by Ruby Raine
Riley discarded the empty blood bag a few minutes later.
“Better?” He bit back the grin taunting his lips.
William rolled his eyes. And paced his cell. Ignoring the humored expression on the young man’s face.
“Is this new evil, she-devil, whatever the hell it is, more dangerous than what the Howard’s have faced before?” Riley questioned the vampire.
He stopped pacing, exhaling, his body visibly deflating. “Possibly.” He deflated a little more. “Very possibly.”
“Is there anything that can stop it?”
“Without knowing more, no. The Isle will always attract beings from the supernatural world, and therefore, trouble. As long as there is a magical power source, there will be evil attempting to steal it, or draw off its power.”
“So if it can’t be stopped, what’s the point of even having some kind of warning? Why’s Aunt May even bothering to tell us at all?”
“Because she believes our services will be needed in whatever crisis is coming.”
“Oh. That whole going back to the Isle thing...”
“Yes. That. Aunt May’s persistence is...”
“Driving you crazy?” guessed Riley.
“The timing is,” he waved his arms around, like I have to explain.
“They need you on the Isle more than they need me.”
“I think your view is skewed.”
Riley pfft. “Right? Because I’m so good at being a witch. Are you going back?” he turned the question back on William.
“Yes. But I cannot say when.”
“I am,” Riley sighed. “I am closer to being ready to go back, I think. I’m still not sure.” He slid a chair closer to William’s door and took a seat. The vampire leaned with his back against the door, his voice filtering through the iron rungs.
“Tell me what happened today.”
It was Riley’s turn to grumble. He was still confused about the whole thing. “Why so talkative all of a sudden?”
“Oblige me,” pleaded the vampire dryly.
So Riley did. Reliving the events of saving the young woman named Madison.
William listened intently. Needing to keep his mind busy. But also curious to learn more about this gift of Riley’s.
“And that’s never happened to you before?” William questioned when he’d finished. “You’ve never seen glimpses of their futures?”
“No. Never. Aunt May, she claimed I was saving people. Fixing things that were not meant to be broken.” He shrugged. “Maybe she was telling the truth.”
“She is known to do that,” replied William snidely. “Only all of the time.”
“You’re clearly as excited about that as I am.”
Because this meant there was some dangerous new power about to rise on The Demon Isle. A place neither of them was ready to go back to yet, but it didn’t make them care less about those still there.
“Gifts change, Riley. They grow with you,” the vampire explained. “I’ve seen this over and over with the Howards. You may not have asked for it, but it was given, freely. To you. Don’t take that lightly. Feel blessed you were given a gift that does make a difference. Having a purpose in this life is difficult for many to find. Yours was handed to you.”
Riley groaned at the overabundance of logic and common sense he wished were easier to deny.
“Something I said?” William peered at Riley through the bars on his cell door.
“Not so much something, as everything. You. This place. Jean and Annie. Aunt May.”
“I’m afraid I don’t follow you.”
Riley got to his feet with a disgruntled shake of his head. “This would all be so much easier if you just hated me, or were angry at me.”
“What would?”
Riley raked his hand through his hair. “Why is it everyone suddenly cares about what happens to me? Why is everyone so damned concerned about my future?”
“As for Aunt May and her predictions, I cannot say. But I have explained my part.”
“Right. You’re giving me Melinda. I just have to go back to the Isle and I’m sure she’ll come collapsing into my arms and not Saint Fucking William who always come to the rescue. For some reason, even for me.”
“Ah, I’m starting to understand.”
Riley plunked back down in his chair. “You’re making it impossible to hate you.”
“Sorry.”
“And I totally get why Melinda loves you. And I really hate that too.” So it was to be death after all. A slow, torturous killing, by kindness.
There was quiet on both sides now.
It was always going to come back to this.
After a few awkwardly quiet minutes, William replied flatly.
“I’m sure I can make you hate me. Just give me a few more hours.”
“Right. Junky. C’mon off the red crack.”
It got quiet again. Riley scuffed his feet across the cement. “Let’s pretend for a minute we go back to the Isle, and Melinda has it in her to forgive me, and give me another chance... can you look me in the eye and honestly swear it won’t kill you to see that happen?”
“It has already killed me.” William let that answer hang.
“You might change your mind,” Riley whispered after a few minutes. “You might decide you want her for yourself, after all, and...”
“You don’t believe if she had to choose, she’d choose you.” The vampire finally pieced it together.
“Why would she? When she has William Wakefield. Vampire, extraordinaire. She told me so many times, what you meant to her. Verbally, and not so verbally. A best friend. Someone she trusted and relied on. Guess I understand why. But all I ever heard was the inflections she tried to hold back, but didn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“She was always trying to fight the fact that she was in love with you. Even though she was starting to fall in love with me, too.”
William released an agonized sigh. It was always going to come back to this.
“Riley, I can assure you, I will not change my mind. My future is... set. And regardless of everything else, I still hold the belief you are the right man for her.”
“Only because you can’t be.”
“I... I... I don’t know what else to say.” A first for the vampire. The bloodlust was rattling his brain, and ability to think straight. There was a small part of something tugging him somewhere deep, that wondered. Would Melinda choose him over Riley, had she the choice? And why did this matter still? His future was set. He wasn’t deviating from his plan.
“It’s kind of ridiculous,” Riley broke in.
“A lot of things are, but what are you speaking of?”
“Us. Talking about Melinda like we’re planning out her life for her. Shouldn’t she have some say? Maybe she’s already moving on?”
“It might prove the smarter decision.” The vampire smiled, grimly.
Riley needed a new subject.
“So, um, why do I get the sense the Howards don’t know about Sorcier?” It was time for the vampire to share.
“A few of their ancestors were aware. After a couple generations came and went, it became a topic easier not discussed. Those who were in the know were often overwrought with guilt. Worried they were stealing me and my services from my true family.”
“Aren’t they? A little?”
“No. It was my choice to go to the Isle, and my choice to stay. I’d heard of the Howards and The Demon Isle. For years here in Sorcier we heard stories, rumors. Once this place was running efficiently, I decided to visit the Isle to see if myself, or any of us might be of use there. At the least, make them aware of our existence so they could come to us if they needed it.”
“So you went and just stayed?”
“It wasn’t quite like that, but in the end, yes. There was a time when we had a magical portal, a simple few steps through a magical doorway and you were either on the Isle, or in Sorcier.”
“Really? When did that s
top?”
William stalled, stumbling over words that never fully formed.
“You really are messed up,” Riley marveled. “And I’m going to guess the portal closed around the time my family started a war? Seems to be when everything went to shit on the Isle.”
The vampire cleared his throat. “You are unfortunately correct. The battle between the Deanes and Howards did change everything from that point forward. I called upon the people of Sorcier to fight in the battle. Some lost their lives. After, I never called upon the people of Sorcier again, and the portal was closed.”
“Feeling too guilty, I’m guessing.”
“It’s one thing to put my own life on the line. But to ask it of others is not something I enjoy. But the portal was also potentially dangerous to leave open. The Deanes proved the Howards had many enemies, and although the people of Sorcier were, and still remain, a peaceful colony, we decided not to take any chances. As it was also feared the Deanes or other enemies might use the portal to infiltrate Sorcier.”
“So it was closed and forgotten?”
“Yes. You’d be surprised how many things are lost in history. Even when records are kept. And only a couple generations of time, goes by.”
“Luckily they have you to remember all that stuff.”
William didn’t reply to that one.
Riley shifted in his chair, unease in his breath. “Why did you leave them? We know why I ran away, but why did you?”
“If you’re asking if my departure was because of Melinda, you would be wrong,” surmised the vampire.
“So why then?”
“You recall that letter from my jacket? The one you happened across the morning after your drunken brawl?”
“I recall it, but not all of what it said. Brain was a little bruised.”
William chuckled.
“Their father, Jack, asked me to leave the Isle. For a time. And he was right in doing so. It was something I’ve been thinking of doing, but never brought myself to do.”
“But why?”
“Because of who they are and what they must do, and what they must carry on to the next generation of witches. I was lax. I did too much for them, so did their mother and father. They need to stand on their own feet for a time. As there may come a day when I’m not there to help them any longer. I’m not immune to true death,” he aimed pointedly at Riley. Who’d know better than anyone, seeing as he’d almost killed the vampire.
“Have I said I’m sorry yet today, about that?” Riley babbled awkwardly.
“I don’t need apologies. I can understand better now why your anger was so focused on me.”
Riley didn’t want to head down the Melinda subject again. “So, you’re doing a whole tough love kind of thing?”
“A necessary evil.”
“And you’ve had no contact with them at all?”
“No. Not since I departed the Isle. You?”
“Um. No. I left my cell phone at home so they couldn’t track me. Picked up a new one on the road.”
“Tell them you’re okay, Riley.”
The young man’s gaze rose up to meet William’s.
“If nothing else, just tell them you’re okay. They don’t need to worry about your wellbeing on top of whatever else they are currently facing, or may be facing soon.”
“And what about you? Can I say you’re here with me? Can I tell them about Sorcier?”
“I’d prefer if you did not.”
“And let them keep worrying about you too?” chided Riley.
“It must be this way. For now.”
It was killing Riley not having any contact with Lucas. He’d never done such a thing before. Not like this anyway, where he’d just severed all connections. And of course, he’d like to find out about everyone else, most especially Melinda.
Riley dragged out the new cell phone he’d picked up and typed in Lucas’ number, composing a text.
“Sorry I ran out. Can’t talk. Can’t tell you if, or when, I’m coming home. I wanted you to know I’m okay. Are you? And by you, I really mean you, plus everyone else.” And by everyone else he really meant Melinda. He was aching to find out she was recovering after the Feyk attack.
It took him a full three minutes of staring, to actually hit send. And when he did he got such a terrible ache in his chest. He did want to find out. Needed to. And so much of him wasn’t as angry anymore and actually was starting to believe that perhaps he could go back to the Isle.
But not until he’d seen William through this blood detox.
William paced his cell, a rare sensation crawling over his skin. A heat, of sorts, seeping into veins, each push of his dead vampire blood crying out for just one thing. Hot and fresh from the vein, blood. Food. Real food. The only kind that ever truly satisfied. With every bit of his recent feeding that got used up, a new scream surged through his veins demanding another hit.
How many more hours until he fed again? Agitation rode every breath, but not so much that he didn’t come to his own conclusion about something. He ruffled through the jacket he’d thrown over the back of his chair and dug out his cell phone. He had not left his behind, like Riley had, but had refused to look at it until now.
A grin tugged at his lips. Forty-nine missed calls, and his voicemail was full. They did miss him... a warm thought to stamp away some of the burning heat searing its way through his icy veins. He might be allowing the Howards to stand on their own feet, and find their own way, as witches, but Aunt May’s warning should not go ignored. Evil was coming to The Demon Isle. There might be no way to stop it, but he had to do whatever he could, regardless of the distance between them.
His only question, how to do this without revealing where he was? Or who this warning was coming from. Or explaining why he left. He scrolled through the names in his phone, stopping on the one he hoped he could trust.
Now, just the tedious task of typing out his message and hoping he sent it correctly.
Damn cell phones.
And only a few seconds into typing he stopped, unsure whether sending this message would be breaking the temporary vow he’d made Jack Howard. To let his children stand on their own for a time; their father’s final request. This was something big though, a situation that might be much larger and more important and dangerous if not passed on, than any promise made.
And his brain was so muddled he wasn’t sure.
Well wasn’t that a first...
MELINDA AND LUCAS WERE in the Deane Manor sifting through all the papers Mack had given them. So far, though, there wasn’t much that was useful. Nothing they hadn’t already discovered, or nothing of added value in solving why Lucas kept seeing this Levi Johnston.
They were on the couch, side by side, organizing all the files on a coffee table.
Mostly, they were just coming up with big, fat nothings.
Melinda yawned. “Sorry.”
“Should I make some coffee? Day’s flying by.”
“No. I’ve had so much caffeine lately I feel like I have more coffee in my veins, than blood.”
“Take a nap then. Couch is plenty big. I can keep looking through this stuff.” He gave out a yawn of his own.
“Or perhaps you should join me,” she joked. They were both exhausted. She shook herself awake. “Hand me that next stack.” He did, and they kept reading, looking for some clue as to why all of this craziness was happening.
CHARLIE CLEARED HIS throat and took a sip of water. Talking for hours upon hours was taking a toll on his vocal chords. But he didn’t care. As long as he had a voice left, he’d keep talking to Lizzy. Although it was already heading into evening and she probably needed to sleep. One more hour, he decided, and after, he’d hold her hand while she slept, so when she awoke she’d know she was not alone.
He’d gone through one of the notebooks his parents had set aside for him. The information inside wasn’t anything he didn’t already know, so far. But there was still a lot to read.
“Kind of silly, r
eally,” he told Lizzy. “If we’d ever had the daring to step inside our parent’s room after they first disappeared, and done any cleaning up, we would have come across this box. As it was, none of us wanted to. We left everything as it was. I guess we all hoped by some strange miracle, they’d come back. Somehow, by leaving everything as it was, them being gone was less... real.”
He rifled through a few more pages and set it down.
“I um, there’s things I found out while I was on my boat. I hadn’t had the chance to tell you after I got back, and some of it won’t necessarily apply to you, if you choose Grayson.” Charlie’s voice wound a little tight at that idea. But he remained firm, for all their benefits, that she was going to wake up from this. Or he’d figure out some way to save her. “And I’m not telling you this stuff to make you feel guilty, or change your mind. It’s just what I found out, and I would have shared it with you at some point. And actually, the more I think about it, you have a right to know before you pick me, or not.”
He cleared his throat again, nervously. He unconsciously stroked her arm as he spoke.
“When I was on my boat, Nina came to see me. The Guardian who died so I could have this ring. She was about to be reborn into a human life but was granted a final visit with me, first. Anyway, whoever I end up spending my life with, if we want children, that woman definitely cannot stay human. I would have to bite them. Although I did find out that as long as it’s a mutual biting agreement, I don’t have to take off the ring. It’s a free will thing.” He continued to explain more about his conversation with Nina, and how the ring worked, the only part he left out being that her brothers, Lucas and Riley, were potential Guardians after their human lives ended. They were also potential demons, depending on how they led their human lives.
“There’s still a ton of questions I don’t have answers to,” he started up again. “And if I’m lucky, maybe some of them are in this box my parents left me, but anyway, I can’t tell you exactly what happens to the woman after I bite her, other than she becomes a werewolf, obviously. But I’m thinking, I have to become that woman’s alpha. Or possibly lock her up every full moon. If we have kids, I don’t know if those kids can bite and hurt people. Or if they can pass on the curse. And they’ll be witches, too. So, yeah, still have a lot of questions, I’m sure you have your own, so let’s keep looking through this box.” He took another notebook and started reading. One more hour, then he’d let her sleep.
