Vampires of the Caribbean

by Debra Dunbar

  “I have to give them the opportunity to surrender to me, Penny,” he’d told her. “They all deserve trial; for all we know, some of them may be held against their will. Most probably can’t speak English outside the building’s magical sphere, and few would be able to get home without Rayne or Aurel.”

  “They’re all … ” she says.

  “They’re all dead.” Dare says flatly. “I shot Aurel a few times just to be safe.”

  Penny puts them into drive, hardly believing it’s over.

  They’ve passed the strip malls, pawnshops, and used car lots when Dare says, “Aurel almost touched me. I wonder … if I had let him … would he have realized …”

  Penny’s mind supplies the rest of the words. Dare had said that most magical creatures can’t see his aura … but occasionally one has a talent for sensing truth, or just interacts with magic in a different way, and they realize instantly what he is capable of. What he is capable of, he'd told her when she'd tried to talk him out of his plan, is telekinesis, astral projection, fire, ice, healing, compulsion, strength, speed. But his greatest talent he said over and over is not being perceived as threatening.

  Now Dare is asking if Aurel had touched him, would the prince have realized he was outgunned … or out hocus-pocused, or whatever. “No,” Penny says. “He’s an ass and he just would have killed you.” She suspects that Dare knows that at some level, but maybe it is a characteristic of lawful goodness to always question one’s motives?

  They pass an intersection and then another.

  Dare puts his hands down, and looks to the east. “It’s time for me to go home.”

  Penny’s hands tighten on the wheel. “Are you sure—”

  “It’s not good for either of us for me to stay,” Dare says, his voice tired. Penny feels her chest tighten and her eyes prickle, but she drives to Split Oak.

  As soon as she cuts the engine, Dare is out of the car. She follows him through the tall trees. They walk only to the tune of birds, insects, and their own footsteps until they reach a place on the trail between two particularly large trees not far from the split oak that gives the area its name.

  Dare stops in his tracks a few paces ahead of her. “It’s here.”

  “I’m sorry,” Penny whispers. “I’m sorry I made you bond with me.” She has to say it before he disappears … or whatever. He hasn’t said it, but she knows he’s not coming back. Her eyes get hot. “I didn’t know.”

  She doesn’t see Dare move, but he is suddenly there, his arms around her, his chin on the top of her head.

  “I’m so sorry.” She sniffs and puts her arms around him. He’s really tall, and he’s strong. She wonders if this is what it would feel like to have a big brother.

  “I’m not,” Dare says. “I would have died if you hadn’t saved me.”

  “But it hurts you, I know it does,” Penny says. “I’ve been in your situation and it … it …”

  “Shh …” Dare rocks her.

  But Penny blubbers on, “And I like you, you’re funny, and great, and it’s just … just … just …”

  Dare sighs. “I’m a count.” He pulls back, meets her eyes, and gently takes her chin. “And not a countess.”

  The tears in Penny’s eyes spill over. It’s not something she’s very good at admitting to herself. She’d been told her whole life that people who love Jesus aren’t like her. Chantilly had guessed it, and hadn’t judged her. Her mother … well, she doesn’t feel safe telling her mother. Who knows what her dad would have said if he was still alive?

  Dare wipes her tears away with the pad of his thumb. “I will be all right. It’s not the first time I’ve been rejected by a human.”

  Penny sniffs. “I can’t imagine a normal girl not … ” She bites her lip and waves her hand. “ … with you.”

  “First,” Dare says, wiping away another tear. “You’re not abnormal. Second, who says they were girls?”

  Penny’s mouth sort of drops open.

  Dare shrugs. “Elves are notoriously open anyway and Night Elves have to survive. Our evolution favors those who can be attracted to all humans.”

  Penny rubs her elbow. She wishes she could be that way. She’d probably run off with Dare in a heartbeat. She’s two-thirds in love with him, her mind and her heart … it’s just her body getting in the way, and she really hates it.

  They stare at each other a moment longer and then Dare folds her in his arms again. “But it is hard to let you go. I want to ask you back to Alfheim with me … to protect you and be your Count, even if I can’t be your lover.” He chuckles sadly. “It would be terrible for you. You wouldn’t be able to travel without an escort, you’d be virtually a prisoner, and for some reason, humans find the weather in my land depressing.”

  And okay, maybe it’s good she’s not three-thirds in love with him. That does sound like a trap. “Lots of clouds and fog,” Penny guesses with a sniff.

  “Precisely. Quite lovely.”

  He rocks her slowly, and she wishes more than anything that he could stay. They could be besties, hang out, watch movies, check out girls together … well, maybe Dare would check out more than girls.

  “Emma,” Dare says, and Penny goes completely still, “is a wonderful person.”

  Penny feels herself get defensive. “Wonderful” is too small a word for Emma. She’s beautiful, sexy, kind, talented—

  “So is Todd,” Dare adds.

  Penny mutters, “I guess.” She knows it’s true, though.

  Dare murmurs, “She wants to love you as she can … and so does Todd. They won’t think less of you for what you are, and when someone new comes into your life, it will be easier for you to let them love you … and you must. You have to make family where you can.”

  Penny can’t imagine finding another woman as wonderful anytime soon, but he is right that they probably won’t turn her away for being gay. She’d thought that because they were Christians they would be like her mom, but they’re not. She swallows. “Okay,” she whispers and squeezes Dare tighter. She wishes he could stay. She has this feeling that Dare could take all her problems and turn them inside out and make them right … and if he wanted a nip every now and then, she wouldn’t mind. She wants to say all that, but has a feeling that it would just make saying goodbye that much harder, and she’d probably trip up and start to bawl. Instead she says, “I think you’ll always be my count.”

  Dare squeezes her very tight. “Thank you.”

  At last they pull apart. Gulping, Penny looks up at him and says, “What happens now?”

  Dare touches her cheek. “Typically, I kiss you and you forget everything.”

  Her skin heats, and her vision, already blurry with tears, gets even blurrier. “What? That’s not fair! Whose rule is that? I can’t forget you!” Knowing Dare helped her. It made her feel brave and good … maybe because he’s so good and loves her.

  Before she can stop it, Dare ducks in and kisses her anyway. Penny is too shocked to move, and also, she has to admit, it’s a great kiss. She wishes she could hit the pause button and take notes, so that later when she kisses the woman of her dreams she’ll have the same technique.

  He pulls away, and Penny blinks up at him quizzically. He’s still Dare the Night Elf, and they still spent the last two nights together.

  Dare winks at her and backs away.

  Penny does her best to frown. “Who are you?” she lies.

  Dare stands between two tall trees and says, “Go home.”

  “Don’t follow me, creeper!” she shouts, heading back to her car. She turns back to look once, but Dare’s already gone.

  She gets to her car, and stops before she opens the door. The problem with lawful people—according to Dungeons & Dragons anyway—is they don’t always fight back when the laws are bad, and can’t change unless they’re forced too. Dare is wise and good … but he’s also wrong.

  Epilogue

  Penny walks along the trail at Split Oak, swinging her flashlight back and
forth, trying to keep from stepping on a snake. “Come on, Dare, I can’t wait forever with a stolen van!” She bites her lip. She’s been here an hour and Dare hasn’t shown up. The LifeBlood blood van looks out of place in the recreation area parking lot … especially at 4 a.m..

  “Dare!”

  Over the thrumming noise of insects, she hears hoof beats and turns around, and there is a dark shadow. Penny raises her flashlight and a black horse with glowing red eyes rears and whinnies in surprise. Atop the creature is Dare; he doesn’t lose his seat … of course he would be a good rider. Also, Penny supposes that good Night Elves probably ride on black horses … or whatever the horse-like creature is. He swings off the mount. “I heard you,” he says. He says it in a kind of funny voice, or maybe she’s misreading him.

  “I have—” Penny starts to explain.

  “The van from LifeBlood,” he finishes, calming his mount that’s stamping its feet, plastering its ears back and glaring at Penny. Dare shakes his head and scowls. “Loki left me a magic mirror that he should have given me before I came to Earth. It was able to tell me about your … adventure.”

  “You have to take the horchata machines … and the van,” Penny says. To save his people … and also to keep her out of jail. She went to LifeBlood yesterday. She walked in the back way, claiming it was open. She gave blood so that her fingerprints will be all over the place and if she goofed anywhere, it will be really easy to explain away. Having the van in her possession would be more difficult to explain to the police.

  He nods at her. “I heard you, and I do need to take it. You’re right.”

  “Okay,” she says, surprised that went so easily. But he is good, and he does want to save people … that must be what’s swaying him. Or maybe he figures she’ll just keep trying this sort of thing again and again until he relents, and he promised he’d never let her go to jail. She’s forcing him to change. She gulps and rolls on her feet. “It’s good to see you again.” Which is a big reason she might do this sort of thing again.

  “And you,” he says with a smile, and he may not be her type, but he looks practically angelic when he smiles.

  Penny bites her lip. “I hope I don’t get you in trouble with Odin, though.”

  Dare shakes his head. “Odin has bigger things to deal with. Loki has left him.” A dark look crosses his face—or an unhappy look—maybe in a Night Elf that’s a bright look? “But let’s not worry about that now.” He holds out his arms and Penny steps into the hug. He’s letting her love him as she can, she realizes. He is so lawful good.

  As he pats her back, she eyes the black horse-like creature hopefully. “I um … was wondering … if you could somehow magic me home?”

  “I’m sorry, I cannot.” She can hear the frown in his voice.

  Penny’s shoulders fall. She didn’t just want a ride, she also wanted a little more time with him. Also, she’s not sure if Uber comes all the way out here. She could call Todd and Emma, but that would be awkward … she doesn’t think she’d be able to concoct a lie to cover being at the park at 4 a.m.

  Very gently he says, “I have to lead the dwarf team that will get the van through the Veil.” He scowls at the ground. “And clean up any sign of your presence here.”

  “Dwarf team?” Penny asks.

  Dare steps back, raises a hand, and just beyond him a man and a woman, not much over five feet tall, with broad shoulders appear. Their height makes them look more human than fictional accounts of dwarves, but their wide faces, with glowing eyes make them appear almost alien. Penny’s lip purse … she guesses they are alien, and so is Dare, too.

  They march toward Dare and two more pairs of dwarves emerge from thin air behind them. They look at her curiously, nod, and then speak in another language. Night Elvish or Dwarfish? Dare says something in that same language, and points them toward the parking area. One of them takes his mount by the reigns, and then all of them march toward the van. Dare signals again, and another rider emerges on the trail upon a black mare with glowing red eyes. Penny blinks. The rider is a woman, and she could be Dare’s little sister. She has the same curly dark brown hair, a delicate nose, brown almond-shaped eyes, bow-shaped lips, and pointed ears. Penny feels herself flush.

  “Penny,” Dare says, “This is my niece, Angharad. Angharad, this is Penny. Penny needs a ride home.”

  “Oh,” says Angharad, her eyes getting very wide at sight of Penny. “I … um … nice to meet you.”

  “No one is a better rider than her, and only Sleipnir is faster than Blakkr,” says Dare.

  The mare whinnies at her name and shakes her head. Knowing a request for attention from a horse when she hears it, Penny puts her hand on the creature’s nose, and Blakkr snuffles approvingly. In the saddle, Angharad nods gravely at Penny. “It would be my pleasure … I mean an honor … of course I can take you home.”

  Feeling herself flush again, Penny blinks up at Angharad, and back to Dare.

  “I trust you,” he says with a lifted eyebrow. Penny’s lip part … if Dare could fall for her … it occurs to her that seducing a Night Elf might be as easy as shooting a fish in a barrel. Penny won’t take advantage of it.

  She nods back at him, and then bites her lip. Dare’s people need more than just one shipment of the horchata machines if they’re going to survive. Dare has to find a way to get more blood donations for his people, and lead them into the future … he may have to show his true strength to do it. She has to convince him of it.

  Dare’s eyes widen slightly. “You are right, we need to change,” he whispers. “You will see more of me … of Angharad, too … I promise.”

  Penny wonders if telepathy really is one of his powers, or if he’s just thinking of their conversation earlier.

  “Leg up?” Dare says before she can ask. Inclining his head toward Blakkr, he laces his fingers together.

  “Thanks,” says Penny, stepping onto his hand and mounting behind Angharad.

  “Put your arms around my waist,” Angharad says. “Blakkr’s gait is smooth, but very swift.”

  Penny does, and she can’t help but think that it feels incredibly right.

  Her brain does a little jog … Dare said he and Angharad will be here on Earth a lot. She’s being set up; she’s sure of it. True, Dare doesn’t want Penny to bond Angharad to her right this very moment, that would be cruel, but he’s telling her it isn’t wrong if she gets to know his niece … and from there …

  Angharad barely touches her heels to the horse’s flanks, and Blakkr heads down the trail. Penny doesn’t look back this time.

  Awkwardly clearing her throat, Angharad says, “So my uncle says you like horses?”

  Penny smiles. “Yes, very much.”

  ~FIN~

  I have another short story starring Dare in Magic After Midnight. Part of the Once Upon a Curse anthology, it will probably be a full-length novel at some point. In the meantime, I have a USA TODAY bestselling series about Loki, God of Mischief that you can start free. Just click here.

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  About the Author

  C. Gockel has been writing stories for her friends and family since the dark ages (i.e., before word processors existed.) A few years ago, she started posting those stories to the intertubes. She received emails, messages, and reviews from her fans telling her she should 'do this professionally.' She didn't; because she is a coward and life as a digital designer, copywriter and coder is more dependable. But in the end, her husband's nagging wore her down: "You could be the next '50 Shades of Gray' and I could retire!" Unfortunately, the author writes science fiction and fantasy, and isn't particularly good at writing erotica. She is sad about this; she'd love for her husband to be able to retire and just work for her so she could nag him.

  If you enjoyed “Someday My Count Will Come” you might enjoy other stories in C. Gockel’s bestselling I Bring the Fire universe. Wolves I Bring the Fire Part I, starring Loki Norse God of Mis
chief, is free.

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  No Scions for Old Men

  by Courtney Sloan

  Chapter 1

  “If I’da known dem bombs would leave me and my island infested with tourist vampires who didn't know de right side of a cane stalk, I’d have prayed one of dem would hit us square and end us right.” I slid my hair aside, jammed the gold hoops through my ears and stared daggers through my window at my “hard-working” evening shift stepping out into the dusk air from the various farms around the edges of Bridgetown. The last bit of daylight painted the landscape red with the oncoming night. It was beautiful, but not the sights I’d spent my unnatural life building. The seaside hotels and condos I’d funded still stood, but the cruise ships and airplanes carrying tourists with wallets fat with spending money had stopped when the mainlands were blasted in the Reclamation. No one had thought of this small island since. Well, except the Trinidad and island conglomerate of pirates that kept them all trapped here. I’d turned vacationers into a militia and farmers. Some of the business skyscrapers still reached for the sky, but they were broken and empty. The island had taken the land back. If you didn’t keep her in check, Barbados would find a way to take a chunk out of you. Tonight everyone below my stone balcony was excited for the equinox Crop Over Celebration. “My city is a farm town again. It hasn’t been such since before da English.”

  My wishing the workers to burst into fireballs derailed as a slim arm wrapped around my corseted waist. As a chin rested on my shoulder, all my frustration rushed from me in a damned burst of contentment. Silly woman thinking she could make it better. Never tell her she was right. “It’s still your city, Esme. You just did what you had to for the people. The Bajan know you made all this.” Her breath crept across my neck as she spoke fizzling away the rest of my stress.