I stepped around the tree to get a good angle, lifted the bow, took careful aim, and...twang! The arrow slid through the air, silently stalking its target.
After a few seconds pause there was a loud thunk, but not from the arrow hitting home. I’m not sure if my aim was off or not, but I had not properly accounted for the wrought iron fence in the way. The arrow hit one of the posts.
Of course, Luke heard it, and was by the fence before I could blink. Knowing I had only seconds, I reached into my quiver and took out another arrow as he bent down to pick up the first. I worked to still my breathing as I cocked the arrow, but my heart caught in my chest when Luke lifted his head to stare directly at me.
He lunged forward, a movement that should have ended in my throat being ripped out, but instead he began an intense struggle with the air around him. Evan to the rescue. This was my last chance.
My hands trembling, I got the other arrow in place, lifted the bow, aimed, and fired.
Luke lurched to the side just as the arrow left the bow. It hit him, but in the arm rather than the heart.
I didn’t hesitate a second before getting out a third arrow. I knew I didn’t have another chance. Evan and I had gone over this again and again, and it was unlikely that he would be able to hold the vampire for more than a few seconds.
But I wasn’t done yet. I wasn’t trembling any longer. I snatched the third arrow out of the quiver, took a step closer to the vampire, and sent it hurtling toward him.
Luke broke free of the invisible force holding him, and started toward me just as the arrow left the bow. He and the arrow met in mid-lunge.
This time it struck true. There was a moment when he seemed surprised. He looked at the arrow in his chest in utter disbelief, the strength and speed of his movement carrying him forward until he dropped at my feet.
He didn’t die right away. As I looked down into his now pale yellow eyes, he reached out a hand to grab my almost fully healed foot.
Thanks in part to his weakened form, and in part to the strengthening potion I had taken earlier, I did manage to pry my foot free, but in the process I lost my balance and began to fall on top of the vampire.
I didn’t quite finish the fall. Something caught me halfway down, and I found myself flying backwards through the air. I landed hard on the forest floor, then skidded a couple of feed until I felt Evan’s arms around me. He was panting with exertion.
I let the bow drop to my side, and just sat like that for a full minute, letting the adrenaline rush subside, letting myself feel safe again for the first time since the vampire had attacked.
Behind me, Evan’s chest rose and fell in an increasingly steady rhythm. When his breathing returned to normal, I allowed myself to turn slightly to face him. “That was close.”
He did not answer. For a fraction of a heartbeat, he looked like he wanted to kiss me. I could feel his breath on my cheek, and even in the dark I could see his eyes boring into me.
In the intensity of the moment, I forgot all about Braden and my parents’ disapproval. Evan was firm and warm and he had just saved my life. Whether it was the relief or the adrenaline or something else, I may never know, but I turned my face ever so slightly to meet him.
The kiss never came. With our faces a mere inch or two apart Evan broke away, muttering something under his breath.
Sense returned, and I leaped to my feet, brushing the contact off myself. “W-we need to get his head,” I reminded Evan.
Evan had brought the ax. He picked it up, slung it over his shoulder, and together we walked to the vampire corpse. The light had finally left his eyes, but you can’t be too careful with a vampire. If the stake (or arrow, in this case) is removed, there is a chance they can heal. Removing the head makes their death more certain. Technically, you could go for decapitation in the first place, but that’s harder to pull off than the stake.
“Let me,” I said.
Wordlessly, Evan handed me the ax and stood back as I began to swing. I didn’t have a good grip on the ax the first time; my hands were too close together, and I ended up putting a gash in the corpse’s forehead. Drawing the ax back up, I widened my stance and my grip, then swung again. And again. And again. I’m not sure when I did manage to sever the head, because I lost myself to the swish and thud....swish and thud.
“Cassie, stop,” Evan said after a while.
I came back to myself. Leaving the ax where it had landed last, I glanced back at Evan, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking over my shoulder. I turned and spotted Angie on the other side of the wrought iron fence, still unabashed by her nakedness, staring at me in stunned disbelief.
I started toward her.
“Stay away from me,” Angie said.
“Angie, wait.” I started toward the fence, but she backed away.
“I’m getting the police.” She turned and fled inside, not bothering to pick up her robe.
“She’s still being influenced by the venom,” Evan said. “It’ll take a couple days to wear off.”
“Yeah. I wonder if I should wait for the sheriff, though.”
Evan shrugged. “It’s up to you, but leave me out of it.”
I nodded. I knew it wasn’t that he thought he had done anything wrong, it’s just the arrogance of his kind, thinking that normal laws don’t apply. Or any laws, as far as I can tell. It’s not like there’s some magical oversight committee out there.
“Take me home,” I said. I could explain all this to the sheriff in the morning.
20
NOT UNEXPECTEDLY, MY PARENTS, NICOLAS, and Juliana were all waiting in the living room when I got home. There was a tense moment when I stood in the entryway, keys dangling from one hand, backpack gripped loosely in the other, staring at my foot as it dug into the dark brown carpeting. I wasn’t sure if they knew what I had done or just guessed, but from the looks on their faces, I wasn’t going to escape the room without a tongue-lashing.
Then it began. All of them at once, yelling so loudly I couldn’t make out a word of it. I kept my eyes on Mom throughout, wondering if she would be able to hold in her untrained power. She must have had a breakthrough, because as red as her face grew, she reined it in.
“Hey!” I shouted, loudly enough to be heard over the din. They ignored me. Well, I wasn’t going to let them treat me like that, so I strode past them toward the hallway.
I never quite made it there, because out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a stranger leaning against the entrance to the kitchen. No, not a stranger. He looked familiar, but I had not seen my cousin, Jason, in eight years, since he had been fifteen. He looked much older now, tall and very, very large. He might have been intimidating if it had not been for the amused sort of smile on his face. He caught my eye, and winked.
“Enough,” Dad said, finally. Everyone quieted down. Then he rounded on me. “Can you explain why you decided to keep us from finding out where you were? Or better yet, how you pulled it off?”
“No,” I said.
“We know you went after the vampire,” Dad said. “Didn’t you think we’d guess?”
I shrugged. “I killed him.”
Behind me, someone started clapping, and I saw I had an unexpected ally in my cousin. “It was nice, too. For a minute, I thought you’d had it, but then you pulled it together on the third shot–against a moving target and everything. Sweet.”
“Um, you were there?” I asked.
“I got about a hundred phone calls yesterday,” Jason said. “Didn’t you think I’d show up?”
“When did you get here?” I asked.
“This morning,” he replied. “Someone hasn’t been checking her messages today.”
That was true, I hadn’t been. I had called Kaitlin to cancel lunch, but had otherwise kept the phone off all day.
“We guessed where you were going tonight,” Dad said, “so we sent Jason to save you from yourself.”
“I didn’t need it, though, did I?”
“Of course you
did,” Dad said. “You went up against a vampire all by yourself-”
“Oh, no, Uncle Edward,” Jason said. “Didn’t I mention? She had help.”
Everyone turned to look at him. I bit my lip, praying he wouldn’t go on, but my prayers were not to be answered.
“Yeah,” Jason said, “tall, long dark hair tied in a ponytail, about Cassie’s age.”
“Evan,” Nicolas said.
“Strong, too,” Jason said, apparently oblivious to the chill in the room. “I’ve met telekinetics before, but none that could hold a vamp, even for a heartbeat. This guy actually managed to give Cassie time to reload–twice.”
“Evan is impressive,” Dad said, “but he had no business putting you in danger like that.”
Jason laughed, still clearly oblivious to the tension in the room. “Oh, he was probably just trying to show off. I left when they started making out.”
Why isn’t there ever a hole in the floor when you need one? I hid my scarlet face in my hands and shook my head. The trouble was that this time, it wasn’t exactly a lie. He hadn’t seen what he thought he had, but there had been that moment when we nearly kissed.
Juliana whistled. “And I thought you were happy with Braden.”
“Oops,” Jason said, though his smile didn’t falter, “didn’t realize that would be a touchy subject.”
“It’s not what it looked like,” I said.
“It doesn’t matter,” Mom said. She put an arm on Dad’s hand. “Edward, it doesn’t matter. She’s fine. She did get some help. She didn’t just go off on her own.”
Dad didn’t look angry anymore. He looked worn out. For the first time, I noticed his eyes were red, as if he hadn’t slept well lately. “Why Evan? Why couldn’t you have come to us? Now you owe him a debt.”
“No, I don’t. A vampire killed his cousin, so he had as much stake in the kill as I did.” I winced, when I recognized the pun, but no one else seemed to have noticed.
“And the concealment spell?” Dad asked.
“I’ve been helping him track down his cousin’s killer. Now, I’m doing it free of charge.” Luckily, Evan had been open to the arrangement, and sensitive to the fact that I did not want to incur a magical debt.
“Well,” Jason said loudly from the kitchen, “I thought she did a great job. She trained, she knew her target, she went with a plan, and she brought backup.”
At least someone had been impressed.
“You did well,” Mom said after a moment’s hesitation.
I stared at her, a little warily. She met my gaze levelly, and offered a smile. “You’ve grown up. You can take care of yourself.”
“Thank you. I better go to bed.”
“Good night,” she said.
* * *
I didn’t make it as far as the second floor landing before Jason intercepted me. “Sorry about that,” he said. “I stuck my foot in, didn’t I?”
“It’s okay. Thanks for having my back, anyway. And for not getting involved when you didn’t have to.”
“Hey, I know what it’s like to want to prove yourself. I tried that when I found my dad a couple of years ago.”
“I didn’t know you were looking for him.” For that matter, I didn’t know much at all about the circumstances around his parents’ divorce. Mom and Aunt Sherry had always been tight-lipped about it, so I had assumed it was one of those painful situations best left alone. Aunt Sherry didn’t come around much, anyway. Like Belinda, she was a gifted herbalist, so she spent most of her time with her gardens and greenhouses in Arkansas. She might have lived closer, but Belinda’s claim as the community herbalist was absolute, and Aunt Sherry is non-confrontational to an extreme.
“Yeah, well, take my word for it,” Jason said. “Don’t bother trying to prove yourself to anyone.”
He was probably right, but I wasn’t quite ready to hear it.
“Anyway, I wanted to tell you to be careful. There’s almost never one vamp in town. I’m going to hang around for a few days, try to track the line to its source.”
“How do you do that?” I asked.
Jason smiled. “Good old fashioned detective work. Know anyone who could help me? I can’t afford to pay except in adventure.”
I’d had plenty of adventure in the last forty-eight hours, but I couldn’t bear the idea of not finishing what I started. Besides, Jason was cool. He was easy to want to be around.
“I don’t need any money,” I said. “Mom and Dad turn lead into gold for a living.”
“Yeah, they send me money sometimes. I’m not sure they understand how much things cost, though.”
Truthfully, neither did I. “Do you need more?”
“Nah.” Jason shuffled his feet a bit. “Look, why don’t we find a place to talk? I have a lot of questions for you, and I’d rather ask them someplace I can have some of your mom’s homemade candies and wine.”
“No one will be in the library at this hour.”
“Great, I’ll catch you there in a few minutes.” He started to head down the stairs, suddenly stopped, and turned back to me. “Wait, are you old enough for wine?”
I blinked. Technically, I had only been legal to drink alcohol for a couple of weeks, but my parents served us their homemade wines as early as twelve. I guess it’s just one more way that the magical families in the area consider themselves above the law. “Um, yeah, I’d love a glass of wine.”
“Back in a flash,” Jason said.
I wandered into the library, while he headed down the stairs. There were only smoldering coals in the fireplace, so I added a few logs and kicked it up a bit. The flames were dancing by the time Jason returned with the wine and chocolates.
“I don’t know where your mom learned to cook,” Jason said, “but she could teach mine a thing or two. I grew up on fast food and microwaves.” He poured a glass of wine and handed it to me.
I swirled it a bit, and took a sip, but it didn’t taste right. It was sweeter than usual, and had a hint of something I couldn’t identify–peppermint? “Did you put something in this?”
“Just something to help you relax. Most people don’t like to relive vampire attacks. This makes it easier.”
“You slipped me a sedative?” I put the glass down on an end table. I couldn’t believe it, not from Jason. He’d seemed to think I was okay, or had that all been an act? “That’s not cool.”
“Not a sedative, exactly,” Jason said, not looking at me. “It’ll help you remember without making you relive it. It actually helps prevent post traumatic stress.”
I shook my head and scowled at him. Just what I needed, another relative thinking I needed protection from myself. “Thanks, but I don’t need it.”
“You need it,” Jason insisted. “I’ve been in this business longer than you. It’s got nothing to do with you, and it doesn’t mean you’re weak. You’re human, and anyone who went through that would be in danger of having post traumatic stress.” Jason held up his glass. “Which is why I take the potion every time I fight a vamp.”
“Oh.” I stared at his glass, trying to imagine the strong, confident Jason needing a potion to help keep him sane.
“I’ll trade with you if you don’t believe me, but I really think you ought to take the potion.”
I believed him. I picked up my own glass and took another sip.
“That’s better.” Jason drank deeply from his own glass. “You know, you really shouldn’t jump to conclusions.”
He was right, of course. Jumping to conclusions is especially dangerous in detective work.
“I’ve just been on edge lately,” I said. “I don’t know why. I can’t sleep.”
“Bad dreams?” Jason asked.
“Not exactly. I don’t really remember my dreams.”
“Not at all?”
“Sometimes I get a flash or an image, but that’s about it.”
Jason took a seat in one of the high-backed armchairs closest to the fire, and I sat across from him, continuing to sip the
wine. He didn’t say anything, and I knew he was waiting for me to be ready to tell him what I had seen over the past couple of days. There was no rush. We drank the wine and each had one of the chocolates–I took the turtle cluster.
Then I started telling him what I had seen in as much detail as I could remember, which was quite a bit. When I finished, we fell back into silence for a few minutes.
“Things aren’t adding up,” I said into the silence. “I’m not sure if the vampire I killed tonight is the one who turned Belinda, but either way it doesn’t explain Nancy’s death in broad daylight. Plus, why did Belinda turn?”
“The vaccine has a very small failure rate,” Jason said, “even when given twice.”
“Is that what you think happened?” I asked.
He shook his head.
“Is there an antidote?” I asked.
He gave me a tight-lipped shrug, which I took to mean yes, but officially, I didn’t tell you. I understood. The vampire hunters had their secrets as well.
“So Belinda may have wanted to become a vampire? Done it intentionally? That just seems so wrong. And I just can’t help but remember all the half-healed bite marks all over her body. I mean, from head to toe.”
“Torture,” Jason said, almost too casually. It made me think he knew the word from personal experience.
“Oh,” I said, with dawning understanding. “She might have been forced to take the potion? But then, who brewed it? Can vampires use magic?”
“Yes.” Jason made the word sound final and ominous.
“That doesn’t sound like a good combination.” I tried to sound casual, but I didn’t feel it.
He didn’t answer right away. When he finally did, it was in a hushed tone. “Look, there are some things I can’t tell you. You know how it goes.”
“Oh yes,” I assured him. “Secrets and lies.”
“Exactly. My order depends on secrecy. Our mortality rate is high enough as it is.”
“You don’t have to tell me anything,” I said, “but I am on this case.”
“There are a few things I can say. First of all, you have to understand that vampires are highly territorial. Their personalities differ, so you’ll get some who want to be masters of a horde of vampires, and others who guard their own territories alone. The latter usually settle in rural areas, and don’t like any other vampires to trespass. They survive by subtlety, which is harder when more vampires are around. They’ll take a sip from many different people, rarely killing, because that creates a new vampire, although accidents happen. In those cases, the would-be sire will often cut the head off the body to stop the new vampire from rising. They actually kill one another more often than we do.”
Cassie Scot: ParaNormal Detective Page 16
