by Ruby Raine
A future without William.
Killing someone none of them wanted to kill.
Killing someone that had saved their lives, plus the lives of other Howard’s so many times.
Their friend...
Did it really end like this?
The unfairness of it tore at them.
The brothers and Mack had done most of the debating, with Lizzy chiming in. Melinda didn’t say much, other than agreeing or disagreeing when asked directly. The brothers wondered if they should have left her out of this conversation. They wanted her to have a say, but it was eating her alive. With every final choice made they watched a little of her wither away. Shielding her from it would not change the brutal outcome.
The confidence she had built up during the night she’d run away to Lizzy’s and asked her to teach her, had all but shriveled up and died. Melinda was already facing a life without being able to love William. Now, it would be life without him at all.
Guilt reeled like pins poking inside Melinda’s gut.
Shame filled her breaths.
This is all my fault.
“No. It’s not.”
Melinda met Charlie’s gaze, having not realized her thought came across her tongue, not just in her mind.
“You can’t pretend it’s not. If I’d done what I was supposed to, and shared my dream,” her voice shook and she had to stop.
“What’s done is done,” Charlie told her.
“It doesn’t make it any less my fault. William will die because I didn’t do my job.” They would all lose him because she’d failed. He’d been captured trying to save her. Tortured trying to keep her alive. All because she was too afraid to tell him about a dream. And now, the aftermath was that man willing to suffer and die for her, and the man she loved, was in some uncontrollable blood rage and had killed innocent people.
Melinda stood up, legs wobbly but she refused help. She needed to escape this room. William’s study. He was all over this room. There would never be enough passage of time for his presence to be scrubbed out if it. The countless times she’d met him here after frightening dreams. He’d listen. Help. Wipe away tears. Practically cuddle her back into bed and soothe her into sleep. He’d been in love with her a lot longer than he even admitted. Or realized. It was all so obvious now.
“There’s no smoothing this over and pretending it’s not my fault. William’s blood is on my hands. Those people he killed...” that’s all on me too.
“Melinda...” Michael had no words appropriate for this.
“And now I’m going to run away and let the two of you handle it. Like always. Because that’s what I do.” She refused to look at her brothers. Or anyone else. One more look of sympathy, or disgrace, and she’d never dig out of the pit. Perhaps she didn’t deserve to.
Charlie wet his lips. He’d never been so dried out. His voice came out hoarse, but firm, and speaking to everyone, but aimed at his sister.
“Melinda, I already decided you would have nothing to do with carrying out this sentence. If it happens, it will be by my hands. No one else. You cannot live with doing it, and I cannot live with myself if it is not me. There is no debate on this.” He looked at Michael and Mack in a way that meant, no arguing, the choice is made.
Melinda said no more. There was nothing left to say. But she had to get away from them while they planned the rest. She didn’t want to know how it would all go down.
Mack stood to take her leave right after. “Poor kid. Ah hell. She’s no damn kid anymore. God damn it, this is goin’ to kill her. Goin’ to kill us all just a little.”
“I don’t think she will recover from this,” Michael told them all.
Charlie didn’t bother to ask what his brother’s empathic sense was picking up. He didn’t need to hear it. Could not bear to hear it.
“I’ll leave ya to it,” rattled Mack. “Just fill me in later.” She left the study and the mansion.
Pretty near everything that had to be said, and determined, had been. And yet, none of the three remaining were ready to move forward, and put the plan into action.
Melinda made it half way up the stairs to her bedroom when she stopped. There were no tears to wipe away. None left to fall at this point. The sadness and guilt swarmed her blood, giving her a shiver. The pit inside herself getting deeper. And deeper. Swallowing her up. Suffocating her. And at the very bottom, in the dredges of that pit something stirred. Seeping into her blood, pushing fire through her veins. A need. A raw craving. For someone to pay for making this happen. For someone to be held responsible for what she was about to lose. For doing this to William.
It was her fault.
His death was her fault.
The chain reaction of events set off by a disastrous decision, by her.
But others had assisted in that chain reaction. Others had made him suffer too.
Eva Jordan, but she was dead.
The Feyk, Stricker, Sir Tinkham Sickereaux, was not. He still lived and breathed when William was about not to. The unfairness of this truth shot fury into her nerves.
With gritted teeth she marched back down the stairs, grabbed a blood pack from the fridge, and barely sensing her own movements, landed in the basement cell in front of Courtney Jessup.
The newly turned vampire was pacing the room. Bored. Agitated. Desperate. Cleaned up and wearing clothes Emily had let her borrow.
Melinda tossed her the blood pack.
She caught it with a lick of her lips.
“Thanks. Wish I didn’t need this stuff. This hunger is mindboggling.” She ripped it open and sucked it down, relishing in the thick liquid gliding down her throat. Once the initial hunger pain diminished, her vampire senses honed in on something else. Something not in the blood. Something ensnaring the young witch standing in her cell. A vengeful aura hovering around her. A vindictive look in her eye. A strong determination in her jaw.
“If I’m not mistaken, I see revenge boiling in those baby blues.”
Melinda’s gaze tightened.
“I’ve seen that look a few times,” explained Courtney. “Mainly, every time I look in the mirror.”
“I cannot imagine what you’re going through right now,” Melinda expressed directly. “You didn’t ask to become a vampire. Or be yanked out of your life. It must be shocking and frightening to have this done to you without it being your choice.”
“It is.” Truth is truth, no denying it.
“You’ll get your revenge, at least in part, on William. Maybe not by your own hand, but he’s got a death sentence. My brother,” she sucked in. “My brother Charlie is going to carry it out. To make sure this never happens again.”
Courtney set aside the blood pack, appetite dampened.
“But that’s not why you’re here, is it?”
“Not exactly.”
Courtney approached the subject cautiously.
“I find I’m not as angry as I was at first. I’d still take my old life over this one, but it’s not like I had anything to go back to. Not really. Not like I did a couple years ago.”
“Because of Stricker?” confirmed Melinda.
“Yes. He destroyed my reason for living long before this happened to me.”
“I’ll help you find him,” promised Melinda. “My brothers might not be so willing. Or not willing for me to do this, but I have to. For William. For William as he was. As I choose to remember him.”
Courtney’s new abilities kicked in. Her ears honing in on the throbbing of Melinda’s heart. The aching flutter that wound around and around itself, tightening. William’s flutter; she still had no control over it when she thought of him.
“You love him,” Courtney stated evenly. “Not in a, he’s family, sort of way.”
“Yes. I love him. Not that it matters now. Not that it ever mattered.” She didn’t explain further. “But I want the Feyk to pay. Not just in revenge for William. Stricker can’t be allowed to do this to anyone else.”
“One thing we both agree
on,” hissed Courtney. Her fangs flashed at the idea of taking out Stricker.
There was a noise at the cell door and Melinda twisted her head to see Charlie and Michael standing there. She didn’t care what any of them heard anymore.
“Going to try to stop me?” she grilled her brothers.
Charlie shook his head.
“What he said,” Michael conceded, with a cringe he kept hidden.
Melinda hadn’t expected them to let her seek out her revenge unchallenged.
“Lizzy just informed me she plans on teaching you everything she knows,” Charlie said with a tight grin. “And as hard as it is for me to accept...”
“Or me,” added Michael.
“And in light of everything that’s happened,” continued Charlie. “I agree with you. We do hold you back. And I don’t think we can stop playing big brother. Even right now, I want to lock you up and keep you out of it. I don’t want you to have to deal with what’s coming. I think that’s why I never pushed harder when you locked yourself away. It kept you out of harm’s way. But that is not who we are. And I was wrong.”
“We talk of putting the past behind us,” Michael took over, “But the only way that’s really going to happen is to accept, and learn, and allow ourselves to move forward.”
Melinda sniffled in surrender.
“You have every right to feel how you do,” Charlie told her. “I’m sorry it has to be this way. Just, whatever you do, know we’ll be behind you, one hundred percent. And be careful. I’ve heard your teacher is said to be a little...”
“You’d better choose your next words carefully, Charlie Howard.” Lizzy stalked into the room.
Charlie let Lizzy’s retort roll off him, his words still aimed at his sister. “What I’m trying to say is, you have our full support and are in capable hands.”
“Acceptable answer, I guess,” Lizzy determined. “However, I had the impression my hands a bit more than,” Charlie cleared his throat. She stopped, and shrugged, keeping a silent grin to herself. “Did you two get around to what you really came down here for yet?”
“No,” answered Michael. His gazed flitted to Courtney.
The reporter cast a wary gaze between the brothers.
“You want my help?”
“Yes,” acknowledged Charlie.
This was Melinda’s queue to leave. She didn’t want to hear more. Once this terrible deed was done, she’d help Courtney locate the Feyk known as Stricker, and together, they’d take him out.
The brothers each caught a shoulder on her way out of the cell.
“Please let me know when it’s... done,” she stated calmly as possible. “I can’t see him.”
“Are you sure?” Charlie coaxed kindly.
She nodded, unable to say more and headed up the stairs.
There would be no goodbye. Or final closure. Not for her.
This was going to crush Melinda. Burn her down to nothing. Charlie and Michael hoped if she focused on seeking revenge, maybe, just maybe, she’d rise from the ashes and be able to continue living. She’d never be the same after this was over.
“I’m going to take good care of her, Charlie.” Lizzy brought them back to the present.
“Right. Okay. So, Courtney. We could use your help,” Charlie took on a business-like demeanor. He saw no other way to manage this. “We need to set a trap. We need a willing victim,” he explained. “I cannot guarantee your complete safety, but you are the fastest here. And strongest. And another vampire bite would not kill you. We don’t have the right to ask for your help. But we’d very much appreciate it.”
She pursed her lips. Thinking hard about it.
“One last thing. I understand you might wish to have your own revenge because of what’s been done to you, and while I cannot disagree, and we do need your help, I’m asking you not to kill our vampire. We wish to capture him if possible, sober him up, and let him choose the manner of his death. He’s owed that much for everything he’s done for this family. And... I need to be the one who carries out the sentence.” He tried hard not to think about the true meaning of those words.
Courtney went still for a minute. Gaze tight. Air sucked out of the room. The space suddenly confined, the walls creeping in.
“It’s thick in here,” she finally spoke up.
They waited patiently for her to decide, half expecting her to say no.
She paced for a minute, jaw grinding. Teeth licking at the fangs pushing against her lip.
“I will agree to your terms,” she finally told them. “But with an added condition of my own.”
“I’m willing to negotiate,” granted Charlie.
“I’d like to be able to live a normal a life as possible, and I’ll need some help with that. I came to the Isle seeking revenge, that’s still my plan. I guess now with your sister’s help. But I don’t condone hurting the innocent. I was a good witch in life before all hell broke loose. I’d still like to be in death. Or whatever I am now, I’d still like to be on the side of good. So if you continue to help me until I’m ready to go home, then I’m in.” She reached out her hand to shake on it.
Charlie accepted without hesitation and took it, affirming the deal.
“I think helping you adjust to your new life is the least we can offer. You have my word we’ll do whatever we can to help you.”
They parted hands, and Courtney swung her arm up to her forehead, feinting naivety.
“Oh dear. I’m just a poor lonely, lost girl walking down a dark street all alone. Whatever will I do?”
“I think that’ll work,” remarked Michael dryly.
“Sorry, not trying to make light. Really is a bit thick in here.”
They left the cell, Courtney apprehensively joining them upstairs. “So this is the inside of the famous Howard kitchen. Nice.”
Charlie threw her another blood pack.
“I just finished one,” the reporter noted.
“Drink it. It’ll help with the urges once you leave the inside of the famous Howard kitchen.”
“Will I be okay out there?” she asked him. “I don’t mean if we find the other vamp. More in general. You know, around those with pulses? There was a reason I was hiding in the woods.”
“Drink up,” Charlie stated again.
“Yeah. Okay. Right.” She opened an end and sipped on it. “Just so you’re aware, I may be faster than you guys, and stronger, but I don’t think I’ll be as strong as this other vamp. If they are high on the good stuff, I’m pretty sure they can kick my ass.”
“We thought of that. But all we need from you is to attract the vampire. We’ll give you a vial of werewolf blood to use on him. This should slow him down so we can catch him.” Charlie held one such vial in his hands.
“But don’t get the werewolf blood on yourself,” Michael explained.
“Why not?”
“Werewolf blood is poisonous to vampires,” he told her. “It won’t kill you, but it will hurt severely and shut down your ability to function correctly.”
She stared at the rust-filled liquid inside the vial. “Good to know. Where does one get werewolf blood, anyway?”
Charlie released a little of his inner wolf, reminding her.
Courtney’s eyes strained wide. That’s right. A werewolf...
“One bite from me, and you’d be dead,” he cautioned. He left out the part where her bite could kill him too. Knowledge for another day, once they trusted her better. “A werewolf bite is a death sentence for a vampire.”
“Also good to know.” She sucked down her blood, thinking if she’d still had a beating heart, it would be thrumming at the speed of fear right now.
What kind of world had she gotten herself thrown into? Her coven had been small, and did good deeds, but nothing as serious or dangerous as what these witches did almost every day. She was a novice in comparison. And the Howards, as well-known as they were in supernatural circles, still managed to keep a few secrets.
“We’ve got a bit o
f time till sundown,” said Michael. Summer nights on the Isle, the sun didn’t go down till after nine at night. “I’m going to go bring Emily home from the bookstore, she put in a late day today. I won’t be comfortable leaving tonight if she’s not safely back here.”
He took off and Charlie explained the plan so far to Courtney. They were going to wait until the middle of the night, after the last of the pubs shut down, and the streets empty as possible. They’d find a prime location where they could hide, and watch at a safe, but close distance, and Courtney would play the part of the lonely damsel in distress. While Charlie, Lizzy, and Michael waited in the wings to subdue the vampire. With Mack nearby as backup.
Lizzy called Lucas and ordered him to come keep Melinda and Emily company. Mostly, she just wanted him involved in some way. The three of them would stay in the mansion, where it was safe. And perhaps he and Emily would keep Melinda from losing it when William was stripped from her life, forever. The brothers didn’t want her to be alone.
Lizzy closed her eyes, the memory of losing her fiancé at the forefront of her memory. She hadn’t told Charlie he was a vampire yet. Or that he’d burned before jumping to his death. Only William knew this. It would be painful to watch again. And if Charlie knew this death would be painfully similar, he’d make her sit out as well.
But he needed her, so she’d suck it up and be remorseful tomorrow. Maybe get Charlie to take her mind off the entire ordeal. But even the thought of his magic hands exploring all over didn’t stop the tremble in her veins. This would not be easy for any of them. But perhaps once done, they could all move forward comforted in the knowledge there was no other choice. Finding some kind of solace in the fact that their friend would be at peace.
COUNTING DOWN TO ZERO hour was taking forever. Too long for their already frayed nerves.
Charlie made Courtney drink so much animal blood it was sloshing around miserably in her stomach like the tide coming in. She refused to drink another, insisting her stomach would burst with a single drop more.
