Legends of the Damned: A Collection of Edgy Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels

by Lindsey R. Loucks

  "Y'all are my family."

  "We're at the Ramada Inn. Getting a room now."

  We say our goodbyes and hang up. "Fuck," I mutter.

  I fish out a cigarette and light it up, inhaling as deep as my damaged side will allow me to breathe. I close my eyes, getting lost in the taste. The one dependable thing in my life at the moment.

  "You're going to kill yourself with those," Jude says.

  I point to the now-red towel on my side. “I have bigger things that’ll kill me first."

  He chuckles bitterly. "So, the Ramada Inn?" he asks.

  Vampires have great hearing. "Yes," I say, although I'm already running through everything in my mind, determined to find out if Anthony survived.

  Nobody fucks with me or my family.

  22

  Jude

  On the way to the hotel, Edie gets another phone call. She fumbles to bring the phone to her ear, so much that I think she’s going to start bleeding out again.

  "Carl?" she asks, panicked. “Is everything okay at your house?”

  There’s a pause and she leans back into her seat. I try not listening in, as she needs her privacy. "Good," she sighs, relieved. "I'm going to stay with Graeme and Amelia. I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"

  Pause.

  "You too."

  She hangs up and puts her head in her hands, like she can’t contain her emotions. I wish there was some way I could help her. Comfort her.

  “I guess they’re all right?” I ask.

  She takes as deep a breath as she can before she speaks. “Yeah. Nothing happened on their side.” She closes her eyes and sits back in her seat. “So it was directly targeted at me.”

  I want to tell her that it’s not her fault, but I don’t trust myself at the moment. I want to ask her if she trusts me again. I want to ask her if she feels anything else. Surely, after risking my life to save hers, she knows. I don’t say anything though.

  The Ramada Inn is off Koenig Lane, about ten minutes from what was her house. We drive the rest of the way in silence.

  By the time I pull up into a parking spot at the hotel, she’s been so quiet, it unnerves me. I hope she doesn’t have permanent damage from her injuries. Maybe I should have taken her to the hospital.

  When I put the car in park, she finally does speak.

  "You can just drop me off here, Jude."

  Fuck that.

  I get out and quickly move to her side so she can’t protest. I bend down to pick her up in my arms, keeping her bad, bloodied side closest towards my body, so the weight of her presses against the towel. I also grab her purse, because I know she’ll want to have her phone and cigarettes nearby.

  "Think I'll let you get off that easy?" I mutter. "You're a danger to yourself right now, Harker."

  She shifts against me and hisses a sharp intake of breath. There’s no way she would have been able to walk in by herself. It’s ludicrous for her to even suggest it.

  She checks her phone. "It's room 213."

  “Act like you’re too drunk to walk.”

  “That won’t be too hard.” She chuckles, which ends in a coughing fit.

  Hurrying without trying to look like I am, I take a leisurely pace up the steps into the lobby, trying to look casual for the other humans. I don’t pause by the front desk and continue walking right to the elevator. I wonder if the person behind the desk thinks she’s some sort of floozy from Sixth Street.

  We step into the elevator and she inhales sharply again. I press the button for the second floor.

  "Almost there," I say.

  "Good, because this fucking hurts."

  I press my lips into a thin line, feeling the skin around the piercing flaring in pain from the movement. It’s nothing compared to what she’s feeling.

  When we get to 213, I don’t even have to knock. A little girl opens the door and practically throws herself on me to get to Edie.

  "Auntie Edie!"

  Edie stifles a cry of pain when I have to shift her slightly to shield her from the frantic toddler. Then the little girl gets one look at her aunt’s face and bursts into tears.

  "I'm okay, Amelia," Edie whispers.

  I’ve seen Amelia from a distance, but never this close. There’s something immensely innocent and charming about her. I can see why Edie has been protective of her.

  She reaches out her hand, but it's red from trying to stem the flow of blood. Amelia's eyes go wide and she cowers backwards.

  "I have a bad boo-boo," Edie adds quietly.

  There's further movement deeper in the room and a man’s head appears in the doorway, the same man from the previous Harker’s funeral. So this is Graeme. His eyes curiously flick to me before settling on Edie. Without further pause, he wraps her up into a bear hug. She cries out at the movement and he lets go of her like she is on fire.

  "Sorry.” His cheeks flush as he looks back to me. "And you are…?" he asks.

  "Jude. I'm one of Edie's friends."

  A muscle in Graeme's cheek tics, but he nods and gestures for us to come inside.

  At first, I think Graeme is unhappy that there's a vampire in the same vicinity as his daughter, then I realize that he wouldn't be able to tell a vampire from a bat.

  So, that means what? Maybe my appearance sets him on edge? I look down at my chain tattoos and I know the piercings on my face are in stark contrast to how he dresses. Then again, I just saved Edie’s life, so he must trust me a little.

  The door shuts behind us, and we're in a typical hotel room, two double beds, an armchair, a small desk and desk chair, and a flat screen tv on the wall. A cat sits on one of the beds, her ears flattened to her head. Her eyes are wild. She doesn’t like me.

  "Over there," Graeme says, gesturing to the chair. "What am I looking at Edie?"

  I gently set Edie into the chair with her injured side up. "Railing," she tells him. "It broke, and I…landed on a big splinter."

  I can tell that’s she’s trying to keep it light for Amelia's sake.

  I sit on the bed across from Edie, watching her. I’m helpless right now. I’m only good at destroying things. I can’t heal her or take away her pain, no matter how much I want to.

  Gingerly, Graeme lifts up the hoodie to inspect the wound. He hisses in air through his teeth. "Amelia," he says, "I need you to go to the bathroom. Or…"

  "Daddy, what's wrong?" Amelia asks, her bottom lip trembling.

  "I can look after her," I say. I know the next few minutes are going to be crucial and I don’t want Graeme worrying about his daughter and potentially botching Edie’s care.

  Graeme looks at me, considering the option.

  “You can trust him, Graeme,” Edie says, groaning.

  Despite the fact that she is all but bleeding out in front of my eyes, I fight the urge to beam at her. She does trust me. And her trust for me must have won out, because Graeme takes out his wallet and holds out a credit card to me.

  "Take her downstairs," Graeme says. "And get another room for Edie. I think she's going to need some peace and quiet away from a three-year-old."

  I stand without taking the card from him. "I'll pay for it.”

  Graeme looks shocked at this. Finally, he nods. "Just…don't let my daughter out of your sight.”

  I smile. "Wouldn't dream of it, sir."

  I added the “sir” to throw him off further, which works to my pleasure

  "C'mon kid," I say to the three-year-old. "Let's go pick out a room for Auntie Edie."

  "'Kay," Amelia says. She hasn't quite warmed up to me yet, but she's not running away, so I guess that’s a sign she’s still reserving judgment. “Can I take my backpack?”

  I notice that there’s a backpack with the characters from Frozen on it. “Of course.”

  She runs and grabs it. “Get better, Auntie Edie,” she says, a tremor in her voice.

  Edie’s skin has taken on a pallid tone, and I don’t like it one bit.

  “I will,” she replies.

  I foll
ow the kid out of the room and towards the elevator. She’s a short little girl, but there’s something authoritative about her. I remind myself that she was the daughter of the previous Harker. There’s something infinitely old about her.

  “What’s your name?” she asks.

  “Jude.”

  “Mine’s Amelia. I’m three.” She holds up the appropriate number of fingers. “You?”

  I don’t know how to tell her my age, mainly because it’s either saying that I’m fifty years old or something else entirely. I admittedly haven’t had too much contact with little kids, so I don’t know exactly what to do with her.

  “Are you a vamper?”

  It takes me a few seconds to realize that she means “vampire”. The elevator dings and opens and she leads me inside. Luckily, we’re the only ones.

  “Can I push the button?”

  “Sure this one.” I indicate the button with the “L” on it for “Lobby”. “What makes you ask if I’m a vampire?”

  “I don’t know.” She scratches her head. “You feel…funny inside my head.”

  So this is Edie’s “vampy sense” that she’s always talking about. If a three year old can tell that I’m a vampire, I’m wondering how her father can’t tell. I guess that’s the difference between Harkers and humans though.

  “Does that bother you?” I ask.

  “I don’t know. Are you a bad one?”

  “No.” I hope not.

  “Are you Auntie Edie’s boyfriend?”

  “I’d like to be,” I reply.

  The doors open, and Amelia has apparently warmed up enough to take my hand and lead me out into the lobby.

  “Why aren’t you her boyfriend?” she asks.

  “I’m not sure.”

  “She’s been sad.” Amelia takes on a pensive look as she says this. “I want her happy.”

  “Me too.”

  This three-year-old is making me feel more exposed than I have been in a long time. Maybe I should be around children more often. She’s blowing the doors off of emotions and thoughts that I’ve kept buried. I kneel in front of the little girl, bringing my eyes to her level.

  “Can you promise me something?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Can you promise me that you won’t tell your dad about me?”

  She grins and holds up her pinky for the pinky swear. “Promise.”

  I grin and take her pinky in mine.

  Who would’ve thought I was good with kids?

  23

  Edie

  "You should really go to a hospital," Graeme says, now that his daughter is out of earshot. He goes over to the panic bag on the bed for a first aid kit, frightening Purl, who slinks away to the bathroom. I briefly wonder if Graeme has had the sense to pack a litterbox for my cat.

  "I'll be fine."

  No I won’t.

  "If you were any sort of normal human being you would've bled out by now and been dead."

  "Then let's be glad that I'm a weirdo," I say lightly. "And that you can patch me up."

  He sits in the desk chair and rolls up to me. He lifts up my hoodie again, this time leaving it up. I'm thankful that the injury doesn't require me to take it off, how awkward would that be?

  "This is bad, Edie," he says gravely. "I mean, I don't know how deep it is, if it's hit any major organs…"

  "I'll be fine in the morning. Plus, I don't want to be away from you guys any longer than I have to be." I don't want to tell him that I don’t know if I’ve killed all the vampires at our house, but he catches my drift anyways.

  Graeme digs in his bag and takes out some gauze, steri-strips, a cleansing spray in a spray bottle, and some ointments. He lifts up my shirt again and shakes his head as he snaps some rubber gloves on. "You're going to kill yourself, Edie."

  I only grit my teeth while he starts cleaning the wound. I refuse to show him how much it hurts, mainly because I don't want to spook him and have him send me off to the ER.

  "Who is this Jude fella?" he asks, clearly chatting to take my mind off what’s happening.

  "A friend," I answer simply, because I don't know what else Jude is beyond that. I can't tell Graeme that he's a vampire.

  He did save my life. Whoever Victoria knows him as, he’s no longer that person. He cares about me enough to run into a burning building for me. Does that mean he cares more about me than others? Should I even hope that there’s something more?

  Graeme doesn't buy my answer, and I’m sure that whatever color is in my cheeks is betraying my thoughts.

  "A friend?"

  "A friend."

  "What's he doing here?"

  "He helped save me. He's…on the V-boards."

  Graeme spritzes my side with more cleansing spray, and I wince. "So the fire department was on its way to the house?" He changes his gloves and begins to apply what I now recognize as triple antibacterial ointment.

  It's so good having a nurse in the family.

  "Yeah," I say, my mood somber at the reminder of what happened to the house. "Listen, Graeme, I'm so sorry about that." I wipe away an unshed tear, which isn't from the pain.

  "Don't be," my brother-in-law says. "You're safe…ish. And you're keeping us safe. That's all that matters."

  A few more minutes pass by and he patches my side together with steri-strips and tapes some gauze over it to catch whatever bleeding is left then lowers my hoodie. Finally, I feel like I have enough control over myself to sit up. The muscles pull and hurt in all sorts of different ways, but enough time has passed and Graeme's handiwork means that I don't feel like I'm about to die now.

  "That should hold you for a little bit," Graeme says. He takes off his rubber gloves with a snap and tosses them in the garbage bin where I see a lot of red cotton swabs and gloves. I blanch, thinking about what Anthony said about wasting some of my blood. He'd have a field day with that one.

  "No chance I could convince you to go to the hospital?" Graeme prods.

  "No.”

  "It's going to leave a bad scar if you don't get proper stitches."

  I hold up my left hand, which is covered with the angry welts of the scar from Christmas. "Trust me," I say with a wry smile. "I have other scars that I'm more worried about."

  Knowing that he can't persuade me otherwise, particularly since Meghan was the same way, Graeme checks his watch. "I need to make a phone call." He gets up from his seat, pulling out his phone, and heads in the bathroom.

  Meanwhile, I painfully retrieve my purse and check my phone to see if there's anything else from my cousin. There's nothing from Carl, but there is a text.

  were nxt door in room 215

  I look up and feel a bit impressed that they got the adjoining room. I could keep an eye on Amelia while staying in my own room.

  Graeme comes back into the room from the bathroom, looking flustered. "Hate to do this," he says at length. "I should go have a chat with Fire Chief Mann about the house and put in an insurance claim." He rubs his eyes. "It's so late too."

  "Go," I urge. I wave my own phone. "Jude just told me they're in the room next door."

  "Amelia—"

  "Will be fine," I cut in. "Just go."

  Graeme nods and hands me his spare room key. "I'll have my phone on me." He gives me one last scrutinizing look. "Are you going to be okay?"

  "Well, we’ll see." I gingerly bring myself to a standing position, the first time that I've stood by myself since I hit the railing. I must be healing all right then; I don't even feel that dizzy. "I'm fine. Go."

  I follow him out into the hallway and then head to the adjacent door to room 215 while Graeme heads the opposite direction for the elevators. Knowing that Amelia hearing or seeing her father will cause her to cry, I give to the count of ten before I rap lightly on the door.

  The door swings inward and Amelia is holding the doorknob, staring wide-eyed up at me.

  "All better?" she asks.

  I smile at her. "Mostly. I still have a bad boo-boo, so I can't pick y
ou up, honey. Even though I want to."

  Amelia nods with a serious face, and I'm struck by how precocious she is. I wonder if that's a product of having your mother gone from your life when you're that young.

  "Jood's been reading to me," she says, grabbing my hand. I grin at how she said Jude's name, like she's making the same noise as "choo-choo".

  "Is he now?" I ask, peering into the room.

  In a room that's an exact mirror of 213, Jude is looking up at me from a picture book on the couch. He closes it with one hand and stands up as I enter the room.

  "Did he patch you up?" he asks. "I see you're able to walk now."

  "Yeah, I'll be fine in the morning."

  My comment makes him quirk an eyebrow, but he doesn't say anything.

  "Jood's reading Bedtime at the Zoo to me," Amelia says. "He makes funny noises."

  "Only 'cause she's a monkey," Jude adds with a smirk. I look at him, bewildered, because I've never heard him speak like that before.

  "Are you feeling well?” I ask sarcastically. A babysitting vampire is one thing I’ve never heard of.

  Amelia takes the book from him and holds it out to me. "Can you read it for me?"

  "Only one time, and then you need to go to bed."

  It's well past one a.m. now, how is this toddler not falling asleep where she's standing? I am ready to drop myself.

  I look at the adjoining doors for the room and shake my head. "I should have opened the other side before coming over here."

  Jude rises from the bed and opens this side’s door. "This one’s already open."

  I nod. "All right, Missy," I tell Amelia. "Let's go get you tucked in."

  "And read me a story," she adds.

  "And read you a story."

  24

  Edie

  To my surprise, Amelia goes down really easy. Once I get her into her Elsa pajamas, she snuggles in bed with Purl curled up beside her. She falls asleep before I finish her favorite bedtime story. Carefully, so as not to disturb her, I get up and head to room 215.

  The adjoining doors are slightly ajar so we can move in between each room and keep an eye on Amelia without having to go out to the hallway. Having immediate access to my niece makes me feel better about the rest of the night. Undoubtedly, she'll have nightmares after today's events, and I'm glad that I'm only a wall away from her in case she wakes up crying.