Okay. So everything wasn’t exactly going my way. But Myra winning the Cake and Skate for her team had done a heck of a lot to cheer me up.
There were no updates from the vampires or Wolfes, which worried me. I would have expected there to be enough of a trail to track down Ben, or at least Jake.
The doctor told me Jame was sleeping peacefully and healing well. Well enough Granny Wolfe had joined the hunt, leaving three pack members behind to guard Jame.
The dry morning had turned into a sunny afternoon. Tourists and locals took full advantage of it. Plenty of people walked and played on the beach. Plenty of people wandered into the shops, which were staying open late in hopes of making up some rain-delayed revenue. The town felt the most summer-like it had all year.
There were even kites in the sky.
I still had a few hours before dinner with Ryder at Jump Off Jack, but was too restless to sleep. I went home and changed into my shorts, tank, and running shoes.
A lot had happened in a very short time and I needed to clear my head, think through the details. A quick jog on the beach, alone with my thoughts sounded like heaven.
I stretched at the bottom of my stairs, then took off at a slow, easy pace down the road to the bottom of the hill, past a few houses to the narrow band of green that would take me to the hidden foot trail through bushes and down to the sand.
The late afternoon was warm, the wind just strong enough to cut the humidity. I headed north, into the wind, toward Road’s End. I always ran into the wind so I could have it at my back on my way home.
The steady rhythm of my breath, the thump, thump, thump of my shoes hitting hard-packed wet sand, the shivering hiss of the ocean next to me soothed me, focused my thoughts. The muscles in my shoulders relaxed, my body warming, sweat prickling at my neck, under my breasts, down my back.
I felt like I could run forever.
Breathe, breathe, breathe.
Road’s End had that name for a reason. An outcropping of land reached out to cup the beach and cut it off from continuing north. If the tide was low enough, I’d be able to pick my way over water and rocks, and around the bend to a procession of little pockets of stony coves. But the tide was coming in, and I didn’t want to get stranded on the other side.
So I slowed, paced the curve of land, the rise of stone cliff at my back, and then stood just at the water’s edge, staring out to sea.
Clouds gathered fast, moving ashore with an unnatural kind of speed. Lightning flashed. Thunder rolled. The sudden storm was urgent, as if warning of an even greater danger approaching.
“Thor?” I asked. Rain fell in hard, heavy drops. I felt like I should run. Thunder roared again, urging me to turn home.
I turned. I didn’t even see the man before I was aware of his presence behind me.
But with that presence, I felt fear.
I tipped my head down so I could better see him out of the corner of my eyes as he stopped behind and slightly to the side of me.
“You are a sweet surprise.” His voice was low, cultured, carrying an accent I could not place. But my brain wasn’t trying to place his accent, it was screaming: danger, death, predator.
I had not brought my gun and carried no other weapon. My phone tucked into my back pocket wasn’t going to bring anyone here fast enough to save me.
I suddenly knew I was very much in need of saving.
I had a moment to wish I was connected to someone in some sort of magical way that allowed them to see through my eyes or hear my thoughts to know that I was in trouble.
But I was just a Reed and those kinds of abilities were beyond me.
What does a Reed do? My father’s words echoed in my mind. We face the storm.
Thunder crackled. Lightning shattered.
I anchored myself with the roots of my family that reached deep and strong in this land. Then I turned and faced the man.
Not man. Creature. Vampire, to be exact. Here in the daylight of Ordinary that doesn’t make vampires burn. Here inside the boundaries of Ordinary unnoticed, because all the vampires were gone.
Ancient. He was built a lot like Old Rossi, his silver hair cut in a short, executive style. His eyes were black and shockingly devoid of humanity.
There was a nightmarish smoothness to him, as if all his edges were rubbed down to frictionless curves, as if he had been poured into shape instead of tailored by bones. Snake-like. Fluid.
Creepy as hell.
“Yes,” he said as if I’d asked him a question. “I killed Sven. Sent him to my prideful brother. Still he didn’t come to me. So I took his toy. The one he turned. Poor, breakable thing.”
Ben.
“You will not do this,” I said. “You will not hurt my people, my town.” My words came out even, but my heart was pounding. Hard. I knew he could hear it, feel it.
He lifted his upper lip in a snarl. “Since he will not come to me, you will send him a message even he will understand.”
I backed up and threw my hands in a block.
But vampires are fast. I didn’t blink, but my eyes still couldn’t track his movement. He wrapped one hand up in my hair, yanking my head to the side.
I kicked out, punched. He yanked my head harder, and shook me like a rag doll. I heard bones in my neck crack as my feet left the ground.
I yelled, fought, thunder echoing my anger, my fear.
Vampires are inhumanly strong. And even though I was tough, a Reed, I was still human.
He pulled me to him, wrapping me tight against the hard, cold, slippery length of his body, wrenched my neck bare.
I screamed as agony pierced my flesh, two hot, jagged fangs hooking down into my neck, seeking my pulse.
Every muscle in my body went lax as if I’d just been injected with Novocain.
Turns out being bitten by a vampire isn’t as sexy as some of the movies might make one think. Although that might have something to do with the fact that this vampire hated me and would rather see me dead than show me a good time.
This was not good. Not good at all.
“Listen to me, Reed bitch,” he said, teeth still buried in my flesh. “You are alive only because you are my final message to my brother.” He slowly lifted his mouth from my skin. I was numb everywhere except for where his fangs pierced me.
There I only felt endless pain.
“He brings me the Rauðskinna. Or I take everything he has,” his fangs slipped free of my flesh, and I almost blacked out from the agony, “and burn this world to the ground.”
He shook me again. I would have screamed if my body were responding to my mind. But the world had become too heavy, folding down on me in layers and layers and layers. Everything was watery, fading, dark.
I wondered if I was drowning. If the ocean had risen up to swallow me whole.
Cold sand, concrete-hard slapped against my back...
...had he thrown me?
...someone was screaming in the distance.
Sirens.
And not the call-the-sailors-to-their-death kind of sirens.
Police cruiser sirens.
“Tell him,” his whisper echoed in my head. “Or I will tear each of you apart until I find the one who makes him scream.”
~~~
I heard voices. Myra, Ryder, Jean. I knew there wasn’t sand under me anymore, knew I was wrapped in a warm, heavy quilt, a pillow under my cheek. I didn’t know what time it was, didn’t have the strength to open my eyes.
The wash of deep healing spread through me. I wasn’t sure which creature or god they’d gotten to take care of me but it was wonderful. Marvelous.
“Sleep,” Old Rossi said quietly in my mind.
At least I hoped it was Old Rossi. I’d had my fill of strange vampires touching me.
Before I could panic about that, I slipped back into oblivion.
~~~
Morning sunlight streamed in through my window. It was warm on my bare arm, warm on the side of my hip.
It wasn’t burning me to a crisp, so I apparently hadn’t turned into a vampire.
Go, me.
“Your sisters are in the other room, waiting for you to wake up.”
I opened my eyes. Was surprised that I didn’t feel too bad, all things considered.
The memory of healing washed through me again. I wondered who they’d ask to fix me.
Old Rossi sat in the chair at the foot of my bed, his elbows resting on his soft, worn-out blue jeans, his fingers linked, the first two pressed against his lips.
His ice blue eyes watched me. I didn’t know why I’d ever thought they were cold or inhuman before. I’d stared straight into the devil’s eyes, and Rossi was no devil.
Apparently he was related to one though, a brother, if what that devil said was true.
“He looked like you.” I pushed up, so I was sitting. I pulled the blankets close, glad that someone had changed me into a dry T-shirt. “He was slicker, sort of smoother and had short silver hair, but he was old like you.”
“Old?” Offended, he cocked one eyebrow.
“Very.”
The eyebrow fell again. “I know.”
“You can tell from the b-bite who did this right?”
“Yes.”
“He told me to give you a message.”
“Which is?”
“He wants you to give him the Rauðskinna or everyone dies, he burns Ordinary down, yada, yada, psycho-egomaniac, yada.”
“He did not yada.”
“He threatened. Death to all, make you scream, and all that jazz. There was probably some yada I didn’t catch. I didn’t have a chance to write down every word.”
Old Rossi was silent. I waited. When he still hadn’t spoken after a minute or so, I breached the quiet.
“He says he has Ben. Said he was your...toy. That he’s...broken.”
Flash of black in those eyes, glimmer of red. Still less evil than the vampire on the beach. “Did he?”
“Broken doesn’t mean dead,” I said, holding on to hope, no matter how faint it might seem to be.
“Broken means it would be better if he were.” Old Rossi leaned back, the tension easing away just long enough for me to see he was tired. Very tired. Still, he made no move to leave the room.
“What is the Rauðskinna?”
For a minute, well, more like three, I didn’t think he was going to answer me.
“It is a book. A book of dark magic.”
Dark magic. Just like Odin had said.
“Do you have it?”
“Yes.”
“Why do I have a feeling it’s not the only dangerous thing you have hidden in town? No, don’t answer that. I can’t multi-task before coffee. Are you going to give it to him?”
Rossi didn’t say anything. I changed tactics. “What happens if he gets his hands on it?”
“All the bad things you can imagine and twice as many you can’t.”
“So we don’t give it to him.”
Silence again. I was surprised Myra and Jean weren’t in here by now, but we weren’t really talking all that loudly. I wondered if either of them had gotten any sleep last night.
“What’s his name?” I asked.
“That, you do not need to know.”
“Like hell. He bit me. Bit me, Travail. I deserve to know which vampire permanently tagged me for his chew toy.”
Black and red eyes again. Fury, barely contained. “I will break that tie to you. Erase his mark. Make him suffer.”
“Tell me his name.”
“Lavius.”
Great. I’d been holding out hope he was dead, like Rossi had told me before. I didn’t want to have Rossi’s ex-brother-in-arms declaring war on my town by killing people I cared for, people I’d sworn to protect.
“You told me he was dead. You lied to me.”
“I had hoped. Foolishly hoped.”
“He has Ben.”
“Yes. But now we can find him.”
“How?”
“Through the mark he branded into you.”
I wasn’t sure what I thought about that. Good? Maybe I was glad something positive could come out of me getting fanged on the beach.
The door to my room opened, and Myra walked in. “No we will not use that mark, or Delaney to do anything,” she said. “You’re going to erase his tie to her. I’ve waited until she was awake. You’ve had your chance to talk to her. Break his claim on her. Now.”
Old Rossi’s body tightened. “We have no other way to find him. Or Ben.”
“We’ve only started looking,” she said.
“All the vampires. All the werewolves, and not a scent of him in the wind. We will not find him before he’s dead.”
“And putting Delaney in danger would make anything better? Do you need more deaths on your hands, Rossi?”
“Wait,” I said, holding up a hand, tired of the argument even though it had just gotten started. “Just. Wait. Both of you. Let me think.”
They both shut up, though there was some glaring going on. The discussion had drawn Jean into the room, and like an angel from caffeine heaven, she handed me a mug of coffee.
“Hey,” she said. She dropped a quick kiss on the top of my head, then sat down on the bed next to me, facing my angry sister and my angry vampire.
The coffee was warm between my palms and the fragrance made my shoulders drop and my pulse settle. It was just so...normal. With everything else going sideways, the scent of coffee felt normal, average, safe. I took a sip.
All right. I could do this.
“How would you use the mark to find him?” I finally asked.
“He left within you a trace of his life force.”
Great. Now I wanted to vomit.
“You can track that?”
“Yes.”
“Is he the one who bit Jame?”
“Yes.”
Myra’s voice was almost a yell. “Then why didn’t we use that bite to track him before he found Delaney?”
“Werewolf.” Rossi didn’t look like he was going to add anything to that.
“And?” I asked.
“It is...harder to trace. A werewolf physiology fights such intrusion, such claim. But humans are more...pliable. Our natural prey. The link between you and him shines like silver.”
Okay, I was starting to vote for team Myra. Just the idea of carrying anything that connected me to that creep was making my skin crawl.
Jean spoke up. “Didn’t Ben bite Jame? They’re living together, mated, right? Chose each other? I thought Ben would claim him like that. Couldn’t we follow that link?”
“Lavius broke that link when he bit Jame.”
“Is that the asshole’s name?” Jean asked. “Creepy. How can he break a mated link?”
“He is very old, and very strong.”
Well, hell. No wonder Jame was out of his mind in pain for Ben. Another question occurred to me. “Is...is one bite enough? Strong enough to track him? Will it fade?”
“Jesus, Delaney,” Myra said. “You are not suggesting you put yourself out there to get bitten again.”
Jean reached over and took my hand, squeezing it. “You aren’t doing that,” she said with absolute confidence.
“One bite is strong enough,” Rossi said. “Because he is strong enough. And so are you, Delaney Reed.”
“All right,” I said. “Okay. Yes.”
“Delaney,” Myra turned to me. “Don’t do this.”
“I can’t just let Ben die. And Jame...I can’t do this to him. Not if we have a chance. Not if I have a chance to save them.”
She closed her eyes and I noticed the dark circles beneath them. Then she squared her shoulders and, looking calm and composed, turned back to Rossi. “When?”
“In three days. When the moon is full and we have a plan.”
I wasn’t sure if I was happy about carrying around the bite and Lavius’s life force tie that long. “How vulnerable am I?”
Rossi’s eyebrows raised and for the first time, there was a ghost of a smile over his lips. It was not a warm one. “Other than the fact that he crossed into my territory and claimed you when I wasn’t looking?”
“You were looking for Ben. I don’t expect you to be everywhere at once.”
“Neither did he, obviously.”
I nodded. It was, I realized, a very well-executed plan. Ben as bait to pull all the vampires out of town, the Wolfes either hunting for Ben, or guarding Jame. According to the rules of Ordinary, all creatures were welcome. They didn’t have to stow their powers like the gods, didn’t have to go through me to live here.
That he had caught me alone on the beach wasn’t all that surprising either. I loved to jog, and I lived alone. He could have found me at any number of places alone.
“You are less vulnerable that most humans. Much stronger than he might believe.”
Images of him easily lifting me off the ground with one hand, shaking me like a wet towel, flashed through my mind. “I don’t feel strong.”
“Oh, but you are. It’s your blood, Reed blood, chosen by the gods. You underestimate your strength. I am counting on him underestimating it too.”
“So we have some time to plan. That’s good.” Look at me: Little Miss Bright-Side.
“Yes.”
“Good,” Myra said. “Then the plan starts with us letting Delaney take a shower and eat breakfast.”
Rossi nodded. “It’s a good start.” He stood, and rocked his head from side to side as if stiff from holding still for so long. I wondered if he’d sat there all night.
“I’ll come by later this evening. We can talk. Plan.”
“Rossi?” I said.
He waited.
“Promise me we’ll take care of Lavius before anyone else is hurt.”
“You have my word.” He left, and Myra followed him out and locked the door behind him.
Jean relaxed into me, laying her head on my shoulder and wrapping her arms around me.
When Myra came into the room she took one look at us then joined us on the bed, wrapping around both of us.
We held each other, silent, thankful, and whole.
~~~
“Ketchup for your thoughts?” Ryder held the bottle out for me. I shook my head. He tipped the bottle over his plate, keeping his eye on the growing red puddle. “So how are you holding up? Really?”
We were sitting at my little breakfast nook. Ryder had brought us lunch from Jump Off Jack—burgers and fries since I’d sort of stood him up for dinner the previous night.
I’d used Ryder’s arrival as an excuse to make my sisters go home and sleep. Roy was at the station covering the phones, and he would contact Myra or Jean if there was anything happening that needed police attention.
We still had no leads on Ryder’s boss, Jake, and no other hints about where Ben might be.
“I’m...” I was going to say “fine,” but couldn’t force the lie out of my mouth. “It’s been a weird week,” I said with a laugh that sounded a little too hollow. “I’m sort of still processing it.” I took a bite of fries, trying to enjoy the salt and heat and grease. “And you?”
“I’m good,” he said with a grin. He took a drink of his beer, then dragged a few fries through the ketchup and Tabasco on his plate to mix it up. He shoved the fries in his mouth, chewed. “I mean, I’ve apparently given my life and soul over to a god I don’t believe in, but hey—at least I didn’t get bitten by a murderous vampire.”
I made a face at him. “Oh, so now we’re comparing war wounds?”
“If you want.” His eyes flicked to the side of my neck and I felt my stomach churn—and not in a good way.
Some of that must have showed on his face, because his eyes, when he turned them back to me, were kind. “Have you looked at it yet?”
“I took a shower.”
“Have you looked at the bite?”
I picked up my burger, set it down without taking a bite. “I...couldn’t. I didn’t want to see it. Didn’t want it to be real. That’s stupid, isn’t it?”
“No, I’d say that’s normal.” He took a drink of beer again, then nodded toward my food. “Jean told me you didn’t have breakfast. I know you missed dinner. You should eat.”
“My sisters worry too much.” I picked up the burger again and this time took a bite. It was good. Really good.
“Would it help if I was there when you look at it?” Ryder asked.
I knew he was still talking about the bite, the mark. “Maybe?”
He nodded. “I haven’t sent a report to my superiors yet.”
“About Jake missing?”
“About any of this. Vampires, werewolves, gods, and mermen.”
“Mermen?”
“Chris Lagon?”
He was being all casual about guessing what creature was who in town, like it was no big deal. It was kind of cute.
“Gill-man. There’s a difference. If you ask Chris, he’ll tell you. At length.”
He grinned and shook his head. “That’s...it’s just amazing.”
“What?”
“This town. These people.”
I liked that he still considered someone like Chris a “people” even though an awful lot of folks might consider him a monster.
“Have you figured out what Bertie is?” I said to tease him.
“Bertie’s something?” He sounded like a kid who had just been given a present to unwrap.
“She’s something else, that’s for sure.”
“I don’t suppose you’d give me a hint?”
“Nope. You’re going to have to earn your supernatural bingo card.”
“Sounds like that’s going to take some time.”
“It will.”
“Maybe even years.”
“Maybe.”
“Or a life time.”
“Yep.”
“You’ll be around while I try to figure it out?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Well then, I am looking forward to it.”
Oh. I studied his face. He was done with his food, sitting back in the chair, nursing his beer. And yes, that look said he’d meant exactly what I’d thought he’d meant. He was staying here. And not just for the creatures. Not just for his job. Not just for the town.
He was staying here for me.
Something tight in my chest that had been knotted for months, finally, finally relaxed. I felt a little lightheaded from relief.
He might not know all of my secrets, but he knew enough. He’d accepted them, and still wanted to be with me. I knew Ryder still held secrets I hadn’t uncovered. But wouldn’t it be fun to try?
“There’s a mirror in the bathroom,” I said.
“I’d expect so.”
“I’m going to go look at it now.”
He waited as I stood. I held out my hand. “Coming?”
He stood, took my hand. “Anywhere you go.”
We walked into my tiny bathroom to face the thing I didn’t want to face. As I stood there, in front of the mirror, with Ryder’s arms holding me tight, my back against his front, I finally looked at the mark.
Two black circles, each small as a freckle, but perfectly round, and perfectly placed.
It was strange that something that had hurt so much, something that had the power to change me so deeply, left so little a mark. I felt like I should be wearing a sign that said “damaged” or “failure” or, at least, “injured.” But some wounds only scar on the inside.
Ryder was silent, his breathing steady, his warmth an anchoring necessity.
When I looked back up in the mirror at him, he was watching me.
“I’d like to forget this, for at least a little while,” I said softly.
“Forget what?” His breath was warm against the opposite side of my neck, my cheek.
“Everything. Except us.”
His arms tightened and his palm, resting on my stomach, shifted to drag upward so his fingers brushed the edges of my breasts.
“We can do that,” he said. “But I still have one more question left.”
“Question?”
“We agreed to ten. I’ve only asked you nine.”
I nodded, my eyes never leaving his in the mirror. “Anything.”
“Do you love me?”
My heart was pounding hard, my pulse fluttering. I could pass. I could say no. But we’d promised each other the truth, and I was so tired of secrets.
“Yes.”
I think both of us stopped breathing, afraid to shatter this fragile thing between us. “Do you love me?” I whispered.
“Yes.”
One exhaled word, heat against my skin, solace in my soul, and we were breathing again. But there was something new in the air. Something new in the world. Something new about us.
The truth.
“Good,” I said.
And when I turned in his arms, when he kissed me as we stumbled to my bed, slowly peeling off each other’s clothes, I knew that it was one extraordinary, ordinary truth that would never change between us.