by Zoe Arden
* * *
2 6
* * *
I dialed Damon’s number for the thirtieth time as I hit a mailbox and kept going.
“Darn it, Damon! Answer!” I flung my phone to the floor. It blared to life. My heart skipped a beat and I went to grab it, but it was only Colt.
“Hello?” I said.
“What in the wizard’s world are you doing?” he demanded. “Bring my car back right now.”
“I can’t. Damon’s in trouble.”
He was silent for no more than a second but it felt like an eternity. I knew I had just crossed a line with him by taking his car like that. I didn’t want to make him angry, but I couldn’t ignore the panic that had gripped me. Damon was in trouble. We may have had our share of problems lately, but I still cared for him. A lot.
“I’ll call Sheriff Knoxx. We’ll be there as soon as we can,” Colt said and hung up. I was grateful that he didn’t ask me anything else.
I got to Damon’s in record time. I was starting to rethink the idea that Sweetland Cove residents should walk everywhere. Having a car certainly had its perks.
Damon’s apartment building was ten stories. His apartment was only on the second floor. I parked in the lot closest to it and scanned the area for any signs of Polly. Or anyone else who shouldn’t be here. A man was walking his dog on the grass. A middle-aged woman was toting her ten-year-old child behind her as he screamed, “I don’t wanna go to the dentist!”
Nothing looked out of place, but then why wasn’t Damon answering his phone? I tried him one more time. Nothing. His living room window was visible from my car. I watched it closely. A shadowy figure moved in front of it. Crud. I had no way to tell if it was Polly, Slater, or Damon himself. The curtains were drawn.
I slowly opened the car door and stepped out, paying attention to everything around me. It was like my senses were on red alert. I walked up the staircase, feeling like I was being followed the whole time. I hesitated at the door.
Should I knock? If it was just Damon and his mom in there, then they’d answer and I’d know. I could warn them. If Polly, Slater, or her accomplice was in there, I’d alert them to my presence.
I didn’t have time to debate. I knocked lightly on the door. There was no answer. Colt and I had been here not more than an hour ago. I knew that someone was inside. I just didn’t know who.
Slowly, I turned the knob. It was locked. “Compressio momorandum,” I murmured and the knob turned. I opened the door an inch. Just enough to see inside with one eye. Nothing. If Polly was here, she could have incapacitated Damon and Renee. They might be tied up in his bedroom right now. I pushed the door open the rest of the way and stepped inside. There was a loud noise from the bedroom.
I crept down the hall, trying to stop my feet from making the floor creak. I got to the end of the hall. The bedroom door was standing open. I was about to turn into the room when Damon and I collided with each other.
“Aaaahhh!” I screamed.
“Aaaahhh!” he screamed.
Renee came running out of the room.
“What is she doing here?” Renee snapped, looking accusatorily at Damon.
“Don’t look at me, I don’t know,” Damon snapped back. He had his hand over his heart and was panting.
“You scared me to death,” I yelled.
“I scared you?! Are you serious?”
“Sorry,” I said.
“I think my mother asked a question. What are you doing here?” His blue eyes were dark. More black than blue. He was looking at me with contempt.
“I-I tried calling you.”
“I know. Didn’t you get the hint when I didn’t answer?”
“I thought you were in trouble.”
“Trouble?” His face softened slightly. “Why would you think that?”
“The Lover,” I babbled. “You’re the Lover. The last archetype.”
His eyes lightened, and the corners of his lips curved up. “Ava, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Not that I ever do.”
I blushed furiously as his mother stepped between us.
“Start making sense,” she snapped. “As far as I can tell, you broke into my son’s apartment.”
Before I could say anything, though, sirens squealed in the distance. We all went to the window and saw Sheriff Knoxx pull up. He and Colt jumped out of his car and ran up the stairs. Colt had his gun drawn.
“Whoa!” I yelled as they burst into the room a second later. We all put our hands up.
Colt and Sheriff Knoxx froze.
“Everything’s fine,” I told them. “It was a misunderstanding.”
“There was no misunderstanding,” Renee said. “This crazy witch broke into my son’s home.” Sheriff Knoxx looked at me, and Colt put his gun down.
“Like I was trying to tell you, I thought Damon was in trouble.”
“Trouble seems to follow him since he met you,” Renee said, irritated that no one was arresting me.
“Mom, stop it.” He turned to me. “What were you trying to tell me before, about the archetypes?”
I gave him a brief outline of what I’d learned, leaving out the part about me being cursed. I figured dropping one major bombshell at a time was enough. When I’d finished, Damon’s face was white as a sheet.
“So, you’re saying that Polly Peacock, or whoever’s helping her, are planning to kill me next?”
“Yes, I think so.”
Colt and the sheriff stood silently by, giving him time to process this information.
“You know what? My mom’s right. Trouble does follow me when you’re around. I’d like you to leave.”
“Damon, I’m sorry. It’s not my fault.”
He strode to the door and held it open for me. I moved toward it, my eyes pricking with tears. “I’m sorry,” I said again.
Colt and Sheriff Knoxx followed me out.
“I’ll place some of my men around your building to keep an eye on things,” Sheriff Knoxx said.
“And I’ll alert the Council,” Colt told him and Renee.
“Great,” Damon said. “Just what I need. More witches and wizards who draw trouble to them.” He shut the door.
I followed Colt back to his car.
“You wanna drive again?” he asked. There was a mixture of playful sarcasm and anger behind his voice.
“I’m sorry,” I told him. It seemed like I’d apologized a thousand times over in the last several minutes.
He sighed. “Just get in.” He opened the door for me, and I slipped into the passenger seat. Sheriff Knoxx was on his radio talking to Otis. My phone rang. It was Margaret. I’d forgotten all about her.
“Hi, I got your message and I’m on my way,” she said when I picked up.
“Margaret, I’m so sorry, I completely forgot to call you. Forget about meeting me at Melbourne’s.”
“Are you sure? I got stuck at Whisper Crossing—there was a stubborn Wildebeest blocking the road. It took me forever to get him to move—but I’m free of it now.”
“No, it’s fine.” I filled her in on everything that had happened, including the part about me being related to Sara Sweetland. I saw Colt shoot me a look when I told her that, even though I left out the part about the curse. I wasn’t sure I wanted to share that with anyone just yet. Melbourne had been right when he’d said I might want to hear that information alone. I was glad now that he’d made Colt wait outside. I didn’t know why it mattered. Maybe it was just that I didn’t want Colt to look at me differently, the way Damon did.
When had life gotten so complicated?
Colt dropped me off outside my house. “I’m going to make a quick call to headquarters and then I’ll be in.”
“Okay. I’m going to bed.”
He nodded.
“Don’t worry, Ava. You sleep tonight. I’ll be up.” He popped some of his peppy extract. I felt bad knowing that he’d be up all night, but I knew his point had not been to make me feel guilty. It had been to make me fee
l safe.
“Thanks,” I said before going to the door.
My foot crunched on something as I inserted my key into the knob. I stooped down to see what it was and gasped. Under my foot lay a smooth, green stone with red veins running through it. Etched on its side was the symbol for death.
* * *
2 7
* * *
I knew I was dead. There was one day left until the Wolf Moon began. We had no idea where Slater was. No idea where Polly was. And no idea who was helping her.
I texted Damon. Even though he didn’t want to speak to me right now, I still needed to know he was okay.
U ALRITE? I hit send.
A minute later, my phone flashed at me.
YES
That was it. He didn’t ask how I was or even if there was any news on Polly and Slater. Maybe Sheriff Knoxx was keeping him in the loop. I didn’t know, but it would have been nice if he could have at least—
“Stop it,” I yelled at myself. “Just stop.”
If Damon wanted to talk to me, he would. If not, then it wasn’t meant to be. I’d already decided that, so why was this so difficult for me? In my heart of hearts, did I really think that Damon and I had a future together? Plus, as I had learned in this last week, he was kind of a mama’s boy.
My door opened and a wet, pink nose poked its way in. I smiled as Snowball’s head appeared.
“Hi, fuzzball,” I said.
Snowball ran and jumped onto my bed.
“Snowball does not like fuzzball.”
“I know, Snowy likes Snowy or Snowball,” I said, stroking her white fur. “Mama’s sorry. I’ll try to do better.”
She accepted my apology with a lick of her tongue and a nudge of her head.
“Aunties said to give you message,” Snowball said when she’d decided that I’d scratched her chin sufficiently.
“What’s the message?” I asked.
“Go to bakery. Do not spy on people.”
My mouth dropped open. “I haven’t been spying on anyone! If anything, people are spying on me.”
“Does Mama mean detective man? He spies on many.”
“Colt. And yes, that’s exactly who I mean. But it’s sort of his job to spy.”
“Snowball likes detective man.”
“You do?” I asked, surprised. I had no idea that he and Snowball had even spoken.
“He gives Snowball tuna. Snowball likes tuna.”
“When did he give you tuna?” I asked, completely taken aback by Snowball’s remark. I couldn’t remember seeing Colt scratch her head, let alone feed her tuna.
“At night. Snowball keeps him company while he works. Snowball and detective man are good friends since Snowball tricked him.”
“You mean, he wasn’t mad that you helped me that time?”
“No. Detective man says Snowball is a very good familiar and also a good spy, like him.”
“Really? Does he give you tuna every night?”
“Only when Snowball completes her project.”
“What project?”
“Snowball patrols the neighborhood. Snowball goes to places people cannot because they are too big to fit.”
“Have you found anything interesting?”
Snowball scrunched her face up.
“Snowball does not think so, but detective man did.”
“Oh? What did detective man find interesting?”
“Snowball saw a man walking down street at night. He was wearing black and wanting to be secret.”
“When was this?”
“Last night.”
“Do you know who it was?”
“Snowball does not know. Snowball has not seen man before.”
“Where did he go?” I asked.
“Auntie Trixie’s vampire friend.”
“He went to Melbourne’s?” I wondered if Snowball was talking about Vlaski.
“Yes. He stayed long time with Auntie Trixie’s vampire friend. Vampire friend was mad when secret man left.”
“You did good, Snowball. Is detective man downstairs now?”
Snowball nodded.
“Well, you go tell him to give you more tuna. Tell him Mama said so.”
“More tuna?” Snowy’s eyes lit up. “Thank you, Mama.” Snowball licked my face and ran downstairs, her tail wagging.
When I joined her, she was already on her second helping. Colt grinned sheepishly at me. “I had a cat growing up,” he said, shrugging. “Mustang was all white, just like Snowball.”
“You’re cute when you get that childlike look on your face.”
What the—?
Did I just say that out loud? My face turned fifty shades of pink. Colt, mercifully, pretended like he didn’t notice.
“Um, what’s this Snowball’s been telling me?” I asked, quickly changing the subject. “Did Vlaski pay another visit to Melbourne last night?”
Colt looked at Snowball. “Ratted me out, did you?”
Snowball looked up from her tuna. “Snowball tells Mama everything,” she said and went back to eating.
“I don’t understand what Vlaski’s doing here in Sweetland Cove,” Colt said. “I checked his file last night. The last time he was seen was fifty years ago in the Ukraine. No one even knew he was here.”
“Hmm. Maybe Trixie can shed some light on things?”
“Trixie?”
“Yeah. She’s been hanging around Melbourne a lot lately. Maybe he said something to her.”
“I’ll go with you to the bakery,” Colt said, taking up his coat. For the first time, I noticed the gun on his shoulder strap. I’d seen it in his hand at Damon’s the other day, but I’d never actually seen it on him like this. It kind of freaked me out.
He caught me staring at it. “It’s just a precaution. I don’t always carry it, but given the circumstances...”
“Do you have other weapons on you?” I asked.
He lifted his pant leg and revealed a metallic wand with a crystal tip.
“A wand?” I asked.
“Not exactly. More like... a wand plus.”
“Plus what?”
“Imagine a machine gun, a blow torch, and a wand all rolled into one.”
“Wow.”
“Precisely.”
At the bakery, I could see that Eleanor was frazzled. My father was running around helping where he could. He was really getting good at things. He put together a box of a dozen cloud cupcakes like the mile-high frosting on top was no big deal. The frosting was literally a foot high, yet the cupcakes never wavered in his arms as he boxed them up.
“I was worried that business might slow down because of what happened with Paisley,” Eleanor said, “but if anything, we’re busier than ever.”
I looked at the line wrapped around the corner and knew it was the old gossip mill in full swing. Everyone wanted to see where Paisley had bit the big one. It was kind of twisted.
“Is Trixie in back?” I asked. Normally it was Eleanor who was in back, putting together her cakes while Trixie dealt with the customers.
“Yes, we needed more lavender frosting. And Venus chocolate. And bubble gum. And we have a list of extracts for you when you think you can find the time.” She shot me a look.
“I promise I’ll get to the list if I’m still alive after tomorrow.”
“The safest place for you right now is in the bakery. Just look around. Who’s gonna get to you here?” I hadn’t told her or anyone about the stone I’d found on the doorstep last night. I knew that Colt would never have let me out of the house, and my aunts and father would just worry themselves to death.
“I’ll go find Trixie,” I told Eleanor, ignoring her question, and made my way through the crowd.
Colt took up a spot by the door. He folded his hands together and stood straight, his back to the wall where he could survey everyone who entered.
I went into the back and found Trixie elbow deep in a five-foot bowl of yellow frosting. She was adding some sort of syrup to it.
<
br /> “Hi,” she said when she saw me.
“Hi.” There was no point beating around the bush. I didn’t have that sort of time. “Do you know why Melbourne is hanging around with Vlaski Ambrose?”
Trixie almost fell into the bowl she was working with.
“What are you talking about?” she screeched.
“Vlaski Ambrose,” I repeated. “He’s a vampire from the Ukraine. I met him at Melbourne’s house the other day.”
“You did not!” Trixie cried.
Her reaction was much stronger than I’d anticipated. She’d clearly heard of Vlaski before.
“Yes, I did.”
Trixie’s mouth drew up into a tight little bow that I’d never seen on her before.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m trying to control my anger right now,” she said, closing her eyes and taking a breath. “Melbourne is in so much trouble when I see him again.”
“Why?”
She let out a stream of air that hissed through her teeth. When she started stirring the frosting again, it was much more violent. Her fist pounded into the frosting over and over as she mixed it up. She was using it like a punching bag.
“Um... Trixie?”
“He promised me he wouldn’t see that man.” Trixie pounded into the frosting one more time and looked up at me. “After Pennyweather died, he took it hard. So hard, that he wrote to Vlaski, asking if there was any way to... bring her back.”
“I gasped. Bring her back?”
Trixie nodded. “I thought I’d talked him out of it, but if Vlaski’s here...”
“But... can you turn a person who’s already dead?”
Trixie shrugged. “Vlaski claims he can.”
I thought it was more than just Vlaski’s presence here that was bothering her. It was the fact that Melbourne was clearly not over his deceased girlfriend. It was sad but sweet. I felt bad for Trixie. She clearly liked Melbourne more than he liked her. At least, right now. I opened my mouth to tell her that could change one day, when my dad poked his head in back.
“Ava, Sheriff Knoxx is here. He wants to talk to you.”
I went out front to find Sheriff Knoxx deep in conversation with Colt.
