Zero Hour

by Kimbra Swain

“What?”

  “Get down.” He ducked behind a fallen tree.

  “What is it?” I whispered.

  We peeked over the tree to see her standing in a clearing talking to the man from the bar. She handed him something. He moved closer to her, and she didn’t flinch when he grabbed her hair behind her head. He sank his teeth into her neck.

  “Vampire!” I growled, jumping up to confront them.

  “Damn it,” Kyrie cursed, following behind me.

  I lifted my hand forming a large purple fireball above it. “Let her go!” I screamed.

  The man stepped away from her and put his hands up in surrender. She teetered on her feet from the blood loss.

  “She wanted it,” the vamp claimed.

  “You sick, perverted beast. How dare you say that?!” I growled.

  “You should probably step away from her,” Kyrie suggested. His eyes burned now like an exploding star. Sparkling dust swirled around his body as he held back his power. Not many had seen him like this, but I had. I knew what he could do.

  The vampire stepped away from the woman slowly.

  “Walk over to me, ma’am,” I said.

  She shook her head. “It’s not what you think,” she murmured.

  “He was drinking your blood. He watched you at the bar. We saw him,” I explained.

  “You don’t understand,” she said, as she sank to her knees.

  “Please let me help her. We are partners,” he said.

  “Why are you in the woods?” I asked.

  “Because I’m not registered,” he said.

  “You were just in the bar. You weren’t hiding there,” I spat at him.

  “That wasn’t me. He’s my twin brother, and yes, he’s trouble, but I’m not him. Jessa is my girlfriend. She was processed through the center today, but they had to close early because of the meeting. I didn’t get through, but my brother did. You should be watching him,” the vamp explained.

  “What’s your name?” Kyrie asked.

  “Do you believe him?” I shot at him.

  “Maybe. We need to be sure. Look at her. What’s wrong with her?” Kyrie asked.

  “I’m Archie,” he said.

  “Archie isn’t a very good vampire name,” I said.

  “Winnie,” Kyrie hissed.

  “What? It’s not very scary,” I explained.

  “Archibald,” Archie added.

  “Ew, that’s downright scary. Sorry,” I muttered. Kyrie shook his head at me but laughed.

  “So, what’s wrong with her?” Kyrie asked.

  “She’s addicted to my bite,” he said.

  “What? That’s horse shit,” I said.

  “It’s true. My venom. She’s addicted to it. We didn’t know the first time it happened. It’s because she’s mixed blood. I don’t need her, but she needs me. But I do need her, so if you would allow me to help her…”

  “Just wait,” I said, releasing all of my pent-up fire power. I walked to the girl who seemed to be out of sorts. “Hey, can you hear me?”

  “Yes,” she muttered as tears ran down her cheeks.

  “Do you want this?” I asked.

  “Yes. I have to have him or I will die,” she said.

  “Well, shit. I really wanted to burn someone,” I muttered. “Have at it, Fanger.”

  Archie pulled her into his arms and sank his fangs into her neck. She sighed like she’d hit her climax.

  “Damn,” Kyrie said. I looked back at him, and he narrowed his eyes on me. Fucking starry eyes.

  When Archie released her, she slumped into him. The blissful look on her face told me everything I needed to know. “I’ll talk to Nick. I’ll get your papers expedited.”

  “I’d appreciate that,” Archie said. “Is it okay if I take her back to her apartment?”

  “Yes, I’ll take care of everything,” I replied.

  We watched him lift her up and carry her back toward the apartments. Once they were out of sight, Kyrie turned to me. “I think I should go home. I’ll make sure you get back first. Not because you can’t do it yourself, but because I want to.”

  “I’ll allow it with one condition,” I said.

  “Anything,” he responded.

  “Anything?”

  “I meant it.”

  Well, damn. My hormones kicked into overdrive of all the things I could ask him to do. He watched me with a grin forming on his perfectly snarky face. I licked my lips to tease him, then said, “I need to call Troy and tell him. Can I borrow your phone?”

  “You are a damn tease, Wynonna Riggs,” he said, handing me the phone.

  “I know,” I replied, dialing the police chief.

  “Kyrie, I’m kinda busy right now,” Troy answered.

  “Hey, it’s Winnie.”

  “Oh, hey, what’s up?”

  “Kyrie and I followed a woman home from the bar because we thought she might be in danger. But as it turns out, her boyfriend who didn’t make it through processing was waiting for her. She’s fine, but I just need you to know that Archibald is his name, and I told him that he could take her home,” I explained.

  “Archibald, the vampire?” he asked.

  “Yeah, how did you know?”

  “We have his brother in custody. He attacked a woman just outside the bar. We are taking him to the jail. I want to talk to his brother,” Troy said. “You go home and send Kyrie to keep an eye on him until I get there. Who is his girlfriend?”

  “Jessa, I think,” I admitted.

  “Winnie, go home.”

  “Troy, I know where she is. We can just go back over there,” I protested.

  “I’m calling your mother.”

  “Son of a bitch!” I yelled as I clicked off the phone. “Come on. We gotta go find them.”

  Kyrie took the phone from me. One thing I loved about him was that he would keep his mouth shut when I was pissed. We ran back to the apartment complex and began knocking on the doors until Archie opened one.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “May we come in?” I asked.

  “Sure,” he replied, opening the door.

  “What’s your girl’s name? Where is she?” I asked.

  “She’s asleep in the back,” he said. Kyrie pushed passed me to go check on the girl. “Hey! What are you doing?”

  “I suggest you stay here with her,” Kyrie said, going into the bedroom.

  “Your brother was arrested. He attacked someone outside the bar. When the police chief asked me about you and her, I wasn’t able to explain. Now he’s suspicious,” I said.

  “Her name is Jessamyna. I call her Jessa. My brother is bad, but he is blood. I couldn’t out him,” he said.

  “It’s probably going to get all of you deported. You won’t be allowed into the Otherworld,” I said.

  Kyrie returned from the bedroom. “She’s fine. Just sleeping.”

  “The police are coming here?” Archie asked.

  “Yes, we will wait with you. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to help you though.”

  “You are the queen’s daughter. Don’t they listen to you?” he asked.

  The fire rose up inside of me, and Archie took several steps back from me.

  “Who you gonna burn now, Sunshine?” Kyrie asked, leaning on the wall at the bedroom door.

  “You, if you don’t stop calling me Sunshine,” I growled.

  “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,” he crooned.

  “Kyrie! Quit!” My southern accent kicked in and the word came out like qwueeeit.

  Archie seemed confused, but my fire settled as Kyrie continued to sing. “Please don’t take my sunshine away.”

  I rolled my eyes and plopped down on the couch. He crossed the room, sitting next to me. He put his arm around my shoulders, then kissed me on the cheek. You’d thought he had bard powers like Levi, but he didn’t. He just was silly enough to calm me down.

  “Stop,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “Whatever. You love
it,” he said.

  “You guys are a cute couple,” Archie said.

  “We aren’t a couple,” I said quickly.

  Archie raised an eyebrow. “Maybe you should be.”

  Chapter 5

  Mother paced the room with her hands on her hips. Levi rubbed his forehead but kept his mouth shut. This one time I wished he would stop her, but I’d dug this hole. I’d have to get myself out of this.

  “What were you thinking?” Mother asked. She wore her full queen regalia. She’d left Hot Tin to go tend to an issue in Winter when Troy called her back to Shady Grove. It seemed like she was always in Winter which I knew she hated, but nonetheless, she was the Queen.

  “We followed her to make sure she was okay,” I explained. “We were looking out for an innocent woman.”

  “Then you allowed a vampire to drink blood from her,” she said.

  I couldn’t believe I was about to say it. “She wanted it.”

  Mother’s eyes flared and the temperature in the room dropped. “Wynonna. You want to go out on your own, but you can’t stay out of trouble here. How in the world above or below am I supposed to trust you if you can’t make good decisions?”

  “You can’t arrest Archie. He was just trying to be with Jessa. Your stupid meeting this afternoon stopped him from getting his papers. You separated them!” I shouted at her.

  “Grace,” Levi said before Mom could lash out at me.

  “Don’t you dare,” she growled at him. “That woman was enthralled by that man. She may permanently be enthralled by him. She needs him to feed off of her to survive. We can’t enact our laws to protect her, because it’s already gone too far.”

  “Is it so difficult to see that they are in love?” I asked.

  “What do you know about love, Winnie? Please inform me,” she said with her hands on her hips. She’d told me a thousand times that she had no idea what love was until she met my Dad. I’d watched her and Dad, then her and Uncle Levi. I knew what it was by watching them.

  “Why do you think they are in love?” Levi asked more calmly than my mother.

  I focused on him, begging him with my eyes to help me. He nodded, willing me to speak. “I saw the connection between them. She told me that she wanted him. He was not malicious. He took her vein almost reluctantly. Mom, you are right. I have no idea outside of my love for my family about what love really is, but I saw the two of them, and I knew in my heart that it was right.”

  “Kyrie Babineau is an enabler,” she muttered, and the room warmed.

  “I like him,” I said.

  Levi’s eyes widened and a smile flirted at the edges of his mouth. “Do you?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I replied.

  Mom threw her hands up and sank into the couch. Rufus jumped up in her lap, and she patted him while watching me.

  “You made a wrong decision. You should have followed the man,” Levi said. Mom started to protest, but he gave her one look and she backed down. The tables had turned. “When you go out in the world, even your sight will deceive you. I believe you are correct about the couple. They are in love, and while it is unconventional, your judgment was correct. As for Kyrie, he is an enabler, but it’s because he believes you can do no wrong. Clearly, you were both wrong tonight.”

  I hung my head. Standing up to my mother was easy. Levi was right, and I couldn’t lash out at him.

  “I want to go with Nick to Steelshore,” I said.

  “Absolutely not,” Mother answered.

  “I’ll go without your blessing,” I shot back at her.

  “We will talk about it more tomorrow,” Levi said. “Why don’t you get some rest? You’ve used a lot of magic today. More than you normally do.” One more day.

  I did feel weary. Crossing the room, I hugged Levi and turned to my mom. She held her arms out to me.

  “No, Mom. I love you, but I need you to believe in me,” I said, then ran up the stairs to my bedroom.

  Right after Killian was born, I moved out of the bedroom that Dylan had made for me. Uncle Levi and Niles Babineau had added more rooms to the house above the garage. The largest of the two rooms became my new bedroom. I stepped into the darkness, but two golden eyes reflected back at me.

  “Are you hear to berate me, too?” I asked.

  “No, I’m here because I was worried about you,” Mark said.

  “I’m fine,” I replied, wiping the tears off my cheeks.

  “I see.”

  “Don’t be smart.”

  “You are all the time. I figured it was my turn to get in a dig.” He smiled widely. “Am I allowed to hug you?”

  I shook my head no, but I walked toward him. He spread his arms wide, and I leaned into him. I tried to stay tense, but the warmth of his arms comforted me. Giving into him, I put my full weight on his body. He held me steady and brushed his fingers through my hair.

  “Thank you,” I muttered.

  “I came to tell you good-bye,” he said.

  I remembered that he’d left with Ruby. Surely, he wasn’t taking up with her even if I didn’t want him like that.

  “Good-bye?” I asked, looking up to him.

  His lips met mine, and I found myself giving into him again. Mark’s kisses were always timid like he was holding back. I loved every one of them. Mom said it was the fairy in me. Maybe it was. Maybe it was why I hung out with Kyrie. He was fun and handsome. He believed in me. But Mark’s kisses made me feel wanted and protected.

  “You are leaving, right?” he said.

  “Oh.”

  “What?”

  “I saw you leave with Ruby.”

  “Were you jealous?”

  “No. Maybe.” I hung my head. I was jealous. I just wished he could take a vacation from the pack. Mom and Uncle Levi would let me go to Steelshore if Mark went with me.

  “I took her to the church where she went back through the portal to Summer,” he explained. I’d never known him to tell a lie. He was truthful to a fault.

  “You didn’t kiss her?”

  He stepped back and sat down on the window seat. “No. Wynonna Riggs, I love you, and I would never do anything to compromise that.”

  “You left with her.”

  “You spent the night chasing vampires with Kyrie in the woods.” The silence between us grew thick with each passing moment. He spoke first. “Even if I had left Hot Tin alone, you would have stayed to protect that woman. I know it wasn’t about him.” Once again, I didn’t know what to say. “When you decide come home, I’ll be here waiting.” He kissed my cheek, then jumped out of the window. Shifting into wolf form, he bounded into the forest without looking back.

  I collapsed on my bed. I’d had enough for the day. I’d figure out the rest tomorrow.

  Chapter 6

  The next morning, I finished packing my suitcase. Honestly, I never knew where all my stuff came from because it was just here. If I ever needed anything, it would be on the next truck of supplies. But now that Mom controlled Winter, most of my clothing came from her seamstresses there. It was amazing what a fairy seamstress could do with a simple pair of jeans.

  Looking at myself in the mirror, I decided to keep the blonde. Mom liked it, and I desperately needed her to see things my way. I was leaving one way or the other, but I wanted her blessing. I wanted her to see my desire to do something good in the world.

  Everyone had their place. Callum ran the bar and acted as a liaison between Mom and the townsfolk. Aydan was going to be a judge to help lighten Remy’s workload. Killian was to be King of Winter one day. I had no place. If I hadn’t found one here in Shady Grove, then that meant, at least to me, that it was out there beyond the veil.

  I sat in front of my mirrored vanity flipping through eye colors when Soraya appeared at my door.

  “Hey you,” she said.

  “Hey!”

  “Are you in trouble?” she asked.

  “No more than usual. How did your evening go with Rory?”

  She shook her head. �
�Winnie, he doesn’t see me like that. He’s so focused on all the stuff his father is teaching him. We are just friends. It’s all we will ever be.”

  “You never know.”

  “It’s easy for you to say when you’ve got two perfectly handsome guys tripping over themselves for you.”

  “It’s not like that.”

  “Yes, it is!” she said with a laugh. Maybe it was. Even more reason to go somewhere new. Meet new people. Those people needed to include heterosexual males. Just my preference. Handsome, mature, and exciting was optional. Mostly.

  “Where are you going right now?” she asked.

  “I need to learn something about Archie and Jessa,” I said.

  “Is that the vampire and his girl from last night?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Who are you going to talk to about that?”

  “To the only other vampire I know.”

  “Oh, I am so going with you.”

  “Okay.” I grabbed my sunglasses, and Soraya took my hand. Using my fairy talents, I’d learned to teleport. Skipping as my mom called it. We skipped to the biggest house in Shady Grove.

  Right after Mom took over the Otherworld, this enormous mansion appeared on the east side of town right along the veil border. Made of limestone, the house stood behind a stone wall with iron gates.

  “It always takes my breath away,” Soraya said.

  “I’ve certainly never seen anything like it.”

  I’d been inside the home many times since its appearance, and its owner I happily called a friend. I linked my arm in Soraya’s.

  “You know. If you wanted a mature man like you’ve always said, you could always live here.”

  “With Seamus? My mother would die.” Raya grinned. “Oh. I see.”

  We giggled as we walked up the cobblestone drive to the double oak doors. We couldn’t see inside the house because all the drapes were drawn. Seamus Daragh was the last living Vampirate. At least according to him. It wasn’t like there were any pirates these days like what he used to be. He’d found other ways to make money. He had many connections all over the world. He had seen every port from here to Hong Kong. If you needed something, Seamus could get it.

  When Mom discovered the mansion that he’d built within the veil, she pitched a fit, but underneath it, I knew she liked Seamus.