“In an official capacity?” His green eyes sparked with worry.
I sighed. “Yes and no. It’s about the murder case but everything is off the record. I’m here more as a friend than as a P.I.T. Crew investigator or Preternatural Liaison.” I didn’t want to upset him.
His eyes darted quickly around the room; he looked like he wanted to bolt.
I reached out to calm him but thought better of touching him at this point, instead I tried to sooth him with my words. “It’s nothing to worry about, Galen. I just need to know a few things. Small things.”
He sighed. “Okay, come upstairs where we can talk privately.
“Okay.” I followed him upstairs like a lamb being led to slaughter though I hoped the outcome for me would be much more pleasurable.
Electricity flowed between us, a current of desire. I wanted to hop on and give into it, yet with last night’s vision still floating around in my head, I needed to be cautious.
Giving into the current would be wrong. Wouldn’t it? We couldn’t do it. Could we?
Damn my brain and my libido seriously ran in totally different directions. My attraction to Galen overwhelmed and distracted. Yet my brain always hung in there trying to be the voice of reason.
So confused.
And that was before adding the rest of the world into the equation of Anwyn plus Galen equals what exactly?
I was brought up to believe vampires and witches just don’t mix, then there’s the whole he may be a serial killer thing. Talk about putting a damper on the relationship. Of course, I didn’t believe for one minute beautiful, tender Galen could be the killer but something resonated very off about him. My instincts practically screamed stay the hell away from him while my libido seriously drooled over him and my brain floundered lost somewhere in between. Add up all the reasons why Galen and I shouldn’t get involved and I got a big messy equation. On top of all that was my family. They would surely put a damper on the relationship if it did attempt to go somewhere…
“I’m glad the police sent you.” Galen broke through my thoughts and offered me a seat on a large plush sofa, the color of blood.
I sat down and smiled, a little. “I am the official Preternatural Liaison. It’s my job.” I sighed again; right then I wished it wasn’t my job to investigate him.
Galen sat down next to me, careful to leave some distance between us. “I know, but there are other members of the P.I.T. Crew. I was afraid they might send one of them, someone not Other. You are one of us.” He almost looked a little frightened.
I wanted to reach out and sooth his fears, to protect him from the madness.
I kept my hands in my lap.
“I do and I don’t understand. I know something is very off about this whole situation. The killer is dangerous and full of major magick, old, dark, magick. Yet somehow it all leads to you. Even though, I don’t sense any old magick coming from you.” I tried to read him or get something from him I could use to determine one hundred percent he wasn’t the killer, but he was blocked. Nothing swirled around him, no dark magick. Only exquisite electricity flowed in the air between us.
“It is not me, Anwyn. I wish I could prove it to you. You have no reason to believe me. We barely know each other…” He paused, looking earnest and a little scared. “Let me explain a little about me. From the beginning. As far as my kind go I am relatively young, made into a vampire in Regency England.”
Ah, that explains his overly polite mannerisms and formal tone. So he was barely two hundred years old, maybe less, almost a baby in vampire terms. “Oookkaaay?”
Galen stood up and paced around the room looking slightly fearful and very trepidatious. “I just thought you should know. And you should know about my sire… an evil, sadistic vampire. His father was the leader of the vampire council. Because of this, my sire got away with murder, literally murder…constantly. Humans, vamps, Others. Did not matter. He broke all the rules and never got punished for anything.” He paused and turned away from me, taking in a deep breath like he was gathering enough strength to continue.
After a moment of silence he continued, “Before being changed, my sire…he kidnapped and killed my entire family. First he killed my father and brother. He kept my mother and sister alive, repeatedly raping them and drinking their blood. When finally he tired of them, he drained the life from them. Even then the torture did not stop…he continued to defile their dead bodies in front of me. It lasted for days.”
I gasped; Galen paused and looked at me. He studied me, as if gauging my reaction. Anguish on his face was clear, horror, like something that just happened yesterday. How awful! Should I show him sympathy or reveal the horror I felt, the horror he must have went through witnessing so much pain?
He went on, “He still had not turned me yet. He liked my human fear, my human reactions. I was so weak and completely worthless against his power. He saved me for last because he said he wanted to keep me for my beauty, an asset to him. Which, I surely was for so long…too long. I wish he would have killed me, I wish fate would have been much kinder than what I had to endure for the next century.” Galen continued to pace around the room, his body rigid and tense, veins bulging, his jaw tight.
It made him look ferocious and frightening along with anguished and remorseful. This couldn’t be an easy story to tell. And I had a feeling it would get worse.
“My sire made the Marquis De Sade look like a boyscout and Jack the Ripper look like a common criminal. He loved beautiful things—beautiful people and Others. He loved to turn the beauty into an abomination, to ruin it. Especially vampires and weres he could defile over and over. Our beauty would come back after we healed. At least it did on the outside.
“On the inside, we eventually became as ugly and twisted as him. He did unimaginable things to us…cut off body parts that would regenerate, raped us over and over…the pain…the horror. And he let other psychotics do these things to us, too. For money. People…and Others would pay to combine sex and death. Many did not know we came back to life after they left. Sated, they left us dead, thinking they had killed.”
He stopped and stared at me, his expression intense. I looked him straight in the eye, my heart heavy for him. But, I wouldn’t let him see me feel sorry for him. He already had a lifetime of pain… and after the pain, pity. I would not pity this man...er…vampire. He was strong, a survivor. He deserved respect for making it out alive. Well, as alive as a vampire could be.
“I cannot imagine the horror you endured.” He seemed relieved I had not run scared.
“I had to live far too long in a nightmare, Anwyn. And that was just the tip of the horrors. After torturing us with sex and pain he starved the vampires knowing we needed blood to heal. He let us loose on other victims… innocent victims…so we tore them apart with our need to feed. He fed us powerful aphrodisiacs droving us wild with lust and heightening the need for blood. I do not know if he used spells or potions, but we lost control of ourselves. And he loved to watch every minute of our crazed blood and sex filled feedings. His cold, cruel and insane customers loved it too. They brought victims to us and watched us rape and kill them while they got off on the feeding frenzy.”
His voice filled with anguish and remorse. I wanted to hold him, console him, let him cry on my shoulder, but honestly we weren’t that close…yet, and this kind of intimacy only occurred between people much closer than we were at this point. I was shocked and appalled by the things he told me. Thinking about what he had been forced to do made my stomach twist. No wonder people thought him capable of killing all the women recently murdered. In the past he had done much worse. Been forced to do it, but the truth of his past wouldn’t matter in the eyes of the law.
“Anwyn, the things I have done in the past have made me not trust myself. I could not control myself back then. I was a killer. Now the women I have been close to, women I drank from… are dead…again. I thought the nightmare was over.” He stopped, his gaze meeting mine and locking. “I killed m
y sire. I destroyed that son of a bitch to set us all free. Now I am the only one left. The others, the rest of his victims, killed themselves or had to be put out of their misery. Perhaps I should be, too.”
Tears poured from his green eyes. Intimacy issues be damned. I stood up and put my arms around him. He stiffened at my touch as spirals of power connected and tore through me, through us both. Thank Goddess I didn’t receive any images from him. Instead, I received power and yearning, an immense power made him a survivor and an intense yearning to be normal. He shivered before his strong arms wrapped around me. His firm embrace tightened. In his arms it felt like home.
“Anwyn, you cannot get close to me.”
He struggled with his emotions, with his fear, it settled inside me.
“I could be…a killer. I am a killer,” he rasped, his fight with himself apparent.
I tried my best at reassurance. “I know you suffered through horrible circumstances, but you did not make the choice to be a killer. It was forced upon you. And now you would never make the choice willingly. Someone wants you to doubt yourself, but I know in my heart you did not kill those women. I know with my power you are innocent of these crimes.”
He pulled away from me slightly and looked intensely into my eyes. Before I could respond his mouth covered mine.
Power spiked between us like nothing I had ever experienced before. Better than anything those poor women in my visions had felt from their killer. Goddess, is this what it’s like to be with a vampire?
His full, warm, sinfully delicious lips...hmm tasted like a mochaccino latte.
I melted into his fire, ready to let the flames of desire consume me. I was such a goner.
Suddenly, he let go of me, like the floor disappeared beneath me and I’d been dropped. I stumbled from the sudden change. His arms no longer wrapped around me and his lips no longer on mine, left me cold without him. The expression on his face looked even colder.
“I am sorry, Anwyn, I should not have kissed you. I must ask you to leave now.” He folded within himself and shut down. The electricity vanished. The warm man who had just poured out his painful history to me now drew it all back inside a cold vampire shell.
What could I say?
Nothing.
I turned and left, running down the stairs and out the front door of VAMP.
Chapter 7
I kept running down Saginaw Street. Didn’t pay attention to where I was going. Tears threatened to fall, but I sucked them in.
Finally, when I looked around, realization hit, I’d rushed down by the river heading into the park. Thoughts of Galen consumed me.
I was so screwed. Before, I was just seriously crushing on Galen, now he had me wrapped around his little finger and it had nothing to do with vampire mind tricks.
No, that kiss awakened something inside I’d never felt before. A power rush had whipped through me like a bolt of electricity. Like my soul ripped wide open and lay bare, but no one knew it except me… and maybe him.
Galen really stirred me. Heat, passion, lust…other things. He made me feel at home, like I walked into a safe and familiar place. All within one kiss. Something slept deep inside me, and he brought it to life.
Then, he kicked me to the curb.
This sucked bad and totally not in a sexy vampire way.
I had never belonged anywhere. Not normal enough to hang out with humans and I wasn’t powerful enough or scary enough to chill with the monsters. I even felt left out with my mother and grandmother. They were both so powerful. Magick spilled from them without effort. We all kept waiting for my magick to manifest, still waiting, but my gifts all seemed to be more defensive than offensive.
I saw spirits, sensed spells, and knew what things were, what kind of magick was used. I could even remain immune to vampire charms and fairy glamour. Yet, I had no power I could use outwardly. I couldn’t twitch my finger and send things flying like my grandma. Nor did I disappear or walk through walls like my mom. And I sure as hell didn’t spell up a storm like my mother could back in the day. And when I say spell up a storm I wasn’t being euphemistic, no, the witch could actually spell a storm into existence.
Pretty sure I disappointed them. Maybe it was just my imagination because they always told me how proud of me they were. Well, Grams did, Mom…not so much. She never said much of anything.
I didn’t fit with Grams and Mom, like I was missing something important. Galen made me feel warm and welcome. As if he touched my soul. Like he and I were a match. Two parts of a whole. Meant to be. That disturbed me. Especially after what he told me. I knew people…and vampires could overcome their history but seriously…he had one hell of a messed up history to get over.
His past made me wary. I didn’t believe for one second any responsibility for the recent deaths of all those women in Flint fell on Galen, but with his past, there had to be some residual serious issues. Major baggage. But the feelings rolling through my body did not want me to be wary of him or his past. They wanted me naked in his arms. Something I would gladly do. Hell, I would have done it right then and there in the little apartment above VAMP if he hadn’t tossed me out the door.
Ever since we had met at my best friend Melanie’s party six months ago I tip-toed around Galen, avoiding him as much as possible while wanting to be with him ever so badly. Strange feelings of connection to a vampire kinda spooked me. Yet, when we connected, the air vibrated with magick. And I didn’t mean only the physical. Serious magick soared between us.
It wasn’t just wondrous magick energy holding us either. Galen made me feel special, like I mattered, in that you are important to me no matter what way. Which made no sense considering we barely knew each other, but I felt it, special energy between us.
More than what my own family gave me. My mother checked out of the sane world when my father got killed and grandma tried so hard to take care of me the best she could. My mother became so high maintenance most of Gram’s attention went to her. I was left to fend for myself.
Now there was Galen. So much, in so little time. And, the murders and his connection to them, this was so not good.
My heart tore in two directions, but I would not turn him in. I couldn’t. Knowledge was my power, instinct my tool and weapon. I had to trust my gifts, but I also had a job to do. I needed to figure out how to use the information I learned without putting Galen in harm’s way. His past could be enough to execute him, yet it also held the key to the recent killings.
The new laws and tolerance of “Others” had given vampires and Others more rights but with Galen’s past and his connection to the murders…it would surely mean an almost instant execution. Vampires were too strong and tricky to be locked up. Once they went rogue they were killed. Too many times the police had tried to take powerful beings like vampires or weres into custody and got themselves hurt or killed. One night a couple years ago several rogue vamps were arrested, then they went on a killing rampage and wiped out the entire police force. The Hunters had to be called in to take care of the case.
I would not let them hurt Galen.
Damn, I wanted him so bad it ate away at me, tormenting me. Why did he have to decide that pushing me away was a good thing?
I walked back down Saginaw Street past VAMP and to my car still parked at the P.I.T. Crew station. I decided no matter how hard he pushed me away I was going to have him. I would save Galen from himself and the police by catching the real murderer. Then Galen would be mine and I didn’t give a warlock’s butt crack about his past. All I cared about was the future.
Eventually, I would probably get hurt, but the thrill of the pursuit would be exhilarating… or excruciating. Who was I kidding, it was definitely going to be excruciating.
Chapter 8
I decided to visit my mom and gram. After my rough day I needed a little comfort. Mom would not offer much but at least being in my childhood home surrounded by familiar things might make me feel better. If Gram wasn’t too busy with Mom she would sit do
wn and chat with me. I prayed she was baking, her cookies were amazing.
I left the city and hit 69 to I-75 north to the Pierson Road exit and headed toward Flushing. My mother and grandmother lived in one of the quaint Victorians on the outskirts of downtown Flushing. The city had once been beautiful. An idealic setting for growing up had my life not been plagued with so much drama and unease. I called Flushing storybookland because it was so picturesque. I created stories of how perfect my life would have been if my dad had not died during the Hysteria and my mom hadn’t withdrawn from the world.
At least I had Grams. She was a wonderful, sweet, caring woman, and she always tried so hard to take good care of me. But, Mom was Grams’ baby, her only baby and taking care of Mom was Grams’ number one priority. I was a good kid, didn’t get into trouble so I didn’t seem to need much care. Looking back I often wondered if maybe I should have caused more of a ruckus from time to time. Maybe Grams would have paid more attention to me.
I shouldn’t be so bitter, a lot of kids were worse off than I had been. I just wished I had more of a normal childhood without the magick and the knowing things and the constant vampire…I don’t know what to call it, racism maybe. The hatred of vampires was constantly pushed at me, pounded into my head. The warnings echoed over and over until I grew sick of them.
I supposed my interest in Galen was part of me being rebellious, like the silly rich white girls who dated black guys just to piss off their racist daddies. Maybe I wanted to date a vampire just to get Mom and Grandma’s attention. Sure I was a little old to be rebellious. I should have done it in my teens. But hey what could I say, just like with everything else I was a late bloomer.
I bounced in the back door off the kitchen and was met by the tiniest goat I had ever seen and the most heavenly aroma my stomach could imagine—ginger cookies. My favorite. And they smelled hot and fresh from the oven.
Hex and the Single Witch (Vehicle City Vampires) Page 5
