Chapter Thirty-Four
Allie
“Damn!” I raced across Dylan’s living room and slammed my toe into his coffee table in an attempt to get to my phone before it went to voicemail. Dylan hadn’t been happy about me staying home alone today, despite his security spell. Funny how he hadn’t even considered that I’d be alone until he’d been dressing to go to the office. That’s when he’d tried to talk me into going with him, which sounded beyond boring. There was also the fact that I’d been too tired to get dressed. So, he’d reluctantly left after telling me he’d call to check on me as soon as he could. From what he’d told me before leaving this morning, he had some big cases coming up involving spell patents, an area of the law he didn’t usually handle. That meant he had to do even more research for those cases.
I knew Dylan would freak out if I didn’t answer his call, but it was hard to do more than bounce around and run through my expansive list of swear words as the throbbing pain of my baby toe brought tears to my eyes. Coffee tables were truly evil!
When the phone stopped ringing, I decided I’d better hurry before Dylan had the police at the house checking on me. When I finally got to my phone in the kitchen, I saw that the missed call was actually from Nick, which came as a surprise since it was two in the afternoon; I’d always assumed vampires slept all day. Just went to show how little I really knew about them. In my defense, vampires didn’t socialize with the rest of the preternatural community very often. In some ways, they could be even bigger elitists than witches.
Grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge, I limped over to the breakfast bar and sat down to call Nick back. I was just about to open the bottle, when I realized how good the cold would feel on my baby toe, so I grabbed my phone and went into the living room, because I was pretty sure I’d fall off of the stools in Dylan’s kitchen if I tried propping my foot up to put the bottle on my toe. Settling onto the couch, I eyed the evil coffee table, wondering if Dylan would use one of his fire spells on it if I asked. I hit Nick’s number and put it on speaker.
“Hey, Allie,” he answered cheerfully.
“Hi, Nick,” I responded. “Sorry I didn’t pick up when you called, but I left my phone in the kitchen, and then I stubbed my toe racing to get it.”
“Ouch,” Nick said, sounding genuinely sympathetic. “I just wanted to call and thank you for last night again. That was really awesome what you did for me.”
“Any time,” I said. “What are you doing up in the afternoon? Aren’t vampires allergic to sunlight?”
Nick chuckled. “We are, but we don’t need to sleep all day. I’m hanging out in the basement at the witch from the party’s house until I can go out without turning into a pile of ash.”
“Must be boring,” I said.
“Yeah, but at least she’s got a television down here. I watch way too much daytime television most days, but I only need a few hours of sleep,” he explained. “How’s it going with you? I was just watching the news and saw there’s some crazy guy killing succubi. Did you hear about that?”
“That’s actually why Dylan has been sticking so close to me,” I told him.
“I guess that makes sense since he’s your boyfriend,” Nick said.
“Oh no!” I denied quickly. “Dylan is not my boyfriend. Actually, I guess he is. I even called him that last night. Hell, this has been a confusing couple of days,” I said, a little embarrassed about my mini panic attack over Nick calling Dylan my boyfriend.
“Sorry,” Nick said, sounding embarrassed. “I just kind of assumed you guys were as good as married after the way he was hanging all over you last night and the way he talks about you.”
I groaned. “If Dylan’s mother has her way, we’ll be married soon. I’m beginning to think I need to hide from the Council of Witches.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, sounding completely lost, not that I blamed him for being confused by my ramblings.
“The Council of Witches is forcing an affinity test between Dylan and me,” I explained.
“Don’t let them pressure you into this,” Nick said in a more urgent tone.
“I won’t,” I assured him. “Okay, the affinity test is probably going to happen, but nothing will come of it. My father might be willing to allow Dylan’s mother to push for the test, but he’d never allow her to push me into an actual ceremony.”
Nick was quiet for a short time, making me wonder if he was still there. “You should refuse to take the test. I’ve heard your council can be old-fashioned in their thinking, and they might convince your father to force the issue. As part sex demon, you can get out of the test.”
Nick’s knowledge of witches came as a surprise since he was a newly turned vampire. At least, I was assuming he was newly turned. While I hadn’t asked when he’d been turned, he was too nice to be an older vampire. Sadly, most vampires became cold and withdrawn as they aged. They started to view everyone as either a threat or a food source. Nick still had friends, and he seemed too sweet to be an older vampire, but I decided to ask anyway. “When were you turned,” I asked him.
“Just after my eighteenth birthday,” he answered excitedly. “It was a relief to finally go through the change.”
“So, you weren’t afraid?” I asked because I’d always wondered if the vampires were scared when they died. They lived in a very strange culture, so they probably had different ideas about life and death. Each vampire was responsible for freezing eggs or sperm prior to the change so they could keep their gene pool as pure as possible—their words, not mine. They would later use a human surrogate to carry their child. In some cases, they even had more than one child with a surrogate. Those children were changed at adulthood. In older times, they’d been required to produce a child before the change. For some reason, vampirism only passed down to people of certain decent, so this was how they continued their line. I guess they ended up with the occasional vampire who had a child with the wrong person, and their children died when they tried to change them. I’d always felt bad for the children who lived in vampire communities. It couldn’t be easy being a human who knew they would die between eighteen and twenty. None of them really had an option to remain human.
“Did you want to become a vampire?” I asked.
“Of course,” Nick said, sounding almost impatient with my question. “Why wouldn’t I want to be a vampire?”
“Most people are afraid of dying,” I said.
Nick took a moment to consider my words. “I grew up viewing my life as an obstacle. The only downside for me was losing the stubble and what little muscle mass I’d gained up to that point. I attracted older women before the change, but most of them were human, so I wasn’t all that interested.”
“Why weren’t you interested?” I asked. “You were still human yourself.”
“It’s hard to be attracted to a woman when you’ve been told her kind are nothing more than cattle your entire life. We’re never referred to as humans, and grow up knowing we’re different,” he explained, sounding amused by my questions. “Are you worried I was traumatized by the transition or forced into it?”
“I guess I am,” I admitted. “I like you, Nick, and I hate thinking of you suffering or being forced into something you didn’t want. Surely, you can understand that.”
“What’s Allie short for?” he asked, and I wondered if he was just trying to change the subject.
“Alana,” I said.
“That’s a beautiful name,” he said, sounding lost in thought. “Maybe you should come over to my place after it gets dark. You could stay with me until the police catch the killer. Who’d look for a succubus in a vampire neighborhood?”
“That’s really nice, Nick, but I still need to go to work, and Dylan’s place is closer than any of the vampire subdivisions. If things get too bad, I’ll just stay with my dad until they catch the killer.”
“Staying at Dylan’s house is a bad idea,” he surprised me by saying.
“I thought you like
d Dylan,” I said, wondering why he was suddenly so eager to get me away from Dylan.
“I do, and that’s another reason I’m so worried about this affinity thing,” he added. “If you stay with Dylan, your witch council might say you’re already living as a couple and use that as an excuse to force a marriage. I’ve heard witches still have arranged marriages. Both of you could be hurt by this.”
“You really are a sweetie, but you don’t have to worry. My father is too powerful for them to go against him,” I assured Nick. “That Zoe is an idiot for not seeing how wonderful you are.”
“Thank you,” he said shyly, and I could almost picture him ducking his head. “If you change your mind about staying with me, just call, and I can have someone pick you up.”
“I will,” I agreed and heard the embarrassing sound of my stomach rumbling. “Listen, I really need to go eat some lunch. Can I call you back later?”
“Actually, I think I’ll try to get some more sleep,” Nick said.
“Okay, thanks for checking on me, Nick. Bye.”
“Bye, Allie,” he said before ending the call.
I really hoped I was right about not being forced to marry Dylan, but I wasn’t feeling quite as confident as I’d led Nick to believe. One bad thing about being a witch in good standing was that I was subject to some of the more archaic rules set up by the COWs. Of all the preternatural beings, witches were the most rooted in the past, with vampires coming in a close second. The Council of Witches hadn’t been an issue for me in the past because, other than having to appear before them for testing and the occasional meeting, they rarely saw me. I was a nearly invisible half-breed. Now, I was being forced into an affinity test, which could realistically lead to me being joined with Dylan. Of course, that was only if we passed the test, something I really needed to read up on before the council meeting.
“Crap,” I muttered to myself. The thing that made this an even bigger mess was the fact that I really liked Dylan. As much as I complained about staying with him, I wasn’t exactly in any hurry to leave.
I was so totally screwed.
My phone buzzed again, and I smiled when I saw it was a message from Delilah. I’d been too busy to check up on her yesterday, and I’d been waiting for her to text me back all day.
DELILAH: OMG! My mom is driving me up a wall. I hope they catch that killer soon so I can get out of here.
ME: I hope they catch him soon too. Miss you.
DELILAH: Of course you do. I’m the coolest person you know.
I had to laugh. One thing my roommate did not lack was self-confidence.
ME: Are your instructors okay with you missing so much class?
DELILAH: Most are, but I had to drop one class. Stupid teacher has had it in for me since her husband came on to me. So not my fault she married a sleazebag.
ME: Glad the other ones were willing to work with you.
DELILAH: I gotta go. My mom’s fixing me up with some demon she knows. Ugh!
ME: Have fun!
As much as I worried about Delilah being in the demon realm, I knew I’d just worry more if she was here. It was pretty sad when you were safer in the demon realm than the human realm.