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  I needed to get out of there. The nurses had been right. There was nothing I could do for the time being except let the doctors do their job. I started to say goodbye to Fiona, but she spoke first.

  “I work a late shift,” she said. “But I’m always starving at about midnight.”

  “Um…” I wasn’t sure where this non sequitur was going. Sometimes I’m a little slow on the uptake.

  She seemed to wait a second to let me get up to speed, but when I didn’t say more, she went on. “Eating in the middle of the night alone is kind of depressing. Like one step away from drinking alone.”

  Oh…wait. Was she hinting toward what I think she was hinting toward? I stammered now. I had too mixed up a brew of emotions to know how to respond. I must have looked like a brain-dead monkey.

  Her smile set me at ease.

  “Would you like to pick me up after my shift so I don’t have to eat alone? Then I can update you on anything I hear about Judith.”

  I nodded. That was about all I could manage. Sebastian Light, powerful sorcerer from a storied line of magicians, rendered speechless by a pretty mortal orderly at a nursing home. My ancestors would be so proud.

  Her smile turned up a notch. It was like my own personal ray of sunlight. “Good,” she said. “Then I’ll see you tonight.”

  I nodded again and forced out a, “Yeah.”

  At least I didn’t have drool dripping off my chin.

  She reached up and touched my cheek. Her fingertips drew a ticklish line along my jaw. “I’m sure she’s going to be all right.”

  “Thanks.”

  She gave my cheek a playful pat. “Midnight,” she said. “Don’t be late.”

  “Not a chance,” I said.

  Chapter Five

  I didn’t have to meet Fiona until midnight, but I started getting ready at nine. I didn’t know how to approach our…could I call it a date? Probably not. She felt sorry for me, probably felt like I needed some company. I didn’t want to look too deeply into the whole thing. After all, it was just a late night meal, probably at some twenty-four hour diner. Nothing fancy was even open at that time of night.

  Unless she meant to take you home with her for dinner.

  Yikes. I couldn’t let my thoughts go down that road. I was nervous enough about this outing, without putting that kind of pressure on myself. Christ, I felt like a teenager on prom night. I needed to get a grip.

  The flashback to my teen years was helped along by the fact that I had moved back into my parents’ house after the incident that had killed Dad and silenced Mom. Had, in fact, moved right back into my old bedroom. How many mornings before school had I primped in this very mirror hung inside my closet door?

  I tried on a couple of possible outfits in the mirror. I had to keep in mind that Fiona would come out of the nursing home still dressed in her work clothes, her smock and slacks. I didn’t want to show up out dressing her. I also didn’t want to come across too casual, though. I wanted to look as good as possible without coming on too strong.

  After finally selecting an outfit—a dark pair of jeans and a loose button-up—I spent another thirty minutes in front of the mirror trying to make my hair look fashionably messy. I needed a trim. I also considered shaving, but I had grown fond of my perpetual stubble. It was the “in” look, and for all I knew was a feature Fiona liked, part of what motivated her to ask me out in the first place.

  Assuming she had asked me out.

  Which, technically she had. But had she asked me out out?

  I swung the closet door shut before I could fuss over myself any more.

  My stomach did a few twirls as I stepped out onto the front porch. I could feel the humidity in the air already curling my hair. I hurried to my car parked in the drive. I wanted to get the air conditioning going as quickly as possible. But something made me stop when I put my hand on the door handle. A charge in the air. Magical energy.

  I looked around. There were plenty of shadows up close to the rows of identical looking houses on the street. But out toward the street itself and most of the driveways, looming street lights kept things illuminated with an orange phosphorescent glow. I couldn’t see anyone, or anything. Yet that static crackle in the air persisted. Sometimes all that signified was a minor natural magical occurrence happening nearby. A sprite giving birth hidden in someone’s garden. A gnome snoring in his sleep. A troll peeking out from under his bridge.

  Sometimes mortals cast spells. The occasional Wiccan occupied more normal suburban homes than you’d realize. And while mortal witches typically couldn’t work anything too complex, those sensitive to magical energies could catch a metaphorical whiff whenever they practiced. Whether it was a simple sky clad plea to the Goddess for some material gain, or a dark, candlelit cursing, I could catch a vibe if it happened relatively close.

  Thing was, I had grown up on this street, and while some folks had gone and others come, I felt pretty certain we didn’t have any amateur practitioners on the block.

  This energy had a different taste, anyway. It felt more natural. Less spell and more presence.

  I double checked the shadows. Because now I felt like I was being watched. I’m not typically paranoid. And I sure as heck don’t scare easily. I’m pretty high up on the supernatural food chain. In a manner of speaking. Not that I eat anything or feed off of anything like a vampire or succubus. Just that I sit high on the hierarchy of power.

  I’m not used to being hunted.

  But that’s exactly how I felt at that moment.

  Rather than take any chances, I gathered my concentration and poured a little energy down to my right hand. Warmth spread outward from my palm and into my fingers.

  “Who’s there?”

  The crickets chirruped merrily, but I didn’t hear anything else.

  Maybe I was being paranoid. Best thing to do, if I was being stalked, would be to get in my car and drive away. I let the energy in my hand dissipate and climbed in my car.

  The time I had spent standing out in the wet air had made me sweat into my fresh shirt. I could smell the piney menthol of my deodorant activating. I had decided against cologne, since I don’t normally wear it and Fiona probably knew that, so showing up smelling extra smelly might send her the wrong message. Or, send the right message, but at the wrong time.

  I started the engine and cranked up the A/C. The initial burst of air from the vents was oven warm, but at least it was dry.

  I started to back down the driveway and that’s when the dark panel van squealed its tires as it turned into my driveway and blocked me in.

  Oh, shit.

  I glanced in my side mirror in time to see four figures pour out of the van—one from behind the wheel and three others out the sliding side door. The red gleam in their eyes and the grotesque distortion of their facial features told me I was dealing with vamps. One of the streetlights caught the gleam of one of the vamp’s fangs in case I needed to be sure.

  I immediately reached into the glove box and grabbed the wooden crucifix I kept there.

  I got out of the car and faced the vampires as they lined up alongside my car’s rear bumper. Three males and a female. Telling their ages was impossible, since they stopped aging once they turned. Their looks could only give you an estimate of how old they’d been upon turning. And that didn’t matter much either, because once you went vamp, a whole new set of rules determined how powerful you were, and physical condition was low on that hierarchy.

  “Well, kids, this isn’t really your kind of neighborhood,” I said. I kept the cross held down at my side so they could see it, but I didn’t flash it around in front of me. That kind of gesture was considered especially rude in vampire company, and so far they hadn’t officially threatened me, so Ministry law could slap me with the equivalent of a misdemeanor if the vampires wanted to press charges.

  Yep, all sorts of laws laid down based on this stuff. Otherwise, the streets would run amok with the denizens of the dark…and the light, for that
matter.

  The female vampire stood on the end of their lineup farther from my car. She wore a leather half-coat and had her straw-colored hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her face was full on vamp, the usual glamour that hid her true nature pulled aside. While this usually meant the vampire wasn’t happy to see you, it didn’t qualify as a technical aggression. So I had to look at her ugly face that looked like a skull with gray shrink-wrap for skin.

  She stepped forward. “Put down the cross.”

  I slowly shook my head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” I pointed with it down my driveway as if it were nothing more than an extension of my figure, casual, not facing it toward them. They all cringed back, but I wasn’t using it against them in any obvious way, so no one could cry foul. “I was headed out my drive,” I said, then lowered the cross back to my side. “But you’re blocking me.”

  “Put it down,” the female snarled. The depth of red in her eyes turned three shades darker.

  “Is this about Darius?” I asked. “Because I had a legitimate contract on him. You can’t retaliate against me for that.”

  “We can do whatever we want,” said one of the males in the middle. His lips peeled away from his fangs and I noticed some discoloration at the tips. He had fed recently. Which would make him strong.

  I checked the others and noticed the same darkness at the tips of their fangs. They all had had a fine meal before coming over to my house. This was not a social visit. Nor was it an empty threat.

  These vampires came here to dance.

  And still, until they showed obvious violent intent, I had to stand there and do nothing. Well, except shoot my mouth off.

  “You know, you really should brush your teeth after meals. I’m sure your breath must stink.”

  The female spokesperson took another step forward. “You are weak.”

  I wrinkled my brow. “Is that supposed to make me cry? If I didn’t know any better, I would think you’re trying to provoke me. Is that how you plan on getting away with this?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You need to get off my property, or I make a call to the regional prefect’s office, and you can take this up with the Ministry.”

  “Fuck the Ministry,” the grumpy male said. “Let’s just do it.”

  I tucked the crucifix into my back pocket and crossed my arms. I could smell my body sweat overpowering my deodorant from standing out in the humidity. Nerves may have been a factor in my perspiration as well. I’d never stood against a quartet of angry vampires before. Usually, they kept away from types like me. While the Ministry laws protected them as much as anybody, vampires naturally suffered a heavier burden of proof than sorcerers. After all, sucking blood was their thing, not ours. It kind of made them look bad.

  “What, exactly, are you here to do?” I asked.

  The female’s lips pulled back so far she was almost all gums and teeth. She tilted her head from side to side while she stared at me, as if trying to figure me out. Or trying to decide which side of my neck to chomp on.

  “You are afraid,” she said.

  “Not afraid,” I said. “But I’m not stupid either. And if you show me anymore of your teeth, I’m going to take that as an official threat and dust you with fire. I’ll skip right over the crucifix phase.”

  “I dare you,” she said.

  What the hell? They really did want to pick a fight. Yet they weren’t willing to start it. So, in theory, I could turn around and go back inside and ignore them completely. They couldn’t follow me in without an invite, and eventually the sun always rose, and that would force them to make themselves scarce.

  Problem with that was I had a maybe-date with Fiona, and I was loathe to pass that up. Especially since I’d have to offer some lame excuse. Telling her there were four vampires camped out in my front yard waiting to eat me probably would doom any chance of a reschedule.

  I gritted my teeth. “Enough, freaks. Get out of my way, or suffer consequences.”

  The female’s lips curled up giving her a huge clown-faced kind of smile.

  A green sickness wormed in my stomach.

  “Please, make us suffer,” she said. Her voice sounded like the combined hiss and rattle of a desert snake.

  An idea occurred to me. I climbed back in my car, pulled forward a bit, then looped around in reverse, riding onto my lawn, which forced the female vamp to scoot aside. I did my best not to dig my tires too deeply into the sod by not spinning the wheels any faster than necessary. Luckily, besides the humidity, the weather had been dry, so I wasn’t sinking into wet sod. No matter what, though, I’d be leaving tire tracks on the lawn.

  “Sorry, Mom,” I said under my breath and put the car into drive.

  Before I could pull forward, the crabby male vamp jumped onto my hood and snarled at me through the windshield.

  I officially took that as a threat.

  All bets were off.

  Throwing the car into park, I gathered my mojo. I held my hands up more to guide my spell than conduct it. Focusing on the air around the vampire on my hood, I pulled it to my will. The air coalesced around him. He must have sensed the magical energy growing. His red eyes went wide.

  Too late for him, though.

  I threw my hands up and directed the gathered air around the vampire up with him. The force carried the vamp off my hood and straight up as if I had taped a rocket to his back. He howled as he rose a good twenty feet before sailing back down in a narrow arc and thumping onto his back just in front of my tires.

  I smirked.

  Threw the car back into drive.

  Floored it.

  The back tires spun in the grass a second to gather purchase. I cringed as I imagined all the dirt flinging off the wheels and the ruts I was probably making in the lawn.

  Finally, the tires gripped and the car lurched forward.

  The shock of the vampire’s sudden ascent and descent kept him stunned for only a second. But it was enough time that, though he scampered out of the brunt of my car’s charge, I still clipped his legs under one tire.

  Even with the windows up, I heard the crunch of his bones as his legs got tangled up in the wheel well. A most satisfying sound after having to deal with these douche bags trying to hem me in. I have control issues. I’ll admit it. And I’d be damned if I let some low-life ex-mortals ruin my date plans.

  The female ringleader screeched like a dying crow. Reminded me of the sound Darius Strong made right before I turned him into wet dust.

  She shot toward me on the driver’s side and threw a fist through the window. The safety glass broke easily against her strike, opening a gummy hole that allowed her arm through.

  I slammed on the gas, but between my back tires spinning in the chewed up sod and the fucking vamp all twisted up around my front wheel, the car jerked but didn’t move forward.

  The female vamp grabbed my throat, getting a good grip right under my jaw, and yanked.

  If I’d been buckled in, she probably would have taken my head off.

  Lucky for me, my whole body came through the broken window and out onto the ground, where she unceremoniously dropped me like a sack of shit.

  She stepped over me so that she straddled me, one booted foot on either side of my waist. Her fangy wide grin somehow widened further—I wondered for a split second if a vampire could peel back their lips all the way to their eyes—and her glowing eyes seemed to burn a hole right down to my trembling soul.

  I didn’t tremble long, though.

  I wasn’t an amateur.

  I gathered another wave of power and hit her with a blast of focused wind. I knocked her into the air and down onto the neighbor’s front lawn. Then I hopped to my feet.

  The other two vamps closed in.

  I still had the crucifix in my back pocket and I whipped that baby out and aimed the cross between them. They hissed and drew back. The one on my right covered his eyes as if I’d shone a strobe light in his face. The ot
her looked up toward the night sky as if he meant to bay at the moon.

  Wrong creature.

  While I had them distracted, I shifted the cross to my left hand and gathered heat into my right. (I’m right handed, and that does matter when it comes to magic). Flames quickly engulfed my fist. I swung my fist twice like tossing a couple of stones. Two fireballs shot forth, one for each vampire, and both hit square in their chests.

  They screamed. The fire spread across their bodies as if coated in napalm.

  While they flailed in pain, I turned back to Mr. Grumpy, whose broken legs were still pinned under the tire of my car. I tried to think of something smart to say, but came up empty.

  He glared up at me, all fangs and angry eyes. “I’m going to rip your throat open and—”

  I melted his face with another fire bolt before he could finish.

  His vampire flesh sloughed off in large glops, exposing his misshapen skull underneath. His eyes still glowed. And he still screamed. When the flames died, if I let him be, his flesh would eventually regenerate. I either had to totally obliterate him with fire, chop his head off, or pierce his heart to actually kill him. But he wasn’t going anywhere at the moment, so I let him scream while I turned my attention to…

  Shit.

  The ringleader wasn’t where I’d left her. In fact, she wasn’t anywhere I could see her.

  Plenty of shadows up close to the houses. And vampires could use the shadows to cloak themselves beyond the natural obscurity of darkness. I backed up to my car on the opposite end from where Grumpy was trapped and burning like a wick. I kept the vehicle at my back for what little protection it offered me while I scanned the neighbors’ and my own house for any sign of movement.

  Nothing.

  The pair of vamps I had lit up had stopped screaming. The pain must have knocked them out. Their cooked flesh continued to pop and hiss like grease in a cooling skillet.

  I tilted my head and strained to hear any sign of their leader. Since vampires didn’t breathe, I wasn’t counting on hearing a quickened breath. Maybe the shift of a shrub, or the scuff of one of her shoes in the dirt.