by B. N. Toler
“Aldo, you are my lucky charm. Always yours, Rhett.” There’s a small horseshoe charm inside the box. My heart melts as I pick up the charm; a symbol of our time together in my subconscious when he was trying to bring me back. I’m definitely in the wrong place. How could I ever be attracted to someone like Daniel when I have someone like Rhett? He’d do anything to protect me.
Standing up, I begin shoving clothes into my bag, leaving most of the clothes Daniel paid for. I want nothing of his. Just as I’m zipping my bag closed, there’s a knock. I glance at my nightstand clock. It’s 4am. Surely Flynn isn’t up yet after being up all night with Eileen, ready for our morning run? If it’s Bridge, I’m going to go ape shit on him.
“Who is it?” I call.
“It’s me,” Daniel’s deep voice makes my stomach flip. I was really hoping to leave without seeing him again. Every time I think of him I’ll see his face covered in that horrid lipstick.
Tossing my packed bag into my closet, I open my door and walk to my bed where I sit on the edge. He enters and closes the door behind him. His hair is wet like he’s showered and his clothes are fresh. My gut wrenches as I imagine him in the shower with her.
“Listen. About what you saw upstairs. It’s not what you think.”
“Oh no?” I snort. “Were you two having a book club meeting?” I stare down at the floor as I speak, refusing to look at him. “It’s none of my business, Daniel,” I smile sadly, wishing I were better at looking like I don’t care.
“I was all fucked up tonight after—”
I jump up to stop him. I can’t talk to him about it. It’s like a knife twisting in my side. “I get it, Daniel. You brought home a complete stranger for a one-night stand. I mean that’s what guys do, I mean most guys, I guess.”
“I don’t usually do that,” he argues.
Bridge’s words echo in my mind and I hate that he got to me. “Don’t you? I mean you don’t exactly strike me as the monogamous kind.”
“What do I strike you as?” His brow furrows as if he’s insulted by my opinion of him.
“The kind of guy who likes to have sex and doesn’t really care with whom.”
He snickers and shakes his head. “Well, you don’t know shit.” He says it frankly. “I came down here to explain—”
I roll my eyes. “You don’t have to explain anything to me.”
“You’re right. I don’t, but I want to.” He stares at me and my throat tightens. His gray eyes search my face, like he’s looking for me to ease him. I don’t want to hear what he has to say. I just want him to go.
“Daniel.” I touch his arm. “You’re my teacher; my mentor. I’m your student—or trainee. You owe me nothing.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it,” I nod.
In a flash his body is against mine, pulling me into him. “That’s not it. What about what happened in my room and at the club?”
“In your room, I was blood crazed and at the club I was drunk. It was a mistake,” I lie. I try to push him off of me, but I’m unsuccessful.
“I don’t believe you,” he growls through clenched teeth.
“No, it’s true. I’m glad you see me the way you do. Otherwise, we might have done something we both regretted.”
“And how do you think I see you?” he questions with offense.
Like I really am. “Weak. Naïve.” Not powerful like a female hybrid should be, or sexy or desirable. Ugh. I hate feeling this way about myself, but every guy I have ever wanted has in some way rejected me. I must have the wrong kind of pheromone. Like an anti-sex pheromone. The only way Thomas and Rhett would sleep with me was in my dreams. I practically tried to rape Rhett, and he refused me. Now Daniel, too. When he doesn’t argue, I begin to try and wiggle my way out of his grasp. “Please let me go.”
His hand grips my hair at the nape of my neck, forcing me to look up at him. I want his mouth on me, but I cringe remembering it was only hours ago he had some bimbo all over him, that he was inside of, fucking. My stomach flips.
“I didn’t do anything with her.” He shakes his head. “I didn’t fuck her.” He corrects himself as if he just read my mind.
“Look, Daniel. What do you want from me? You can do whatever or whoever you want.” My attempt to sound like I don’t care fails miserably.
Something flashes in his eyes before he releases me and I fall to the bed. Backing away, he runs a hand through his hair. His jaw tenses and a flash of anger lights his eyes, but vanishes immediately. “Bridge and I are going out of town for a few days on an assignment. We’ll talk when I get back.”
“When are you leaving?”
“Right now.
“Okay.” I nod, knowing I won’t be here when he returns. Staring up at him, I realize this is my goodbye with him.
He walks to my door and opens it. “Try and stay out of trouble.”
“Be careful, Daniel,” I say sincerely. No matter how angry or jealous or hurt I am; I still care about him. I still care about his safety.
Without acknowledging my last words, he shuts the door behind him.
After I dress, I write a note to Eileen and Flynn thanking them for their friendship and wishing them the best. I ask them to hug Mama and Nick for me and tell them good-bye as well. I don’t mention Daniel. I’ve said all I need to as far as he’s concerned. I don’t mention Bridge either because I hate his fucking guts. I call a cab and have them meet me two blocks from the house.
I arrive at Hotel 9 and make my way to Thomas’s room. Knocking three times, I finally hear someone fumbling around. The door opens and Thomas stands with half-closed eyes in nothing but his boxer briefs. I hate to admit it, but his body still looks amazing. I never saw him in the conscious world without his shirt on, but his body looks every bit as magnificent as it did in my subconscious. His tribal tattoo covers most of his arm and shoulder, and I shiver remembering the girl I used to be that wanted so badly to trace her fingers along that ink.
“You came,” he sighs at the sight of me.
“I said I would.”
“Come in.” He moves aside to allow me to enter.
His room looks like something straight out of the seventies with brown shag carpeting and orange leather chairs around a small table. It’s clean and tidy with the exception of the messed up bed he’s been sleeping in. I toss my bag on the floor and turn to him. Our eyes lock and I waste no time immediately linking my mind with his.
“What are you doing here?”
“Just taking a break.”
“Taking a break from what?”
“Been working undercover trying to take down a nest of vampires in Charlotte.”
There are vampires in Charlotte? That’s where Daniel and the others must go on assignment all the time. Plus, Daniel has an apartment there.
“Taking down a nest or hunting for healers?”
“I’m not a reaper!” he says with spite. “I’m helping infiltrate the nest there so they can kill the master.”
“The master?”
“Andre.” He gets up and pulls a bottled water from the mini fridge.
“He’s the master of vampires?”
“He’s the master of the vampires and blood healers in that nest.”
“Who are you working with?”
After taking a long swig of water, he answers, “A guy named George Carter. He’s one of the leaders in the healer uprising.”
“Okay, you need to tell me everything.”
Three hours later, Thomas and I emerge from his hotel room and pile into his Dodge Challenger. Looks like he upgraded from the Ford F150 he had back in the day. We head towards Charlotte and I bid a silent farewell to Myrtle Beach and my fellow hybrids. I will miss them. Mostly I will miss Flynn and Eileen. They feel like family to me now.
I work Thomas over good before we leave the hotel asking him everything he knew about the nest. Because I’m worried Daniel or the others might somehow find me, I rush through questions and skip some things just
to move things along.
What I did discover is Thomas was born in California, a product of the nest. He and his younger brother, Lucas, escaped when they were teenagers and have been on the run since. Thomas explains that after my aunt was murdered and he disappeared, he and Lucas had a falling out and went their separate ways. One night, while he was in a strip club in Charlotte, he saw an older man coughing and hacking and spitting up blood. Trying to earn a buck, he offered the guy a healing and that is when he met George Carter. Apparently, Carter owns a strip club that the local nest of vampires frequent.
What Thomas didn’t know when he met George Carter is that the very nest he escaped in California had relocated to South Carolina. It was Thomas’s good fortune that George Carter discovered him and not a reaper. Thomas immediately joined Carter, but they’ve had a hard time rallying comrades to take down the nest because it’s one of the largest in the country and most healers stay clear of nests because they don’t want to risk being found.
Unable to dive into our past from lack of time and me realizing I’m not ready to do it, I asked him one question. The most important question. “Were you involved in Lucy’s death?”
“No. I swear.” His brown eyes stared at me, pleading for me to believe him.
Even though I don’t want to, I do. I spelled him, so he can’t lie.
“You’re going to take me with you and introduce me to George Carter. You will tell him nothing of my gift to absorb information.” Once he agreed, we packed up our belongings and left.
We ride in silence for some time, before Thomas says, “I’ve missed you.”
“Don’t go there.”
“I need to explain to you what happ—”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I mumble as I stare out the passenger window.
“How’d you lock me out, Aldo?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You know exactly what I mean. How’d you lock me out of your dreams?”
“We’re not talking about it, Thomas.”
He pleads with me for a bit longer, but finally realizes I’m not going to tell him a damn thing and I’m not ready to hear his side of the story yet. It’s funny. It’s all I’ve wanted to know. What happened? I have my own theory, but I always planned on finding him and having him tell me. Now that he’s here, I can’t. I know he didn’t kill her, but deep down I think the truth may be worse than anything I imagined. All that matters now is getting to the vampires that have caused so much pain.
When we get to Charlotte, Thomas takes me to check into a hotel about a mile from the club. He stays in an apartment with Carter, a guy named Corbin, and a young girl who fled the nest named Kaitlynn. He told me I could stay with them, but I want my own space.
After I shower and change while he waits in the car, he takes me to a club called Marshall’s Gentlemen’s Club. It’s noon when we enter and a tall, broad black man with a stellar white smile greets us.
“How was vacay, man?” His voice is smooth as he speaks and smiles at Thomas. “Looks like you brought back a souvenir.” He runs his eyes up and down my body.
“Nah, just a friend. Aldo, this is Corbin.” Thomas gestures toward the handsome black man whose voice is rich and deep.
“Nice to meet you, Aldo.” Corbin extends his hand out to me and I take it with a friendly smile. “She wants to talk to Carter.” Thomas gestures me towards another doorway that leads into the main room of the club.
“You know he’ll hire her. You’ll do well here.” Corbin smiles at me.
“Oh, I’m not here for a job,” I clarify. I’m already wigging out at the coincidence of the fact I’m being brought to a strip club where vampires hang out and the fact that I created this illusion in the world I created in my subconscious while in my yearlong coma.
I enter the main room of the club and have to take a second to let my eyes adjust. The room is dark with the exception of the multi-colored lights above the stage and the fluorescent lights that line the mirror on the back wall behind the bar.
A middle-aged man with gray hair and a goatee sits at a table directly in front of the stage looking at paperwork and smoking a cigarette.
“That’s Carter.” Thomas places his hand on the small of my back to push me forward and I tense with his touch. He rarely touched me back when we spent so much time together. Back when I was a naïve, love sick fool for him.
“Carter,” Thomas calls and the large man looks up from his papers.
“You’re back,” Carter grumbles.
“’Yeah. I have someone I want you to meet.” Thomas pulls out a chair for me to sit.
As I sit, the hefty man lights another cigarette and tosses his lighter on the table. “You looking for a job, toots?” he asks as he bellows out a cough not really looking at me.
Actually I’m here to join your cause. “Not exactly,” I answer trying to hide my nervousness.
“Then, what can I do for you?” His eyes meet mine and he sits back abruptly as if someone pushed him. He looks like he’s just seen a ghost.
I stare at him unsure of why his expression changed so drastically. “Something wrong?” I ask.
“Wait here.” He stands abruptly and hurries off towards the back of the club. I glance at Thomas who shrugs indicating he has no idea what’s going on.
Moments later, Carter returns and tosses a photo on the table in front of me. “You’re Aldo.”
I glance down at the photo. It’s a picture of me and my brothers from years ago. My stomach clenches. How does he have a picture of me and my brothers?
“You know her?” Thomas asks, his tone laced with shock.
“Where is she?” Carter ignores Thomas, staring me dead in my eyes.
“Who?” I manage, feeling small under his intense stare.
“Lucy,” he says softly, the one word spoken with an undertone of pain.
My brain lurches this time. He knows Lucy? “How do you know Lucy?”
“Because she was the woman I was going to marry.”
Shock crashes over me like a tsunami. Lucy was engaged to someone? “You guys were engaged?”
“A long time ago,” he grumbles. “Where is she?”
“She’s dead,” I whisper.
He sits back and runs a hand through his hair. “Mary!” He yells to the tiny exotic looking lady behind the bar. “Bourbon! Bring the bottle.”
In a flash, Mary is placing a bottle of Early Times in front of him and he immediately fills the highball glass and chugs down the amber fluid. He slams the glass back to the table staring at it.
I shift in my seat and scan the room. We are completely alone in front of the stage with the exception of Mary behind the bar who is out of ear shot, and Thomas, who is standing right beside us. “I never knew she was engaged,” I finally manage to say.
“We had been dating for a year when your mother was taken. Lucy was devastated and terrified when Lisa disappeared.” He fills the highball glass again and chugs it all down. “After moving to different places for months, we made a plan to hunt down the nest, a long shot at best, but Lucy wouldn’t rest until Lisa was back safe and sound. Almost three years after Lisa was taken is when two blood healers showed up and handed the three of you over to her.”
I swallow the lump slowly rising in my throat. “Blood healers?” I try to sound surprised. No one needs to know that I know any blood healers, because I will protect Rhett and Sarah at all costs.
“She left me shortly after,” he ignores my question.
“Why?”
“I was set on finding and destroying the nest, and she fled. She left a note saying the three of you were the last piece of Lisa she had and she had to protect you at all costs.”
Tears spring in my eyes. Poor Lucy really had given up any inkling of happiness for herself to take care of us. It hits me why I created a world in my yearlong coma where I became a stripper. Lucy knew George Carter owned a strip club. I absorbed it from her and twisted it in my dream world.
I have really got to start analyzing everything.
“How did you know about me?”
“She sent me letters every couple of years with pictures of you and your brothers. I tried to track her but it seems she sent the letters as you guys were moving. Lucy must have really trusted George to send him photos of us, but I wonder why she didn’t leave his information for me. Maybe because he owns a strip club and she would never want me in one?
“How did she go?” Carter stares at me through bloodshot eyes and I can see he’s mourning Lucy, a woman he hasn’t seen in almost twenty years.
I cut my eyes to Thomas who is staring at his feet. “House fire,” I answer trying to block out the horrific memory of that day.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” he leans back taking the bottle with him. “What can I do for you?”
“I want in,” I answer confidently.
He laughs condescendingly. “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.”
“Yes, I do.”
He stares at me before his eyes drift down my body. “How do you feel about stripping?”
“Uh,” I pause. Stripping came easy in my subconscious world, but here, in real life, I’m not so sure I have the courage to do it. “Could I just waitress?”
“You could start there, but we’re in the thick of a local nest. They’re regulars. I haven’t been able to make a move because I haven’t been able to build a good team. They like pretty, young girls, you’d fit right in.”
“As a stripper?” I question, still reeling from the idea.
