“You met Fata on the shore, didn’t you?” Sandy carried the pizzas over to the table. Max followed her with plates and forks.
“That’s right. I was standing on the edge of the ocean, in the area now known as Seahouses. I was out on the sand, watching the waves, when I saw a big swell headed for shore. As it drew near, I realized that a woman was riding the wave in. She was actually emerging out of it, arms spread wide, head back, as she stood atop the crest of the highest wave. As the water crashed along the beach, she leaped off and ran over to me, laughing. Her hair was flame red, and she was wearing a long black dress that looked like it was made of seaweed at first. She danced around me, then took my hands and said, ‘Have you ever ridden the wild ocean?’ And that…was my first meeting with Fata Morgana.”
“When did you meet Bubba?” Max asked.
“Oh, in 1687, and he’s been with me ever since. I rescued him from a burning barn. I had stopped near a Faerie barrow to see one of the Aunties when I smelled smoke. A farmer’s barn was on fire—it had a thatched roof and you know how dangerous those are. One stray spark, it’s boom, crash, and you can kiss your livestock and livelihood good-bye.”
I whistled to Bubba, who was sitting by his food dish, watching us. “Isn’t that right? You were just a baby when I found you, weren’t you, Bub?” He padded over and leapt onto the stool next to me, letting out a loud purp. I ruffled his fur. “I have no idea what happened to his mother or the rest of the litter. Anyway, so Bubba and I have been together a long, long time.”
“When did you begin to hunt vampires?” Max looked intrigued.
“A while later. You see, a group of them caught Tom. He sacrificed his life to save mine. They turned him. I wanted revenge. With Sandy and Fata at my side, I became the scourge of the vampire nation until my fires burned brighter than those of the witch hunters. But fire can scorch the soul, so after a while, I retired. To answer your question, it’s been a process of adapting. Of accepting that not all vampires are evil—that like us, they have a choice.”
I carried my wine over to join them at the table, glancing at the clock again. “Aegis should be getting up—”
“Right about now.” Aegis popped his head around the kitchen door and joined us. “Sorry I’m late. I needed a shower.” He kissed me and waved at Sandy and Max. “Pizza?”
“Yes, love. Sit down and join us.” I patted the chair next to me. Aegis sat down, accepting the glass of wine I offered him. “I was just telling Max about how I met Sandy, Fata, and Bubba.”
Aegis nodded. “A lot of water under the bridge there.”
“You’re not kidding about that.” I paused as the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it.” He excused himself and headed for the living room.
I glanced back at Max. “I lost Tom in 1720. We were out in the woods, working on a spell for a girl from some village. She had broken her leg in several places. Nobody asked us to help, but we knew that without our magic, the break wouldn’t heal right and she’d be lame. We didn’t realize that a group of vampires had followed us. They apparently had caught our scent—witches’ blood is an aphrodisiac for vamps.”
“I didn’t know that, either,” Max said. “I would think that witches don’t have a great love for vampires, then?”
“Mostly, no. Anyway, long story short, the vampires cornered us. Tom pushed me behind him and told me to run. I didn’t want to, but the next thing I knew, a unicorn appeared, with a Fae warrior riding his back. I snatched up Bubba, the warrior grabbed hold of me and pulled us onto the unicorn with her, and we raced away. We were so fast the vampires couldn’t even see us. We vanished into a swirl of mist and fog, and before I knew what had happened, Bubba and I were in a Barrow Mound.”
Aegis returned, carrying a package. He glanced at me, a questioning look on his face. “You’re telling Max about Tom?”
“He was curious how I went from vampire hunter to being a vampire’s mistress.” I smiled at him. “What’s that?”
“I don’t know. It’s addressed to you.” He handed me the box. “You order anything recently?”
“I’m the queen of online ordering.” I took the box. “Anyway, as I said, I ended up in a Barrow Mound. I was there for twenty years. When Bubba and I found our way out, Tom was long lost to the vampires. I reconnected with Sandy and Fata, and together we combed the country and part of the continent for those vamps. We killed…so many. There were weeks when all I could smell was the stench of blood. About ten years after that we took down an entire village of them and I lost my fire. Figuratively, not literally. I just couldn’t go on.”
“That’s when we ran wild, in our party-hearty stage,” Sandy said. “Finally, the scene grew old. Satyrs and nymphs are a lot of fun, but you can only drink so much wine, fuck so many cocks, eat so much pussy, before you want something else in life.”
Aegis arched his eyebrows. “Sex, drugs, and rock ’n roll, huh?”
I laughed. “Well, I had the sex and drugs all right. Now I’ve got the sex, rock ’n roll, and the occasional bender. But I’ve also got the Bewitching Bedlam, and that makes all the difference.” Turning back to Max, I reached for the pizza wheel. “And that is how I went from vampire hunter to vampire lover, in a long nutshell.”
As we dove into our meal, I realized just how grateful I was that my life had turned out like this. I would always mourn Tom, but I was happy now, and that’s what mattered.
WE WERE SITTING in the living room, watching an old movie—Night of the Living Dead—when I remembered the package. I hopped up, grabbing the empty potato chip bowl, and dashed into the kitchen.
After refilling the bowl, I picked up the box. It was small, about the size of a brownie. Maybe it was a brownie, I thought. I carefully unwrapped the paper. Inside sat a red velvet box that reminded me of a jewelry box. Aegis must have been trying to surprise me. He often slipped trinkets onto my nightstand while I slept, and I’d find them the next morning. He also loved sending me flowers.
I flipped open the lid on the box. In the center sat a brooch. The rose gold heart had a ruby centered under the point, and was both delicate and elegant at the same time. It wasn’t my usual style, but as I lifted it off the cushion, I found myself mesmerized by the piece. It was lovely, and looked vintage. Smiling—it had to be from Aegis—I pinned it to my shirt. Then, refilling the bowl of chips, I returned to the living room.
“Thank you, I love it!” I handed Sandy the bowl, then leaned over Aegis’s shoulder, wrapping my arms around his neck. “It’s so pretty, and you’re so thoughtful.” Kissing him on the forehead, I nuzzled his hair with my nose.
He laughed. “Well, I’m glad you think so, but what are you thanking me for? I haven’t made that pan of Turkish delight that I promised—not yet, at least.”
I snickered and slid onto his lap. “Maybe not, but still…I love you to pieces.”
“Whatever you did, you did it right.” Max reached for a handful of chips.
“It must be my natural charm,” Aegis said, winking at him.
“No, seriously, thank you.” I was starting to get annoyed. I liked to joke around as much as the next person—probably more—but I wanted him to realize just how much I appreciated the brooch. “The pin. This one.” I pointed above my left boob. “The box that came to the door? Thank you, I love it.”
Aegis stared at the heart, a furrow forming on his brow. “Love, I didn’t buy that.”
“What do you mean? If you didn’t, who did?” It was my turn to frown. If not Aegis, who on earth would send me expensive jewelry? Even though the piece was simple, I could tell it hadn’t come cheap. Rose gold and a ruby that size weren’t exactly the stuff of petty cash.
“Was there a note?” Aegis asked.
Sandy muted the television as she leaned over to check out the heart. “That’s gorgeous. And I can tell you right now, that’s real. I have a thing for gems and metal—I can tune into them.” Sandy actually had a thing f
or money in general. She could sense fake designer wear, costume jewelry, and counterfeit bills a mile off. If she said the brooch was real gold and ruby, I believed her.
Confused, I slid off of Aegis’s lap. “I don’t think so. Let me go look.”
As I headed into the kitchen, my head started to pound. I winced as I picked up the box. Nothing. I flattened out the paper it had been wrapped in, thinking that somebody might have written a note on the inside, but nothing. I peered at the address label. The handwriting wasn’t familiar, and now that I looked at it, I realized there was no return address. The velvet box revealed nothing out of the ordinary—just the puffy little cushion the brooch had rested on. I even slit the material and peeked inside, but there was only cotton.
Leaning against the counter, I realized that I was more than annoyed—I was now anxious, as well as on the verge of a headache.
“Are you okay?” Sandy asked as she peeked into the kitchen. She glanced around. “So, no clue yet?”
I shook my head. “No note. No return address. I wish I could be sure Aegis isn’t messing with me—you know, playing a joke.”
“He isn’t. He’s out there complaining to Max about men who send jewelry to other men’s girlfriends. A little jelly, isn’t he?”
I laughed through the growing ache in my temples. “Oh, he’s got a jealous streak, all right. I don’t know if it’s just him, or if it’s his vampire nature. But he’s not a brute and he’s not stupid about it, so I can deal.” I tossed the box back on the counter. “I just want to know who sent this. It’s like when you can’t remember the name of a song. The more you try to figure it out, the more frustrated you get.”
“Why don’t you come back and finish watching the movie? Chances are, a friend sent it and just forgot to enclose the note. I’ve done that any number of times.” She wrapped her arm around me. “Would you like me to get some Throb-Be-Gone tablets for you?”
I winced, my head aching more by the second. “Yeah, they’re in the medicine cabinet. Andy made up a fresh batch the other day just before I dropped in there, and I’m glad that I thought to pick up some.”
Andy McGee owned McGee’s Apothecary. He was the local pharmacist and he made the best tonic in the world. Come to think of it, I hadn’t been taking it regularly. I usually took one tablespoon a day and it kept me fit as a fiddle, but the past few weeks I’d been so busy with the B&B that I had all but forgotten about it. That must be what was happening. I’d let myself get rundown and it all hit at once.
Sandy headed off to the bathroom and I poured myself a glass of water, sipping it slowly. I’d had a lot of caffeine and booze over the past couple of weeks, and was probably dehydrated.
Aegis entered the kitchen. “Are you all right, love?”
I shrugged. “Headache threatening to turn into a migraine. Sandy’s grabbing me some Throb-Be-Gone from the bathroom. I’m just a little rundown and overtired. If you don’t mind, I think I’ll call it an early night and go to bed.”
He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close. “I don’t mind,” he said, burying his face in my hair. “I’ve got a lot of cooking to do for tomorrow, so I’ll take care of that and make sure the bookings are all organized. I have rehearsal tomorrow night. We’re writing a couple new songs so next week’s going to be pretty booked up. But let’s make sure to get some time together,” he added, kissing my neck.
“It’s a date.” I gave him a quick kiss.
Sandy returned, and Aegis moved aside so I could take the medicine. As I swallowed the capsules and went to bed, I realized that I still didn’t have a clue as to who sent me the heart. As I stripped out of my clothes and slipped under the covers, I decided that it didn’t matter for now. I placed the heart in its box on my nightstand, and—as Bubba jumped on the bed and curled by my feet—I closed my eyes and drifted off to a dreamless sleep.
Chapter 3
I WOKE UP, feeling one hundred percent better. As I sat up, pushing the covers back, the sun burst through my window and I realized that I had slept in. I glanced over at my phone, and there was a note beside it.
Love, I turned off your alarm. You needed the sleep and I’ve asked Thornton to serve the guests their breakfast. You were right—he’s a gem. Can we keep him? XXOO ~A.
There was a single red rose in a bud vase next to the phone, along with a tea dish holding a blueberry muffin. I smiled as I picked up the rose and smelled it. The fragrance was as deep and rich as the color was, and as I replaced it in the vase, I thanked my lucky stars again that Aegis was part of my life.
As I slipped out of bed, I looked around for Bubba. He was almost always there to greet me in the morning, but today, there was no sign of him. He was probably cadging breakfast off of Thornton. Bubba was fickle when it came to food—feed him and he was your pal for life. Rub his belly, and you were in his merciless grasp. Laughing, I headed for the shower.
After a quick rinse off, I braided my hair back, put on my makeup, then slid into a black A-line skirt and slipped on a green tank top. I was wearing my prettiest purple bra and, as I adjusted the girls beneath the shirt, I brushed my fingers over my nipples, thinking about Aegis and how much I wished it were his fingers instead of mine. Shivering, I thought about pausing for a quiet moment with Bob—my neon green vibrator. But a glance at the clock told me there wasn’t time for any hanky-panky this morning, even if it was a solo affair.
As I pinned on the brooch, I again felt another shiver run up my spine, but this time, the shiver was less horny and more startled. It wasn’t a bad feeling, more like somebody had brushed against me with an ice cube.
Shaking my head, I resolutely picked up my muffin, grabbed my purse, and headed for the door. After a quick check-in with Thornton, who was already hard at work scrubbing the downstairs bath, I headed for my CR-V, keys in hand, ready to start the day.
FIRST STOP WAS mandatory: Bouncing Goats Espresso Shack. I couldn’t function without my caffeine and BG was the place to get a good latte.
I pulled up to the microphone and was startled to see Gillymack’s face staring at me from the camera. Gillymack was a local celebrity of sorts—infamous rather than famous. He was notorious for raising hell with the Greyhoof boys. Except Gillymack was a Meré who had been cast out from his home after accidentally setting off a hand grenade. He ended up blowing up the underwater lair of his people and the elders didn’t take kindly to that.
The Meré were the merfolk. When not found in lakes, they mostly stayed in the waters around Bedlam Island, though a few dared the coastal waters over by Ocean Shores. Most of the merfolk on this side of the continent sought out lakes and rivers because the Pacific Ocean could be so wild and dangerous.
They could stay out of water for up to eighteen hours at a time, but then they would rapidly lose their stamina after that, until they went swimming under the water again. It was a lot like our need for sleep. Don’t get enough sleep and it wears on you. Except for the Meré, staying out of water too long would kill them. One day, they could handle. Two days were iffy. Three, and they could easily die. When they came ashore, they lost their tails and fins, much like the selkies when they transformed into human shape. But the merfolk needed the water even more than the Sealkin.
“Gillymack, what the hell are you doing here?” Everybody knew that he had an allergy to work and basically lived off the begrudging charity of others.
He rolled his eyes. The Meré were tasty to look at, at least in their human forms, but I knew better than ever tangle with one on a romantic level. They were selfish lovers and they also had a nasty tendency to pass along STDs—not the usual kind, either. Fishrot and brine-itch were two of the most common, and both required hefty doses of antibiotics to clear up.
“Sheriff ordered me to pay restitution for a little accident that I had last week. She also made it a condition of my release that I earn the money myself. So I’m stuck with the day-drag for a few weeks until I can make seven hundred dollars to pay
off the Hoffmans.”
I tried to suppress a laugh. The Hoffmans owned a beach house down by the shore of Bedlam City Park, a dawn-till-dusk beach park. “What did you do?”
“I might have gotten pie-eyed and crashed, uninvited, at their place for a few hours.” He grinned at me, and his lifeguard good looks gave him a roguish, please-trust-me vibe. “Say, Maddy—you wouldn’t by chance have some work I can do to pay off my fine in a less…banal way, would you?”
That did make me snort. “The fact that you know the word ‘banal’ is good for a tip, but no, Gillymack, I am not fronting you the money, and I am not hiring you. I bet you did more than break in to their house. What did you steal? And I’ll have a triple-shot chocolate thunder mocha.”
He put in the order. “Please pull through to the window ahead.”
As I eased forward—there was a line forming behind me—I quickly searched my purse for a stray ten-dollar bill. I wasn’t about to hand him my credit card. I didn’t trust him, even if he handled it in plain sight the entire time.
When I got to the window, he handed me the drink and I gave him the tenspot. “Keep the change. So, tell me, what on earth did you do to warrant a seven-hundred-dollar fine?”
He shrugged, winking. “I might have taken a pisser on their designer sofa. But hey, I was asleep. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
And that was classic Gillymack. As I choked down a cough and drove off, I thought once again how much more entertaining it was to live in Bedlam than back in Seattle.