Authors: Melody Johnson
I didn’t believe in coincidences. The fact that the murders had followed me combined with the fact that each murder scene had my prints or DNA was a pattern I couldn’t deny or ignore. Someone was framing me to protect the real murderer, and I only knew one person who might have the power and motivation to pull that off.
Bex was the one who had sliced a lock of my hair where the Dunbars had been killed only a few hours later. She’d tasted my blood and could probably track my scent to Ronnie’s abandoned childhood home, where I’d cut my knees. I don’t know how she knew about the silver nitrate spray—maybe she had tracked my scent there, too—but I didn’t care. If a member of her coven was responsible for these murders, I had no doubt that she’d cover the evidence to keep her coven’s existence a secret. Just like Dominic, I’m sure she’d do anything to protect the anonymity of their existence, but make no mistake, she’d regret turning the evidence on me.
During our ride home from the police station, Ronnie had tried and failed to rouse conversation. Keagan and I had been somber and silent. I was brooding over my murderous thoughts concerning the case, and Keagan was likely grieving. Ronnie, unfortunately, could pull conversation from thin air despite the mood.
“I’m sure it was very difficult for you,” Ronnie said to Keagan, her voice soft and consoling. It made me sick. “You were brave to talk to the police about your brothers. I know you already know this, but any and all information at this point will help them find Colin.”
“I know,” Keagan said.
“Did they ask you any questions that didn’t involve your brothers?”
Keagan shrugged.
“If you want to talk about it, I—”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I understand.” Ronnie turned to me. “Did they—”
“I don’t want to talk about it either,” I cut her off.
Ronnie crossed her arm. “I didn’t even finish my question. You don’t know what I was going to ask.”
“I don’t care. I’ve answered enough questions. I’m not in the mood to answer yours, too.”
Ronnie stared at me in silence.
Guilt diluted my anger enough for me to regret being rude. Snapping at Ronnie was like kicking a puppy for nipping your hand. It couldn’t help that it was just trying to play. “Sorry.”
“Do you think they’ll come after me?” Ronnie asked in a small voice. “It’s my house, after all.”
I rolled my eyes. “You haven’t left Walker’s house after dark in years. Your alibi is solid. You don’t have anything to worry about.”
Ronnie bit her lip. “Did they—”
“I said I don’t want to talk about it.”
Ronnie stared at me in silence again, but that time, I let her stew.
By the time I parked in Walker’s driveway and killed the engine, Logan was already out of the house and striding toward us. I squeezed the steering wheel nervously. Normally, I’d say he’d need to get in line with all the other people I’d pissed off lately, but by the pace of his stride, he was cutting ahead of the crowd.
He didn’t even wait for me to get out of the truck. He yanked the driver’s side door open and dragged me from the seat by my waist.
“Dad! Cassidy was just trying to help!” Keagan shouted. I heard his feet hit the gravel as he jumped out of the truck.
“I know,” Logan rasped. His voice was thick and wet, and I realized belatedly that he was crying. He buried his face in my shoulder as his own broad shoulders shook, and his grip around my waist tightened. My feet still hadn’t touched ground as he held me in his arms, and like my feet, my mind was failing to find its purchase, trying to decide if Logan was trying to squeeze the life from me or hug me.
He was panting something between the silent sobs that racked his big body, and that’s when I finally knew he was hugging me. I could just decipher the rough mantra of him repeating over and over again, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”
I tried to pull back to see his face, but he only buried his face deeper into the curve of my neck. His tears had soaked my shirt.
Keagan was suddenly next to us. I felt one of Logan’s arms leave me to encircle his son, but my perch against Logan’s chest didn’t slip, even with only one of his arms holding me.
“I’m sorry for pulling Keagan out of school,” I wheezed through the pressure around my lungs. “I was trying to help. To confirm if Colin had left with William and Douglas last night. I thought maybe we could still find Colin.”
“You thought right,” Logan said.
I stiffened in his arm. “They found Colin?”
Logan shook his head. “They found his hat.”
My hopes deflated. “I’m so sorry.”
“He’s still out there. They haven’t found his—” Logan couldn’t finish his sentence, but I knew what he was about to say.
They haven’t found his body.
“He’s still out there,” I repeated his words back to him, the only words I had, which were both a comfort and a curse. They hadn’t found his body, but the sun was setting. Unless they found him soon, he’d still be out there after dark with the vampires and the same murderer that had killed his brothers.
Logan nodded. He set me on my feet. The splintering protest of my hip stabbed down my leg as it bore weight. I gritted my teeth against the pain and concentrated on the plan I’d developed on the drive back from the police station.
“I need to ask you for a favor, Logan.”
He raised his eyebrows. “What is it?”
“I need you to take Keagan and Ronnie to Walker’s fallout shelter below the house and protect them tonight.”
Logan shook his head. “I can’t stay there tonight. I need to join the search. I need to help find Colin.”
“I’m coming with you,” Keagan interjected.
“You’re staying here,” Logan said, his tone low and pained and brooking no argument.
“I can’t stay here tonight, either. I need to help!”
“I can’t lose all my sons in one night!” Logan bellowed. “You are to stay here and stay safe until sunrise!”
Keagan snapped his lips shut, the worry and grief etching his face deeper than his years. I glanced at Logan, but I couldn’t look at him without seeing the indelible impression of his sons’ features in his own face.
I leaned forward and lowered my voice. “You’re right that Keagan should stay here, but he needs you to stay here, too.”
“Colin needs me, and right now, he’s the one in danger. I need
you
to stay here with Keagan and Ronnie.” This time he leaned forward, his whisper intense and urgent. “Keagan can’t protect himself and Ronnie. They need you. Please.”
I looked down at my own petite frame and laughed. “I’d just be another liability, worse than Ronnie.”
“I can hear you,” Ronnie said from behind Logan, her hands on her hips.
“Don’t play dumb.” Logan ignored Ronnie, his expression like stone. “I’ve heard of your abilities. You can control vampires like they can control us. You can entrance their minds.”
I crossed my arms. “Walker told you about his time with me in the city.”
He nodded. “What you lack physically you make up in mental strength. He asked you to stay here tonight to protect Ronnie and Keagan, and I’m asking you to do the same.”
“I can’t. I have business to take care of tonight.” I pursed my lips, deciding how much to divulge. “You know that vampires can twist evidence, right? Make people forget they were attacked. Make people think they saw only shadows when really they saw vampires.”
“Of course. They’d do anything to hide their existence from humans.”
“The evidence they’re twisting is pointing at me, and I need to fix it before I’m blamed for these murders.”
“You’re being blamed for these murders?”
“Not yet, but I need to keep it that way.”
Logan glanced alternately at the woods and back at me. “I can’t sit here and do nothing while Colin’s out there. I’ll go crazy.”
“I can’t risk another murder tonight, linking me to this case. I’ll be arrested.”
“We don’t need either of you,” Keagan said tightly. “If we stay in the fallout shelter all night, we’ll be fine. That’s what the basement is designed for, isn’t it? The entire house could collapse on top of us, but the fallout shelter would keep us safe.”
Logan pursed his lip, his gaze unwavering. “How long will you be?”
“How long will it take to find Colin?” I countered.
He looked taken aback. “As long as it takes.”
I nodded. “Exactly.”
Logan blew out a long, deep breath and then faced Keagan squarely. “You are to lock yourself in the fallout shelter and not leave until dawn. Agreed?”
Keagan nodded.
I turned to Ronnie. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“You shouldn’t leave after dark alone,” she whispered.
I raised my eyebrows. “Are you going to come with me?”
She balled her hands into fists. “You don’t know me. You don’t understand.”
“I know enough to know that you’re going to watch me leave, like you’ve watched Walker leave a hundred times, to face Bex alone.” I whispered. “You can’t hide inside your entire life, Ronnie. You have to fight for it.”
“Like you’re letting me fight for mine?” Keagan cut in.
Logan glared hotly at me before answering. “That’s different,” he told Keagan. “I can’t focus on finding Colin if I’m worried about you.”
Keagan locked eyes with his father for a long moment. “You’re going to find Colin.”
“You’re damn right I am.”
Keagan’s face turned to stone, just like his father’s. “What if he’s already dead, like William and Douglas?”
Logan swallowed. His lips trembled this time when he spoke, but his voice was steady. “I’m going to find him.”
Keagan nodded, understanding all too well what his father meant. Dead or alive, Logan planned on finding his son. Tonight would be a long night for Logan and the officers as they combed the woods, searching and praying to find Colin, and an even longer night for Keagan and Ronnie as they bunkered here at the house, waiting and praying for everyone’s safe return. I thought of my plans for the night and cringed inwardly.
Tonight would be a long night for everyone.
I silvered up on jewelry, donned my leather coat despite the mild weather, and took the liberty of borrowing Walker’s truck again. Public transportation wasn’t an option here in the woods. God, I missed the city. Walker’s truck was my only option; without streetlights, the trees, insects, and dense solitude—that horrible, unshakable itch that you were not alone yet completely on your own—were worse than street bums, muggers, and traffic. I wasn’t repeating that experience, so until taxis were once again a viable option or until Walker was present to stop me, his truck was mine to borrow.
Navigating the woods was easier this time since full dark hadn’t descended. Maybe I could finish my business with Bex and join Ronnie and Keagan in the fallout shelter without Walker being the wiser, but I doubted it. If my plan worked, I’d find the murderer and maybe Colin, too, so Walker would know I’d confronted Bex on my own.
If my plan failed, however, Walker and Logan might be planning a search party for me next.
I parked the truck in the woods where we’d parked Walker’s motorcycle last night for dinner with Bex and finished the trek to her coven on foot. Even with the sun’s rays penetrating between the trees, the coven’s entrance was well hidden. Shadows from the ledge’s rocky overhang blended with moss and stone, covering the cave’s mouth. Someone unfamiliar with the area would likely pass and allow the cave to exist unnoticed, but I knew where to look. I recognized the chafed bark where Walker had secured the rappel rigging. I remembered the jut of the overhang and the tilted angle of the cave’s mouth. The stones that had given way when Rene had yanked me into the cave exposed a patch of dirt in an otherwise stone-lined entrance, so I recognized the coven despite its seclusion.
A green-tinted, reflective light blinked at me from beneath the shadows of the stone overhang. Just one light blinked instead of two, but I didn’t need the reminder of her injury to recognize who was lying in wait, staring at me from the far side of the cave’s opening.
Bex was the only vampire I knew who could tolerate the shadows of darkness before the sun had fully set.
I stopped in front of her, the cave between us. “Hello, Bex.”
“Cassidy.” Her voice purred from the darkness, but I could only see the solitary green tint of her reflective eye. Otherwise, her body was completely shrouded in shadow. “I hadn’t expected the pleasure of your company so soon after your last visit.”
“I hadn’t expected to visit so soon, either.” I fingered the can of silver nitrate in my pocket, triple checking that the trigger was unlocked and ready to spray. “To be honest, I would’ve preferred that last night be both my first and last visit to your coven.”
“It pains me to hear you say such things,” Bex said, the blatant sarcasm in her voice oddly comforting. “We are still allies, are we not?” she asked.
I narrowed my eyes on that one reflective orb in the darkness. I couldn’t discern her from the shadows. I couldn’t see her expression or read her posture, and her voice revealed nothing. Did she still fear losing Dominic as an ally, or was she searching for a reason to break the truce?
I decided to err on the side of caution. “Dominic desires you as an ally. He sent me here to mend the ties between you. Since you are his ally, you are my ally.”
“Ally by default,” Bex laughed, and the melodic loveliness of her voice was like the brush of a feather against the inside of my skull. It made my skin tingle and raised goose bumps along my nape. “I like that.”
“I’d prefer to think of it as ally by
loyalty
, but to each her own.”
I caught a movement in the shadows that might have been her head nodding. “I regret how we left things between us after such a pleasant dinner.”
Pleasant dinner,
I thought dismally. I’d hate to discover what she considered unpleasant. Although, truth be told, before Walker had refused her blood, before she’d strangled me, and before he’d shot her in the eye, concussed his head, and seized, we all would have left physically well and relatively unscathed.
But that’s not how dinner had ended.