Deadlocked (The Harry Russo Diaries Book 3) (12 page)

“Salvador Arroyo, the
Magister,” Gran spit out, ignoring my questions. “Evil incarnate, that one
is.” She began muttering and pacing. I didn’t catch everything she was saying
but she finished with, “getting Deirdre pregnant and leaving her to die.”

“You know that isn’t true as
well as I do. A witch doesn’t get pregnant by accident.” It was true, if she
were in tune with her body and its rhythms, as most witches were, there was no
way she would let herself become pregnant unless she wanted it to happen. It
was something that had been bothering me from the moment I learned that
Salvador was my father; my mother must have been in love with him. Why else
would she have become pregnant with his child? I had a hard time wrapping my
head around the fact that my mother loved someone who could be as cold and
calculating as Salvador.

I frowned as the rest of
Gran’s words sunk in. “What do you mean ‘left her to die’?” I looked at Gran
in shock. “I thought you said I was born at home.” Home was Aldergrove, the witch
community two hours outside of Riverton.

“Well, I lied,” Gran said
matter-of-factly. “I had to chase halfway across the country to find her when
she called me in the throes of labour. Barely got there in time to save you. As
it was, I found you squalling your lungs out lying in a pool of blood between
her legs. It was too late for Deirdre.”

My supper roiled in my
stomach. It was bad enough growing up thinking you had killed your mother, but
to hear it like that, my eyes filled with tears and I turned away from Gran.
After a few minutes, I managed to collect myself. I turned back to look at her.
“Well, even so, you can’t blame Deirdre’s actions on Salvador.” I never
referred to her as ‘Mom’. “Why was she running away?”

“Bah! Not running away,
running to.” Gran threw up a hand in disgust. “It doesn’t matter. Vampires
can’t be trusted, not a one of them. They’re all a vile lot.” She faded in
and out briefly. I had never seen her ability to manifest so sporadic.

“Well, if that’s how you
feel, I don’t know why you’re wasting time on me. I’m half vampire after all.”
I’d had enough of this conversation. “Maybe you had better just stop coming
around if you can’t adjust your attitude.”

Gran gave me an indignant look and then she disappeared with an audible ‘pop’.

I sat for a few minutes
trying to collect my thoughts. My phone beeped with a text message from Isaac
wondering if I could come back to the shop. Pushing my thoughts to the side, I
cleaned up and headed back downstairs.

I couldn’t believe my eyes
when I rounded the corner and looked through the windows of the shop. The
place was packed. Every seat in the house had a body in it. I guess Nash had
got the word out to the SRU teams. Hilde and Barbie were both busy serving
while Isaac worked his magic on the Deco. I hurried in and threw an incredulous
look at Isaac and then took a look around to see where I could pitch in. There
was a bin of dirty dishes in the window between the kitchen and the prep area
so I hurried back and loaded up the dishwasher, bringing a rack of clean dishes
from the stack with me when I came back out front.

“Wow,” I said to Isaac when I
joined him behind the counter to restock the dishes. “Has it been like this
for long?”

“No, it just picked up. It appears that everyone decided to stop by and check us out before going on patrol.”

I looked over the crowd. I
recognized most of the werewolves and vamps from my encounters with the SRU.
There were a few that I didn’t though and I couldn’t shake the feeling of eyes
on me. A little shiver raced down my spine but I shook it off. If I wasn’t
safe in a room full of supes that reported to Nash, where would I be safe?

“Why don’t I take over for
Barbie and she can give you a hand here? Did you get a chance to show her how
to use the Deco?”

“We had just begun when the
rush came. I believe it has quieted down enough that we could continue.”

I went to relieve Barbie and
sent her over to Isaac. She smiled and practically skipped her way over. I
shook my head watching her go, her pony tail bobbing back and forth. She was
really living up to her name. It was like working with Malibu Barbie.
Hopefully she didn’t turn out to be one of those bubbly personalities that was
always so happy they got on your nerves.

After about half an hour or
so the crowd slowly started to thin as the teams moved out to start their
shifts patrolling the city on the lookout for the rogue vampires. I sent an
eager Hilde back to the kitchen to start baking. She had been listing all the
things she couldn’t wait to try and was making me practically drool in
anticipation. Isaac and Barbie were immersed in his ‘care and feeding’
lecture for his pet, the Gaggia Deco coffee machine.

I had just started to bus
some of the empty tables when I felt an insistent nudge against my shields. I
surreptitiously looked around the room. There were only about a half dozen
people left, mostly werewolves, except for a vampire I didn’t recognize sitting
at one of the tables by the front window. When our eyes met, he raised his cup
and shot me a sly wink. I returned his greeting with a suspicious look.
Before I could decide whether to confront him, there was a little shriek that
suddenly cut off mid-stream and the crashing sound of pottery breaking. I
turned to look over at Barbie. She was standing with a petrified look on her
face, her fingers frantically touching her mouth. She was white as a sheet.
Isaac grabbed her by the elbow and she looked up at him, terror still etched
across her face.

“What the hell?” I hurried
over to her side. “Barbie, what’s wrong?” I grabbed her by the arm. As soon
as my hand made contact with her bare skin, she whooshed out a relieved breath.

“Omigod, omigod, omigod.”
Barbie’s hands continued to wipe across her lips as if she was reassuring
herself of something. She bent over, beginning to hyperventilate.

“Barbie, what happened?”
Isaac was suddenly at her side, pushing a chair behind her and guiding her to sit.
“Take a seat and try to calm yourself.”

“Barbie, can you tell us what
happened?” I crouched beside her and looked at her with concern. A small
crowd of customers had gathered around and I waved them back to give us some
space.

“I…I…I,” Barbie gulped for
air.

Isaac grabbed her hands,
pulling them from her face. “Look at me, Barbie,” he said, his voice low and
calm. Barbie slowly turned to look at him. “That’s a good girl. Now, slow
your breathing. In…and out. In…and out.” Barbie took several deep
breaths. “Good, now tell us what happened.” Isaac looked at her kindly.

“I – I was getting a mug down
and when I flipped it over there was a big, hairy spider.”

“A spider?” I blurted out.
It wasn’t possible. The little hedge magic I had cast around the shop would
have kept any pests out.

Barbie looked at me with a
confused look. “At least I thought I saw a spider but there wasn’t anything
there.” She frowned. “I dropped the mug.” She looked at me quickly.
“Omigod, I’m sorry. I broke the mug.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I
gave her a comforting pat on the arm. “Just tell us what else happened.”

“The mug fell and I guess I
sort of shrieked. I really hate spiders. But then I couldn’t speak. My voice
was cut off and I thought someone had sewn my mouth shut.”

I jumped to my feet and
looked around. The vampire from the window seat was gone. “He was here!” I
shouted, not caring who was listening. “One of the,” I looked around the shop
to see if any norms were around, “one of the killers that the police are
looking for,” I finished in a hiss. I ran out the front door and looked up and
down the street. Two werewolves I didn’t really know followed me out. I
spotted the bastard about half a block up the street. “There he is.” I
pointed and began to run towards him but then stopped. Damn, I didn’t have my
katana. I looked back at the two men. They were looking at me in confusion.
“He’s right there.” I pointed again.

“There’s no one there,” one of
the men said, a puzzled look on his face.

I looked back at the vamp.
He had stopped to look at me. He shot me a cocky little salute then
disappeared down a side street. “Damn it. He was there. I saw him.”

Isaac, who had come outside
to join us, shook his head. “I did not see him either, Harry.” He took me by
the elbow, leading me back into the shop. “Come inside and we can discuss it.”

I shook off Isaac’s grip,
angry, not necessarily at him, but at everything. That cocky bastard was in my
shop; drank my coffee. I stomped back inside, Isaac and the two werewolves
close on my heels.

Barbie was still sitting
where I had left her. Someone, probably Hilde, had tidied up the broken bits
of mug from the floor. Hilde was now talking quietly to her. She must have
brought Barbie a glass of water because the werewolf was chugging it down like
she was dying of thirst. At least I hoped it was water. We probably didn’t
want to get her drunk, at least until we went over things with her again.

“We need to call Martin.” I
put up a hand to stop Barbie’s protest. “No, we need to call your brother.
You should go home after we’re done here and you can’t be alone. There could
be a legitimate threat to your safety. I’m sorry.” I felt awful. It was
probably my fault that the vamp had come here. If I hadn’t asked Barbie to
start work, she wouldn’t have been put in danger. “I’m going to call Nash.”

Nash arrived quickly after I
gave him a brief rundown of what had happened. Martin arrived a few minutes
later looking worried about his baby sister. Barbie went over her story again,
with a few interruptions from Isaac and me as we tried to get every detail
possible about what she thought she saw and felt.

As she described what
happened to her again, Isaac’s face grew dark. I gave my part of the story,
describing the vamp as best I could. When I was finished, Isaac nodded his
head grimly. “I was afraid of that,” he looked at Nash. “I believe I know who
it is, or at least have heard of him. There is a Vlad in the Mariposa’s
entourage that fits the description and is rumoured to have the ability to bend
minds, to make a person think and feel something that isn’t real.”

“Omigod, it did seem so
real.” Barbie put her head against her brother’s shoulder. Despite her
original protest, she was very happy to see her big brother. Martin had
wrapped an arm around her shoulder and hadn’t left her side since. “I could
feel the stitches, the pain where they pierced my skin. I couldn’t make a
sound.” She shivered, unable to continue.

I felt ill thinking about the
other victims. They died in terror, unable to call out for help, or at least
believing they couldn’t. It was like he had taken the ability to glamour,
something all vampires have to some degree, and corrupted it into something
evil, used to inflict pain and suffering.

“If you don’t think you need
anything else from her, I’d like to take Barbie home.” Martin’s concerned
voice interrupted my thoughts.

“Yeah,” Nash nodded. “Take
her home. Do you want me to call in a couple of extra men to watch your
place?”

Martin shook his head. “No,
we’ve got it covered. Dylan will be home already and Roy and Tommy will come
over after they’ve finished their patrols.” He helped Barbie to her feet.

I gave her a little hug.
“Wow, some first night,” I joked half-heartedly. “I think we had better keep
you off the schedule until this whole Mariposa thing is over. That is if you
want to come back afterwards.” I gave a little shrug. I wasn’t going to make
her work here if she felt uncomfortable.

“No -” Martin began.

“Yes, I do,” Barbie
interrupted, shooting her brother a glare. “I’ll be ready to come back
whenever you think is best, Harry.” She stared at Martin defiantly.

I stifled a laugh. Nice to
know I wasn’t the only one that had to deal with stubborn alpha males; and poor
Barbie had three other brothers. I gave her arm a little squeeze. “All right
then. I’ll call you in a few days. You can pop by on Monday and pick up a
cheque for your work tonight if you want.”

After Martin and Barbie left, I looked at Isaac. “So, why didn’t his mind tricks work on me? He
couldn’t make himself disappear from my sight like he did everyone else’s.”

“I don’t know Harry. Perhaps
you are immune to glamour now because of your abilities?” Isaac looked deep in
thought. “You say that you felt a ‘nudge’ to your shields earlier. It may be
that he tried his powers on you, but your shields prevented him from succeeding.”

“So how do you find someone who can turn himself invisible? Do you think he can make his whole hunting
party seem invisible?”

Nash huffed out a frustrated
breath. “If he can, we’ve just wasted a lot of man hours setting up these
patrols. As it is, he probably knows more than we want him to just from
hanging out here tonight.”

The bell above the door
dinged. The three of us turned as one to see who it was. Tess bounced in the
door, a goofy grin on her face. Oh yeah, she definitely put up some shelves.

“Hey guys, what I miss?”

“Okay, so spill.” I looked
over at Tess where she leaned against the wall watching me clean up the
sandwich prep area. Tiffy was at the counter by the coffee machine across the
room, so we had a bit of privacy. The lunch rush was over and the coffee shop
was relatively quiet. I say relatively, because there had been a steady stream
of customers all morning. I guess word must have gotten out after our soft
opening yesterday. While the majority of the lunch crowd had moved out, there
were still a couple of people idly enjoying a drink at one of the four tops by
the window while my two werewolf babysitters sat playing cards in the corner
booth.

Lunch had been surprisingly
busy for a place that wasn’t officially open. The construction crew from
yesterday had returned and brought along a few more of their friends. They had
raved about the sandwiches from yesterday and were impressed when I offered to
upgrade their orders to platters, complete with homemade coleslaw and kettle
chips, both of which had been whipped up by Hilde. I guess she did more than
bake. The slaw was of the German variety, a sweet vinaigrette style, rather
than the creamy type that seems more typical these days, and the kettle chips
were delicious, the perfect amount of salt and crunch. They were both big
hits.

“There’s nothing to spill,”
Tess replied, crossing her arms.

“Uh huh.” I gave her a
pointed look. “Seems like you’ve been putting up shelves with this guy a lot
lately. He must be a pretty good carpenter.” I snickered at our inside joke.

Tess made a face. “Ha ha.
Funny.”

“You started it,” I shot
back.

Tess shrugged. “He’s a nice
guy. Great in the sack.” She smiled wickedly. “A girl’s got needs, after all.”

I snorted. Tess was never
shy about sex. It must be the werewolf in her. She lost her virginity
waaaay before I did. Not that I’m going to be sharing those details with you
or anything. “But?” I looked at her expectantly.

“But, you know. He’s not the
one
.” She frowned and then shrugged it off.

“You have plenty of time to
find the one. And just think how much fun you’re going to have looking for
him.” I waggled my eyebrows at her.

Tess gave a little laugh, her
mood lightening. “Yeah, just as long as I don’t have to put up enough shelves to
fill the library of Congress in order to find him. I was hoping more for a
small, regional library.”

I laughed at that. “You
know, Nash said he knew I was his mate the moment he saw me.” I wrinkled my
nose at the thought. “So technically you don’t have to put up shelves with anyone
in order to find your mate.”

“Well, don’t go spoiling all
my fun now, Harry.” Tess smiled mischievously. “So, what about you and Detective
Dreamboat? Seems like there has been a lot of carpentry going on between you
two. I thought you were doing the whole dating thing.”

“We were. We are.” I let out
a heavy sigh. “It’s just we can’t seem to keep our hands off each other.”

Last night had been no
exception. After the late night visit from the mind-bending bastard vampire,
Nash went back into work while I closed up the shop. He had arrived
back sometime in the middle of the night, sneaking into my bed again. I still
don’t know how he was getting into the apartment, but I had a suspicion that
Tess had given him a key. I hadn’t even heard him come in and didn’t know he
was there until I woke up a while later sprawled across him. One thing
led to another and well, you know, shelves were put up. I felt my face blush
at the thought, my hand reflexively going to my mouth to make sure I wasn’t
‘fanging out’.

Tess looked at me, her eyes
narrowed. “Now whose turn is it to spill?” She arched an eyebrow at me.

“What?” I waved her off.
“It’s not like you didn’t know we were having sex. Hot, steamy, blow-your-socks-off
sex.” I gave a little shrug.

“Nuh-uh.” Tess eyed me
critically again. “There’s more. You’re not telling me something.”

I ignored her, my flaming red
face giving me away, and carried a pan full of dirty dishes into the kitchen.
She followed, hot on my heels.

“Oh no, Harry,” Tess said,
waving a finger at me. “You’re not getting off that easy.” She stood with her
hands on her hips.

I continued to ignore her for
a few more minutes while I loaded the dirty dishes into the dishwasher and
flipped it on. Finally, I turned around and faced her. “I sort of bit him,” I
mumbled, my words mostly lost to the hum of the dishwasher.

I turned my back to her again
to grab a clean rack full of dishes from the drying area. I started to brush
past her, intending to take the clean dishes to stock the shelves out
front, but she grabbed my arm. “You what?”

I rolled my eyes and stopped,
putting the rack of dishes down on the counter. “I…I sort of bit him last
night.”

“During sex?”

“Well, yeah. You know, in
the heat of the moment, I sort of,” I bit my lip, “I sort of fanged out.”

Tess laughed. I scowled at
her and turned to grab the tray of dishes. She grabbed my arm. “I’m sorry,
I’m sorry.” She took the tray from my hands and set it back on the counter.
“I didn’t mean to laugh, honest,” she said, struggling to keep the smile off her face.

I huffed out a breath.
“Yeah, sure.” I crossed my arms defensively over my chest.

“No, truly, I’m sorry.” She
gave me an apologetic look. “So tell me what happened. What’s the big deal?
Did Nash freak out on you or something?”

“No, nothing like that.” I
waved off the idea. “In fact…” I gave a little shrug.

“What?”

I leaned in close to Tess,
keeping my voice low. “It was fucking amazing.” I took a deep breath, trying
to ignore the little flutter of heat I felt as thoughts of the previous night
flashed through my mind.

When I found myself sprawled
across Nash’s naked body, there were no boxer briefs for anyone's
protection this time. The shirt I had worn to bed was also gone,
courtesy of Nash and his ‘no clothes in my bed’ rule.

Half asleep, I had run my
fingers through the downy mat of hair on his chest. His nipples rose to
attention and I circled the closest one with my tongue, sucking the little nub
into my mouth. Nash had growled, his arm scooping me up to deposit me on top
of him. I straddled his hips, grinding against him and he groaned.

“Ride me, little minx,” he
growled.

I obliged, lifting my hips
and slowly lowering myself onto him. When I was fully seated, I rested my
hands on his chest, my fingers playing with his nipples, and then I slowly
started to rock and grind my hips against him. As my momentum built, I leaned
back and Nash slipped his hand between us, his fingers adding to the sensation
with each thrust of my hips. He reached up with his other hand, grabbing my
breast almost roughly, his thumb and finger pinching my nipple and my hips
bucked in response. I reached out to grasp his wrist for balance as I bent
farther back, my hips rocketing up and down.

I don’t know when I first
noticed the pulse pounding in his wrist. I could just suddenly feel it
pulsating beneath my fingers. I was so close to orgasm, the need was intense.
Before I knew what I was doing, I had pulled Nash’s hand to my face. I licked
the pulse point on the underside of his wrist and he cupped my cheek with his
hand.

“Oh god, I’m so close,” I
moaned. “I need…”

“Take what you need, minx, whatever
you need.” Nash’s voice was rough, his breathing erratic and I knew he was
close as well.

I felt my fangs fall into
place with a ‘snick’. I could smell the tang of his blood as it rushed through
his veins and I licked his wrist again. His skin was salty with sweat. My
tongue played against my fangs. They felt foreign in my mouth. I looked at
Nash and his eyes were wide, but excited. I ran my fangs along the tender skin
on the inside of his wrist and he gasped. “Oh god, yes,” he moaned. “Do it.”

That was all the
encouragement I needed. My fangs slid into his skin as easily as a hot knife
through butter. The warm, coppery liquid burst into my mouth at the same time
my orgasm exploded over me. I drew a mouthful of Nash’s blood in and it tasted
like nothing I had ever tasted before. It was rich and savoury, spicy and
sweet, all at once. It made me feel euphoric. I sucked on his wrist, pulling
in another mouthful. Nash cried out, his hips bucking right off the bed. He
sat up, his other arm reaching around me, holding me in place while his hips
continued to rock and buck with his release. I licked the two little bite
marks on his wrist until the blood stopped trickling out, and then dropped his
arm and fell forward, sprawling across his chest. My heart was pounding as my
body continued to vibrate with the echoes of my orgasm.

“Harry!” Tess waved her hand
in front of my face. “Earth to Harry. Omigod, those must have been some epic
shelves. You totally just zoned out on me.” Tess laughed.

My face, which I didn’t think
could get any redder, flushed even more. “Epic doesn’t begin to describe it.”
I shot her a wicked grin and grabbed the rack of clean dishes, heading out the
door to the front. As far as I was concerned, the conversation was closed.