Freaky Fangs, page 25
part #9 of Mystic Caravan Mystery Series
“Luke.” Cole let loose a sigh. “I’m part of this now. You can’t keep me out of it.”
“Just watch me.” His eyes darkened as they fixed on me. “You can go now.”
I’d expected a certain amount of rage, but I’d never seen Luke look at me the way he did now. It wasn’t exactly hatred, but it was close. I felt helpless. “Luke ... .”
“Get out.” Luke turned his back on me and smiled at Cole. “Do you want to clean up now or after your nap?”
“After.” Cole’s voice was barely a whisper. “I can’t sleep yet. They’re bringing a potion.”
Confusion etched its way across Luke’s handsome features. “A potion?”
This was the other part of the reunion I wasn’t looking forward to. It was best just to get it out there so Luke could fully explode. “We want to make sure he hasn’t been infected,” I offered.
“Infected?” Luke swiveled so fast, his hands balled into fists at his sides, that for a split second I thought he might actually physically attack me. “Are you kidding? He helped you burn a cave full of vampires. Would he do that if he was infected?”
“No,” I answered honestly. “It’s just a precaution. Cole agrees that it’s the best move.”
“Cole agrees? What is he supposed to say?”
“Luke.” Cole sounded exasperated. “Just ... let her do what she has to do. She has a duty to the people here. It’s not a big deal.”
“Oh, really? That’s not how I see it. She sent you on a mission to follow a guy who turned up dead anyway. She left you adrift during a fight. You could’ve been killed.”
“But I wasn’t.”
“Only because she decided to play cowboy and save you ... without me.” His voice cracked. “Do you know how many things could’ve gone wrong with your plan, Poet? All of you could’ve died. You should’ve taken back-up.”
“I couldn’t.” I steeled myself for his further anger. There was no way around it. He was allowed to feel what he felt ... and right now he hated me. I couldn’t change that. I didn’t have time. “I knew they would have spies here watching us. I needed a small group to be able to slip away.”
“And I couldn’t be part of that group? Why is that?”
“Because I’m sure they know how close you and I are. I’m also sure they know how close you and Cole are. If we were going to mount a rescue attempt it made sense that we would take you. They didn’t see us coming because we left you behind.”
“Uh-huh. And if it had been Kade trapped in a cave would you have stayed behind and let me rescue him?”
I didn’t know how to respond. “Luke ... .”
“Just shut up,” he snapped. “I’m done talking to you. In fact, I’m done with you altogether. I don’t want you around.”
The comment, however misguided, hurt. He knew it would. That’s why he said it. We’d been together for years, joined at the hip. We’d laughed together, talked about love together and fought together. Him turning his back on me was the most vicious wound of all.
I opened my mouth to utter yet another lame apology but it died on my lips when I heard the footsteps of someone moving toward the room. When I turned, I found Max walking through the doorway, a potion in hand. He smiled at Cole and immediately moved toward the patient.
“I’m glad to see you’re alive,” Max offered. “I wasn’t sure, but it seems my righthand woman had yet another trick up her sleeve.” He winked at me. “She’s a genius when she wants to be.”
“Yes, Poet is just perfect,” Luke seethed.
Max didn’t appear surprised by the anger permeating the room. “You should take the rest of the afternoon off and take care of Cole, Luke. I’m here to make sure that there are no issues.” He held up the potion. “Do you want to take it yourself or should we pour it down your throat?” Good humor twinkled in the depths of his eyes.
“Are you kidding me?” Luke exploded.
“As a matter of fact, I am.” Max shot the incredulous shifter a quelling look. “Calm down, son. I know you’re upset, but it’s going to be all right.”
Luke lowered his eyes. “It doesn’t feel like it’s going to be all right,” he muttered as he scuffed his foot against the carpet. “It feels like things are about to get worse.”
“Yes, well, that’s the world we’ve chosen to live in.” Max twisted the top off the potion and handed it to Cole. “Drink that and get some sleep. You’ll have a diligent caretaker while you’re out. As for you ... .” He turned to meet my gaze. “We need to talk about the lights. I don’t think that trick will work twice unless we can come up with a variation.”
I shot a furtive look toward Luke, desperate for him to make eye contact and tell me it was okay to leave. He didn’t look up. Resigned, I nodded and sighed. “Yeah. We definitely need to come up with a plan. They’re going to throw everything they have at us tonight.”
“That means it’s time for war,” Max said. “You’re my best soldier. Let’s talk strategy.”
26
Twenty-Six
I was feeling low when Kade found me at the picnic tables. I hadn’t bothered to return to work. Melissa seemed to be having a good time. In three days I would be saying goodbye to her. After that, there would be no chance to shirk my duties.
“Hey, beautiful.” Kade lowered himself to the bench next to me, a charming smile on his face. “Where have you been all my life?”
I merely stared at him and blinked, forcing the smile to disappear.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, resigned. “What are we fighting now?”
To my utter surprise, I couldn’t get any words out. I burst into tears.
“Oh, my ... what is this?” He sounded panicked as he wrapped his arms around me and I burrowed close, burying my face in his chest. “What’s going on?”
“Luke is angry with her,” Max supplied, appearing from ... somewhere. I wasn’t sure where he’d been loitering. He said he wanted to talk and then promptly disappeared. I would’ve been aggravated but that was simply his way. “He’s taking out his frustration on her and she’s not used to it.”
“Oh, well ... .” Kade rubbed his hand up and down my back. I couldn’t see his face but I could imagine him rolling his eyes behind my back as father and son shared in some “she’s so emotional” drama.
“He hates me,” I blurted out, my voice clogged with snot. “He never wants to see me again. He wishes I was dead.”
“I don’t believe that for a second,” Kade argued.
“That’s because it’s not true.” Max, ever calm, moved to sit on my other side. “Now you listen.” He pried me away from Kade so I had no choice but to look at him. I felt exposed, raw, and a bit defeated. “Luke will get over it. You did the right thing today. You saved Cole in the process. He can’t be angry about that.”
I wiped my finger under my nose. “But he is.”
“Stop that.”
“It’s true,” I protested. “He’s angry and he hates me.”
“Not that. I’m talking about wiping the snot with your hand.” Max fished a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to me. His smile was full of amusement. “Even though you’ve been off the streets for a decade, every once in awhile that brash street rat who tried to pick my pocket shows herself.”
I blew my nose into the handkerchief, morose. “Are you getting nostalgic about snot?”
His smile never wavered. “Poet, I know you’re not used to the way Luke treated you, but fear is a terrible beast that makes even the bravest and most congenial of us break from character. Luke is often brave, and sometimes that’s only for show. And he’s only congenial if he’s putting on an act. Do you know what that means?”
I blew my nose again and shook my head.
“It means he’s terrified of what could’ve happened, and not just to Cole. He realizes that those of you on the rescue team could’ve died in the attempt. How do you think Luke would take it if he lost you?”
“After today, I think he’d throw a party,” I muttered.
Max chuckled. “Oh, you’re so much work when you’re bickering with Luke. It’s been a bit since you two had a huge throwdown. You always get this way when things become tense between the two of you. Thankfully that’s not very often.”
“Luke is angry because I didn’t take him with me,” I argued. “I tried explaining why. He doesn’t understand. He said ... he said I would’ve melted down if the roles were reversed and Kade was the one in the cave. He’s right.”
“First, as much as I love Luke, he should never lead a rescue party,” Max supplied. “He’s a wonderful man with many great qualities ... but the mere thought of him battling vampires in a cave fills me with dark thoughts. Imagine the complaining if he ruined a pair of his favorite jeans.”
I wagged my head at Max. “Luke is more substantial than you give him credit for.” I felt the need to stand up for him. “He’s a good man.”
“I never said he wasn’t, and you need to calm down.” All traces of mirth disappeared from Max’s face. “You’re being ridiculous. Luke will forgive you.”
“How can you possibly know that?”
“I raised both of you.” He took a deep breath. “You might not like to admit it because you were essentially adults when you came to me, but I had a hand in molding both of you ... which means I know you extremely well. I know you almost as well as you know each other.”
“This conversation is making me uncomfortable,” Kade said. “You can’t be her father and my father. That makes our relationship … gross.”
Max snickered. “I may be your biological father, but you don’t think of me as a dad. It’s okay. We’re not there yet. Poet thinks of me that way, and I think it works for us ... however weird it is.”
“I guess.” Kade didn’t look convinced. “I still don’t like to think about it. First she was my mommy today … and now my sister. This is a very Game of Thrones day with all the faux incest.”
“Fair enough.” Max patted his shoulder before moving his hand to my hair. “Kid, you’ve always been my favorite. That day on the street when you tried to take my wallet I knew you were going to be a handful. I also knew you were going to be worth however much effort I put into you ... and I wasn’t wrong.
“Luke has put a lot of work into you, too,” he continued. “He fell in love with you the second he saw you. It’s a different kind of love than the kind you share with Kade, but that doesn’t make it any less intense … or even intimate.
“Right now he’s struggling with being cut out of the action. He wanted to be Cole’s hero, but you did the heavy lifting for him. He’s a man. That’s a gut punch to his ego, whether he wants to admit it or not.”
“Totally,” Kade agreed, bobbing his head.
Max shot him a fond smile. They really were bonding these days. “He loves you. Once Cole rests up and doesn’t look like death warmed over, Luke will realize he was out of bounds and apologize.”
“Luke doesn’t apologize.”
“That’s true. He’ll come up to you and pretend he didn’t yell at you and act like nothing ever happened.”
Despite myself, I found the corners of my mouth tipping up. “That does sound like something he’d do.”
“You just need to focus on the problem at hand so we can get through tonight. I’m fairly certain, after what happened in that cave, they’ll bring their entire army for us. That includes the strigoi. They’ll be on the frontlines of the battle for a change.”
“Yeah.” I rolled my neck. “I’ve been thinking about that. I have an idea.”
“Oh?”
“I think I can unearth their plan before they even get here.”
“Not that I would ever doubt you, but I’m curious about how you think you’ll do that.”
“Me, too,” Kade said.
“Starla.”
Max’s forehead wrinkled. “She’s still alive? I thought ... er, rather, I was under the impression that you took care of that particular situation.”
I shook my head. “I wanted to make sure we wouldn’t have a need for her.”
“And you think you’ve discovered something she can help you with?”
“Yeah. She’s tied into the psychic link the vampires share with the strigoi. She’s aware of their plans. The thing is, she’s down for the count right now. Zurie was wandering around. Sure, she wasn’t outside, but she was on her feet. That separates her from the other vampires ... and I’m starting to think that’s what makes the strigoi more powerful. Well ... at least one thing. They can be awake during the day and strategize.”
“I get what you’re saying, but I’m not sure how that benefits us,” Max countered. “Starla is dead to the world right now. She’s not awake. Not only can’t she tell us what they plan to do, she can’t even listen in on what they’re doing. She’s completely out of the game.”
“Because she’s unconscious,” I agreed. “What if she wasn’t? What if she was awake and we could force her to give us the information we want? Or, more accurately, what if I could listen through her?”
“It’s an intriguing premise. How will you do it?”
“We’ll work together and force her to wake up. Nixie has invigoration draughts. They keep people awake. I’m thinking we could mess with one enough to use it in this case, enhance it until we get what we want.”
“It’s not out of the realm of possibility. Then what?”
“Then I tap into her mind and listen to their plans.”
“What makes you think you can do that?”
“I did it with a woman under their control in the caves today.”
Kade stirred. “That’s true. Not only did she hear what they were saying, she also caused Zurie pain by attacking through the woman.”
“That sounds like a nifty piece of magic.” Max tilted his head to the side, considering. “There are no guarantees this will work.”
“There aren’t, but it’s an option I want to try. You and Kade are tackling the lights. You said you had an idea. I trust you to handle that. I’ll handle infiltrating Starla’s mind and getting a heads-up on their assault. If we play our cards right, we might be able to end this before it really gets going tonight.”
RAVEN WAS MY FIRST STOP. SHE was in the House of Mirrors, sitting behind her desk reading a book. She was so still, so quiet, that I almost didn’t interrupt her. Then I remembered I had a plan.
“So, do you want to help me force a vampire to wake during the day and eavesdrop on our enemies?”
Raven glanced up from the tome, her expression unreadable. “Always.” She closed the book and stood. “Do you have any idea how we’re going to do that?”
“I have an idea.”
“That’s good enough for me.”
We gathered Nixie and Naida, instructing Nixie to grab several invigoration draughts. By the time she arrived in the animal tent we were prepared to try something that — to my knowledge — had never been tried before.
“This could get ugly if we’re not careful,” Raven warned. “Forcing a vampire to go against what’s natural to her could make her head explode ... or her intestines liquefy. If either of those things happens I’m calling it right now. I’m not cleaning up the mess.”
I laughed despite myself. “We’ll make Nellie do it.”
“Oh, I’m sure he’ll love that.” Raven grabbed the potion from Nixie and moved it to the floor. “We have to funnel our magic into the potion. The goal is to superpower it, to the point it can wake the dead.”
“It sounds fun,” Nixie enthused.
“I love an experiment,” Naida said. “It’s worth a try. I mean ... I feel bad because we knew her and everything, but I believe Starla would’ve wanted us to do this because she was the helpful sort.”
I nodded as I gazed at Starla. She didn’t stir. Dante was dead to the world next to her. I’d considered using him, but that seemed wrong given how I’d failed him. “I agree.”
We joined hands, closed our eyes and began calling to our magic. The spell was basically a bastardized version of what we did when we erected the dreamcatcher. We needed to create a web of power. In this case, that web had to fit neatly into a bottle.
Once the chanting began in earnest I realized we were all rocking back and forth. We’d fallen into a rhythm and our minds were now responding to one another. There were times we instinctively knew what to do ... and today was one of those times.
We had four separate voices, four separate chants, and yet we became one. The power surged, whipping around the room and causing our hair to flutter. The spell built to a crescendo, until there was no way of defining where one voice started and the other ended. And then, at the same time, we ceased talking as the potion bottle spun in the middle of the floor.
“Do you think that worked?” Nixie asked after a moment. “Do you think it’s powerful enough to wake a vampire?”
I shrugged. “I guess we’ll see.” I grabbed the bottle and moved toward the cage. “I’m going in.”
“Wait.” Raven’s hand grabbed my wrist before I could unlock the door. “You can’t go in alone. We’re waking her. We’re not controlling her. She could attack. You need us to be in there with you, to hold her as still as possible while you invade her mind. You have no idea what she’ll do.”
She had a point and still ... . “I don’t want to put you guys at risk.”
“We’re already at risk,” she pointed out. “An army of vampires and strigoi are coming to kill us tonight. They won’t stop until each and every one of us is wiped out. This will give us an advantage if it works. I’m determined to make sure it works.”
I nodded. I wasn’t the only one who wanted to protect the people I loved. “Then let’s do it.”
The cage was a tight fit, but we all managed to get into the proper positions. I took the spot by her head, relinquishing the potion to Raven as Naida and Nixie took firm hold of Starla’s arms.
“I expect her to struggle when she first wakes,” Raven offered. “She’ll be confused. She might even be in pain because it’s daytime. Just ... hold her as still as you can. If we’re lucky, it won’t take Poet long to gain control of her.”
