Sapphire Curse, page 9
part #1 of Rebels of the Realms Series
“Yin is a vampire, and she’s far worse than poison,” Thomas said. He pulled the cover up, letting the dead finally rest. “She favors keeping a body alive for days. She feeds from the groin, the wrist, and the neck. She doesn’t heal her prisoners or make them forget what they’ve experienced.”
Xavier added, “She does remind them she will feed from them until they die.”
Darcy wasn’t the type to get queasy. The idea of the wounds and feeding didn’t bother her as much as the intent behind it all to hurt someone. That twisted her stomach. She cupped her hands over her elbows and tried to remember there was good in the world, even if there were monsters hoping to drain it all.
She asked, “Any idea why she would go after the pathologist’s assistant?”
“Yin’s tortuous craving was for men,” said Thomas.
Xavier said, “It was payback for all the horrible things done to her as a mortal.”
Thomas said, “Beyond that, there would be no reason for picking him. Yin was part of our clan though she didn’t care much for the rest of us. She went her own way when our clan broke apart. She had followers like Kip and Naoki that viewed mortals like she did. The only things she cared about were her bloodbath and our maker.”
“You don’t think—” Xavier started but cut himself off. “She can’t.”
“We thought we couldn’t, but we did,” said Thomas.
“What do you think Yin is doing?” asked Darcy, more curious than frightened.
Xavier skimmed his fingertips through the scruff along his jaw. His mind raced one direction while his words went another. He said, “We’ve outcast ourselves from other vampires. We broke the code of our kind.”
Thomas said, “The most sacred of bonds is that between a maker and his sangora, a descendant of its blood. A sangora will do whatever a maker says if commanded, regardless of desire to do it. It’s a price for the gift of eternal night.”
Xavier said, “Such a gift. Our maker forced us to kill innocents and torture them for his pleasure.”
“There was also the money,” said Thomas. The deeper he went into the details, the thicker the bitterness in his voice became. “We were a troop for hire—our maker and his seven soldiers. We were brought into any major war of the last few hundred years by the highest bidder.”
“Sometimes both sides,” said Xavier.
“And somehow you broke that bond,” said Darcy. Silence followed as she glanced back and forth between the two cold men. “Did you kill him?”
“A sangora cannot kill his maker,” said Xavier, disappointed.
“We did break the bond,” said Thomas. When he reminded himself of it, feelings came in waves. Relief. Regret. Fear. “We made a vow never to speak of how.”
Darcy’s mind raced, trying to make something coherent out of it all. The pieces of this puzzle were each their own maze to navigate. Then she gasped, “Can she bring him back?”
Despite the impossibility of it, Thomas went paler. Xavier’s features hardened. The lights overhead flickered.
“Yin knows nothing,” said Xavier, bitter as though spitting at the thought. “No one knows how we did it.”
Thomas sighed, “They assume we used witchcraft.”
“Did you?” asked Darcy.
Xavier and Thomas slowly shifted their eyes to Darcy without moving another muscle. Darcy swallowed and then scraped her tongue over the dry roof of her mouth. Whatever they did, it was enough to unify these otherwise battling men. If it was worth the chains that bound them to be forever rebel outcasts, she wondered what price they paid to do it.
Darcy said, “If there is a way to bring him back, we need to figure out how to stop Yin. Your maker sounds like a real monster.”
Thomas said, “Traian would find his kind at the table of the devil. He is the maker of the Eternal Eight. He made us kill for power and the thrill of it.”
Snarling, Xavier said, “We find Yin. We rip her head off.”
Thomas groaned, “Vampires already want us dead. That will only give them more ammunition to spark a movement.”
Xavier struck the nearest table with his fist and bent the metal. The sound cracked like thunder. He offered, “Then we give them the showdown they’ve always wanted.”
8
After breakfast the next morning, Darcy wrung her hands while she hummed a Journey song. Watson followed her as she went to the living room every twelve minutes to glance out the window to an empty driveway. She couldn’t eat her lunch. It wasn’t until she heard a car pull into the driveway that Darcy realized she hadn’t brushed her hair all day.
She slid on her socks to the door and pulled a band from her wrist to throw her hair up before Jasmine could knock. The first sound came as Darcy slipped on her shoes and reached for the door handle.
“Hi!” Darcy chirped, a little more enthusiastic than she meant for it to be. Jasmine was not as excited. It was hard to tell if the mood was from Darcy or the man behind her at the bottom of the stairs. “Need back up to talk to me?”
“I’m off duty,” said Lance. He smiled at her, always wide and bright.
Jasmine grunted and said, “You can go now.”
“I’m your ride,” said Lance.
Pressing closer to Darcy, Jasmine said, “I’ll walk if I have to. He only plays music that came out before I was born.”
“I should arrest you for not knowing who Bon Jovi is,” said Lance.
Darcy’s jaw dropped. “You don’t know Bon Jovi?”
“Go join an old geezer club and leave me out of it,” said Jasmine. “I’ve never heard half of his music in my thirty-two years.”
Darcy grinned and said, “I’m younger, and I bet I’ve heard it all.”
Jasmine groaned, “I’m beginning to regret agreeing to come. Can we get this over with?”
Darcy nodded for Jasmine to follow her. They passed Lance at the bottom of the stairs.
“I’ll hang back here,” he said, awkwardly pointing at the ground. The women walked away, leaving him alone in the front yard. He whistled radio tunes to himself and traveled back through the decades.
When the two women couldn’t be heard by the law, Darcy said, “I’m kind of surprised you came.”
“Weren’t expecting me to show?” asked Jasmine. She tucked her thumbs into her back pockets. “I sure as hell wasn’t expecting you.”
Darcy felt the first barb. She wasn’t going to try to stop them. She said, “I promise I didn’t know I had a cousin until Russ told me.”
“But then you did know and still didn’t say anything,” said Jasmine, tapping on her chin. “You move to this town. You stalk my house. You go get drinks with me and never say a word.”
“I had to be sure.”
“You ran a test on my grandmother without permission. If the shock of the news isn’t enough, the sketchiness sure doesn’t put a good flavor in my mouth.”
Only the waves and breeze spoke until Darcy stopped walking and faced her cousin. There were barren bushes along the backside of the house. Darcy couldn’t tell what kind they were without leaves or blossoms. They were tangled and brittle, ready to weather a bitter winter. Darcy was ready to weather this storm between her and Jasmine.
"I know how it sounds," said Darcy.
After residency in Chicago, Darcy could have gone anywhere for work. She had the grades, the skills, and her magic backup. She chose Cape Emerald on some hope that there would be a beautiful reunion worthy of a movie. It was crazy. She knew it.
Darcy said, “I didn’t know what I’d find when I got here.”
“You uprooted your life for the chance you might have some distant relative lurking about,” said Jasmine. She tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear. “Pretty nuts.”
“But it’s true,” said Darcy. She massaged the back of her neck like that was the key to releasing the why behind it all. It brought the sadness with it that she had tried to leave in Chicago. “There wasn’t much life to uproot. My dad died, and I had no one.”
“No friends?”
“None worth staying for.”
“No lover?”
“They’re gone.”
“It’s still crazy.”
Darcy nodded and said, “It was the only chance I’ve had my entire life to know anything about my family. I only knew my mother’s name and that she died. I don’t even know how.”
“Oh,” said Jasmine, stiffly. She wet her lips like trying to oil rusty parts to get them to move again. “You have to know my grandfather is sensitive about it. What she did runs in the family.”
Darcy’s chest tightened. She filled in the blank that had been there all her life, one her father always kept empty. “She killed herself, didn’t she?”
Jasmine nodded. “People know she died, but the details were left to the imagination. I was a couple years old, so you couldn’t have been out long yourself. Maybe that’s why your dad left, you know? The heartache of being here might have been too much.”
“I can see that,” Darcy sighed. Carter Shaw had been her world her whole life, though he kept slices of his past from her. All she knew was that any mention of Felicia brought him heartache that he couldn’t face. It made sense that he would leave this town and never return.
“I’m sorry that’s the first thing you got to know about your mom,” said Jasmine, sincerely.
Darcy never anticipated the story behind Felicia Redwood was a rosy one. She said, “I wanted to know something about her. Some part of me hoped—no matter how crazy it might sound—that I might finally get to have a bit of family too.”
Jasmine pursed her lips. Her foot tapped on the cold ground. She huffed, “You don’t get a family just by sharing DNA.”
“I wasn’t expecting to be in the next family portrait.”
“What were you expecting?”
Darcy sighed, “I have no idea. Whatever could happen, it’s better than never knowing anything about who I am or the people I come from. I can’t even put a face to the people I miss. They were never there to leave a mark, but they all left a hole in me.”
The ice around Jasmine shattered, like she suddenly could see the holes in Darcy. “That does sound lonely,” she said. “I’m worried, you know? My grandfather is all I have left. I don’t want someone coming in and breaking his heart or screwing him over.”
“Or getting in the way,” said Darcy, plainly. Jasmine didn’t argue. “Look. I don’t want to mess with what you two have. I can’t. I don’t have the history. I’m asking that you let me share something new with both of you. For now, just let me know you.”
Shrugging her shoulders, Jasmine said, “I’d kind of like to know you too. Right now I’d like to know a heater.”
“Come inside.”
“I probably should get on home. Dante is picking me up in a bit. Some crazy kids paid to come up from Florida to go camping. I have to lead them out to their spot.”
“Are you sure that’s safe? There have been animal attacks, if you haven’t heard.”
“I’ve done this plenty of times,” said Jasmine. She punched the air twice, playfully. “Animals don’t scare me.”
“Except skunks.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Darcy stuffed her hands into her pockets and headed around front. Jasmine followed, closer now than when they had gone to the back. Darcy had to remind her feet how to move. After all the years of never knowing she even had a cousin, to be walking beside Jasmine now was overwhelming. Before they reached the side of the house, Darcy asked, “Do you not have a car?”
Jasmine said, “I did. Now I don’t have a car or a license.”
“Guessing that’s a story you can’t tell on our short trip?”
“I could but not today.”
Once he saw the women, Lance let go of Watson and stopped trying to steal his warmth. He stood straight and brushed dog hair from his shirt.
“You didn’t pitch her off the cliff,” said Lance to Darcy. “I wouldn’t have done a thing. It would’ve been self-defense from that mouth of hers.”
Jasmine’s hips popped hard from one side to the other as she strolled toward Lance. She said, “Or because you don’t know the first thing about being a deputy. You sure know a lot about being an asshole.”
“Most people wouldn’t talk that way to an officer,” said Lance.
“I’ll talk that way to your mother,” said Jasmine, puckering her lips and swaying her head from right to left. “You know, I’ve never met another Anders. Are there others?”
He said, “Close by. They don’t leave the house much.”
“Ashamed of their son I bet,” said Jasmine.
Lance only let Jasmine see a glimpse of annoyance. Then he nodded at the house and said, “The Shaws were a good family. They were quiet but respected.”
“I never knew much about them,” said Darcy.
“The old man used to run a business around here,” said Lance. He stepped closer to Darcy. “I could stop by some afternoon and tell you all I know.”
Jasmine lifted her voice before Lance could pop out any roses or chocolates. She said, “I’d like to get home.”
Darcy asked, “Do you have a ride for after work?”
“I’ll call Tanner,” said Jasmine.
Darcy offered, “How about I get you?”
Jasmine mulled the thought over only for a few seconds. “That’d be great,” she said, warmly.
Lance said, “One thing before I go. The Shaws never mentioned a granddaughter.”
Darcy explained, “They never met me. I don’t even know if they knew about me.”
Lance tsked and said, “What a shame. They were missing out.”
Jasmine gagged and pulled on Lance’s arm. “Thanks for the chat,” she announced on her way to Lance’s car. “I’ll talk to you soon. Sadly, I’m sure he will too.”
ξ
The trail where Jasmine had led the campers to their site happened to start at the hospital. Darcy picked her up a couple hours past dark, and they headed to Pearl’s for a bite and a drink. When Lance Anders showed up to arrest a man from the neighboring county that caused a fight, Jasmine asked to go home with a headache.
Darcy pulled up past the hydrangea bushes and turned off her car. She and Jasmine both continued to sing the song they had been listening to even after the radio was off. After hitting an off-key note together, they laughed and headed into the windy night.
Darcy zipped up her jacket and pulled her hat down over her ears. Russ’ truck was there, but there was no light on in the house. Only the front porch lights were guiding the way home. They flickered once.
“Hold up,” said Jasmine, turning with the wind that had ripped her argyle scarf from her neck. She followed the scarf past Darcy’s car where it finally dropped on the ground. She grabbed it but then lingered, unmoving.
“You okay?” asked Darcy.
“Yeah,” said Jasmine, slowly standing. Her face soured. “Do you smell that?”
Darcy tasted the air. “It’s kind of smoky,” she said, nodding. “Not in a good way.”
“It’s familiar,” said Jasmine. She wrapped her scarf around her neck. She found the source of the scent at the same time as Darcy. There was a growl, something more sinister than an animal. It came from a woman standing between the two cousins.
“How kind of you to remember me,” said the woman. “I meant to introduce myself the first time, but I’m not a fan of skunks either.”
The first sight of this stranger had made Darcy uneasy. Once she realized who it was, her hands seared. It was like the sensation she had as a child when she thought the shadows in her room were the monsters from a bedtime story come to life. This was no trick of her imagination. This monster was real and wasn’t there to simply scare her.
Darcy whispered, “Yin.”
“You’ve heard of me too,” said Yin, high and airy. She turned to Darcy. She traced the shape of Darcy’s figure in the air with her middle finger like it was a new creature she had discovered. “Who are you?”
Even with six-inch heels on her red boots, Yin was still shorter than both of the other women. Her hair was bound atop her head, adding three inches more, and it trailed down to the backs of her knees. Around her chest and waist were layers of red satin that matched the ribbon around her neck. From the ribbon dangled an antique metal vial like a small perfume bottle. She had a doll-like appearance. The fragileness was deceiving.
Yin’s hands hooked together by two fingers. “Does Mary still live here?”
“What do you want with my grandmother?” asked Jasmine.
“You are a Redwood witch,” said Yin.
Jasmine laughed, “I’ve been called a Redwood bitch but never a witch.”
Yin stroked two fingers of her left hand along her jaw. Each finger bore a ring near the end that was tipped with sharp metal. The ring of her middle finger cut her cheek, drawing blood. She said, “I thought I’d drained all those that practiced magic, but by the time I got around to Mary, it was more satisfying to let her ride out her pathetic life in that chair.”
Jasmine said, “Lady, I think you’re off your meds.”
Yin tsked four times and said, “Too bad your grandmother couldn’t warn you not to claim her blood as your own.”
Yin moved quickly and without warning. There was no way Darcy could make it before Yin would have her fangs deep in Jasmine’s flesh. Yin already had her hands latched onto Jasmine, one on her shoulder and the other dug deep into her hair.
Discovering Darcy was her family was one thing. Darcy wasn’t sure how Jasmine would handle seeing her strange light. There wasn’t time to think. If it made Jasmine shun her, it was worth it to protect what family she had left. Darcy cried out from the searing pain that burned through her bones.
Blue light struck Yin’s face like a blunt spear, flipping her backward and to the ground. The spear skimmed Jasmine too. A tremor kept Yin on the ground long enough for Darcy to reach Jasmine and pull her back toward the house.
“What the hell was that?” Jasmine exclaimed. There was a new tender bruise across her chin.
