Voracious - (Claire Point Vampire 5)

by V. K. Forrest

  “Three days,” Gair said. “We’ve got three days to get Victor’s body to the churchyard. You want to scramble on this end of a seventy-two-hour window, four of which are already up, or you want to scramble on the end when you’ve got a body ready to rise from the dead and you’re sitting in traffic on 95?”

  “Right. Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.” Aedan rubbed his forehead, glancing at Peigi. “I’ll get a flight out tonight. I’ll have Victor’s body home safely within forty-eight hours.”

  “Excellent.” Gair gave him Mary’s address and hung up without so much as a good-bye.

  “Victor died?” Peigi asked.

  Aedan set the phone on the table between them.

  “ ’Fraid so.”

  “Poor Mary. I know she’s partially responsible for this mess, but that doesn’t make this any easier for her.” She rose and began to clear their plates. “To be sitting there all alone without friends or family and Victor dead.” She shook her head. “Thank God she was there. I hate it when we have to steal our bodies back from a morgue.”

  Aedan touched the crucifix under his shirt. “Thank God.” He got up from the table and grabbed their water glasses. “I’m going to get online and see if I can find a seat on a plane tonight. Apparently they’ve been living in Boca Raton. On a houseboat.”

  She turned and looked at him and smiled sadly. “Victor missed his boat.”

  Victor was one of a very few of them who had been turned vampire by a Kahill, rather than by God. It was strictly forbidden, of course, but it had happened a couple of times over the centuries. Mary Kay’s son Regan, who’d been a troubled soul most of his lives, had held Victor, a sailing ship’s captain, prisoner, sucked him dry, then had a change of heart and made him vampire to save his life. More than two hundred years later, Victor was still pissed at Regan and at the world in general.

  Aedan reached around Peigi to set the glasses in the sink. “I’ll be gone two days. You’ll be okay?”

  She gave a sigh and then a wave. “Of course.”

  “Yes!” Brian hollered from the den. “Fuckin’, yes! Take that, you Nazi bastard.”

  Peigi cut her eyes at Aedan. “I don’t envy Mary, going through this. I’m beginning to think everyone was right. Maybe Brian would have been better off in another household for a while.” She shrugged and flipped the faucet on. “But now he’s here, and he says he doesn’t want to live anywhere else. Says he won’t. I just think if he got out of the house more, if he’d walk away from that damn TV once in a while . . .” She sighed and didn’t finish her sentence.

  Aedan thought for a second, then lowered his voice on the outside chance Brian was listening. Vampires had very good hearing. “How about if I take him with me? It might be good for him to do some sept business. It might bring back some of his memories. You mind?”

  “Mind?” She gave a humorless laugh. “Not at all. I need to go to D.C. and see O’Malley about some sept business. But I’ve been afraid to leave Brian here alone. What if he starts bringing real zombies into the house?”

  Aedan laughed and rubbed her shoulder. “There are no zombies around here. You go see Senator O’Malley; Brian and I will fetch Victor.” He walked away.

  “What if he doesn’t want to go?”

  Aedan smiled, doing his best Don Corleone imitation. “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse. If he comes along, I won’t break his thumbs.” He slapped the doorjamb as he left the kitchen. “I’ll let you know what time our flight is.”

  Aedan left Brian to his shoot-’em-up game, went up to his bedroom, and powered up his laptop. He found two tickets leaving BWI at 11:45 and purchased them. He threw a change of clothes and his cell phone charger into a backpack, stepped into the bathroom and grabbed his and Brian’s toothbrushes and a hairbrush, and headed down the stairs. He left his bag near the front door and went to the den. Brian was busy shooting up soldiers in camo. Kaleigh and Katy sat on the couch on either side of him, both texting on their cell phones. They must have come in while Aedan had been upstairs.

  Aedan halted in the doorway.

  “Hey, Aedan,” Katy called.

  “Hey,” Kaleigh said, still texting.

  “Hey.” Aedan crossed his arms over his chest thoughtfully. “So, could you ladies explain this to me?” He motioned to Brian sitting between them with the game controller in his hands, then to the TV. Tonight Brian was wearing a headset, which Aedan had learned allowed him to talk to “team members” he was playing with on the Internet.

  “What? The game?” Kaleigh wrinkled her pretty little freckled nose. “No way. We don’t play stupid things like that.”

  “Not the game. Why do you girls all come here?” He gestured to the TV again. “To watch him play? He doesn’t talk to you. He barely acknowledges your presence. You could sit at home on your own couches.”

  “I can hear you, you know,” Brian grumbled. “Behind you!” He fired rapidly, and the screen exploded with the blood and guts of an enemy soldier. “Sure, no problem, man.”

  Kaleigh smiled, obviously not in the least bit perturbed with Brian. “He’ll come around eventually, and when he does”—she shrugged—“we’ll be here.”

  Aedan put his hands together. “Well, there’s no sense staying tonight because Brian and I are taking a little road trip.” He walked in front of the TV.

  “What are you doing?” Brian shouted, leaning one way and then the other. “Man! You made me get killed!”

  Aedan unplugged the wire that brought the Internet connection to the house, and the screen went black.

  “What the fu—”

  “Not in this house,” Aedan barked. “Say good-bye to your guests. You and I are flying to Florida.”

  “Florida?” Brian ripped off his headset and threw it on the floor. “No fuckin’ way!”

  “Florida?” Katy said excitedly. “Can I go, too?”

  “I’ll go,” Kaleigh chimed in. “I bet it’s warm there.”

  “Sorry, ladies.” Aedan smiled. “Brian and I have sept business. And you two have school.”

  “I am not going to Florida,” Brian insisted, his teenage voice cracking.

  Kaleigh tucked her phone into her jeans pocket. “Why are you going to Florida?”

  Aedan knew there was no sense in trying to keep the information from Kaleigh. She was the town’s wisewoman. She always knew what was going on. “I don’t think Gair has told anyone else yet, so you have to keep it to yourself. Both of you.” He indicated Katy.

  “Pinky swear,” Katy said, crooking her pinkie finger.

  “Sure. Whatever. You know I’ll find out anyway,” Kaleigh reminded him.

  “I know. I just think Gair would prefer he make the announcement rather than having the information leaked and the town ending up in a big gossip fest.”

  “I get it. Vampires do love some good gossip.” Kaleigh drew her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs, giving Aedan her full attention.

  “Victor died in Florida.”

  “I thought he was in the Bahamas,” Katy said to Kaleigh.

  Kaleigh shrugged and looked at Aedan. “So why are you going to Florida? Mary can’t just rent a car and tote him home?”

  Aedan opened his arms. “I don’t ask questions. Our chieftain asked Brian and me to fly down and drive Victor’s body back. Gair says go to Florida, we go to Florida.”

  “I am not going to Florida! I am not touching any dead bodies, and I’m certainly not riding in a van for twenty hours with one!” Brian turned to Aedan. “Or with you!” He stomped past Aedan, out of the room, and down the hall.

  “Well, that went over well,” Katy quipped.

  Aedan watched him go and then looked back at the girls. “You should probably go home. This might get a little ugly. No need to make it worse by embarrassing him in front of you.”

  Katy jumped up off the couch, full of enthusiasm. “You’re really going to make him go? Are you sure we can’t go? A road trip to retrieve a dead body? It wou
ld be sooo much fun. Did Victor die near Disney World? Maybe we could stop there on our way back. Just for a few hours?”

  “Out.” Aedan pointed toward the door.

  Katy sighed as she walked past him. “I always miss out on all the fun.”

  Kaleigh brushed her fingers across Aedan’s shoulder as she followed Katy out of the room. “If you need me, give me a holler. Sometimes he’ll listen to me.”

  “Thanks.” Aedan followed them to the door.

  The girls went out the front door, and Peigi appeared in the hallway. “Where is he?”

  “In the bathroom!” Brian hollered from down the hall. “Do I need to get your permission to take a piss, too, Peigi?”

  “Go back in the kitchen,” Aedan instructed his aunt. “I’ll handle this. We’re on an 11:45 to West Palm with a plane change in Atlanta. I reserved a van at the airport. I’ll let you know when we arrive in Boca Raton.”

  “You really think you can make him go?” she whispered.

  “I told you. I’ll take care of it.”

  She hesitated. “You sure this is a good idea? He hasn’t been out much with humans. He—”

  “He’ll be fine, Peigi. Go in the kitchen. Give Mary McCathal a call and tell her we’re on our way. I know she’ll be glad to hear from you.”

  Aedan was waiting for Brian when the teen finally came out of the bathroom. “Get in my car. You’re going to Florida with me to pick up Victor’s body.”

  “So he can rise from the dead?” Brian’s tone was angry and accusing. “No way. I say we let him rot. He’d be better off. I’d have been better off.”

  “In my car,” Aedan repeated firmly. “Peigi needs a break. You’re driving her crazy.”

  “Yeah? Well, she’s driving me crazy. ‘Brian this, and Brian that,’ ” he whined, apparently imitating her.

  “That’s enough. Get in the car. We’ll talk about it on the way.”

  “And if I don’t get in the car?” The teen’s tone held a challenge.

  “You ever see one vampire get into a fight with another?” Aedan asked icily. He lifted his upper lip and slowly dropped down his fangs.

  The teen flinched. “You’d bite me?” He was scared but trying hard not to show it.

  “I’ll kick your ass,” Aedan warned.

  Brian took one more look at him and then went down the hallway. At the front door, he picked up Aedan’s backpack and then went out, slamming the door hard behind him.

  Peigi came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel. “That was easy enough. If I’d known he needed a little intimidation to get up off his duff, I’d have just lit a fire under him on the couch or thrown a few fireballs around the den.”

  Aedan chuckled. Peigi’s gift was pyrokinesis. She could make an object spontaneously combust through sheer willpower. It was kinda cool to watch and still fascinated Aedan after all these years. “See you in two days. We’ll call.” He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “And don’t worry.”

  Aedan went around the circle on Rehoboth Avenue before Brian finally spoke up. “Is this the way to Baltimore?”

  “Good knowledge of geography.” Aedan glanced in the rearview mirror and pulled his fingers through his hair. “That’s the Atlantic Ocean you can almost see in front of us. Baltimore is west of here.” He hitched his thumb over his shoulder.

  “So why are we going east, if the airport is west?”

  “I have to see someone. It’ll take five minutes.”

  Brian didn’t say anything until Aedan parked in front of Brew. “A bar? You have to see someone in a bar? I bet Peigi wouldn’t like that too much, you taking me to a bar.”

  “You’re not going in. I am.” Aedan shut off the engine.

  Brian stared at the neon sign: a witch’s cauldron bubbling with . . . brew. “I can’t go with you? I don’t want a beer; I just want to see what it’s like.” For once he didn’t sound angry. He actually sounded curious.

  “You’re not going inside. Lock the doors when I get out. You just hit that little rocker button next to the door handle.”

  “I know how to lock a car door.” The anger was back in a split second.

  “How? You haven’t been in a car since you were reborn, have you? If you didn’t spend all your time in front of a TV playing video games, you’d have more freedom.”

  “What if I decide to make a run for it?” Brian asked as Aedan got out of the car.

  “I don’t think that’s a concern. You won’t get out because, right now, I doubt you could find your way home.” Aedan closed the car door, waited for the sound of the lock engaging, and then headed into the bar.

  “Hey, that what you’ve been looking for?” Tat elbowed Dallas.

  She was running a credit card at the register. “What?” She glanced over her shoulder and saw Aedan taking a seat on the same barstool he’d occupied every time he’d come in.

  “No,” she said, whipping around, her heart beating a little faster than it had a moment ago. She glanced at Aedan again, over her shoulder. He tilted his head, beckoning her.

  All she had to do was walk away. That nightmare she’d had last night, the waking dream, whatever the hell it was. It had been a warning. What was the sense in being a witch and getting these messages if you didn’t pay attention to them?

  “Can you take care of this?” she heard herself ask Tat. “Table four.”

  He looked at her, then at the credit card leaning against the cash register. “Sure.”

  Dallas walked over to where Aedan was sitting and leaned casually on the bar. “You buy that stool or something?”

  He opened his arms. “Seems like it, doesn’t it?” He leaned forward, lowering his voice. “Seems like I belong here.”

  She didn’t know what to say, so she didn’t say anything. After a second, she asked, “Guinness?”

  “Actually, no. I have to go. I just stopped by because . . .” He was looking right at her, into her eyes. “I just wanted to tell you that I had planned to come by tonight, but I can’t now. I wanted to talk to you.”

  “You’re a weird guy,” she said. “You came by to tell me you can’t come by?”

  Both of her hands rested on the bar, but she was out of his immediate reach. He smiled and glanced away. Without warning, he grabbed her hand.

  Dallas prepared herself for the flood of pictures: the places, the people in costume . . . the blood on the white floor. What happened shocked her as much as the blood she had seen in her vision.

  She saw nothing. She felt nothing.

  Dallas pulled her hand away. “How did you do that?” she whispered excitedly under her breath.

  “How did I do what?” He sounded sort of smug.

  She glanced over her shoulder at Tat, who was busy trying to get the credit card to run. He was using the piece-of-plastic-wrap-on-the-magnetic-strip trick to get it to work. She looked back at Aedan, now completely entranced. “Tell me what’s going on here.” She pointed at him, then herself.

  “I’m trying to flirt with you. I think,” he added, sounding not quite as confident. Which she found sort of heartwarming.

  “I know you’re flirting with me. That’s what people do in bars. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about . . . you know . . . what happened when you touched me the first time. What just didn’t happen.”

  He shook his head. “You go first. Tell me what happened that first night when I touched you.”

  She put her hand on the bar again, wanting to touch him again to see what would happen, afraid to. It was hard living without human contact. It made her feel lonely. Isolated. Her gaze met his. “Can you do it again?” she murmured.

  “I don’t know. What am I doing?” As he spoke, he slid his hand across the bar and covered hers with his.

  His hand was big and warm and gave her the strangest sensation. He made her feel . . . safe. Dallas didn’t know what to say. The tears that suddenly gathered in the corners of her eyes embarrassed her.

  �
�I’m sorry. I have to go,” he said after a long moment of silence that didn’t feel awkward to her, though it should have.

  “But you’ll be back?” she asked. She knew she should pull her hand away, but she couldn’t. Not yet.

  “Business trip. Two days. Three, tops.” He waited. “You want me to come back?” He then took his other hand and cradled her hand between his larger ones.

  And she still didn’t feel anything. She didn’t see a single thing. Her mind was utterly and sweetly blank.

  He had a smile that made her want to smile.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” he said. Then he let go of her hand and walked out of the bar.

  Feeling as if she was in a little bit of a daze, Dallas walked back to the register.

  “I got it,” Tat said. “Damned credit card machine.” He glanced at Dallas. “What was going on there? The two of you playing patty-cake or something?”

  Dallas grabbed the credit card and slip from his hand. “Mind your own business, nosy.”

  “You just watch yours,” he said under his breath as she walked away.

  The flight to West Palm went surprisingly smoothly. Once Brian got past the fact that Aedan had basically kidnapped him, he actually began to enjoy the road trip. Not that he would have actually admitted it, not in a hundred years. By 7 A.M. they were in Florida. They stopped for breakfast and then were on the road and headed for the marina where Victor’s boat was docked.

  “This is all so crazy, the whole being reborn thing,” Brian mused as he looked out the window.

  “It is, but you get used to the idea and it’s easier to accept once your memories begin to come back.” Aedan glanced at the teenager. “Any of your memories coming back? Of past lives? People?”

  He shrugged. “A little.”

  He was quiet for a minute, and Aedan waited.