Chapter Seven
“Is that a pensive look on your face? Are you thinking about something, having a vision, or are you just constipated?”
Bridget’s question was unusual enough to stir Ant from his contemplation of his morning coffee. “When did you let yourself in? Can we please not refer to my bowels in any conversation between us? Even if I did have difficulties in that area, and I can assure you I do not, then it would not be something a grown man would discuss with his sister, unless she was part of some medical fraternity and even then I would think twice before saying anything.”
“It got you to pay attention to me.” Bridget sank gracefully into the chair across from him. Ant was at home, sitting at his kitchen table pondering the events from the night before. “What’s going on? Are you still annoyed with me about my asshole date last night?”
“I’m not annoyed with you period.” Ant glanced at his sister. “Are you working today? That suit looks new.” And then, remembering what he’d been told about compliments, he added, “The sage color looks very nice on you.”
“That is sweet, thank you.” Bridget beamed, but the smile fell off her face just as quickly. “That is still not telling me what you’re so deep in thought about so early in the morning. You had that reading with Mike last night. I’m surprised you’re up at all.”
“I haven’t been to bed yet.” Ant pondered on what he could tell his sister. He’d been thinking about little else for most of the night. Bridget was his closest confidant, but she was always quick to point things out when Ant had made a mistake in his social interactions. And there’s a good chance I made a whole heap of mistakes last night.
“There was an incident last night at the reading,” Ant started slowly.
“What sort of incident?” Bridget immediately started to bristle. “Mike was there, wasn’t he? He was looking out for you?”
“He was by his car – he doesn’t like to contaminate the scene when I’ve found the area I need to take a reading from.” Ant knew that Mike didn’t like being anywhere near him when he was using his magic. But he wasn’t rude, he never teased Ant about the things he could see, and he spent two hours after they’d got back to the station taking down all the details Ant had found during his reading.
The shooting was a separate report, but Mike took down his observations for that as well, even though Ant didn’t have a lot to add to that. Ant didn’t expect the two people involved in the shooting would be found in a hurry, and Mike wasn’t overly hopeful either, but he still put in the hard yards regarding taking the report in the first place. It was four in the morning when Ant finally got home, and he still couldn’t sleep – nothing unusual there. Insomnia and Ant were solid friends.
“Ant, you’re not giving me anything but half answers here. What happened? Were you hurt? Speaking of which, where’s Able? Did he get hurt?” Bridget was looking under the table.
“No, no, neither one of us got hurt, and Able’s having a siesta on the back porch. You know how he likes the sun there in the morning and he’d had a long night alongside me.” I’m going to have to tell her something. “I was just finishing my reading of the crime scene when someone took a shot at us – either me or Able, I’m not sure who but we’re fine,” he emphasized again. “We are absolutely fine. The bullet didn’t reach us.”
“You got shot at? And all you can say is the. Bullet. Didn’t. Reach. Us.” Bridget let out a long breath. “Only you could describe a shooting like that. What do you mean the bullet didn’t reach you? Did you see it fall on the ground in front of you? Did it whiz past your ear? Did some hero in a cape fly past and pluck it out of the air? What the hell, Ant? Give me details.”
Sometimes Bridget just made no sense at all – at least in Ant’s mind. “He wasn’t wearing a cape. I’m sure I would’ve noticed something like that.”
“What do you mean he wasn’t wearing a cape? Who wasn’t wearing a cape?”
“Viktor. The man who caught the bullet. He was wearing a suit, and you know, one of those long overcoats that cost a fortune.” Ant shook his head. “Definitely no cape, I’m sure of it, and he didn’t fly. He ran. He was like a blur he moved so fast. Zing. Zing.”
To his surprise, Bridget leaned over and banged her head on the table. Twice.
“Ouch, why did you do that?” There were times when Ant thought he had a handle on typical behavior, but then Bridget would come along and show him he still had a long way to go.
“Ant.” Bridget looked up, even though she was still hunched over the table. She glared at him. “Who the hell is Viktor?”
“My stalker?” Ant winced as Bridget banged her head on the table again.
“I haven’t had enough coffee for this,” Bridget moaned into the tabletop. “Seriously, Ant. I need coffee, now.”
“You would probably feel better if you didn’t keep banging your head on the table.” Ant got up, keeping hold of his mug. He could do with a refill. By the time he returned to the table with two fresh mugs of coffee, Bridget was sitting upright again. She had a bit of a red mark on her head, but Ant didn’t think she’d want him pointing it out.
He'd barely sat down again, when Bridget waved her forefinger at him. “As your older sister, wouldn’t you say I’ve always looked out for you as best as I can?”
Ant nodded. “You do an excellent job, thank you.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me you had a stalker?”
“Because you wouldn’t like it.” Ant took a hurried sip of his coffee. Bridget’s look implied that wasn’t good enough. “He wasn’t a bad stalker. More like someone following me around because they were curious about me. You know I can tell from the energies what a person is feeling about me, and nothing in the energies said he was going to hurt me.”
He shrugged and yawned, covering his mouth with his hand because Bridget had told him that was the polite thing to do. “I figured he’d get bored sooner or later. You said yourself I bore my students, and it’s not like I’m the life and soul of a party. I don’t even go to parties. It made sense to me that this person was just curious and would stop following me around whenever that curiosity had been satisfied. I was surprised it’s lasted this long, truth be told.”
“Stalkers are dangerous,” Bridget hissed. “Men and women all over the world are terrorized by stalkers every day. Your power relates to things that have already happened. You don’t know that person wasn’t following you around so they could learn your routine – looking for the perfect time to kill you on a future date.”
“But see.” Yes. Finally . Ant had an answer for that. “If it hadn’t been for my stalker I would’ve been dead or damaged last night, or Able would’ve been, which is just as bad, but because I had a stalker, he saved me from that bullet. I told you that. It was a good thing he was there.”
“Maybe he was pissed off that someone else was trying to kill the person he’d been sizing up as his next victim. Did you ever think about that?”
“No.” Ant frowned as he took another sip of his coffee. “Who would think a thing like that?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Bridget flung her hands in the air. “Maybe your stalker?”
“Viktor isn’t trying to kill me.” Ant was sure about that. Sort of. Almost sure. No, he was definitely sure.
“I swear you’re going to give me a heart attack.” Bridget sighed. “Okay, then Ant. You tell me. How do you know that this Viktor person won’t kill you? How can you know for sure?”
“I’m almost certain we’re fated mates,” Ant said slowly. “I did a short read on him, after he caught the bullet for me, and my magic said he was definitely mine.”
“Your mate?” Bridget’s eyes bulged as she looked around. “If he’s your mate, then why isn’t he here?”
“I don’t think he’s realized it yet.” Ant smiled. “But he will, when he smells the blood I gave him. That was the right thing to do when dealing with a vampire, isn’t it? It was only a little vial of it, but then vampires only need a drop to know if a person is meant for them. I read that somewhere back in school.”
Bridget froze in the act of moving her coffee mug to her lips. “Viktor’s a vampire?”
Ant nodded.
Taking her sip, Bridget put down her coffee mug and then moved it aside, clasping her hands in front of her. “Ant, dear infuriating brother of mine. When did you first see this mate of yours?”
“I didn’t realize he was my mate at first.” Ant didn’t want his sister to get the wrong idea. “I didn’t know that until I read him, which was after the bullet incident.”
“Okay, I’m going to try this again. When was the first time…the very first time that you first noticed this vampire that has been stalking you, and that you now believe is your mate? The first time you ever saw him?”
“Oh, that’s easy. I saw him for the first time when I was testifying at the Fallows murder case. You saw him too. In fact, I think you called him my stalker then, remember? Even though he wasn’t stalking me then. But he is or rather was the well-dressed angry man who glowered at me all through the cross-examination.”
“Ant, that man is a gangster!” Bridget looked horrified and Ant knew he had to help her feel better. Bridget believed she had a duty to look after him, but the feelings went both ways. He just wasn’t sure how.
“You don’t understand. Ant, I spoke to the court clerk about the vampire only yesterday. Hammond had called, wanting to make a time for you to sit with a sketch artist, so they can get a better idea of who killed Mr. Fallows. He asked if we’d had any trouble with anyone from the Manzano family. That vampire is Tony Manzano’s right-hand man.”
“Ah, thank you.” Ant beamed at his sister. “Now that reading I did on Viktor makes a lot more sense. We might have to take a bit more care in the immediate future, at least until this matter has resolved itself, but that’s wonderful news. Now I know where the shadows are coming from, so I can watch out for him better.”
“I’m going to have a heart attack. I’m just going to be sitting here like it was any other morning and my heart is just going to stop working because it’s under so much stress,” Bridget growled. “Can you see it? My hair is turning gray right before my brother’s eyes. Look at it. I’m sure it’s going gray.”
“Your hair is not going gray, it’s still as lusciously dark as ever. I think it sounds like you need breakfast. I’ll make you a couple of bacon sandwiches. Life always seems better when you’ve got some food in your stomach.”
Ant got up and went to his fridge, his mood considerably lighter than it had been the night before. His sister knew about his stalker, and that his stalker was his mate. Those were two things Ant had worried about discussing. The gangster connection added clarity to what Ant had read when he touched Viktor. Now, he just had to wait and see how the whole situation panned out. He could do that.
“Did you want two buns or three?” He asked, reaching down to pull out the big frying pan he kept for similar sister-related emergencies. “I think three would be a good idea for you right now.”
“I can’t believe you gave a vampire your blood.” At least Bridget was drinking her coffee again, which was another thing that would help her mood.
“It was only a tiny vial, and I only gave it to him, so he didn’t have to keep following me around, waiting for me to start bleeding from some other injury. Who knows? He might have just thrown it out thinking I was a crackpot.”
Ant went hunting for bacon in the refrigerator, thanking the fact his tone gave very little away. It wouldn’t do for his sister to know how badly Ant wanted Viktor to come to the same realization he had. I’m fairly sure I can’t be in a mating all by myself.