Call of Night

by Emily Goodwin

  But I trust Lucas completely. He’ll never lose control.

  Swallowing a mouthful of blood, he drives his cock into me, holding it there for a second as he takes in one last drink of blood. He keeps his mouth over the wound on my neck as he comes, licking up the blood that seeps out but not sucking out more.

  Cock pulsing inside of me, Lucas gently puts two fingers over the bite on my neck.

  “Your blood,” Lucas starts, licking the last bit of it off his lips. “It tastes like the sun.”

  I smile. “I’ll have to lay out and tan more often then. I was topless this time.”

  “I wish I could see that.”

  “I can lay around topless inside.”

  “I mean you in the sun.” He presses a little harder against the bite wounds, needing to apply pressure for a good minute before the bleeding stops.

  I rake my fingers through his messy hair. I accidentally cast a spell to make windows filter out the harmful light of the sun. And I know moonstone absorbs enough sunlight to burn him.

  “Maybe you can. I might be able to figure out a way.”

  “I can, through the window.”

  “I know, but I mean I might be able to figure out a way for you to day-walk.”

  And if I did figure out a way to allow a vampire to walk in the sunlight, the Grand Coven would have my head for sure.

  Chapter 17

  I feel a little dizzy when I sit up, which Lucas warned me about. Anytime he drinks a decent amount of my blood, he always babies me for the next few hours while my body heals.

  “Are you all right, my love?” Lucas pulls his sweatpants back on and speeds over. I sit back down on the mattress and blink a few times.

  “Yeah. Just dizzy like you said.”

  “Lie back down. I’ll bring you water.”

  “I can get it.”

  “I know.” He’s already grabbing the blanket to tuck me back in. “And I can too.” He kisses my forehead and speeds out of the room, returning a few seconds later with a glass of water. I take a big drink and set it on the nightstand.

  “Do you have to work tonight?”

  “I’m done going over the bookkeeping, but I did plan on going in. I allowed Dina to feed last night so her fangs would grow back. I plan to rip them out again after I question her.”

  “What if she gives you answers?”

  “I’ll still rip them out, as I will continue to do for the rest of her afterlife. She bit you. Tasted your blood. She hurt you.” Anger flashes in Lucas’s eyes, and to anyone else, he’d look terrifying right now. “I will find out who sent her and do the same to them.”

  “I almost forgot vampire bounty hunters were after me.” I reach for my water again and take another drink. “What does that say about my life? It’s so full of danger and drama that I forgot a group of vampires are against assimilation and want me dead.”

  “They want you for something, but not dead. Not yet at least.”

  “The Grand Coven knows we’re together. Those rogue vamps know. The Vampire Council will find out soon enough.” I let out a snort of laughter. “Breaking us apart might be the only thing the Grand Coven and the VC ever agree on.”

  “That would be a first.”

  I finish the water and slowly get up and go to the dresser to get myself a pair of underwear. Most of my clothes are at my house in Thorne Hill and I usually pack just enough for a few days at a time when I come here. It’s kind of annoying, but I don’t have enough clothes to split evenly between both houses.

  We’ll be together in Thorne Hill soon enough.

  I put the black romper I’d worn earlier back on and go into the bathroom to brush out my hair. Lucas and I go downstairs together, and I head right into the kitchen. I need to eat after he drinks my blood, or I’ll start to feel sick later.

  “Do you want me to cook for you?” he asks.

  “Why do I get the feeling you want to cook?”

  “It’s a challenge,” he says with a smile. “I’ve mastered toast now.”

  “You have,” I laugh. “And sure, that would be really sweet. I’m still craving mac and cheese and there’s a box of it in the pantry.”

  Lucas turns, having to look around the kitchen for the pantry. I don’t think he’s ever opened it before.

  “You think you can handle it?” I ask as he reads the instructions on the box.

  “This is rather simple.”

  “You say that now,” I tease and sit at the island counter. My purse is on the barstool next to me, and the feather is inside. I pull it out, stroking the spine with my finger. Lucas turns, opening and closing his cabinets.

  “The pots are in the lazy Susan,” I tell him, tucking the feather under the counter. “It’s that corner cabinet over there.” I point to it, finding it amusing that he has no idea where anything is in his own kitchen.

  I keep the feather in my lap and steal a glance down at it, like a kid sneaking looks at a cell phone in class. I don’t know why I want to keep this a secret. Maybe because I can’t explain why I like it?

  “What are you doing?” Eliza comes into the kitchen, stopping short when she sees Lucas at the stove.

  “Making Callie lunch.” Lucas fills the pot with water and sets it on the oven.

  “But that’s human food.”

  “She’s human.”

  Eliza wrinkles her nose. “Speaking of lunch, mine is on the way. Then I’m going to bed.”

  “Clean up after yourself,” Lucas tells her, and I snicker. She really is like his fully grown child. Giving Lucas an annoyed glare, Eliza saunters off, waiting for, well, I’m not sure.

  “Eliza doesn’t drink bottled blood, right?” I ask.

  “No, I won’t allow it.” Lucas steps back and stares at the pot of water, waiting for it to boil.

  “So, when she said her lunch is coming here, she means a person?”

  “Yes. There is a service to order from. You pick who you want, and they come to you.”

  “I’ve heard of that.” I run the feather over the inside of my palm. “And the protests against it.”

  “Your father led one of the biggest.”

  “Ugh, don’t even bring him up.” I shudder. “I say what people want to do with their own bodies is their own choice. As long as they’re not hurting anyone, right?”

  “I’ve always agreed with that.”

  I stick the feather back in my purse when Lucas isn’t looking and get up, going over to the pot. “I can cheat.” Holding my hands over it, I magically bring the water to a boil.

  Lucas smiles and dumps the noodles into the pot. “Get some wine and sit down. I’ll bring you the food when it’s done.”

  I don’t have the heart to tell him if I drank wine right now, I’d be drunk after two sips. He’s trying hard to be involved in every aspect of my life. Teaching himself how to cook means more to me than I expected.

  Pouring myself another cup of coffee, I go back to the counter and look through Pinterest, showing Lucas different ideas for the kitchen. We’ve been in Chicago for a few days and I’m looking forward to going back to Thorne Hill to see how much progress has been done on the house.

  “I wish they could put the pool in now,” I joke. “But I know it would end up being a mess of dust and scrap and whatever else they take out of the house.”

  “Once the structural damage has been fixed, it shouldn’t be too messy. Maybe by the fall.”

  “It’s too cold in the fall for me to swim.”

  “How cold is too cold for you?”

  “It kind of depends. If the water is warm and the sun is out, probably like seventy-five. We could get a hot tub and use it year-round.”

  “Okay,” he agrees right away.

  “And a stable full of white ponies,” I add just to see what he’ll say.

  “Wouldn’t you rather have a horse? You’re too tall for a pony.” He turns around with a smile. “And white doesn’t suit you. You need a black horse, like a Friesian.”

  �
��Ohhh, those are pretty. I took riding lessons before my father sold me to science, and someone at the stable had a pair of Friesians. I was a kid then, obviously, and I remember them being huge.”

  “If you want horses, I’ll get you horses. It’s been a while since I’ve owned any.”

  “I didn’t know you even liked horses.”

  “In my human life, we depended on them. As a vampire, I could cover more ground on my own, but still traveled on horseback. I owned racehorses for years but got out of the business.”

  “How come?”

  “I didn’t like seeing the horses mistreated. I might have drained a few owners and thought it was best to find a new interest to invest my time and money into.”

  “Wait a minute.” I hold up my hand. “You killed humans who mistreated their horses?”

  “Yes,” he says as if he can’t see the issue with it.

  “Just when I thought I couldn’t love you more…” I laugh and the doorbell rings. “I’ll get it,” I call to Eliza, not sure how she was planning on answering the door. Though if this is a vampire meal delivery service, I’m sure they’re used to walking into houses during daytime hours.

  “Send her upstairs,” Eliza tells me and speeds up the curved staircase. I give her another few seconds to move out of the sun before opening the door.

  “Hi,” I say awkwardly to the woman standing on the porch. She’s wearing a tight red dress, big hoop earrings, and heels so tall I’m not sure how she can balance. If she got up this morning and decided to look like a cheap hooker, she succeeded. The neighbors will be talking today, that’s for sure. “Come in.”

  She smiles and steps inside. “Wow, this place is sweet. Should I take off my shoes?”

  I close the door behind her. “Uh, probably. They don’t look very comfortable.”

  “I got those Botox shots in my feet and don’t feel pain anymore.”

  “That’s a thing?”

  “Oh yeah! I can give you the number of a doc who’ll come right out to your house and do it.” She’s too chipper. Way too fucking chipper for someone who’s about to be bitten.

  “Uh, no thanks.” I sweep my hand out at the stairs. “She’s upstairs. The door should be open.”

  “Thanks, honey!” The woman jogs up the stairs and I’m left staring. Shaking myself, I go back into the kitchen.

  “If I did cocaine and you drank from me, it would effect you, right?” I ask Lucas.

  “Depends on how much you did and how much I drink.” His brows push together. “Why? Do you have some?”

  “Gross, no. But that meal-on-heels that just got here for Eliza is very hyper. I’m not saying she’s on drugs, it just crossed my mind.”

  “She probably took a B12 shot before she got here. Most do.” Lucas opens another cabinet and pulls out vitamins. “Speaking of, you should take these.”

  I fill up my cup with water to wash down the B12 and iron supplements. “I have a favor to ask you.” I toss the pills in my mouth and take a drink of water. One gets stuck on my tongue and Lucas looks at me with a blank stare as I gag and cough. I hold up my hand, letting him know I’m okay. I take another drink and finally get the pill down.

  “If it’s sex, yes.”

  “It’s not sex. It has to do with a dead body, though.”

  “You want me to bury the body from last night?”

  “The opposite. I want the police to find it so he can be ID’d. His family will be notified then.”

  Lucas stirs the macaroni and sticks his finger in the boiling water to test to see if they’re soft enough.

  “That fast-healing thing must be nice,” I grumble.

  “It is.” He turns off the burner and takes the pot over to the sink.

  “You need a colander.”

  “A what?”

  “Actually…I don’t think you have one. And I have a way around it. Tip it in the sink and I’ll hold it.”

  “But you’ll burn—oh, with magic.”

  “Comes in handy from time to time.” Lucas drains the water and then adds the milk, butter, and cheese powder.

  “You call this cheese?”

  “I do. Some don’t. Nevertheless, it’s a staple in most American homes. It was the one thing Evander could make when we were kids. Tabatha wouldn’t let us use the stove when she wasn’t home until he was like thirteen. But we could use magic to boil water, so we ate it all the time.”

  “Why did you return home to the Martins after you lived with Tabatha and Evander?” Lucas mixes everything up and then dishes half of it onto a plate for me. And then he gives me a fork.

  That is not how you eat mac and cheese. He’ll learn eventually.

  “I only went back a few times, and it wasn’t until I could defend myself that I stayed alone. Mostly, I wanted to see Abby. I was worried she’d be mistreated or something. She doesn’t have powers, but without me taking the spot, she kind of became a black sheep. Most visits were only a day trip with Tabatha there with me, but one summer when I was sixteen, Tabatha and Evander were visiting family and I didn’t want to intrude.”

  “I take it your family treated you like shit then too.”

  “Oh, of course. My father tried to keep me out of the house, but then someone tipped off the press that I was back, and that’s when my father spun that stupid tale about me being off in a third world country, devoting my life to the less fortunate. He had no choice but to let me stay at the house or else it would look bad. I just wanted to spend time with Abby, but she chose an internship at a hospital over hanging out with me. Now I know she agreed because she was scared of our father, but at the time it felt like a betrayal. That’s actually what made us lose contact.”

  “She’s really making an effort now.”

  “Yeah, she is and it’s nice.” Lucas kisses the top of my head and leaves the kitchen. I blow on my mac and cheese to cool it down. My familiars trot into the room, wanting some for themselves.

  “It’s hot,” I warn, getting up to give them each a bowl. I trade my fork for a spoon while I’m up as well.

  “It’s done.” Lucas comes back into the room holding a cell phone.

  “What’s done?”

  “I tipped off the police that there is a body inside the building.”

  “You just called?” I take my seat at the island. “From your phone?”

  “It’s a burner. I keep a few for instances like this.”

  “For instances like calling in and reporting a body.”

  Lucas nods. “Yeah.”

  I laugh. “We are so normal it hurts.”

  Chapter 18

  When Eliza said we’d hang out and talk tonight, I assumed she meant at the house or maybe even a coffee house, even though she doesn’t drink coffee. I didn’t expect to be sitting at a table at the back of Taproom again, waiting for her to find time to come over as she tends the bar.

  Which is fine, actually. This place is familiar, and I cast a circle around myself to keep people from coming over and talking to me. Lucas is in the basement torturing Dina, and I’ve been debating if I should go down and join him.

  He’s probably more effective without me there. And sitting here by myself, I get to hold my feather.

  “I’ve officially lost it,” I whisper to myself and put the feather in my purse before I start calling it my precious. I open the internet on my phone and do another search to see if any articles have been written yet about the headless body. Is murder so common here in Chicago this guy doesn’t even get a mention?

  “We can talk now.” Eliza sits down across from me and looks at the time on her phone. “You have ten minutes.”

  “Good thing I wrote down a list of questions.”

  “You’re joking.”

  “I am, actually. I thought we’d hang out more like friends, not like an interview. But since I’m on the clock, I’ll start. What do you like to do for fun?”

  “Now why does it sound like you’re hitting on me?”

  “Wishful thinking
on your part,” I spit back and Eliza smiles.

  “Fine. Lately I’ve been on the hunt for particular antique items. There aren’t many flea markets open after dark, though. Makes it hard.”

  “What are you looking for? I can go,” I offer, and Eliza just stares at me. “It’s not like I have much else to do these days. I’d like to stay busy to keep me distracted.”

  “From demons?”

  “Well, yeah, but on how I’m not part of my coven right now and how that lying bitch, Ruth, has weaseled her way into the Grand Coven.”

  Eliza presses her lips together and inhales, looking disturbingly human. “That must be hard. I’ve never belonged to a group like that, but I can imagine how tightly bonded you all are.”

  “Thank you. And yeah…I’m not close with every single person in the coven. There are too many for that. But the Covenstead and the Academy…that’s my home.”

  “You really went to witch school?”

  I nod. “I’m not supposed to tell vampires about it.”

  “One of the first things I heard you say was how you have a tendency to do the opposite of what’s good for you.”

  “Hah, isn’t that the truth.”

  “How old are you?”

  “Twenty-five.”

  “You’ll be dead before you figure out how to do what’s good for you.”

  “That’s probably true,” I agree ruefully. “Either from old age or murder.”

  “My money is on murder.”

  I laugh and then Eliza does too. “There’s a neat antique store in Thorne Hill,” I tell her. “The owner is scared of vampires and closes right at sunset.”

  “Closing at sunset is too late to avoid vampires.”

  “I know. There are only two vampires in Thorne Hill right now.”

  “Must be young vampires. Most older ones would know to stay away from witches.”

  “They are young. Probably turned within the last ten years or so. I’ve stayed away, and they haven’t caused any trouble.”

  “What about the people in Thorne Hill.” Eliza rests her hands on the table. “It’s not just witches.”