Chapter 33
THIRTY-THREE
The shadows of the streetlights stretched across the pavement as I made my way home. The only sound was the soft squish of my steps on the melting snow. My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I answered it, pressing it to my ear.
“Hurry, please,” Vail urged.
“I’m on my way back. Lakeview is a small town, so it’s not unusual to run into people. It will be fine, Vail,” I reassured her.
“Okay, see you soon,”
I couldn’t shake off the unease that clung to me like a second skin as I approached the house.
I tightened my grip on the key, my knuckles turning white.
The creak of the front gate sent a shiver down my spine, and my eyes darted to the shadows dancing along the hedges.
Vail’s wards clearly didn’t affect me as I pushed open the front door.
“Vail, what the hell is going on?” I exclaimed as I stepped into the house, taking in the sight of Vail hurriedly carrying containers of salt and lighting white candles on every available surface.
She glanced up, her expression tense with concentration. “I’m finishing putting up more wards around the house,” she said while pouring lines of salt along the windows.
“Don’t you think you’re being overprotective?” I asked her, sitting down on the living room couch. I’d seen Vail ward before, but never to this extent. The room glowed with candlelight, which shimmered off the salt scattered everywhere.
“Rosie, you weren’t there. You didn’t see her eyes.” Vail turned to me, her hair like a halo around her head, illuminated by the candlelight. “She saw me, and she knew. Somehow, she knew what I was doing. Her eyes ... they were like daggers into me. I think she wants me dead.”
“I think you’re overreacting.”
“Ivy, Sam, Donovan, Diana, and Connor—they’re all Vampire Slayers.
I know that. But for some reason beyond my understanding, you can’t grasp the concept that they are our enemies.
I know we want information, but at what point will it be too dangerous?
” Her frustration was palpable as she gestured emphatically.
“I don’t care if you think I’m crazy for putting more protection on the house, but I’m trying to keep us safe,” she said, her gaze unwavering.
I could see the intensity in her eyes. How unyielding she had become since George died. I couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to her. Or to me.
“Okay, I’ll help if you need me to,” I conceded. “What can I do?”
I helped Vail finish setting up the wards around the house. We lit candles in every room, poured salt, and made witches’ circles in the windows. We closed all the curtains, and for the windows without curtains, she placed bowls of water underneath.
Once we had finished warding the house, we sat in the living room. I told Vail about drinks with Connor, Donovan, and Diana. Vail chuckled when I told her about vomiting up the tequila in the toilet with Diana there.
“I can’t believe you did that,” she laughed, her amusement infectious.
“Don’t act like you wouldn’t have done the same,” I retorted, sharing in the laughter.
Vail’s amusement echoed through the room, but her eyes betrayed a fleeting shadow of uncertainty. Despite her grin, tension lingered in the corners of her lips. “Fair point,” she said, her gaze momentarily dimmed by an unspoken worry.
Her smile faded, and the atmosphere in the room began to shift as the tension returned. “I know you’re hesitant about acknowledging the threat these Slayers pose, but I need you to understand, they are relentless. If they discover our true nature, we both will be in danger.”
I nodded. “I get it, Vail. I do—” But before I could finish my thoughts, a noise came from outside. It sounded like a crashing of metal trash cans.
“The wards,” Vail whispered, more to herself than to me. “They’ll work. Don’t worry.” But she looked nervous. Vail’s magic was reliable and rarely failed. Being a Vampire made her immortal, which meant she’d lived more lifetimes than most witches.
We sat on the couch in silence as we listened to someone trying to break through the wards and enter the property. Vail’s unease was justified. Someone was determined to get in.
I didn’t dare look through the windows. We just sat there, listening. I breathed in deeply, trying to catch scents in the air. I couldn’t smell Ivy or Sam. All I smelled was a subtle burnt smell, something I hadn’t encountered before.
We waited, and a horrible screaming noise came from outside. It sounded like the air was being sucked out of something. I stared at Vail, then another ear-piercing screech rang through the air.
We sat there still on the couch until morning. The curtains were glowing from the sunrise, and no more noises came from outside. Vail gave the nod, signaling that it was safe enough to sleep for a while.
“You have to come see this.” The echoes of those haunting screams still vibrated in my ears when Vail woke me from my sleep. Rubbing my eyes, I followed her, outside into the twilight.
Strewn across the grass were the lifeless forms of crows, mice, rats, and squirrels, their bellies gruesomely torn open. The stench of burnt plastic hung heavy in the air, mingling with the metallic tang of blood.
“Someone tried using blood magic to get through the wards last night,” Vail said grimly, her voice barely above a whisper.
“A witch was here?”
“Looks like it.”
“What’s that smell?”
"That’s the smell of dark magic," Vail explained solemnly. The realization was sinking in that we were facing something far more sinister than we had anticipated.
Rain began to fall as I cleaned up the yard. Vail didn’t want to touch the animals, so she remained inside. As I put them in a garbage bag, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched, the hairs on my neck raising to every small noise or movement I saw.
I disposed of the garbage in someone else’s bin down the back alley.
On my walk back to the house, I came to a halt.
An expressionless woman stood before me.
Her blunt hair was black as night in the dim light of the alley.
For a moment she stood motionless, her breath coming in ragged gasps, her chest rising and falling.
Then, without warning, she surged forward with startling speed as she ran toward me.
I lunged at the woman, my kick connecting with her gut and causing her to stumble backward momentarily.
But she quickly regained her footing, launching into a frenzied onslaught of punches.
With every blow, I blocked and dodged. Seizing an opportunity, I pushed her back, sending her falling to the ground.
“What the fuck is happening?” Vail asked as she appeared in the alley before us.
I looked away for too long, a mistake that allowed the woman to seize me by the hair and yank me backward.
Reacting on instinct, I spun around, grabbing hold of her arm just in time to prevent the sharp wooden stake from piercing my flesh.
I twisted her arm, digging my nails into her skin, and she dropped the stake. To my astonishment, she made no sound of pain or protest as her skin broke under my fingernails, blood welling from the cuts. Her eyes stared back at me; they were pure white.
As I stared into the woman’s unnaturally white eyes, trying to unravel the mystery of her presence, she suddenly lunged at me with ferocious speed, knocking me off my feet and sending me sprawling to the ground.
I rolled away to evade her, but she pounced, landing on my back, my stomach flat to the ground.
An invisible force surged from Vail, propelling the woman backward with tremendous force. The woman’s body collided into the brick wall with a sickening thud and fell to the ground.
A sharp crack echoed through the alley as Vail broke the woman’s neck with a swift, decisive force.
“She would have killed us,” Vail replied, her voice firm as she bent down to flip over the woman’s coat, revealing more wooden stakes hidden within its folds.
“I had it under control,” I insisted.
“I didn’t want to take any chances,” Vail replied, her voice tinged with a hint of remorse as she gazed down at the lifeless form on the ground.
“Did you see her eyes?”
“No,” Vail replied, her own gaze still fixed on the woman’s body, a troubled expression etched upon her features.
“They were all white, like she was possessed,” I continued, my mind still reeling from the surreal sight.
“Yeah, she fought as though she had a spell on her.” Vail bent down and took out a long, thin knife.
She pierced the woman’s flesh on her wrist, and a steady stream of crimson ran down her arm.
Vail took out a small bottle of clear liquid from her purse.
She placed the bottle next to the cut, letting the blood flow inside.
“What is that?” I asked her.
“A potion I’ve been working on. It detects the Retch once it’s in blood,” Vail explained.
She extended the bottle toward me, its contents pulsing with a faint, iridescent blue glow.
“It’s a good thing you didn’t bite her when she was attacking you because her blood is full of it,” Her words carried a solemn warning.
“Did the Retch make her attack us?” I asked her.
“I don’t think so. But I’d say you’re right about her being possessed,” Vail said.
“She was trying to kill me,” I told Vail.
“She sure was.”
“Do you think Sam sent her to kill us?” I posed the question, knowing that Vail was grappling with the same troubling thought.
“She had dark magic on her, blood magic, and Sam’s not a witch,” Vail replied quietly.
“Maybe he knows a witch? That’s who’s helping him make the drug?”
“You could be right about that,” Vail conceded, her gaze fixed on me with a newfound intensity. “Or maybe Sam sent her to see if we would kill her. So, if she doesn’t go back to him, he knows about us.”
“Oh, shit.” A sinking feeling settled in the pit of my stomach.
“Yeah, fuck,” Vail muttered.
“What do we do now? Should we skip town and leave?” I suggested, desperate for a way out of the danger that surrounded us.
“Rosalia.” Vail addressed me by my full name. “We can’t leave. If we leave, Retch will get out, and more Vampires will die. We have to end this.