Freaky Fangs, page 13
part #9 of Mystic Caravan Mystery Series
“And vampires can communicate with one another,” I added. “Starla will share information with them about what we do here, how we operate, without being able to control her reactions. She’ll spill without thinking twice.”
“Which means we can torture her for information about the vampires because she’ll know thanks to the collective,” Raven added.
I dropped the bread and broke out in a run toward the area where I knew they were preparing Starla’s body. They’d already built a huge bonfire pit and were busy collecting limbs and branches. I stopped them before they could go any further.
“We’re not burning her,” I called out, causing Kade to jerk his head and scan the area until he found me.
“We’re not?” His expression was unreadable. “Would you like to share with the class why we’re not going through with the plan we all just came up with ... together?”
I remained calm even though I could sense the agitation rippling under his supposedly calm surface. “Because she might change.”
Cole’s hands landed on his hips as he narrowed his eyes. “I thought that was the reason we were burning her. She won’t be the same woman you knew if she comes back. She won’t have a soul. She’ll lie ... and work against us.”
“She’ll do all that,” I agreed. “We’re not even a hundred percent sure they tried to change her. We won’t know until darkness falls. But if she is one of them, she has access to their collective.”
Cole’s eyebrows drew together. “And if she has access to their collective, she might be able to answer some questions for us. I hate to say it — mostly because it wasn’t my idea — but that makes sense.”
Kade was obviously still behind because he threw up his hands. “I don’t understand any of this.”
I took pity on him and strode in his direction. He was understandably frustrated. “Listen ... .”
“No, you listen.” His temper was on full display. “I may not get all the nuances of vampires — or understand how they communicate or anything else about them — but I understand danger. If she turns, she puts all of us in danger.”
I opted to use my most practical voice. “We’re already in danger,” I noted. “We have no idea how large the army we’re dealing with is. We have no idea if they plan on coming for us again or if they’ll try to run. Our approach will be vastly different depending on the scenario.”
“And?”
“And she’ll have that information. The vampires talk to one another psychically. Not only will she likely wake up with a mission to spy on us, but she’ll have information about their network.”
“And you think she’s simply going to share that information with us out of the goodness of her heart? I might not understand everything there is to know about vampires, but I’m not naive enough to ignore the fact that whatever comes back will be wearing a familiar face and trying to get us to turn against one another.”
Despite his limited knowledge, he was smarter than anyone ever gave him credit for. “I think you understand better than you’re letting on,” I countered, forcing a smile for his benefit. “Here’s the thing ... we can’t control her. She’ll try really hard to control us, but we’ve done things like this before.”
“You’ve had a friend turned into a vampire and tortured her for information?”
I swallowed hard at his incredulous stare. “Not exactly. We’ve lost people to vampires. As for torturing her for information ... we have to do what we have to do. We’re in danger out here. The circus opens soon. That means we’re going to have guests to keep safe as well as ourselves.”
He stilled. It was obvious he hadn’t yet gotten that far. “I didn’t realize ... .” He trailed off, his eyes going wide as he studied the huge expanse of space surrounding the fairgrounds. “It will be a slaughter.”
“No. We won’t let it come to that.”
“How will you stop it?”
“We’ll extend the dreamcatcher if we have to,” I answered without hesitation. “We’ll expand it to cover this entire area, making it so the vampires can’t cross beyond the trees. We’ve handled situations like this before. We have contingency plans.”
“So ... we keep the tourists safe until they leave the dreamcatcher and then allow the vampires to attack them as they drive down the road, just like that other family?”
I bristled at the accusation. “That would not be the ideal outcome. We can’t control absolutely everything.”
As if reading the set of my jaw, his expression softened. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to argue.” He lifted his hands in a placating manner. “I’m feeling ... out of sorts. I guess that’s the best word for it. I don’t feel settled.”
“This is the circus,” I reminded him. “I don’t think anyone feels settled.”
“That’s not true.” His eyes were back on the tree line. “I always feel settled with you. In fact, I’ve never felt more settled than I do here ... which is weird because we’re constantly on the road and we don’t have a set place to call home.”
His eyes were earnest when he looked back at me. “You make me feel settled. Max is even making me feel settled. You guys have made me realize that it’s people who make a home, not four walls and a roof.”
The words were touching and they made me go soft all over. He wasn’t looking for a soft response, though. “What do you want me to say? You’re my home, too. I think I’ve known that from the start. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to argue, have differences of opinion when it comes to strategy, and occasionally butt heads.
“You want to burn Starla’s body regardless, even though it might set us back, because you think it’s safer,” I continued. “I disagree.”
“Does that mean you won’t be angry if I burn her body regardless?”
That felt like a trick question. “No.” I offered up a brief smile. “I’ll definitely be angry if you burn her. We might only get one shot at this. We’re running out of time. We have to take out this nest before we leave. If we don’t, they’ll simply redouble their efforts to grow in the year we’re on the road and we’ll have the same problem next year, only ten times bigger.”
“Yeah.” He dragged a hand through his dark hair. “Fine. We won’t burn her ... at least not yet. What do you suggest we do with her?”
“I already have that figured out.” I gave his hand a squeeze and impulsively rolled up to the balls of my feet so I could press a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “This isn’t the first time we’ve had to do something like this. We have a contingency plan for this, too.”
“I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse.”
WE MOVED STARLA INTO ONE OF the animal cages. They were soundly constructed even though they were basically only for looks. We left her on the floor and locked both ends of the cage, leaving one of the trapeze performers who was nursing a bad ankle to watch and alert us should she wake.
I was readying myself to leave and prepare my tent when my assistant Melissa found me. She didn’t look happy.
“Are you going to kill her if she wakes up?”
Melissa had grown into something of an enigma the last few months. After a harrowing event on the West Coast, one in which she almost lost herself, she’d become mousy and afraid ... and I had a feeling she was working her way up to leaving the group. She hadn’t said so yet, but it felt as though it was coming. She hadn’t fully recovered, and I was starting to wonder if she ever would.
“If she wakes up, that will mean she’s a vampire,” I said, searching for the right words to offer Melissa some comfort. Even though we weren’t as close as we were at the start, I still felt as if I owed her something. When she first came on the road with us she’d been gregarious and full of life. Now she simply looked as if she wanted to disappear into the shadows.
“So ... you’re going to kill her.” Melissa folded her arms over her chest. “That doesn’t really seem fair. It’s not her fault that this happened to her.”
“I didn’t say it was her fault.” I chose my words carefully, unsure exactly what I was supposed to say to her. “Sometimes things happen that can’t be ignored. If Starla wakes up, she’ll be one of them. She’ll want to drain humans to survive.”
“Not all vampires kill,” Melissa persisted. “You taught me that. Some vampires only drink enough to survive.”
“That’s true. But she’ll be learning from the vampires we’re fighting now, and they obviously kill.”
“But ... shouldn’t you give her a chance? I mean, we don’t know she’s going to turn into a killer until she actually does the deed. It seems like you’re punishing her for something she hasn’t done yet.”
“What about the person she kills? If we wait for her to kill someone, what about the life taken in that process? Does that person deserve to die?”
“I don’t know. I ... just don’t like the idea of killing Starla for an ideal.”
“Right.” I rubbed the back of my neck. This was a touchy subject and the conversation felt like a minefield. “She’s not you,” I offered after a beat. “She can’t go back to being the person she was. She wasn’t taken and forced to do things against her will. This is who she is now.”
“Yes, but ... this isn’t the life she chose. She hasn’t done anything wrong. Not yet at least.”
“And you’re looking at her predicament through your eyes.” I held back a sigh ... but just barely. “This isn’t the same thing that happened to you. You were forced to do things because you were put under a spell by a powerful witch. Starla’s entire blood chemistry is going to change. She won’t be the same person.
“You were the same person, just one who was being controlled,” I continued. “We freed you by killing the person controlling you. You’re back to your old self.”
“That’s a matter of opinion, isn’t it?” she groused, averting her eyes. “I know what you’re saying makes sense, but ... it doesn’t seem fair.”
“Life isn’t fair,” I pointed out. “We can only do the very best that we can.”
“I guess.” Melissa looked despondent as she focused on Starla. “I talked to her a few times. She wasn’t bad ... for being one of the midway workers, I mean. She was nice and didn’t act like Mark. I liked her.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know her well, but she was one of the few who didn’t bother me. I wish I could go back and realize what the vampires had planned. We probably could’ve stopped this if we’d thought things through.”
“Do we ever think things through?”
“To the best of our ability.”
“That’s not really an answer.”
I held out my hands, a feeling of helplessness washing over me. “I don’t have the answers you’re looking for. In fact ... I think you should stay inside tonight. Once darkness falls, head inside your trailer and hang out there.”
“That’s what I’ve been doing the past two nights. You might not realize it, but ... I haven’t helped.”
Actually, I did realize it. That was one of the reasons I knew she wouldn’t make it with the circus. All the bright-eyed wonder from the start was long gone. Worse, the courage was gone. “You’re better off in your trailer.”
“Yeah.” She heaved out a sigh and turned her eyes toward the tent opening. “I thought this was going to be the best thing that ever happened to me. I really did.”
“Life doesn’t always work out the way we think it’s going to.” My heart gave a little heave. “You’re ready to go home, aren’t you?”
She jerked her head in my direction, surprise lining her features. “Why do you think that? I didn’t mention anything about going home.”
I thought back about what Kade had said. “For some people, this is home.” I gestured around. “It’s not an easy life. I think I told you that from the start. If you hit it right, it’s a great life.”
“You don’t think I’m hitting it right, do you?”
“I don’t think you can ... and I don’t think this is your home. What happened in California changed you. It changed all of us, but you can’t get past it. I was hopeful that you would eventually be able to put it behind you, but I don’t think that’s possible.
“You don’t want to be here,” I continued. “You’re pushing yourself to stay in a world you hate. That’s not healthy. I can get you home.”
“But ... I promised to stick with you.” Tears flooded her eyes. “I promised to be your assistant. We were going to travel the world together. You were going to teach me things.”
“You’ve already learned some hard lessons. You can’t force yourself to stay here any longer. It’s pure torture. I can have you on a flight home by the end of the day if you want.”
She balked. “You want me to leave today?”
“I don’t want you to leave at all, but you’ve already checked out. As for today, maybe you should stick through the end of this trip and then leave when we do. That will give you time to adjust to your decision, to make sure it’s the right one. You can always come back when you get your head together. Maybe the time away will do you good.”
She opened her mouth in such a manner I thought she would argue. Ultimately, though, she swallowed hard and nodded. “Maybe that’s a good idea. Just until I get a little rest and don’t have the nightmares any longer, I mean.”
I had news for her. The nightmares would never completely go away. She would have to learn to live with them. “I’ll make the arrangements. I’ll also leave it up to you to tell the others.”
“Thanks.” For the first time in weeks, she flashed a genuine smile. “I’m sorry I turned out to be such a disappointment.”
“You didn’t,” I reassured her. “In an ideal world, you would’ve bounced back in twenty-four hours and never thought about it again. As we’ve already discussed, though, life isn’t fair.”
“It’s really not.”
14
Fourteen
The imminent loss of Melissa should’ve dragged me down. Instead, I felt better. She had a clear path ahead of her. She could go home, rest and regroup. There was no resting in the circus. Our lives simply weren’t conducive to down time.
Kade found me setting up my tent, something Melissa would normally do, and looked surprised when he found me shining my crystal ball.
“Where’s your assistant?”
I slid him a glance. I’d promised Melissa could tell the others she was leaving, but I needed someone to talk to. “She’s leaving Sunday. I need to secure a plane ticket for her.”
He didn’t react with surprise. “I wondered if that was coming.” He moved closer and rested his hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“I am. I think it’s best for her.”
“It’s not what she wanted. She thought this was going to be an amazing life, that she would turn into the next you. Apparently she didn’t have the stomach for it.”
“She can’t get over what happened in California. I don’t really blame her. That was ... horrible. She’s stalked by dreams and clouded by fear. She needs to get away from us.”
“If she wants to leave today I can take her to the airport.”
“I offered, but that’s not what she wants. I think she needs to say goodbye to everyone on her own terms.”
He pressed his lips together and nodded, his eyes going to the stack of books on the ground. He grabbed them and walked to the shelf on the far side of the tent. He’d been around long enough that he knew exactly what order I liked them in and started arranging them without a second thought.
“She might be better off leaving today,” he said over his shoulder. “The goodbyes aren’t going to mean much if she dies in a battle with a horde of vampires.”
“True, but I told her to stay in her trailer. It’s not as if she’s been out when we’ve been fighting anyway.”
“I didn’t realize ... .” He trailed off. “This life isn’t what I thought it would be,” he offered after a moment, changing course. “It’s so much more.”
I shot him a smile. “That’s because you have me.”
“You’re definitely the biggest part of it,” he agreed. “There’s more than just you, though. I don’t think I could build a life around one thing, even if it’s the best thing ever.” He winked at me. “I fit here. I don’t think Melissa fits.”
“I think she had potential to, but what happened in California changed the trajectory of her life. It is what it is.”
“Yeah.” He blew out a sigh and reached for more books. “I’ll miss her, but you’re right. This is best for her. She needs to find herself again, and I don’t think that can happen here.”
I crouched down so I was at eye level with him. “Whenever I need to find myself I look into your eyes. It’s nice.”
The grin he shot me was flirty. “Right back at you.” He gave me a quick kiss. “When is she going to tell the others?”
“I don’t know. I said I wouldn’t mention it to anybody else. It’s her show. You have to act surprised when she tells you.”
“I’m pretty sure she knows you were going to tell me. It’s okay. I’ll wait for her to broach the subject.”
“She’s always had a crush on you. She might drag you away to somewhere private to tell you.”
“She might have a crush on me, but she loves you. She’ll be respectful because that’s who she is.” He ran his hand over my hair and then pushed himself to a standing position. “I’ll help you in here and then head out to walk the perimeter. Cole is doing it now. I think he fancies himself the new head of security.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing at the annoyed expression on his face. “Did you tell him we already have a security chief?”
“Of course. He just keeps saying that he thinks like a cop, so I have to listen to him.”
“He’s not wrong.” The look he scorched me with was hot enough that I held up my hands in surrender. “You’re obviously smarter, though.”
