.” She hadn’t had such a good feeling since she rescued Bobby. Remembering the boy made her sad for a moment.
Louis entered the room and held the little chain out. “I used the same chain. It felt connected to you.”
Lexi took the chain and examined it. The clasp had been repaired and a tiny pentacle now dangled from it, the source of the new magical shield. “Thank you.”
He looked at a clock on the kitchen wall. “Mike will be here around ten am.”
She nodded as she put the chain on and instantly felt safer. She had liked Mike and thought he liked her. That made it hard to understand why he would have told the vampire where she was. Still, he’d helped her and it was best to simply get out of town. “I’ll be gone before then. Could I trouble you for a ride to the bus station?”
“I can do one better.” He pushed his car keys toward her.
She took the keys. “Where should I leave it?”
“You can have it. I don’t drive all that much anymore and we have the truck.”
Startled, she stared at him. “That’s incredibly generous of you.”
“Oh, that car’s an old piece of shit and we all know it. But you can drive it until it gasps its last breath.” He patted her hand.
An hour later, Lexi was on the road.
She hadn’t planned where she might go next but she had the money from Mike and that would keep the car filled for a while. The vehicle also gave her somewhere to sleep. Things would be all right. She decided to head for Indianapolis but no sooner had she crossed the bridge on the east side of the city than her plan went awry.
Her gaze flicked to the rearview mirror and she froze. What looked like Braxton’s vehicle with him driving it was three cars back. Her gaze darted from the road ahead to the rearview mirror several times.
Maybe not.
A minute later, she saw him again. He’d veered out to check her location and ducked in again.
Shit!
“Why did I trust that vampire? Why the fuck did I trust a fucking vampire?” She realized he must have left her and gone directly to Kindred.
Lexi pulled off and followed the signs to the Target parking lot. She parked right outside, climbed out, and didn’t look back. Distinctly nervous, she glanced around as she strode to the entrance and briefly met the eyes of a middle-aged woman in a black skirt-suit with her hair in a severe-looking bun.
She looked away, then back again as the woman turned to take her purse out of her car. Immediately, she dismissed the stranger as a threat and entered the store. The plan had been to go through to the exit and drive away while her Kindred unit searched the store. A security guard noticed her agitation immediately so she veered into the clothing department and glanced at her cellphone as though she was in a hurry, a reasonable cause for her agitated state. It worked, fortunately. He remained where he was while she moved farther into the store.
Casually, she selected a pink top, moved to the changing room, and slid into the last cubicle. She looked at the three-foot space and almost laughed. Her only hope was that her unit wouldn’t expect her to trap herself in such a tiny area. No Kindred in their right mind would do something as stupid as that.
“Hi, can I try this shirt on?” Maggie’s voice gave her pause. Was she prepared to fight her sister?
A door opened and closed, then another.
“At the risk—” The whispered voice almost gave Lexi a heart attack.
She spun and stood face to face with the power-suited woman from the parking lot. One wall of the cubicle had disappeared and behind that was an office with a desk, lamp, laptop, and window. She must have frightened her unexpected visitor when she spun because her hand went to her heart.
Another cubicle door opened.
The woman tried again, still whispering. “At the risk of sounding terribly unoriginal, come with me
if you want to live.”
Maggie’s feet stopped outside the cubicle. Lexi looked at the feet and quickly at the woman. In a split-second, she made her choice.
In the next moment, she looked wildly around the office while the woman sat at the desk. “Who are you?”
“I’m Dolores.” Her rescuer slid a pair of glasses on and stared at the laptop. “The exit’s behind you, dear.”
Utterly bewildered, she turned to gape at the door. “That was a fae door we came through.”
Dolores looked up. “Correct.”
Lexi casually walked closer to the exit, although the woman seemed unconcerned that she might escape. “Where are we?”
“Denver, Colorado.”
Lexi narrowed her eyes. “Why did you help me?”
“You looked like you needed help and it’s what I do.” She pecked at the keyboard one key at a time.
She clutched the door handle. “Well, thanks.”
“You’re welcome, dear.”
Completely bewildered now, she stepped out of the office, walked down the stairs, and stepped out onto the street. She looked in both directions and located a coffee shop across the street. With nothing better to do, she crossed quickly, bought a latte, and sat at a table at the front from where she could stare into Dolores’ window. She could see her still at her desk.
After a few sips, she took stock. She’d been the proud owner of a piece-of-shit car for roughly an hour and now, it was gone. Her bag was still in it, along with the katana and her other weapons. She had less than a hundred dollars.
The coffee went cold and an hour passed while she stared at the back of the woman’s head. It was time to move.
Before she could argue her decision, she hurried to the building and up the stairs, knocked on the door, and walked in.
“What do you mean when you say it’s what you do?”
Dolores removed her glasses and looked at Lexi. “While Kindred are the official police of the supernatural world, their approach isn’t always appreciated. Simply because someone complains about the vampire next door playing loud music doesn’t mean they want them beheaded or sent to a cell in The Hollows.”
Lexi blushed. If her returned memories had told her anything, it was that their actions weren’t always as justified as she had always thought.
“Do you think a more balanced approach is something you’d like to be a part of?”
“You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know as much as I need to. Why don’t you come and sit?”
She walked across the office and sat opposite Dolores. “I left all my belongings in the car in Illinois.”
“Oh, yes. I’m sorry. I forgot about that.” Dolores put her hand into her purse and brought out a toy car. She placed it on the desk in front of her.
Why was the woman giving her a toy car? She narrowed her eyes and looked more closely. As impossible as it seemed, it looked exactly like Louis’ car.
She leaned forward and picked it up. “No way!” Still half in disbelief, she looked inside at a tiny kit bag on the back seat. She opened the door and tipped the car so the tiny bag slid into her hand. Her mouth open, she gazed at it, then at Dolores.
The woman held her hand open and she dropped the tiny bag into it. With a small smile, she twisted in her chair and put the bag on the floor. It rapidly grew back to its normal size.
“I’m in,” she blurted, then paused. “But I have something personal to take care of first.”
Lexi couldn’t quite understand Dick’s good fortune. Twice, she had thrown silver daggers at him and missed him by a hair’s breadth. Another two times, she’d tried to poison him with liquid silver and once, she had arranged to drop a silver net onto him. How he’d avoided that was a mystery.
She decided to try one last time. For a while, she’d been seated on the low roof over the rear exit of a smoky jazz club once she’d ensured he was inside. A fine drizzle had settled over the city so she was cold and wet. Her butt was going to sleep and she occasionally flexed the muscles to wake it up. Finally, she heard his voice.
“David, it’s been an absolute thrill as always. I’ll catch up with you soon.” The vampire was finally leaving the club. He stood under the porch for a moment before he stepped out.
Her timing perfect, she dropped to land on his shoulders.
“What the fuck?”
Before he could react, she leaned down and bit his ear hard. The blood in her mouth increased her strength and speed instantly.
She dropped back and yanked Dick off-balance. As he fell, she gripped tightly with her thighs and twisted. The satisfying crack of the vampire’s neck told her it was broken. He landed heavily and lay motionless.
Lexi considered finishing him off. She looked at his suit. His coat lay open to reveal the Valentino label. She smiled.
Thanks to the blood, launching him into a dumpster at the back of the club was easy. The lid fell and she slapped the side of the dumpster twice. “Are those rats I hear in there? Have a great night, Dick.”
Still smiling, she slid into her car and set out on the long drive to Denver, ready to start her new life.
Legacy of the Shadow’s Blood
The story continues with Legacy of the Shadow’s Blood.
Lexi is a magic-wielding former assassin who broke away from the shadowy organization that trained her.
Working as a private investigator, her latest case takes her and her partner to Palm Springs, where a shifter is being harassed by a local businessman. But with pack politics and rivalries, this is far more than a property deal gone bad.
Far worse, for Lexi, is that her local contact is her long-time nemesis, the gay vampire detective Dick. If the case doesn’t kill her, working with him again might!
Join Lexi, Dick, and an unforgettable cast of characters in the first three books of this addictive new series.
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Available at Amazon and through Kindle Unlimited.
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Michael Anderle Social
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The Fugitive Legacy Page 4