Enigma, Maine, Bundle 4
Page 21
NINE
The cloak of darkness covered the town, inviting those who stuck to the shadows to come out and play. The thought made Kara shiver. She touched the hilt of the sharp dagger strapped to her thigh. The gesture washed away some of her unease.
She took a deep breath and focused. The daytime crowds had thinned. But just to be on the safe side and to protect innocent bystanders who had no idea what was coming, Brianna used a weak cloaking spell on the alley next to the Witch’s Brew. The powerful witch was confident that the magic was strong enough to keep regular humans away, but not a psychic like the cult leader.
Alexander and Lucian, in their cat forms, skulked around the front of the alley, looking like any other pair of foraging street cats. Unless of course, one was familiar with guardians. They bet the cult leader wasn’t.
Kara leaned against the rough brick wall on one side of the alley, crossed her feet, and waited like she’d been doing for the last hour. The trap was baited. They only needed the one who dared call himself the Messiah to spring it.
Enigma wasn’t that big of a town. The homeless population was nonexistent, so the alley was reasonably clean, but it was still a cold, dank, narrow space with two large dumpsters. Not exactly her first choice for a hangout. She was sure Alexander and Lucian would agree. The two felines already chased off a couple of street cats, a few mice, and a handful of pigeons looking to make a buffet out of the garbage in the dumpsters.
Suddenly the air around her changed became heavier. She felt a strange pressure against her temples. She shook her head to ward off the peculiar feeling, widened her stance, and drew her knife out of its sheath. She turned to fully face the front of the alley and waited. It didn’t take long for a robed figure to glide inside.
Kara tightened the hold on her favorite weapon. The weight of it felt good in her hands. She was ready. She stared down the monster standing in front of her, waiting for him to make a move.
He lifted a bony hand and threw back the hood. Kara looked at his waxen complexion, shaved head, and dead looking eyes. The man might not have been born a vampire, but he was the epitome of the Hollywood vampire of nightmares.
“The Messiah, I presume.” She about choked on the unfitting title. The lunatic staring at her with death in his eyes was about as far away from a messiah as one could get.
He bowed his head in acknowledgment. “At last, Kara Myers, we officially meet, and you’re no worse for wear after our little skirmish yesterday evening.”
She narrowed her eyes and tightened her lips. “Skirmish? You mean when you cowardly snuck up on my unarmed twin and attempted to stab her in the chest?” She tightened her grip on the knife. “You have lousy aim, by the way. She’s just fine.”
His face reddened, and he glared at her. Good! She wanted him angry. Excess emotion almost always led to a mistake, sometimes a fatal one.
“I wondered why I could still sense you. It’s why I didn’t leave town last night.” He took a step toward her.
The two black cats that shared the alley with them skulked out of the shadows. The demented man turned his nose up at them. “Damn cats, never liked ‘em. Gives me the creeps, bad vibes!” The cult leader’s gaze bounced off the dismissed cats and resettled on Kara.
Kara slightly shook her head at the cats, hoping the guardians would stand down long enough for her to get some information. “You psychic or something? I made sure I wasn’t followed by you or anyone else when I came to Enigma.”
“As a matter of fact, I am.” He paused for effect, but if he was trying to shock Kara with the immediate confirmation of his supernatural abilities, he was the one in for a surprise.
“Prove it!” Kara raised a brow like she didn’t believe him, but she didn’t drop her guard or lower her weapon.
“I found you, didn’t I?”
“What about the other members of your cult?” she spat out the last word like it was a dirty curse. “They psychic too?”
“Weak-minded followers, all of them.” He had the nerve to look offended. “There’s no one else in the world like me. I’ve met others that claim to be psychic, but they’re scammers.”
He slapped his chest. “That’s why I’m the Messiah. I’m mentally superior to everyone else.” He narrowed his eyes. “Including you!”
“Really? You might wanna rethink that.”
He snarled at her and raised his knife.
The cat who’d casually slunk between her and the cult leader instantly changed into an intimidating Lucian Petrakos. The blink of an eye transformation startled the psychic, causing him to freeze. He forgot about the second cat and never saw Alexander coming. Kara’s mate silently altered his form, wrapped a strong arm around the stranger’s neck, and twisted.
She didn’t flinch when she heard the gruesome crunch of bone. Nor did she recoil when the lifeless body dropped to the ground. Instead, she stepped around the corpse and walked into Alexander’s waiting arms. “It’s over!”
Lucian cleared his throat and spoke to Alexander. “Take a few minutes. I’ll be in the Witch’s Brew.” He didn’t wait for a reply but grabbed the deceased cult leader’s ankle and dragged him into the back door of Brianna’s shop.
She traced his lips with her fingertip and kissed Alexander, telling him without words how much she loved him. He tilted her head and deepened the kiss. Eventually, his lips slipped away from hers and trailed down her neck. He nipped the claiming bite, and Kara’s body instantly reacted. Her nipples pebbled, and her sex clenched.
“Lucian and I need to dispose of the body and report to the council.”
Kara nodded. She wasn’t asking any questions, didn’t want to know.
“I’ll meet you at the Russo’s Halloween party as soon as I can.”
She smiled at him. “You better, you’re gonna love my costume.”
“But first,” He cupped her face. “We need to iron out a few important things and start our life together here in Enigma.”
Kara wanted that too, but she couldn’t change who she was, not even for Alexander despite how much she loved him. She took a couple of steps away from him and paced back and forth. “I can’t call myself a vampire hunter anymore. Not now that I know the truth, and oh yeah, my twin’s married to one of the bloodsuckers.” The words were a teasing joke between her and Raphael, and everyone in their inner circle knew it wasn’t meant as an insult.
“But hunting is what I do, and I have no intention of giving it up. My sisters only did it out of an obligation to family, but not me. It’s in my blood. I have to do it. I can’t shed the responsibility as easily as they did.”
****
That was precisely what he thought she was going to say, no surprise there. It didn’t mean he had to like it, but for both their sakes he had to find a way to live with it. He wasn’t a being who compromised, but for Kara, he would learn to negotiate and concede when needed. Alexander moved in front of her forcing her to come to a stop.
“Your need to hunt clashes with my mile-long overprotective streak, but there is a solution.”
She looked at him with hope-filled eyes. His heart skipped a beat. “I’m all ears.”
“Lucian has agreed to sanction your hunts. You can’t be a part of the council, but you can work with us to take out rogues. And by us, I mean me.”
“Mates who fight evil together stay together,” she said with a happy laugh. “I can live with that.” She shrugged. “Didn’t like traveling and hunting alone anyway, but didn’t have much of a choice after Tara and Zoe retired.”
“You were never alone,” he reminded her. “And you never will be.”
Alexander pulled her into his arms and held her close for several seconds. Wealth and time meant nothing to him. He had plenty of both. Only Kara’s love mattered. Now that he had it and her, his life with its centuries of existence was finally complete.
****
The chill of the October air brushed across her skin. Lighted pumpkins lined the brick pathway to the castle
’s main entrance. Hanging spiders, bats, and cobwebs fluttered in the breeze. Large cutouts of witches, vampires, werewolves, and black cats made her laugh. Fog from dry ice and smoke from a smoke machine added to the holiday spirit.
Last year, she and her sisters were so concerned with the hunt, she was too preoccupied to focus on something as mundane as decorations. This year she took the time to savor the atmosphere of the party and the beautiful castle. Several people she vaguely recognized walked by, but not the one male she waited for.
During a lull in visitors, Tara patted her on the shoulder. “Missing Alexander already?” her twin teased.
“More than I thought possible,” she confessed.
Her sisters gave her knowing looks and smiles. “He’ll put in an appearance as soon as he can.” Zoe reminded her. “As soon as he and Lucian finish briefing the rest of the council on the demise of the cult leader, they’ll come straight here.”
“For sure,” Tara promised. “Nobody in the know misses this party, and Alexander is definitely in the know. Besides, he’s like Raphael.” She waved at her husband. He was across the room speaking with the host, another vampire, Alessandro Russo. “He won’t want you out of his sight for long.”
Kara ran her hands down the skintight, shiny, black polyester and spandex jumpsuit. She glanced at her reflection in the large mirror in the foyer to make sure the cat hood was on straight. She sighed. “You’re right. But this costume is so much better than the one I wore last year, and I want to make sure he sees me in it.”
“Relax, enjoy the party,” Zoe insisted. “It’s hours until midnight. He’ll be here before you know it.”
Kara doubted it, but she did want to experience the infamous Enigma Halloween party without some kind of menace breathing down her back. No one really knew what the future would bring, but partnering with Alexander and the council meant that her days of kicking bad guy butt were just beginning. Even though Enigma was going to be their home base, who knew where the hunt would take them?
Her twin yanked on her arm. “Look! Do you think Santa’s real?”
She followed her sister’s gaze across the room to a jolly old man dressed in khaki shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, and red suspenders. He was drinking what looked to be a margarita. “Island Santa?” She shrugged. “Well, vampires, witches, and shifters are real, so why not? Only one way to find out.”
She gracefully walked across the room. She tried to calculate the odds of the man’s identity in her mind but gave up before she reached him. “Welcome to Enigma, Maine,” she muttered under her breath. “Where sometimes things are exactly as they seem, no matter how strange that might be!”
“Kara Myers,” the jolly old man greeted her with a cheery smile.
She froze. The stranger knew her name. Most people who didn’t know them well, and she didn’t know this man, always confused her and her twin. Of course, the costume could have been a clue if the man knew Alexander and was aware of guardians. Shifters, vampires, and guardians did not age, however, and unless he was wearing a damn good costume, this man did.
She moved closer, trying to determine what was costume and what was real. She reached out and yanked on his plentiful, white beard. It didn’t budge.
He threw back his head and let out a jolly laugh that caused his belly to shake. Kara’s eyes widened, and she let out a startled gasp. She took a step backward but continued to stare at the stranger.
“Careful, don’t want to make it onto my naughty list this year,” the man said when he finally stopped laughing.
“Nope, no, sir.” She took a couple of steps away from him before turning and hightailing it back to her sisters.
“Yes, Tara, there is a Santa Claus,” she breathed when she reached her sisters. “And I’m pretty sure that’s him. The real deal.”
The three sisters looked toward the island Santa. He was gone. The only thing that remained was beautiful sparkling dust that quickly faded.
Zoe giggled. “Leave it to you to be the one to confront Santa.”
Tara looked horrified. “You yanked on his beard. Hope you don’t wake up to a stocking full of coal this Christmas.”
Kara only shrugged. She didn’t care what was in her stocking as long as she woke in her guardian’s embrace.
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Table of Contents
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE