Blue-Blooded Vamp (4 page)

W
hen Adam and I returned to Zen’s shop, everyone was gathered in the sitting room on the second floor. Zen and Brooks had closed the shop for the evening and convened over steaming mugs of chicory coffee doctored up with a little whisky.

“How’d it go?” Giguhl jumped up like a tightly wound spring. With his seven-foot-tall frame, black horns, and green-scaled skin, he should have been intimidating to most beings. But the too-short sweatpants and concerned expression on his face ruined the effect.

“Erron’s in,” I said.

The demon frowned. “Why do I sense there’s a but?”

I dropped into a chair and smiled at Zen when she brought me a mug. “Well, first, he’s super reluctant. Said we’d be better off hiding in a remote cave.”

Giguhl sniffed. “Please. We’re not cowards.”

I smiled at my best friend.

“Besides, between the no porn and dealing with your two whiny asses, I’d eat you both within a week,” he continued.

“But you’d regret it,” Brooks said. “Sabina alone would give you heartburn for a decade.”

“It’s true.” Giguhl nodded.

Brooks’s lips formed into a flirty pucker. “Now Adam, on the other hand, would be a delicious snack.”

“I’m not sure whether to feel flattered or afraid,” Adam responded.

Brooks winked at the mancy. “Both.”

The Changeling caught my eye and winked. I smiled back. “I have to say, it’s good to have you back, Brooks. You seem… like yourself again.”

By that I wasn’t just referring to the fact that he hadn’t dressed in a wig and sequined gown. Although it was nice to see him in jeans and black-framed hipster glasses and with a bald head again, I was referring to his flirty, fun personality, which had disappeared a few months earlier after a violent beating had robbed him of his confidence.

He smiled sheepishly. “Thanks, Sabina. Sorry if I was a little cranky in New York.”

When he’d moved to the Big Apple to launch his singing career, Brooks had adopted his female drag persona full-time, going so far as insisting we call “her” Pussy Willow. But he’d taken the diva routine a bit too far. It’d taken everything in me not to drop-kick the drama queen into the Hudson.

“A little?” Giguhl said. “Bitch, please. You turned into Joan Crawford with PMS there for a while.”

The Changeling shot the demon a mock-serious scowl. “Anyway”—he performed an impressive neck swivel—“Zen helped me realize that I was hiding my pain behind all the makeup and fabulous accessories. She encouraged me to let my Brooks flag fly.” He executed a Z-shaped snap through the air.

“And by that he means, I threatened to kick his ass to the curb if he didn’t stop throwing diva fits in my store.”

Brooks pursed him lips. “That too.”

“Either way,” Giguhl said, “Sabina’s right. We all missed you.”

“I missed you, too, Gigi,” Brooks said quietly.

It was good to see the demon and the faery had made amends. Back in New York, Giguhl had grown as tired of Pussy Willow’s attitude as the rest of us and had called her on it, which resulted in a nasty argument. But it looked like they’d dealt with their issues and were back to being BFFs.

“When do you head to Rome?” Zen asked me.

“Tomorrow morning.”

“Good idea.” She nodded approvingly. “Give you guys a chance to catch up on your rest. Sounds like you’ll need it. In the meantime, I’m going to whip up some amulets and potions for you guys to take with you.”

“Thanks, Zen,” I said.

Brooks rose. “Giguhl and I will get started on getting the ingredients together.”

The demon shot the fae a look. “We will?”

Brooks nodded in the exaggerated way of someone with mischief on their minds. Giguhl’s eyes widened. “We will!”

The pair ran off without another word. Adam, Zen, and I exchanged worried glances. “How much trouble can they get into, really?” Zen said, sounding unsure.

I sighed. “We’ll go check on them on our way up.” I leaned back. “In the meantime, I need you to promise me something.”

Zen’s head tilted. “Sure, anything.”

“Can you check on Georgia? I tried to talk to her tonight but she wouldn’t even open her door.”

Zen sighed and leaned back. “Yes, she’s been avoiding all of us.”

Adam leaned forward. “Even Brooks?”

The voodoo priestess nodded. “Yeah. The minute they got back to New Orleans, she just kind of retreated into herself. Living in that apartment probably isn’t helping matters since she’s surrounded by memories of Mac.”

“I went to give her a message Mac asked me to deliver. I’m not sure if it will help or make things worse.”

Zen nodded. “I’ll check on her. The sooner she accepts that Mac isn’t coming back, the easier it will be for her to move on.”

My stomach cramped. I didn’t want to argue with Zen, but I wasn’t sure she was right. If Adam had been taken from me like that, it would take a hell of a lot more than a few weeks to get over it. Heartbreak takes on a whole new dimension when you’re immortal. But I couldn’t expect Zen—a human—to understand that. “Yes, well, I appreciate it.”

Adam clapped his hands on his thighs. “On that note, I’m exhausted.”

I nodded. “Me too. Getting up in the morning is going to be harsh.”

Unlike full-blooded vampires, I could actually be in the sun without dying, but the UV rays depleted my energy quickly. That meant we’d have to move fast in the morning to get out of town and into Italy’s later time zone before the sun sapped my strength.

“Check on Brooks and Giguhl on your way up, please. I need to do a quick thing here.” She motioned to the altar on the other side of the room. As usual, it was covered with an assortment of liquor bottles, old bones, scraps of cloth, and old keys—offerings to the Catholic saints and voodoo gods
she worshiped. She didn’t say as much, but I assumed she wanted to hang back to make an offering to them so they’d watch over us.

I nodded. “Okay. Thanks, Zen.”

“Sleep well, my friends.” She smiled and held my gaze. “You’re going to need it.”

After we’d made our way into the hall, Adam took my hand and squeezed. I forced a wan smile at him. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy his touch. I just had so much on my mind, I felt like I was going a little crazy.

“Hey,” he said. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”

I shook my head, but I knew he wouldn’t let me get away without an explanation. “Honestly? Ever since I left Georgia’s door, I’ve thinking about our fight—fights—in New York. How close we were to…” I paused, unable to put into words how afraid I’d been of losing him. Before Adam and I were officially together, I’d been on a sort of self-sabotage kick that included sleeping with an ex-boyfriend. When the truth finally came out, Adam was more hurt by the betrayal of keeping the secret than the act itself. And I’d reacted by accusing him of not being able to love all of me—vampire nature and all. In short, it was a total painful clusterfuck.

“I don’t ever want to go through a fight like that again,” I said.

He blew out a breath and pulled me in for a hug. “Oh that,” he said.

I looked up. “What did you think I was going to say?”

He shot me a sidelong look. I tensed. Begged him with my eyes not to bring up my sister. I just… couldn’t. Not yet. That particular wound was too fresh and raw. He opened his mouth but thought better of whatever he was going to say. “Anyway,” he said finally, “I don’t want to go through that again either. I think I did some permanent damage to my liver.”

I pulled back. “Really? You too?” I asked, thinking of the night Giguhl and I had drowned our sorrows in a gallon of ice cream and a bottle of tequila.

“When I thought I’d lost you, I was a wreck. That night Mac got mated and we had our huge fight?” I nodded, remembering. “I killed two bottles of whisky. Luckily, I’d locked myself in the room or gods only knew what I’d have done.”

I frowned at him. I had no idea he’d been that bad off. Although, given my own pain, I guess I should have known he’d have been hurting, too. I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed. “I was terrified I’d lost you.”

“Me too,” he whispered. “But we’re together now.”

I kept my face on his chest, not able to look him in the eye. “But what if—”

“Shhh,” he said. “Look, we’ve got issues. We both know that. And guaranteed we’ll fight again. But all we can do is make sure we’re honest with each other from here out.” He pulled back and made me look up at him. “Right?”

I swallowed. It had been my own lack of honesty that had forced our issues to the surface. But I’d learned my lesson in spades. “Right.”

“Good.” He planted a quick kiss on my lips. “You know what?”

I smiled up into his handsome face. “What?”

“There is a silver lining to fighting every now and then.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “Makeup sex.”

I pursed my lips like I was debating the merits of him claim. “Speaking of, we never—”

Crash!

Adam ignored the sound and pulled me closer. “You were saying?”

“I was saying that we never—”

Bang, bang, bang!

Adam put his forehead against mine and closed his eyes. “I don’t suppose we can just ignore that?”

I laughed and patted his cheek. “Right, because how much trouble can a Mischief demon and a Changeling drag queen get into?”

“Shit,” he breathed. “All right, but remember what you were about to say because I’m planning on having a very long, slow, deep discussion about it later.”

“Ouch!” The high-pitched yelp was followed by the kind of shushing sound that accompanied covert shenanigans.

“It’s a deal,” I said to Adam. “Now let’s go make sure those two aren’t about to blow up the joint.”

A few moments later, we pushed open the door to Zen’s workroom. The demon and the Changeling had their heads together like conspirators. When we walked in they both shot up and their expressions instantly turned guilty.

Adam crossed his arms. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Brooks squeaked.

I narrowed my eyes at the seven-foot-tall demon, who would not look at me. “Giguhl?”

He pursed his lips and shook his head.

“Don’t make me make it a command,” I warned. Since the demon was my minion, I could force him to tell me anything or do anything if I made it a direct order. But I tried not to abuse that power since he was also my friend.

The demon’s massive shoulders slumped and he shot an apologetic look at Brooks. “We’re making a voodoo doll of Cain.”

“What?” Adam asked. He shot toward the table to inspect their work. “How far are you into the ritual?” he demanded, all business.

“We were putting finishing touches on his ensemble.” As he spoke, Brooks used glue to attach rhinestones to Cain’s jacket. They’d also hot-glued red yarn to the doll’s head and used two green sequins for the eyes. Apparently, the Changeling believed the mastermind behind all our suffering looked a lot like vampire Elvis, the later years.

Zen walked in and froze when she saw the guilty expressions. “What’s going on?” Her tone was part suspicious and part terrified of finding out what had us all tense.

“Um,” Brooks said, cringing, “Giguhl and I were sort of
makingavoodoodoll
.”

Zen looked at him with laserlike intensity. “Holy Loa, what in the world were you thinking, child? Please tell me you haven’t used the goofer dust yet.”

Giguhl nudged a small vial with his claw. “You mean this?”

Brooks groaned in a way that told me he’d been hoping to hide that part from Zen.

“We haven’t used it yet,” he rushed to add.

Zen rounded on her assistant. “You know I don’t allow red magic on my property. Besides, you’re not fully trained in the voodoo arts.”

The fae crossed his arms. “I’ve helped you make dolls lots of times. Besides, it’s not really red magic.”

“Well, it sure as hell ain’t white magic.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Evil intentions aren’t something you do for the heck of it. You know that. The Law of Three won’t listen to excuses. I don’t want that kind of karma.”

“Don’t worry,” Giguhl said. “Brooks said he figured out how to avoid the Law of Three altogether.”

Zen frowned and pulled back to get a good look at her assistant. “How?”

Brooks took a deep breath and prepared to make his
case. “I’m doing a banishment and equalizer spell,” he began. “I figured if we ask Ogun to intercede on our behalf, then the Law of Three wouldn’t apply.”

I held up a hand. “Can someone translate that for the voodoo challenged?”

Zen sighed. “It’s a spell that asks the holy one to protect you and also punish one who’s done you wrong. The Law of Three dictates that whatever magical energy you put out into the universe will return threefold. Thus, if you curse someone, you’re inviting three times bad karma to your door. But in this case, Brooks is invoking the warrior god Ogun to do the dirty work so he won’t experience any bad karma after.”

“And what’s gopher dust, exactly?” I asked.

“Goofer dust, Sabina,” Adam corrected.

Ever since our brief stint in New Orleans, Adam had started a casual study of basic voodoo in his spare time. His interest was merely academic, though. To a mage with inherent magic, the human practices were merely a curiosity.

I nodded impatiently. “Okay, what’s goofer dust?”

“It’s used in spells meant to cause suffering. There’s lots of stuff in it, but the two main ingredients are snake skin and graveyard dirt.”

“Sounds like a Chthonic spell,” I said, referring to my own magical specialty.

In mage terms, Chthonic magic dealt with primordial powers like sex and death. Powers that were strongest in deathy places, like graveyards. In addition, snakes were powerful Chthonic symbols.

“Similar.” Zen nodded. “Brooks is basically asking a god to use death magic on Cain.”

“Awesome, right?” Giguhl said.

I sighed. “Guys, I appreciate your support, but Cain is my problem.”

Giguhl pursed his lips. “Correction: Cain is
our
problem. All of us.”

I grimaced. He was right, of course. Especially since, as my minion, he kind of had to go to Italy since that’s where I was headed.