by Morgana Best
Aunt Agnes and Aunt Maude kept knitting, while Aunt Dorothy handed me a glass of Witches’ Brew. I continued. “But Lucas thinks Scorpius is dangerous. He told us not to leave the house. Plus he rescued me from Scorpius’s car where Scorpius was questioning me about the photos. What do you think he would have done if he’d known I had seen those photos? And what if he’s got Linda? What if he’s done something to Linda?” I ended on a note of hysteria.
“Linda has probably just forgotten to take her phone with her. I do it all the time. And if Scorpius finds out you have seen those photos, he will give you a long lecture about why he did it and how you mustn’t tell anyone,” Aunt Agnes said patiently. “That’s how Cleaners work. All vampires and all Shifters know that it’s illegal to turn someone, and they know it is punishable by death.”
“But I saw the photos,” I protested. “And why did Lucas say I was in danger from Scorpius, and that we all had to go to great lengths to make sure Scorpius didn’t find out we were vampires?”
Aunt Agnes looked at me from over her knitting. “Like I said, maybe his judgement is clouded because he has feelings for you. Maybe he’s like you, and just doesn’t trust him but doesn’t know why. Did he tell you explicitly why he thought you were in danger from Scorpius?”
I had to admit that he hadn’t. “See!” Aunt Agnes said with a note of triumph. “Lucas was being protective. He’s a Cleaner, so he’s jumpy and edgy about every little thing.”
“I hardly think Scorpius Everyman is a little thing,” I said dryly. Still, her words made me feel a little better. “But what about Linda?”
Right on cue, we heard a car pull up to the parking area outside. I hurried over to the window and looked out. “It’s Linda’s car!” I said.
I opened the front door and ran down to meet her.
Then it all happened at once. I saw her hands fly to her mouth, and her mouth open to scream, only the scream never came. Something that felt like a wind engulfed me, and that was all I remembered.
Chapter 19
I regained consciousness in a large room, and at once, a wave of nausea hit me. I held my breath, wondering if I was going to be sick, but the moment passed. I could feel a lump forming on my head. At least no blood was dripping down my face.
My hands were tied behind my back with rope. I guessed it was rope, given that my legs out in front of me were tied with rope. Scorpius Everyman was sitting at a desk in the corner, sipping what I assumed was Witches’ Brew.
“What did you do to Linda?” I managed to say. My mouth was dry, and I broke into a fit of coughing.
He looked genuinely surprised. “Linda? Nothing, yet. You’re the one I need.”
“Me? Why would you need me? I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Scorpius frowned. “I think I’ve given you too much credit, you and your boyfriend. You haven’t figured it out yet, have you? I’m disappointed in you, Valkyrie. Vampires should have far better deductive powers than you have displayed so far. And I’m disappointed in your aunts, too. Surely they should have figured it out by now.”
My head hurt, and the ropes were digging into my wrists. “Figured what out?” I had no idea what he was talking about. “What are you going to do with me?” I wished I hadn’t said the words as soon as they were out of my mouth. I thought it would be better not to know what his plans were for me. Clearly, they were nothing good.
“I don’t wish to harm you or any other vampire,” he said in a cold tone. “You’re simply here because I need you as an insurance policy. A hostage.”
“Hostage?” I echoed.
“I need to get out of the country without any interference from Lucas O’Callaghan. Now, on another matter, where are your parents?” He picked up a small knife and turned it over.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I haven’t seen them for years. They went missing in Kyrgyzstan five years ago, as you know.”
“I have ways of making you talk,” he said with menace. He got out of his chair and walked over to me in a predatory fashion, like a leopard advancing on its prey. He was still holding the knife.
“Why would I lie?” I said in a small voice.
“I’m really beginning to think you don’t know anything.” His tone was derisive. Much to my relief, he walked back to his seat. He picked up his goblet of Witches’ Brew and sipped from it again. “Oh well, I shall use you to flush out your parents. And when did you find out you were a vampire?”
I could see no harm in answering honestly. “Only recently, after I arrived in Lighthouse Bay. I didn’t even know such a thing existed before then.”
He stared at me, again in that unnerving way. “It’s interesting to me that the Jasper sisters and Lucas O’Callaghan haven’t told you the whereabouts of your parents.”
“What do you mean?” I asked him. “They don’t know. My parents are missing, presumed dead. Nobody knows where they are. Are you saying that they’re alive? What do you know?”
He waved one hand at me, which I took to mean that he had no intention of answering my question. “Shifters pose a danger to our existence,” he said suddenly.
I was startled. “How so?”
“They have animal instincts. I very rarely have to clean up after a vampire mishap; it’s always a Shifter mishap. Shifters are a mistake of nature.” With that, he left the room. I heard the door lock click into place behind him.
I took in my surroundings.
The walls were tongue and groove, and I could hear the ocean quite close, closer than I could hear it in my own cottage. I figured I was in a beach house somewhere. The exposed beams had been painted white, not recently, and the floor was covered by hideous linoleum of strawberry pink, black, and pale green. I supposed it had been fashionable in its day, many decades ago. The one small window was high, and there was no furniture, save a bare desk and chair. At least the air smelt fresh.
I tested my ropes, but they were tight. Through the high window, I could see gum trees. It didn’t take much for me to figure out that this was one of the typical beach cottages in this part of the land, one of those isolated cottages that could only be reached by a off road vehicle or perhaps a ferry. I sighed in despair.
Still, I was still alive, so Scorpius didn’t want to kill me—not yet, at any rate. Plus, he had spoken like someone who wanted to convert me to his cause, whatever that was. And then there was the fact that he wanted me as insurance to get out of the country. That surely meant he didn’t want to kill Lucas, either.
What was Scorpius’s cause? What was his agenda? I could hear a voice from the next room, but I didn’t know if it was a television or if he was speaking to someone on the phone.
I scooped my tied wrists under my bottom and looped my legs through my tied hands. Who would have thought those yoga lessons would ever come in handy? I tugged at the ropes on my feet, but they were tied ever so tightly. I half crawled, half dragged myself over to the door and then, after an awkward moment or so, managed to stand up and put my ear to the door.
“I told you, I don’t have much time.” It was Scorpius’s voice. He was silent for a moment, and I wondered whether the other person was speaking, or whether Scorpius had moved further away. So long as he didn’t move in my direction, I’d be happy. I was about to crawl back to my position when I heard Scorpius’s voice again. “I don’t know. From what the girl told me, at least one of her aunts doesn’t like the Shifter woman, and the girl doesn’t know enough to understand. If I could get her to see reason, she could influence her aunts to join our cause. It’s possible might be thinking along our lines, anyway.” I held my breath, waiting for him to speak again.
“Yes, of course, it’s her parents. I agree, if it wasn’t for her parents, the girl and the Jasper sisters would come around to our cause, if it wasn’t for that Lucas O’Callaghan, that is. Anyway, it’s a moot point because I don’t have the time now. Do you have everything ready for me?”
I pressed my ear to the door again, and could hear two sets of
footsteps. Until then, I had assumed Scorpius was speaking on the phone. Presently, I heard a car roar away.
I continued to press my ear to the door, but there was silence. I had to assume that both people had driven away. Now I had to figure out how to escape. Scorpius could come back at any time. I grabbed the door handle with both hands and pulled it hard, but it was locked. I hopped over to the chair and sat on it, and then bent down to work at my ropes.
I started to make some headway, but my wrists ached badly. They cramped, so I had to give them a little rest, as much as I didn’t want to waste the time. What had Scorpius meant about my parents? He had spoken as if they were alive. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but the possibility excited me.
The harder I thought about the case, the harder my head hurt. Finally, I decided to go through what I knew. I stood up and stretched my bound wrists over my shoulders, and then shook myself a little before sitting back down. “What do you know?” I said aloud. “Let’s begin with that.”
I knew that Scorpius Everyman had killed someone on the beach, possibly not far from where I now was. I shuddered, but forced myself to concentrate. I knew that he didn’t like Linda. No, that was not quite right—he didn’t like Shifters in general. He seemed pleased by the fact that I had told him Aunt Agnes hadn’t been too keen on Linda staying with us.
The picture was beginning to emerge, but I thought it was too fanciful. After all, I had watched Underworld and all the sequels. Was it possible that there was some sort of a war between Shifters and vampires? If so, no one had mentioned it to me. Linda obviously wasn’t aware of it, nor were my aunts. Even Lucas wasn’t aware of it.
Unless they were all keeping it from me? I shook my head. No, Linda was scared of Scorpius, and there was no reason for them all to be in it together, conspiring to keep something from me.
I thought on it some more. It did seem to fit, that Scorpius Everyman had a personal grudge against Shifters. Yet he had spoken about the ‘cause.’ Could he be in it with other people? I thought of the victims of the serial killer. They all looked like they had been mauled by animals. Something occurred to me, but I dismissed it as fanciful. Surely not? Yet, it did make the pieces fit. What if Scorpius Everyman had killed all those people and made it look like Shifter wolves had killed them? What if Scorpius Everyman was behind it?
The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that I was right. Scorpius wanted vampires to turn against Shifters, so he had killed people and made it look like Shifters had done it. And as he was a Cleaner, at some point he could simply come out and accuse Shifter wolves of the murders. Everyone would believe him.
The one fly in the ointment had been Joseph Maxwell’s colleague, the man who had taken the photos of Scorpius killing someone on the beach, and sent them to Joseph. Sure, Scorpius could have explained that away as him executing a Shifter or vampire who had turned someone, but he had no doubt killed the colleague as well. Was he going to explain that away, too?
And now it all made sense. That’s why Scorpius was so keen to find those photographs and all the evidence that Joseph Maxwell had on him. Until he had all that information, then he wouldn’t know how to proceed. Finally, he had given up all pretence and had made a run for it, kidnapping me as an insurance policy against Lucas stopping him.
I turned my attention back to the ropes around my feet with renewed vigour. After I had loosened the top knot, the others came away a little more easily. Finally, my feet were free. I rubbed my ankles, wincing as the returning blood flow gave me a nasty case of pins and needles.
Now I had to loosen the ropes around my wrists. I thought through my options. I considered using my vampire speed to move my wrists very quickly against the ropes, but then I figured that would only make the ropes cut my wrists. That wouldn’t work. I needed something sharp. The desk was a plain flat pack desk, a cheap one, and the chair was the same. I looked over them carefully, but there were no sharp points. There was nothing in the room I could use. That’s when I remembered the window. I could break the glass, and hopefully, some of it would fall inside, or some of it would remain in the windowpane and I could use it to cut the ropes. I pushed the desk over to the window and placed the chair on top of it. I climbed onto the desk, a little disturbed that it was so rickety. Either the floor was uneven, or one of the legs was shorter than the others.
I balanced on the desk, picked up the chair by one leg, which wasn’t as easy as it sounds, and rammed it into the glass. I shut my eyes and ducked my head as I did so. When I opened my eyes, I was pleased to see that there was one big jagged shard of glass in the window, and several smaller pieces of glass had fallen to the desk. Given that the window was so high, I decided to opt for one of the fallen pieces. I lowered myself to the floor, picked up the largest piece of glass I could find, and put it between my feet. I pressed my feet together as tightly as I could and then rubbed the rope across it.
I sighed. This wasn’t going to work. I would have to use my vampire speed, but I didn’t want to slice myself open in doing so. I experimented, first by moving very quickly for a short space of time. That worked, so I did it again. At this rate, it would take a week for the rope to slice through, but I was a little scared to move too quickly for too long. Finally, frustration made me brave and I did it for a longer interval. When I looked at the rope, it was only hanging by a thread, so I sliced it across the glass at normal speed. I stood up and then had to bend back down to rub my feet which were cramping badly from holding the glass for so long.
I looked at my wrists which were red and raw, not a pleasant sight. I rubbed them, but stopped when it hurt. There was no time to feel sorry for myself: now I had to climb through that tiny window.
I got back on the desk, much more easily this time now that my hands were free and picked up the chair, again more easily with two hands. I hit all the remaining pieces of glass with the chair. I certainly didn’t want to get cut climbing out the window. At least I knew Scorpius wasn’t around, because I had been making plenty of noise. I bashed and bashed the window with the chair, hoping to get every last sliver of glass out. I knew even a small piece of glass could leave a nasty cut.
I gingerly touched the bottom of the window, but it still felt sharp. I banged it a few more times with the top of the chair and tried it again. Still sharp. On my next try, the top of the chair flew off. I snorted in disgust—so much for cheap flat pack furniture.
As the window was narrow and high, I would have to drag my body through it, so I took off my shirt, folded it several times and put it across the bottom of the window. I didn’t think that would be enough, so I took off my jeans as well, and hung them across. I hoped the weight of the jeans would hold my shirt in place, and afford me some protection.
I placed the bottom of the chair, the part that was still remaining, on top of the desk and then stood on it, clutching the window sill for support. I would like to say I pulled myself through with one fluid motion, but my manoeuvre was more like a drunken ant climbing across a breadcrumb. It didn’t help that I was scared of cutting myself. If only I had gone on that diet I’d been promising myself I would go on for months, it would have been easier, because it was a tight fit. Finally, I was through the window, and with one big push I landed on the sand beneath the window.
I stood up and immediately checked myself for cuts. There was a long cut across my stomach, but it wasn’t deep. My ankle was throbbing, as was my elbow, which had taken my full weight.
I looked back up at the window, to see my jeans and my shirt were stuck to it. No wonder I had landed so hard. The inside of the cottage was much higher than the external level of the sand. Luckily, I had fallen onto sand and not onto hard ground.
I looked around wildly. “Now what?” I said aloud to the crows flying overhead. There was a sandy track leading away from the cottage on one side, and apart from that, it was either the ocean, or thick bush. I hobbled around the side of the cottage to the beach. It was a little inlet between two roc
ky heads and no sign of a boat in sight.
There was nothing else for it—I would have to stay close to the sandy track and follow it while staying out of sight. That meant going through the thick bushes in only my underwear, and I was certain there were leeches. What’s more, this cottage could be miles from civilisation, and my ankle was painful, but I could hardly stay here.
I had only made it five steps from the edge of the cottage when a huge Land Rover screamed to a halt in front of me and the passenger jumped out. “We’ve been looking for you,” a strange man said.
Chapter 20
I turned to run, but the next thing I knew, someone gently gripped my wrists.
“Lucas!” I turned and flung my arms around his neck.
In one swift motion, he pulled me to him and kissed me softly, his lips all too briefly brushing mine. “You’re hurt.”
I followed his gaze to my stomach. “That’s just a scratch, but I’ve hurt my shoulder and my ankle is really bad.”
The other man was standing there, looking at me. Lucas must have noticed too, because he at once pulled his tee shirt off and dropped it over my head. I winced as he pulled it over my sore shoulder.
That left Lucas shirtless, and I could barely drag my eyes away from his muscled chest. My eyes trailed down to his six pack. My whole body tingled, but the other man’s words brought me to my senses. “Where is Scorpius Everyman?”
“He drove away, about fifteen or so minutes ago,” I said. “Could’ve been longer, I suppose. I had to smash that window and climb out.” I pointed to the window for emphasis. “He tied up my hands and legs with ropes.”
