Chapter 34
Lock
“Well, this time you didn’t almost knock your teeth out,” I noted, smiling over at Sam.
She let out a mocking laugh. “There wasn’t enough alcohol on the plane to get me that drunk. I think that’s one of the few downsides to this vampire shit.”
“I wouldn’t call them downsides. You just have to get creative.”
“Like drinking drunk people.”
“Exactly,” I agreed with a laugh. “Maybe that’s what we should do with the rest of the weekend.”
“By the time we get there, it’ll be late already.”
“We’re vampires, Samara.”
“Well, my hometown doesn’t really condone drinking, so I doubt we’ll find anyone there.”
I snorted as I pulled off the freeway. Even now that she’d changed, she seemed to prefer human modes of travel. “That’s exactly the type of place you’ll find at least a few alcoholics.”
“We’re not going there to kill people,” she reminded me, shifting in her seat.
I glanced sidelong at her, trying to gauge what she was feeling. She had been terrified on the plane, going on about how she could blow the whole thing up if she sneezed or something. It was ridiculous, but she rarely listened to reason.
In the end, everything had turned out just fine. With our rental car and two extra vamps in the backseat, we were nearing her town and her nerves had been getting worse. I could feel it through the bond, but it was still difficult to determine exactly how dire the situation was. Were we at DEFCON one or three? Hopefully I wouldn’t need to resort to neck snapping.
If she did start to lose her cool, I wasn’t keen on stopping her. Watching that town go up in flames would be the highlight of the century. Being caught in the explosion, though, was not ideal. I guess it was good we had Seraphim here, not that I would ever admit it to anyone.
“Hey, Ryan,” I said, looking at him in the mirror.
His jaw tightened when I addressed him, making me smile. He hadn’t said a word to me since I chained him up and left him underwater back at the cabin. It seemed to cause a bit of a rift between him and Sam. I didn’t know what he expected her to do. Leave me? Hilarious.
“When we get there, I want you to find us a place to stay.”
“How am I supposed to do that?” Ryan asked in a less than respectful tone.
Don’t kill him. He’s Sam’s friend. Remember the window incident.
“Find a house that’s for sale or something. Staged with furniture, of course.”
“There’s not likely to be any,” Seraphim pointed out. “People around here don’t move and if they do, they don’t put the place up for sale. They don’t want outsiders moving in.”
“He’ll figure something out. Kill a family if you have to. I don’t give a shit.”
“Of course you don’t,” Ryan muttered. “You’re a fucking psychopath.”
“Don’t call him that,” Sam snapped.
I smirked at Ryan in the mirror. Maybe she’d make it easy and set him on fire soon. Watching people burn alive was incredibly satisfying. Their screams were more powerful and when their voices started going hoarse, it sent a tingle down my spine. The smell was gross, but nothing was without its flaws.
The sign for Fern Springs appeared in the distance and Sam’s emotions started going haywire. The windows began to ice over, making Ryan sit up straight and look around in alarm.
“Sam,” I said softly, reaching over to grab her hand. It was cold to the touch when we should’ve been the same temperature.
“I’m fine,” she assured me. She didn’t sound like it, though.
When I looked in the mirror, Seraphim was staring straight at me. I raised an expectant brow and he gave a small shake of his head. To my dismay and complete revulsion, Sam reached back and grasped his hand. I couldn’t sense their energies, but her emotions calmed and the air returned to normal.
Hopefully Vas was right and I’d be able to help Sam more once we completed our bond. The less I had to deal with the fire fairy, the better. Making a Sam sandwich between the two of us was my worst nightmare.
She should be proud of me, if we were being honest. Every second we were within a mile of each other, I was coming up with new and inventive ways to kill him. Headfirst into a woodchipper. Barbecued and served to her family after their cult service. It’d be like those giant turkey legs they had at the fair.
My personal favorite idea was to tar and feather him, add a bunch of googly eyes to turn him into a biblically accurate angel, then blast him off into orbit. I had no idea how the logistics of that would work, but imagining him flying through the air for the world to see brought a smile to my face.
The point was that Sam should be proud because I hadn’t done any of that. For now, I was getting satisfaction out of the idea of it. I didn’t know how long that would last, but it was more than I would have done a couple of months ago. Progress. To someone like Sam, at least. To me, it was a tragedy.
“Where are we going, Belladonna?”
She was bouncing her leg madly and I squeezed her thigh in an attempt to settle her down. It was a poor attempt, but I tried.
“We could find a place to stay,” I suggested. “Relax for a while or sleep.”
She shook her head. “It’ll just give me more time to freak out. I want to see Joseph.”
My lip curled. “The first person you want to see is your ex boyfriend?”
“Don’t make it weird. He’s the only one in this place that isn’t an enemy.”
“That’s subjective.”
A high-pitched laugh escaped her and she covered her mouth. “Sorry. That was just such a ‘you’ thing to say. It feels strange with everything going on.”
“If you’d like more normal things, I can capture and imprison someone. I only have my portable torture kit, but it’ll do.”
“Portable torture…” Ryan trailed off, audibly gulping.
“He’s kidding,” Sam assured him, even though she knew I wasn’t.
When I pulled up to the little house, I wondered if Joseph would end up shitting himself. Last time he’d seen me, his sister had just been killed by Seraphim’s little experiment. The latter had also bit the guy. The memory made me curious.
“Why did you kill Magnolia?” I asked.
Seraphim leaned between the front seats. “To draw you away from Sam that night.”
“But why her?”
Sam looked at him, cocking her head. She appeared just as interested in his answer.
He rolled his lips a couple of times. “It doesn’t really matter.”
“Tell me,” she requested.
His eyes softened. “That urge to protect you is always there. After we met in my room back at the Seattle coven, I was overwhelmed by it. Killing Magnolia served my purposes, but it also eased the pull from our connection slightly.”
Clearing his throat, he shrugged and sat back. A moment later, he got out of the car, followed by Ryan. I appeared at his side, grabbing his arm. He tried to shake me off, a murderous look in his eyes. He was so weak, it made me want to fuck with him more.
“Go find us a place to stay,” I ordered.
The defiance was evident in his eyes, but he glanced at Sam quickly, then nodded. When he disappeared, I slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her in close. I nearly laughed when I saw Seraphim wearing his dramatic fucking bone mask. The horns were still ridiculous obviously.
“Why the hell are you wearing that?” I asked.
“This is business,” he replied. “I didn’t wear it only to throw you off.”
“Don’t want to give away your secret rockstar identity?”
“One day, I may have a life outside all of this. I don’t think that’s an unfair dream.”
“He’s really good,” Sam chimed in.
“I think he’s just jumping on the bandwagon,” I disagreed. “Masked singers and shirtless men on that clock app.”
She laughed, leaning against my shoulder as we made our way up the steps. “You have a point, though. Raf, if you wear your mask on stage, you might get famous even faster. You’ll be like Vessel, plus you’re huge and…”
She trailed off, pursing her lips and glancing at me. I narrowed my eyes at her, not pulling my gaze away when I rang the doorbell.
“I believe she was going to say huge and sexy,” Seraphim chimed in unhelpfully.
“Stop goading him,” Sam chided. “Lock, no murder attempts.”
Grunting my agreement, I rang the doorbell a few more times. Finally, there were hurried footsteps inside, followed by a gasp. The lock turned and Joseph all but threw the door open. His mouth was open, his eyes locked on Sam.
“Oh my god,” he breathed.
Sam smiled a little awkwardly. “Careful. Using the lord’s name in vain is a sin. We do it all the time out in Cali.”
It was silent for a moment, then Joseph began to laugh. Her expression changed completely, her eyes lighting up and the smile becoming a grin. Moving away from me, she threw her arms around his neck, nearly knocking him over. Weakling.
I wasn’t sure if her shoulders were shaking with laughter or tears, but she didn’t feel entirely distressed, so I chose not to intervene. Squeezing past them, I stepped straight into his living room. My eye caught on the beer cans haphazardly shoved underneath a side table. From the smell of his blood, he’d been hurtling toward a very bad night. I told her there were always a few in these towns.
“Jesus, Sam,” Seraphim hissed, stepping away from some frost that was spreading over the floorboards. “Cool it with the ice.”
I snorted a laugh. “Cool it.”
“Sorry,” she said with a grimace. “I’m a bit emotional over here.”
“Go for fire. I hate the cold.”
Note to self. Sacrifice Seraphim to the polar bears.
“It’s not like I have much control over it. Maybe this place is bringing out my ice cold heart.”
“Let it go,” I sang quietly as I perused the kitchen cabinets. With a gasp, I peered around the corner to look at Seraphim. “Is that your weakness?”
“Disney movies?” he asked, his mocking tone evident while the mask hid what was probably a smirk.
“No, dumbass. Fire and ice don’t mix. And you…” I gestured toward him. “Charizard.”
“Fire types aren’t weak to ice,” Joseph said.
We both turned to look at him. Now that the initial excitement had worn off, he looked incredibly uncomfortable.
Sam smiled up at him. “He’s right. Flying types are the ones that are weak to ice.”
“That makes no fucking sense,” I muttered.
“You’re just upset because you were wrong.”
“I couldn’t care less about a children’s pastime. Well, adults too, clearly.” I wrinkled my nose in Joseph’s direction.
“According to our families, Pokémon is of the devil, so obviously we snuck around with cards back in the day. We were the problem children of this town.”
“You’re still a problem child.”
“I’m offended by that.”
“If you carry on with your little soiree with the human, I can start making it up to you, Belladonna.”
“I have no idea what’s going on,” Joseph admitted.
Striding over to Sam, I tugged her away from him, putting a hand at the back of her neck.
“Isn’t it obvious? We’re visiting. That’s what families do when one gets engaged.”
“Lock,” Sam scolded softly.
Joseph’s eyes widened. “Oh. I… Wow.”
Cocking my head, I narrowed my eyes at him until he started to squirm. “You appear unsettled when you should be bouncing up and down with glee.”
“Believe me, I’m happy to see you, Sam. I’m just surprised.”
“Surprised?” she repeated.
The somber tone of her voice made me tighten my grip on her. Seraphim took a step closer, his eyes burning a little brighter through the holes in his mask. Joseph glanced back at him warily.
“Yeah. I didn’t think you’d have any interest. Honestly, I don’t know how any of this will be received.”
“I don’t give two flying fucks how it’s received,” Sam replied louder than before.
He shrunk back but ran into Seraphim. With a laughable whimper, he tried to step to the side, only to be met with the large form again.
“Sam,” he all but pleaded. “I don’t understand what’s happening here. This guy is a monster.”
“Because he killed your sister?” she scoffed.
“Fuck Magnolia. He bit me and made me tell him everything about you. He’s a creep.”
“Lock stalked and gaslit her for weeks,” Seraphim offered.
I smiled down at Sam. “We are what the kids call ‘couple goals.’”
He snorted. “You’re ridiculously codependent, toxic, and downright abusive.”
“I am not abusive.”
“How many scars does she have from your blade?”
The thought made me want to strip her and run my tongue along each one. She was a work of art, but she’d been incomplete until she’d been eternally marked by me.
“It’s not my fault you’ve never captivated a woman enough that she wanted to be owned by you.”
“I’d argue that you broke her.”
“And I shattered right along with her. Now, the only piece that will ever fit in the jagged remnant of her soul is me.”
“That’s beautiful,” Sam crooned, her eyes crinkling at the corners.
“I’m so fucking lost,” Joseph sighed, putting his palms against his eyes.
“I forgot about you,” I admitted.
“Look, I don’t know why everyone got super threatening all of a sudden. Tensions are high. I get that.”
“You’re not helping the issue.”
“Right. If you want to stir the pot, cause some problems, I get it. When I heard your father was trying to marry you to Joram, I was pissed.”
“Wait, what?” Sam asked, holding up a hand. “Joram?”
“Yeah. How did you find out anyway? They wouldn’t have sent an invitation, even if they knew where you were.”
“An invitation to what?”
His brow furrowed. “The wedding.”
Sam stepped closer so they were chest to chest. “Whose wedding?”
“Joram and Ruth. They’re getting married tomorrow. Is that not why you’re here?”
The temperature in the room shifted immediately. Rain started hammering against the roof, then turned to ice on the windows. I stroked the back of her neck with my thumb, preparing some words I hoped would be calming. When she turned her head toward me, I was shocked by the smile on her face.
“We need to run into town,” she said in a light tone.
“For what, darling?”
The amber of her eyes paled, as if they’d somehow become slightly translucent. Her bright locks fluttered with a wind I couldn’t trace.
“I forgot to pack a dress. It’d be bad form if the maid of honor showed up in skinny jeans.”
Matching her slightly maniacal expression, I twirled the keys around my finger. “This is one instance where I won’t complain about wearing a suit.”
“You’re going to look fucking sexy in it.”
“Please tell me it’ll be covered in red by the end of the night.”
She tapped her chin with a little hum. “I haven’t decided yet. If not their blood, you can always cover it in mine.”
“Y-you’re going to kill people?” Joseph balked.
Seraphim clapped him on the shoulder, making him jump.
“It’s best if you accept that this isn’t quite the same woman you knew as a teenager, buddy. Sock is a whole chaotic nightmare.”
“Sock?”
“It’s their couple name.”
“That is not our couple name,” I disagreed, rearing back.
He leaned toward Joseph’s ear and dropped his voice to a whisper. “It is.”
Before I could respond, a sharpened icicle flew through the air, embedding itself in Seraphim’s chest. He stumbled back and swore, then dropped to the ground.
Sam shrugged when I looked at her. “Payback for staking you.”
With a laugh, I picked her up and headed toward the door.
“He’ll wake up when it melts,” I called behind me.
“Wake up,” Joseph repeated with a healthy dose of panic in his voice. “B-but he’s dead.”
“Mostly,” Sam sing-songed. “We’ll be back.”
“What am I supposed to do with him?”
“If he gets fussy, feed him cookies,” I suggested before speeding to the car.
Sam was laughing, the sound making me feel lighter than I had in days. Maybe her reaction to the news about her sister should have been concerning, but I was just grateful she was acting more like herself. If I got to cut off the dicks of her father and Joram tomorrow, I would be one happy fucking clam.