“He didn’t kill me when I had it coming.” The redhead stated casually.
Alison’s eyes widened, but before she could respond, Ash was handing her a glass of Jameson on the rocks. “Oh, thanks.” She took a drink of the spicy, dark liquid and a deep breath, hoping the combination would steady her nerves.
Coleen stepped out from behind the bar and handed Rayven a glass of red wine before clearing her throat. “Though I loathe these sorts of family reunions…” She looked at Alison with contempt. “Such as they are, what with the in-laws and all - I want you to be aware of a grave threat facing each of us.”
Emma interrupted from her seat next to Ash on one of the sofas. “Where are Rachel and Sara?” Though their paths didn’t cross often, Emma appreciated how gracious and considerate the two vampires had been when she and Ash were initially struggling. She hated to think of them being caught off-guard or worse, ended.
Coleen sighed. “Alas, they are travelling overseas. I have left word for them to contact me when they return.” Rolling her eyes, Coleen poured herself a glass of Glenlivet. “Young love.”
The dark haired vampire sat down in a leather Chesterfield chair nearest the bar. Crossing her legs, she took a deep breath. “It seems the lovely, albeit misguided Bryce has arrived in our fair city with a little baggage in tow. Plainly put, a coven of witches have taken issue with some of our friend’s past indiscretions and now we all may have hell to pay.” She looked out the top of her eyes at Bryce. “Does that about sum it up?”
Bryce nodded and looked around to find six pairs of eyes looking at her. “Yes.”
Coleen uncrossed her legs and placed her hands on her knees. “Perfect. So, I propose we kill the witches and call it a day.”
Emma shook her head. “You can’t be serious? First, we don’t even know where to find them, and second, why does everything end in a killing or someone being turned when you’re solving a problem, Coleen?”
The woman smirked. “Path of least resistance, Em.”
Ash, who had been sitting next to Emma on one of the leather sofas, got up. “I don’t want to be a party pooper, but can we not talk so openly about murdering people? I am a homicide detective, after all.” She bent down and picked her Appleton rum and coke up from a marble end table. “Can’t we be a little more imaginative than this?” Scanning the room, Ash took a sip of her drink. “I mean, what have we got here, like over four thousand years of intellect? Surely murder or maiming can’t be our only options.”
Alison couldn’t stifle the chuckle and immediately felt the pressure of the group’s gaze upon her. “Sorry.”
Coleen got up and walked around to the back of the chair Alison occupied. She placed her cool hands on either of Alison’s shoulders. “Don’t apologize. I imagine you could add something to this conversation.”
Alison wasn’t naïve enough to believe Coleen might actually value her input, but rather knew the woman more than likely meant to embarrass her. “I’ll defer to the group’s vast experiences.” It seemed as good an answer as any.
Coleen laughed and applied more pressure to the back of Alison’s shoulders. “Don’t be so modest. I’ve read one of your books and though elementary in their form, I -”
“Stop it, Coleen.” Lewis interjected from his spot nearest the bar. “There’s nothing gained from embarrassing her; so get off it.” He flashed Alison a reassuring smile. “What is she talking about, Alison?”
Leaning forward, Alison scooted to the edge of her chair, effectively freeing herself from Coleen’s clutches. She looked at Bryce, who, managing a weak smile, nodded from the chair adjacent to hers. “I’m a professor of American folklore, and I’ve published two books on witches.” She shook her head. “But I’ve never met a witch because my theses are based on the assumption the witches we’re talking about don’t actually exist.”
“Well, you got that one wrong.” Rayven sniped from across the room.
Alison didn’t like the woman and her patience was wearing thin. “What possible reason would I have had to believe in witches?” Not waiting for Rayven to reply, Alison continued. “I mean, did you believe in vampires before you were one?”
Rayven opened her mouth to speak, and then stopped. She looked at Coleen, who, in spite of her inherent dislike of Alison, wore an amused expression on her face. Looking at Bryce, Rayven’s irritation only grew when the redhead shrugged her shoulders and took Alison’s hand in hers. “She has a point, Ray.”
Feeling more confident, Alison took a drink of her Jameson and then cleared her throat. “I do know the killings on the Southside have drawn attention from the press. In particular a journalist I’ve been working with is doing a series on folklore and community superstitions and he is using the murders as a central point.” She had never imagined how close Tom’s series was to getting at the truth of the killings.
“A reporter? Who?” Coleen’s tone was accusatory. “What have you told him about us?” Her eyes flashed a bright blue as she stepped around the chair and glared at Alison.
Bryce immediately stood and put herself between Alison and the agitated vampire. “She hasn’t said anything, Coleen. Calm down and stop jumping to conclusions.”
Coleen practically growled at Bryce. “Don’t tell me to calm down. You - and this woman - have caused us more trouble than you can imagine. There are three -” She thrust her long, tapered fingers into Bryce’s face. “Three dead vampires because your witch needed target practice.”
Bryce slapped Coleen’s hand away, her eyes glowing a bright green as blue veins protruded from her skin, weaving a web along her jaw line and neck. “If you want to keep those fingers, you’ll get them out of my face!” The redhead’s incisors extended nearly an inch beyond her upper lip, her voice several octaves deeper as she growled at Coleen.
Coleen laughed, a shrill cackle filling the space. “You haven’t got the stones.”
Before Bryce could lunge at the woman, a pair of hands grabbed her shoulders. “Easy. Don’t give her the satisfaction.” Emma’s soothing voice pushed through the deafening rage in Bryce’s head. “Besides, she’s much stronger than any of us.”
Bryce’s posture relaxed and she begrudgingly took a step back. Alison grabbed her hand and pulled her down onto the arm of the chair next to her. With the exception of the night by the lake, she had never seen Bryce like this. The power and rage that radiated off the woman was stunning and terrifying at the same time.
“Can we get back to the issue at hand, please?” Emma scanned the group as she sat back down next to Ash.
As if a switch had been flipped, Coleen’s voice was calm when she spoke. “On second thought, this reporter may be just what we need.”
Alison bristled. She didn’t like the turn the conversation was taking. “Wait, Tom can’t be a part of this.”
Coleen waved Alison off. “If he’s been snooping around, the odds are the coven knows and will take any opportunity to dispatch him anyway.”
Shooting up out of her chair, Alison shook her head. “No. No, they wouldn’t know.”
A slow smile spread across Coleen’s face. “Yet.”
Lewis put his nearly empty gimlet down and stood up. “How very conniving of you, Coleen, but I tend to agree with Alison. There’s no need to turn this poor Tom fellow into collateral damage.”
“Why not?” Rayven’s voice dripped with disdain. “He’s only human.”
Alison was done with the smug woman and squared her shoulders as she turned to face the vampire. “Would you please shut up? You have contributed absolutely nothing to this exchange, short of patronizing and condescending comments that add no substantive value to the conversation.” She was taking the same tone with the nearly hundred year old vampire that she would with a student. “So unless you’re going to actually submit a solution for the group to consider, keep your mouth shut.” Flopping back down in the chair, Alison felt relieved that she had stood up for herself, and in essence - though on a relatively small scale - a
ll of humanity.
“You bi -” Rayven took a step toward Alison, but was intercepted by Coleen.
“Sit down.” The older vampire grabbed Rayven’s wrist, their eyes locked. Rayven broke eye contact first and reluctantly fell back into line next to Coleen. “Alison and Ash, you’ll speak with this reporter and ensure he isn’t on the right path with the story.”
“You struggle with please, don’t you, Coleen?” Ash shook her head, as Emma and her looked at each other. “Why should I get involved? The relationship is with Alison.”
“Because I trust you more than I trust her.” Coleen didn’t bother to look at Alison as she spoke.
“High praise, Coleen.” Ash looked at Alison. “Are you all right with this?”
Anything that didn’t involve Tom being bait to flush out three witches seemed exponentially better to Alison. “Absolutely.”
Coleen turned to Bryce. “Tell us everything you know about these witches.”
Bryce hesitated, trying to decide where to begin. “I killed her son shortly after I was turned. We had known each other in Boston before I became a vampire.” The woman managed a faint smile as Alison took her hand reassuringly in hers.
“She killed my maker and I was left - unattended.” Bryce winced at the memory. “I knew her as Abitha, but the two women she was with the other night called her Annabel.”
Bryce shook her head, her eyes focused on the grain in the wood floor. “Our paths have crossed over the centuries, but I don’t know how she found me this time. Rotten luck, I guess, but what I know of Abitha - ah, Annabel, once she sets her mind to something, it usually happens.”
Alison heard a click in her head as her heart began to race. Her mouth went dry as she recalled what weeks ago had seemed like an odd but uneventful exchange with her colleague about Bryce. “Annabel? What does she look like?”
Bryce’s brow furrowed as she looked at Alison. The human’s face had gone pale. “She’s medium height, long black hair, tan complexion with brown eyes.”
It was Ash who asked the obvious question. “Ali, do you know her?”
Alison nodded. “She’s a colleague at the university. She asked about Bryce several weeks ago. I didn’t think much of it at the time.”
Bryce’s green eyes widened. “What did she ask?”
Alison looked up, trying to recall the details of the conversation. “She saw us in the hall after that first day of class. She asked if you were a student. I told her you were auditing the class and then she excused herself.” Alison looked down at the floor. “I ran into her a week or so later while I was having lunch with my sister, and she referenced you, but - it honestly hadn’t occurred to me.”
“There’s no reason it should have.” Emma assured her.
“Then there’s Christine. One of the women who kidnapped you had been - I guess you would call it stalking me.” Alison scanned the room and could see from the confused expressions on everyone’s faces that she needed to explain.
“A woman approached me on campus and said she had a present for me - or something like that. It was a rock and even though I declined it, I found it bouncing around my car later.” Alison took a deep breath and wished she hadn’t already finished her whiskey.
“She turned up in the aquatic center a while later.” Alison looked at a concerned Bryce. “You remember when we saw each other during your class?” The redhead cautiously nodded. “I found another stone after that.”
“Where is the stone?” Coleen broke the group’s silence.
“I gave it to a colleague for analysis and I thought it was silly at the time, but now I wonder if my suspicions about it weren’t true.”
“Christ, would you get to the point?” Rayven chided.
Ignoring the woman, Alison continued. “I think the rocks were acting like some sort of GPS. I know how stupid that sounds, Rayven, so spare me the reprimand.”
Rayven opened her mouth to speak, but then shrugged. “You said it, not me.”
“It’s not stupid.” Emma interrupted the exchange. “There are certain types of rock that over the centuries witches have learned to hone in on their chemical properties and essentially locate the rock - or in this case, the barrier of the rock.” Shaking her head, the doctor’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t understand the science behind it.”
“Maybe it isn’t science?” Lewis drank the last drops of his gimlet. “When I was growing up in Virginia, there was always talk of magic and voodoo. Mostly around the slave quarters. I know not everything can be explained with an equation and a slide rule.”
Ash looked at Bryce and shrugged. “Rotten luck then, like you said.”
It was the simplest explanation, but one that didn’t ring true for Bryce. She had done so many horrific and selfish acts in her life and sent so much wrong out into the world that it seemed only fair she was reaping what she had sown. In this moment, what seemed absolutely true to Bryce was the suffering she had caused was finding its way back to her.
“Then it’s settled. Ash and Alison will go see the reporter and address any - ah, irregularities they might find there.” Coleen walked toward the door.
Ash scoffed. “I’m not killing anyone, Coleen, and I’m not standing by while you or -” She looked suspiciously at Rayven. “Or while any of your minions do.”
“Sure, sure.” Coleen half-heartedly assured the detective.
“She’s terrible.” Ash got up and looked at Alison. “Can you please give Tom a call and arrange a meeting? Preferably this afternoon.”
The professor nodded slowly. “Yes, but then what?”
Ash signed. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” She shook her head as she finished the last of her rum and coke. “Nothing like improvisation with people’s lives on the line.”
Alison remained seated, Bryce next to her, as the vampires and Ash filed silently out of the room. “I’m coming with you.” The redhead’s assertion broke the silence.
Shaking her head, Alison considered Bryce’s offer. “No. It’s easier - with Ash being a detective - to explain why she’s come with me.”
Bryce hesitated and finally nodded. “That makes sense.”
Alison smiled, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “You’ll miss me a lot.” There’s that bedroom voice at the wrong time and place, again.
“Yes. A lot.” Looking at the blonde’s neck, Bryce’s eyes flashed a bright green and she frowned. “You don’t have to do any of this.” Her voice was charged with emotion as her hand tightened around Alison’s.
Looking at the beautiful redhead sitting next to her, Alison frowned. “But I kinda do.”
Shaking her head, Bryce slid down onto her knees in front of Alison and took both her hands in hers. “Just leave. Take a vacation. Come back in a few weeks. I assure you Coleen would have taken alternate paths.” She looked down nervously at the floor. “Ones that don’t involve you putting your life in danger.”
Leaning forward, Alison put a reassuring hand on Bryce’s shoulder. “But it already is in danger and at least this way I have a say in how that’s handled.”
Bryce chewed nervously at the inside of her cheek, her eyes fixed downward. “You - you don’t owe me anything.”
Alison placed her finger under Bryce’s chin and gently raised the woman’s gaze to meet hers. Everything Bryce had shared with her afforded Alison understanding of a simple truth about the woman in front of her. Not many people had ever helped Bryce, either as a human or a vampire. At least not without ulterior motives.
For the first time, Alison could see that Bryce’s reserved, awkward nature - though in part due to the enormous secrets she bore - were also her way of maintaining a distance from others - and the emotional harm she believed they would inevitably inflict on her. It seemed ironic to Alison that in spite of all her power, the vampire suffered from the same insecurities and uncertainties as any human.
“You’re wrong.” Alison spoke slowly. She wanted to ensure the earnestness of her feelings were e
vident in her words. “We’re here - together, and we share this space along with all its inhabitants.” She leaned in and smiled at Bryce. “For good or ill, we’re obligated to each other.”
Then Bryce kissed Alison. Her cool lips pressing gently to the warmth of the human’s mouth, a smile spread across the vampire’s lips as she inhaled deeply, allowing herself - for the first time - to take in all of this remarkable woman.
Chapter 13
Tom grabbed his Chromebook from the dining room table, patted the front pocket of his Levis, and finding his car keys, walked toward the door. Alison’s call had been cryptic and his curiosity was piqued as to why, after a week of radio silence, the beautiful professor was reaching out with such urgency.
He stopped short of the front door when a loud knock filled the space. Startled, Tom dropped his keys to the floor. “Shit.” The rapping on the hollow aluminum door came louder. “Hold on!” Bending down to pick the keys up, a wave of heat and static forced him onto his back.
Catching his breath, the prone man looked up to see three women entering his apartment. He didn’t recognize any of them, and his mind was struggling to process their sudden and violent entrance into his home.
“Restrain him.” The tallest of the three women, whose black hair hung loose around her face and shoulders, stepped over Tom as she spoke.
A thin woman stood at Tom’s feet, her black hair cut short against her head, a demonic smile spread across her face. Her mouth was disproportional to the rest of her face and reminded Tom of the Joker from the Batman comics he read as a child.
A tingling began in the center of Tom’s chest and was quickly replaced with a repressive weight blanketing itself over his entire body. Unable to move his head, Tom’s eyes darted back and forth, his breath coming in short bursts.
“Who are you?” The man managed through his labored breathing.
“Who is hardly important. Why we are here should be of greater concern to you.” The tall woman with long black hair crouched down next to Tom, the scent of musk and patchouli wafting over him.
“Can we get on with this?” The third woman, who had disappeared from Tom’s line of sight as soon as the women had entered the room, spoke. He had barely managed to register her heavier frame and short brown pageboy cut hair . Now the venom in the woman’s voice caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end.
Dying Forever (Waking Forever Book 3) Page 22
