Vampire Interrupted (Wicked Good Witches Book 8)

by Starla Silver

  “Actually, a coffee sounds good.”

  They ordered and exited the shop, with only a few odd stares in his direction. It was strange to know the cup Annie sipped from contained animal blood, not coffee. Regardless, it didn’t ruin his appetite.

  “Don’t worry about all the stares,” said Annie as they kept moving down the sidewalk. “You’re the shiny new toy. They’ll stop wanting to play with you soon.”

  He shook his head and followed her. “We heading anywhere specific?”

  “Eventually. On our way there, I figured I’d let you get the lay of the land a little. For when you decide to venture off on your own.”

  “So was this place always this big?” asked Riley.

  “It’s grown some. But my father set aside a large space, hoping for growth. So far we have not outgrown it.”

  “I imagine that’s because most people have no idea you exist.”

  “Could be. We don’t brag about it often.”

  “And why here? Why in the heart of the French Quarter?”

  “That was Jean’s idea. She’s from French Canada. An Acadian.”

  “I had surmised that. The accent is telling.”

  “It’s also a magical hotspot. Magic is stronger here.”

  “What causes that?” He wondered if they had their own version of a power source, like The Demon Isle.

  “I’m not the one to ask about that. Jean would be able to explain it better. I only know there’s some sort of magical convergence and that’s why this place was chosen. Back in the mid-1700’s or so, the Acadian’s were forced to leave Canada. Some fled across the borders into the States. Jean was one of them and that’s where she met my father. He was struggling with his inner demons, and having recently created me. He and my mother forged an instant friendship.”

  Riley listened, intrigued by the story, at the same time casting his gaze back and forth taking in all the scenery. It wasn’t unlike being in the French Quarter, except that some of the residents smiled in greeting with fangs protruding through their lips. Or outwardly practiced magic in the open.

  “I’ve had only limited interactions with vampires,” Riley told Annie. “It’s hard to imagine them creating deep friendships.” He could only imagine William Wakefield’s hand strangling him. But Melinda always claimed the vampire was her closest friend. That familiar pang of jealousy drummed in his chest. He blinked a few times, realizing he’d stopped paying attention to Annie. She was still explaining how this place had started.

  “After a time,” she was saying, “when it was clear the Acadian’s would not be so easily welcomed back to Canada, Jean and my father headed south, hoping for a fresh start. They wanted to find a place to live in safety, and as much peace as was possible.”

  “And this place was born out of that idea.”

  “Yes.”

  “You claim your mother and father are close, and yet he never comes to visit?”

  “As I said, vampires live on different timelines. We can go many long years without seeing someone and then see them as if no time has passed.” She hesitated for a moment. It was the first time she’d done that. “I did see him, fairly recently. Around thirty years ago.”

  “So that means what? One vampire year?” he jested, eyes beaming.

  “You’re funny when you want to be.” She laughed. “It’s not like measuring dog years. There is no certain number of vampire years being equivalent to one human year.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t imagine there was. So what’s it like to see someone after that long? Is it awkward?”

  “Not at all. But it’s always a bit sad… with him.”

  “Because he leaves again?”

  “No. Just seeing him. Seeing the self-loathing when he looks at me. He still sees me as his worst failure.”

  “I don’t understand how the vampire/sire relationship works. Are you tied to him in some way? Do you become actual family?”

  “No. It’s not really like that at all. My father, Jean, and I, are a unique case, in that the one who sired me didn’t just leave me to my own devices. He took me in and cared for me. And then when Jean came along, he was happy to have a mother figure take over. He’s not particularly the fatherly type, but he tries hard. And means well. And never shirks from responsibility. Ever.”

  “Since he turned you at least,” Riley said.

  “I guess you could say I was a turning point in his life,” she quipped with a dark chuckle.

  “Ooh, good one. You can be funny too.” He rolled his eyes. Riley liked Annie’s easygoing nature. It was a nice break from his own brain and relentless thoughts.

  “Still, I hope one day he can look at me with happiness. Forgive himself already. Because I never blamed him, once. I love who I am. Who he made me.”

  “You seem very… settled in your own skin.” How jealous he was of that.

  “And you’re not,” she stated, a hint of sympathy on her tongue.

  New subject, thought Riley. Wasn’t ready to go there. “So your mother, and father, they’re not a thing?”

  “No. Not at all. Only good friends. More than friends, really… they have a deep kinship. And not that it matters really, but Jean is technically old enough to be mother to my father, if they were human. It’s all really nothing to do with mother, father, daughter… it just makes it easier in the real world to think of it in those terms. But being that I’m forever twenty, it’s nice to think I have them. It’s as real a family as I’ll ever have.”

  “Family doesn’t have to be blood. Sometimes blood is…” new subject, he decided again. “Your mother holds her age well. Is that a vampire thing?”

  “A little, but mostly no. And she’d take that as a compliment. She was fifty when she got turned. Stunning if you ask me. But once turned, we pretty much look the same. It doesn’t turn back the clock, but it makes a healthier, stronger, much less destructible version of yourself.”

  Riley was learning more about vampires than he’d ever thought he would.

  “So how does one find their way around Sorcier? Are there cars? Taxi’s? Maps?” He was already certain he was lost, having no idea how to find Jean’s pub from here.

  “Just ask, anyone will give you directions. But the easiest way to remember is that we set up the town like a grid.” She pointed out the numbers on the street signs. They were on the intersection of three-hundred north and four-hundred south. “We started out a ten north and ten east, otherwise known as Sorcier Street. Otherwise named after our Colony.”

  “Okay, yeah. I get it. Should be easy enough to find my way.”

  “And if you have far to go, or get tired of walking, we do have carriages that will pick you up.”

  “Like horse and buggy?”

  “Yes. I know, not very modern. But it works here.”

  “It’s almost like being back on The Dem…” he cut himself off. No use talking about that place. He had no clue what these people knew about the Isle but he wasn’t about to start trouble.

  Annie finished his sentence for him. “You came from The Demon Isle, didn’t you?”

  He refused to reply, or at least, his vocal chords refused to.

  “Don’t worry, Riley. The Howard Witches are well known and respected in these parts. They are possibly the most famous witch family around.”

  “There’s another family, I’d say more infamous than famous,” alleged Riley.

  “If you’re asking if I recognize the name Deane…”

  He nodded uneasily.

  She put her hand on his arm and grasped him in a kind gesture.

  “We are not our bloodlines, Riley Deane. I am certainly not mine. Our ancestor’s deeds do not define us.”

  “Are you sure? Because I’m not.”

  “And there we get to it at last.”

  “What?”

  “The reason you’re here, I’d wager.”

  “Why would being here make any difference?”

  “To quote yourself, I have no idea. But I can see
you’re itching to get out of your skin.”

  “Not so much my skin, as much as the red curse that flows underneath it.”

  She flashed her fangs with a hiss. “I could help you with that.”

  Riley’s eyes stretched wide, breath catching on its way out. Annie’s fangs retracted with an amused crack forming on her face.

  “Wow. You believed me there for a minute.”

  “You can be very convincing.” He swallowed the shock of seeing her like that. “How do you live, not drinking blood? Human blood,” he corrected. “Do you ever get tempted?”

  “Yes. I do. There’s been a few times I’ve come disastrously close.” Intimate connections, she kept to herself.

  “But when you’re just walking down the street, with someone like me, with living blood rushing through his veins, how do you…” he cut himself off, seeing the temptation in her eyes, her lips licking at the fangs elongating.

  “It’s not always easy. But when you put it like that…”

  New subject, he thought for the hundredth time that day.

  “From this side of your skin, I dare say you’d taste a hundred times better than you smell.”

  “What do I smell like?” he dared ask.

  “Like sun warmed sweet tea spiced with cinnamon. Laced with brown sugar. Like life…”

  “Maybe we should talk about something else…” Riley was getting worried about the gleam in her eyes. “I would really hate to be the guy that broke your no human blood vow.”

  “You’re safe, human,” she grinned. Albeit the talk was getting heavy for her fangs to handle. “Besides, other than the red life coursing through your veins, you’re not really my type.”

  He narrowed his gaze, unsure what she meant. She gave his brain a minute to catch up. He cast her a side-glance and she lifted the corner of her mouth in a sly grin. He cleared his throat an awkward silence falling over him. Annie laughed.

  “It’s not an uncomfortable subject for me, Riley. I like chicks. I’ve been with men, they just don’t excite me like a woman does.”

  Somehow this revelation shot some relief through him. Took the pressure off. She might want to suck him dry, but she wouldn’t be trying to… well… suck on him in any other fashion. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get weird. I would have swore you were hitting on me pretty hard when I first arrived.”

  “Oh, I was. But mainly because of your blood. Lesser so, because of that innocent puppy dog face you got going on.”

  Riley laughed. “So do you have a girlfriend?”

  “No. Not looking too hard right now either. And not to sound uppity or anything, but I only date other vampires. That whole we don’t age like most everyone else thing can get complicated. And finding other female vampires, hard enough. Ones who are like me…” She shrugged. He got the picture. “I wouldn’t turn it away if the opportunity knocked, but I’m quite satisfied with life right now.”

  “Must be nice.” They were back at that being happy in your own skin thing. “Annie, can I ask you, others here, do they know who I am? Do they recognize the Deane name?”

  “Don’t worry about it. Like I said, give them no reason not to trust you, and you won’t have to lose the trust Jean will have won for you.”

  “More like, Jean trusts me, everyone else will trust me? She doesn’t and…” I’m outta here, he guessed.

  Annie shrugged, with a you got it, smirk.

  Riley nodded, wondering how long it would take his cursed Deane blood to ruin this place, and how long before he was chased off to find another place to run from…

  Annie stopped them. “Okay, this is something I did want to show you.” She pointed toward a courtyard leading into the backside of a building.

  “Where are we?”

  “The one place the outside world and our world merge. C’mon. I’ll show you.”

  He followed through the courtyard and into the backside of a building. Once through the door, sound rushed to his ears. Cars. A police siren. People walking by laughing, drinking, eating… but he could not see any of it.

  “This way,” said Annie. They came out in a corridor with a door closing behind them that said, janitor’s closet. “Humans only see cleaning supplies,” explained Annie. “For us, it brings us into the hallway behind a magic shop. Owned and operated by a member of our colony.”

  She brought them down the corridor and through another door into the shop. A lady behind the counter nodded at them with a smile, all the while helping a human customer doing some shopping. Annie motioned to the front door and Riley held it open for her. They stepped outside and she threw up her hands in a voila movement.

  “Wow. So this is regular old New Orleans?” confirmed Riley.

  “Yup. This street is how most of us make a living. Keep the colony going and such.”

  The street was lined with all things paranormal, supernatural, and magic. There were so many bright lights there was no way to look up and catch the moon or stars. They disappeared in the glow of the city.

  “And to return to the colony, we just go back the way we came?” Riley confirmed.

  “Yup. Hop back inside and you’re home in a jiff.”

  “I would say let’s enjoy a drink, but I have a feeling they don’t serve your preferred beverage out here.”

  Annie laughed. “Definitely not.”

  Riley sucked in, hitching his breath. Eyes widened to the unwelcomed but too familiar tug twisting at his heart.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Um. Damn it…” he groaned and shook his head in tedious acceptance. He’d hoped once he’d gotten to his destination, this thing would go away, or leave him alone. Or that he could keep this one thing private.

  “Riley?” Annie tried again.

  “I may not be a practicing witch, but I have this… gift. I’d like to call it anything but a gift. However, I can’t ignore it, no matter how hard I try.”

  Annie waited for him to explain, a perplexed gaze fixed on him.

  “There’s somewhere I have to be. I can’t say exactly where, or why. Just that I have to.”

  “Well let’s go then,” she said without hesitation, or further questioning.

  Riley’s feet did the rest, taking them down the sidewalk. He didn’t hurry. His feeling took him at the exact pace it needed to. And it strangely was not far. He came to a stop outside of a shop. There was a sign lit up that said, Aunt May’s Psychic Readings.

  “She’s not really anyone’s aunt, everyone just calls her that,” explained Annie. “Real nice lady, spooky right about things sometimes.”

  Riley made to continue but stopped. “I’ve no idea why, but this is where I need to be. I’m sure it’ll be something ridiculous, like usual. Keeping someone from spilling a coffee on themselves. Or tripping on something. Or getting a freakin’ paper cut.”

  Annie grinned, about to ask more when there was a scream inside Aunt May’s shop. Being out in the real world she could not use her vampire super speed so she followed Riley who was already at the door yanking it open. As he did, a woman looking to be in her thirties came screaming through, almost knocking them down to hurry out of the shop.

  What the hell was going on inside?

  Tourists jumped out of the woman’s way, looking at her like she was nuts.

  Riley pulled Annie inside and shut the door.

  “Aunt May?” she called out gently.

  No answer.

  “Brrrrr,” shivered Riley. “Always this cold?”

  “I’ve never noticed. Don’t get cold much.”

  “Right. Vampire.”

  There was one closed door near the back of the shop. Riley headed there seeing as the rest of the place was empty. He pushed open the door only to gasp at the woman sitting in a trance-like state, staring through him with pearly white eyes.

  “Aunt May?” Annie called out cautiously.

  “This normal?” asked Riley.

  “Not sure.” She approached carefully.

  “I don’t kno
w why my feeling brought me here,” mumbled Riley. “I can’t fix this.” As his words ended the woman sucked in a coarse breath, her eyes rolling down, dark brown pupils replacing the white. She clutched her chest.

  “Aunt May?” Annie reached out to the woman.

  “I’m okay child. Oh, that poor woman.” She gave a weak chuckle. “Got more than she bargained for.”

  Annie and Riley waited as she got more comfortable in her chair, smoothing out her clothes.

  “I told the woman she was pregnant with the son of her husband’s brother. Sometimes, I need to heed my own advice and stick to the good news. And then they don’t go screaming out the door. Never good for business when that happens.”

  “Oh, Aunt May.” Annie reeled in amusement. “I’m glad you’re okay. We were standing outside and thought something terrible had happened.”

  “No. I’m perfectly fine.”

  The temperature in the room warmed almost instantly. The chill Riley felt upon entering dissipating fast.

  Aunt May eyed him sternly.

  “You… sit.”

  She nodded at the empty seat across from her.

  “Excuse me?”

  “There’s some things we need to discuss.”

  “Oh, I’m not here for any kind of reading.”

  “You sure? See any other reason to be brought here.” She raised an eyebrow.

  Riley plunked down miserably, wondering how everyone in this place seemed to know more about him, than him.

  Annie gave a short wave. “I’ll, um, wait outside.”

  “You don’t need to,” Riley told her, almost pleading for her to stay.

  “You feel like sharing after, I’ll listen.” She left him with Aunt May. Who narrowed her eyes, but gave nothing away as to what she had to say, or was thinking. He squirmed, having never done anything like this before, ever.

  “What makes you believe your gift doesn’t make any difference?” Aunt May quizzed bluntly.

  “What do you mean?” he wasn’t playing dumb on purpose, but this place kept catching him off guard. Like he’d been sent into some sort of twilight zone built specifically for him.

  “What makes you think that saving someone from spilling a hot beverage on themselves, one minute, doesn’t keep them from suffering a tragedy ten times worse, in fifteen? Or getting stuck with an overly chatty elderly woman while helping her carry some grocery bags, keeps her busy long enough to miss the burglar breaking into her home. One who would have killed her without pause or reason. And that same woman would not have had the chance to reunite with the daughter who was stolen away from her a mere year after her birth.”