Cora's Secret: A Vampire Ménage Urban Fantasy Romance (7 page)

Rhys Wisherd got out of the car and came striding toward Lindal, leaving the car door open. “I need to speak to you.” His voice was harsh.

“Clearly. You’ve gone to some effort to track me down.” Now the car wasn’t sitting directly in the sun, Lindal could see through the windscreen. There
was
someone else there. They were in the back seat, their arm held up toward the top of the door. Cuffs? “Who did you arrest? Why did you bring them here?”

Rhys looked surprised. “He’s not arrested. But that’s part of what I want to talk to you about.”

“If he’s not arrested, then shouldn’t you turn him lose? You’re risking all sorts of human rights violations.”

Frustration touched Rhys’ face. Then he dug in his shirt pocket. “Fine. He can be part of the conversation. You can figure out what the hell he’s talking about.” He stalked back to the car with angry strides, opened the back door and reached inside to unlock the cuffs.

Then he helped the man out, a hand under his elbow. He didn’t let go of his arm, but pulled him over to where Lindal was standing in the shade cast by the tower.

Lindal studied the man and a cold sensation prickled along the base of his spine. There was nothing openly obvious that would make it stand out among humans, but the crawling uneasiness Lindal felt was undeniable. He spread his feet better and brought his hand up to rest against his waist. It was the best position from which to drop his wrist and trigger the spring-loaded holster strapped to his forearm. It would deliver the carbon-bladed knife into his hand in less than a second.

The creature was studying Lindal just as curiously. When they got close enough, it smiled. “I haven’t seen an Elf for fifty years or more. Then the rumors are true, you
are
back on Earth.”

Lindal was shocked. If this creature was what he thought he was, then he knew better than to speak about non-humans in front of a human. He glanced at Rhys, then back at the creature.

The creature smiled. His human fascia was very attractive. “There’s something odd happening. He’s part of it.” He nodded at Rhys, who was looking from one to the other.

“Elf?” Rhys said, sounding puzzled.

Lindal cleared his throat. “I can’t pin you down. You’ve got all the hallmarks of a demon, but you’re not one. Not exactly.”

Rhys looked at the creature. “What the fuck?”

“Sheriff,” Lindal began. “This is going to be hard to swallow—”

He was interrupted by a soft squealing alarm, right by his ear. Then a tug on his hair. The tugging shifted his hair away from his ear, then the tugging started on his ear. Frantic thoughts entered his mind. Chief among them was a mental image of teeth. Lots of elongated and pointed yellow teeth, crossing each other, leaning at angles, but wickedly sharp.

“Vampeen,” Lindal said. “They’ve tracked you here. They’re coming.” He dropped his knife into his hand while the demon looked around wildly, alarm painting his face.

Rhys held up a hand. “Just slow down, will you? Use small words.”

“We don’t have time to slow down and explain it to you,” the demon told him. “You’d better get your gun out, Sheriff. You’re going to need it.”

Around ten the next morning, Cora put aside the hand lathe and headed into the kitchen and pulled out all the equipment and supplies to bake bread. She found baking a pleasant activity but what she secretly enjoyed the most about it was the sounds of appreciation her neighbors made when they smelled the newly-baked loaves. The expressions on their faces when they ate them were wonderful.

Cora made the loaves ready to put into the oven. The timing was good. Her two neighbors would soon be stopping for lunch and would be able to enjoy fresh bread with their meal.

She had just put the bread into the oven when the feeling washed over her like a wave of warm, fetid air.

She looked up and around her kitchen, her senses kicking into overdrive. There was a threat, her gut was telling her. But nothing had changed in the house, except that it was broad daylight outside and the sunlight was spilling through the front windows onto the carpet. She hadn’t noticed the dawn, except in an instinctive way that had barely registered on her consciousness.

Cora got to her feet and stretched her hearing to its fullest. Nothing was moving, not even Meta, who tended to rattle around her townhouse on Sundays, cleaning with vigor.

Cora swiveled and looked at the window. Through the glass, she could hear that quintessential sound of summer—a lawn mower. It was half a block away. Then there was traffic on the street. Kids in the park across the road. Dogs in the off-leash area, about a mile away. Their barking and voices were very distinct.

But nothing was a threat. Nothing was out of the ordinary.

So why was her heart beating so hard? If she didn’t get it under control, the adrenaline would overwhelm her. She was already starting to shake.

Then another wave of the whatever-it-was swept over her. This time, she could feel the taste of coppery spit in her mouth. She was within an inch of flat out panic, the human sort of panic.

In her mind she heard a wordless, voiceless cry for help and without thinking, she leaned toward the silent call.

Sunlight coalesced around her. Trees, wide-open sky, a breeze on her face and the sharp, astringent smell of pine. She thrust out a foot to keep her balance and looked around wildly. The panic was close.

There were three other people already in the clearing and she recognized the old fire tower behind them. She was on Presque Isle. They were all looking at her with odd expressions. One of them was Rhys Wisherd. The other was the man—the creature—from last night.

“I
jumped
here?” she asked. She had heard of such things from older mentors, but never someone jumping blindly to a location they had never been to before, without knowing what was already in the space they were aiming for.

The tall, blond man moved toward her. He was holding a black knife down low and there was something on his shoulder. A small creature, hanging on to his ear….

“I will explain everything later,” he said. “Right now, we’re about to be attacked by vampeen. You need to take these two and jump back to where you came from. To safety.” He looked over his shoulder. “Both of you, come over here.”

“And leave you alone?” Rhys sounded offended.

“It won’t be for long,” the blond man said. “She can come back and collect me. Then I’ll know where you are.” He gave a curiously mischievous smile. “I’ve had practice dealing with these things. I’ll be fine.”

Low growling came from the trees and it was a feral sound that made the hairs on the back of Cora’s neck stand up. She held out her arms. She had dozens of questions. Hundreds of them. But vampeen, she knew about. Despite her best efforts to not get involved, she had heard the talk. She suddenly didn’t want to see one. Questions could wait. “Come here,” she demanded. Now that the blond man had suggested she could take two of them with her, she knew she could do it. She knew what to do.

Lindal pushed the creature toward her. “Go,” he said roughly.

Rhys moved over to her side. “I have
no
idea what is happening here, but…” He tucked his arm around her waist and looked at the other man. “Hurry up,” he snapped.

The man stepped into the arc of her other arm and she stiffened, waiting for the touch of cold, but it didn’t come. All she felt was warm, pliable flesh beneath the leather.

She gripped both their waists and took a breath. “Hold on,” she told them and thought about her house that she had just left behind. The sun on the carpet, the sound of the mower. Then she mentally leaned forward and the air around them changed once more.

It was her kitchen. She turned to Rhys. “Give me your gun.”

He was looking around the room, like a man that who starting to put things together. Then he looked at her. “What?”

She reached for his holster and he gripped her wrist. “Hey!”

“I have to go back and get the other one. I won’t jump back there without a weapon. Give it to me.”

“Give her the gun,” the other man said quietly. “She’ll bring it back.”

Rhys let go of her wrist, so she pulled the gun out and let it hang from her fingers.

“You know how to use it?” She could almost
see
Rhys’ sheriff role taking over, as he started to worry about a gun in the hands of an untrained civilian.

“Yes, I know how to use it.” She mentally leaned forward again. It was already easier to do.

The clearing formed around her once more and this time, the snarling and growling was all around her. She lifted the gun as the ugly creatures turned to spot her, their jaws open, the crooked teeth gleaming from the saliva coating them. Their eyes were blood red and glowing. They looked vaguely human, but had sharply pointed ears and were bent over like dogs, their hands supporting them on the ground.

One leapt at her and she fired the gun by reflex. It was a .38 police special and the kick probably would have dislocated her shoulder, except that she was stronger than most people guessed. The vampeen was flung several feet away then rolled, yelping.

The blond man was using his knife. It was red with blood and gleamed as he swung it with a vicious efficiency that proved he really did know how to fight these things.

“To me!” he cried. “Use the gun.”

She fired carefully, clearing a space between her and him. The vampeen didn’t like guns and bullets and were backing away cautiously. She ran to the blond man’s side, threw her arm around his waist and jumped.

Beth almost dropped the pitcher of iced tea when Lindal appeared in the middle of the living room. She put the pitcher back on the kitchen counter as he looked around quickly and spotted her. He came over to her and hugged her. Hard.

“I know why I had to leave.” He spoke quickly. “I know why it was pulling me away.”

“You found another trinity.”

Lindal stepped back, his expression shocked. “Yes. How did you…?”

“Mia and Sera. They both were called away by an overpowering compulsion, too. It was only after they left town that we figured out what made you leave. Mia is in California and Sera is in Florida. Zack went down there to help her orient her three. Alexander is with Mia. I stayed here because I thought you would return.” She smiled up at him. “You’ve found your three.”

Lindal blew out his breath. “I’ve
just
found them. I just figured out what is going on. Can you come right now?”

There was something behind his ear. Beth blinked and refocused, but there was nothing there. His hair was parted over his ear and normally he was careful to keep it brushed over the top, so the point didn’t show.

Lindal’s eyes rolled to the corners, as if he was trying to look at his ear, too. “It’s all right,” he said, speaking to the air. “Beth is a friend. You can come out, Ferr.”

He held up his hand and something fluttered into view, exactly the same way that Lindal appeared when he teleported. One moment there was nothing but air, then there was….

“Oh!” Beth instinctively kept her voice down.

The little thing on his hand looked like a woman, only she stood just over two inches high and had pretty, glittering wings that reminded Beth of dragonfly wings. This, then, was Ferr. She was standing on Lindal’s palm, her hands on her hips, looking up at him with a stance that said she was pissed.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know if you would be able to follow me here,” Lindal said, looking down at her.

Her hands dropped and she spun to face Beth. Her head tilted as she looked at her.

Beth tried hard not to laugh in sheer joy. The little creature was charming.

Lindal did laugh. “No, she is human,” he said.

Ferr’s eyes widened and she shrieked. It was a formless sound on the very edge of Beth’s hearing. Then she disappeared.

“What is she?”

“A pixie.”

Beth pressed her lips together. “A pixie. Really?”

“I knew about tree dryads, but pixies are new to me, too.” He pulled her up against him.

Beth gasped at the contact and wound her arms around his neck. “You’ve been having adventures, I can tell.”

“Let me show you.” He kissed her, then jumped.

Cora found a glass deep at the back of a cupboard. She picked up the decanter on the sideboard next to the dining table and poured three fingers of scotch and held it out to Rhys. “You look like you need it,” she told him.

He pushed his gun back into the holster and took the glass.

“Could I have one?” the other man said from where he stood by the end of the kitchen counter.

Rhys lifted the glass toward him. “Cora, this is Aithan. Aithan, Cora.”

Aithan nodded at her. “You’re passing, too.”

Alarm touched her. “Let’s just save the conversation until the other guy gets back. He seems to know what is going on. More than either of you.”

“I’m catching up fast,” Aithan said.

“Luke,” Rhys said. “His name is Luke. I met him last night.”