by Unknown
“I was attacked,” Sam explained as she stumbled through the doorway and shivered.
Heywood shut the door and took the pack from her, examining its contents. Amazingly, the blood bags had not been damaged in the fray.
“Who attacked you?”
“A couple vampires from Peyton’s crew. They’ll be dust when the sun comes up.”
“You killed them?”
“Close enough that in a few hours it won’t matter.”
“Did anyone see you?” Heywood demanded.
“Nope,” Sam said, resolutely standing by her word even though it was a flat-out lie.
Roman had saved her neck, but she wasn’t about to tell Heywood that. Not only would it make her look weak in his eyes, but it would require an explanation as to why a human working for Michigan Plastics had been able to defend her against vampires. However much she wanted the sinfully attractive man out of her life, she wasn’t about to reveal his secrets to someone who might blackmail him.
“On top of all that,” she continued before he could question her, “there was another murder. I got a good look at the scene before the feds showed up.”
Heywood glared at her. “And?”
“Another fae killed by vampires.”
“And you think it was me?” he growled. “I told you to leave this alone.”
“They’re my people. I can’t just leave this alone. Besides, I think it won’t help you out any to have the feds looking into vampiric activities within the Res.”
Heywood looked away from her for a second and Sam knew she had struck a chord.
“Do you really want the feds storming your home? Finding that?” She pointed at the bag.
“I told you not to investigate.”
Sam took a step toward Heywood, ready to stare him down. “I’m taking care of you just as much my own people.”
“Why would you protect me?” he demanded.
“’Cause if I don’t, you reveal Carl’s secrets to the feds.”
A glimmer of amusement brought a shine to Heywood’s eyes.
“Fine,” he said. “We will investigate these murders.”
“Not we. Me.”
“Excuse me?”
“Heywood, what would happen if they found evidence that you had been at the scene?” she demanded. “They would have you in Solitary before you could blink. As you well know, this isn’t the first time I’ve solved a murder.”
The vampire eyed her, knowing she was referring to his former second-in-command.
“And will you kill the murderer or turn them in to me?”
“That depends on who the killer is.”
To her surprise, Heywood’s lips quirked up into a grin.
“Fine. Investigate, but be careful. Now go get some sleep while you can.”
Sam was halfway up the stairs when she turned back to look at her boss.
“Why bring blood in from the outside? You already have residents to feed off of, even if it is illegal.”
Heywood’s grin spread out into a wide smile. “’Cause you mystics all taste tainted. Better than the shit the feds feed us, but not as good as fresh, human blood.”
Sam forced herself to keep a straight face as she watched a hungry look spread over the vampire’s face. He didn’t need to know how frightened she was by the look in his eyes. She had seen the same look before, but never directed at her. She turned and left him to his blood bags.
Sam woke after five solid hours of sleep, feeling as though she had enjoyed a week-long vacation. Once the morning rush had passed, she made her way out of Heywood’s house and down the street, only stopping when she noticed a stranger staring at her from the doorway of one of the apartment buildings constructed in what had once been the street.
“Can I help you?” she asked after stopping and staring in return.
“You must be the Void I’ve heard so much about?”
Sam’s face didn’t show her surprise. She had too much practice controlling her emotions around Amber. She let her gift slip free, taking the barest sip of his power. The man slowly closed his eyes, a little sigh escaping his lips as though he could feel what she was doing, and liked it.
“You must be the new mage,” she said in a husky voice after she pushed her gift back down into its proper place. “Who’s been talking about me?”
“Your friend Amber.”
“I’m not so sure ‘friend’ would be the right term,” Sam said, sounding more sarcastic than she had intended.
The mage gave her a small nod that appeared more like a bow as he conceded her point. Sam flinched, finding his agreement more painful than she had expected.
“And how do you like Reservation life?” asked Sam to change the subject.
“It sucks.”
Sam smiled.
“But at least it resulted in the vamps getting caught too,” he added.
“Tell me—Jason is it?”
Jason nodded again.
“Tell me, Jason, what were you and the vampires fighting over when you were caught?”
“So you heard.”
“What happened?” repeated Sam.
“They were trying to steal my grimoire.”
Sam frowned at him. His power swelled, the magic brushed against her senses. It wasn’t enough to work an attack on her, and she didn’t know enough about mage magic to tell what he was doing, but it was something.
“What would vampires want with a mage’s grimoire?” she asked, his tale not adding up.
“You’ll have to ask them.”
“Maybe I’ll do that.”
Jason smiled again, his bearded cheeks widening with the movement. Sam could see why Amber thought him attractive, as she had been told by Carl. There was a strength about him that went beyond his magic. He looked more like a lumberjack than anything else—a sexy lumberjack, if there was such a thing. His thick beard was trimmed close to his face, and his long brown hair was pulled back in a tight knot at the back of his head. His t-shirt stretched across rippling muscles and his new-looking jeans hugged strong calves.
Wasn’t he cold, standing in the winter wind without coat or shoes?
Sam gave him one last look before turning away and continuing to her parents’ apartment.
She wasn’t looking forward to this homecoming, having no doubt it would be ugly. She had timed it so her father and brother would likely already be at work.
But sadly, she hadn’t heard of their shift change while in solitary confinement. She got home to find her whole family waiting in the main room.
Sam stopped in the entryway, staring at them all. Her heart began to race as she noted the hard looks of her father and brother. Her mother stood in the background, her fingers plucking at a dishtowel.
“So, you finally decided to grace us with your presence,” her father said, sounding deceptively calm.
“Umm…” Sam swallowed the sudden lump in her throat. “Sorry about that. I was released in the middle of the night. I didn’t want to wake you guys.”
“So you went to Chad’s?” her father demanded.
Evidently her father had been talking with Ryan.
“I went to Carl’s.”
“Oh. Didn’t realize you’d started sleeping with that little twig too.”
“I’m not sleeping with anyone,” she snapped. “I was trying to be considerate.”
“Really?” said her father. “Were you just being considerate when you went and lost your job?”
“What?” she asked, complete shock spreading across her features.
“Dave,” sighed her mother at the same time.
“You stay out of this,” snapped her father, turning to point at his wife. “She may be your daughter, but I pay to keep her here.”
Dave picked up a letter from the kitchen table and thrust it into Sam’s empty hands. She looked down at it, her eyes mechanically taking in the words of the letter while her mind struggled to grasp the full meaning.
She was too startled by her father’s stateme
nt of her being Miranda’s daughter to take in the meaning of the words, as though she wasn’t his daughter too. She had long suspected something wasn’t right in her relationship with her father. Her father had always despised her, and during her investigation into Becky’s murder, her mother had dropped some bizarre hints, but the truth had never been truly revealed. Was this what she had been waiting for?
As to the letter, it stated that she was spending too much time in solitary confinement and therefore unreliable as an employee of the Organic Diapers company.
“Now,” growled her father. “What have you gotten yourself into?”
“Nothing,” she said softly, sticking with her lie.
“That’s bullshit,” barked her father.
“Dave,” cried her mother.
Before she could say more, her father turned and drove his hand across his wife’s cheek, sending her falling into the edge of the couch. Without thinking, Sam lunged forward, ready to release her powers on her father and anyone who stood between her and her mother. Surprisingly, Miranda climbed to her feet and held up her hands.
“Stop,” her mother called, though her outstretch hands shook. “Everyone calm down. I don’t want violence in my house. That includes you too, Sam.”
Sam swallowed, forcing her powers back down behind her tattoo.
Dave turned back and stared down at Sam.
“I’ve supported you long enough, you little louse. Either you tell me what you’ve gotten into or you leave this house!” Dave said, ignoring his wife.
Sam flinched. Not at the name—he had called her a little louse so often it had little effect left on her—but on the pained look in her mother’s eyes. She felt her stomach clench in anger and disgust. The look in her mother’s eyes was not directed at Sam’s father, the man who had struck her, but at Sam for being willing to attack her father. Miranda was angry at Sam for daring to unleash her powers on another fae.
Tears burned Sam’s eyes as she felt the full weight of her mother’s glare.
Their relationship had been growing more and more tense as she grew up and still had not married. They didn’t push Ryan into a union, but they had been seeking a husband for her since she hit puberty.
She wanted nothing more than to spill the long, sordid details of the last couple months, but she knew her father would immediately report Carl’s illegal activity, and maybe even her own illegal activity, to the FMB. Sam glanced over at her mother, whose face was already showing signs of a bruise. Tears streaked down her weathered skin and her eyes were growing puffy. Her mother might even call the feds herself after this incident.
If Sam told them all what she had gotten into, the person who would really suffer would be her mother. Her father would take it out on his wife bit by bit, blaming her for the failure Sam had become.
“Well?” demanded her father. “Are you staying or are you going?’
Maybe, just maybe, it would be better for everyone if she left.
“May I have a few minutes to pack?” she asked, closing her eyes against the pain in her mother’s face.
Her father glared at her for a long moment before stepping out of her path. Sam marched into her room and quickly began to throw her few possessions onto her bed with the intention of using her quilt as a bag.
“Let me see if I can talk to her,” her mother said from the main room.
Before Sam could flip the lock on her door, her mother entered.
“What’s going on?” she asked in a soft voice.
“I’m not going to tell you, Mom. It’s for your own safety.”
“Sam, if you could just give me an idea, then maybe I can talk your father into letting you stay?”
Sam turned to look at her mother. “My father?”
She felt her breath catch in her chest. She hadn’t meant to call her mother out on that, not today of all days. Her mother had been through enough without telling her deep, dark secret to her daughter.
“Things will be better for you if I’m not here,” she added before her mother could muster up the courage to respond to her accusation. “I’m doing this for you.”
“Where will you go?”
“I don’t know. When I settle, I’ll let you know.”
The truth was, she knew exactly where she was going to live, she just didn’t want to admit it to her mother. Technically speaking, individuals in the Res couldn’t live away from their parents until they were married. Mostly it was a space issue. They just didn’t have enough apartments for everyone over the age of twenty-one to move out, and the easiest way to solve the problem was the archaic ruling. Even Ryan, at the age of twenty-nine, lived with his parents. All the same, what the FMB didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.
According to them, she would live with her parents, but in reality she would live with Heywood. She spent most of her nights there anyway.
Sam let out a long, pain-filled sigh. No matter what she did, no matter which way she turned, she was hurting someone.
“I’m sorry, Mom. Please trust me when I say I’m just doing my best for everyone.”
Fresh tears leaked out of her mother’s eyes and rolled down her cheeks.
“If that’s what you think,” her mom said, sounding as though she didn’t believe it herself, and left.
Sam flinched. Her mother no longer trusted her. Not even a little bit.
A few minutes later, Sam bundled her things in her blanket and tied the corners into a knot. She slung the bundle over her shoulder and exited her old room. Ryan sat on the couch, glaring at her as though she had recently bombed his best friend’s bedroom. Her father stood in the kitchen with his arms crossed menacingly over his chest. From where Sam stood, she could hear her mother weeping in her bedroom.
“I never thought you’d actually do it,” Ryan growled.
Sam tried not to think of all the times Ryan had fallen short of her own expectations, but all the times Ryan had stood by and watched her father beat her came rushing back to her mind. A long-denied hatred flowed through her veins, heating her from the inside.
“I never thought I would have to. Then again, I also thought my big brother was supposed to protect me, even if it’s from his father.”
Sam’s eyes jerked to where Dave stood. Whether he was biologically her father or not, she refused to think of him as a dad.
“How dare you,” growled Dave as he began to cross the small room.
Sam dropped her pack and held out a hand, allowing her gift to glow hungrily in her eyes. She knew Dave and Ryan’s powers. Of the three, she was the only one that held a threat. Dave could turn invisible and Ryan was a healer. Both powerful in their own rights, but not against a Void, even a half fae.
With the careful control of her recent practice against the vampires and mages, Sam let her gift trickle out, visualizing it caressing Dave where he had just struck his wife. The middle-aged man stopped in his tracks, a shiver of fear running noticeably down his spine.
Sam took a little more of his power. She wanted to show him the true meaning of her powers. She wanted to turn invisible herself so he could see what she could really do, but she also knew the fewer people who knew the true extent of her abilities the better it was as a weapon.
Slowly she drew her power back into her tattoo.
“You touch my mother again… I see one bruise on her… and I will come and take the rest. Do we have an understanding?” she demanded.
Dave blinked as he swallowed before giving her one sharp nod.
“Good.”
With that, Sam stormed out of her family’s apartment, her bundle once again slung over her shoulder.
Chapter Six
Sam struggled down the spiral driveway, the bundle banging painfully against her back as she worked to keep it from breaking any of the valuable plant pots that had been left out over the winter. The blinding tears didn’t help her in this endeavor. In all her years struggling against her father, her mother had always been her staunch ally. She had never imagined
a day would come when they would be on opposite sides of the battle line, and yet that day had come.
She lurched the last few feet down the driveway and onto the sidewalk, amazed at how busy the streets were. Didn’t these people have jobs to be at?
“What’s this all about?” a recognizable voice asked from behind her.
Sam seriously considered walking away. She was in no mood to admit to Roman how far she had just fallen, but knowing the mage he would just follow her. Instead, Sam turned and glared up at him.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded when he caught sight of her splotchy, tear-streaked face.
Sam swallowed to clear her throat as she glanced around at the people eyeing them.
“My dad kicked me out and I lost my job,” she whispered, unwilling to let the others hear; these sorts of things just didn’t happen in fae families.
Roman looked at the women eyeing them, suddenly aware that they weren’t alone. The handsome man stood out in his elegant business suite. He was a peacock among turkeys.
Roman grabbed her make-shift pack, took her arm, and led her around the back of the parking garage to where only the most curious would find them.
“What do you mean your dad kicked you out?” he asked once they were beyond prying eyes.
Sam swallowed another lump in her throat as she glanced around their little hiding place. The guards on the wall were eyeing them casually, but she wasn’t worried about them. She and Roman weren’t doing anything illegal, and the guards couldn’t hear their discussion. Mostly, Sam just didn’t walk to talk to Roman. It was too tempting to pour out all her problems and ask him to solve them for her, but the truth was he couldn’t. As much as he might try to pretend to be part of her world, he wasn’t. When it was all said and done, he didn’t live in the Reservation.
“Exactly what I said, Roman,” she snapped with more venom than she had intended. “He kicked me out. I lost my job for spending too much time in Solitary. So he kicked me out.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to Heywood’s.”
“The vampire?”
“Where else could I go?”
Roman looked at the debris-littered ground for a moment before responding. “What about that boyfriend of yours?”
