A Nightly Howl

by Joanna Mazurkiewicz

  I nearly choked on my coffee, spilling some of it on my new blouse. I counted to five, realising that I wasn’t hallucinating. Grandma was really here, standing in my office, angry and ready to strike her most dangerous spell. She looked glamorous and scary with her Louis Vuitton bag under her arm. I stepped back, staring at her, bewildered. Her hands were blazing with fire. She never used that spell, not unless she was ready to murder someone.

  "Gran, hi! Um, what are you doing here?" I asked, ready to have a fit. My mind had never worked so fast that early in the morning, but I never expected to see my own grandmother here in London.

  “Don't you start with that nonsense. I asked you a question! Are you involved with a vampire or not?"

  I sucked the corner of my mouth, contemplating what to say. My grandmother never took any crap from anyone and, right now, I couldn’t imagine telling her the truth.

  “It’s over, Gran; we aren’t together anymore," I explained, hoping that if I used past tense she might calm down. I was wrong, so very wrong. Her jaw dropped, and her face went white. For a split second I thought we were going to lose her. She appeared to be going through some kind of emotional shock.

  "My granddaughter and a vampire!" she shouted, and the glass on my desk exploded. I jumped away, but luckily the impact of the small explosion didn’t reach me. Kate stood up, but Grandma waved her hand, cleaning the mess from the floor like it wasn’t a big deal after all.

  "Gran, listen, Nathaniel La Caz is only half vampire. We were never serious, so you can stop worrying," I explained quickly, but I didn’t think she was listening.

  “You've completely lost your mind, Julia,” she continued, shouting. “You went out with a vampire knowing what he could do to you, also knowing what happened to Claudia? Imagine how I felt when the president of the Fairies’ Association told me about this. I was so embarrassed!" The air around us was getting thicker from her energy.

  Kate sat down, looking at me with a huge question mark on her face. She probably felt the magic that was whipping through the air.

  "I appreciate your concern, Grandma, but it’s over between us. I made a mistake... I’m not perfect," I added, irritated. I wanted to have a chat with the president of the Fairy Association; this bastard always spread rumours about our family.

  "So, you’re never going to see that vampire again?" she asked.

  "Of course not."

  “That's why you’d been in the hospital when I spoke to your father. That vampire tasted your blood!"

  "Gran, please. Nathaniel didn’t bite me. I don’t know if you spoke to Dad about this, but I was attacked by a different vampire. He assaulted me and now he’s locked up. I can’t promise you that I won’t ever see Nathaniel again. I deal with his company on a daily basis—"

  She cut me off. "I can’t believe that you’ve been so irresponsible! Your father never allowed me to interfere in your upbringing, but now I see that I have to step in. You’ll be seeing me more often and if I hear that you’ve seen that vampire again, I’ll write you off my will; if anyone asks, I’ll tell them I never had a granddaughter."

  "Grandma, I have no intention of seeing him again, but don’t you think that this is a bit extreme, considering that Dad married Mum and she’s a human?"

  I knew that I’d gone too far as soon as these words left my mouth. My grandmother was always a tough woman, but now she looked like she was going to tear me apart. Her lips twitched, and the wind blew stacks of papers around the office. My father never told me the story behind his marriage with Mum, but I knew that it was a sensitive subject, even for him. Grandma hated that my dad went against her and married a non-magical human being. I was expecting the worst.

  Chapter 1

  Love is in the air.

  "This family nearly broke down because of his inconsiderate decision and I’m not going to go through this again. My granddaughter won’t be involved with a vampire, not while I'm alive!"

  "He is half vampire," I muttered, but she was already marching away, saying something like “You'll be hearing from me more often."

  Flopping on the desk, I briefly entertained the idea of crying, my mind racing. I should have expected that my grandmother would eventually find out about this; she was a very important figure in the paranormal world.

  "She’s scary," Kate said, breaking the silence that had fallen after Gran left. "I thought she was going to blow up the entire office. My desk was vibrating the whole time."

  Kate kept glancing at the door like she was afraid my grandma would come back.

  "I never doubted her power," I answered wryly, falling back into my chair. Monday morning was supposed to be easy, but I felt so drained already. "I think I’ll have to move away. She won’t stop nagging until she’s sure I’m not hiding Nathaniel in my pocket."

  Kate started waving her wand to take care of the paperwork on the floor, not taking her eyes off me. "I meant to ask you; did you really finish with him?"

  Kate was genuinely polite; she didn’t get involved with the gossip that spread in the office. There was no point lying to her; it was obvious she was interested in the real story.

  "Correction—he ended it because he “didn't want to hurt me,"" I explained, pulling a face. "Which means that, yes, I got dumped."

  There wasn’t a better way to say this. Nathaniel and I were incompatible.

  "You and him, hmm. You guys had something," she said softly, smiling. "But hey, what do I know?"

  I nodded, not saying any more. She might have been right: we had something, but whatever it was, it didn't make any difference to our short, but intense, relationship. The arrival of my grandmother threw me off my schedule and, after the small talk with Kate, my mind kept wandering off to Nathaniel. I kept contemplating if I could have done anything to keep him, but after lunch I was convinced we were just never meant to be together. I was determined to get over him. He broke me to pieces, but I had my magic and great memories.

  When I could finally focus on my emails, I discovered that Lucinda was looking forward to offering permanent contracts to some of our workers. In the end, she added that these were direct instructions from Mr. La Caz, who was currently away in Switzerland.

  My reply was short, simply stating that the agency was delighted to hear such wonderful news. There was no point using sarcasm with Lucinda—she wouldn't get it anyway—but somehow, she knew that I still cared about Nathaniel.

  When I finally had my coffee—cold now—I felt slightly better, but my bad mood wasn't going to go away easily. I scrolled through the rest of my emails, quickly deleting the spam. I was surprised to see an email from Rufus since he was supposed to pop into the office later on.

  Julia,

  I’m on my way to Manchester—something came up and I had to leave urgently yesterday afternoon. I just wanted to let you know about the networking event on Tuesday evening. It looks like I’ll be busy for the next few days, so I assumed that you could take my place instead of wasting the tickets.

  It’s a great opportunity to gain new business and you can build valuable relationships quickly. I’ve attached the flyer.

  I hope you have fun!

  Rufus Humphries

  Regional Manager

  Paranormal Personnel

  I didn’t have to think about this twice. Networking events were always fun and there was also free food. I replied quickly, informing him that I was up for it and that I would call him later to confirm everything. I hadn’t been out on the town since my stupid breakup. Ella had been busy with work and Nicky with her family, so at least I could have some fun while working. The news gave me some encouragement and now I was looking forward to tomorrow.

  Half an hour later, our new co-worker, Sara Lewis, finally strolled into the office. Kate pursed her lips and glanced at her, annoyed. I looked at my watch, mentally counting how many times she’d been late last week. She was lucky enough that Rufus wasn’t here because I would have said a few things to him.

  "Julia, I’m s
o sorry. You won’t believe what happened to me this morning," she exclaimed, throwing herself on her chair that, unfortunately, was next to mine. Sara was six feet two and her voice made me cranky.

  "Sara, I don’t want to pick on you but—"

  "I had a car crash with some obnoxious troll. He strolled into me by the Parliament," she said loudly, cutting me off. I glanced at Kate who lifted her wand, prepared to cast some kind of spell on Sara just to shut her up. I shook my head slightly, we didn’t need any more drama today, but I was tempted. "Then, he got out of the car and started accusing me of crossing into his lane! We argued, and I was just about to punch him..."

  We waited for about ten minutes until she finished her unbelievable tale. Kate and I learned to switch off when she was talking, not because her stories weren't interesting, but because we didn’t have time to spend hearing about how she tried to survive in London.

  Sara’s voice was slowly driving me insane. Her clumsiness, and the fact that she was constantly late, was delaying our work. Rufus had insisted on giving her a chance and we’d agreed. Within a week I knew, without a doubt, that Rufus made his first big mistake. He wasn’t the one who had to work with her all day, every day.

  "Then I told him to stick his fat, ugly finger up his own arse...”

  She was still talking, so I took my time checking how many more clients we had to register today.

  Then Kate flipped. "Sara, we’re trying to get on with our day, so spare us the details, will you? These files need to be sorted by next week."

  "Yes, Sara, these files are pretty urgent," I added, smiling, trying to take the sting out of Kate’s words.

  Sara frowned, obviously wanting to say something else, but changed her mind. Instead, she picked up the papers from her desk, looking annoyed. "All right, I’m sorry. I know I talk too much, but that troll made me so angry," she added, tossing her brown hair behind her. She was about to switch on her computer but dropped the stack of papers on the floor instead.

  "Oh no, it took me weeks to sort these names out," she whined. "Why do Mondays have to be so crappy?"

  When no one responded to her rhetorical question she got on with her work. Kate was holding it together, but I knew that sooner or later she would jump down Sara’s throat. I wanted to get along with people, but working was Sara was draining.

  By lunchtime my day improved, and our clumsy co-worker didn’t have any more accidents; my grandmother hadn’t come back, and I managed to see three clients who were currently working for La Caz Pharmaceutical.

  I left the office at one o’clock, hoping to munch on something fat and caloric. All my scars had healed. My neck was slightly sore, but other than that, I was fine and, in the past few weeks, I had been killing myself at the gym. Yes, I’d gone through a terrible breakup, but I wasn’t going to let myself down. People needed to see that I was fine and that I didn't need a man to make me happy.

  My phone rang when I was stuffing my face with spaghetti Bolognese on the busy High Street. I wasn’t surprised to see Nicky’s smiley face on the screen.

  "Hi, my best, best friend," I answered the phone.

  "I just spoke to Loony," she began. I bit my lips, ready for her to start shouting. She’d insisted on setting me up on a blind date and kept nagging until I said yes. Loony was supposed to be my type: tall, blond, and handsome. Yes, maybe he was good looking, and he was tall, but he had the personality of a turtle.

  "He loves you, Julia. I couldn’t get him off the phone today. He kept saying that you were perfect. He wants to see you again. Please tell me that you’re going for another date with him?"

  "Err, listen Nick, I don’t think it’s going to work out between us," I told her straight.

  "Are you crazy? He’s perfect for you. Rich, handsome, funny, and he’s an elf. What else do you want?"

  "Nick, listen, I can’t see myself with him. We didn’t click," I said. I appreciated what she was doing for me, but I needed time to rebuild my energy. I placed the bar high and, so far, no one was coming close to Mr. Bastard.

  "Come on, give him a chance; at least he won’t bite you and your parents will love him."

  "Nick, I’m fine. I don’t need a date. All men are prats," I pressed, getting tired of telling my friend that I would be much happier on my own.

  "All right, fine. I’ll stop, but I'm worried about you. Let me cast a spell on that vampire so he’ll get what he asked for—"

  "No, it’s nothing to do with him; I shouldn’t have let things go that far. Right from the beginning he said that he couldn’t do a relationship," I explained, playing with my food. “I'll be at a networking event tomorrow to take the edge off my bad mood. By the way, how are the kids?"

  "Fine. Obviously, I can’t make you happy," she replied with a sigh. "Kids are behaving. When are you going to pop over?"

  “I'll see; my work schedule is pretty hectic, but I don’t have any plans on the weekends, so we will figure something out. When you see Loony again, tell him that I have contagious elf typhus and I’ll call him when I’m better."

  Nicky laughed and some human who was sitting next to me narrowed his eyes, staring at me like I’d lost my mind.

  “Don't worry, I’ll talk to Loony, but I still think he would be perfect for you." She chuckled. "Think about this."

  "All right, bye," I said, ending the conversation.

  There, I did it. I told her that she shouldn’t set me up with anyone else. I was a strong, independent woman and I didn’t need a boyfriend just because people expected me to have one. All men turned out to be bastards; Jasper—my ex-boyfriend number one—was psychologically unstable and, in Nathaniel’s world, the word "relationship" didn't exist.

  When I went back to the office, Kate looked like she wanted to kill Sara. She told me later that our favourite co-worker made a mistake with the payroll and jinxed the whole system so Kate couldn't fix the error with her magic. No one was talking, and we didn’t have any more customers. I had written a few more adverts to recruit a number of production operative workers, but other than that, the rest of the hour passed quietly without further complications.

  It wasn't long before it was too quiet, so Sara started talking about her adventures in Romania. I was in charge today, but I couldn’t be bothered telling her to shut up. At least I was able to switch off and think about what I was going to wear for that networking event tomorrow. I was counting the minutes until half past five. Yoga after work was on the agenda and, after that, a bottle of white wine was waiting for me in the fridge; I was looking forward to a relaxing evening on my own.

  Throwing me off my thoughts was the next client who appeared in front of my desk. I yawned, and my jaw dropped when I saw Michael Longbridge in front of me—this time he was without a chainsaw or baseball bat. Kate took out her magic wand; the air around us thickened.

  He passed Sara, who stood up and dropped the bulk of her papers on the floor, immediately starting to apologise. To some extent I owed him my life. One night when I was searching after Claudia, Longbridge rescued me and Nathaniel from an obscure bar in the middle of London, in an area where no one hung out after dark. If it wasn't for him I would probably be dead already.

  "Miss Taylor, nice to see you again," he said, smiling widely. When he wasn't threatening me with a chainsaw or smashing chairs with a baseball bat, I had to admit that he was good looking. His black hair was cut short, his ebony eyes focused entirely on me. He even dressed better this time around.

  "Mr. Longbridge, how are you? It’s been few months," I said, pointing to the chair in front of my desk. I nodded to Kate, telling her that I had the situation under control. Sara finally sat down and started cleaning up the mess on the floor.

  “I'm great, thank you. I just started my own business; I deal mainly with vamps."

  "What sort of business is that?"

  "Security."

  I nodded, impressed. He looked good, dressed in black trousers and a navy shirt.

  “That's fantastic new
s. I’m glad." I paused. "So, what can I do for you, Mr. Longbridge?"

  He leaned toward my desk and flashed me another wide smile, staring directly into my eyes. "Well," he began, leaning closer, "I was wondering if you would like to have dinner with me?"

  I didn’t respond straight away and there was a long, uncomfortable pause while I tried to pick my jaw up off the floor.

  Out of the corner of my eye I could see Kate trying not to laugh. Sara wasn't paying much attention to us; she was too busy with the mess on the floor. I’d never been out with shapeshifter or a werewolf. Michael was good looking, and probably had a great personality, but I just couldn’t put myself into more of a mess with men. Besides, a few months ago he showed up in very suspicious neighbourhood, and I never learned what he was doing there, so he was a no-no.

  I cleared my throat, trying to stay professional. "I appreciate your proposition, but I’m afraid that I’m not interested in dating right now. You see, I just broke up with someone."

  He was kind of cute and my father would probably like him, but I had to be honest with him. His jaw clenched, and he shrugged his shoulders, like he was ready to attack or shift. I could only hope that he wasn't going to lose his temper again. The glass on Sara’s table started to vibrate—the tension in the room was getting to me.

  “You're turning me down?" he asked, raising a brow.

  "Yes, I’m afraid I am."

  "I think we’re very much alike, Miss Taylor, but you’re right. Maybe it’s too soon. After all, you went through a lot when we saw each other last. I don’t mind waiting—here’s my card." He handed me a business card. "Call me, when you change your mind."

  He rose, smiling, then sent me a sneaky wink before going on his way. The glass stopped vibrating and I exhaled.

  “You're certainly not lacking in that department." Kate smirked, looking at me.

  "Please shut up. Is it time to go home yet?"

  * * *

  The next day I woke in a much better mood. I used my unsettled magic skills to make breakfast and, for the first time in years, I didn’t spill or break anything. Sometimes I had to use magic to stay away from trouble; otherwise, I was too dangerous to be around humans. My day in the office went better than I expected. I filled a few call centre vacancies, registered two trolls, and left at five to get ready for my networking evening. Kate wished me luck, and Sara mentioned that I should try to pitch a few giants because they were very reliable and knew how to do business. I tried to get through to Rufus today, but his phone was going straight to voicemail. He was probably in Manchester sorting out the urgent query.