by Ruby Loren
January gave in, a little reluctantly. As long as this doesn’t go any further, she silently promised.
“So, what are we chatting about? You must know that Leah’s back in town and claiming she’s on our side now…” January said, raising an eyebrow at Gregory.
He waved a hand. “Old news. And, by the way, she’s only on your side. To my knowledge, she’s not changed her stance on me. I wouldn’t put it past her to try and collect the bounty on my head, just to appease the scary older vampires.” He shrugged and tilted his head at her.
January glanced across at his grey eyes and then wished she hadn’t, when she started to feel herself melt all over again. Stupid vampire.
“The hot off the press news is that we have an enchanter in town,” he said, casually.
January opened her mouth to ask who he was talking about and then shut it again. Oh. He meant her.
“How do you know that? Who told you?” She frowned.
Ryan, Leah, and Tor, were the only people who knew about her little secret. Well, excluding the old vampires - whom Leah had presumably informed about January’s newfound status. She doubted that they’d been the ones to tell Gregory.
“It’s my business to know what’s happening in this area,” Gregory said.
“That’s vampire speak for ‘I’m not going to tell you’, isn’t it?” She bit back.
Gregory half-shrugged. “The information about what an enchanter actually is, however, was a little harder to come by. All I know is that they don’t exist, and if they did exist, they’d apparently be able to live forever.” His eyes glittered. He stopped walking and turned to face her. “Or so the legend goes, anyway. But you know, if you did happen to be immortal, it would mean that you’re finally my type.”
January spluttered and tried to keep walking, but Gregory dodged in front of her. “Come on, this is great news! You’re single, and now I don’t have to kidnap you, kill you, and turn you, so that we can be together.” Gregory grinned and January’s eyes grew wide. She wasn’t sure if he was joking or not.
Being turned into a vampire was the worst nightmare of every shifter. It went against everything in their nature. Shifters who had been turned could no longer shift. Mostly, they didn’t stay a vampire for long. Every shifter-vampire she’d ever heard of had killed themselves.
“You wouldn’t …” She hissed, not sure whether he was being serious or not.
Gregory smiled again, but this time his teeth glinted, dangerously. “Now I don’t have to. You haven’t denied being an enchanter at any point during this conversation. So, it must be true.”
January bit her tongue, wondering if his shock tactics had been devised specifically to make her focus on the wrong thing. Probably. Vampires were conniving that way.
She sighed. “I’m afraid you know as much as I do about it. I’m working on finding out more, but so far, I’ve got nothing. I don’t know if I am immortal and I don’t actually want to find out.” She glared at Gregory, in case he was thinking about trying any experiments. “All I know is that I’m going to do everything I can to become normal. I don’t want any of this.”
“January,” Gregory grabbed her and spun her round to face him. “You aren’t normal, and you’re never going to be! You know you will never have a quiet life. You have to face it some time. Become who you’re meant to be!” He shook his head. “It might be our only chance of getting out of this alive. You’re the only thing those vampires can’t prepare for. You’re the only hope we both have.”
“I never wanted this,” January said and pushed Gregory aside.
Forgetting about her new workout gear, she changed into a unicorn and galloped away, faster than even a vampire could run.
She spent another hour before bed, figuring out how to use her magic to erect a vampire proof ward around the house. Hopefully Gregory would finally realise that she didn’t want any company.
5
“Oh! Are you looking for Ryan?” Bella asked when January walked into The Wild Woods bar. Ryan’s fiancée had just finished setting up the specials in the counter. January had to admit she was impressed. Clearly, savoury was Bella’s forte. There were sausage rolls, cheese straws, and some superb looking homemade scotch eggs.
“Those definitely suit the bar more than cake,” January commented, giving what she hoped was a disarming smile.
Bella just stared at her.
“I was actually looking for you.” January carried on, realising there was no simple way to slip into this conversation. “I’m not here to make trouble. I just wanted to meet you properly. You know… when it’s not such a surprise. I wasn’t exactly charming when we first met.”
To January’s relief, Bella’s mouth curved up a little. “That’s okay. It was a shock for me, too. Of course, I’d heard Ryan was here, but until you see it…”
January nodded. There were many unbelievable things in the world that needed to be seen to be believed. Wasn’t she herself one of them? “Ryan told me what happened to you, and I’m really sorry. I’m sorry that you and Ryan ever had to be apart,” January said, knowing it was right, but feeling the pain all the same.
“I got my revenge,” Bella said with a shrug. A cold gleam shone in her eyes for a split second. January had the uncomfortable feeling that she herself looked similar when she thought about killing. Bella, she realised, was just another killer she had the pleasure of being acquainted with. It probably meant that they were going to get on just great.
“That was all a long time ago.” Bella frowned. “I thought it was all over, but…”
January raised an eyebrow. Had Bella left some loose ends that still needed to be tied?
Bella dusted her hands off and slid onto a bar stool, patting one opposite her for January to sit on. “After losing Ryan, I still had a little hope. I contacted the Official Board of Shifters several times over the following years, asking them if there had been any news of Ryan. I figured that someone had to know what had happened to him. When I started taking out the wolves, one by one, all of them claimed he was dead and that they’d dumped his body in some ditch. I didn’t want to believe them.” She ground her teeth together. “The Board told me the same old story every time: ‘Ryan Eridge is missing, presumed dead.’ And all this time, they knew he was alive and working for them.” This time, her eyes flashed gold. January felt the air around them move as Bella calmed herself down and stopped the start of the change.
“Here, have a scotch egg,” Bella said, getting up and walking behind the bar to place one of the huge, golden brown spheres on a plate. January watched as she relaxed and slid the plate forwards.
“So, you enjoy cooking?” January said, biting into the scotch egg and discovering it wasn’t enough. She wanted to fit the whole thing into her mouth right now - it was that good!
“I do. I’ve basically worked as a kitchen slave my whole life, but you pick up a thing or two. Plus, a few lazy chefs meant I got to experiment a bit.” She smiled at January, her first genuine smile.
“Well, you’re amazing! Ryan is lucky to have you...” Her words dried up when she thought about what she’d lost by Bella returning.
The other woman tilted her head sympathetically and January gave her a little sad smile. Some things shouldn’t be changed. Ryan and Bella were quite clearly meant to be together.
“I’m thinking of starting my own business,” January said, making a decision on the spot.
Bella’s face fell. “But you work here! Please don’t leave on my account. I know this is the pack’s business, and you’re the leader of the pack. You should be here! You could even kick me and Ryan out, if you thought that might be better?” She was so sincere that January immediately felt bad. It was almost enough to guilt her into staying.
“I won’t kick you out! This is Ryan’s project and I think it’s now yours, too. This place only needs a few people to run it. Now everything’s set up and sorted…” January shrugged. “…well, I think I want a new challenge.”
Bella nodded, her eyes full of solemn understanding. “Will you still make cakes for the bar? I still haven’t tried one and I’ve heard they’re legendary.”
January raised an eyebrow. “I do owe you a slice, after that scotch egg.” She bit her lip in thought. “How about I make cakes, bring them in, and help out if you need it at all. Does that sound okay?” At least this arrangement meant she wouldn’t have to hang around the bar watching Bella and Ryan be annoyingly in love all day. She was fast finding that she really liked Bella, but the pain of losing Ryan was going to take a long time to go away. After all, she had been in love with him and frankly, still was.
“Hey… guys,” Ryan said, walking into the bar and seeing the pair. He looked from one to the other, his eyes worried.
January couldn’t resist smirking.
“No, we aren’t trying to kill each other,” Bella told him.
His shoulders relaxed. “Well, in that case, great! Shall we celebrate our new business trio with some scotch eggs?” Ryan said, his familiar smile making January’s heart jump and then sink a mile. She glanced at Bella who gave her the subtle nod. She would explain it all to Ryan.
“I’ve actually got to be going,” January said, forcing a smile and walking towards the door.
“Oh, January!” Ryan called after her and she turned round, wishing she’d walked faster. “Uh… I don’t know a better way to ask this, so I’m just going to say it. Am I still your second in command? It’s okay if you, you know… want to replace me.”
January relaxed and smiled for real this time. “Yes, of course you are! But you might be demoted if I think Bella could kick your ass,” she warned. She had a feeling that could well be the case. Ryan looked affronted and Bella looked quietly amused. Yep, she was right.
January turned to carry on walking and then had another thought. “You have to quit fighting bounty hunters with me. From now on, I’m doing that alone,” she said, knowing that the time for putting Ryan in danger was over. He wasn’t hers anymore.
Ryan frowned. “Alone?” The implication was clear.
January rolled her eyes. “As alone as is possible,” she corrected, knowing that Gregory wouldn’t quit bugging her, and then there was Leah, too… she didn’t want to think too much about Leah.
If he gets too annoying, you can always kill him and all of your problems go away! The voice in her head whispered and she smiled. That promise from The Clan of old vampires had become a joke to her.
She bit her lip when she walked across the car park. She suspected that deal probably didn’t stand anymore, now that she was an enchanter.
She was too much of a threat to live.
“This had better not end in us getting famous,” Leah hissed to January when they walked through the double doors of the nondescript tower block in London, that served as the HQ of Neon Rain record label.
“What’s the big deal about fame?” January asked, already knowing what it felt like to be famous. Sure, she was only famous amongst shifters, and infamous among vampires, but it was probably similarly annoying to being human famous. What was the big issue with fame?
“No one’s given you the talk, have they?” Leah said, flicking a wisp of her pixie cut hair back. January noticed she’d started to let it grow a little longer. She wondered if there was a reason, or a person, for whom Leah was changing her look.
“I’m a little past that,” January said, glancing once at the lift and then taking the stairs. It was force of habit. Getting into a lift was a very bad idea when there were people in the world who wanted to kill you.
“The ‘you’re going to live forever’ talk,” Leah said, dryly. “If you really are immortal, that is,” she added.
January shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. I’m still not letting you test it out,” she added, reminding herself for the hundredth time that as nice as Leah was acting right now, she was still a double-crossing traitor.
“Well, if you are going to live forever one of the big rules is don’t get famous. It would be easy for any immortal to become famous, but we don’t, because it leads to recognition and suspicious humans. These days, there’s facial reconstructive surgery that can cover your tracks, but then you have to kill the surgeon, and it all gets a little messy…”
“Yes, very inconvenient,” January said and was bemused when Leah seemed to take her seriously. She hoped that she never got that out of touch with humanity when she was as old as… January stopped thinking. She wasn’t going to get to that age. She was going to un-enchanter herself as soon as possible.
“Hey, Leah?”
“Yeah?” The other woman said, as they approached the reception desk of the floor they’d arranged to meet Ollie Torrent on.
“We play bass and drums. There’s no way we’re getting famous,” January told her with a smirk.
“Go right through. Ollie is waiting for you. Room number ten,” the receptionist said when they approached the desk. January fought the temptation to check the time on her phone. Since when did anything in the music business start on time?
“After you,” Leah said when they reached the door.
“You should go first, just in case this is all a cunning ruse and there’s a bounty hunter with an axe standing behind the door. Unless you’re already in on it and have been planning this all along?”
January had almost convinced herself when Leah grunted in annoyance and flung open the door, nearly knocking Ollie flying.
“Oh, uh, I was just coming to see if you’d arrived,” he said, reeling backwards and looking just as ruffled as January remembered. Judging by the surprised expressions on the faces of the three other people in the room, it wasn’t his usual style.
“I’m January. I play bass,” she said, almost wanting to laugh out loud at how ridiculous that sounded. She was so used to being ‘bounty hunter’ or ‘pack leader’. Bass player was… different.
“And I’m Leah, supreme witch and ancient vampire,” Leah said, flashing them all a grin. January nearly choked. “Or, you know, drummer. Whatever floats your boat,” she edited, pulling a chair back from the conference table and slumping down in it.
January stared at her, wondering how she could change personas so easily. Hundreds or thousands of years of practice, I suppose, January thought, as Leah dropped her a wink.
“Yes, er, everyone, this is…” Ollie trailed off, his pre-planned piece already taken.
“I’m Yvonne, PR rep for James Phoenix,” a woman with interesting, berry-coloured hair said. She made no move to get up, so January inclined her head the tiniest of fractions, and Leah just stared.
“I’m Rich, the guitarist whose job it is to make all of you look good!” A guy with crazy, curly brown hair said, standing up and lurching forwards for a handshake. He reminded January of Lindsay Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac, in his younger years. Going by the clothes Rich was wearing, he was working that angle for all it was worth.
January and Leah looked expectantly at the last person in room, but he was silent. His blue eyes roved aimlessly, as if he hadn’t even noticed that Leah and January were there.
“Oh… this is James. The, uh, guy you’ll be backing,” Ollie said, realising that his ‘star’ wasn’t going to make the effort to introduce himself.
January and Leah kept looking at the ‘star’ in silence, until he looked up. His eyes met January’s and she saw his surprise that they weren’t falling over themselves to meet him. Her lips curved up a little at that thought as she took in James’ light gold skin and dark blonde hair. Her stomach twisted when she was reminded of Ryan for a second, but then the feeling went away. This man was a far cry from her ex-boyfriend.
“Okay, cool. What do we do now?” Leah made it sound like this ‘exciting opportunity’ was actually the most boring event she’d ever been to. January tried not to laugh when James’ attention turned to the drummer. His expression morphed from ‘above it all’ to stunned, as he realised there was a bigger diva than him on
the scene.
Ollie pulled out his phone and fumbled uselessly with it for a few seconds. “Er, well, this is supposed to be a chance for you to meet James and for us to see whether or not it can work…” He trailed off and ran a hand through his hair. This meeting had gone so far off the rails that the manager clearly had no idea what to do to get it back on track.
Fortunately, Leah did. “So… are you any good?” She asked, pulling a chair back from the table and sitting down, facing James. His eyebrows shot up so high, they nearly disappeared into his hair.
January didn’t miss the ‘what the hell is this?’ look he shot at Ollie.
Ollie didn’t sigh out loud, but January noticed the way his shoulders lifted and fell as he walked over to the room’s sound system and pressed play. She was fast getting the impression that musicians didn’t usually stick with James for long.
“That’s pretty good,” Leah said when the song had finished. January nodded, keeping her mouth shut. It had been better than good. It was pop music, but it was smart, and had some really interesting instrumental parts that did hark back to Fleetwood Mac. Fake Lindsay Buckingham really must be playing the part…
“I love it,” she admitted, breaking her silence and looking at James with more interest. He had the looks and the voice… would people love the music, too? She thought they might.
James stopped shooting daggers at Leah with his eyes and lifted his head, looking at January in a way that suggested he was only just seeing her for the first time. It didn’t escape her notice when those same eyes raked themselves up and down her body. So unsubtle, she thought.
“Yeah, I like them. If they can play, they’re in.” James tilted his head, still looking at January’s well-proportioned body. “Actually, even if they can’t play, we could always use backing tracks, or something like that…”
“You mean in the same way that you use auto-tune and mime…mmmmhmmm!” Leah was cut off when January swiftly moved across and smothered her mouth.
