by Marie Dry
She stood to the side and tried to look out the kitchen window. Wolf snarled at her and pushed her back with his body. She froze and frowned at him. “I’ve just decided that you’re creepier than anything out there.”
He hadn’t made any secret of the fact that he wanted to eat her since the first time he saw her. She limped to the old kitchen table, ignoring how much her knee ached. She’d walked too much today and now she paid the price.
“You growl at me just once, just one more time, and I swear I’ll never give you any bacon again.”
It whined and tried to look pathetic.
“Give it up, Wolf, you’re too big and your teeth are too sharp to fool anyone with that sorry look. Samuel, would you like some coffee?”
As usual, he ignored her. She imagined him standing at the front door, not even twitching. Sabrina sighed and got on with making koeksisters. She’d take him some coffee and something to eat later, and he could eat it or not, but no one was going without being offered food in her house.
Something wet touched her hand, and she almost jumped through the roof. She reared back and stared down into Wolf’s brown eyes.
“I suppose you don’t want to eat me anymore, huh?” Her new canine friend didn’t answer. “I bet you’re my new best friend until you realize I’m not going to give you any of this koeksisters. It’s bad for dogs.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Now if you’d consider confessing to being a werewolf, I might reconsider.” She swore he understood her and was considering it. Shaking her head, she turned to her baking.
If that dog started to talk, she was out of there, drogge or no drogge.
“Something smells good,” Mark said from the door.
She screamed and jumped then groaned and sank back into a kitchen chair as her knee protested. “Every one of you better start making noise when you walk up to me or I stop cooking,” she snarled, sounding like a wolf.
Even Samuel looked worried for an unguarded moment at that threat before he quietly left. Wolf barked and backed off to sit down on his haunches, his eyes on his master.
She pressed a flour covered hand against her still crazy beating heart. “You scared the living daylights out of me.”
“Really. Have a guilty conscience?” He came over and, pulling her head back, kissed her. No brief kiss, no holding back, he kissed her as if he wanted to storm with her up the stairs a la Rhett Butler and make wild passionate love to her. Her heart beat overtime and her knees weakened. At last he lifted his head. “Your knee okay?”
“What knee?” she asked, feeling dazed.
He smiled and lowered her back into the chair.
He went to the cupboard and took out two balloon glasses and a bottle of brandy.
He filled a snifter with brandy and brought it over to her. “Drink, it will help.”
Some strange emotion crossed his face. If she didn’t know better, she’d think it was guilt. She’d had the accident months before she met him, but she kept having the feeling he blamed himself for her injury.
“Your cure for all ills.” Sabrina wiped her hands and brought the glass to her lips. The smell alone made her stomach turn. She pretended to sip. “You’ve got flour on your jacket.”
Mark leaned against the doorjamb while he sipped the brandy. “Tell me about the feeling you had while you were out, when you thought you were being watched.”
She sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe it was my imagination, I just had this creepy feeling that someone was watching me.” She sat down the brandy and took the koeksisters out of the hot syrup on the stove. They were a little burned, but she defied any woman to remember the koeksisters on the stove while Mark kissed her. She frowned at him. No woman better be caught kissing him. That reminded her. “I was going to phone you, but I don’t have your number. Why wouldn’t I have your number?” Unspoken between them was her question if he’d messed with her mind again.
“I have a new number, I should’ve programmed it in your phone last night.”
Sabrina nodded, not sure if she believed him, and sprinkled coconut over one koeksister for her and four for Mark. She loved the hot syrup smell of the koeksisters when they came fresh out of the oil. He got out the utensils and joined her.
“I shouldn’t be serving you anything. Not after what you told me last night.”
He regarded her, serious, almost frightening in his intensity. “I have no choice in what I do.” He stared down into his brandy, frown lines on his forehead.
“If you don’t tell me, what it is you have no choice about, I won’t be responsible for my actions.”
“I could not bear the hatred in your eyes if I told you.”
“Are you so sure I would hate you?”
He took a large swallow of the brandy. “Yes, you’d despise me.”
“Are there other vampires,” she asked.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you think?”
“What I meant is, are there any other vampires in Cape Town.”
A strange, almost haunted look crossed his face. “If I were you, I’d be more worried about the gargoyles.”
“There’s gargoyles in Cape Town? But there’s no old cathedrals here.” Of all the creatures, she’d have thought to be around, gargoyles were the last ones she would’ve expected to live in Africa. All she knew about them was that they had wings and turned to stone.
“Cathedrals aren’t mandatory for gargoyles,” Mark said.
When she talked about vampires she always heard a faint sneer in his voice. When he talked about the gargoyles, there’d been something haunting in his voice. Like she would probably sound if she ever talked about her father and his perfect new family.
“What are they like?”
He gave her a pointed look. “Those assholes have only one thing on their stone brains.”
She could feel heat climb into her face. “You mean, they like to...uhm...make love?”
“That’s one way of saying it.”
“Are they involved in whatever is going on with the drogge?”
“No.”
“Suddenly a month ago, we have to attend every cocktail and dinner held in this town and each time you hone in on all the women under thirty-three. That one woman, Clarissa told you she was thirty-three and you lost interest. Why is that?”
“The drogge only go for women under thirty-three,” he said. He closed his eyes and clenched his fist. He looked up, speared her with a glowing gaze. “You will forget you ever said that, forget any thought about me searching.”
“Why?”
He sighed and muttered about her stubborn mind again. “Don’t ask me that. For your own protection.”
“Will whatever infected Jo come for me too.” He might want her to be in ignorance of what was happening, but it was a little hard to miss.
“No.” He carefully cut a piece of the second koeksister, the first one he’d wolfed down at amazing speed.
Sabrina put down her fork. Those things that turned Jo into some walking corpse would grab her too, if they could. That was why he thought she’d hate him. He was trying not to scare her, that was why he lied to her. Telling her she wouldn’t be infected. That was why Samuel and the wolf watched over her when he wasn’t around. If he didn’t care for her, if he married her for some dark reason, he wouldn’t be so concerned about her safety. Would he?
“When you tried to manipulate my mind, you were trying to keep me safe?”
“Not with much success,” he said, the corners of his lips curling upward.
“Do we have to go to any more of these endless parties?” She liked a good party as much as the next person, but watching him with all these women, seeing what Jo had become wasn’t her idea of a good time.
“Yes, I need Samuel to do something for me tonight and you can’t remain here alone.”
After the creepy feeling she had this afternoon, she definitely didn’t want to stay here alone. She sighed and took their plates to the sink. The sun had been going down w
hile they talked. “I’ll just go and get ready.”
“I’ll keep you safe, Sabrina.”
She nodded and limped to the stairs. Dear God, he’d lied to her again. He didn’t believe he could keep her safe. If she could trust these impressions she got of his feelings, he was one hundred percent sure she’d be hurt. Or worse?
She went up the stairs and took a leisurely bath, hoping the warm water would relax her stiff knee along with her nerves. She dreaded going out. Even knowing Mark had no sexual interest in the women he talked with, it was difficult seeing her husband devote his time to them. To weather the pitying looks of the other guests. Even worse was the thought of seeing Jo. Of seeing more women turn into a dead shell like her. Worse was the nagging feeling of guilt for her continuing suspicions that Mark might be responsible for what was happening to these women.
Sabrina carefully climbed out of the bath. She rarely bathed now because of her knee. Tonight she just needed to relax. She pulled on a robe and went to sit in front of the vanity. She’d come to think of this as putting on a mask to hide behind during these difficult evenings.
“You look as if I’m taking you to an execution.” Mark leaned a shoulder against the door, arms crossed over his chest.
She looked at his image in the mirror. He was so beautiful, handsome in a rugged way, built more like a construction worker than a businessman.
“I don’t want to become like Jo.”
He wiped all expression of his face. “Samuel or I will always be with you.” Muscles rippling, he shrugged off his jacket. She watched in the mirror as he took off the rest of his clothes. He was beyond handsome, he was beautifully male.
Naked, he walked into the bathroom. She heard the shower come on and limping to the closet, chose a long evening dress her grandmother had made. It was a mandarin style dress with beautiful embroidery work around the collar and hem. She almost put it back in the close. Whenever she wore this dress she missed her Ouma and then her mother’s and Jennifer’s deaths were fresh in her mind.
It reminded her that she was all alone in the world. When she’d married Mark, she’d looked forward to cooking for her kids and their friends one day. Now she doubted Mark ever married her with kids and happy-ever-after in mind.
“Get dressed. We’ll be late if you take much longer.” Mark strolled in from the en-suite, dressed in a black evening suit with a white silk shirt.
She jumped and dropped the dress. Her knee protested her sudden movement. “I wish you wouldn’t do that. You scared me.” How did he shower that fast?
He picked up the dress and helped her over to the bed. “You are surprisingly difficult to scare. Most women would be terrified of me by now.” Something grim was in his voice.
“The only thing about you that scares me is your dog,” she said and hoped he didn’t read her mind. He did scare her, what he was, what he was hunting, why he married her, scared her until she wanted to hide, quivering, in a corner. She didn’t know what the drogge was, but she could feel their evil intent creeping into her city.
She glanced at the window and goosebumps broke out on her flesh when the sun started sinking. “Do you feel it.”
He looked up from fastening a cufflink to his sleeve. “Do I feel what?”
“You know, the night.” She gestured to the darkening night outside the window.
He stared at her and she fidgeted. “Why would I feel--” His voice changed to the precise intonation she’d used. “--you know, the night any more than you do?”
Sabrina smoothed her dress over her hips to stop herself from gibs slapping him, not appreciating his sarcasm. “You don’t have to be sarcastic. You’re a vampire, and in all the books the vampires instinctively feel when the sun is coming up, so it’s not that farfetched that you somehow know when the sun goes down.” She hid her embarrassment behind belligerence.
“Why do you assume I can’t be out in daylight? You’ve seen me out in it.”
She grabbed her evening bag of the dresser. “Let’s just go and get this party over with.”
He sighed and pulled her against him. “I don’t have a problem with sunlight.”
“Is that the truth? Can I trust anything you say?”
He shrugged. “We have to go.”
Mark drove them. Her father had been well off, but they never had a chauffeur. She still had to get over the fact that they had someone that normally drove them around.
She was stunned when they stopped in front of Mikaela’s parents’ house.
“I didn’t know it was Mikaela’s parents who invited us.” Something shivered down her spine, ice cold dread. The air around them sizzled with premonition. “Do you think Mikaela--”
“No. I’m getting close. We won’t have to do this for much longer.” He sounded so grim, and she knew instinctively that he didn’t believe she was safe. And that he wasn’t sure that Mikaela was all right.
She practically grew up in Mikaela’s house. Either she spent time here or Mikaela would be over at her house. Even when her father gave in to her mother’s pleas to move to the Bo-Kaap.
From the moment they stepped over the threshold, everything felt wrong. She hugged Mikaela’s parents and turned to see Mikaela make a beeline for Mark. The party scene froze around her. The noise of the people talking, the cars arriving, even Mikaela’s mom’s voice faded, while Sabrina stood, for her friend almost turned her into stone like the gargoyles Mark told her about. Mikaela focused on Mark, a glazed look in her brown eyes.
Something was different about Mikaela. She appeared almost desperate. Clinging to Mark while staring at Sabrina with pleading eyes. As if she had been robbed of her free will. As if her soul was trapped inside a body not belonging to her any more. She changed, right in front of Sabrina’s eyes, her friend changed, staring at Sabrina with the same smirk Jo had used.
“Mark?” Sabrina whispered his name, but it was a cry for help.
He leaned down and brushed a kiss against Sabrina’s ear. “I’ll help her, keep your distance, the infection hasn’t spread yet.”
She should’ve made him explain to her what was going on. Exactly what’s going on. How did the women get infected and with what exactly? Somehow she couldn’t focus on the questions, still too shocked to see her friend like that.
He pulled her even closer, whispered in her ear, “Don’t think about it, keep your mind on anything but this.”
She nodded, her heart beating overtime. She forced jealousy about Jo to the forefront of her mind. If Jo was here, it might be a good idea to be consistent. If it was the only way Sabrina could help Mark find and destroy this evil and help Mikaela, she’d project what was needed. Hysterical laughter bubbled up. This was crazy. She acted as if people crawling around in her mind and her counteracting was normal.
Mikaela latched onto Mark with the same reptilian intensity as Jo, who was also there, standing next to Mark. They reminded Sabrina of two raptors fighting over a bone.
As soon as they had greeted their hosts, Sabrina quietly made her way through the crowd until she managed to get outside. She couldn’t stand seeing her friend hurt like that anymore. The agony in her eyes. It didn’t take long to find a chair on the balcony and to move it to the shadows so that she could spend the time outside uninterrupted. Her knee ached, but tonight the ache in her heart was worse. The first time Sabrina’s father had an affair, Mikaela had been to the one to help her through it.
When Sabrina heard the party winding down, she carefully got to her feet and started slowly inside. Sure enough, Mark had a blonde woman hanging on his arm and Michaela glaring daggers at them. It was the creepiest thing she’d ever seen. If anyone had asked her, Sabrina would have said seeing two women vie for Mark’s attention would’ve sent her into a jealous rage. Instead, she felt like running away as fast as her bum knee would allow her. Their actions were eerie, as if they’d been mesmerized. They even moved in a strange synchronized way. Doubly eerie because they looked like snakes circling each other, looki
ng for an opportunity to strike.
Reluctantly, she approached them, but Mark’s gaze warned her away and she stopped.
“Samuel will take you home and stay with you until I return. Please don’t wait up for me.”
Whatever Samuel had to do for Mark must be finished.
Mikaela rubbed against Mark and smirked at Sabrina, Jo eerily echoing her movements. As did the blonde woman Sabrina had seen him talking to. Mikaela’s gaze speared her and Sabrina nearly lost her balance at the impact of the anguish she saw in her friend’s eyes. As if she was trapped inside her own mind. But something of the old Mikaela remained, and that small part of her cried out for help.
Sabrina instinctively stepped toward her friend. Mark blocked her and steered her away. “Samuel is waiting for you,” he said then added softly, “I’ll look after her.”
Sabrina nodded and walked to the front door, her heart aching for her friend. Feeling like a traitor for not doing something. For just leaving. Samuel waited for her at the door and walked out in front of her, watchful as usual. He might not like her, but seeing his broad back in front of her was very reassuring after the night she’d had.
Back home, she went upstairs and flopped down on the bed, still in her evening dress. She should kick off her shoes, but she didn’t have the energy. What was happening to Mikaela? First Jo and now Mikaela and the other blonde woman. Both times it seemed as if Mark had mesmerized them. What if he was the one causing them to be like that. Was she foolish for trusting him with her friend’s wellbeing?
The window exploded, glass flying everywhere, and a winged monster landed in the middle of her bedroom. Sabrina screamed and held her arms in front of her face. Wolf barked, and footsteps pounded up the stairs. Desperately hoping it was Mark or Samuel, Sabrina kept screaming.
The creature with its rocklike skin and large wings grabbed her.
