CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
~
“Faith, slow down, or you are going to leave a trail of bodies behind that even I won’t be able to clean up,” Lex said, catching up to her and rushing to get ahead. He turned and blocked her way.
“This – again?” Faith asked, folding her arms and tipping her head to the side to glare at him.
“Where are we going?” Lex asked with all the patience he could muster. In truth, he’d much rather sling her over his shoulder, carry her to his home and keep her there for the next ten years, training her in her vampiric ways.
“I figure we need to get to the bottom of the latest ghost warning…”
“A bairn strong and kind…”
“Exactly,” Faith said, placing her hands on her hips. “They want Jennifer because she can … do what?”
“Find the treasure…”
“So, if we find the treasure…”
“They don’t need Jennifer,” he said, considering her logic. “But what about the double whammy?”
“What double whammy?”
“I’m adlibbing here, protect from whatever killed him; need witches three,” Lex said.
Faith frowned. “Three witches working together can get rid of the Others?” She shrugged.
“What if it is three specific witches from a bloodline?” Lex asked. “Nana, True, and you first rescued Jennifer from the Others.”
Faith swallowed hard as the realisation set in. “And I have no magic.”
“It might not have been Jennifer they were targeting on the beach, but you,” Lex said. “Do you feel anything different?”
“I’m dead and walking around, Lex; how much different should I feel?” Faith tossed back, rolling her eyes.
Lex shrugged. “Something dark niggling in the back of your brain maybe?”
“You mean like the demon part of me that wants to sink my fangs into my friends’ necks and have a refreshing drink?”
“Sure,” Lex said, wincing. “Aside from that – any Others feelings?”
Faith tossed up her hands. “How the hell do I know?”
“Just asking,” Lex replied. “Maybe we can get a witch to poke around in there…”
“Which witch? All my friends seem to think I’m public enemy number one,” Faith replied with a sigh.
“True…”
“And what if I kill my own sister?”
“I can stop you.”
Faith waved that thought away. “True isn’t the strongest witch I know; she hates to use her magic.”
“Hope?”
“Meh,” Faith said with a shrug.
Lex groaned. “Nana?”
“Amy!” Faith said. “She’s got balls of steel and is not afraid to use them.”
“Maybe a little too trigger-happy,” Lex said. “I’m not even going to ask about Dani, and Evie is busy protecting Jennifer…”
“The crone!” They both said together.
“You think she’ll do it?” Faith asked.
“She did tell us in no uncertain terms never to darken her door again, and she could be gone by now,” Lex said.
“No harm in trying,” Faith said. “Let’s go.”
“We’ll take my car,” Lex said. “You seem to like to walk everywhere now you’re a vampire, and I know not why.”
“I’m speedy,” Faith said with a teasing smile.
“And you’ll get hungry, and we all know how that turned out the last time,” Lex replied with a disappointed look that made her squirm.
“I seem to be able to control myself around my friends,” Faith replied, falling in beside him as they walked down to the car park.
“For now,” Lex replied.
“I just need to concentrate on something other than the scent of tasty blood. What is with that throbbing neck vein thing?” Faith asked.
“Temptation,” Lex said. “You’re tough, strong, do not give in.”
“That’s easier said than done, though, right?” Faith asked, stopping when Lex opened the passenger door for her.
“It depends on how much willpower you possess,” Lex said. “But if you don’t slip up and have accidents…”
“Nice word for rampage…”
“Then you will have proven me wrong, and I know you have a stubborn streak a mile long. Let’s see if you can tap into it now,” he said, motioning to the car for her to get in.
Faith obliged, dropping her backside onto the soft leather and ignoring the passenger door closing. The driver’s door opened a moment later, and Lex sat beside her. “I mean, a little sip isn’t going to hurt, right?”
“Wrong.”
“It is going to hurt?” Faith asked, scowling again.
“It’s going to set a precedent in your mind, a sip here, a sip there, and before you know it, you have lost control and have a dead friend,” Lex said, reaching to start the engine.
“And dead friends are wrong, right?” Faith asked with a blank expression.
Lex slowly turned to eye her. Faith couldn’t hold onto her grin; it spread even when she told it not to. “Faith humour – why am I not surprised?” he grumbled.
“When all else fails, humour is the one thing I can’t lose,” Faith said. “If I do, you know the dark side has taken over.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Lex said, tooling the car out of the space.
~
Darcy eyed Zeke in the driver seat beside her and heard Amy clear her throat from the back seat. She snap-looked out the side window. “It was just a look.”
“Window shop on your own time,” Amy said, feeling decidedly wicked after all that had happened in the day so far. “We’ve got a job to do.”
Dani rolled her eyes in the seat beside Amy and brought them down on her friend. “Give the girl a break. Can you resist chocolate cake?”
“You’re equating Zeke with chocolate cake?” Amy said, snorting her contempt. “He’s a bran muffin.”
“Hey, I’m sitting right here,” Zeke grumbled, looking in the rearview mirror at Amy and getting the middle finger in reply.
“Hardly a bran muffin,” Darcy said, folding her arms and huffing.
“Thank you,” Zeke said, offering her as sexy as hell grin that made her frown disappear and brought a smile to her lips.
Amy nudged Dani. “See what you started?”
Dani held her ground, raising her chin in defiance. “Yep.”
“Now they are going to be googly eyeing each other over the tables and customers for the rest of the day and into the small hours of the night,” Amy said.
“And that’s not a bad thing,” Dani replied.
“Not at all,” Darcy said, giggling like a schoolgirl at prom.
Zeke reached out and stroked his fingertip down Darcy’s naked arm. “I can get behind that.”
Amy sat forward in her seat, craning her head between them and scowled. “She’s not a that, and your sexual preferences are none of my concern. Cease and desist.”
Zeke shot Amy a scowl. “Huh?”
Amy flicked her hand towards the windscreen. “Just watch the damn road, Romeo,” she hissed.
“I’m driving here,” Zeke said, motioning to the road ahead.
“Then drive, two hands on the wheel, eyes front and centre,” Amy said. “Or else.”
“Or else what?” Zeke demanded.
“Or else I’ll find another challenge for you to…”
“Fine,” Zeke growled.
Amy turned her attention to Darcy. “Don’t get any ideas,” she warned, grinning on the inside when Darcy glared at her long and hard.
“Like throwing you off the nearest cliff?” Darcy bit out, annoyed.
“Yeah, like that,” Amy said, chuckling as she sat back.
Dani leaned in. “Insensitive.”
Amy folded her arms defensively and stared out at the landscape going by. It might have been time to throw the towel in and let nature take its course with Darcy and Zeke, but how would she pretend that Zeke had completed his challenge? She’d made her bed, and now she had to lie in it until Zeke did something worthy – that could take a while.