Just A Little Wicked: A Limited Edition Collection of Magical Paranormal and Urban Fantasy Tales

by Lily Luchesi

  “No, she couldn’t have come.”

  “Because she hates me too?” Marigold asked, indirectly admitting her worst fear.

  “What? No. Not everything is about you.” With a sigh and avoided eye contact, he elaborated, “I caught her screwing around. She’s a lying, cheating, bitch who’s too busy sleeping with her fifty-year-old coworker to do something as decent as come with me to visit my anxious little sister.”

  While talking, he grabbed the only stuffed animal on Mari’s bed and began squeezing it. As much as she wanted to beg him not to destroy Sunny, her tattered yellow stuffed monkey, she held back. Her brother was hurting and she hadn’t noticed.

  “Oh.” She knew she needed a better reaction than that, but she was stunned. Mari actually liked Heath’s girlfriend. While Mari wasn’t ready to call her names, she now hated Tonya for one reason: because her brother did.

  “When were you going to tell me?”

  Heath threw Sunny at her, hitting Mari in the face. “I just did.”

  It didn’t take long for her to switch gears. Instead of showing off her successful, big brother in an attempt to seem cooler, she was now on a mission to cheer him up. She decided to host a party that Thursday night in her dorm. Who doesn’t want alcohol, music, and fun people around when dealing with a break up?

  “Come out!” she ordered, but her brother stayed put.

  She could tell that he only pretended to enjoy the handheld video game he played. It took way more button-pressing speed then he gave it for him to excel at the race-against-the clock heist game he halfheartedly played. A party brewed in the other room while Heath sat in the dark.

  “I don’t want to meet your friends. I don’t want to dance, or sing, or be happy. Why can’t you get that? I want to be left alone.” He tossed the game aside. It survived a rough landing onto her textbook covered desk.

  “Then why did you come to see me?” Each time she asked, she hoped for one answer. Each time he answered her, it hurt. Why couldn’t he simply say he loved his little sister and wanted to make sure she was okay?

  “This was a mistake. I’m out of here first thing in the morning. I’ll spend the rest of my vacation at Mom and Dad’s house.”

  Shaking her head, she said, “Just drink this, you butthead.”

  With a red, plastic cup pressed against his chest, Heath took the drink before it spilled on him. He stood and watched his sister walk back to the party in her living room. She gestured to Heath to come join them, but he didn’t budge from the doorway.

  She smiled big, talked loudly and got mad whenever the toss of her ping pong ball missed its intended half-filled cup. Losing, she turned to him once more before the next round began. He shrugged. Then, he peered into his now empty cup before turning it upside down in disbelief.

  With a shake of his head, Heath entered the party.

  “Hey, Mar! Hold up! What’s in this punch?”

  * * *

  “What’s in this eggnog?”

  Mari snapped out of her haunting memories and blinked rapidly as she focused on the here and now. Seated in the VIP section, the small group around her laughed at the comedian’s funny tale about accidentally spiking his grandmother’s holiday drink. She missed the joke, but laughed along anyway. Anything to keep from crying. She hated when thoughts about her brother escaped the locked and buried treasure chest she invented to contain all things related to Heath.

  “Master?” Marigold asked politely.

  Sharing a love seat with him, she felt too openly displayed for her current emotional state. When he made an inquiring sound, she continued, “May I be excused for the night?”

  “On Christmas Eve, my dear?”

  Despite his subtle taunt, she knew that he was not going to give her the gift she craved most. All other gifts, no matter how new and shiny, could wait until tomorrow.

  “May I?” she repeated her request.

  He stopped looking at the stage long enough to look into her eyes. He saw that which she wanted to hide, her longing and weariness, her loneliness and heartache. Like all the other men in her life, he continued to test her patience as if he were skating on thin ice, unafraid of her murky depths.

  “Dismissed.”

  She rose swiftly and made a discreet exit. Annoyed by his ability to see her pain and ignore it warred with Mari’s desire to be near Rhett and become like him.

  “Sleep,” Mari muttered to herself, knowing that she was both tired and hungry, but only one of those options was free.

  The ground floor of her master’s property housed Die Laughing. There was a basement level below it that held several rooms: ample storage, a modest blood bank, guest rooms for staff and guests, and a mysterious interrogation room that was only referred to as The Box.

  Like a bat hanging from the ceiling of a cave, Mari’s master and his vampire companions lived on the floor above Die Laughing. The residence consisted of a humongous open area that was easily converted into a ball room when the occasion arose. The room was suitable for plays and musicals, boxing and wrestling, or other purposes. Brown leather furniture filled the large area, which meant it was currently being used as a living room. Numerous side and coffee tables accompanied the couches and loveseats. The polished hardwood floors gleamed, and the blue, sea colored walls were a great contrast for the black and white nature photographs that celebrated nocturnal creatures.

  Mari punched in her access code to unlock the door that led to the upper floor. Theo, another guy from Rhett’s personal security team, was stationed at the tiny security office near the top of the stairs. He was there to ensure that only members of Rhett’s coven roamed this restricted area.

  “Hey,” Mari mumbled, failing to suppress a yawn.

  Tired from being awake for the past twenty-four hours, she headed for her rarely used bedroom. A private room was one of the few job perks of being Rhett’s servant, along with a modest paycheck and clothes for special occasions. For the umpteenth time, the temptation for Mari to move into Rhett’s home nagged her. The large home also had a kitchen, formal dining room, library and Rhett’s private three-room suite. And yet she continued to resist. She knew that she needed privacy more than comfort. Rhett would never trust her again if he knew what she did when alone in her own apartment.

  Theo sat on a stool in an open doorway near the top of the stairs. His lean, muscled body was covered in a black t-shirt and black slacks. His thick and straight black hair was tied tightly into a low ponytail with a leather string.

  Mari had to admit that she found his taciturn and composed nature as alluring as his big, almost triangular eyes. While her heart was already full of men who didn’t love her in return, she still had a soft spot for him.

  Theo lifted a hand and gave her a casual wave using three fingers. He watched her walk across the large living room until her sluggish yet still graceful walk was obscured by the gigantic, seven-foot-tall Christmas tree holding court in the center of the living room.

  To protect her while sleeping, Mari trusted that Theo would place his Nintendo Switch aside and renew his interest in the security camera footage displayed on the four monitors in the tiny guard station. She disappeared into one of the many rooms that branched off the living room.

  Tastefully decorated with white and gold lights and snowflake ornaments, it proved that the tinsel, holly, and Christmas wreaths adding holiday cheer to the comedy club on the ground floor was done with restraint. Without Mari’s minimalist style to restrain him, Rhett would have put up multiple Christmas trees downstairs, and used a machine to simulate snowfall for his patrons.

  Finally able to rest, Mari stripped quickly and slid under her fluffy, navy blue blanket. The cool bed sheets shocked her warm body clad only in black underwear. No shower, teeth brushing, or bandage check performed. It could all wait until she shut her dry eyes, relaxed her heavy limbs, and used her dreams to sort through all the jumbled thoughts, feelings, and memories crowding her mind.

  Her paycheck as Rhe
tt’s servant was modest to begin with and she spent most of it on rent. Rhett complained she didn’t live under his roof but didn’t force the issue. She alluded to the loud love making that ensued when she spent time with her beau as her reason for needing her own space. The real reason wasn’t nearly as fun and yet far more disturbing.

  Sometime after midnight and after a couple of hours of sleep, she thought she heard the locked door open. A faint click, hushed footsteps, and a single hiss. Too tired to awaken fully, she turned over in her sleep without opening her eyes. No one said anything or turned on the lights in her room. She must have been mistaken. Mari squeezed her eyes shut tightly while stretching.

  The last thing she remembered, or imagined, before falling back asleep was the cold skin of a large serpent slithering up her bare leg.

  Sometime In The Middle of The Night

  She couldn’t move.

  She wanted to get up and she needed to pee, but Mari could not move. Twenty pounds laid on her naked abdomen, coiled and alert. She shivered and it slithered. Her night vision was unnecessary because the creature laid under the covers with her. Unsure whether to slowly slide out of bed or to jump out as quickly as possible, she remained as still as her terrified body would allow. When the snake’s head moved up her torso to rest on her chest bone in between her breasts, primitive instincts kicked in. Mari launched herself out from under the covers and off her bed in seconds.

  It only took four seconds, however, for the boldly colored snake with skin patterned in red, yellow, black, yellow, red, yellow, black to deliver its venom in a succession of three bites.

  With just enough wherewithal to grab the green T-shirt dress lying on the back of an armchair, Mari stumbled out of the bedroom in haste. In the large living room, she paused long enough to dress herself. Bra, shoes, purse, wallet, and keys were all abandoned for now. Unable to catch her breath, she continued to shake. Marigold looked around hoping someone would come to her rescue, but she was alone. Her master wouldn’t gift her with a transformative bite. Her boyfriend didn’t understand her choices and now had renewed interest in a waitress at work. Her father stopped talking to her, and she could only imagine what her brother would say if he could see how far she had fallen.

  “Theo!” Mari called out to the guard stationed across the huge open room.

  The guard booth was small, unobtrusive and used a two way mirror. Most guests never realized that they were being observed, and sometimes recorded, while on Rhett’s property.

  Bare feet on cold, hardwood floors. The small hole in her chest started bleeding again. A burning sensation crossed her torso where the snake bites landed. Silence in her master’s home spooked her because there were always a few people lounging and drinking until dawn. Mari clutched her chest as it tightened alarmingly. Reaching the security booth, she yanked the door open. It wasn’t supposed to swing open and bang into the outer wall. It wasn’t supposed to open at all. The unlocked door fueled her panic. Mari considered that she might be dreaming, but her chest pain was too real.

  The small security room was empty, and on fire.

  Mari felt disorientated. Someone placed a snake in her bed. Someone set fire to the keyboard and tower-style computer case in the guard’s station. What was going on? And where was everyone? Needing answers and antivenom quickly, she ran to Rhett’s private suite. A thoughtful person would have stayed long enough to put out the small fire. A good vampire servant would have switched to investigative or warrior mode at the first sign that danger hunted her master. But she wasn’t catching snakes, putting out fires, or looking for clues. She wasn’t ready to defend her turf. Marigold felt like a failure. She ran, stumbling through winding hallways and heavy, ornate doors until she reached her master’s suite.

  One thought lingered in her mind while all others faded.

  This is not how I’m supposed to die!

  * * *

  Exhausted and gasping for air, Mari used the last of her adrenaline fueled energy to burst into her master’s receiving room.

  “Master!” Mari called out rather weakly as she took one shallow breath after another. “Rhett, help me! Please!”

  She encountered no one during her slow, desperate crawl there. Unsure of what she expected, she stood there shocked.

  “Oh, no!” The words slipped out unintelligently.

  The last thing she wanted to see was happening right before her eyes. Theo’s head hung too low. His floppy limbs swung. Someone strong, inhumanly strong, held him as least two feet over the floor. Mari wanted Theo to fight back, to scream or beg. Something. Anything. She wanted to believe he was still alive.

  The vampire raised her head and licked her lips while blinking slowly. Black eyes filled with hunger and magic stared directly into Mari’s light brown ones. A single tear swam down Mari’s cheek. The creature before her let Theo’s blood travel from her open mouth down to her pink sweater. It created a deep and circular stain over her left breast that looked hauntingly like a gunshot wound.

  Theo’s body made a loud thump as it hit the ground, tossed away like the paper wrapping of a fast food burger already consumed.

  Mari couldn’t say why, but she felt something at the sight of this particular vampire feeding and flinched. Maybe it was because Theo’s job was to protect her. Maybe it was because he was easy on the eyes and unnecessarily kind to her. Of all the humans she witnessed being preyed upon by supernatural creatures, this killing broke through her icy layer of protection. It threatened to break her.

  “No, no, no,” she moaned, grieving the loss of a friend and the loss of her numbness. “Don’t feel it. Don’t.”

  The creature before her continued to look at Mari with curious eyes and a tilted head. Mari watched as brows relaxed, fangs retracted, and the face of a monster slid away to reveal that of a beautiful woman in her mid-thirties. Her impressive height, slenderness, and melanin-rich skin combined to make her stunning. Truth be told, she had yet to meet a vampire that wasn’t modelesque. And yet, the vampire before her wore thick boots, tight jeans, and an oversized, soft pink sweater.

  One moment, the well-fed creature inspired nightmares; and, in the next moment, she could have passed for someone’s girlfriend, meeting her boyfriend’s family over Christmas dinner. She looked wholesome and fresh. Marigold knew better. She knew that soft skin and luscious hair could only be achieved by feeding often, more often than what was required for a vampire’s survival.

  Don’t break.

  “I’m here.”

  Mari jumped as big hands landed on her shoulders. Someone stood directly behind her.

  “Master,” she responded a second later with a sigh of deep relief. She’d recognize her master’s voice under any circumstances.

  She raised her left hand and clung to the heavy hand resting on her left shoulder. Tilting her head, she managed to graze his hand with her lips. Although Rhett's hands were cold and stiff, being able to touch him brought her comfort.

  “How touching,” the female vampire said as she wiped the last of Theo’s blood off of her chin with her sleeve. Her voice was soft and her accent was impossible for Mari to place. American? New England, maybe? The two words she uttered seemed posh.

  Rhett and Mari did not move apart. Perhaps they made an unconscious effort to stand closer together. Visibly, Mari squeezed Rhett’s hand a little tighter. He slid his right hand down her side and let it rest on her right hip. He saw her desperation and mistakenly read affection when Mari needed attention, medical attention.

  Although directly behind her, he emitted no warmth. Anyone other than a vampire servant might have found that too eerie, but Mari was accustomed to cozying up to his cold body. With Rhett by her side, Mari told herself that she would survive the night.

  “Mosha, my dear, what brings you here? Surely, there was time for a messenger, a phone call, or even a carrier pigeon. I am unprepared for your visit, and now lacking my favorite security guard.”

  Mosha, as in …

  “R
hett, prepared or not, I expect you to greet me immediately and warmly. You reside in my region and are subject to my rules and whims,” Mosha said with her head held high.

  The Master of the Land stood in Rhett’s receiving room, radiating hostility and power. Knowing that Rhett adhered to protocol and etiquette closely, Mari blushed at the notion that he would take a moment to comfort her before addressing his superior. The hands of master and servant slid apart. He walked over to Mosha. The beautiful and terrifying vampire looked regal despite her lack of a crown, ball gown, or heavy jewels. After only a millisecond of hesitation, he knelt in front of her and bowed his head.

  The long, pregnant minute stretched until bursting with silent tension. Mari had only heard stories of Mosha, the master vampire that ruled their state. Not one of the stories ended well for those that offended her. What could they have done to attract such lethal attention?

  “Better,” she said, assessing the situation. Her calculating black eyes continued to take in the room and all those that occupied it.

  Rhett raised his head tentatively, and then looked toward his superior’s face without making direct eye contact.

  “You are correct in all things, Mosha, and I am corrected.”

  “I have yet to begin my lesson, you wayward pupil. But, fear not, you will learn before sunrise.”

  Mari never saw Rhett, a 300-year-old vampire, be subservient to another person. He was always the biggest fish in the pond. Seeing him kneel and apologize shook her to her core. Her physical pain receded for a moment and overwhelming dread took its place. How could this night, which was already turbulent, end well?

  Rhett didn’t respond verbally or physically to Mosha’s promise. He waited. Mosha reached for his face and captured his chin in a cruel grip. Sharp nails dug into his jawline and tiny red semi-circles appeared where his skin broke. He allowed her to mistreat him. He even closed his eyes in surrender to her. Feeling vulnerable, Mari wrapped her arms around herself and tried to subdue a shiver.