Peter offered his mother a smile and then turned to Harper. "If it's all the same to you, Harper, I don't really do theater."
"Of course," Harper said. "Me either."
Alice and Craig exchanged a look.
"There must be someone though," Alice said, turning her attention back to her daughter. "What about that man you were talking about last time you were over? What was his name? Ryan..."
"I slept with him, and he wasn't good in bed," Brittney said.
Harper couldn't help it, she burst into laughter. Alice and Craig looked shocked, but after a moment, they joined in as well. Peter just shook his head, that faint smile still in place. His phone dinged, and he reached for it, quickly checking his messages.
"Peter, dear, no cell phones at the table," Alice reminded him.
Harper watched the way the color drained out of Peter's face. "Actually, I have to go, mom," he said.
"What? So soon?" his mother asked.
"It's an emergency," Peter said. He swallowed a few times, and then jumped to his feet. He went over to Brittney and kissed her on the cheek. "Happy birthday, big sister."
"Thanks, Peter."
"It was good seeing you again, Harper," Peter said. He kissed her cheek too, and then headed for the door.
Harper caught Brittney's eye. "Actually, we have to get going too, right, Brittney?"
Brittney blinked, glanced at the clock, and gave Harper a searching look. "That's right," she said slowly, "We have to be at work soon."
"You're working on your birthday?" Craig said, sounding disappointed.
"Yes," Brittney said. "But thank you for dinner, mom. It was wonderful, as always. We'll stop in again soon, promise."
Harper and Brittney quickly got to their feet, kissed Alice and Craig, and headed out the front door.
"What was that about?" Brittney asked. "It's nowhere near time of the murders. We could have stuck around for a while longer."
"Peter," Harper said simply.
"Peter?"
Harper nodded to a figure walking down the street. "That's him, right? Why isn't he in his car?"
Brittney shrugged. "How should I know?"
"Come on," Harper said urgently. "We don't want to lose him." They set off at a brisk walk, trying to catch up. When Peter stopped walking, they ducked down an alleyway that they could watch him from.
Several men approached him. "Do you have the money?"
"I'm getting it," Peter said. "I'll have it soon."
"Soon isn't today," one of the men said. "We have given you plenty of time to repay your debts. You shouldn't gamble with money you don't have. Let this be a lesson to you..."
Before Peter could speak, the man had transformed into a vampire. The others did as well, and made a circle around him. Peter blinked slowly. He didn't scream, or try to run away; Harper knew the vampires had him under their spell.
"Damn it," Brittney said. She dug in her purse and grabbed out one of the stakes she'd been instructed to take along. "We have to hurry. They're going to kill him, Harper!"
"I know," Harper said, retrieving her own stake. "Why do you think we followed him?" She ran towards the group, "Hey! Hey, you guys! What's going on here?"
"Stay out of this, child," the first vampire said, "This is not your concern."
"The hell it isn't," Brittney said. "Back off and we might let you live."
The vampires all laughed. That seemed to snap Peter out of the state he'd been in, and a flicker of fear formed on his face. "Get out of here, Brittney. Take Harper and run!"
"You're going to let us live?" the vampire asked. "You'll be lucky if we don't drain your blood next, little girl."
Harper and Brittney exchanged a look, nodded, and then ran at them from opposite directions. Harper remembered what Sarah and Alec had taught her; she couldn't fight like she was trying to win, she had to fight like she was trying to live. She punched the first vampire in the face. She knew her knuckles would be bruised later, but she didn't care. He stumbled backwards, holding his nose, and she rammed her stake into his heart. He let out an ungodly cry and then drifted away into a small pile of sand.
Two more vampires came at her, and Harper ducked backwards. She had no idea how Brittney was doing, but she couldn't spare her any thought. She kicked out at one of the vampires and caught him in the hip. The other one pressed down on her, and grabbed her by the throat. He was strong; stronger than Alec even, and she could feel her vision begin to dim with the lack of oxygen.
"No!" Peter screamed out. He ran at the vampire choking Harper and both of them fell into the ground in a heap. Harper turned on a heel, slamming her stake sideways. The other vampire who'd come at her screamed and then disappeared.
She looked around for Brittney. She was staring at Peter and the vampire who were wrestling. There were two piles of sand next to her.
"Let him go," Brittney said in a loud voice.
The vampire stopped his assault for a moment and looked around. He saw the piles of sand and slowly stood. He put his hands up in the air.
"You are not what I thought," he said.
"No, we're not. Now listen, are there more of you after Peter?"
"Yes."
"Then you're going to go to them, and you're going to tell them that to leave him alone now."
"He owes us money," the vampire said sulkily.
"How much?" Brittney asked.
"Twenty-thousand."
Brittney and Harper both inhaled deeply. Then Brittney pulled out her checkbook. She signed her name to it, and held it out. "Take it, and leave him alone. Understand? If you come back, or any others come back, we'll take care of them the same way. He's under the protection of Afterlife."
"He belongs with Afterlife? I didn't know," the vampire said. "Of course, of course, all is forgiven. We will bother him no more."
And with that, he turned and loped away.
"What the hell?" Peter asked, standing up. "What just happened?"
"We saved your life," Brittney said. "Twenty-thousand dollars owed to vampires, Peter?"
"But how did you kill them?"
Harper reached out and brushed some dirt off Peter's sleeve. "That's what we do," she said. "We fight creatures like that and protect idiots like you. Twenty-thousand, Peter? Really?"
"I know," he said, hanging his head.
"Go home," Brittney said. "Lock your doors. If you hear anything -- anything at all -- you call me, okay? And we'll be there."
"Maybe you could come back with me," Peter said.
"Can't," Harper said. "We have a job to do tonight. Go home, Peter. And stop gambling."
Peter looked at each of them, as though he had no idea who they were. "You're going to explain all of this to me, right?"
"Sure, one of these days," Brittney said. "Now go home and keep your mouth shut about it."
FIVE
"I can't believe him!" Brittney said, as they climbed into Harper's car. "Gambling, really? He's twenty-one years old! You know that bailing him out is going to eat all my savings?"
"Why didn't he just ask your parents for the money?" Harper asked, "They're good for it."
Brittney shook her head. "And lose his status as the Golden Child? As if. He knows how they'd react if they found out he'd been gambling -- especially if he lost that much money. Makes you wonder if he owes anyone else. People who gamble tend to not stick to one lender, right?"
"I don't know," Harper said. "I've never been that much into gambling."
"Thank God for that," Brittney said.
"You think he's going to be alright tonight?" Harper asked.
"Yeah," Brittney said. "Did you see the way that vampire acted when I said we were with Afterlife? We have a certain reputation, Harper. That's what Chloe told me, anyway."
"Well if Chloe said it, it must be true," Harper said, rolling her eyes.
Brittney watched her for a moment. "You're not jealous, are you? I thought you liked Chloe."
Harper shrugged. "I do," s
he said. "She's fun to be around. I mean, she's intelligent and has a great sense of humor. I just don't want her taking my place as your best friend."
"She couldn't," Brittney said. "My parents are right about one thing; we're five years from thirty. Do you really think that I could replace twenty years of friendship for someone I only met a few weeks ago?"
"I suppose not," Harper said.
"But I do like hanging out with her," Brittney said. "It's alright to have other friends, you know."
"I know."
"You have Sarah."
"What?"
Brittney shrugged. "The two of you spend a lot of time together too. Working out, that sort of thing."
"For our job," Harper said.
"Yeah, but it's not just for your job," Brittney said. "If it was, you could go alone. Sarah's your friend, admit it."
Harper laughed. "I don't know what my problem is. Of course she's my friend. She's actually pretty great. Do you know what she does in her off-time?"
"What?"
"She helps abused women," Harper said. "Like women who've been beaten up by their husbands."
"Really?" Brittney looked surprised. "I would have thought she'd spend her free time doing something a little more fun."
"Maybe it is fun for her," Harper suggested. "I guess her mom was an abuse victim."
Brittney grimaced.
"I don't even know if I should be telling you this," Harper said. "I mean, I don't think it's exactly a secret, otherwise why would she tell me? But I don't know if she spreads it around either."
"You're telling me because you want to talk about it," Brittney said.
"I guess," Harper allowed. "That's where we were today. There was a woman who'd been beaten badly by her husband. I mean, really badly."
"That's terrible," Brittney said.
"Yeah," Harper said. "The thing is, she kept saying she loved him. She knew it was wrong, and that it sounded silly, but she said she couldn't help herself. Even though he was a bad person, she couldn't help but love him."
Brittney's eyes lit up with understanding. "Aha. I've found the root of your concern."
"Oh?"
Brittney nodded. "You're worried that even though you and Alec can't have a future, you're going to fall in love with him."
"What? That's ridiculous," Harper said.
"It's not," Brittney said. "You're worried that he's bad for you, but you can't help but feel drawn to him anyway."
"But we can't be together," Harper said. "It's not possible. That's why he and Ileana didn't end up together; she wanted more than he could give her, and so do I."
"Maybe he'll be enough," Brittney suggested.
"How can he be?"
Brittney shook her head. "I don't have the answers, Harper. But if you love him--"
"--Which I don't," Harper interrupted. When she saw Brittney's skepticism, she shook her head. "I really don't. The problem is that I think I could."
"Love is hard," Brittney said. "We should have made a vow to stay single forever."
Harper laughed. "You'd die before you made that vow."
"True," Brittney said.
"Do you want to help me apartment-hunt tomorrow?" Harper asked. "Maybe if I can put some distance between me and Alec, things will naturally resolve themselves. Maybe I'm only worried about falling for him because I'm living in his house, eating his food, and making use of his things."
Brittney shrugged. "Sure," she said. "In fact, why don't we look for a place together?"
"What?"
"Well," Brittney said, "My lease is up, and I don't want to renew. It's in my parents' names, and I'm trying to kind of branch out on my own, you know?"
"Yeah."
"So the first thing I need to do is stop taking money from them. Which, thanks to Afterlife, I can do. The second step is setting myself up somewhere independent of them. And I think we should do that together," Brittney said.
Harper considered for a moment and then nodded. "Sure, why not? I mean, we've never tried living together before. I think it'd be fun."
"Kind of like a year long slumber party," Brittney said with a laugh. "We can paint each others' toenails and braid each others' hair..."
Harper laughed. "Hey, at least you took that cooking class with your mom. We can have something besides frozen dinners in the house."
"Have you seen my apartment?" Brittney asked. "Just because I can cook doesn't mean I will. We should have a housewarming party!"
"What?"
"Yeah," Brittney said. "We'll find a place, furnish it, and then have a housewarming party. Invite all the Afterlife people to it."
"It'd have to be in the evening then," Harper said. "You know Alec can't come out during the day."
"Well, he can," Brittney said.
"Only if he's careful. Remember, he's vulnerable during the day. He doesn't have any of his powers and he's extremely weakened. He's made a lot of enemies," Harper pointed out. "I'm sure those enemies would be only too happy to catch him during the day."
"Fine, fine," Brittney said, "We can have it at night. That'll be more fun anyway. We can get a keg..."
"We're not in high school," Harper said.
Brittney laughed. "I know. I was joking about the keg. But we can get some booze. A housewarming party isn't complete without at least three people passing out from being drunk, you know."
Harper shook her head. "Two of us will be at least part of those three."
"It's not my fault you're a lightweight," Brittney said. When Harper raised her eyebrows, she quickly added, "Well, I am too."
They pulled onto the road they needed to watch and parked. It was still too early for the murder but they had nothing else to do with their time. Both of them slid their seats back as far as they would go, kicked up their feet, and let out joint sighs of relaxation.
They spent the next few hours discussing what kind of apartment they wanted. Both of them said they wanted something with three bedrooms, so they'd have a guest room in case someone needed to stay over. They both also wanted something open and airy. Brittney pulled up apartments on her phone, and they wasted quite a bit of time browsing current listings on the Internet.
"We can furnish it ourselves," Brittney said, "We'll just have to go furniture shopping."
"What about your furniture?" Harper asked.
"It came with my apartment," Brittney said. "Once I leave there, I basically have my clothes and my snow globes. I don't even have my own dishes."
"How does it feel, being an adult?" Harper asked.
Brittney rolled her eyes at her.
"Seriously," Harper said.
"It feels liberating," Brittney admitted. "Getting paid for real work that I do... even if that work is hanging out on a deserted back road waiting for some sort of demon to come along and try and kill us."
"I don't think she'll try and kill us," Harper said.
Brittney raised her eyebrows. "No?"
"All the victims are male," Harper pointed out. "If anyone should be worried, it's Conner and Alec. But both of them can take care of themselves."
Brittney shook her head. "That's true," she conceded, "but on the other hand, the demon hasn't come up against anyone yet that we know of. If it knows we're on it's trail, it might just make an exception to that male-only rule."
Harper considered this and then shrugged. "We'll find out," she said. "Maybe. If we're lucky. More than likely, we'll just spend the night out here, and find out nothing. It'll probably attack elsewhere."
"I hope it doesn't," Brittney said. "I'm bored. I want it to attack here just so we have something to do."
Harper shook her head.
"I'm serious," Brittney said. "All this sitting and waiting is making me anxious. I need excitement."
"Because chasing down vampiric loan sharks wasn't enough," Harper said.
"Not at all."
"You have a serious problem, you know that?"
Brittney grinned. "Yeah, I do."
T
hey stared out at the road a while longer, each lost in their own thoughts as they waited for a demon to attack. The number of cars that passed was low; Harper could have counted them on her fingers if she'd wanted to.
Around the time the demon should have been attacking, Brittney's phone rang. She glanced at the screen. "It's Peter."
"Probably wants to know more about what happened earlier," Harper said. "Don't answer it. We're on high-alert time."
"I can't just ignore it," Brittney said. "What if he's in danger?"
"You said it yourself, he's going to be fine," Harper said. "When they found out we were from Afterlife, they turned chicken."
Brittney groaned and silenced the phone. They watched for a few more minutes before her phone buzzed again. "It's Peter again."
"Tell him we're busy," Harper said.
Brittney answered the call, holding the phone up to her ear. "We're a bit busy here, Peter, can it wait? Wait, what? You're... okay, okay, calm down. We'll be there soon. No, don't call the police. Hide somewhere. I don't know where! Try the basement. Get yourself a big bat. Do you have a bat? No? You know, you're making this awfully hard... yes, the fire poker will work. Get it, and get yourself hidden."
Harper's attention was captured by the call. She nervously drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, already having pulled her seat back up to driving position. The second Brittney hung up, she asked, "What is it?"
"He thinks someone is trying to break into his house," Brittney said. "We have to get over there and fast."
"Right," Harper said. "Just give me directions. I've never been to Peter's."
Brittney nodded. "Go straight here," she said.
Harper quickly pulled out and began driving up the road. About three quarters of the way up, she saw a figure. She slowed down, staring at it. It was a woman; she had long, black hair billowing out behind her, and was in a red, floor-length dress. She was holding something up to her face, some sort of mask.
"Brittney," Harper said quietly. "I think that's our demon..."
"What?"
"Look."
Brittney looked out the window at the woman. "She just looks like a normal person."
Only a Mother Could Love (Afterlife Book 3) Page 5
