She did one final check in the mirror and she was pleased with what she saw. A flicker of guilt skittered across her heart. Had she moved on from Victor? Was this her way of saying goodbye to the big man? No, he wouldn’t want her to hole up in the house and never date again. She sighed, she would never forget him, or their time together, and no one and nothing could ever replace it.
“Here you go,” he offered he a cup as she walked out. He sat at the kitchen table. His shoulder rig containing his Glock, hung over the back of the chair next to him.
She took the coffee, the warmth of the cup was nice but she resisted the urge to drink from it.
“Would you be offended if I had a beer instead?” she asked as she placed the mug down.
He sat back a little, appraising her, or she felt like he was. It was unusual for her to feel uncomfortable. He didn’t have swagger, but there was a confidence he carried that she liked. He nodded. She pulled open the cap and took a long pull. It wasn’t the best, the alcohol content was too low, but it was better than the coffee. She didn’t want to pull out a bottle of vodka and give him the wrong impression.
She put the beer down and wiped her mouth. He had questions in his eyes, she could tell, but he waited patiently.
“I need your help finding someone,” she said after a few minutes.
“That’s what I do, who do you need me to find?” he asked with a smile.
“Me.”
***
It didn’t make sense to her as she flipped through the book. After an entire hour on the bus the confusion in her head hadn’t cleared.
The light brightened as the bus pulled into the downtown Tacoma terminal.The sky was pitch black with no moon that night. She did some quick mental math, the shifting of the ley lines wasn’t far off now. Another month at most.
She thanked the bus driver as she stepped out onto the street. It was still cold, especially at night. She pulled her hood up and zipped up her coat. The house was a mile away, which gave her time to think as she walked. The strap of her purse pulled on her shoulder reminding her of the book inside. She thought about the book, about her mother's reaction to it all. About her hand. She looked down, it was clasped now, she willed it to open… nothing.
How could there be anything that her mother feared? She could summon demons and rain terrible wrath upon people, but she feared these Fae? Even to the point of refusing to speak about the items in the book she had given her. It had been her mother's book, surely she would know about the Well—
“Hey honey, you look a little lost. I don’t think you live around here.” A hand grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. Five men stood in a semi-circle around her. Her heart hammered in her ears bringing her back to reality. There were streets she didn’t walk on after dark, and she had without thinking.
“Not tonight,” she tried to keep her voice calm. She could maybe talk her way out of this if she didn’t seem overwhelmed by fear, or too threatening. Dealing with people, let alone men, wasn’t something she was good at, even at the best of times. What would Alexi do? Tell them to go screw themselves and beat the shit out of them. Not exactly an option for her.
“You live around here? You lost, you wanna come home with us and we can help you find your way,” the leader was almost as short as her, but he spent a lot of time working out. The rest were about her age or older, all of them were large. Fear crackled like electricity up her spine, seizing up her arms. She could sense their thoughts, not with any magic, but with the knowledge of what bad men do to women when no one watched.
“N…no, I’m almost home.”
“Damn right you are,” his tone shifted dramatically. Two of them grabbed her arms.
“No!”she screamed. Panic seized her blurring her vision and sending her brain into overdrive.
“Shut the bitch up,” the leader said.
A hand flattened her. Her vision swam and she could taste blood. Her blood. Hands tore at her clothes, someone pulled her purse off. The blood flowed in her mouth, she let it build up until her cheeks bulged with it.
“Off of me!” she shouted. Blood sprayed from her mouth coating all of them and acting as a messenger of her will. The window opened and power poured through her. A wave of energy exploded around her. The men screamed as they were flung through the air to tumble to the ground twenty feet away.
She pointed at the leader as he tried to pick himself up.
“Down,” she commanded. An unseen force crashed down on him, smashing his face into the concrete. He choked out a scream as his jaw broke against the sidewalk. Arcs of arcane energy leaped off of her to pulverize bits of grass and concrete beneath her. The ground withered under the assault as the energy within in her built to uncontrollable levels.
“Let me show you what real power is.” Savanna pulled in as much as she could, the energy roared within her and overwhelmed her senses.
“You’re nothing but pigs!”
***
“All right here you go,” John handed her the laptop. Alexi took it and walked over to the couch. Dread filled the pit of her stomach. Should she look? She wished Savanna were here. She paced in front of the couch for a few seconds, started to sit, then abruptly stopped and resumed pacing.
After a few moments, she collapsed onto the couch with her legs tucked under her and the laptop balanced on her knees. Her eyes refused to focus on the screen. Her heart raced as she thought about what was on there. Could she look? Would it bring back her memories or just taunt her with a life she could never have?
Her indecision spiked and she was about to give up the whole thing when John’s hand appeared on the laptop lid as he slid onto the couch next to her. Close enough she could smell his scent beneath his cologne and the small amount of perspiration. His smile spoke volumes about his patience.
“Why can't you remember who you are?” he asked quietly. His presence next to her broke her indecision by giving her something else to focus on. She leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder. She wasn’t hungry, not exactly. After all, she had gone weeks before without feeding, but there was something about him she liked. Either it was him, or how he tasted. Every person had a flavor, and some were more delicious than others. For him, there was something noble about his blood. She could no more explain it to herself than she could explain why Savanna’s blood tasted innocent and Victors was strong.
“It’s a long story, but the short version is…”
The short version turned into the long version. She told him everything that had happened. How she had woke up the year before, what she found. The vampires, the Arcanum, the near end of the world, once with Dupree, and more recently with the zombies. She skipped the parts about Savanna’s mom, it wasn’t her story to tell. Everything else poured out of her in a near constant train of words. She realized as she spoke she hadn’t shared this with anyone other than Savanna who had lived it with her. Not even the Arcanum knew the full story, but here she was telling it to a man she had virtually just met.
“It’s not your fault, you know that right? What happened to my partner would have happened with or without you. All things being equal I’m glad you were there, I would rather not go around saying, brains,” he held out his arms in a mock of a zombie, “for the rest of my life.”
“I’m glad too, I guess, but I can’t help feel like I’m the cause. Did this stuff happen before I was around?” she asked. When he didn’t respond she continued, “I have to say, you’re considerably less freaked out than I was, to find out all this stuff is true.”
He smiled at her as he heaved himself up and walked over to the table. He poured himself another cup of coffee before returning to the couch. As he lowered himself to the couch their legs touched, a tingle shot up Alexi’s spine at the inadvertent contact.
“I blame pop-culture. I think us Americans are ready for just about anything at this point. Alien invasion, Hellmouth, whatever, we got this.”
Laughter bubbled up in her in the form of a giggle.
It lasted entirely too long for her taste. She pressed her hand to her eyes from to hide her shock at her own amusement.
After a few moments, he spoke, “Are you going to look?”
She glanced down at the laptop. Fear and uncertainty gnawed at her stomach and made her hesitate.
“I was hoping Savanna would come home.”
It was a lame excuse. She would love to share this with her friend, but she was stalling and she knew it. The real questions gnawed at her. What would her daughter look like? Would she have her eyes? Her hair?
John moved closer placing his hand on hers and gently opened the lid. The way she held it in her lap forced him to put his chin on her shoulder to see the screen. There were several pictures, all from the Seattle PD’s missing persons division. All family photos, surprisingly well shot. The page showed them all as one screen with many thumbnails. The picture of a young woman in Army dress caught her eye and she clicked on it. She scanned the rest of the pictures, quickly clicking on each, enlarging it, before moving onto the next one.
Alexi double checked the name on the file. It was her. The photos though—the woman in them couldn’t possibly be her. She had a life to her eyes, a pink to her skin Alexi couldn’t have. Her face was a bit gruff, her posture a bit slouchy. She certainly wasn’t photogenic. A different photo of her had her in an airport and she had all dessert camouflage on, with a large green bag over her shoulder. There were sunspots on her nose and cheeks. The uniform did her no favors and Alexi would almost describe her as dumpy—
“Is it me, or do these photo’s not really... uh, look like you?” John asked as she scrolled through the file.
He wasn’t wrong. They didn’t. Her hair was blonde, but not the current vibrant color that adorned her head now. More of a muddy, dirty blonde. Her eyes were blue but dark. Her skin marred by life, not the flawless porcelain it was now.
The file wasn’t complete, either. There was no mention of a daughter, no picture of a little girl.
Alexi jumped up dumping the laptop on him as she ran to the closest mirror, the one by the door. It was lower than eye level forcing her to stoop to look into it. She heard John behind her shuffle up to stand next to her.
“What are we looking at,” he asked quietly.
“When I first met another vampire I noticed something odd about them, a pressure. When I pushed past it I realized something off about them,” her voice sounded high to her own ears, almost hysterical, “Their looks, the way they smell, they way they feel, it was a facade, a glamor. They aren’t the perfect creatures they pretend to be, they’re ugly and horrific. Everyone sees them as beautiful and angelic because of this,” she waved her hand in the air, “magic,” her voice wavered, “but their not, they’re monsters.” Please god, don’t let that be me.
Without taking her eyes off the mirror she continued, “I broke one, once, and she went crazy. I need…” she couldn’t finish. Her eyes stared back, brimming with tears. Alexi focused, she looked for the pressure, the one that she felt whenever magic was present. She wiped her eyes clear and kept pushing. Her shoulders hunched from the strain. Her neck turned red from her effort.
“You think the reason you don’t look like that girl in the photo’s, is… magic?” he asked.
She didn’t trust her voice to answer. She searched her head for the slightest bit of pressure. Anything she could focus on and push through.
Nothing.
She took a deep breath and shuddered as she let it out. Her body ached from the strain. John slipped his hand in hers and squeezed.
“I don’t know shit about vampires, or any of this other magic stuff, but I’m a pretty good read on people, Alexi. You’re no monster. Whatever happened to you to turn you into what you are, it isn’t a curse. It’s a gift.”
“I feed on people’s blood, how is that a gift? I could have easily killed you the other night. A part of me wanted to,” she couldn’t stop the tears that overwhelmed her and flowed down her cheeks. She let her fangs grow so he could see what a monster she was.
“This is what I am—a vampire. A killer who hasn’t killed yet. What kind of family would want me?”
He held his hand to her face and cupped her cheek.
“You’re not a monster Alexi. The girl, the one in the file. She joined the Army to help people. She worked at the VA hospital. She gave blood to the red cross. These aren’t the actions of a monster.”
Alexi sniffed.
“I don’t remember any of that. I’m not that person anymore. She was twenty-eight, with a bright future ahead, parents who loved her. A daughter,” she nearly broke, “I don’t even look like her!”
She sank into him, letting him hold her up while her body racked with sobs. For her, it was a forgone conclusion. One day… one day she would go too far and someone would die under her fangs. She let him lead her to the couch and sank down next to him, burying her head in his shoulder. She didn’t know how long she cried for, but when it subsided his shoulder was wet with her tears.
“I didn’t know you had a daughter,” he whispered. “There’s no mention of her in the files. Would you like your parent's address? If anyone knows about her, it would be them.”
Did she? Surely they would be better off thinking their daughter dead than knowing the truth. She didn’t want to move. Curled up in his arms, with her head against his chest, she felt safe. Normal. If she moved she ruined it.
You will never be normal.
Alexi felt something… a pressure, ever so lightly, on the back of her head.
Alexi, Savanna’s voice whispered to her.
She jumped up. John shouted with a start as she vaulted over the couch to land ten feet away by the door. The pain and fear Alexi felt in that one word, had her acting on instinct. She crashed through the front door, shattering it into several large pieces.
Savanna knelt on the sidewalk, her clothes torn, blood splattered on her shirt. Four large pigs sniffed around the dirt and pavement beside her.
“Help me,” she cried.
***
Alexi waved at John from the ruined doorway. She’d hung a blanket over it until they could get it fixed. She said her goodbyes and thank yous hastily after Savanna had come home. He’d been kind enough to help them herd the four large swine into the back yard. Alexi couldn’t explain anything, she didn’t know how. His understanding knew no bounds, it seemed, for he smiled, gave her a peck on the cheek, and left.With that behind her, she faced Savanna.
The witch sat on the couch, legs folded underneath her and a hot cup of tea in one hand. Her other hand was tucked under her leg. She had her robe wrapped around her and her wet hair intertwined with a towel.
“Savanna…what’s going on?” she asked in a whisper. She didn’t want to upset the girl but things were obviously not okay.
“I—,” she sniffed, “I lost control and I turned those men into pigs,” she burst out.
“You can do that?”
Savanna shook her head violently back and forth.
“Then how…?”
Savanna closed her eyes tight, her head hung low. Alexi sensed something beneath the surface, her head buzzed from it. She waited patiently across the couch from her. Savanna was the last person she would ever hurry to explain anything.
“It’s unstable because of the… it’s unstable. Too much power, too little, I can’t control it. Those men attacked me, and I was angry when one of them slapped me—I just exploded.”
Alexi chuckled, “Poetic justice if you ask me.”
“I can’t change them back, Alexi, it isn’t funny. Shapeshifting is powerful shit. And I don’t even know how I did it to begin with. What if I can’t ever change them back? What if—” she looked down to her hidden hand.
“Savanna, what aren’t you telling me?” she asked. There was something. A lingering force that rolled off of her. Alexi leaned forward and tenderly put her hand on Savanna’s knee. Perhaps if she changed the subject it would relax her.
“I saw
a picture of my family,” she said suddenly. Savanna’s head whipped up.
“What? How?”
“That’s why the good detective was here. I tried to figure out the computer and it’s all Greek to me. Do you want to see what he found?”
Savanna nodded excitedly her current troubles momentarily forgotten.
Alexi retrieved the laptop and flipped open the screen. Nestled next to Savanna she opened up the browser window that John had left logged in. It connected the SPD missing persons public database.
“How come,” Savanna pointed to the Army photo, “that doesn’t really look like you. Are you sure this is the right person?”
Alexi nodded, scrolled down to the relevant statistics of height, weight, day first missing, employer etc. The last seen location was the VA hospital when her shift ended, the same place she had found her dog tags.
“It’s the glamour, it has to be.”
“Maybe you just photograph bad,” Savanna said with a grin.
Alexi mirrored it, “No one photographs that bad.”
They spent some time looking at the different photos. She obviously took after her mom, a beautiful woman with long blonde curls and pale blue eyes. Her dad was a few inches taller than her with a salt and pepper beard. His eyes were a dark brown. No mention of a daughter or any other relations.
“What are you going to do?” asked Savanna.
“I don’t know. How do I talk to them? ‘Hi, I’m your daughter, even though I don’t really look like her? Also, I don’t remember you.’ It doesn’t seem very fair to them, or me.”
Savanna nodded.
“When we fought the zombie king, you were so brave,” Savanna said out of the blue.
Taken aback by the sudden change, Alexi smiled, “He had to be stopped, besides I wasn’t going to let you be zombie chow.”
Savanna gave her a tight-lipped smile, “See, that’s what I mean. You rush in where angels fear to tread. I—I freeze or get blindsided. I died on that hill last year, Alexi. If you hadn’t been there I would have stayed dead.”
Blood Sacrifice (Faith of the Fallen Book 2) Page 10
