Leibald paused his charge. Nikki backed slowly against the wall, looking for the branch with her foot.
“I see you got some of my powers from my little love bite,” Leibald drawled. His voice croaked with misuse. “A shame, really, that such power will have to go to waste. Tell me girl, are you naïve or just stupid, coming down here?”
“Neither,” Nikki hissed. “I’m pissed. You killed my friend.” She nodded towards Jason. As she did, her foot landed on her oak weapon.
“So I did,” Leibald said. “You should be pleased; your body will rot beside his.”
Leibald came at her again, literally leaping at her. Nikki dodged the attack, throwing an elbow out as she did so. It caught Leibald in the side of the head and he collided with the cave wall. Again, he looked surprised by her strength and, she was happy to see, a bit frightened of her now.
Nikki took no time to enjoy the creature’s fear, however. As Leibald sprung back to his feet, Nikki hit the floor, grabbed the stake, and shoved it upwards. A wet popping sound filled the cave as the stake tore through Leibald’s ribs and angled upwards.
Leibald gasped through lungs filling with blood and reached down, grabbing for the stake. Nikki responded by driving it home even harder. Leibald howled; she had reached his heart. Nikki could actually feel the jagged end of the branch puncturing the muscle.
Leibald stopped grabbing for the branch and submitted. He groaned and began to lean back, letting the cave wall support him. Nikki did not let go of the branch, staring hard at the vampire’s hateful face. Then, with blood pouring from his mouth, he smiled at her.
“Dying is funny to you?” she snarled.
“No, you stupid little girl. No. This plan…it has been spoken of for years. Do you think killing me will end it? The family will know the very minute I pass away and they will come with fury. You may have beaten me easily enough but…but you are no match for them. You…Saul…no one.”
“We’ll be ready,” she said. But she wasn’t so sure. Even in death, Leibald was able to convey a sense of fear; she believed every word he was saying.
“This whole town will go down,” he said. “My family will come first and then the others. And when Saul is dead…all of the clans will feast on this wretched town.”
Nikki pushed the stake in harder, wanting him dead, wanting him to shut his bleeding mouth and be quiet. He screamed, more blood erupting form his lips.
“But…until then…before the end comes to Red Creek…”
He stopped there, close to death and fighting for every word. When he picked his speech back up, his voice was faint and soft, like that of an old man.
“In the meantime…I have a surprise. A back-up plan. Just….a little something I’ve been working on.”
Leibald spent his last few breaths chuckling. Little flecks of red-tinged spittle hit Nikki in the face. She grunted and gave the stake one last shove. This time she felt it come out of his back where it clinked against the cave wall. Nikki spit in his dying face and shoved him to the ground with the other bodies on the floor.
She stood there in the darkness, taking it all in. Had this really happened? Had she really bested Leibald so easily?
Nikki realized that her hands wanted to shake. She could feel the tension in her flesh, in her very nerves. But whatever new powers were within her kept her mind calm; her body could do little but follow. Still, she allowed one brief moment of human weakness as she walked over to Jason’s body.
Nikki knelt by him and took his hand. It was cold and stiff.
“I’m sorry,” she said. Although her body would allow no tears, she felt the hot sting of sorrow flooding through her. “I’m so sorry this happened to you. I’m trying to make it right the best I can. It’s all just so… so messed up now.” She fell silent, closing her eyes in mourning for her lost friend. Behind her, Leibald’s body stilled in death with a last, drown-out shudder.
Nikki stood up and made her way back to the cave’s passage. She walked slowly, relishing the feel of her small victory. By the time she was back outside, she felt like a new person. She wondered if mortals felt this way when they killed someone. There was a surge of something… not quite adrenaline but an energy, of life – as ironic as that might be.
Of course, with the changes taking place in her body, such comparisons were silly.
Nikki stood in the morning light, letting her new senses take over. She considered her options and decided to leave her car in the B&B lot. She’d get it some other time. Lily would just have to deal with that little mystery.
Nikki focused her senses on another scent and was surprised at how easily she could pick it up. But she supposed it made sense; of course she’d be able to easily locate her kind.
She walked back through the woods, taking the long way around the outskirts of Red Creek to Saul’s cabin.
5
Roughly six hours after Nikki Galimore had stepped out of a cave in the forest, a black Corvette came rolling into Red Creek. As it made its way through town, the few bystanders on the street turned to look at the car. Most would know right away that it wasn’t from around Red Creek. Others would simply marvel at its beauty and tell their friends about the sweet set of wheels they had seen passing through town.
The driver of the Corvette didn’t care about these bystanders or what they might think. The woman behind the wheel paid them no attention. To her, there was not a single soul on the streets of Red Creek that was worth a passing glance.
The car soon passed the main stretch of Red Creek. It was only then that its driver began to feel a sense of familiarity, of comfort with her surroundings. Even the purring of the Corvette’s engine seemed to agree with her: this was where she was supposed to be.
To say she had missed Red Creek would be a stretch. But she was also surprised at how much these familiar surroundings made her glad to be back.
A short while later, the car turned onto a small dirt road off to the side of the road. The Corvette wound down its stretch; soon, a small cabin came into view.
The woman behind the wheel smiled.
Jill Benton drove the Corvette down the gravel road and parked in front of the cabin that she had once called home.
CHAPTER FOUR
1
Nikki returned to Saul’s cabin from her fight with Leibald and immediately headed for the shower. Half-vampire or not, she still hated the feeling of grime and dirt on her skin. As she had expected, Saul had been sleeping when she arrived. Surprisingly, she was able to shower without waking him.
After drying off, Nikki slipped into bed beside Saul. She was instantly tempted to straddle him and wake him to a delightful surprise but decided against it. She supposed she could use some sleep. The adrenaline surging through her made it hard, but she was eventually able to fall asleep. She drifted off with her head in the crook of Saul’s arm.
They were both jarred awake by a knock on the door a few hours later. When Saul opened his eyes and saw Nikki lying beside him, he kissed her fiercely and then gave her an annoyed look.
“Back so soon?” he asked.
“Yeah, I just couldn’t stay away,” she joked. Nikki wanted to tell him right then and there what she had done, but she wondered how he might take it. What if what Leibald told her was not a bluff, but a reality? What if killing him would make things worse for Saul and his sister? And, she supposed, her as well?
He pulled her close and she felt him hard and waiting beneath the sheets.
“Saul?” she said.
“Mmm hmm?”
“The door. Someone knocked on the door.”
Saul gave her a squeeze and then rolled out of bed. He threw on shorts and a tee shirt and as he did, Nikki saw a look of delight gradually start to show on his face.
“What is it?” Nikki asked.
“The person at the door,” he said. “It’s my sister. It’s Jill.”
The knock came again. Saul went dashing for the door. Nikki dressed as quickly as she could, stomach asti
r with nervous butterflies. As she slipped her shirt back on, she realized that she was about to “meet the family” for the first time in her life.
2
Nikki was relieved to find that she and Jill got along famously. The only moment of awkwardness between them occurred less than one minute after Jill had knocked on the door. Rather that invite her in, Saul had stepped out onto the porch and spoken with her. Nikki easily figured out that Saul was filling Jill in on what had happened in the last few days; more specifically, he was filling her in on the half-mortal woman that was in his cabin.
As Saul spoke to her, Jill glanced over his large shoulder and saw Nikki standing in the window. They had locked eyes for only a moment, but it was long enough for Nikki to know that Jill was absolutely beautiful and that she also would take no shit from anyone. Nikki saw this much in Jill’s eyes and it made her very nervous.
But after Jill came inside and the three of them spoke at length, that feeling of anxiety faded away. Witnessing the very human way in which Saul and Jill spoke and interacted with one another calmed Nikki. Vampires or not, their way of being with each other was still very much grounded by their brother-and-sister relationship.
“So where the hell have you been all this time?” Saul asked.
“Tampa Bay, Florida.”
“What? Were you actually tempting the sun?”
Jill gave a chuffing noise and grinned. “No. But the beach at night is unlike anything you could ever imagine. I actually had a job as a waitress and made some money the honest way.”
They shared a look and then started laughing. Nikki enjoyed seeing Saul laugh so heartily, but felt left out of their little inside joke.
“What?” she said. “What’s so funny?”
“Okay, okay,” Saul said. “You see, I—”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Jill said. “You don’t get to tell this. You’ll leave details out.” She then turned to Jill. “So, Saul is sort of lazy. He doesn’t think that a being with immortality in his veins should have a job.”
“So then how do you make money?” Nikki asked, looking to Saul. “How do you buy groceries and clothes and all the wine you drink?”
Saul gave Jill a menacing yet playful look and said, “Go ahead.”
“In the 80s, he worked as a ghostwriter for horror novels. He also got a very good tip from a—well, someone in the know you could say—that this little company called Microsoft was going to do well. He put a lot of money into it. Of course, it paid off. And what…ten years ago I think it was, he sold a book under a pen name. A vampire book. It got huge.”
“Tell me it’s not Twilight,” Nikki said.
“No, not Twilight,” Jill said with a shudder. “It was sometime before that. But, as you can see, he has money coming in from all over the place.”
“Huh,” Nikki said. “I’m not sure how I feel about knowing this side of you.” She smiled as she said it and when Saul returned it, she was struck with a feeling that was far too close to adoration for her comfort.
After an hour or so, Jill and Nikki were doing the bulk of the talking, leaving Saul out of it. Jill was asking Nikki questions about mortal life. Were mortal boys really as gullible as they seemed? Were periods really as necessary as the human body seemed to stress they were? What’s it like to have to go through a new size of clothes every few years?
“Yeah,” Saul said during the course of this conversation. “I can see I’m playing a huge part in this…so…yeah, I’m going to start dinner.”
Nikki watched him go into the kitchen and her heart seemed to float for a moment. Damn, she thought. Am I seriously falling for him? Ugh…
It made her feel vulnerable, despite the new abilities she had. Nikki didn’t want to seem like she was weak in front of Saul, especially now. But still, she couldn’t quite deny the heat she felt in her stomach when she looked at him.
So she tried focusing more on Jill, trying to divert her attention. She saw right away that Jill had the good looks that all the Bentons seemed to have been blessed with. She was of average weight and height, but her body would probably be the last thing any guys noticed — with the exception of her generous chest. Her true beauty was in her face—it looked like it had been lifted from a classic men’s magazine cover. She was gorgeous.
“And you’re still not feeling any bloodlust?” Jill asked her as the evening wore on.
“None,” Nikki answered, nearly spilling the beans there and then about Leibald. And as she thought of Leibald, one of his last comments rang out in her head. Something about a back-up plan… a surprise. She still had no idea what he had been talking about, but the threat loomed large.
The thought was still clinging to her mind as she and Jill were called to the back porch. There, Saul had set up a lovely little dinner on his patio table. There was chicken, vegetables, a mashed cauliflower dish, a salad and, of course, a bottle of red wine. It was an impressive spread and it made Nikki wonder what other talents he might have that she was unaware of.
The three of them sat down. As Nikki looked out to the Red Creek forests and took the first bite of her salad, she knew she had to tell Saul about what she had done. At first, she had been excited to tell him; it had been meant as a token of thanks in a way—a way for her to show him that she was here for him, just as he had protected her from Leibald. And if there was any threat on the horizon related to his family, as Leibald and this Benali character had indicated, she had his back.
But now she thought there might be some repercussions to her actions. If there was any truth to Leibald’s final words, she could have very well stirred up a hornet’s nest.
They were roughly halfway through their meal—the chicken nearly all gone and the side dishes torn into—when Nikki decided to come clean. When she did, she felt like she was starting some elaborate joke with no punch line.
“I think you should both know,” she said, “that whatever happens from this point on with the plan against you, we won’t have to worry about Leibald anymore.”
“What do you mean?” Saul asked.
“These new sense of mine…. one of them, as you know, is an acute sense of smell. I could smell Leibald from my apartment last night. And when I did, it made me angry. He took Jason from me…he tried to take you and then turn me. I hated him so much in that moment. So this morning, at dawn, I went out into the woods looking for him.”
“What?” Saul gasped. There was more than a little shock in his voice. There was anger and concern there as well. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“Jesus, Nikki. What happened?”
Nikki sipped from her wine to buy some time, hoping Saul would calm a bit. “I found him in a small cave. He had the bodies of the people he had killed squirreled down there. We fought. I won. He’s dead.”
“Holy shit,” Jill said. She was visibly impressed but, like Saul, there was some fear in her voice as well.
“Nikki,” Saul said, reaching out and grabbing her wrist gently. “That was incredibly dangerous. And borderline stupid.”
“How? He threatened us. He seemed to be the ringleader of whatever little plan there is to kill you. It seems to me I solved a huge problem for you.”
Saul thought for a moment before he spoke again. He and Jill exchanged a glance across the table that Nikki did not particularly care for. “I appreciate the thought.” Saul said, “And, if I’m being honest, I’m quite impressed. But Leibald is not the leading type. I can damn near guarantee you that his death will bring this plan to fruition faster. His family will want justice.”
“Yeah…he basically said as much when I killed his sorry ass.”
“What did he say exactly?” Jill asked.
“He said that he had a back-up plan. He said he had left a little surprise here in Red Creek.”
Saul threw his fork down in frustration. “Damn it. You should have come to me first.”
“I was trying to help!”
“Guys,” Jill said, trying to i
nterject. “Calm down. Let’s not get heated…”
“No…you know what,” Nikki said, “I’m sorry I tried.” She stood up from the table and headed for the stairs. “Jill, it was nice to have met you, but I think it is best that I leave for right now. Saul, feel free to find me when you’re ready to apologize. All of this shit is new to me, you know? How the hell was I supposed to know my trying to save the day would piss you off?”
“Nikki, it’s—”
“No. No more from you until you’re ready to talk sensibly. I can’t deal with this right now.”
She stormed down the back porch steps and made her way onto the yard. She marched back around the house towards the driveway without bothering to look back.
“Nikki,” Saul shouted, desperate and annoyed.
Jill shook her head at him. “Just wait. She’s a girl—a very independent and determined one from the looks of it. Give her time. Let her cool off.”
Saul fell back into his chair and sighed. “For how long?” he said. “We may not have very much longer to wait. Leibald’s family will certainly come now. The only question is when.”
“Well, then we best rest up and be prepared, big brother.”
“How do we prepare for something like that?”
“It was a figure of speech. Pep talk.”
“A cliché.”
“Yeah, that too,” Jill said. “Look, I don’t know what you want me to say. The situation sucks. We don’t have much of a chance. I don’t see the point in talking about it. We just need to take it on the chin.”
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