Chapter Five
Maverick
Red.
Red earth, tumbling onto a redwood coffin lined with red silk. The magic was threatening to bury me alive. When I tried to open my mouth to scream, no sound came out. The bitter grains of dirt scraped over my tongue, and I spat, flailing to escape the oversized box that held me captive.
How in the hell had I gotten here?
By the time the wood buckled, my knuckles had been scraped raw, oozing scarlet.
I gasped in a breath when my head breached the surface of my grave. The only consolation I found was that I hadn’t been buried deep, so the earth on top was loose and fell away like sand when I sat up, whipping my head this way and that to get my bearings. I couldn’t remember when I’d been hit, let alone when someone had buried me in a shallow grave. Did that make this my afterlife? A rusty red hellscape? There was only flat earth and distant hills for as far as the eye could see. Was this where those corrupted by vampire blood went when they died?
“Not quite,” a man said. The languorous southern drawl he’d affected might have been soothing if it hadn’t been whispered into my ear without warning.
I tried to spin, but with one foot still in the grave, I only managed to flop weakly to the ground. The dirt felt like sandpaper under my cheek, rubbing my skin raw with just one brush against the ground. Eventually, I managed to prop myself up on one elbow and craned my neck to see the speaker.
He didn’t look like much at first glance. He was a stretched, matte black shadow that looked almost cartoonish against the crimson backdrop. But when I tilted my head and squinted, more details came into focus. The haughty slant of his features lent his face a somewhat sinister look. The swirling ruby of his irises didn’t help either. His skin was as pale and bloodless as a corpse. As I watched, he pulled a cigarette from his lips and blew a perfect smoke ring in my direction.
I scrambled out of the grave, coming up on my knees. It wasn’t a good fighting posture, but it was better than remaining flat on my back and flailing like a turtle. I still had no idea where I was or how I’d gotten here.
The man flicked ash at me disdainfully when I raised my hands, drawing upon the energy around us to fuel my spell. Except... there was nothing to access. The land stubbornly refused to budge, leaving me with very little to work with.
“Now, now, none of that,” the man drawled. “Attacking me before I’ve said my piece is just rude. I don’t like disrespectful people. Understand, son?”
“I’m not your son,” I muttered, pushing off from the ground so I could tower over the creep. “Where the hell is this? The afterlife? Am I dead?”
Last I remembered, I was in Tally’s office with her… standing so close to her…
The man rolled his eyes and began ticking down his fingers. “To answer the questions in order, this is my dimension. No, you are not in the afterlife. And your physical body is still alive and well in Haven Hollow.” I just shook my head because I had no idea what in the hell he was talking about. Or who he was.
“I thought I’d take the opportunity to introduce myself,” he continued. “We’ve been together long enough, and yet we’ve never truly spoken.”
A chill traced its way up my spine, and an instinctive fear made my guts clench into a hard knot. I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but my instincts were screaming at me to run.
“Who are you?” I asked when I found my voice.
The man smiled, lips peeling back to reveal sharp fangs. I recoiled from him on instinct, trying to fling magic unsuccessfully into his face. He took another drag on his cigarette, watching me flounder with an amused smile.
“You wouldn’t be able to pronounce my name. For now, call me Knox.”
“So… what—you’re a vampire ghost or something like it?” I asked, shaking my head as I tried to understand what in the fuck had just happened to bring me here. “I’ve never seen a vampire do the incorporeality thing before. It’s a myth that vampires can turn into mist.”
“Most can’t,” Knox said, smoke curling from his lips. “But I can. So can any of the ones given my sacrament. None of you have developed that capacity yet, though. Your cousin had potential to master that level of skill, but alas, she slipped through my fingers.” He must have been talking about Wanda? “You, however,” he continued, tipping the cigarette toward me with a smile. “Are perfect. Better than I could have ever hoped for. And male. That’s always a plus.”
“You’re the first one to ever think so,” I said dryly. “And would it kill you to speak plain English? I’m not following one word of your ramble.”
Knox studied the crimson sky with an amused smile. “This bloody world isn’t a large enough clue? I tried to make it as obvious as possible.”
I thought about it, linking what he’d said about vampires with the implication that he’d designed this place. A picture came together all at once and was so hideous that I wanted to shout.
“You’re some kind of... what... vampire god ?”
Knox waved his hand in a ‘so-so’ gesture. “For the purposes of this conversation, we’ll go with that. I was the first—let’s leave it at that. And you’re only beginning to learn what I can teach you about blood magic.”
I shook my head slowly. This didn’t make any sense. He was either delusional or insane. And yet, how had he even brought me here? Maybe I was just hallucinating the whole thing. Maybe I was the delusional, insane one.
“Vampires don’t have magic.”
“Not in your lifetime, no. The bloodline was diluted with humanity. Now they can only resurrect their improved bodies. I rose from the grave with the power she gave me.”
“She?”
Knox swung his legs over the lip of my grave, lounging in the monochromatic light from above. He flicked the cigarette away with a laugh.
“I’m not surprised you don’t know. Your goddess always was a prideful sort. She wouldn’t tell the story of her biggest failure. No, that might tarnish her sterling reputation.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your goddess made me, you fool.”
I chuckled at that because it was completely absurd. “Now that is for sure bullshit. The goddess hates vampires. Everyone knows that.”
Knox shook his head. “She subverted her own laws to reanimate her fallen lover. Now she has to pay for what she’s done.”
My legs shook as I absorbed that. If Knox was telling the truth, everything I’d ever known about the religion I’d grown up with was wrong. If the goddess had truly created vampires, that would be hypocrisy on such a grand scale, I could hardly fathom it.
“What the spell do you want from me?” I asked quietly.
“Temporary use of your body.”
“What?” I nearly barked.
“Nighttime only. You could live out your days in peace with your woman.” He tapped his chin thoughtfully. “You know, I may be able to help you with that, too. I’m capable of much when I’m in full possession of a human host, and it’s been so long since I had someone worth the name.”
“I’ll pass,” I said, dusting dirt from my front. “Possession has never been my kink.”
Knox chuckled. “I assumed you’d say that… at first, anyway. But at some point, you’ll realize you need the help I can offer. I can be patient.”
“I’m still not convinced my brain didn’t just invent you. That all of this,” I looked around myself. “Isn’t just some trick of my addled mind.”
He shook his head. “When you’re ready, Charmin,” he continued, calling me by my born name. “Just think my name and we can make a deal. I’ll be listening.”
Not fucking likely. I was no one’s ventriloquist dummy. And the fact that he’d called me Charmin? Yeah, that ticked me off even more.
Knox turned to go, then paused, craning his neck so he could meet my eyes. “Oh, and Charmin?”
“It’s Maverick.”
“Names are inconsequential.” He paused. “You might want to hold off on the spell you’re building up to.”
“Why?”
“Because it will blow a hole in your psyche that I can slip through.”
“Why tell me that if that’s exactly what you want?”
He shrugged. “I’m trying to play by the rules. Good luck.”
Then Knox’s foot lashed out, connecting squarely with my knee. I crumpled back into the hole, and the casket beyond. The lid snapped shut inches in front of my face, and wouldn’t budge, no matter how hard I hammered the wood.
“Shit,” a distant female voice said. “Damn it, no, Mav! Fight it!”
I hung in limbo, neither here nor there, the shadows clawing at every inch of my exposed skin, awakening my nerves with a ticklish sensation. I found my body at last and felt someone soft and inviting curled in my arms.
Taliyah. Tally had brought me back home. With a kiss. Yes, she’d kissed me.
I love you, I wanted to say. But I couldn’t force the words past my lips.
“Stay with me,” Tally said when my eyes finally focused on her.
Always, I thought back.