by Traci Wilton
He stopped and whirled, his cape settling at his sides. “This is no costume. I am a vampire.”
“Yes, I heard. From a coven in New Orleans.” Charlene refused to blink as he pinned her with his dark eyes—he needed to know that Serenity had friends and loved ones around her.
“Do not mock what you don’t understand.” He dove into the crowd.
Charlene rubbed her bare arms, a little spooked by his adamant declaration.
Salem on October 31 was famous for its parties, witches, and supposed paranormal activities. She had friends who believed it to be the most haunted city in the world. She lived with Dr. Jack Strathmore, spectral resident of her mansion, where he’d been murdered. Who was she to say that vampires weren’t real?
She followed Alaric into the room. Music boomed around them as the party raved. Her guests, Gabriel and Emma LaFleur from Georgia, were Raggedy Andy and Raggedy Ann. Olivia and Andrew Patterson had gone the witch route, as had her single female guest, Celeste Devries. Malena and Judd Hernandez decided not to match—Malena was a naughty nurse, and Judd, a pretty scary Frankenstein. Tommy Ramirez and Joey Tuft, both friends with Celeste, wore baseball costumes. Celeste ignored her guys in favor of a lanky vampire with sharp features and sexy steps.
Charlene chatted for a second with Chloe, wishing she could nominate their Dalmatian costumes, then passed Brandy as she headed toward the photo booth and the punch bowl. She never had gotten her drink.
“Hey!” Brandy called. “Charlene. Meet Orpheus.”
Orpheus? Brandy was still cutting a rug with the beautiful guy in the zoot suit. He had swarthy skin, thick dark hair, and a thousand-watt smile. “Hello.”
“He swears it’s his real name.” Brandy teased the man, who took it with good graces—as he should. Brandy was his visual equal in every way. “Let’s get more punch. That’s where you were headed, right?”
Charlene nodded and maneuvered through the crowd to the long table with a large punch bowl surrounded by plastic pumpkins.
“May I?” Orpheus asked in a Southern drawl that made Charlene think of the bayou, swamps, and crocodiles. He ladled punch into cups and handed one to Brandy, and then Charlene, before serving himself.
“Thank you.” Charlene drank, the tart sangria quenching her thirst.
Brandy emptied her pumpkin and held it out to Orpheus for a refill. He laughingly obliged. “I have a flask, if you’d like somethin’ stronger.”
“Now, where are you from with manners like that?” Brandy flirted.
“New Orleans.” He half bowed.
Brandy scowled and searched the crowd. “Do you know Alaric?” She pointed her pumpkin toward Alaric and Serenity. A pretty woman of about thirty-five, also pale, with black curly hair, moved like a succubus around Alaric, touching him, kissing him.
Charlene’s heart sank as Serenity allowed the other woman into the circle.
Brandy’s eyes blazed. “Who is that tramp?”
Orpheus offered Brandy the flask, which she accepted, downing a quick shot, her focus on her daughter, the woman, and Alaric.
Charlene figured now was not the time to explain the scene she’d witnessed in the lobby. “Let’s have lunch tomorrow, Brandy.”
Brandy arched her brow but gave a nod. The ballroom door smacked open hard enough to shake the wall.
“Oh no. Dru.” Brandy stepped into the multitude, dragging Charlene by the hand. Orpheus remained by the punch.
Dru Ormand, Serenity’s ex-boyfriend, swayed and grasped the wall to steady himself, searching the room. He wore jeans, a black T-shirt, and no jacket, though it was chilly fall weather outside. His brown hair was rumpled and he smelled like whiskey.
Dru spied the rowan tree and headed in that direction. He halted abruptly when he saw Alaric, Serenity, and the other woman dancing provocatively. “Serenity!” Charging into the middle of the trio, he shoved Alaric backward and stood protectively in front of Serenity.
“What are you doing, Dru?” Serenity tugged on his shoulder.
Dru shook her off. “Stay away from her!” he yelled at Alaric.
“She’s mine, boy,” Alaric said with a sneer.
Dru hauled back his clenched fist and punched Alaric in the face. Alaric righted himself and brought his finger to his lip. His eyes smoldered. “That was a mistake.”
Serenity jumped between them, pulling Dru toward the exit. “You’re drunk!” she shouted. “Stop it.”
“He’s a freak, Serenity. I went to his place.”
Alaric lunged for Dru. “You broke into my home? You’ll pay for that transgression.”
“You’re not a vampire,” Dru told Alaric, then turned to Serenity, pleading, “He’s just a dude. Bleeds the same as the rest of us. I busted his lip.”
Alaric flicked his tongue to the corner of his mouth.
“He’s going to prove it, Dru. You’ll see.” Serenity left Dru to stand by Alaric. Alaric kissed her deeply.
Dru groaned and allowed Stephanos to lead him toward the door. “Let’s go, son. I’ll call you a cab.”
Evelyn removed the mask of bark from her face. “Sleep it off, Dru. Things will be brighter in the morning.”
“How can you take his side, Grandma?” Serenity put her hands on her hips. “You don’t understand. I love Alaric. I love him.” Her voice tripped.
“I love him too,” the other woman said, putting her arm through Serenity’s.
Lucas urged the band to play and the partiers danced like Dru’s interruption never happened. Stephanos brushed by Charlene, ushering the ex-boyfriend to the lobby.
Charlene had met him once with Serenity at the vineyard. Whiskey wafted off the kid like he’d slept in a keg.
“I’ve called a ride for you.” Stephanos clapped Dru on the shoulder.
“I love Serenity,” Dru slurred. “That guy’s an old creeper. Ain’t no such thing as vampires. I went into his house, Stephanos, and he has blood in the fridge. No lie. Where did it come from? If he’s a real vamp, why does he have it stored like that?”
Charlene tensed, thinking she must have heard wrong.
“We’ll straighten it out later, Dru.” Stephanos’s jaw clenched with concern and he glanced into the ballroom.
Dru bowed his head. “He’s rich and promised to take her traveling all over the world. How can I compete with that? I’ll kill him for stealing her away!”
“Hush, now.” Stephanos led Dru out to the street.
“Charlene!” Celeste, flanked by Tommy and Joey, called for her. “Come take a picture in the photo booth with us. I want to remember this night forever.”
Charlene allowed herself to be pulled toward the picture station, noting the time when Stephanos returned to speak with Evelyn. Eleven o’clock. Only one hour left to choose a king and queen.
Halfway to the booth, Celeste released Charlene to dance to “Zombie” by the Cranberries. “My favorite!” Celeste screeched.
Laughing, Charlene let her go and spent the next half hour studying the dancers and their costumes. A whoopee cushion, a serial killer, and the pirate with the stuffed parrot were a few of her faves. At eleven-thirty, Lucas, Stephanos, and Charlene escaped to the hotel bar to cast their votes for king and queen.
“I say the alien as king and the Aphrodite for queen. She’s six feet of stunning.” Lucas tapped the bar top. “Charlene?”
“The alien is phenomenal. The pirate’s really great too,” Charlene said. “That parrot on his shoulder seems real.”
“The pirate is a local author who’s won before.” Lucas drank his beer. “Patrick.”
“Oh.” Charlene set her fan down. “Aphrodite is good too, but what about the rowan tree?”
“What a tree!” Stephanos reflected.
“Evelyn has also won before—maybe we should give others a chance to wear the crown?” Lucas suggested.
Charlene sipped her glass of red she’d finally had time to order. “Let me look again.” She brought her wine and peeked into the ballroom.
There were the Dalmatians, Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy. Witchy Celeste, dancing with the baseball players, and her lanky vampire, the naughty nurse spanking her Frankenstein. Charlene hoped they didn’t regret that in the morning.
Brandy and Orpheus were skilled dance partners. Serenity and Alaric remained chest to chest as if it were a slow number and not rock and roll. Elisabeta pirouetted in their periphery, her gaze locked on them in a way that gave Charlene the creeps.
Aphrodite had long blond hair and a shield that she’d put just a touch more work into compared to the silvery leaves on the rowan tree. The alien definitely had more detail to his costume than the pirate.
Charlene returned to the bar, knowing they were making the right choices. “I vote for Aphrodite and the alien.”
“What a king and queen!” Lucas rubbed his hands together.
The three judges went into the ballroom at ten minutes till midnight. Lucas joined the band to borrow the microphone, and Stephanos stood with Charlene just a few feet away, near the door.
The music stopped and people booed at the interruption of getting their groove on.
“It’s time to announce our king and queen,” Lucas said. “Each will win five hundred dollars.”
Alaric and his female friend, Elisabeta, took advantage of the quiet to clear the center of the ballroom. The vampire who had danced with Celeste used a wooden stake to form a shape on the floor around Alaric.
“A pentagram,” Brandy whispered, clutching Charlene’s arm. Orpheus was across the room by the band, his gaze intent on Alaric. Had he ever answered Brandy about knowing him?
“What’s going on?” Lucas rattled the microphone.
“Some of you doubt my power!” Alaric’s voice echoed theatrically around the room. “I will prove that I am Alaric. Vampire. Eternal. I am death, reborn.”
He reached toward Serenity, who watched, bright-eyed, with the pretty woman at her side. She grasped the star sapphire with slender fingers. “You will join me, Serenity, my necromancer, my witch, my love. We will reign the underworld together. Forever.”
Orpheus stepped toward Alaric with an expression of outrage.
Brandy straightened in horror. “What did he just say?”
“I believe you, Alaric. My king.” Serenity lifted the pendant. “Is it time?”
“Two minutes till the stroke of midnight!” He had the whole crowd enthralled, waiting for what would happen next. “I am Alaric.”
“Alaric,” the woman next to Serenity chanted. “Alaric.” The lanky vampire had gathered other people to chant as well; Celeste, Tommy, and Joey. “Alaric.”
Charlene’s skin had goose bumps from the electric energy in the air. The band joined in the countdown to midnight like New Year’s Eve. What would Alaric do?
At midnight, the lights cut off and the ballroom plunged into darkness. The door slammed closed. A woman giggled in fear. Charlene, next to the exit, tried to open it but the knob wouldn’t turn. Her pulse skipped.
Stephanos pounded on the wooden door.
Apprehension raced through Charlene as her sight grew accustomed to the shadows. “Is it locked?”
“Yes.” Stephanos slammed his fist hard against it.
The door opened from the lobby side and a man in a gorilla costume asked, “What happened?”
Stephanos flipped on the switch and light bathed the ballroom. Charlene’s gaze went to where Alaric had made his stand—his black-and-purple cloak was flat on the ground. Where was Alaric?
Serenity, one hand to her lips, raised the cloak to reveal a wooden stake with red on the tip. The young witch fainted.
CHAPTER 2
Charlene froze where she stood near the door as Brandy cut through the restless crowd toward Serenity. “Stephanos, where is Alaric?”
“I have no idea. Come on. Let’s help the Flints.”
Stephanos was a big man with snow-white hair and a powerful presence. Folks yielded for them as he tugged her through the clustered mass to reach Brandy.
Brandy knelt at Serenity’s side. She shook her daughter’s shoulders to rouse her, then lightly smacked her cheeks.
A woman in a white-gauze mummy costume hustled toward them. “I’m a doctor. Give her room.”
Chloe, her voice muffled by her Dalmatian mask, said, “What an amazing performance! This just made the night go from great to unforgettable. Where’s Alaric?”
Her husband touched the dog tag at his collar. “He’ll come through the door any minute. There’s really nothing under that cloak? Why a stake? Oh.” Braydon laughed. “ ’Cause stakes are supposed to kill vampires.”
Charlene eyed the red tip on the wood stick in alarm. Could that actually be blood? What was the point of Alaric’s trick?
Evelyn arrived with her handbag and got between Serenity and the mummy, not an easy task to kneel in her tree trunk. She took a little jar out of her bag and put the scent under Serenity’s nose.
Serenity’s eyes slowly opened and she lifted her head. “What happened?”
Brandy drew her close. “Oh, my baby, you scared me to death.”
“Where’s Alaric? He was right here.” Serenity’s voice rose in panic and she struggled free of her mother’s embrace. “It worked, then. The spell. Why is there a stick next to me with—with—is that blood?”
The mummy retreated. “If you need anything else, I’ll be at my table.”
Evelyn and Brandy helped Serenity to her feet. They clung together until Serenity pushed away. “Who was that woman?”
“She was somebody’s mummy,” Evelyn said, deadpan.
The crowd close enough to hear laughed nervously.
“What did you mean, spell?” Brandy asked Serenity.
Serenity clutched her star sapphire pendant with shaky fingers. “It’s nothing, Mom. I need to use the restroom. I’ll be right back.” She hurried out of the ballroom.
Charlene noticed that Alaric’s friend Elisabeta followed her. Celeste and the lanky vampire were in a loud discussion by the door.
“What did he say to you?” Celeste demanded. “Tell me how he did it.”
“I can’t. It’s magic.” He swung her into his arms. “Come on, let’s dance.”
“There’s no music,” Celeste said, giggling.
The band had taken a break while waiting for the winners of the contest to be announced. Lucas tapped the microphone to get people’s attention, and feedback screeched through the speakers.
Charlene winced.
Stephanos, Evelyn, and Brandy made a triangle around the cloak. Charlene, not very mobile thanks to her hooped skirts, peered down at the hardwood floor. The rumpled cloak. The wooden stake.
She straightened and searched the room for the vampire. Beneath the fluorescent lights it was easy to see faces and hair. None, however, matched Alaric.
“Where could he have disappeared to?” Charlene whispered. She stepped on the floorboards around where he’d lain. Intact. She looked up and made out the shadows of folks peering down from the mezzanine.
“It’s an act!” Tommy declared. “He’s a magician—you know, like that Angel dude.”
“Darnedest thing I’ve ever seen,” the mummy said. “I hope he comes back now that it’s after midnight.”
“It was very clever.” Celeste gave a side-glance to her new best friend. In the light, the tall, skinny vampire with sharp features had pale-blue eyes lined with black. Dark-brown hair had loosened from its slicked-back coif.
Charlene kept her voice low and directed her question to Brandy and Stephanos. “Why hasn’t Alaric returned, if it was an act? And what about that stake?”
“Don’t touch it,” Stephanos advised. “You think the blood is real?”
“Yes. Technically, there’s been no crime. I still think I should call Sam. Detective Holden. Just in case.” Those instincts she listened to more often than she should were screaming that something wasn’t right.
Maybe for once she’d earn some brownie points. “The blood
is probably fake, Charlene,” Brandy said defensively.
“It’s Samhain, the Wiccan festival celebrating the end of the harvest and abundance.” Evelyn’s concerned gaze flicked toward the stake. “Which somehow translates into fake blood and gore you can get at any store.”
Charlene studied the sticky red tip and drew her phone from her lace reticule hanging from her wrist. “I’ll text. If it turns out to be nothing, then I’ll take the ribbing.”
Stephanos glanced around, arms crossed. “I wish the vampire wannabe would fly down from the ceiling about now, with an explanation.”
She scrolled through her phone for Sam’s number. “Alaric’s attempting to lure Serenity to the dark side and promised her a lifetime with him—as long as she accepted this other woman as his partner too. Elisabeta, I think her name is.” Charlene scanned the room for either woman, but they must not have returned from the restroom yet.
Stephanos combed his fingers through his thick white hair. “What kind of names are those, anyway?”
Odd. Dramatic. Charlene couldn’t see Orpheus in the horde either. “Lucas is waving at us. Guess the party must go on.” She nudged the cloak near the stake and stood in front of it so nobody stepped on it.
“It’s time,” Stephanos agreed. “Let’s announce our king and queen before the suspense kills them.” He gestured to where Lucas waited. “Coming?”
“Be right there. I’m going to text Sam first. I mean, Detective Holden.”
He pulled on his brocade vest. “The whole town knows you two are chummy; you sure can’t hide it from me.”
She drew her exquisite lace fan to cover her face, leaving her eyes—made up in silver sparkles—unveiled. “Why, sir, Southern belles don’t get chummy, not even with dashing detectives.”
Stephanos laughed and rushed toward Lucas. Charlene eyed the cloak.
“I’ll guard the stake,” Brandy offered. “You do your thing, Judge.”
“Thanks.” Charlene flounced away in her hooped dress, texting her detective. Sam. Any chance you can drop by the witch ball at the Hawthorne? Bring one of those plastic bags. It’s probably nothing.
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy, aka Emma and Gabriel, rested at a table with fresh cocktails before them.
