Witch of Christmas Past (13 page)

As soon as I pulled into the old shipyard, I had a flashback of the Ripper trying to feed on me. A shiver made its way down my spine.

“You okay?” Julius asked.

I nodded. “Just bad memories of Charlie the Ripper.”

“Why not let me check it out?”

“Well, probably because you are a civilian.”

He gave me a cockeyed grin. “Um … not really.”

“We’ll go together,” I said, opening the car door.

Julius followed without further comment.

Most of the boats were in serious decay, but we did come across a couple that might actually still be seaworthy. One of those was an extra large fishing boat that had once been known as the
Hope
. It was still docked at the only pier the salvage yard had. It also happened to be the only pier in the tiny inlet known as Skull Bay.

The
Hope
was one of those boats that had a large enough living quarters beneath deck to accommodate several men.

“Let’s see what’s in there,” I pointed to the boat. “It seems to be the only vessel that might accommodate someone long term.”

“Unless your suspect happens to be another vampire. In that case, he could live anywhere, including a hole in the ground,” Julius broke no bones when it came to giving me his opinion on vampires.

He’d always been very vocal about his dislike of Zane. I still hadn’t been able to discover why he hated vampires so much.

“I doubt we would get two vampire perps time travelers,” I put in. It wasn’t so much that I had a basis for my theory; it was just my feeling on the situation.

Putting a finger to my lips, I whispered, “Let’s keep it quiet.”

Leaning down, I unsnapped the holster I had strapped to my leg. Finally, I’d remembered to bring a gun.

We spent a few minutes looking around the deck but found nothing out of place. It was then that I noticed the heavy steel door that led to the bridge. I figured that was probably where we would find the stairs that would take us below deck.

I might have gotten used to carrying a gun with me, but I still wasn’t great at remembering to bring along a flashlight. Hopefully, the old boat was hooked up to electricity, and if it wasn’t, I very much doubted we would find our perp on the
Hope
.

Whatever he was doing, I was convinced it was connected to the electrical problems on the island.

Sure enough, there was a light was burning on the bridge, and there was also a trapdoor in the floor. I figured that’s where we would find the stairs to go below deck.

I gave Julius another warning look before slowly pulling the door open. Just as I’d suspected, there was a narrow staircase descending into the belly of the ship.

As soon as I put weight on it, the metal creaked.

Oh well, there was no helping it. I took the stairs a little faster, hoping to get it done and over with before drawing attention to the noise. Julius followed.

We were in a dark hall, but I could see light bleeding from beneath one of the doors. I elbowed Julius and pointed to the door.

“Let’s do this,” he whispered, taking the lead.

Julius made his way to the door and slowly pushed it open. He was standing in the doorway, blocking my view.

“What is it?” I tried getting on my tiptoes to see over his shoulder.

He stepped out of the way so I could see for myself.

The room was brightly lit with fluorescent light and there was an old rusty metal table, but that wasn’t the really creepy part.

On the table was a corpse that appeared to have been partly pieced together. There were bandages wrapped around the dead guy’s head, as if he’d just had brain surgery. The lower abdomen had also been stitched up.

There were also all kinds of wires hooked to the body, just like in the Frankenstein story.

But other than the corpse, the room was empty.

“What the heck?”

That was all I managed to say before I felt the cold steel of a barrel against my back.

“Don’t move. I would prefer not to shoot you.” The voice came from behind.

I froze.

“Now both of you … step forward, slowly!” The guy with the gun to my back, ordered.

I stepped further into the room, as did Julius.

“You don’t want to shoot her, really! She’ll zap you and you’ll turn to mush,” Julius said, which I supposed was his way of trying to reason with the guy.

“I’m not worried. The reason I don’t want to shoot her is because I still need a heart. Funny how quickly they decay after death. I can remove hers while it is still beating.”

Regardless of the gun to my back, I swung around to face the monster.

“How dare …” My words trailed off when I realized that I was looking at Skeet, and not the immigrant medical student.

“You don’t have a German accent,” I accused.

“Right you are. I lost that a long time ago.”

“Use my heart,” Julius suggested.

“Don’t be a fool.” Skeet gave him a scathing look. “You are not actually alive. I have done a lot of research on the residents of this island, while I was searching for just the right heart. I know what you are. If I were to put your heart in my brother … I would be cursing him to damnation.”

“Your brother?” I echoed.

“That’s not Skeet,” Julius pointed out. “Look at the seams in the skin … around the neck.”

“What have you done with Skeet?” I nearly choked on my words as I realized what Julius was thinking. This person was wearing Skeet’s face.

“My original intent was to use his heart, but it is bad … probably from his overindulgence in recreational drugs. Then I planned to use Annabelle’s heart, but you have saved me the trouble of doing that. This is a good thing because I quite like Annabelle.”

“You’ll never get away with this. My partners are on their way here at this very moment,” I warned.

The Skeet look alike chuckled. “That poses no problem at all. While you were busy trying to sneak up on me, I was putting this old vessel out to sea.”

Damn! Now we were in trouble for sure.

“Where is Skeet?” I asked again.

“Don’t trouble yourself. He’s fine, but I had to lock him up in the brig to keep him from going around town with crazy stories of a double.

“How exactly did you make yourself look like him?” I was genuinely curious and not just stalling for time, although I was certainly doing that too.

“Oh don’t worry Miss Izzy. I didn’t hurt him. I just took some of his DNA and grew myself a biological mask. I’m not a bad guy … I just want to bring my brother back.”

Now I felt a little bit sorry for him, but not enough to donate my heart to his cause. “How did you manage to turn the people on Mystique Island into Stepford citizens?”

“Easy, just put subliminal messages in your uncle’s broadcasts. As soon as those messages stop playing, they return to normal, but that won’t happen. I plan to become the mayor of this town.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Not even brainwashed people would vote Skeet in as mayor, but I had to admit the rest of the doctor’s plan was genius.

“Now enough of the talk. Get undressed and get on that table over there,” he ordered, pointing to another rusty table that had been pushed up against the far wall.

Julius had been so quiet that even I had nearly forgotten he was there, but that was likely his strategy. When I looked at him, he motioned with his eyes toward the table. I took that to mean that I should pretend to comply.

This I did. As soon as I started toward the table, the good doctor seemed to lose interest in his weapon, dropping his arm so that he was no longer aiming at me.

That’s when Julius blasted him with a stream of black demon light. Franz Rosston fell to the ground, screaming.

I leaped for the gun and leveled it on the screaming man. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to bring along any handcuffs. Ayden was usually the one who did all the handcuffing.

“Don’t move or you’ll be joining your brother real quick like,” I warned Franz, the mad scientist.

“Do you know how to drive a boat?” I asked Julius.

“No … but I can play the hell out of a guitar.”

Since I didn’t think Julius’s expertise with a guitar was going to do us much good, I would have to drive the boat myself, and I wasn’t all that great at it.

“Well, do you think you can hold this gun on him, and pull the trigger if he tries to escape?”

“I don’t need that gun,” he said, with a wave of his hand. “I’m a lot wickeder than you give me credit for.

Leaving Doctor Frankenstein with Julius, I returned to the bridge and proceeded to take us back to the dock. It was just a good thing we weren’t out at sea too far.

I did a decent job of guiding as back in. True, I nearly took out the dock, but at least we made it back.

Ayden and Tim were waiting for us when we disembarked, dragging Franz with us.

“You might want to cuff him,” I told Ayden. “And also, I haven’t read him his rights yet, but I’m not sure that matters since he technically isn’t alive in the twenty-first century.”

“Took you guys long enough,” Julius complained.

“We were waiting for the Coast Guard,” Ayden explained as he was cuffing Franz. “When I saw the
Hope
adrift, I thought you two might be in trouble.”

“The real Skeet is still on the boat. He is being held below deck somewhere,” I directed my words to Tim.

“Got it.” Tim boarded the
Hope
to look for Skeet.

No doubt the old boy was having a nervous breakdown by now. When Aaron returned to normal, the two of them would have a lot to catch up on.

Just before they were ready to lead Franz away, I held up my hand. “Just one thing before you take him.”

Grabbing the skin around his neck, I pulled. There was a gross ripping sound and the skin came away easily.

When I removed his mask, I was a little surprised to be looking onto the face of quite a handsome man, although it was one I’d never seen before. Chances are, he’d have gotten away with a lot if Granny hadn’t suspected a time traveler was on the island and responsible for all the trouble.

I finished packing the last of my wrapped Christmas gifts in the red bag I used to tote them to Granny’s place every year. As soon as I tried to lift the bag, it nearly took out my back.

Maybe I’d gone a little overboard this year, but I was just so happy to have my family back together, and normal again. Just like the crazy doctor said, as soon as Aaron’s prerecorded broadcasts stopped, so did all the strange behavior on Mystique Island.

Sighing, I glanced at Julius, who was snuggling up on my sofa with one of my blankets and the TV remote.

“Do you think you could carry this out to the car for me … please?” I asked.

“I guess.” Julius tossed the blanket aside and sat up.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come with me to Christmas dinner?”

Julius shook his head. “I don’t think your grandmother would appreciate you bringing a demon to Christmas dinner … and besides, your uncle might recognize me.”

He did have a point. With Uncle Aaron being so heavy into classic rock, and Julius actually being Julius Randall, the famous rock guitarist, there was little doubt Aaron would recognize him.

“Well if you are staying with me, you are probably going to run into Aaron sooner or later.”

Over the last week, Julius had been sleeping on my couch. He refused to go home for fear of being alone and having a run in with Mr. Grim.

“Na … if I celebrate Christmas, I might be rocking the boat downstairs a bit too much,” he said, lifting the bag of gifts and swinging it over his shoulder.

I really wished there was a way to help Julius. It seemed wrong to me that he was condemned as a demon for his human mistakes. Of course, I was condemned to becoming a demon for someone else’s mistakes, so maybe that’s just the way it worked.

Stepping outside of the warm house, we made our way to Lady Luck. I popped her trunk with my remote.

There was no denying it was December. The sky was full of angry gray clouds and there was a constant drizzle.

Maybe we would get lucky this year and the drizzle would turn to snow.

Julius dropped my red velvet Christmas bag into Lady Luck’s trunk.

“Thanks … and Merry Christmas,” I told him, throwing my arms around his neck.

He was wearing a dark smile, which told me he was holding his tongue. At least he was trying.

“Have a good time,” he said. “Maybe I’ll clean your house for you today … if I get too bored.”

“Thanks … that would be great, but you don’t have to.”

Julius shrugged. “The least I could do for you letting me crash here.”

I slid behind the wheel and watched Julius return to the house. There was no doubt about it; I was going to have to work on his problem soon. Sometimes it was nice to have Julius around, but I wasn’t good at having a roommate. In any case, I was sure he was overreacting when it came to Mr. Grim.

By the time I got to Granny’s house, the rain had actually stopped, but there was still no sign of the sun.

Parking was going to be a real hassle. With the entire family at Granny’s, along with all her guests, which included Ayden and Tim, along with Aunt Mandy and her vampire, paranormal investigator boyfriend.

I was forced to park on the street, which wasn’t that big a deal. It was kind of my own fault for being late.

My hand strayed to the crystal that hung from my neck. Granny had given me one of her Christmas gifts early, adding a life energy spell to it so that my fallen angel nature didn’t start creeping in again. Soon after slipping the necklace around my neck, the scales beneath my fingernails disappeared.

Suddenly I realized that for the first time since my parents’ had been gone, I was truly feeling the Christmas spirit.

* * *

The huge Christmas tree in the living room filled the entire house with the scent of pine, and then there was the aroma of gingerbread and cinnamon coming from the kitchen.

Granny’s long redwood dining table was full this year. We even had to add some folding chairs to accommodate all the guests.

Granny Stella had certainly outdone herself with dinner. There was honey ham, plumb pudding, stuffed cheese potatoes, and salads galore.

It wasn’t until after dinner and we were all gathered around the Christmas tree that Aunt Mandy stood up.

“Stella … it was wonderful of you to have Marty and me for Christmas dinner.” Mandy smiled.

“Of course. You know you are always welcome here. You are Izzy and Annabelle’s family, which means you are also our family.”

“Thank you,” Mandy repeated. “I would also like to take this opportunity to make an announcement.”

In that instant, I felt my heart drop to my knees. I just knew what was coming next.

Turning to Marty, who had been sitting next to her on the sofa, she motioned for him to stand.

“Marty and I have decided to make this official. We are getting married.”

The room filled with applause. Even I was clapping, though with less enthusiasm. I was happy for Aunt Mandy, but a little worried at the same time.

How could a marriage between a mortal and a vampire work?

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell.

“I’ll get it,” I jumped up.

Getting away for a moment was like getting a breath of fresh air, but when I opened the front door, I about fell over.

Zane was standing there, a golden heart locket dangling from the golden chain he held up to me.

Grinning, he handed me the locket. “A Christmas gift for the most beautiful angel to ever walk the earth.”

My heart skipped a beat. Damn, he sure could be romantic.

“Thank you.” I smiled and took the locket.

When I opened it, there was a picture of him on one side, but the other side was empty.

“The other side is for your picture … when you’re ready,” he added.

I felt warmth blossom in the pit of my stomach and spread to my chest. “I see.”

“Merry Christmas.” He leaned over and brushed my lips with a kiss.

His kiss brought on a dizzy spell and I had to grip the doorframe to keep myself steady. When he pulled away, I drew in a big gulp of air and smiled.

“Would you like to come in for a drink? We just finished dinner, but we have eggnog and hot chocolate.”

He nodded. “I would love to.”

Taking his hand in mine, I led him into the living room. I’d completely forgotten my misgivings about Mandy and Marty, but Zane had a way of making me forget everything but him.

“Zane decided to join us for a Christmas drink,” I announced.

“The more the merrier. What would you like?” Granny stood to fetch his drink.

“Eggnog will be fine … and thank you so much for welcoming me into your home,” he said.

That’s when I realized that he’d been able to enter the house, without an invitation from Granny or Aaron. That was something I would have to ask him about, but later. Tonight was for joyous conversation.

When Granny returned, she handed Zane a glass of warm eggnog. Judging by the strong scent of rum, she’d spiked it for him too.

“Now … I would like everyone to follow me outside so I can give you all your Christmas gift from me,” Granny said.

Now what was Granny up to?

Everyone followed Granny outside and around the house to the back gardens.

I gasped when I saw that she’d decorated the thirty-foot pine tree that sat alone in the middle of the yard. It had been years since we’d strung lights on that tree.

Granny started singing a Christmas Carol and everyone joined in.

“Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King. Peace on earth and mercy mild God and sinners reconciled.”

Suddenly Granny waved her hand and a light snow started falling from the dark sky.

Glancing over at Annabelle, I was surprised to see her and Tim holding hands. The two of them looked so cute together.

My heart sang with joy when Zane put an arm around me and pulled me close.

It was a perfect Christmas and I was spending it with everyone I loved, except for Julius.

I was stunned to realize that I actually did care about Julius … maybe even loved him in a weird kind of way.

Closing my eyes, I made a Christmas wish for peace on earth, health and happiness for those I loved, and that Julius would be saved from an eternity of damnation.

# # #

Keep up on new releases. Register for the Kendra Ashe Newsletter and get a free Mystique Island Cookbook download,
www.kendraashe.com