CHAPTER FIFTEEN
~
“Come out, come out wherever you are,” Faith called, hammering on the backdoor with the side of her closed fist.
Nana yanked open the door and eyed her granddaughter. “Are you trying to wake the dead?” she said in a tone that could have cut glass.
“In this house?” Faith snorted in contempt. “I’d fit right in.”
“Shame you’re not invited,” Nana replied, eyeing Faith like a specimen.
“You summoned, I came.”
“You had little choice,” Nana said. “Although, it did take you longer than I anticipated. I will have to up the spell the next time.”
“I’m not your beck and call girl,” Faith said.
Nana folded her arms. “No, you’re the living dead.”
“How is that my fault?”
“Well, it isn’t mine.”
“The only person who is blameless in this whole – thing is me,” Faith said. “But I’m not apportioning blame here; you like your ghosts and wanted to keep them around…”
“Weren’t you arguing for that exact same thing yesterday morning?”
“Just pointing out that the giant wave that snatched Jennifer came from somewhere.”
“And you think Sebastian and Variety…?”
“I think they don’t help by being here,” Faith replied.
Nana straightened. “You’ve changed your tune, Missy. I am preparing to send them away.”
“Good choice, a little late.” She motioned down her body. “But what’s done is done. On the plus side, I’m in my physical prime.”
Nana rolled her eyes. “How am I not surprised?”
“Play nice,” Lex said, coming from the side of the guesthouse and taking the temperature of the situation in front of him.
“You!” Nana said, lowering her chin and eyeing him with contempt.
Lex held up his hands, palms out, in mock surrender. “Yes, yes, having a vampire is less preferable than a dead granddaughter, but maybe she will grow on you.”
Lex expected the hit and took it like a trooper. Doubled over in pain, he tried not to groan against the magical electricity shooting through every inch of his body, but it got the better of him. Faith was in front of him quicker than a heartbeat.
“Play nice, Nana,” Faith bit out. She’d taken a moment of the magic directed at Lex before Nana snapped it off, but the power and intent were evident. The elder didn’t want to kill him, but she did want to make him suffer.
“He’s lucky I need him alive,” Nana bit out.
It took every ounce of strength and determination Lex possessed to push up straight and look the elder in the eye. “And I thought you’d grown to love my good looks and charming personality.” The sarcasm dripped from his tone.
“About as much as I want one of those god-awful doctors to stick a camera up my backside,” Nana bit out.
“There’s an image I don’t want in my head,” Lex grumbled.
Nana grunted. “I will hold you personally responsible for her deeds,” Nana said, pointing to Faith.
Faith twisted in place and grinned at Lex. “Actions without consequences,” she said, amused by the thought.
“Consequences for you,” Lex reminded her.
“Exactly,” Faith said with a smirk and a twinkle in her eye. “What’s not to like?”
“Why does that look not fill me with a warm and fuzzy feeling?” Lex said.
“You broke her; you fix her,” Nana said.
Lex looked from Faith to Nana and back again. “And I don’t get any brownie points for the fact that she’s not pushing up daisies?”
“Nope,” Nana and Faith said.
“Fine, consider her leashed,” Lex said. Faith was gone in the blink of an eye, leaving him staring at Nana.
“Well, don’t just stand there, bat-boy, go after her,” Nana hissed.
“Fine, but stop pulling her back here like a yoyo; vampires need energy, and we get that from blood; her next meal will be on your shoulders,” he said, and then he was gone.
Marvin stepped up behind Nana with renewed enthusiasm. “We need to prepare to send the ghosts onward.”
“Don’t sound so damn happy about it,” Nana grumbled.
“Whatever you say, dear,” Marvin said, slowly shaking his head.
“If you start agreeing with me, I might take it as a sign you’ve lost your mind and put you out of your misery,” Nana grumbled, elbowing him out of the way as she left the backdoor. She hadn’t meant to get angry with Faith, but seeing her like that had cut a deep wound inside her.
“With the goings on around here, that might be a blessing,” Marvin muttered, rolling his eyes.
~
Faith walked towards the beach, eyeing the rocks where the wreck that had taken her life was hidden beneath the waves. “A bairn,” she said, thinking hard. “It tried to kill her before she could do – what?”
Something moved off to her left. She turned to see Serendipity walking the jagged rocks. The cat was slow and laboured. She was in front of the cat in the blink of an eye.
Serendipity stopped in her tracks and puff-balled as her fur stood on end. “Holy crap,” Serendipity said, slowly backing up because she didn’t have the energy to move as fast as she would have liked. “Vampire.”
“Holy crap,” Faith replied. “A soggy moggy.”
“Vampire!” Serendipity repeated, trying to come to terms with what she was feeling – one predator recognising another.
“Sure, the whole fangs and claws thing was a personal challenge…”
“Faith!” Serendipity said, eyeing her human.
Faith rolled her eyes. “Vampire,” she said, expanding her arms out to the sides and shrugging. “Poop happens, right?”
“But…vampire,” Serendipity said, momentarily weighing that thought. “Don’t eat me!”
Faith pressed her lips together in annoyance. “I guess I should get used to that reaction.”
“But…vampire…”
“Oh my God, Dippy – stop saying it!” Faith snapped.
Serendipity sat her backside down with a heavy sigh. “I failed to protect you,” she said, bowing her head with shame and grief.
“I’ll live…”
“Honey, that ship has sailed,” Serendipity replied with an edge of sympathy on her acid tongue.
“Funny,” Faith said, turning and sitting on the jutting rock beside her cat.
“Funny enough that you’re not going to eat me?”
“Meh,” Faith said, wafting a hand in the air to bat that question away.
“Well, you did leave me for dead out here,” Serendipity sighed. “After the wave.”
Faith grimaced. “I had other stuff on my mind.”
“Like being dead…”
“Like Jennifer…”
“And being dead…”
“And blood.”
Serendipity turned a curious look up at her human. “And we’re back to don’t eat me.”
“Drink you,” Faith corrected her with a smirk.
“Amounts to the same thing, a dead cat, nine lives a-wasted, and I’m generally a good companion,” Serendipity replied.
“In what sense?” Faith said, reaching out and scooping up the cat before she could even think about running.
“Go ahead,” Serendipity said as she was lifted with one hand to be able to eye her human. “I’ve lost my sense of purpose – I’m getting old – I have…”
“Oh boy, pity party,” Faith said, turning the cat and placing her on her lap. “We always were in synch.”
Serendipity twisted her head and looked up at Faith. “You have a purpose – Jennifer.”
Faith bit out a bitter chuckle. “You think those witches are going to let me anywhere near her?”
“You are a loose cannon right now,” Serendipity said, and when Faith snapped a glare at her, she pulled her head back on her neck. “Don’t drink me!”
“I’m not going to drink you!” Faith snapped. “For one thing, I don’t want to get fur between my teeth – my toothbrush is locked in my house, and I can’t get in.”
“Good way to look at the situation,” Serendipity said. “Make it all about you…”
“Really?” Faith snapped.
“And that’s why the others won’t trust you,” Serendipity said. “Just saying.”
“Unhand the cat, Faith,” Lex said from beside her.
Faith turned to stare up at Lex. Standing against the bright blue sky, the gentle ocean breeze blowing through his hair – Faith thought he looked damned sexy, but then she remembered that he’d made her a vampire, and that thought went away. “Beat it,” she hissed.
“Could you take me with you?” Serendipity said, mocking Faith.
“Hey!” Faith said, curling her top lip. “I need you around in case I get thirsty.”
“Oh good,” Serendipity grumbled. “Vampire humour.”
Lex chuckled. “That’s my girl…”
Faith wrinkled her nose. “Not in this lifetime,” she muttered.
“I can wait, and we both have time,” Lex said, reaching for the cat on her lap.
Faith slapped at his hand. “My snack, get your own,” she said.
“Payback is a bitch,” Serendipity said.
“And it takes one to know one,” Faith replied. “Let’s get you back to grandma.”
“I can walk,” Serendipity said.
“I can run like the wind,” Faith said, and before either Lex or the cat could say more, Faith took off and was standing outside Nana’s backdoor.
“But you can’t get in,” Serendipity said, shaking off the high-speed dash.
“Shut up before I change my mind and have a tasty snack at your expense,” Faith said, putting Dippy down on the ground and hammering on the backdoor before she took off again.
Serendipity turned to watch Faith go, but the vampire was too fast for her, and she couldn’t follow her path out of there. When the backdoor was wrenched open, the cat turned to look up at Nana.
“When did you learn to knock?” Nana demanded, reaching down and scooping the cat into her arms.
“Special delivery via carrier vampire,” Serendipity said with a sigh. “I need a big bowl of milk and my bed; riding the waves isn’t as fun as some humans make it out to be.”
“That’s life, Dippy,” Nana said, eyeing the area for Faith with a heavy heart.
“Our girl is a vampire,” Serendipity said, matching Nana’s mood.
“But she’s still with us,” Nana said, taking comfort in that and trying to ignore the rest.