Chance in Hell

by PATRICK KAMPMAN

  Chapter 30

  I woke up late in the morning. I felt pretty good considering the evening I’d had and where I had slept—no door and all. No one had tried to come in and kill me again in the middle of the night, which was a bonus considering that someone in the house had tipped off Powers. And I had a guess as to who that might be.

  Gregory and Amanda—especially Amanda—already weren’t big fans of Megan or Lacey, or, by extension, me. After what Bryan pulled last night, I knew they had it in for us. And Megan was Gregory’s ex, so of course that Amanda hated her. I was now seeing Megan, I think, and that was enough reason for Gregory to dislike me.

  According to what Amanda had told Bryan, I had an idea why Megan and Gregory had broken up. I would think that Megan would be the one pissed off at that, but you never know what really happened, so he could hate her just as much. I mean, maybe Megan drove him to sleep with Amanda or something. I didn’t know, though I didn’t see Megan as the type. But I had a funny feeling that I was becoming particularly biased when it came to that little vamp.

  I stopped thinking about the soap opera and who had it in for me, and hazarded a glance at my leg and wrist. They still looked like crap, but at least the bites felt a lot better. I owed Lacey a big thank you. Speaking of bites, I did a quick all-over check just in case—I was in a house full of vampires, after all. I was relieved to not find any, except for Megan’s work on the snake bite. You can never be too careful.

  I swung out of bed and grabbed my clothes from the chair. Someone had swapped them out while I slept. The borrowed clothes were gone, replaced by my own, folded and laundered, including the shirt Megan had been wearing last night. The thought of someone slipping into my room while I slept last night creeped me out a bit, but it’s hard to complain about someone doing my laundry for me. I brought the fresh clothes into the bathroom, catching the scent of lavender as I did. Okay, so the shirt had been lightly worn. I showered and dressed, happy to be in my own clothes, even if I smelled a little more flowery than I was used to.

  I headed downstairs, urn under one arm, and found Lacey in the kitchen. She hadn’t seen Bryan, but I’d known him most of my life and figured he was still asleep. It was even money on who woke first, him or the vampires.

  I scrounged up a quick bite to eat and sat down with Lacey, looking at the urn I had set down on the table in front of me. I pushed across the table. “Mind babysitting this for me today?”

  “Aw, I’m flattered.”

  “Please? With my luck lately, I think it’s safer here.”

  “Yeah, sure. I’ll keep an eye on it.”

  “Thanks. I should be back in a couple of hours.”

  “I hope so.” I knew what she meant. Megan must have had told her I was having lunch with Toni, and if I was still with her by the time Megan woke up, then she’d be grumpy. And Lacey would be the one she took it out on. Well, me too.

  “I promise. Thanks again!”

  It was almost eleven and I had a lunch date in an hour. Meeting. I had a lunch meeting in an hour I needed to get to. The cab was going to cost me an arm and a leg, but that was all right. Assuming things went okay tonight, I could give Toni back her bike and pick up the Miata tomorrow. God, I hoped the bike was still okay. Last I had seen, it was still parked in front of the house.

  I figured I should make sure it was cool to call a cab to this place; for all I knew, they didn’t like visitors of any type. I bumped into Meriwether dusting the dining room and took the opportunity to ask.

  “Hey, I need to run into town. Is it all right if I call a cab?”

  “I’m afraid not, sir.”

  “Uh, okay, so…”

  “You’ll have to walk to the restaurant, sir. It’s not far, only about ten miles away. You can get a cab from there.”

  “Seriously?”

  “No, sir. Donovan said that you might be needing a car, so he instructed me to let you use one of his. The garage is already open. The key is in it.” Apparently Meriwether had two jokes.

  I went out to the garage and stopped. I had assumed it would be the black Mercedes. But the door was open, and the two cars parked in front were a lawn tractor and a ZR1 Corvette.

  I checked the lawn tractor first, just in case Meriwether was going for joke number three. No keys. I peered in the Vette and saw the keys lying on the front seat. I got in and fired it up. I had wanted something that might blend in. The extremely limited edition bright-yellow Corvette with a 638-horsepower engine visible through the clear panel in its hood was not going to blend.

  On the other hand, it was a lot of fun, especially on the winding mountain roads. I made it down to the valley in no time. There was no traffic once I got to town, and I arrived at the restaurant only a couple of minutes late. I didn’t see Toni’s bike, so I figured I’d beat her there and she’d never know I was late.

  As it turned out, she was already inside waiting for me at a table. I did a double take; instead of jeans and a tank top, she was wearing a tailored grey business suit. She smiled when she saw me.

  “Hey,” she said as I sat down. “You’re late.”

  “Best things in life are worth waiting for. Hey, speaking of great things—I mean, I know I’m worth it and all, but really, you didn’t have to get dressed up just for me.”

  “I didn’t; I have a meeting with a customer at one-thirty.”

  “Oh. I’ll pretend it’s for me, anyway. You look really good.” She did. Something about a woman in a skirt suit did something for me. She smiled, but then her expression changed. She leaned forward toward me and sniffed, and a low growl came from her throat.

  “What?” I said, looking around quickly to see who had come in.

  “You smell like her.”

  “Huh?” Oh. Oh! That little…Megan had marked me. She had made sure I would smell like her, despite having last seen her eight hours ago and having taken a shower in the meantime. I knew werewolves had heightened senses, and their sense of smell was probably extremely keen. There was no missing the scent from the shirt Megan had been wearing most of the night. What was it werewolves said about vampires? They were sneaky and manipulative. Or maybe it was possessive, but I thought that was werewolves. I hoped Toni didn’t mark me in retaliation; I guessed it would be a little messier than a lavender-scented shirt.

  I sighed. Megan wasn’t even here and she had succeeding in making my lunch more than a little awkward. “Yeah, I had a little trouble yesterday, and I didn’t have time to grab any spare clothes, so the vampires, uh, washed these for me.”

  “With what, her crot—” Thankfully, the waiter interrupted us. We gave our orders, and I wondered just what Megan had done to my shirt, and why I couldn’t have been in it when it happened.

  “So, have you had a chance to talk with the other, uh, pack about tonight?” I said as soon as our waiter took off, trying to steer the conversation onto safer waters.

  “Yeah, we’re both going to bring six members. As long as they don’t cheat, it should be fine.”

  “Um, the vampires will be there, too, remember?”

  “Yeah, I kind of assumed that she would be there.”

  “Um, not just her.”

  “Yeah, I know—you told me last night. So, how many of the bloodsuckers are there gonna be?”

  I shrugged. “No idea. I never could find out from Donovan, but I don’t think there are even that many of them total, so…” I let it trail off.

  “There’s more than enough of them, thank you very much. I just hope we can keep an eye on both them and the Midnight Cycle boys.”

  “Do you really think someone will try something? I mean, I know Powers probably will; with everyone who now knows about it, I’m sure he’s got wind of it somehow.” I thought about how the shaman had known where I was staying, down to what window led into my room.

  “I don’t trust the vamps or Rodriguez. So yeah, I think it’s a real possibility.”

  My phone buzzed. It was Lacey. I excused myself and leaned to the
side, like that somehow made the conversation more private and less annoying. Let’s face it; no one likes people who take calls in restaurants.

  “What’s up?”

  “Great news!” Lacey said. “I just talked with Mrs. Brewer, and the witches are going to help! Well, at least some of them. Mrs. Brewer, Gladys, and Betty are going to help me with the ritual. Isn’t that awesome?”

  I wasn’t so sure. “Yeah, um, that’s really great.”

  “I know, huh? Anyway, I’m going to go meet them this afternoon to talk over everything!”

  “Okay, but be careful, okay?”

  “Yeah, sure. See you later, Chance!” Her excitement was tangible, if maybe a little misplaced.

  “Well, looks like we might have some more company tonight.”

  “I heard. Christ, Chance—did you really think inviting the whole city was such a good idea? I mean should I, like, bring a dish? We can all have a nice big potluck dinner before we start.”

  “Hey, I didn’t invite them; everyone has been just inviting themselves.”

  “Witches are bad news.”

  “Kind of like vampires, other werewolves, the IRS, and helmet laws?”

  “Funny. Look, I’m just saying we need to be extra careful. The rest of us, even including the vamps, would only want this thing in order to have some leverage over the others, or maybe because we wanted to protect it from anyone else having it. The witches could probably figure out how to use the thing, and some of the crazier ones might actually try. Do you hear what I’m saying? They might want it for themselves. Do you know what I mean?”

  “Yeah, I do.” I had similar thoughts watching old Mrs. Brewer in her living room practically salivating over the thing.

  Toni reached across the table and grabbed my hand. “I just don’t want anything to happen to you, okay?”

  I squeezed back. “Hey, nothing’s going to happen to anyone, okay? For once, things are going to work out. By this time tomorrow, everything will be fine.” I just wished I believed it.

  Our food came, and we ate and talked about things like bikes and cars to keep our minds off what was going to happen tonight. I wondered if I was actually going to see what a werewolf really looked like. You know, when they weren’t busy looking like normal people.

  We walked outside, and she saw the Vette and stopped. “Gee, Chance, are you sleeping with him, too?”

  “What?” I said, looking at the car and noticing the license plate for the first time. It read “DONOVAN.” Subtle. “Oh.”

  “Jesus, Donovan lent you his car? Or—oh, shit, you didn’t steal it, did you? ‘Cause I don’t think he’s as forgiving as I am. Chance, tell me you didn’t.” She sounded really worried, almost panicked. “He really would kill you.”

  “Nah, he lent it to me.” At least I hoped he did; maybe Meriwether had a more twisted sense of humor than I thought.

  “Shit. Really? Damn. You’re keeping some dangerous company.” She walked up to me. “We’re going to have to get you to stop that.”

  “Wait, aren’t you dangerous? ‘Cause that’s what I hear. Should stop seeing you too?”

  “Oh, I’m dangerous all right.” She was pressed up against me now, looking into my eyes. “I’m all the danger you can handle.”

  I couldn’t escape the kiss. Okay, so admittedly, I didn’t try that hard. And it was a doozy. More than one patron looking at us from the restaurant’s windows was appalled by the PDA.

  As nice as it was, though, I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty when it was over. I mean, I shouldn’t have; it wasn’t like I was with anyone. I was like a free agent or something. A free agent with two very dangerous teams trying to get me under contract. I certainly hadn’t made any commitments to anyone. Least of all a vampire, because that would be crazy. Wrong.

  I sighed and watched her leave. I realized I hadn’t seen her bike when I pulled up because she was driving a car. Well, a truck; it was a late-model red Toyota Tundra four-by-four. How she managed to get in it wearing that skirt and maintain any sense of propriety was a marvel. She sure knew how to move.

  Chapter 31

  I left the pizza place, which really did have great pizza. Better than anything in Austin, anyway. I swung by the mall and picked up the latest video game console and a few games for my brother’s birthday.

  I tried calling my mom for the hell of it, and of course got her voicemail. I was starting to get worried. I mean, she was flaky, but this was extreme even for her. I wondered where she could be. I thought about Texas, and her burned-out trailer. I wondered if she even knew.

  I thought about school. My classes started next week. It seemed kind of unreal, like someone else’s life. Despite what had happened here, going back didn’t seem as pleasant an idea as it had only a few days ago.

  I found myself trying to figure out—assuming I drove straight through again—what was the latest I could possibly leave California and still make it to my first class.

  It wasn’t that I didn’t have friends and family in Texas. I did, though I had fewer friends there now than I did a week ago. But we weren’t really close with family; Mom had driven most of them away, and now we saw them maybe once or twice a year for holidays or funerals or weddings. We knew who Bryan’s dad was, but we hadn’t seen him in a couple of years. He spent some time in and out of jail. And who the hell knew who or where my dad was.

  I had some friends, though. A couple of good ones, even. Of course, none that would take a bullet for me. Or lend me a ten-thousand-dollar bike, let alone a one-hundred-thousand-dollar car. Of course, back home my friends were all human. Funny, none of the ones I had here were, though they sure felt like it to me.

  I filled the tank up at the gas station just off the highway. If you ever borrow a car, make sure to return it with a full tank of gas. Especially when the owner can eat you.

  I tried the home link, and the middle button activated the front gate. I entered the gate and drove down the long drive, admiring the brightly-colored roses in the afternoon sunlight. Their sweet smell drifted in the car’s open windows. It was nice. I actually stopped the car and sat there for a second or two enjoying it. Then I continued back down the driveway. I tried the left button next. Bingo! I’d guessed right, and the garage door opened. I backed the Corvette in next to where the lawn tractor had been when I left. I got out, and heard the sound of the tractor behind the house.

  I gave one last longing look back at the Vette, then headed to the front door. I didn’t use the secret passage that ran underground from the garage; I didn’t think I’d earned that right yet. Even using the side door felt like it might be barging in. So I went around to the front door, knocked, and waited.

  I blinked as the door swung open and I was greeted by a middle-aged brunette in jeans and a T-shirt. She was holding a feather duster.

  “You’re not Meriwether.”

  “You don’t say.” She turned and walked away, leaving me standing in front of an open door. I guess they did have more than one human roaming around. I stood there for another moment. Apparently she wasn’t coming back.

  I walked in, closing the door behind me. I stopped for a second, experiencing a weird sense of déjà vu from a week ago, when I had walked into another open doorway into a nest of vampires. Then I shook it off and started moving. This was different. I was walking back into a vampire nest, one I had left safely just hours before. No one jumped out at me. In fact, I didn’t see anyone at all.

  I went straight for the kitchen, but it was empty. Then I remembered that Lacey was going to hook up with the witches. So I looked for Bryan. I tried the billiards room—empty; the rear parlor—the chick who had answered the front door was dusting there; then I glanced out back at the pool.

  Another man, who also wasn’t Meriwether, was on the lawn tractor mowing the back forty. Meriwether himself was pruning rosebushes that lined what was one of the most spectacular pools I had ever seen—and not just because Lacey was out sunbathing in a bikini next to it.


  The pool was formal, as opposed to one of the freeform ones. It was a rectangle of aqua blue with a mosaic of a single rose on its bottom. Surrounding it was a sparkling white patio that looked a lot like marble. There was a large cabana to the left, and behind it, overlooking the pool, was an arbor covered with jasmine, providing shade to a stone table and bench.

  A black wrought-iron fence encircled the pool area, which was lined with rosebushes in full bloom. Beyond them, a few acres of green lawn ended in pine forest.

  I walked out to Lacey, who was lying on one of the several chaise lounges lined up between the house and the pool. “Hey.”

  She rolled over, squinting up at me, putting a hand over her eyes to shield them from the sun. “Hey, Chance, how was lunch?”

  “Not bad. Pizza place called Willow Street.”

  “Yeah, they’re pretty good. Kind of a snooty neighborhood, though. Customers can be a little bitchy.”

  “Lacey.”

  “Hope you didn’t wolf down your food. You know, get indigestion.”

  “Lacey.”

  “You must be dog tired now.”

  “That one wasn’t even funny.”

  “Sorry.” She grinned, not looking a bit apologetic.

  “Where’s Bryan?”

  “Asleep, as far as I know. Unless he was eaten. That’s possible. Would probably give them indigestion, though.”

  I ignored her at first, then I remembered about Amanda and thought that maybe it wasn’t as farfetched as I first thought. “Weren’t you going to see the witches or something?”

  “Yeah, I have to leave in an hour or so. Figured I’d get some sun first, though. It’s gorgeous out.”

  “From here it sure looks pretty good.”

  “Chance! Oh my god, you’re practically married to my best friend.” But she smiled and followed it up with, “So this suit looks okay on me? I had to borrow it. It’s one of Megan’s old ones she still had here.”

  There was only one correct answer to that question, no matter which woman was asking it and what they were wearing at the time—ball gown, designer dress, garbage bag, whatever. “No way, it looks great!” You had to try and sound real sincere, too.