Ground Zero

by Melony Paradise

  “I’m so sorry to bring my troubles to your doorstep, girl, but we needed someplace safe and out of the way.”

  The door shut abruptly, the chain clattered against the wood, and Mandy’s head of dark blonde hair appeared as she leaned out to eyeball me.

  “Last time we talked, you wouldn’t tell me what the hell is happening to you,” she whispered, her gaze jumping between me and the full parking lot two hundred feet away. “What kind of trouble did you bring here?”

  “I swear I’ll tell you everything, but right now, I need you to trust me. I’m sorry to do this to you, but these people need to use your barns, the extra houses, and maybe even the stables. Plus, we’ll have to stay in your house for a few days. I promise most of them are nice, and no one will harm you.”

  “You want me to let strange people move into my house? Mercy, are you crazy?” Her eyes were wide as saucers. I felt so bad for invading her privacy, but we didn’t have much of a choice.

  “Mandy, please,” I begged. “If you don’t let us stay here, some of these people may die—maybe more than some.”

  The door swung open on its own as Mandy crossed her bone-thin arms and stared me down. “What the hell have you gotten yourself into? Is it the mob? A gang? What?”

  “No, but it’s just as dangerous, and I’m so sorry to bring you into this mess, but you’re our only hope. These people really aren’t bad people, but there are bad people searching for us, and maybe even worse people following them. Please, let me bring some of them in to introduce themselves and we’ll try to explain.”

  “Fine, but only because I trust you and want you to be safe.”

  “Okay, give me a couple minutes. Is it okay if the security team checks out the ranch?”

  “Security team?” Mandy exclaimed.

  While she stood in her doorway flabbergasted, I ran back to the lot and Nick. I told him what I needed and went back to Mandy to help her turn on lights and make sure she was dressed for company, you know, not in her flannel pajamas and moose slippers.

  Minutes later, Mandy was in her kitchen mixing two pitchers of lemonade when Nick knocked. I let him in with Edgar, Kat, Benjamin, David, and Tabi. Everyone else either surrounded the house or went off to secure the property. Anaria and Arnon, the high priestess and priest of the Bellingham Coven, took their witches to one of the barns to check it would be suitable for the ritual circle they would create for the magic shielding. That shielding would hide us from the hunters and hopefully from Cassandra and Bull, our newest enemies. That is, if they still lived and I hadn’t murdered them along with all the others who fell in the battle that I ended with a magical nuclear wave.

  Okay, maybe it wasn’t really nuclear, but it sure had been powerful and deadly.

  If I can convince Kat to turn Mandy, she’ll live long enough to forgive me for dropping this mess in her lap. Plus, she’ll be healthy.

  I introduced everyone as all but Nick took seats around Mandy’s table that sat in the breakfast nook overlooking the overgrown grazing pasture beside the house. Mandy offered everyone lemonade, but only Nick took a glass. She fidgeted behind the kitchen island, wiping up non-existent spills with a damp rag.

  “I apologize for imposing upon you so suddenly, my dear,” Edgar said in his smooth, stately manner, trying to put Mandy at ease. “Mercy tells us you live out here all alone?”

  “Yes.” She nodded. “Almost five years now. Inherited the place from my granny when she passed two years after my gramps. It’s peaceful here, but I know Mercy and my mom worry about me being so far from the hospital.”

  “Rightly so.”

  “Who are you? Why is Mercy trying to protect all of you, but she’s never mentioned knowing so many people? Until she disappeared, she hardly left her house, except to come visit me.”

  “That’s my fault,” Kat said. “I stumbled upon her house one night and needed help, which she provided.”

  “Not willingly,” I muttered. Mandy glanced at me, confused, while Kat shot me a hot glare.

  “I think it might be wise to show you in private who we are. Is there some place you, Mercy, and I can go for just a couple minutes?”

  Mandy peered nervously at the faces watching her before nodding sharply and walking out of the kitchen. She led us to her grandfather’s den. I shut the door and went to stand beside her.

  “Mandy,” I said calmly, “there are things in this world that we’ve only imagined. Things that can be scary, but I promise, no one here will harm you. Kat is going to show you what she is. Please don’t scream.”

  “What?” she asked, incredulous. “Why would I scream?”

  “Mandy, look at me,” Kat said with barely a lisp.

  I’d known her a long time. There wasn’t much that could sway Mandy. So, when her only reaction was her hand closing hard around mine, I knew she was skeptical.

  “Are you playing tricks on me, Mercy? Did you bring a vampire cult here, with teeth caps and trick contacts? Do you expect me to believe she’s a vampire?” Her hand dropped mine and she stuck it on her bony hip, glaring at Kat.

  “It’s not a trick, Mandy. Look at me. Really look at me.”

  When she did, I turned in place so she could see the changes I’d undergone. My hair was long and luscious, my body had curves where they should be and not in all the wrong places as they had before I became a vampire, my boobs were bigger, and my eyes had gone from dull brown to glittering lavender. I let her see all of that before opening my mouth so my fangs could lengthen while she watched.

  With narrowed eyes and pinched lips, Mandy didn’t budge. “So you lost some weight, got a boob job, and started using better hair products. I guess you all probably get a discount for buying colored contacts from some cosplay website.”

  “Mandy,” I said, exasperated, “when have you ever known me to be able to afford a boob job? And, you know damn well, I would never give up chocolate on purpose!”

  “It’s a cult, Mercy! They probably brainwashed you into thinking you’re a vampire and you had some sort of psychosomatic reaction, like those women who think they’re pregnant and their body does too, but they really aren’t.”

  “I swear, it’s not a cu—”

  “How do you expect me to believe you when you keep lying? I can’t believe you brought a cult to my ranch!”

  With a growl of frustration, I thrust a hand toward the roll top desk and lifted it into the air with only an angry thought.

  “What the hell?” Mandy gaped at the floating desk. She turned back to me and I knew my eyes were glowing because she gasped and took a step back, bumping into the wall.

  “Kat,” I growled.

  Kat obliged by holding up one flaming hand, snuffing it out, then making a ball of molten lava hover over her unburned palm.

  The whites of Mandy’s eyes were showing, and she’d started to shake uncontrollably. Her head turned side to side slowly, unable to believe her eyes. When she looked at me again, I’d lowered the desk and lifted myself into the air.

  “No, no, no. Tricks, it’s all tricks. Like a magic show.”

  Lowering myself back to the floor, I stepped forward, reaching out to comfort my best friend. Mandy recoiled with a high-pitched yip.

  “Mandy, honey, it’s okay. It’s not tricks, and we’re not going to hurt you. It’s just me, Mercy. The same person you’ve known since middle school, but with some improvements.”

  “I… don’t… understand. How did this happen? How can it happen?”

  “It’s a long story that I will tell you all about, but right now, we have to figure some stuff out. We need you to know that you’re safe.”

  Kat cleared her throat, and I looked at her. “You want me to make her accept us?” she whispered too low for Mandy’s human ears to clearly hear. “We can erase the memories when we leave.”

  “No!” I would not do that to her, and I let Kat know exactly how I felt about that through our bond. She just sighed in response.

  “What, uh, what did
she say? I couldn’t hear her.” Curiosity had cleared some of the fright from Mandy’s face.

  “Vampires have the ability to coerce humans, making them think they are doing something because they want to, not because they are forced to do it. It also helps to make a blood donor enjoy being fed upon instead of feeling the pain of a bite.”

  “I don’t think so! No one messes with my head. Or bites me, for that matter.”

  “No one here will bite you, I promise.” I tentatively put my hand on her arm. “We need your help, Mandy. Those men that came by here are hunters. They want to capture us, so they can experiment on us for the cosmetics industry, of all things.”

  “Seriously?” Mandy wore makeup, loved it, and most anything girly, besides football. That girl loved football. But, she diligently checked each product she purchased, making sure no animals were used for testing the products.

  “Yes,” Kat replied. “They want to find a way to take our immortality and turn it into a consumer good. As if the magic that gives us eternal life could keep vain women looking youthful long past their prime. It doesn’t work that way.” She scoffed and crossed her arms.

  Mandy gave Kat a once-over, stopping to admire her knee-high leather boots. Shoes were Mandy’s addiction. She had a closet for clothes and a closet for shoes. I’d always been a bit jealous that she stayed so thin and could buy any clothes she wanted without ever gaining too much weight to wear them. When we’d found out the reason she’d never get fat was because her disease kept her underweight, I’d cried for days over the guilt of feeling envious of my sick friend.

  The longer Mandy stared at Kat’s boots, then shifting to inspect my ankle boots, the more I knew she was working the situation over in her head, trying to come to terms with what we’d shown her.

  “Mercy, are those the boots you wore in high school? I didn’t think you kept them?”

  That’s my girl.

  “Sure are.” I beamed at her. “I even fit in the clothes in the back of my closet now.”

  “No kidding?”

  “Yeah. It was a shock to see my new body, but putting on those clothes was awesome!”

  “I thought the moths were going to eat all your old clothes before you’d have a chance to wear them again.”

  “Hey!” I gawped at her comically. “You know, I planned to someday get gastric bypass. I just had to save up enough money.”

  “You’d have to stop buying all those vampire DVD’s—Hey! This is like a dream come true for you, isn’t it?”

  Kat choked back a laugh.

  “Uh, no, it’s not quite the same as what I imagined. For one, there’s no hot, bleach-blond, British guy waiting to shove me against a wall and have his way with me.”

  That sent Kat into a fit a laughter of the likes I’d yet to witness in my time with her and the Martis clan.

  Chapter 5

  Since Mandy had found out she would die at a young age, she’d learned to live in the now, almost to the point of being reckless. Mostly, she just let men use her because she was so desperate to find love before she died. But, her practicality allowed her to recover quickly from the shock Kat and I had given her.

  We returned to the kitchen and I saw her eyes slide over everyone, calm and calculating, curious even. When her gaze swept over Nick, she glanced at me because he was watching me, then she turned to Benjamin and seemed to laser-focus on him.

  Benjamin Phillips teetered on the back legs of his chair, looking as relaxed as ever. He had a gothic cowboy vibe that made him look edgy and a bit mysterious with his jet-black hair, spiky bangs hanging over one eye, and a leather duster that looked like it came straight out of any modern vampire movie or TV show.

  Shiny silver eyes watched the room with an air of boredom, but I knew Benjamin saw everything, including Mandy’s interest. I also knew that, given the chance, he could send sparkling glitter flying out of his fingers as if they were Fourth of July sparklers. Fortunately, those fingers could send out deadly bolts of electricity as well.

  “Mandy,” I said, “Edgar is the leader of our clan, and David is the leader of his, which Tabi is part of. Benjamin and Kat are also in Edgar’s clan along with Julius and Danielle. You’ll meet them later.”

  “You’re all vampires?” She squinted her eyes, as if she could see something about them that would distinguish them from humans.

  “All of us,” Edgar said, nodding his head to the only werewolf in the room, “besides Nick. He is a member of our guard.”

  “And what are you?” she asked him pointedly.

  The corner of Nick’s mouth turned up as he dragged his gaze from me to her. I felt a little disappointment at the loss.

  “I am a werewolf.” He gave her a wide grin, managing to look sexy and scary all at once. “I would give you a demonstration as well, but it would be inappropriate. I wouldn’t want to offend such a lovely lady as yourself.”

  Oh, he’s laying it on thick…

  “Why would it be inappropriate? Is the change painful and terrifying like on TV?” Mandy appeared genuinely interested. Apparently, she went from disbelief, skipped right over shock, and landed squarely in the ‘tell me everything’ phase.

  “The change is fairly fast and is no more painful than what you would feel as you stretch your limbs upon waking. The problem would be the loss of my clothing during, and not having anything to dress in when I change back.”

  “Oh,” she murmured with a twist of her lips, trying to hold back a smile. “Well, since I trust Mercy, and she doesn’t seem to be an evil monster, I guess you can stay. How many people are with you and who is chasing you?”

  “We have at least thirty with us now, and more coming. There is a group of hunters searching for vampires—”

  “To experiment on?”

  “Yes.” He nodded, peering at her serenely as if this were any normal day. “And we have recently had a falling out with a witch who seems to control the local werewolf pack.”

  “Not Nick’s pack?” Mandy flicked her eyes at Nick.

  “No, Nick is part of a special pack designed for vampire security, made up mostly of ex-military and special forces. The other pack manages the Seattle werewolves and were providing general security among other duties.”

  “The hunters killed our queen,” Kat grumbled, “and now that bitch wants to make herself queen instead of a vampire, as is proper.”

  “Huh.” Mandy thought for a moment as everyone waited with bated breath. “So, what do you need from me? Why did Mercy bring you here?”

  “If you will permit,” David chimed in. “We would be ever so grateful, if you would allow us to hide here until we can find more permanent accommodations. Our witches will shield your ranch from the hunters and Cassandra, but they must create the ritual circle immediately.”

  “Do what you need to do. Please. No offense, but you’ve brought trouble to my home, so I trust you’ll protect me from anything or anyone dangerous.”

  “We will protect you with our lives, my dear,” Edgar crooned, bowing his head.

  At some unseen signal, Benjamin nodded and carefully rose to his feet, like a gargoyle who’d been perched unmoving for so many centuries. As he sauntered out of the kitchen and to the front door, Mandy’s eyes followed him, and her shoulders slumped slightly when the front door closed.

  She looked back at me and I couldn’t help but smirk at her, pulling a bright smile to her face and a little laugh. Mandy knew I knew. She just didn’t know that because I knew, most likely Kat and Edgar knew too.

  “Nick,” I said, “Mandy has severe allergies. Would you mind passing along the word to keep the shedding to a minimum please?”

  Kat snorted, and Nick chuckled.

  “Sure, darlin’. I’ll inform all the shifters to keep their skin unless they are outside.”

  “Thanks.” I smiled at him sweetly.

  Chapter 6

  “Absolutely not!” Kat paced the office we had been in earlier. Edgar sat in the desk chair, watching he
r thoughtfully.

  “Then let me do it,” I pleaded. My hands were planted on my hips.

  “You are too young,” Edgar replied. “You are not strong enough, and would only kill her, especially in her deteriorated state. I can sense she does not have much time left.”

  “Exactly! She’s my best friend and I can’t just watch her die. Please, do this for me. You owe me!”

  “I don’t owe you anything!” Kat sneered, anger darkening her face and brightening her violet pupils. She took two menacing steps toward me but halted when Edgar cleared his throat.

  “You turned me against my will.” My voice was barely above a whisper. “You took my life, and I am asking you to save hers.”

  “She would be less vulnerable…”

  My jaw dropped at Edgar’s words.

  “You do it,” Kat muttered petulantly.

  “I already have you, Benjamin, and Danielle. You only have Mercy.”

  “What about Benjamin? She obviously fancies him.” Kat’s razor-sharp features began to soften as she considered this new possibility. “Besides, he hasn’t turned anyone yet. At his age, he could have his own clan.”

  “You know he does not care for such things, but I will speak with him.”

  “Oh, thank you, Edgar!” I lurched forward to hug him, but Kat exerted all her mental force to hold me in place. Great. Bitch Kat is back.

  A zing of irritation stabbed my brain, so I bit my tongue and dropped my head. If they save Mandy, I’ll keep my snark to myself for the rest of my eternity. Well… I’ll try to, at least.

  Benjamin slipped into the office soundlessly with a half-grin and a raised eyebrow.

  “For you, Mercy, and to save Kat face, I will grant your request. But, one of you owes me. I’ll leave that up to you and Kat.”

  “How’d you know?” I gawked at him then at Edgar. I didn’t think they could speak telepathically, but I still didn’t know half of what my clanmates could do.

  Benjamin tapped his ear. “I was just down the hall, admiring your friend’s wall of history.”

  Mandy’s grandmother had created a huge collage of family photos, including those of ancestors she had dug up during an ancestry phase she had gotten into when Mandy and I had introduced her to the almighty internet.