“What happened?” he asked as soon as I got close enough. “Kenny said Georgia Sue had an accident, but the station didn’t get the call. I talked to dispatch and heard it was a medical emergency, not a wreck.”
“I’ll tell you about it later,” I said, the adrenaline wearing off and leaving me shaky yet again.
“She’ll be all right?”
I nodded, hoping that was true. “What happened with the wolf?”
“Dogs lost the scent. I came to return the flashlights when Kenny got the call about Georgia Sue.”
“So you took over the bar?”
“Seemed like the best way for me to help. He left here at a dead run without leaving anyone in charge. Didn’t even answer me when I asked if he wanted me to drive him.”
Georgia Sue and Kenny were my friends, not really Zach’s. Zach and Kenny had even had a couple shouting matches when Zach acted like a jerk during the divorce. Zach wasn’t too fond of people passing judgment on him, so it was more comfortable plucking my eyebrows than hanging around together as a foursome anymore. Yet here Zach was, keeping things orderly for my friends who were in trouble.
I flipped up the flap and walked behind the bar, straight to him. I flung my arms around his neck, kissing him full on the lips. “Some days I do love you, Zachary Taylor Sutton.”
He grinned at me. “Likewise.”
“How are you though? How’s that bite?”
“Fine.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Smarts a little. Ain’t no big thing,” he said.
I studied Zach for a minute, trying to figure out if he was telling the truth. Right after he’d ruined his knee playing football, I met him in the locker room and asked him how bad it was. He’d just gotten through throwing up from the pain and had gotten a shot of morphine from the trainer, but Zach said his knee wasn’t too bad and he’d be ready to play in the next week’s game against A&M. Turned out the MRI showed he’d ripped most of the ligaments off the bone, and the joint was full of blood. Turned out there would never be any more college football games for him, and, two surgeries later, I could tell it still hurt him by the way he wrapped it and ate a couple aspirins some mornings, but Zach never complained.
“You sure you’re okay?” I asked.
He nodded, and I decided to believe him since he didn’t look pale or sick.
“Can you close this place up for them? Here’s Kenny’s keys,” I said, pulling the bar keys off the ring.
“Why? Where are you going?”
“I need to go by Georgia’s momma’s house to tell her what’s going on. You know how she gets the wheezes. I don’t want her to hear the news alone.” That was true enough, but not my first stop. Georgia’s momma sleeps like the dead and would never wake up at the phone ringing after midnight. I’d be able to take care of one or two things before going to hammer on her back door.
I marched out and flung myself back behind the wheel of Kenny’s car. I liked the leather bucket seats, the roar of the engine, and the squeal of the tires. The only thing it needed was a kitty cat companion in the passenger seat, and it would have been perfect.
I thought about swinging by Bryn’s to pick up Mercutio, but the way my night was going, some other big catastrophe would happen and put me off from getting to the locket. Time was running short; everything else could wait until I got Edie back.
I got to Johnny’s house in record time, thinking I really did have to get me a Trans Am. I shook my head at the hour. I don’t normally drop in on people so late, but I think anyone would agree that these were special circumstances.
I knocked very loudly on the door and contemplated whether I wanted to waste one of my silver bullets shooting his door lock.
Finally, the door swung open, and what I saw next would have knocked me right out of my pantyhose if I’d been wearing any. A lanky, black-haired, six-and-a-half-feet-tall man in four-inch stilettos, a black kimono, and three-alarm-fire-red lipstick stood with his hands on his hips.
“Settle down, Miss Thing, or I may have to drink a couple pints of that rudeness right out of you.” With that he flashed a smile that showed off pearly white fangs.
Chapter 19
I squeaked in alarm and took a step back, fumbling through my purse for Earl’s .38. The vampire’s gaze swept over me, and he rolled his eyes, looked bored, and turned and walked into the Moroccan oasis.
I got the gun in my hand, gripped it firmly and walked in behind him. “Where’s Johnny?”
He kept walking, not bothering to answer me. I followed him to the bedroom where Johnny was leaning heavily on a dresser, barely standing.
“It’s just Pippi Longstocking here for a visit. Now, let’s get you back to bed.” The vampire picked up the diminutive hairdresser and tucked him under the covers.
“Rollie, be pleasant. Tammy Jo my good friend.”
“Rollie?” I echoed.
“Roland Spears. No relation.” He walked to a stack of clothes that were piled on the edge of the bed and flung a swirled green-beaded cape around his shoulders. “This is fabulous,” he said as he walked over to the full-length mirror in the corner to admire himself. “Hard to pull off with jeans unless you’re totally fierce, but fortunately for me, I am.” He puckered his lips and blew himself a kiss and then turned and blew one to Johnny.
“Did you bite Georgia Sue?” I demanded, pointing the gun at him.
“Was that her name?”
“Rollie!” Johnny snapped. “You say you only going to get cough medicine for me.”
“I was, but I got hungry.”
“You only supposed to bite me when you in town.”
“I can’t bite you. You’re too weak. Drink some more of that echinacea tea.”
“Such a disobedient vampire. You not welcome in my house anymore. Get out.”
Rollie thrust his lip out in a pout.
“Tammy Jo, how is Miss Georgia?”
“Real sick. She lost so much blood she’s in a coma, and she might die.” My voice cracked, and I blinked back tears.
“She’s not going to die,” Rollie said, snapping his fingers impatiently. “I’d never kill anyone with hair that fabulous. All those Shirley Temple curls. Amazing.” He dropped on the bed with a dramatic sigh.
“She’s in a coma!” I screamed at him.
“Easy, cheetah. She’s only sleepy-time because I stuck her with a little dart.”
“What?”
“A wonderful little sedative dart. It slows the bodily functions until the victim can be found and also keeps them from remembering what happened. I was going to make an anonymous call for help for her, but then that gorgeous man showed up. He’s a little thin; someone should tell him heroin chic is out. He carried her off. She’ll get a couple of pints at the hospital and be good as new. Better. That sedative dart is fabulous. It’ll be the best sleep she’s ever had.”
“There is no hospital in town. There’s no blood bank,” I said.
“What?” He looked at Johnny with wide eyes.
Johnny nodded.
“No hospital? Where are we, the third world? Oh right, Podunk. So ridiculous. Every town should have a blood bank. Vampire tourism is on the rise, especially in places like this, though I can’t imagine why. I’m a city girl myself. Normally, if you don’t have Versace in a twenty-five-mile radius, there’s just no reason for me to visit.”
I lowered the gun and continued to stare at him, dumbfounded. “Do silver bullets kill vampires?”
“No, but they do make us very testy. And if you put a hole in this cape, I will kill you, fabulous hair or not.”
I turned to Johnny. “If Georgia Sue dies or has brain damage, or even nightmares, I’m going to hold you and your friend responsible.”
“I very sorry about Georgia Sue, but if Rollie say she be okay, she will.”
“You should never have invited him here! Vampires don’t belong in Duvall.”
“Oh, don’t we?” Rollie said, stealing glances at himself in the mirror. “Johnny didn’t invite me. My coven sent me to see what’s going on in this town.”
“What’s going on? What do you mean?”
“Oh don’t play innocent, Miss Sabrina Teenage Witch. You’ve been spell-casting. I can smell it from here. And, in fact, the town reeks of it.” He wrinkled his thin nose. “Plus, we heard that a pack of wild dogs was headed this way. And I’m here to see what that’s about and to report back. We couldn’t care less about your little hamlet, but we don’t want the
Call of the Wild
bunch to go on a rampage that includes Dallas. That town and its Galleria Mall are ours.”
I thought about Bryn saying that he could feel me casting spells and that others outside Duvall would feel it, too. But what did that have to do with the werewolves?
“Why would werewolves come to Duvall? Are they drawn to witch’s magic?”
He shook his head.
“So then why?”
“How should I know? Do I look like some mangy mutt to you?” he asked, running his knuckles over his cheek. “Have you seen them? All that hair.” He shuddered. “One would need a fifty-gallon drum of wax every full moon.” He ran his finger over a perfectly arched eyebrow.
“What makes them mad? What would someone have to do to become their enemy?”
“Breathe?” He shrugged dramatically, causing the beads to sparkle and reflect the light. “They pretend they’re only Rage in a Cage on the full moon, but the truth is they’re all about the anger every day. Too much testosterone. They could so stand to get in touch with their feminine sides. A little spandex and a rosewater bath would go a long way.”
“How does someone turn into a werewolf?” I said.
“A bite and the predisposition.”
“Predisposition? What’s that?”
“Somewhere in the genes you’ve got to have the switch waiting to be flipped.”
“And if you don’t, you’re okay,” I said, hoping Zach didn’t have any doggy DNA buried inside him.
“Oh, no. Humans die if they don’t turn. So does any other part-human creature with a serious bite. Werewolf bites don’t heal. They bleed on and off until the body’s defenses give out and the person collapses.”
“No.”
“Yes, and most humans don’t turn.”
The room spun slowly, and my legs folded under me.
“That is it,” I mumbled, staring up at Johnny’s bedroom ceiling. “I have had enough now. I’m done, Lord.” I closed my eyes. I’m not sure if I fainted or not. When I opened my eyes I was still on the floor of Johnny’s room. Johnny had crawled to the foot of the bed and was peering down at me while Rollie stood over me looking like a goth tower.
“There must be a magical way to stop the werewolf transformation or the bleeding,” I said.
“If there were, witches and warlocks would be making a fortune. Imagine how much people would pay for that cure. No, doesn’t exist.” He flipped his hair. “Why? Who got bit?”
“My ex, Zach.”
“Oh, the uber-butch muscleman cop. Yeah, invest in some heavy-duty barber shears. He’s just the type to go furry.”
I slapped a hand over my eyes. “Okay, I’m going to have a nervous breakdown. I really am. But before I do, I’d like to do one thing right.” I moved my hand and looked at Johnny with pleading eyes. “Give me the locket. I’m begging you.”
“I not have it,” Johnny said sadly. “Rollie, go to kitchen please and get my necklace. It in the silverware drawer. I show her.”
Rollie left and came back. The chain was an exact replica of the chain I wore the locket on, but the locket was a little different.
“Where did you get this?”
“I always like yours, and I love Edie. So I make a sketch and have a jeweler in Dallas make for me. And I get a spellbook from the store Edie talk about in Austin, but I not able to put the magic to the locket. Edie not come when I ask her to.” He sighed. “And when she does visit next time, she tease me. Say it not very original. She say she disappointed to see Johnny go for knock-off. So I not want you to see it. I embarrassed about copying. And then you accuse me of stealing. You make me angry, so I wanted you to go.”
I closed my eyes. I wished I could be in a coma with Georgia Sue. I was not one step closer to finding the locket. Plus, there was a pack of werewolves in town to kill me for some unknown reason, and they’d already taken a poisonous bite out of Zach. I wanted to run away from my life, but the best I could do was escape for a few minutes by fainting, and I was fixing to do that when I heard Rollie’s voice echoing down.
“She looks pale, and I haven’t even bitten her yet.”
The hell you say!
My eyes popped open, and I glared at him.
“Rollie, that not a funny joke. Things very serious.”
Rollie clucked his tongue in annoyance. “Well, for someone with red hair, she’s not much fun. She should watch
Will and Grace
reruns.” He cocked his head thoughtfully. “You know, if I were on that show, I’d want to be Karen.”
I rolled onto my side and pushed myself up. I walked stiffly to the bathroom, still feeling woozy and sick about Zach and Edie and everything. I ran cold water on a washcloth and put it on the back of my neck while I leaned over the sink.
“You better get a grip, Tammy Jo. There’s no time to fall apart. Maybe in a couple of days, but not right now. And what would Mercutio say if he could see you now? He fights off burglars five times his size when he’s only seven months old.” I took a deep breath and straightened up. I grimaced at the state of my eyes. Time to invest in some waterproof mascara. I pulled the cloth clear of my neck and ran it under some warm water.
“Rollie?” I called.
“Present,” he said dryly, and I could hear beads hitting the floor. Was he still trying on Johnny Nguyen ensembles?
“Johnny said he got a spellbook from a place in Austin that Edie recommended. I need to see that book.”
Rollie’s long maudlin face appeared in the doorway, startling me, and I glimpsed lavender fabric around his neck but couldn’t get a good look at what he was wearing.
“Why? Are we doing some magic? Can we conjure up a blond-haired boy with Raphaelite curls?”
“Oh, you don’t want me trying to conjure up your dreamboy. We’d probably end up with a roomful of cherubs with wooden stakes for arrows. I’m really barely a witch at all.”
“So then why would I get the book for you?”
“It’s an emergency. The family ghost will have her soul shredded to confetti if I don’t find my locket, and I’m just not fixin’ to have that happen. Now, I’d really be grateful if you could help me by getting me that book. And I promise to do something nice for you when things settle down.”