I Accidentally Hooked Up with a Vampire (Accidents Happen #2)

16. Take me to the Bane

16

Take me to the Bane

“ Y ou must be Whitney.” She lifted the bottom of her dress and took a careful step over the blood of the man on the floor, frowning at the spot that got on the heel of her shoe. “Oh, that’s disgusting!”

“What the…” Reddick turned on her, and while he was quick, he wasn’t quick enough. Rayna flicked her wrist, and a gust of power slammed into the vampire. The sound of his neck snapping as he hit the wall brought a smile to my face. That’s exactly what his ass gets.

“Oh, crap.” She pursed her lips and pointed at Reddick’s limp body. “Still haven’t figured out how to adjust the strength on that one. It has something to do with the atmosphere. Each world is different. Anyway, it should be fine. That one's a vampire, right? He’ll heal. I think.”

“If I’m lucky, he won’t.” I straightened my shirt. “I’m sorry, but what the hell are you doing here?”

“Oh, sorry. Right. I’m here to save you.” She posed like a superhero, fists to hips and chest high, then laughed again. “Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. This is technically my first rescue mission on Earth.”

“Yeah, and that answer doesn’t only add to my confusion.” I stuck my neck out. What the hell did she mean by on Earth ? “You just appeared out of thin air!”

“Right. Um, Likosa!” She pointed at me, as if saying the name of the witch would put all the pieces of the puzzle together. “You know her, right? She called me and said you would need my help. I was a little late, but she told me exactly where I could find you and asked me to scoop you up. When I first got here, I was outside, but when I saw what was going on through the window, I figured I better get in here. Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

“I’m fine, I think. Wait, Likosa asked a famous artist to magically scoop me up from a crazy vampire.” I leaned against the wall behind me to catch my breath. “How is any of this supposed to make sense?”

“When you say it that way, it doesn’t sound any more logical, does it?” Rayna rubbed the back of her neck and looked around the room. “I don’t know how to make this make sense to you. I think you just eventually learn to accept that it won’t always make sense. That’s what I did.”

“I—” The sound of Reddick’s bones snapping drew my attention to him. I waited for him to move. Had he healed that fast? When he didn’t move from his crumpled position, I addressed Rayna again. “You’re a witch?”

“Not exactly, no. I don’t think that’s what they would call me.” Rayna pointed at the vampire then back at me. “Hold up. I didn’t interrupt anything here, did I? It looked like you two were about to—”

“No!” I put my hand up to stop her. “You came just in time.”

“Perfect.” She laughed nervously. “It’s funny how intimate a threatening situation can look from outside.”

“You bitch!” Both our heads snapped toward the vampire. Reddick was back on his feet. He bared his teeth and charged at Rayna.

The woman barely flinched when he attacked. She flicked her wrist once again, and this time, the force that hit him seemed much more powerful than the last. Reddick’s body slammed into the bar and broke through the top of the case that held several bottles of whiskey. The sound of glass shattering echoed through the room as expensive liquor splattered across the floor. Once again, he was limp, broken, and unmoving. Rayna peered at him, and when the sound of a bone moving back in place rang out, she smiled.

“Oh, great. I didn’t kill him!” Rayna clapped. “The maid of honor murdering someone the night before the wedding can’t be good luck, right? I’m not trying to do anything to ruin my friend’s special day.”

“Um, I wouldn’t think so.” I couldn’t believe how nonchalant the woman was being. This wasn’t the Rayna I remembered talking to before. She seemed more reserved and a lot more careful with her words. Was that just her professional side? Talk about a code switch.

“Well, let's go. I don’t have much time. Like I said, I have a wedding to attend. My best friend is finally tying the knot tomorrow! I was doing a last-minute fitting just to be sure the dress would still wrap around my ass. You wouldn’t believe how much your size is affected by moving between worlds. In some places, I’m thin as a string bean, but here on Earth, ass is wide as all get out!”

“Yep. I’m just going to pretend that makes sense. Anything to get me out of here before his ass wakes up again.” Sure, it made sense that the woman kept talking about going to other worlds and how she felt different while on Earth. Nope, there wasn’t a damn thing weird about it.

“You think someone would have come to check on him?” Rayna held her hand out to me and beckoned me towards her. “I guess he’s not that loved. Some king, huh?”

“I sure as hell don’t like him.” Just as I placed my hand in hers, I saw a flash of purple. Large hair bounced across the room with the chaotic movement. The last time I’d seen the face beneath the hair, the bitch was trying to sink her teeth into me. Nyesha huddled over Reddick’s broken body.

“Reddick!” She turned to me and bared her teeth. “What did you do to him?”

“Um, it was me.” Rayna waved, calling the vampire’s attention to her. Then, she leaned toward me and whispered, “Guess I spoke too soon, huh? This one looks pretty angry about him being hurt.”

“I’ll kill you!” Nyesha hissed, and with her hands poised to rip out Rayna’s throat, she leaped through the air.

Rayna repeated her same magical blow. It didn’t feel as powerful, but it still knocked the vampire to the other side of the room. Nyesha was far more agile than Reddick. She flipped through the air, bounced off the wall, and landed on her feet. As she shook off the effects of the impact, Rayna leaned closer to me.

“You might want to hold your breath.” Her hand tightened around mine. “It helps.”

“What?” My eyes widened as Nyesha charged us again, but she never made contact.

The air grew heavy with pressure, creating a surreal sensation of time standing still. Once again, I saw the shimmering ripples in the air, only this time, they encircled us. Nyesha’s expression turned more vicious as the ripples moved faster, and then, along with everything else in the room, she faded into nothingness.

My ears popped and my eyes lost all focus as the pressure snapped around me like a rubber band.

That was it. One minute, we were standing near a bloody mess of a man, and then the next, we weren’t. Darkness swallowed us for a few minutes, and I wondered if I’d died. Then, light trickled in as my vision cleared. It was just a few moments, but somehow, I felt like much more time had gone by. I could still feel Rayna’s hand in mine, and I gripped it tighter.

When the shadowed edges faded and my eyesight fully returned, I saw Rayna standing in a massive cave next to a pool of glowing water. She lifted our joined hands up and winked at me.

“See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” She chuckled.

There wasn’t nothing to laugh about. A wave of nausea swept over me, and my stomach twisted and turned like a storm. The soil became the target of my forceful vomit as I doubled over in agony.

“Oh!” Rayna jumped back, narrowly missing the splashes of my vomit. “Watch the dress, please. Keri will kill me if I get anything on it!”

“Sorry,” I wiped my mouth and kept the thought to myself that she shouldn’t have worn the damn dress to a rescue mission. “What the hell was that? Where are we? How did you do that?”

“We left Earth. I told you to hold your breath.” Rayna looked around the cave with a nostalgic expression. “It gets better the more you do it, but the first few shifts are a bitch!”

“You gave me exactly one second!” I huffed, holding my chest, which burned from the forced evacuation of my stomach contents. “And it wasn’t exactly like you explained what was going to happen. I should expect as much from someone so selfish.”

“Selfish?” Rayna looked insulted. “How am I selfish? I just saved you from becoming a vampire’s midnight snack.”

“You know I lost everything because of you?” That was it. I couldn’t hold it in anymore. “I would have never worked with you if I knew they would take everything away from me.”

“Maybe the shift between worlds scrambled your brains.” Rayna twirled her finger next to her head. “Girl, I don’t even know you.”

“You don’t know me?” I gasped. “Wow! We corresponded for weeks on a multi-million-dollar deal that you flaked on, and now you don’t know me?”

“Wait, Whitney Harris?” She had that, oh shit, I fucked up , look on her face. “The art broker?”

“Yes!” I threw my hands up. “The art broker who is no longer an art broker because you dropped off the face of the Earth, which now I see was a literal thing. I worked years to get where I was, and I lost it because of you! Girl, I just signed a damn mortgage!”

“They let you go because of that?” Rayna sucked her teeth. “I’m so sorry. I tried to make things better with the firm when I got back. They told me you had already moved on and weren’t interested in reactivating the deal. I understood, nothing waits for me. And you probably don’t want to hear this from me, especially since you’re blaming me for your current situation, but I think you’re better off. What kind of shitty employer does that?”

“Of course I’m blaming you. Had I not lost my job, I would have never messed with Domino and been pulled into this vampire drama.”

“You can tell yourself that all you want.” She shrugged. “I’m just here to drop you off so Likosa can do what she needs to do.”

“Excuse me?” I snapped. “How can you be so insensitive?”

“Tell me something, Whitney. Where did you meet the vampire? Was it right after you got fired? Did your former boss push you into his arms as he kicked your ass out of the job? Or was it a neutral place where you would have met him anyway?”

“Well…” I paused as the water in the pool moved, creating small waves. The sound echoed around me as I accepted what she said. With or without my job, I would have met Domino. But would I have drunkenly fallen into his arms?

“You’re looking for someone else to take the blame for how your life is going right now. I get it, but I’m not responsible for any of the choices you made,” Rayna spoke with the careful tone I remembered her having. “And I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you. Honestly, in the last year, I’ve been to so many worlds, faces and places are blending together. I should probably slow down, but I’m enjoying it.”

“Happy to hear that.” I rolled my eyes.

“Well, as you can see, life got a little strange,” Rayna continued. “Not that I owe you an explanation, but I had to woman up and make some tough choices, my damn self. A month after I signed that contract, I fell into this world, and it was stay and take care of the commission or run from the demons who were chasing me.”

“Demons?” I gawked. “You mean actual demons?”

“Are you not dealing with actual vampires?” Rayna tapped her temple with her finger. “Yes, girl. One day, I was a normal, albeit borderline depressed, woman. The next I am living with a demonic soul-tie and trying to figure out how to save myself. It wasn’t like I asked for any of this. But I wasn’t going to lay down and let this shit walk all over me. I had to fight. I’m sure you know what I mean.”

“Do I?” I searched the space for somewhere to sit. To the left of the pool were racks full of various jars and parchment-wrapped boxes. Behind it was what looked like a doorway to another part of the cave. To the right, an ornate clawfoot throne covered in jewels. Was it meant for me? Probably not. Did I care? No!

“Likosa will be here in a few minutes. This is her place.” Rayna looked at me plop my ass on the throne and smirked. “Sorry, I can’t stay long. Time in this place works a lot differently than Earth, and I’m on a time crunch. I’m assuming she wanted us to talk because she could have gotten you out of there a lot faster than I did.”

“Why would she want us to talk?” I turned my face away from her. My stomach was doing a two-step, and I was afraid I was going to puke again.

“Because we’re alike.” She pointed to me then back to herself. “I’m sure someone has mentioned the bloodline to you. We’re kind of like cousins. The alien magical bloodline? We share that.”

“We do?” I leaned back in the chair. What were the odds I would be related to her?

“Yes. Likosa explained it to me. I don’t think our abilities are the same, but we come from the same people. I’ve been searching the universe for more information about them. So far, all I know is that there were seven distinct tribes in their world. Each tribe had different power sets. I think the people who landed on Earth were from different tribes.”

“You keep talking about new worlds and speaking about Earth as if we aren’t there now.” I huffed. “What is wrong with you?”

“We aren’t on Earth.” She pointed to the water. “I thought that was clear by the spooky pool of water with crashing waves when there ain’t a lick of wind in here.”

That time, I laughed. “You really want me to believe you snatched me up and took me off the planet?”

“Whitney, when I vanished, it was because all this shit was revealed to me and I got snatched up and dragged to hell.” She pointed to the ground. “That’s where we are now.”

“Right.” I rolled my eyes. “Okay, I think I’m ready to go home. I know my girls are worried about me.”

“Don’t twist your face at me like that.” Rayna put her finger in my face. “Where do you think you are now? Likosa’s crib is smack dab in the heart of the Bane aka hell.”

While I gave her the same ‘this bitch done lost her mind’ glare, Rayna chose to show me what she was talking about. The woman grabbed my hand, yanked me from the throne, and dragged me down the long passage that led out of the cavern. We tumbled outside, and I gasped at the view. It wasn’t the majestic land or the weird mountains in the distance that did it for me. There were plenty of places on Earth that had that.

I could even deny the weird ass plants popping up from the ground. I was no botanist, I didn’t know everything about plant life, but the damn creature flying through the sky with two sets of wings and screeching did it. That creature turned and revealed a matching one flying beside him. Then, as if that weren’t enough, a damn gremlin-looking animal ran across the field and leaped into the air to attack the flying beast.

“What the fuck?” I screamed.