“And after?”
He put his hands on his hips the way men do, as if it expands their plumage. “That would depend on your business with him.”
“You seem like a nice man.”
His smile quirked on one side, as if to warn me otherwise.
“Why are you working with ...”
“Me?” A larger than death voice boomed through the room as Maximo appeared. I say appeared, because one moment he wasn’t there and the next he was. Fangers are good at that. Dammed good at that.
I tried to catch my breath. He was so, so, so vampire. His long, thick hair cascaded to his shoulders in waves reminiscent of Fabio. His square jaw was outlined in a five-o’clock shadow on his white skin. Brown eyes, so dark they looked black, swallowed the air in my lungs.
His deathly charisma stole the room. If I didn’t know better I would guess that he charmed me, but I know a witch can’t be charmed. His power rested solely with his presence.
I swallowed and took in the rest of him. He wore black silk pajamas and leather slippers.
“What have we here?”
I stood. “Cut the crap. You know who I am.”
His eyes narrowed. “My charm doesn’t work on you, does it?”
“If you’re going to kill me, please, just do it now and we can get that over with.”
He chuckled.
“Otherwise I’d like to get down to business.”
“Who are you?”
He doesn’t know! “I’m Abby Jenkins. The ...”
“Aah,” Recognition crossed his face. “The witch with a Viking lover from Sunset Cove. I have heard of you.”
An interesting way to sum me up. I nodded and waited.
“And what do you want from me?”
“I need to speak to you. Alone, for starters.”
Maximo made a hand movement to the redhead and he disappeared through the doorway. “We are alone.”
“I’m investigating the murder of Kumar, Elif’s day man.”
“He died in a séance.” His eyes didn’t blink. At first it gave me the impression that he was attentive, but after a few minutes it just felt ghoulish. Still, I liked the way the man got to the point.
“Did you do it?”
He laughed. Belly laughed. The deep kind that makes you double over and lose your breath, except he didn’t have any breathe to lose, so he just doubled over. I gave him time to recover, but I could feel my cheeks burning with embarrassment.
When he stood up again, he spoke. “You, a breather, come into my home and accuse me of murder? Do you have a death wish?”
I shook my head. “I’m sure many women come to you for death and other things, but no, that’s not why I’m here. I want to know if you killed Kumar. My witch senses will let me know if you’re lying.”
“No, I did not kill Kumar. That’s not to say I don’t like killing, mind you.”
“You’re playing with me.”
“A little. I met the man once, Kumar—a good name—but we weren’t what I would call acquainted. He belonged to Elif.”
“Your enemy.”
His brow rose. “Enemy is a strong word. When you live as long as I have, you lose any remnants of trust in others. In a sense everyone is your enemy and everyone your friend. Human nature becomes nakedly transparent. People either want what you have or they want you dead.”
So, he didn’t kill Kumar. Huh. “You and Elif have turf issues. Right?” The fact that “turf” translated to human blood supply crossed my mind, but I squashed it. No point letting my humanness muddle the conversation.
“He might see it that way. I don’t.” Maximo moved closer. He smelled of expensive aftershave and liver. An ice-cold shiver stole up my spine. “I can’t read your thoughts,” he said.
“I hope not.”
“You must have strong powers.” His nose wiggled as he sniffed me.
I shrugged. “So, they tell me. I’m new at all this.”
“New? How nice for you. I haven’t been new at anything for a very long time. Though having an affair with a witch coming into her powers would be new.”
I smiled. “Are you coming on to me.”
“Maybe. Do you want me to?”
“No, thank you.”
“Then I gather our business is over.” He stretched his back, cracking his vertebrae as if they were knuckles.
“No. Wait. I want to know what’s going on between you and Elif. I came here thinking you killed Kumar to threaten or torment him, and that maybe you took Joy, his lover, as well.”
His brows lifted. “No, that’s not my style. If I wanted to get at Elif, I would kill him, or one of his coven, not a human who waters his plants.”
I must have looked confused, because he toggled his head.
“Let me spell it out for you. I don’t need to kill Elif or any of his associates. I will share his domain whether he likes it or not, and there isn’t anything he can do about it. The vampire council is aware of my movements and approves. It’s all about densification. Elif needs to catch up to the twenty-first century.”
“Is Elif aware of the council’s view?”
“Oh, yes. He stood beside me when the high hew haw—and no, that’s not what we really call him—pronounced his judgment.”
I folded my arms across my chest. His black eyes held no depth. What do they say about eyes being a gateway to the soul? He could kill without remorse, but I could feel his honesty and he had no reason to lie. I tapped my fingers on my arm.
Why did Elif send me on a wild-vampire chase? To get me killed? To take me off the scent of the real murderer? Vampires always had reasons for what they did. They may not make sense to humans, but they had their own reasons. “And what about Joy?”
“His new pet?”
My cheeks heated, but I kept my anger as contained as I could. “She’s missing and she’s my friend.”
He shrugged. I might as well have been talking about a mosquito being squashed.
“I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting her.”
My witch and human senses said he spoke the truth. “Do you know of anyone who would steal Elif’s woman?”
“Anything is possible in our world, but no one stands out.”
Damn. Damn. Damn. As much as I didn’t want to confront an old vampire, I did want him to be guilty and he wasn’t. “I don’t know where to look next.”
“They say the internet is a good place to find things.” Then he laughed, and the hollow sound echoed in the room.
I stared at him. Had he lost his sanity along with his humanity?
“Sorry,” he said. “You don’t get immortal humor. I wish you luck, Abby Jenkins, but it is time for you to leave. I’m feeling hungry and you smell too good for me to resist.”
“One last question.”
“What?”
I showed him a photo of the locket on my phone. “Does this mean anything to you?”
“It’s Elif’s, passed down to him from his sire. Are we done now?”
Elif?
“Ow.” I gasped. “Ow,” I cried out and clutched my tiny baby bump.
Maximo rushed to my side and put his hand over mine. “Charles, call 911. We have a baby coming.”
Chapter 19
My Life is Never Normal
“Wrong place at the wrong time oughta be my middle name.” ~ Lafayette, True Blood
Holy hell broke loose in the vampire’s lair. My contractions immobilized me. Charles, the butler, rushed in and used his cell phone to call an ambulance. Maximo guided me to his couch and sat me down. I doubled over. Charles put a blanket over my shoulders. I screamed in pain. Tears flowed. I wanted this baby. Eric’s baby. Our baby. I wanted this child. But it was too soon.
Pain slowed my sense of time. Where the hell were the first responders? Maybe if I got to the hospital quickly they could stop this miscarriage. “I want this baby,” I said.
Maximo lifted me in his arms, and the next thing I knew we were flying.
I never thought I would want to fly in the arms of a vampire, but I was beyond caring about anything. Excruciating pain racked my body. We flew over the forest. The smell of cedars and earth caught my breath.
The closest hospital, Harborview General, smelled of antiseptic, urine and blood. I felt liquid between my legs. My water had broken. The emergency room was busy but arriving in the arms of a blood-sucking night creature got me attention. The pain grew to a level of intensity far greater than any of my births. I screamed and screamed.
The two ER nurses ran in so many directions they ran into one another. A doctor appeared dressed in green scrubs, and they ushered us into a curtained area in the back. Maximo laid me on the stretcher and touched my head tenderly. Without a word he disappeared.
The doctor’s scrub hat had multi-coloured puzzle pieces on it. That was the last thing I remembered before I passed out. My doctor liked jigsaw puzzles.
I woke three hours later in a six-bed room, with my sister holding my hand. Drugged, tired and sore … I pushed on my witch senses. I wanted to know what had happened, but the news wasn’t good. Tears flowed. The baby was gone.
“It’s going to be all right,” said Jill. “The doctor said it’s going to be all right.”
But it wasn’t going to be all right. I lost my baby. No one could make that all right. A cold breeze ruffled my hair and I looked to my left. Eric stood there crying. My strong, silent warrior.
A nurse came in, a big woman in pink scrubs with her hair pulled back in a long neat braid. I asked her, “Can I talk to the doctor?”
She shook her head. Her soft-brown eyes were the color of warm marmalade. “He’s gone home, but don’t worry, we’ll take good care of you.” She looked at the window. “I keep turning up the heat in here, but it stays chilly. I’ll get you another blanket.”
I grabbed her arm. “No, please stay.” My voice sounded as desperate as I felt. “Tell me what happened.”
“It’s not easy to lose a baby, honey. You cry as much as you like. I’m glad you have someone with you.” She nodded to Jill.
“Do you know any details.”
“Details?”
How could I put my concern? Did my baby have two heads? “Do you know what went wrong?”
Her lips compressed. “The doctor will talk to you soon. But as my mother used to say, ‘It’s nature’s way of taking care of things. If the baby miscarries, it wasn’t healthy enough to live.’” She patted my shoulders. “You’re young enough to have another.”
But I want that one. I didn’t say that out loud. Tears filled my eyes again.
“I can tell you that you had an unusual miscarriage,” she said.
“Unusual?”
“You had a lot of pain, and before the doctor could give you anything for it, you passed out. I wasn’t there, but the ER nurse told me about it. She said it was really weird, said she could have sworn there was a pink fog around you. Your eyes rolled back and you were out.”
Pink fog? “Then what happened?”
“Doctor John is a really good doctor. I’m sure he did everything he could, but the miscarriage couldn’t be stopped. You passed …”
“My baby,” I finished her sentence, not wanting my child to be called anything less than what she was. Suddenly I knew her gender, and an image of a blond child smiling at me came into my mind. I swallowed.
“I’m sorry.”
I nodded, feeling too numb, emotionally and physically, to say anything more. I had given birth three times and never felt so much pain. Something had gone wrong.
“You passed a clot,” she said, patting my shoulder.
A clot? It was my baby you dolt, not a clot.
“It’s nature’s way.”
Nature’s way stinks.
“The nurse said it had unusual characteristics.”
Oh shit.
“It’s been sent to the lab.”
“No.” I found my voice. “No. I don’t want my baby examined as a specimen.”
“It wasn’t really a baby yet.” The nurse squeezed my shoulder, and I pulled away.
“It was my baby.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?” said Jill.
“My baby,” I said and started crying all over again. I looked at Eric. “Our baby.”
“It wasn’t right,” said the nurse. “The doctor said it wasn’t right.”
My eyes locked with Eric’s. It had been a miracle that I conceived his child, but it wasn’t meant to be. Old sperm? Over a millennium-year-old sperm. Unnatural? Hell, our love couldn’t be more natural, but the fates were against us.
“You will heal.” A new voice. A male voice. I turned. Dante stood beside my sister. “Let me hold her hand,” he said.
His touch, warm and magical, sent energy into my body. I looked towards Eric. He looked unbelievably sad.
I looked at Dante. “How did you know I was here?”
He winked. “I knew.”
“They have my baby.”
Dante glared at the nurse. “We want the baby’s remains returned. You have no right to take them without the mother’s permission.”
The nurse’s face turned crimson. “The doctor figured she would want to know what went wrong.”
“I don’t care what the doctor figured. He had no right. If the baby is not returned today, I will see my lawyer. The hospital will not want that.”
“You people in Sunset Cove are so unreasonable. We need to know what went wrong.”
Jill stood up. “Get out,” she said to the nurse. “Just get out.”
The nurse took a step back.
“You’ve obviously never had a miscarriage. Just get out. And bring the baby back.”
I couldn’t stop crying.
The nurse left. Dante leaned over and kissed me gently on the forehead. “We’ll get her back.” He looked up at Eric and they nodded to one another.
Jill said, “I’ll leave you two alone.”
Chapter 20
Broken
"Passion. It lies in all of us. Sleeping, waiting, and though unwanted, unbidden, it will stir. Open its jaws, and howl. It speaks to us, guides us. Passion rules us all, and we obey. What other choice do we have?" – Angel (Season Two), Buffy.
The doctor wanted me to stay in the hospital. He wanted to run tests … something about my blood count concerned him. The nurses wanted me to stay in the hospital to rest before heading back to my family. Jill wanted me to stay in the hospital for the same reason. The world wanted me to stay put in an antiseptic tomb.
I left.
What else could I do? I knew my blood wasn’t normal, and having it tested wouldn’t fix it. I had no intention of becoming anyone’s specimen. I already had enough puncture wounds on my arm to categorize myself as a human pin-cushion.
Nothing the doctor or the nurses or the hospital could do would make me heal faster. I felt like hell, inside and out. I grieved for my baby. I could feel the loss in my bones. But the kind of healing I needed would take time and patience, not hypodermic needles or science.
Besides all of which, Joy was still missing.
I decided on a compromise. I wouldn’t go home to all my family and work responsibilities, but I wouldn’t stay caged either. I took a taxi to a motel on the edge of town called Shady Lady, where all things shady rest. The seclusion and the price fit. I tipped Ralph the taxi guy, and town drunk, well, so he wouldn’t reveal my hiding spot for twenty-four hours. I figured he could hold out that long.
I rocked on the bed, holding a pillow, letting the tears rip from inside me. An hour later I felt a bit better and pulled out my laptop, which Jill had brought to the hospital. I stared at my suspect list, but nothing jumped out at me. I didn’t know who killed Kumar, or who stole Joy. Some detective I turned out to be.
Someone knocked on my door. Of all the seedy hotel rooms, in all the world … Why here, and why now? My witchy senses remained quiet. Spark snored. I rose to answer it.
As I looked through the pea
k-hole thingy, I stopped breathing. Eric stood outside. Eric in the flesh.
When I opened the door for him, he took warrior strides into my room as if a battle awaited inside. Perhaps it did. I’d lost count of how many times we had had this discussion, the one that never went away.
I closed the door and locked it. He looked at the pile of tissues on the bed and turned back towards me.
“You’re breathing,” I said.
“Yes.”
Silence.
“Guiden?”
“Yes.”
“How much of your soul did you sell this time?”
“I want to be with you. I want to be a living, breathing man for you.”
“I’m too tired to argue.”
“I’m not here to argue, my äskling.” He moved closer, all six feet five inches of him. He smelled of the woods. “You shouldn’t go through this alone.”
“I’m not alone. Why can’t you understand that I accept our relationship as it is.” I took a deep breath. “I feel your love and your companionship. I do not feel alone. You don’t need to breathe for me to love you. You don’t need to make unspeakable deals with the devil.”
“It’s not enough.”
I sighed. “Eric, I’m the one who gets to decide what’s enough.”
His jaw flexed. I hate it when he does that. It means his stubborn nature is about to come on at full speed.
“I made my choice, and it’s mine to make.”
“Is this because of Dante?”
“No. Yes. It’s about all of it. I want to be with you.”
“So, what have you done?”
“I’ve made a deal with Guiden.”
“Not the deal?”
“All that matters is that I am here now, in the flesh, to be with you. As it should be.”
“But our child …” My voice cracked. He pulled me to him and I placed my head on his chest.
“Our child is dead and my heart is broken.”
I sobbed.
“We are still together.”
I lifted my head to look at him. “Can you see the spirit of the baby?”
“Ya.” He hesitated. “Her spirit went straight to heaven. She wouldn’t have been normal had she been born. It may be hard to accept, but it’s better this way.”
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