Fangs for Sharing (Supernatural in Seattle #1)

by Bella Jacobs

  “Driving is dumb,” I agree, even as my heart begins to race as I spot the beauty Leo’s clicking open in front of us. “Oh my God, is that…”

  “Porsche 911 GT RS,” he says, his lips curving as he tosses his duffle bag into the back seat. “I figured your first getaway car should be something you could really take out for a spin.”

  “And it’s got an enchanted speedometer.” Rourke chucks his bag in after Leo’s, and circles around to the open trunk. “So you can go as fast as your speed demon heart desires.”

  “Don’t tell her that,” Leerie says, shivering her way over to the passenger’s side. “She’s already a maniac, even without magical intervention.”

  I nod, grinning as Pearl begins to glow in my hand. “Oh yeah. This is going to be fun.”

  Leo glides in front of me, dropping his voice as he asks, “You’d be shifting right now, wouldn’t you? If you didn’t have Pearl? That’s how excited you are about taking this beauty out for a spin?”

  I nod, biting my lip, pulse spiking again as I meet Leo’s gaze. “Maybe. Is that bad?”

  “No, it’s…” He trails off with a shake of his head and a soft sigh.

  He doesn’t finish the sentence, but I have a pretty good idea what he’s thinking. It’s there in his flashing eyes, in the tilt of his head, in the way his tongue slips out to dampen his lips.

  Leo, the somber and serious, has a wild side after all.

  “So you like fast cars, Mr. Poplov?” I tease, handing over my bag when he reaches for it.

  “I do, indeed, Ms. Frank.” He crosses back to the Porsche, dropping my bag on the back seat before shutting the door and holding out the keys. “Our lives are in your hands. Are you ready?”

  “I was born ready.” I tuck Pearl under my arm as I take the keys, a sizzle rushing up my arm as my fingers brush Leo’s.

  “Keep Pearl on your lap,” he says, casting a pointed look at the glowing bat. “Just in case. Our destination is already programmed into the GPS.”

  I salute him with my key-holding hand, loving the jingle they make. “Yes, sir.”

  “See you on the other side,” he says, crawling into the exceptionally roomy trunk beside an already sleepy-looking Rourke.

  I peer inside, taking in three pod-like sleeping depressions built into the frame, complete with latches that lock from the inside. “Will there be a safe place to unload you guys when we get there? Or should I leave you locked up until sunset?”

  “There’s subterranean parking,” Rourke says with a yawn, seeming awfully relaxed for a man fleeing an attempt on his life. “Just pull in through the gate, spiral all the way down, and give a knock on the trunk. We’ll be out in a wink.”

  Leo reaches for a handle inside. “You’ll be fine. Just don’t stop until you’re off the property.”

  “Far off,” Rourke adds. “A hundred miles with no tails should do it.”

  I start shivering again, the heat generated by the getaway car reveal excitement evaporating in the face of the reality of what we’re about to do. “And if someone is tailing us?”

  “Then lose them,” Leo says, shutting the trunk with a firm thunk.

  “Lose them, right,” I mutter, giving Pearl a twirl at my side as I head to the driver’s seat. “Here we go, then.”

  “Saints protect us.” Leerie clutches her seatbelt as I arrange Pearl across my lap and slide the key into the ignition, sending the 911 purring to life. “If I pass out, don’t try to revive me until you’re ready to let me out, okay? I don’t want to be awake for this if I don’t have to be.”

  I brace my hand on her seat, gazing over my shoulder as I back out of the parking space. “Right,” I whisper, shifting into drive and pulling toward the exit ramp. “Where do you want me to drop you off, by the way? Rourke said not to stop until we’re at least a hundred miles away.”

  “It doesn’t matter, really,” Leerie says as I guide us up, up, back toward the soon-to-be-rising sun. “Just as long as I’m not too far from the ocean. There are fairy rings all up and down the west coast. Can’t walk more than a dozen miles or so without tripping over one if you know where to look. Since we won’t be flying together, I won’t have to use my plane ticket, and can just travel fairy-ring direct.” She sinks lower in her seat, voice dropping as we emerge from the final slope with a dip as we roll out into the gray light of early morning. “Oh goddess, Eliza, there’s no way we’re getting out of here. There are guards everywhere!”

  “It’s fine. Just play it cool and follow my lead.” I tuck my hair behind my ear, flashing a smile for the guard who holds a hand out, stopping us beside the fountain in the center of the drive. Leo told me not to stop, but my gut insists it’s far better to try to talk our way off the property than to go out engine roaring and middle fingers blazing.

  “We’re on lockdown, miss,” the man says, motioning back toward the castle with his serious-looking stun gun. “No one in or out except staff, and all vehicles are searched on entry.”

  “Of course,” I agree, nodding, “but we’ve got a plane to catch. Prince Leo is sending us away. For our own safety.”

  The guard frowns. “I haven’t heard anything about travel plans. Let me call up to the house.”

  “Yes, please do,” I insist. “Hopefully we can catch him before he goes to rest. The master is already resting. As you know, she turns in early and gets super not-happy if she’s disturbed for anything but a serious emergency. Which this isn’t.” I shrug. “But that’s okay. Prince Leo doesn’t get quite as mad as the master. Just a tiny bit grouchy, really. I’m sure he’ll understand why you woke him up and bothered him instead of just checking our plane tickets.”

  The man’s thick nose wrinkles before shifting to one side and then the other. He glances over his shoulder again, but the other guards are too far away to ask for help without drawing attention to himself.

  “I have the tickets here,” Leerie says, tapping at her phone screen. “Just a second, and I’ll pull them up. We’re going to stay with my family. My mother has an army, you see. Huge army. Famous for skinning people alive in the sixth century, but a lot more civilized now.”

  “But still dangerous,” I add. “Which Prince Leo is super happy about. He knows we’ll both be safer there than we’d ever be here. I mean, no offense, you’re clearly a great guard, but you’re not a thousand years old.”

  “Or a fairy.” Leerie laughs, doing a much better job of playing it cool than I expected. “Or armed with weapons that can slice open skin at twenty paces.” She smiles as she holds out her phone, the tickets now visible on the screen. “Did you know that? That fairies have weapons that can gut you before they even touch you? Isn’t that wild? I mean, the wonders of the world, am I right?”

  “Um, right.” The guard’s throat works as he casts a cursory glance at the tickets before waving a hand. “Head on down the hill, ladies, I’ll radio ahead that the prince gave you permission to leave.”

  “Thanks so much!” I sing, reaching for the window button and buzzing it up.

  The guard stands only to bend down a beat later, motioning for me to drop the window again. Pulse stuttering, I lower it a crack. “Yes?”

  “Though I’m sure he’d want you to have an escort to the airport,” the guard says, pulling his walkie-talkie from his belt. “I’ll get a couple armored cars sent down. They’ll meet you near the exit, and you can all go together.”

  “Great, thanks for nothing,” I say through gritted teeth as I drop the window all the way down.

  “What was that?” the man asks, his words turning to a sharp oomph as I jab him in the gut with Pearl. There’s a flash of light, and he goes flying, sliding across the pavement to tumble heels over head into the fountain with a splash.

  “Sorry!” I shout as I put the pedal to the metal, roaring down the hill toward the exit as Leerie squeals softly in the passenger’s seat behind me.

  “Oh goddess, oh goddess, oh goddess,” she chants, hunkering lower and covering her
head with her arms.

  “It’s going to be fine!” I cut left and then right, zooming around a man pushing a heavily loaded flatbed. “I’m a great driver. Nothing to fear but fear itself.”

  “The tree! The tree!” Leerie squeals as I rumble off the road, avoiding a truck headed up the drive and swerving toward a massive oak near the road while I’m at it.

  But I didn’t even get close to hitting it. Not nearly as close as I get to hitting the guard who rushes from the woods with his stun gun aimed at the wheels, anyway. But it’s good that I almost clip the guard! It sends him diving into a patch of blackberry vines, and we avoid getting shot off the road. I call that a win-win.

  “It’s fine! We’re fine,” I shout, pulse thundering in my ears as I barrel closer to the closed and heavily armed gate at the end of the drive, where more guards are lifting guns to their shoulders.

  I’m calculating the odds of not getting shot while maintaining enough speed to have a chance of smashing through the extremely solid-looking wrought iron, when the entrance gate miraculously swings open on the other side.

  With a whoop of celebration, I skid into the opposite lane and floor it, gunning hard toward the delivery van beginning to pull in from the road.

  “Brake! Brake!” Leerie screeches, clinging to the handle above her door. But I don’t brake. I speed faster, faster, zipping around the van and cutting the wheel hard to the right.

  And yes, the Porsche lifts onto two wheels for a second or two.

  And yes, it does sort of feel like flipping over is a possibility there for a moment. But we don’t flip. We drop back onto the road and roar away from the castle, leaving the guards to eat our dust.

  All in all, I consider it a successful first outing as a getaway car driver. Certainly nothing worth fainting over.

  But apparently Leerie would disagree.

  “Leerie?” I glance her way to find her slumped against the door. “Leerie, you okay?”

  I reach over, brushing her hair from her face to find her eyes closed and her breath coming slow and steady and smile. “Poor thing. You sleep. I’ve got this.”

  And I do.

  I cut a convoluted trail through the suburbs, ensuring any tail we might have acquired gets lost in the confusion, before heading west to the coast. By the time the temperature starts to drop and the scent of sea spray fills the air, Leerie is coming to.

  “Never again,” she says with a sigh.

  “Aw, come on. You have to ride with me again. How else are you going to get to the grocery store?”

  “I’ll bike. Walk. Crawl on my hands and knees very slowly. And I’m not just swearing off riding with you. I’m done with cars. Period. Full stop.”

  I pat her knee. “You’ll change your mind. Cars are convenient. And fun.”

  “You seriously thought that was fun?” She jabs a thumb over her shoulder. “That near-death experience back there?”

  “We weren’t near death,” I scoff. “We were serious-injury adjacent.”

  Leerie snorts. “Bunch of lunatics. You deserve each other.”

  “Who deserves each other?”

  “Now, let me out,” she says, ignoring me. “There. By the little blue house with the green fence.”

  “Do you know the people who live there?” I ask, slowing on the next curve.

  “No one lives there. At least not recently. It’s been empty for several months.” She reaches over the seat, grabbing her bag from the back. “I’ll be able to hide there until nightfall, when it will be safe to sneak down to the fairy circle by the beach.”

  “That’s still so weird to me.” I pull into the drive, carefully avoiding the potholes in the cracked asphalt. “That you can sense a place is vacant without even looking inside the joint.”

  “Buildings have energy fields, too. If you pay attention, they’ll let you know when they’ve been abandoned.”

  “I don’t know about that, but I know you’d be a really good cat burglar.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” she says, “in case the interior design thing doesn’t work out long-term. Assuming, of course, that I’m allowed back in the human world.”

  My lips turn down hard. “Don’t say that. You’re coming back.”

  Leerie turns to me as I put the car in park. “If I don’t, remember, I want you to be happy. Whatever happiness looks like for you, whoever it might or might not involve. You answer to no one but yourself, Eliza. Remember that. And trust your gut—you’ve got a good one.”

  Brow furrowing, I nod. “I will. But I don’t want to think about my life without you in it, Leer. Come back if you can. And send word soon, okay? I want to know what’s going on with you. That you’re safe and well and happy and not married to that awful asshole.”

  She snorts. “Absolutely not. I’ll rot in hell before I’ll be his wife. And I promise, I will be happy. Not even court politics can get me down, not if I don’t let it.” Her smile is clearly forced, but when she leans across the seat to hug me, her embrace is as warm as ever. “Take care, darling. Hope to see you soon.”

  “Soon,” I echo as she reaches for the door handle.

  “Tell them goodbye for me.” She opens the door, pausing before she steps out. “And tell them to be good to you or I will send Unseelie nightmare creatures to peck their eyes out while they sleep.”

  I smile. “Will do. Love you.”

  “Love you, too. Now, get out of here. You’ve still got a long way to go.” Leerie slips out of the car and jogs around to the back of the abandoned cottage. I wait until she disappears—presumably to pick the lock on the back door and haunt a stranger’s house for the rest of the day—and blow her a kiss for good luck.

  Then I pull back onto the road, headed north with two vampires in my trunk, wondering how on earth this came to be my life.

  And why I’m enjoying it so much.

  “Sick in the head,” I mutter, fighting a smile as I lay on the gas. “Clearly sick in the head.”

  But as I zoom around the next curve a little too fast, I don’t feel sick. I feel awake, alive, and part of something I’m not sure I want to end.

  At least, not anytime soon.

  Chapter 15

  Two hours north of where I left Leerie, I reach the turn for the village of Port Bailey and veer east, along what’s left of this part of the coast. Decades before I was born, the polar ice caps shrank to a fraction of their previous size, flooding the world’s coastlines and submerging entire cities—sometimes entire states or countries. Dozens of island nations simply disappeared, their citizens relocated as refugees or, if they refused to leave, abandoned to their fate.

  Every Halloween, the internet explodes with creepy lists—"Top 5 Dive-Worthy Ghost Cities” or “7 Most Famous Lost Civilizations”—the tragedy reduced to click bait for a few days while everyone is in the mood to be scared.

  “No more scary stuff,” I whisper as I guide my sleek machine up to the hamlet perched on the edge of a cliff.

  I’ve had my fill of scary, thank you very much. I’ll take cozy and boring any day, and thankfully, it looks like Port Bailey is going to deliver.

  Main Street has two stoplights—one in front of a quaint clapboard hardware store peddling fishing lures and walking sticks on its wide front porch, and one by an adorable, weathered library where a class of preschoolers is having story time under a blossoming cherry tree. The hamlet is the picture of sweetness and light, complete with charming shops, a fish shack, a Farmer’s Table Co-op grocery, and an old lighthouse someone has meticulously restored near the edge of town.

  I’ve got my eye on that lighthouse from the moment I cruise in. When it becomes clear that the white and blue beauty is my final destination, it’s all I can do not to squeal with delight.

  But Leo and Rourke are probably asleep back there, and I don’t want to wake them. Or scare them if they’re awake and listening to what’s going on in the outside world.

  As I swing into the driveway, the electric gate opens aut
omatically, and I pull inside, steering around to the back and into the deceptively normal-looking garage beneath the structure. But it’s not an ordinary garage, of course. It’s the entrance to another spiral into the earth. This one only goes down about thirty feet, however, before it dead-ends in a spacious parking area, big enough to fit four or five vehicles.

  Since we’re the only ones here, I pull in diagonally across three spaces, just for the thrill of it—breaking the rules can be fun, even when there’s no one around to enforce them—and hop out, stretching my arms overhead, wincing at the cracking sound from near the base of my spine.

  I’m about to circle around to tap on the trunk when it pops open on its own and Leo emerges in one graceful swoop. He runs a hand through his not-at-all mussed hair as he arches a brow my way. “You two planned that, didn’t you? To send Leerie home while Rourke and I were trapped back here, unable to talk sense into her?”

  I bare my teeth in a guilty smile-grimace. “Yeah. She insisted. I’m sorry. She said there was no point in talking. She had to go. Fairy law and all that.”

  “Laws were meant to be broken.” Rourke climbs out more slowly, pausing to stretch his neck before slamming the trunk closed. “Look at us. We’ve broken at least three major vampire laws since this morning.”

  Chest squeezing tight, I look back to Leo. “Is that true? I didn’t hurt anyone on the way out of the compound, by the way. Just knocked one guard into a fountain, one into a blackberry bush, and maybe ran a delivery van off the road. Didn’t even have to bust through a gate, which was good because I’m pretty sure you’d need a tank to get through that sucker.”

  “All good to hear,” Leo says. “But Rourke is still correct. We disobeyed a direct order from both of our masters and taken ourselves out of play while our shivers are on high alert. But none of that can be helped, so…” He lifts a shoulder and lets it fall, seemingly unconcerned.

  “Aren’t you going to get in big trouble?” I ask. “Don’t vampires still torture each other and…stuff like that?”