by Carly Fall
“How did you find him?”
“Once I could breathe again after that damned energy ball slammed into me, I shifted, ready to help you with McAllister. But then, I smelled vampire under the refrigerator, and you seemed to be holding your own, so I came down here to investigate.”
She studied the room again, trying to keep her eyes off Gabe. With the hard planes and sharp ridges of muscle, his body was even more beautiful than his face.
One statue caught her eye, and she went to that table and picked it up. Tears welled as she clutched the golden Virgin Mary to her chest.
“This resembles one my mom had,” she said.
“It is your mom’s.”
Avery was still trying to put the pieces together. She couldn’t connect what McAllister had to do with the vampire, or why the bloodsucker had taken all these religious relics.
Gabe placed his hands on his hips, obviously not concerned in the least bit about his nudity. Avery couldn’t help but take a peek once in a while. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment, and the dark underground room beneath the house became very warm. She turned away from him.
“The vampire stole the relics,” he continued. “He and McAllister were partners. Before I killed him, he admitted everything. McAllister covered for him and kept him out of prison. They’d take anything worth selling and either fence it in Canada or have it melted down by a guy they knew. Gold is easy to hock in that form.”
Her mother had died because of the one thing she hated the most—greed. All of Avery’s emotions flooded at the same time, and she relented. Her tears finally flowed.
“The vampire had been assessing your mom’s church to see how he could get in there and steal from them. He saw your mom leave the church, and he was hungry. He followed her home with the intention of feeding, but when he saw all the gold in your mom’s place, he knew he’d struck bank. They fought. He won.”
“Why just the religious symbols? Why didn’t they steal anything else that was gold?”
“Oh, they did, Avery. Anything they could get their hands on.”
“What about the other addresses I went to?” she asked. “The ones on the piece of paper in my mom’s file?”
“All properties McAllister owned. They kept their operation moving and changed locations every couple of weeks.”
She set down her mom’s favorite Virgin Mary statue and picked up a gold cross necklace. “This looks like hers, too.”
“It probably is.”
“Did you find your pack’s relic?”
“Yeah. Turns out the vampire had a problem with a member of our pack, just not the one he almost killed. When he didn’t find the guy, he took the wreath instead.”
Avery picked up a wreath made out of sticks intertwined with black, gold, and silver ribbons.
“So, the disappearance of the wreath and my mom’s death weren’t related.”
He shook his head. “Nope, not directly, except the vampire was responsible for both.”
They stood in silence for a moment before Gabe asked, “Did you kill McAllister?”
She shook her head and wiped her tears. “I don’t know.”
Gabe nodded and climbed out of the room.
As she picked up various stolen items, she wondered how many lives had been deeply affected, or worse, lost. All for money.
Avery liked money as much as the next person, and often wished she had more. There’d been times in her life where she’d been in dire straits and had dodged her landlord for a week or two. One time, she even went without electricity for a few days because she couldn’t pay her bill. Yet, she’d never thought of hurting another being for her own gain.
She stood over the vampire lying on the floor, his dark eyes staring up at the ceiling, devoid of any life. He may have been the one who’d attacked her that night in the alley, but she couldn’t be certain. She’d been so afraid, and it had been very dark…
While dropping to her knees next to his body, she wished she felt some type of relief that her mother’s killer was dead, but she didn’t. She’d exacted her revenge, but it was bittersweet at best. The vampire would never hurt a human again, but it didn’t take away the fact that her mother was dead, and always would be.
Gabe returned through the hole fully clothed as she wiped the stream of tears from her eyes.
“You going to be okay?” he asked.
She gripped her mother’s necklace tight in her hand and considered the question. Her next task would be to gather her mother’s ashes, then start a new life. At some point, Avery would let Victoria know she was alive. Frankly, it all seemed so overwhelming, she didn’t even have the energy to leave the underground cavern that housed a dead vampire.
Melia would have wanted her to put all this behind her, to start over. Her mother never would have been horrified at her getting mixed up in this mess to begin with.
Gabe approached the body, hunched over, and threw it over his shoulder.
“What are you going to do with him?” she asked.
“Take him outside and let the sun fry him to dust.”
She nodded and got to her feet. “And McAllister?”
Her gut twisted at the thought that she might have killed him. She hated him with every bone in her body, but she didn’t want to be responsible for killing another being.
“He’s alive,” Gabe replied. “He’s tied up in my truck.”
“What happens to him now?” she asked.
Gabe stared at her for a moment, as if unsure of how to answer.
“Maybe it’s best you don’t know.” He seemed conflicted about the man’s destiny.
Whatever McAllister’s fate was, she guessed it wasn’t going to be through legal channels… human or paranormal. He’d probably never see the inside of Spectral Prison from an inmate’s point of view. For a brief moment, the thought bothered her, but then she realized as long as McAllister was alive, she would always be checking over her shoulder.
“Okay,” she answered, squeezing past him. She raised herself up into the kitchen. The hole leading down into this room had been much easier to maneuver than the sewer system at the prison.
Gabe followed her, and they walked outside. She inhaled a long, cleansing breath and ignored the thump of the vampire’s body hitting the grass. Nor did she turn around when the hissing and popping sounds of it burning in the sun met her ears.
Side by side, Avery and Gabe walked around to the truck. She got in the passenger side. Since McAllister wasn’t in the cab, she assumed Gabe had put him in the bed of the truck. As they pulled away from the house, she didn’t even glance in the rearview mirror, choosing instead to keep her focus on the road.
Ten minutes later, Gabe pulled the truck into the parking lot of a small diner and turned off the key. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out some bills.
“Get something to eat, Avery,” he said. “Enjoy some coffee. This place has the best. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
She took the money and opened the door. “Thanks for everything, Gabe.”
He grinned and nodded.
Avery watched his truck drive away until it disappeared over a hill.
She slumped her shoulders and exhaled.
A shifter and a Fae working together to solve a murder. Just a few short days ago, if someone had told her that was possible, she would have laughed in their face. In general, the groups hated each other. It would seem to be impossible.
But apparently, it wasn’t.
With a sigh, she entered the diner. Once she was seated, Avery asked for a cup of coffee and a piece of paper and a pen.
She had a future to plan. No time like the present.
27
Two Months Later
Avery arrived home from work, her back aching, her arms hurting, but satisfaction bubbling within her at what she and the crew had accomplished that day.
She’d decided to stay in Blaine, liking that it was more than a hundred miles away from Seattle, but not so far that she
couldn’t still invite Victoria for visits. Avery enjoyed the small-town living and felt safe tucked in the area near the Canadian border.
She’d been hired on a construction crew and had been relieved to find out she’d be working with humans. No shifters to be found within the company, and she was treated with respect. The men teased her every now and then, but there wasn’t any sexual harassment or threats. She loved the job and hoped the owner would keep her on when the rains finally came and the framing jobs were harder to find.
Gabe had honored every promise he’d made to her, including erasing her prison record. Even though she no longer existed in the Spectral Prison system, she still didn’t feel comfortable going to the Seattle area very often. Gabe understood and had been kind enough to gather her mother’s ashes from the morgue and some of her belongings from the apartment. He’d also volunteered to float her some money until she could get back on her feet.
Avery hadn’t seen or heard from him in almost two months, and she was fine with that. They’d worked together to locate her mother’s murderer, but that didn’t mean they had become best friends. She trusted him but didn’t want him in her everyday life. She’d had enough of most paranormal entities for a lifetime.
As for McAllister, she spotted his obituary in the Seattle Times about two weeks after Gabe had taken him. The article didn’t mention how he’d died, but the announcement sang his praises as a good cop and a loss to the city of Seattle. Avery knew better. She tried to find some sadness in her heart for his death but couldn’t. He had gotten what he’d deserved, and she tried not to consider how he’d met his maker.
After stripping out of her work clothes, she stepped into a steaming shower. Even though she was primarily done with paranormals, she still practiced telekinesis, determined not to let the ability become rusty again.
Shampoo flew into her hand, and after she used it, back to the shower ledge. She did the same with the conditioner, and when she was done showering, she held out her hand, and the towel rose from the rack and floated over to her.
The process had almost become second nature, and she didn’t have to concentrate on the tasks at hand. She had absolutely no intention of ever finding herself in a position where she would need the magic, but she figured it couldn’t hurt to keep it sharp.
She draped the terrycloth robe over her shoulders and wrapped her hair up in the towel. A glass of wine was in order. She eyed her mother’s ashes tucked among the plants in the living room on her way to the kitchen. No one would notice the urn unless they were searching for it, but it gave her peace having it there.
A loud banging at the door startled her out of her relaxed state of mind. The wine sloshed in the stemware, and she went to the door and unlocked it. Avery expected it was her neighbor coming over to remind her about movie night.
Mandy was a waitress by day, a hairdresser by night. She’d been trying to get her scissors into Avery’s hair since the day she’d moved in. So far, Avery had avoided it. Mandy didn’t have any clients, so Avery thought it probably meant her skills weren’t really the best.
She’d apparently just gotten off the day job—still wore her waitress uniform, the pink shirt an exact match for her hair color.
“You still coming over?” Mandy asked.
“Yep. I’ll be there right after I get dressed.”
“Don’t forget the wine!” Mandy shouted as she headed down the corridor toward her own apartment.
Avery finished her glass of wine, set the empty stemware on the counter, and pulled on some sweats and an old Harry Potter T-shirt. She hurried to towel-dry her hair before slipping on some shoes, ready to head to Mandy’s place.
She picked up the bottle of wine and her phone. A notification on the screen caused her to stop in her tracks, her brow furrowed.
Gabe had called.
What in the world does he want?
She started to dial him back but decided against it. He represented her mother’s death and the previous chaos her life had become.
Right now, she preferred the quiet existence she’d earned.
Shoving the phone into her pocket, she put the call out of her mind. She had a Marvel movie marathon to attenda quiet evening with a friend in a place where no one would try to kill her.
It had to be better than whatever Gabe wanted … right?
Chapter 1 - Blood of the Fae
Avery
Avery Dubois never imagined she’d be a waitress in a small diner located in Blaine, Washington, employed alongside a werewolf shifter who was actually nice to her. The last time she’d been forced to work with shifters, she’d been sexually harassed and ended up in a long spiral that led her directly to prison.
Thankfully, that wouldn’t be happening again… not in this job, at least. Grace, the shifter, flashed her a smile as she took a stack of plates back to the kitchen.
With a sigh, Avery approached the table where customers had just motioned that they needed her.
“What can I do for you?” she asked, plastering a smile on her face. She could tell the twenty-something-year-old guy was going to complain before he even spoke. He and his friends had told her earlier the coffee was too hot. A stupid thing to say, in her opinion. There was no such thing.
“I ordered my burger medium-well, and this is clearly cooked to medium,” the man said. Avery studied the curve of his lips and the twinkle in his brown eyes as he grinned at her. She’d seen this before… another asshole looking for a free meal.
She smiled and leaned in to take a look at the meat he’d cut. Medium-well… medium… being a vegetarian, it all disgusted her.
Glancing around, she noticed her boss staring at her. Bart was a cranky man in his fifties who not only owned the place but cooked too. He’d been running the diner since he had opened it twenty years ago. With the new navy-blue booths, the black and white checkered tile, and sky-blue walls—all of which she’d helped to install—the place almost appeared as if it had just opened yesterday. Business had been steadily picking up. This was good and bad. With the new stream of good customers, a few bad ones always managed to slip in. Like this guy and his friend.
Unfortunately, telling the customer to shove his burger up his ass would be out of the question. She needed the job for a few more months and couldn’t afford to get fired.
“I’m sorry, sir,” she said as she watched his friend snicker. “I’ll take your plate back to the chef.”
She picked up the white platter and hurried to the kitchen.
“What’s wrong with the burger?” Bart asked while wiping beads of sweat from his brow and bald head.
“He says it’s cooked medium when he ordered medium-well.”
Bart studied the plate and rolled his eyes, then let out a string of curses under his breath.
“Are they looking for a free meal?” he asked.
For some reason, this scam had been occurring more and more lately. People would come in and complain about everything, and in the end, expect a free meal even though they’d eaten everything on the plate.
Avery tucked a lock of loose auburn hair from her ponytail behind her ear. “Well, so far the coffee has been too hot, and now this.”
Bart rearranged the burger on the plate. “That’s medium-well. That snotnose piece of shit doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Tell him I put it back on the grill with apologies.”
She nodded and picked up the plate with a sigh, wishing she could be just about anywhere else, except prison, of course.
Waitressing bored her, and she hated every minute on the job. She much preferred house construction, but not a lot of that was going on in rainy Washington State during the winter months. She had tried to move into corporate building but hadn’t been able to find a position. Liking food and a roof over her head, Avery had taken the job. Every shift seemed like a long, slow death, but it paid the bills.
“Here you go,” she said with a smile while she placed the plate back on the table in front of the customer. “Go
ahead and let me know how it is.”
The man took a bite, then grimaced and set the burger down. “It’s overdone now.”
Shutting her eyes for a moment, she tried not to think about picking up the customer’s fork and stabbing him in the eye.
Instead, she leaned over and put her hands on the table. “Listen… I know what you’re trying to do. That burger is as medium-well as it gets. Don’t be a dick. Eat the damned thing if you so choose, but you will leave your money on the table, and then get out.”
Glancing over her shoulder, she noticed that Bart was busy with another order in the kitchen. Avery turned back to the customer, levitated the ketchup, spun it around in front of the customer’s face, unscrewed the lid then turned the bottle upside down. His mouth formed a perfect O of horror while the red goop oozed onto his lap.
“What the hell?” the man yelled and scrambled to his feet, trying to wipe the mess with a paper napkin, which only smeared it further.
At that moment, Grace sauntered to Avery’s side. Long, blonde hair tied up in a ponytail fell to her middle back. A smattering of freckles crossed her cheeks, and wide blue eyes stared at the customer. She stood taller than Avery… no surprise… at five-foot-two, almost every adult she’d ever met did. Long and lean with a great rack, Avery felt like a dumpy troll standing next to her.
“Is there a problem?” Grace asked, her brow furrowed.
“I… I just… she threw ketchup all over me!”
Grace crowded the man, trapping him against the table. “I highly doubt that. Avery’s as sweet as they come. No one spilled anything, except you.”
Avery bit back her smile. When she’d started working at the diner, she’d immediately known Grace was a were-shifter because of her wet dog / freshly cut grass smell… the odor of the Bellevue pack, if she wasn’t mistaken. Grace had known Avery was a Fae… well, Avery wasn’t sure how. Shifters always said they could smell a Fae, but none had ever told her what that odor was.
Anyway, after some initial wariness, the two had become fast friends… something that didn’t often happen between Fae and shifters. There was too much animosity between the groups that had gone back generations.
