The Witching Hour: 11 Enchanting Novels Featuring Witches, Wizards, Vampires, Shifters, Ghosts, Fae, and More!, page 34
I pressed my lips shut, staring out the window as the snow began to fall again, silent and in thick flakes. “I know. I agree that Rachel may have it in for me.” I stopped again, processing the flood of thoughts cascading through my brain. Finally, I shrugged. “Come over, then. Delia is going to want to talk to Aegis tonight, she said, so it’s not like it’s going to be a private evening. Maybe it’s best if we put everything out on the table.”
“I’ll follow you over.” Sandy slipped out of the car, shutting the door and motioning for me to lock it.
I locked the doors and waited till she was safely in hers, then started the engine again. With Sandy on my heels, I eased out of the parking lot and cautiously headed for home. I wasn’t looking forward to the conversations that awaited me there.
The lights were on when I got home, and I shivered, waiting for Sandy to pull in behind me. Together we headed for the kitchen door, through the yard where I had found Rose. The snow was lightly covering over the spot where she had been lying, and as we passed by, both Sandy and I paused, staring at the ground.
“We need to talk to her parents. And the coven needs to meet to discuss how we want to handle the Cord Cutting ceremony and if we want to open to a new member. Linda has to have heard by now.” I steeled myself, glancing up at the Bewitching Bedlam. “I hate to say this—it sounds so crass, but I just realized what a mess this could make with our opening. Come to the B&B and get murdered… Damn it, why does everything have to get muddled like this?” The full weight of what had happened and the potential ramifications were hitting home. “Now I wonder, maybe Ralph did do this. It could hurt my business really bad.”
“I didn’t think about that, either.”
“Well, let’s go. No use putting this off any longer.” I strode ahead and unlocked the door into the kitchen.
Aegis was sitting there, in the rocking chair. As he saw me, he leapt to his feet.
“Where were you? Why didn’t you leave a note? I’ve been worried sick about whether you were okay or lying dead in some alley!” He grabbed me, kissing me soundly, and then pushing me back by my shoulders. “Don’t you scare me like that again!”
I stared at him, my fears beginning to melt. “You heard about Rose, then?”
“Heard about her? The sheriff called and told me she’s on her way out to talk to me about the dead woman found in my yard. I panicked, thinking maybe it was you, but then she mentioned Rose’s name. What were you thinking, not leaving a note?” His eyes were filled with concern, and Bubba came bouncing up onto the counter beside him.
“You could have asked Bubba—” I started to say, but Aegis wrapped me in his arms, kissing me again. I searched his eyes as I came up for air, questioning him—looking for anything that might say he was putting on a show, but saw nothing but concern and love in his face.
“You know I can’t speak cjinn all that well.” He glanced over at Sandy. “I’m supposing you came with her to make sure I didn’t do anything particularly nasty.” His tone was sour, but he smiled to take the sting off his words.
“Do you blame me for worrying?” Sandy dropped into a chair and crossed her legs. “How about a drink?”
“Help yourself,” Aegis said, nodding toward the refrigerator. “There’s wine. And no, I suppose I don’t. I was worried enough for the both of us.” He let go of me and I slipped out of my coat.
“Pour me a glass too, Sandy.” I draped my coat over the back of a chair and dropped into the rocking chair. “How long till Delia gets here?”
“She should be here within the hour. She called about twenty minutes ago. I had been up for about half an hour. I couldn’t find you anywhere, and then I went outside and saw that the yard looked like it had been excavated—at least the snow had. I had no clue of what was going down until she called me.” Over his shoulder, he added, “Ralph killed her, Delia said?”
I hesitated, wondering how to bring up Rachel. Sandy did it for me.
“We need to talk about Rachel, Aegis. She’s in town, and we found out today that she’s the woman who Ralph says paid him to retrieve some of Maddy’s hair.”
Aegis froze, then turned around very slowly. His eyes were luminous, glowing with a crimson tint. He silently moved to the kitchen island where he hoisted himself onto the counter, sitting very still.
“How do you know about Rachel?”
I let out a long breath. “Someone sent me this anonymous text yesterday.” I held out my phone. “Franny saw it and identified the woman as your ex-girlfriend, a vampire named Rachel. I showed it to Ralph and he said it was the woman who paid him to gather my hair. We went out to Essie’s this evening and she verified that Rachel is back in town and looking to get you back. She said Rachel is trouble.” I held his gaze, trying to read his mood.
Aegis glanced over at Sandy. “I assume you’re here to make sure I don’t go all fang-banger on her?” His tone was snide, but she didn’t flinch.
“You got it. Aegis, I like you but you need to get it through your thick skull. We don’t know you that well. Regardless of the fact that you’re fucking my friend—that you two have made a love connection—the reality remains that we don’t know your background or what you have done over the past…what…couple thousand years? Three thousand?” She shrugged. “If you think I’m going to let Maddy walk into potential danger alone, then you must not think I’m much of a friend.”
He stared at her for a moment, then turned back to me. “Sandy’s right, you know. You can’t let your feelings for me cloud your vision. Essie’s right. Rachel is dangerous and she’s no fool. She’s also off the wall fucking crazy and she’s been stalking me for years.”
I was torn, not wanting to cross-examine him in front of Sandy. But we had passed the point of diplomacy. “Why didn’t you tell me about her?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t know she was here until last week. I was trying to figure out how to tell you about her when things began to happen. When I went out to check on the noise that startled Bubba the other night, I smelled her. I realized she was hanging around the house and it scared me because she’s never forgiven me for breaking up with her. I’d forgotten that we posed for that painting. And I forgot that Franny knew about Rachel.”
I wanted to ask him the most important question of all. Well, it really wasn’t the most important, but to my heart it was. But Aegis took one look at my face and slid off the counter, walking carefully over to me. He tipped my chin up, so I was looking into his eyes.
“I don’t love her anymore. I don’t know if I ever really did. And the last thing I want is for her to be part of my life again. She’s crazy and dangerous and if I had had any clue what kind of sociopath she was, I would never have taken up with her in the first place. Since I met you, Maudlin Gallowglass, there hasn’t been another woman who could turn my head. Nor do I expect there will be.” There was such conviction in his voice that I couldn’t help but believe him.
“Thank you.”
“For what?” He looked confused. “I screwed up, I admit it. I should have known that Rachel might come looking for me one of these days. I put you in danger with my silence.”
“For not making me ask. For not trying to make me feel like I have no right to know about her.” I remembered what Sandy had said. I had been Mad Maudlin, respected and feared. I held tight to that memory, straightening my shoulders. “Because if you had tried to brush me off…”
“You’d make me leave. I understand. But Maddy, do you really think Ralph killed Rose? He might be working in cahoots with Rachel, but I never pegged him for a killer. While Rose’s death is going to impact the business, I just can’t see him attacking your coven-mate.”
“There’s something that I don’t think Delia told you. Rose was wearing the same kind of coat I was. She has long dark hair. In the gloom…”
Understanding dawned in his eyes. “She could have been you. But wasn’t she killed today? In the sunlight?”
I shook my head. “She was killed last night when she left here. That’s why Delia wants to talk to you. When you came home—”
Sandy shifted. “What Delia’s going to ask you is how, when you returned home, you managed to miss Rose’s body.”
The doorbell rang then, and I broke away, going to answer. Delia was standing there, along with one of her deputies. I ushered them in.
“Aegis is waiting,” I said. “I have some more information that might have some bearing on the case.”
“Don’t you want to know if we caught Ralph?” Delia asked, following me back into the kitchen.
“I don’t think he did it—”
“He’s in jail, Maddy. He confessed. He said that he was tricked into it by the woman he keeps talking about, that she said she could help him destroy his competition.” She pulled out her notebook. “I just have some routine questions,” she added, turning to greet Aegis. “Hello—mighty fine band you have there. I caught your show last week at the Utopia. Good sound.”
“Thanks.” Aegis frowned. “You say Ralph confessed?”
“That doesn’t make sense. When I talked to him, he acted like normal—like he always does. If he killed Rose, do you think he would have stood there arguing with me in the bakery? If he thought Rose was me, don’t you think that he would have been surprised to see me?” Nothing made sense, not even why Delia was taking Ralph’s word at face value.
She bit her lip. “Tell me what else you found out. For the record, I don’t know if Ralph’s telling the truth, but not many people confess to murders they don’t commit, and Ralph’s not the self-sacrificing type.”
That was true enough. Satyrs, in general, didn’t think much about others. They were fun-loving and brave, but I wouldn’t count on them to have my back unless they were a good friend.
“Okay. I went out and talked to Essie.” I laid out everything about Rachel that Essie had told me. Aegis chimed in to fill in the blanks.
Delia frowned. “So this Rachel is around. Ralph might just be working with her. Or there’s another possibility. I’ll have my men check Ralph for bite marks. He might be under thrall. If that’s the case, then he’d do anything for her and she could use him as a fall guy.”
“True. Satyrs can be mesmerized by a vampire as much as anybody.” As a witch, I was immune to the charm a vampire’s gaze caused, but just about anybody—witch or not—was subject to thrall, the state of euphoria and slavish devotion that a vampire’s bite could produce.
Aegis shook his head. “I wouldn’t put it past Rachel to sneak around Bedlam trying to produce an army of slaves. She always longed to be worshipped. Anybody who refused to put her on a pedestal ran the risk of becoming lunch. I release those whom I drink from so they aren’t bound, but Rachel never did. When she left them alive, she left them pining for her.”
“How long were you with her? We need to know everything we can about her. It sounds like she’s not just a danger to Maddy, but to Bedlam proper.” Delia was taking notes furiously, but I had the feeling she was watching Aegis very closely even though her focus seemed to be on her notepad.
His gaze clouded over. Finally, he shrugged and looked directly at me. “I first met Rachel in 1925. She was a dancer at one of the burlesque joints. The moment I set eyes on her, I knew she was special. I just wish I had never walked into that music hall, because that’s the last day I ever felt fully free.”
7
“I met her in New York. She was dancing at a place called the Moxy Music & Theatre Hall. It was cold out, I think. The snow was thick and even though I didn’t feel the chill, it seemed bleak and dark. I was new in the city—I had come over in steerage to prevent exposure to the sun, and it also gave me an ample amount of people to drink off of during the night. I hid out and slept during the day. Anyway, I was fresh to the city and trying to find my way. I had worn out my welcome in Greece, and England was feeling old and tired. America promised wide spaces and new vistas.”
I understood, and I knew Sandy did, as well. Those of us in the Pretcom were long-lived, so we had to keep things fresh. We had to turn over our lives and reinvent ourselves more than once to stay focused. The Fae didn’t seem to feel the passing of time as harshly as we did, and Elves were best at handling long expanses of time. But shifters and Weres, witches and vamps—we all needed to shake the dust loose now and then.
“I ducked into the Moxy, just to see what was there. And she was on the stage. Rachel. She went by the name Desire—her stage name. She was dancing. But it wasn’t bump and grind. No, she used her glamour to enthrall her watchers. I could see it even though I wasn’t pulled in by it, but the aura gave her away. I knew she was one of the Fallen. A vampire like me.”
I didn’t want to hear this and yet, I had to. I had to face the fact that Aegis had had other loves—like I had—and that they had been to him what my sweet Tom had been to me. Aegis must have sensed what I was feeling, because he smiled at me.
“Glamour’s very real, but it’s not the core of what true attraction is. Anyway, she must have felt the shift in energy as I came in, because she looked directly at me from up there on the stage and that was it. I waited till after she was finished and we took up together that very night. Rachel knew her own way and she was a shrewd businesswoman. Nobody ever got one over on her. But there was a side of her that I couldn’t accept. She was ruthless and a user. She liked bloodwhores and sycophants, and for people to grovel in front of her.”
A chill raced down my back. “She likes power.”
He shook his head. “She craves it. I think it’s an actual addiction for her.”
“Where did Rachel originally come from?” Delia asked.
Aegis frowned. “She’s from an old Romany family. She’s not as old as I am, but she’s at least four or five hundred. She comes from the Old Country and keeps to her family’s customs. Her mother was one of the Strega. When Rachel was turned, her mother tried to stake her. Rachel killed her entire family, but she holds to their beliefs about vengeance. Once you cross her, you’re forever on her list.”
“When did you break up?” My stomach was knotting up. I had known Strega in my time. Some of them were good people, but like every other group, some of them were dangerous and vicious. In fact, I may have run across her long ago and not realized it. Whatever the case, Rachel was a first-class threat and if what Aegis was saying was true, she’d be a danger for life. The Strega never forgot. They nursed their grudges like dragons nursed gold.
“In early 1990, she crossed the line. I knew she didn’t leave all of her victims alive but I managed to look the other way, until I found her drinking the blood of ten-year-old twins. Granted, we were in the middle of nowhere, and there were only scattered families around. We’d gone on a stupid road trip and ended up in the Midwest. When I discovered she had slaughtered an entire family, including the twins, she laughed in my face. She said I was an idiot and that Apollo was right to cast me out—that I wasn’t worth keeping around.”
I winced, trying not to picture the carnage. But that alone convinced me that Aegis and I had to have a talk about my past.
“And you’ve never killed a child?” Delia sounded skeptical. The question seemed cruel, even for her. Although werewolves and vamps didn’t mix, I understood. Given the millennia Aegis had lived, I understood her line of reasoning.
Aegis straightened, staring directly at the sheriff. “Never. I’ve never killed a child. And I’ve never ruthlessly murdered to feed. Vampires don’t need to kill their food supply. It doesn’t make sense, anyway. The only time I’ve killed anyone is when they were attempting to destroy me. And I have killed a few other vampires. Once, I found one attacking a pregnant woman. Another time, I followed one of the Fallen into an alley to find that he had enthralled five or six young girls—all under their teen years. He wasn’t just using them for blood. He died that night and I made sure the girls ended up in the hospital. Nobody ever knew how they got there, but I made sure they were found before I left.”
Delia flipped her notepad shut and leaned back. “Why does Rachel want you back? Why not move on to the next catch?”
Aegis shifted, looking uncomfortable. “I’m the only one who ever left her. Everybody else, she’s either killed or dumped. I’m the one who walked away, and that bruised her ego. It was worse when she found out that I had come to Bedlam, a town where the vampires answer to the witches. Rachel refuses to kneel before anyone who isn’t one of the Fallen royalty. She’d be happy for the entire world to be enslaved.”
“She really is a piece of work, isn’t she?” Sandy snorted. “Megalomaniac, narcissistic. It’s a wonder she’s not running for president.”
“Too much paperwork and not enough autonomy,” Aegis said, breaking the tension with a laugh. “After a while, her temper tantrums would cease to be welcome.” He sobered again. “But seriously, check Ralph for fang marks. She’ll have to have bitten him for him to fall under thrall. I’m betting you find them.”
“Even so, I can’t let him go if he’s the one who actually murdered Rose. Even if he did it under her orders, we’ll have to prosecute them both. The best I can offer is that he’ll need a good lawyer.” Delia let out a long sigh. “He’ll be up on charges under both state law as well as having to answer to the Bedlam Tribunal. The latter may be far harsher on him than the former.” She stood, glancing out the window. “Vampires don’t leave fingerprints, do they?”
“Yes, they do, but most often you won’t find them in any record because the majority of us are older than the fingerprint databases. If they could match some of the prints left in unsolved murders to vampires, they might solve a number of cold cases.” He gave her a shrug. “What can you do?”
“Last question. Do you know where she’s staying?”
