“We’re ready when you are, Greg. Clara’s gonna lock up for you,” the unicorn said.
Greg nodded, offering the sheriff the briefest of smiles as he pulled out his wallet.
I gave him the total for the meat, and he paid me, thanking me for the rest.
I wished them well and promised to be out to put up more wards around the cabin later that night. I wanted them to be safe. I had a feeling things were going to turn out well for the two werewolves I’d grown fond of. I wasn’t a mind reader but if I had to guess, being banished from the pack was going to work out fine for them. They’d both be better off away from Floyd.
Of that, there could be no doubt.
Chapter Nine
Prosper Woods Chronicle. Letters to the editor:
“I’m writing to give a shout out to the Prosper Woods highway department. I don’t know how they taught the roadkill around these parts to clean itself up but watching that flat skunk peel itself off the asphalt and walk away was impressive.” Signed, “Ain’t today’s technology something!”
Vincent
When Rome dropped Greg and Sam at his cabin, he packed a suitcase of clothing for himself. I had a good feeling about letting him stay at my place with me as long as he wanted. We’d been spending almost every night there anyway. As we walked into my house, I could feel the exhaustion coming off Rome. All the way to my house, I’d had plans on sitting him down and getting the facts about what he’d learned from the autopsy of the former sheriff. Knowing what happened to him would help me keep Rome safe. But as soon as I saw him step out of his truck in my driveway, I felt how tired he was.
He grabbed the food container he’d hastily swept his burger and onion rings into and followed me into the house. I promised myself I wasn’t going to drink from him for the next several days at least. He was taking the vitamins I’d given him because I tasted them in his amazing blood, and yet, I knew I shouldn’t feed from him often. I didn’t want to make him weak. He had an important job and a whole town counting on him to do it.
He sat down at the small dining table and opened the food container as soon as he walked in. I sat across from him, watching the way his mouth moved as he ate, and the way he smiled at me in between bites of food. When he’d finished and was leaning back in his chair, sipping his beer, I smiled.
“What happened with the autopsy report you were waiting on?”
“The medical examiner seems to know what she’s doing, but none of it makes sense,” he admitted, sitting forward. “She says there were no external signs of animal attack, and that the tox screen came back clean. No sign of heart disease or cancer, and everything about him looked normal. Her take was that he’d walked into the cave and sat down to die a natural death. I wasn’t expecting that at all.”
My mind began to race, and I remembered the eerie drive-in movie theater and the activity going on there when I passed on my way into town.
“You look like you have something to say,” Romeo said, one eyebrow raised in question.
I sighed. “You said there were no footprints around the body when you came in.”
“Right. There were footprints from the boys going into the cave, but not actually near the body. Those footprints stopped several feet from the body, and they were obviously much smaller—obvious footprints from a kid that age—not an adult’s. That’s what’s really bugging me.”
“If someone put him in the cave, wouldn’t there be footprints?” I asked, hastening to add, “I mean, could someone have set him down and then brushed away their footprints? I see criminals do that in movies all the time.”
Romeo chuckled around the mouth of his beer bottle. “You watch too much TV, Vincent. If someone goes to the trouble of hiding their murder victim in an old uranium mine, the last thing they’re going to do is bring a broom along to wipe away footprints. Besides, like I said, there was no evidence of a murder. This one is an odd one for sure.”
“Something strange happened on my way into town tonight,” I said.
“What?” He frowned deeply.
I sighed. “Don’t let this freak you out but you know the old drive-in we pass every time we drive here from town?”
“Of course. I look at it every time,” Romeo said.
“What does it look like to you?” I asked.
He cocked his head to the side in that strange way he had, and I suddenly pictured him in unicorn form as he stared at me with dark brown eyes, fringed with those incredibly thick lashes.
Romeo shrugged. “I don’t know… What it’s supposed to look like. A cracked asphalt parking lot with rusty speaker boxes and a large screen that’s been on the wrong side of a paintball gun.”
“Yeah. That’s what it’s always looked like to me until tonight,” I said.
“What happened? What did you see?”
“When I was driving into town, I actually stopped on the side of the road because the place was packed.”
“Packed with what?” Romeo asked.
I rolled my eyes. “Cars! There were wall to wall cars,” I said emphatically.
“Cars? Doing what?” Romeo frowned at me.
“I can’t explain it…they weren’t from this century,” I finally blurted. “They were all from the 1950s and 60s. There were no modern cars. All of them were old…”
He opened his mouth, but I held up my hand.
“Wait. Let me finish. The cars weren’t empty. A movie was playing…some sort of old cartoon like they used to play in between films or at the beginning of a movie. Not only that, there were people.”
“People,” he stated flatly, smirking a little.
“People! The place was filled with ghosts. The cars were translucent, a movie was playing, and little ghost kids and grown adults were walking, running, and hanging around the concession stand. The place was filled with ghosts.”
“What the hell?” Romeo said, reaching up and dragging his hand over his face and giving it a few scrubs of his fingers. “What’s next?”
“Okay, look. There’s more.”
He spread his hands and just smiled at me. “Oh, of course there is. Things get better and better. What happened then? Zombies?”
I chuckled but quickly sobered. Romeo’s expression morphed into a serious one as well. “I am pretty sure I was seeing the whole thing through the eyes of another specter, one removed from the rest.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Romeo asked.
I sighed, determined to make myself clear even though I wasn’t so sure I was right. “A younger ghost stood in the tree line, removed from the scene playing out below,” I said. “This ghost wasn’t bright like the others. They had color, color to their clothing, fresh paintwork in the cars they were sitting in, walking beside. The ghost kids had bright shocks of hair and were laughing. The small child ghost, if that’s what he was, stood separate and dark. You’d probably describe him as having a smoky color. It was honestly the strangest thing.”
“I can picture that,’ Romeo said. “So, this ghost kid—the one who was standing by himself—he was what? Just watching?”
I nodded. “It was like he was longing to be able to participate in what was going on at the drive-in. Like he wanted to join in, but he couldn’t leave his place in the trees. It felt like there was an invisible line he couldn’t cross. I can’t really describe it as anything other than that.”
Romeo was nodding. “So, what makes you think you were seeing the whole scene play out through his eyes?”
“Because after a few minutes, he turned and walked back into the trees. The moment he did, all the activity at the drive-in vanished like it was never there. It felt like someone had just switched off a film reel. I know that must sound cliché but that’s exactly how it felt. Once the kid vanished, the rest of what he’d been seeing disappeared also. Weird, huh?”
Romeo nodded and took a sip of beer before he cleared his throat. “That is really strange. You’re right.” Suddenly, he smiled widely and then began to chuck
le, shaking his head.
“What’s so funny?” For a second, I thought my unicorn had lost his mind.
“Just when I think Prosper Woods can’t get any weirder, it does.”
I smiled. “Yeah, I have that same feeling. It is a strange place. Look, I’ve run into hundreds of ghosts over the years, but I’ve never seen a place like this. I mean we have a unicorn, werewolves, ghosts, a witch, a medium, evil vampires, and I’m guessing a lot of other kinds of shifters like your hedgehog sheriff’s deputy.”
“And a poodle. Don’t forget a poodle shifter,” Rome said.
My mouth dropped open. “You didn’t tell me about the poodle.”
Rome laughed. “I know. It just happened today.”
“What happened?” I asked.
Rome took another sip from his beer bottle. “My dispatcher, Precious, is a poodle shifter.”
I frowned, trying to remember if I’d met the poodle shifter. I couldn’t picture her. “Okay, tell me about Precious. I haven’t met her. Not that I know of anyway.”
“Like I said, she’s our dispatcher at the sheriff’s station. She’s about twenty or maybe a little older and dresses like a teenager.”
“So, she just told you she was a poodle shifter?” I asked, a little incredulous.
“Well, she dresses just like a poodle. Knowing this town, I wasn’t surprised. We were having a conversation about Mary, the hostess I met when I went to Todd’s Hash House one day. Mary is her girlfriend, and I saw them kissing…
“Anyway, when I asked her about whether she was Mary’s girlfriend, Precious said yes and then said something about the humans, so I picked up on the fact that she already knew I wasn’t fully human. After that, we had a really good laugh. I mean, in human form, she looks a lot like a very pampered poodle, collar, a pink pouf where she draws her curly white hair up on top of her head. There’s also something about how she walks, and then there’s the fact that she’s allergic to chocolate, so she never bakes with it, and…”
I held up my hand to stop him because I couldn’t stop laughing. I shook my head. “Prosper Woods is the weirdest town. You’re right.” I looked at his beer which was empty. “Are you done? You look dead on your feet, and I think you should sleep now.”
Romeo nodded. “Seriously, I want a shower, to make love to you, and then get some sleep.”
I rose, taking his plate to the kitchen and washing it, using vampire speed. I was back in front of him in the blink of an eye. I took his hand as he chuckled, muttering something about racy vampires and how ridiculous I was. I ignored him and led him down to my basement bedroom to put him to bed. He kissed me as soon as we were in the bedroom, but I shook my head as he started to undress me. I felt the tingle of my fangs, knowing I had to resist. Time to change the subject.
“No. Not now,” I said, putting him away from me. “You need that shower and sleep. There’s plenty of time for the rest later,” I told him. “You won’t be any good to me at all when you’re this tired. Look at you, Romeo. You’re dead on your feet.”
He chuckled, holding onto my waist. “So are you.”
I grinned. “Not like that. Now, get in the bathroom and take a shower. That’s an order, lawman.”
He laughed but let go of my waist, walked into the bathroom and shut the door. I quickly slipped out of my clothes, and then went about turning down the bed. By the time he was out of the shower, I was waiting, clean towel in hand. The bathroom door opened, and I kissed him lightly on the lips, loving the smell of my citrus body wash on him before deliberately walking past him and closing the door.
I stepped under the spray in the steam shower, taking my time to wash off. When I was finished, and I’d brushed my teeth and fangs, my raging libido was once again under control. I stepped out of the bathroom with the steam swirling out into the bedroom only to find my glorious man, stretched out in my bed fast asleep. I stared down at him for a few seconds and dropped the towel I was holding before slipping into bed and rolling against him. He sighed as I snuggled up behind him, spooning his warm body against me.
Within seconds, I was asleep, feeling safe and warm against the unicorn I was in love with.
Romeo
I woke to a cozy warmth pressed against my back and as my mind slowly cleared from its first fuzzy haze of early morning, I remembered where I was. It was dark but then again, it was always pitch black in Vincent’s secret underground bedroom. In my former life—the one I’d had before meeting my sexy vampire—I’d enjoyed waking to the sound of birds and sunlight streaming in through the blinds. It was such a little thing in the big scheme of everything and one I knew shouldn’t matter. There were so many more important things in life.
Since moving to this small town in the California redwoods, my life had turned upside down. Only a couple of days after arriving in town, I’d found out what my true nature was. Come hell or highwater, I was a unicorn. Sometimes when reality set in, I wanted to deny it, push it away, and claim it was all a dream. Fortunately, or unfortunately, that was impossible, as was the incredible knowledge that the man who held me in his arms and spooned around my back, was dead.
I smiled in the dark, slowly stretching so as not to wake him and rolled, pulling him close, so that our bodies touched along the front instead of the back. He snuggled close, and my enhanced senses picked up on the scent of lemons and other tangy citrus, mint and tea, things I now strongly associated with the man in my arms. When he sighed in his sleep and lifted his face, his eyes still closed, I stared down at him. I let my gaze leisurely slide over his fine features.
I wondered if he’d been an aristocrat in his human life. I suddenly wished he was awake so that I could ask him, though, I thought I already had the answer to that question. Hadn’t most medieval crusaders been noblemen—lords—or something? Yes. I was pretty sure they were. Serfs and servants didn’t run around crusading. Weren’t they poor and downtrodden? Toothless and dirty? I chuckled silently, feeling my body tremble with mirth at my stupidity.
I was ashamed of myself for never asking these things or already knowing them. I should read more of the books in my house, instead of lusting after a young Kevin Costner running around in tights as Robinhood.
Vincent was a handsome man, but he was more than that. He was more beautiful, I think, than any other man I’d ever been with. I’d seen more handsome men but never had I been as attracted to them as I was to the creature in my arms. He had shining brown hair that in the right light, carried highlights of gold, red, and bronze. His skin appeared permanently tan, and I wondered if that was because he’d died in a land where the sun would have been harsh on the hide of an English nobleman. Hadn’t he said that vampires retained all the features they’d had when they’d been bitten and changed? He’d told me about the massive sword scar on his chest, but I wondered whether that applied to tans.
I really was an idiot, and I chuckled again.
“What on earth could be so fucking funny at this time of the morning?”
I looked down again, this time focusing on the two topaz eyes staring at me. His mouth turned up at the corners, and I couldn’t stop my own grin. I reached up and threaded my fingers into his shoulder length mahogany hair, noting how it felt like silk and how, when I did this, I could detect more of the incredible citrus scent which clung to him.
“I was just wondering if your tan was permanent,” I whispered, leaning down to kiss his nose. It immediately wrinkled as I pulled away. I noticed how he narrowed his eyes at me and leaned his head back, separating our bodies only a sliver. It was too much, I tightened my hold on him, keeping him close. That only made him crane his neck farther to meet my eyes.
“What are you on about this morning?” Vincent asked.
I was pretty sure I heard a trace of a European accent in that question. I heard it now and then, but his voice was so deep and resonant, that most of the time I simply ignored the accent. Besides, with the mouth the man had, more and more I found myself thinking of better things
he should be doing with it. I couldn’t help but smile at him.
“I said I was wondering if your tan was permanent.”
“My tan?” Vincent rocked his hips against mine, and I felt the prominent morning bulge scrape over my groin, making all my thoughts suddenly travel south.
I sighed. “I was lying here looking at you, admiring your good looks and wondering if your tan was permanent,” I admitted.
He smiled. “Why the hell would you do that, Romeo?”
I chuckled. “Didn’t you tell me that when vampires are made, all the scars on their body which were there before death, stayed on them after the change?” I absently placed my hand on the wide scar over his chest which ran from his collar bone to his bellybutton.
“Yes.”
“So, I was thinking that the pale English rose you probably once were, had no business being such a tanned vampire unless it happened in the Holy Land before you were turned.”
Vincent chuckled. “You’re an idiot.”
“Thank you.”
“For your information, my skin color hasn’t changed a whole lot since birth, certainly since being made vampire. My mother’s people were members of the aristocracy—specifically Italian or Roman as we called ourselves—so our skin has always been olive toned.”
I knew nothing about him…nothing at all.
I pulled away, loosening the hold I had on him, so I could prop my head in my hand. I ran the other through his soft hair, staring at him, and trying to make out his Italian features. I could see it now in his dark hair and those amazing topaz eyes which never ceased to take my breath away when he turned them on me like a car’s high beams. His cheekbones were high, and his stubbled jaw was square with the tiniest dimple on his chin. I’d licked over it more than once while making love to him.
“I thought you must be an aristocrat,” I said. “Are you descended from kings?”
True Mate Page 12
