by Liz Schulte
Even the way we met was off. That should have been my first warning about him. I’d been walking down the street not too far from my house and saw him leaning against his truck, drinking from a bottle of water. Yes, he was hot and that probably accounted for seventy percent of my decision to hire local—granted, impulsiveness wasn’t completely abnormal for me. But the fact was, I could have just ordered everything from Combs and King. I didn’t question the coincidence of meeting him at the time, but maybe I should have.
“The place is coming along.” Holden’s voice made my heart leap and my hand jerk, knocking a drying paintbrush to the floor, which was thankfully still covered. He stood near the locked front door, eyeing the lavender walls, his arms crossed over his chest, no indication of what he thought on his face.
“Do you like it?” I asked.
He stared a bit longer. “Charlie will love it,” he said, finally looking at me.
Great. The approval of a seven-year-old. “The elementary crowd is an important market for me.”
He nodded like that was probably true. Sarcasm was wasted on those without a sense of humor. “You’re not wearing the contacts.”
“I know. It’s my favorite time of day. I can just be me.”
Holden shook his head. “You have to get used to blending in.”
I looked at the floor to keep from rolling my eyes. “They itch and it’s late. No one’s coming here. Who’s going to see me?”
Holden grunted. “When did you last eat?”
“A while ago. Why?” But I knew full well why he asked—and ugh, leave it to him to notice. What was he? The eye-color police? If I fed regularly, my irises were black not red—still abnormal, but not as noticeable.
Holden read me well. It had been weeks since I last fed. As a half-vampire feeding was tricky. Regular vampires could go outside and brush up against any person, human or otherwise, and take little sips from their life force. And there lay my biggest problem. As a half vampire, half human, my vampire half was always fed. It leeched off of my human half—basically, making it a roided out asshole determined to ruin my life most of the time. I had to be careful picking up glasses, so that I didn’t crush them. I was mostly terrified to touch humans, afraid I would break them. Olivia and Holden said my strength would even out over time, but frankly, how did they know? I was the only one of my kind. Then again, it was Olivia, Holden’s wife, who stopped my transformation, making me such a unique creature of wonder—or freak of nature. She was also the one who figured out what I had to eat to keep from going completely insane.
Because everything is apparently about balance, she surmised that in order to level myself I had to feed on dark souls, the antithesis of life. Basically, I needed demons and other super dark creatures. That was all fine and dandy, but it wasn’t like I had a list of demons I could call when I needed a snack. In fact, since Olivia and Holden went up against Hell in a major way, the demons in the city had been kind of scarce.
“Maggie,” Holden said. “Are you listening?”
Of course not. What had we been talking about? Right, the contacts. “I’ll put them in before I go home. I just need a break.”
Holden headed toward the bench and tested its sturdiness. “This is nice work,” he said offhandedly. “You’re opening on Saturday?”
“If the ulcers don’t kill me first.” He barely cracked a smile.
The bench reminded me of Boone. I needed to talk to Holden about him, but another lecture sounded about as fun as pulling out my eyelashes. The problem was Holden was family. A really distant relation, but still family and because of that, he seemed to feel I was his responsibility since I became a vampire. I really did appreciate everything both he and Olivia did to ease my transition, but Holden wasn’t exactly the most patient or caring of people. Olivia had a much gentler touch.
“What brings you by?” I asked, chickening out. I’d figure out what Boone was up to on my own. “Did you need something?” I crossed my fingers in hopes that he was here to take pity on me and tell me where I could find a demon.
Boredom with faint traces of wanting to leave before something girly rubbed off on him etched along his eyes as he looked at me. “Just checking on you. Making sure everything is okay.”
“Olivia sent you, huh?”
This did win a grin that softened his usually serious face. Don’t get me wrong. Holden was hot (which is totally creepy when talking about a relative), just in a “blue steel” sort of way. However, on the very rare occasion (unless Olivia was there) that he smiled in earnest, it changed his whole face into someone almost approachable. “That would be accurate. She thought you might need help.”
God bless Holden. At least he tried. This wasn’t the first time Olivia sent him over to bond with me and it wouldn’t be the last. But no matter how many times, things never got less awkward. Ah, the joys of family. “Sure I do. A nice spawn of hell with a side of wendigo would be divine.”
“Maggie,” he started, heaving a huge sigh of inconvenience.
I held up a hand, stopping the rest of the speech I knew by heart. “I know. I know.” He couldn’t keep handing me demons. I had to figure out how to find them on my own. I had to become self-sufficient because both he and Olivia had to have the appearance of neutrality for their new positions. Blah, blah, blah. “I was joking. Mostly. Go home. Be with your family. I’m almost done here anyway. Are you guys still coming on Saturday?”
He nodded. “I believe we are.”
“Great! Don’t forget to wear a costume. I can’t wait to see the kids.” I walked him to the door. “Tell Olivia thanks and say she should stop by and see the place.”
He looked back at the main room. His eyes drifted back to the purple wall. “Is the kitchen set up?”
“It is. That’s the first thing I did. Do you want to see it?” My kitchen was spotless. It would even live up to Holden’s high standards of cleanliness. “I have cupcakes if you want one.”
He followed me back to the kitchen. “Isn’t it too soon to be baking?”
“These aren’t to sell,” I said, going through the swinging door. I pulled the last of the cupcakes from the refrigerator. “I was practicing and trying new recipes. You could take them home to the kids.”
“The last thing either of them need is more sugar.”
The disgust in his words made me laugh. I still struggled to picture him with two little kids running around acting…well, like children.
“So how long is ‘a while’?” he asked.
Damn. He wasn’t going to let the feeding thing drop. “I don’t know. A couple weeks, maybe.” I unfolded a flattened box. Perhaps I was downplaying my need a tad. But I didn’t have time to hunt all over Chicago for something evil to feed on, especially this week. I had a bakery to open. Plus, what if the evil person wasn’t really evil? What if they wanted to be good? It was so much easier when they attacked me first.
“You know what happens when you don’t eat,” he nagged.
I scrunched up my nose. Easy for him to say. He could have a steak or… “I bet he doesn’t even eat cheeseburgers,” I mumbled.
Holden scowled. “Who?”
I shook my head. I hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “Never mind.” He probably lived on kale and dirt just to prove he didn’t need delicious food like normal people. “I’ll get something tonight.”
He glanced at his watch. “Put your contacts in before you step out that door.”
“Yes, Dad.”
Chapter 3
By the time I left my store, it was nearly three. My tired feet wanted to go home and binge on random television shows, but Holden was right. I had to eat.
I walked down the mostly empty streets toward a nightclub named Xavier that was popular among the jinn, racking my brain for anything that would make me more tempting to evildoers. Jinn were off limits. Holden was their leader and frowned on me snacking on them. But at least they were easy to find. I hoped their presence would attract other darker eleme
nts to the area. I stopped at a twenty-four hour convenience store along the way and picked up a bottle of tequila. Alcohol had ceased to affect me, but that was okay, I was never much of a drinker anyway. The liquor burned my throat on the way down. It wasn’t an altogether bad feeling so I took another swig. Then I dumped some on my hand and flicked it on myself.
There was a dark, scary looking alley a few blocks from the club that seemed made for evildoing. Six months ago, I wouldn’t have even walked on this street alone. Now, not only was I on it, I was actually hoping to be attacked. Life was weird. I stumbled into the darkness, making sure to bump loudly into some trashcans and giggle to myself. I looked like an idiot, no doubt, but the moment I heard footsteps, I knew it had worked.
“You shouldn’t be here,” a deep male voice said.
I couldn’t see the man, only the glowing red end of his cigarette as he took a long drag. I ran my hands through my hair in a way I hoped was sexier than it felt. I took another gulp of tequila. “I’m looking for…” I trailed off and giggled. This was so demeaning. “I forget.”
“Maggie?” The man came close enough I could see him. Shit. It was Phoenix, Holden’s henchman.
“Damn it,” I said. “What does a girl have to do to get attacked?”
He took another deep inhale from his smoke before tossing it on the ground and grinding it out with his shoe. “You want to be attacked?” His hooded, intense stare cut right through the darkness.
“That’s littering,” I said, before I could stop myself. Obviously, the man running all of the jinn in Chicago didn’t care about littering. But he should have. Just like me, he’d have to live in this world forever.
He didn’t give the cigarette butt a second glance as he came into my space. His sharp cheekbones were made more severe by the lack of light. “Why?”
I blinked. The vampire energy roared to life beneath my skin and the bottle of tequila shattered in my hand, soaking the side of my leg. “Because it’s paper and whatever the filter is made out of, assuming you smoke filtered cigarettes—”
He smiled and shook his head. “Why do you want me to attack you?”
“Oh.” Thank God it was dark because I was most definitely blushing. “I don’t. I didn’t. I just wanted someone to attack me. Not you in particular. A girl’s gotta eat.”
He laughed. “You came looking for a demon.”
“Yeah, or whatever. I’m not in a position to be choosey. I figured if it attacked me, then it has it coming.”
“I see.” His eyes continued to drill into me keeping my heart beating fast. “Perhaps we could come to an arrangement.” He raised an eyebrow and offered me a cigarette from his squished pack.
I shook my head and he slipped the pack into his pocket. “What sort of arrangement?”
He ran his finger down the cleft of my chin. “A mutually beneficial one.”
The way he said “mutually beneficial” made it sound entirely illicit and therefore all the hotter. Holden wouldn’t approve, but the offer was tempting. Of course it was. He was jinni. That’s what they did. They tempted you to do things you would otherwise know better than to do. “Think I’m going to have to pass.” I stepped around Phoenix, back to square one.
He caught my sleeve. “The only thing you’ll find around here is jinn. You can’t hunt them.”
“I know. I’m not.” His grip tightened. “I didn’t know where else to look. I know the rules.”
He smelled like leather and something that I couldn’t place, but was alluring. He shifted closer to me. “Do you always follow the rules?” His voice was soft and velvety as it ran over my skin.
My mouth went dry. “Mostly.”
“Pity.” He brushed his lips against mine, lightly at first, but long enough my instincts kicked in and I siphoned off some of his darkness. Not a lot, just enough to whet my appetite. I pressed my lips harder against his, taking deeper, longer pulls until he wrenched away. His eyes stayed closed as he held me an arm’s distance away.
It took everything I had not to lunge at him and finish what I’d started. I’d never begun feeding and not pulled every last ounce of the dark soul from its body. My appetite was insatiable and greedy.
When Phoenix finally opened his eyes faint traces of blue flames danced in them. “Let me know if you change your mind.”
He released me, but my legs couldn’t function. The hunger wouldn’t allow me to walk away and he wasn’t moving either.
“I should probably go,” I said because if I wasn’t going to leave, the least I could do was fill the silence.
His lighter clicked to life as he lit his next cigarette. “It doesn’t look like you want to.”
“No, I do.” I forced myself to take two steps back and managed to tear my eyes off him. He was lucky. Had it been longer since my last feed, I wasn’t sure I could have walked away from him. Not feeling like this. “Have a good night.” My words, though soft, rang out through the darkness.
“It’s already looking better,” he said just as softly. “Good luck with the bakery.”
I glanced over my shoulder. How did he know? Holden must have mentioned it, though I couldn’t picture how or why it would come up in their conversation. “For the record, what sort of deal were you offering?”
“You need a supplier and someone like you would be greatly beneficial to a person in my position.”
Ah—but making a deal with him would be a bad decision no matter how much it simplified my life. “Holden wouldn’t like it.”
“Holden doesn’t have to know.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “See you around.”
“You can count on it.”
I spent the rest of the night traipsing all over the city looking for any being evil enough to feed me, but there was no one, especially now that my taste buds knew exactly who they wanted. Just before sunrise I headed home.
The crisp fall air caressed my skin as I walked. Carved pumpkins were already starting to show up on people’s stoops and the leaves were vibrant shades of gold and red. Fall was my favorite time of year. Just like me, it fell somewhere in between blooming full of life and lying still in a peaceful slumber.
I unlocked the door to my silent house. Maybe I should get a cat. Or dog. Any animal that would be happy to see me when I got home would be an improvement over what I had now. How did animals react to vampires? Maybe I’d get a fish.
If I wanted to make it to the bakery by seven to meet Garret (which I felt I had to, given what he witnessed yesterday) I just had time to shower and change. When I was dressed in jeans, a plain gray T-shirt, and a white blazer, I sat down for a moment in the living room. I looked at the text messages I’d been avoiding. There were fifteen messages from my human friends. Gia inviting me to a happy hour. Jaime wanting to know who my hair stylist was. And most of the rest were from Izzy, the first real friend I made in Chicago. Her messages started with, “Why are you avoiding me? Did something happen? Are you mad?” and evolved to, “I’m really worried about you.”
I bit my lip and locked the screen. Not yet. Not until I figured out what to say to them. This whole experience gave me a new understanding of Baker and his actions. Lying to me was wrong, but explaining this world was impossible without changing an unwitting person’s life. However, it didn’t absolve him. He knew what he was and what I was before we met. He made the choice to start a relationship with me and changed the course of my life without my consent. And yet … I still loved him. Feelings that intense don’t just go away overnight, even if he did.
Garret came back to mind. I also knew what I was before I met him, and yet I endangered him yesterday without even meaning to. How was any of this supposed to work? How was I supposed to explain to my friends that while I loved all the happy hours, girl talk, date recaps, and details of their lives, I simply wasn’t part of their world anymore? Even if I could tell them what I was—and I couldn’t—they would never understand. I had to find a way to tell them that I would always want to be
their friend, but I had changed. I couldn’t be like I used to be.
I strolled to the store in the soft morning sunlight, consciously slowing my pace, energy buzzing beneath my skin. That small taste of Phoenix had only made my hunger worse. I had to eat today. No matter what. Maybe I’d call Corbin, the only vampire I actually knew. Maybe he’d give me an idea of where to find a demon. Or Femi, a bounty hunter, surely she could help. Neither of them had to be neutral.
I put coffee on as soon as I walked through the door to the shop, so I could enjoy the delicious aroma. Then I placed two mugs on the island, unlocked the front door, and waited for Boone. Today I’d figure out what his deal was—or, at the very least, I’d figure it out before he finished working for me.
Ducking back into the kitchen, I started on a new batch of cupcakes I’d been thinking about all night while I wasn’t finding demons. I planned to call them the Dark Side. Basically, they were rich, moist chocolate cake with a shot of fudge in the center and salted caramel frosting.
I’d just retrieved two eggs and a carton of buttermilk from the cooler and started back to the counter when the side door flew open, catching my foot and pitching me forward.
I fell against the island, slamming into the mugs I’d just placed there They shattered beneath my palm. Pain shot up my arm. Shards of porcelain protruded from the top of my hand. I plucked them out as fast as I could, hoping whoever was at the door didn’t see.
“Jesus, are you okay?” Garret rushed toward me as my dripping blood slowed and started retreating back inside.
“Garret. You’re here.” I snapped my hand behind my back and away from him.
He pulled my arm toward him, towel ready to wrap it, but it was already healed. His fingers stalled where I should have been hurt. Shaking his head, he studied my other hand, then the bloody countertop. “It’s not possible,” he said softly. “How are you okay?”
