Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
ATTICUS
“‘Help.’”
I stare at the phone for a long moment before turning to Johnny.
“What do we think that irritating man needs help with? Does he need help buying new shoes? Does he need help buying this dog he seems to want? Does he need help tying his own shoes? He does seem like someone quite incapable of tying his own shoes.”
“I don’t know, sir,” Johnny, my butler who has been with me for many years, says. He’s a very attentive guy and rarely annoys me like Yorick does.
I sit on my chair and stare at the phone like it holds all the answers. “It’s been five minutes and he’s never explained anything more.”
“If it bothers you so greatly, why don’t you call him and inquire?”
Me? Bothered? “Ha! It doesn’t bother me in the slightest, but you know if I don’t respond, he’ll squawk and irritate me even more.”
I toss him the phone. “Call him and find out what he wants.”
“Certainly, sir.”
I’m well aware that if I don’t inquire, it’ll bite me in the ass later. It really will be such a pain.
I pick up the book I was enjoying before that irksome text. Ever since I turned that man, I’ve had to deal with all of his many antics for hundreds of years. The rest of the people I’d turned just fucked off and lived their very own lives far away from mine, but not this one.
“Why did I ever turn him?” I grumble.
“I believe because you thought he was pretty,” Johnny says.
I scoff. “False. I thought I could use him because he’s pretty.” But I know there was a lot more to it than that. I just won’t admit that to Johnny.
Johnny stills, and even though he rarely shows much expression on his stoic face, I can see the shift and know that I’m not going to like whatever he’s about to tell me.
Maybe that pest wants me to get him out of jail again.
Joke’s on him, I’m going to leave him there so he thinks twice before doing whatever he did to get tossed in again!
Johnny slowly holds the phone out to me, and before he can even speak, I snatch it and go, “What do you want?”
“What do I want? It depends on whether you want this one back or not,” a voice that sounds vaguely familiar responds, but I can’t quite place it.
“We’ve been trying so desperately to get your attention, and you just continue to ignore us.
So I’m really sorry if it seems like a bit too much, but we had to take drastic measures.
I’ll send you our current location, but we’re loading up now.
If you’d like this one back… I left the address in his car. ”
“I don’t want that one back. You may keep him.
You’ve actually done me a solid,” I say, well aware that the more I act like I want Yorick back, the more his life will be in danger.
So many of these useless vampires are all the same…
but how did Yorick let himself be caught by such an aggravating man?
The man laughs, like he thinks that what I said is a joke. “So I can kill him right here, then? What about the dog?”
“What dog?”
“Don’t play dumb with me,” he says, and the phone disconnects.
“Guess we don’t have to deal with that anymore,” I comment as I toss the phone to Johnny and pick my book back up. I should be able to finish it before it’s time to sleep.
“Sir, your book is upside down,” Johnny says, smoothly righting it for me.
“Yes, I was aware,” I growl.
“Should I get the car warmed up?”
What a foolish question. “No idea what for.”
“How will he ever pay all of his debts if he is deceased?” Johnny asks.
I freeze as this realization settles inside of me. “You are quite right, Johnny. He can’t. Go start the car… did they send an address?”
“Not yet, but Yorick is on your phone plan and you can track his phone.”
“Why the fuck is he on my phone plan?” I demand. “And for how long?”
“I believe since cell phones were invented and you purchased your first one. Would you like me to remove him from your phone plan? Perhaps after we save his life?”
I growl as I slam down my book and grumble my way out to the car. By the time we reach it, Johnny has figured out the location of Yorick’s phone and begins driving while I contemplate the dog thing.
“The caller said he had my dog. I don’t have a dog. Do you think that reckless man has already purchased one? And where did he get the money? Does he still have access to my money?”
“Yes, sir. You give him your credit card to, and I quote, ‘Go buy yourself a jacket so you will shut up about the cold.’”
I try to remember when this happened. “Is he not a vampire? Why would he need a coat?”
“I don’t know, sir,” Johnny says.
“I wish to cut up the credit card in front of him,” I decide. “I will find him merely to retrieve my credit card and then leave him there as punishment.”
“Of course. Should I turn around and go back for scissors? I don’t believe I have any in the vehicle.”
“I will snap it.”
“Splendid idea.”
Yorick’s current location is about three and half hours from us, making me wonder if I should inquire about having someone else check on the situation.
I know who has been trying to get my attention.
The twin vampires are rather old, possibly not as old as I am, but they hold significant power in their district.
I’m confident that Casimir could stand up against them if this turned out to be a trap, but why would I toss him into the mix?
And while they might threaten to kill Yorick, neither of them would actually dream of doing so.
They surely have to be smart enough to know that if Yorick wound up dead, they would find themselves digging their very own graves this evening.
I tap my finger against the window as I think.
Johnny glances back at me. “Perhaps we could call Casimir, who could get there sooner and tell him to snap that card before Yorick could possibly use it again.”
“Fine, fine. Do as you wish,” I say with a wave of my hand.
Johnny calls Casimir, and the phone rings and rings but there’s no answer.
“Such incompetence,” I grumble.
“I will try again shortly,” Johnny assures me.
I wave him off and leave him to speed his way toward the scene. I could run, but while I can run much faster than a vehicle, I would eat up my stamina long before I reached the place and dealt with these irritations. So instead, I scroll through my phone and look at some new shoes I’ve been eyeing.
About thirty minutes out, we get slowed down by heavy traffic, and I sigh.
“This is taking all night and I have things to do. I will go ahead,” I say before I push open the car door and blend into the crowd.
I need to get somewhere dark so I can use my vampiric speed without being caught by cameras or people.
It slows me down, but I eventually manage to reach the location and find a car sitting on the side of the road.
I recognize it as Yorick’s vehicle and can smell the blood long before I near it. A part of me assumes this is a trap, that the vampire who’d been so adamant about seeing me is waiting here to cause me problems, but I don’t sense anyone here.
I pull the driver’s door open and look at the blood on the seat and the slice through the roof. Honestly, was Yorick so weak that he couldn’t handle what smells like a single vampire and a few werewolves? What has he spent his nearly five hundred years of life doing?
I hesitate as I rub my finger on the blood and bring it up to my nose. Something doesn’t seem quite right. I lick the blood and can instantly taste something wrong with it.
I’ve heard whispered talk of a poison that can slow down vampires… but I never imagined it to be true.
So that’s how they got him.
How interesting.
I follow the trail toward the trees and can almost envision how the fight went.
I can see where he had the upper hand. I can smell the blood of the other vampire…
and then the tables seemed to turn. Yorick’s path became erratic as the poison took hold, and the ground is coated in his blood.
It’s a wonder he even had any blood left in his body after this.
They really were making sure that even after his body expelled the poison, he’d be too weak to be a problem for them.
He made it farther than I thought he would before they pinned him down, but what now?
Do I play their little game when I could just walk away?
There’s no way they’d kill him. They aren’t that willing to risk their lives.
Also, the more interested in him I appear, the longer he’ll be in their hands.
To them, he serves no purpose other than to draw me in, and if I refuse to bite, what’s there to do with him when his death would certainly lead to theirs?
I wander back to the car in time to see Johnny pulling a note out of it. “I’m afraid that the dog they mentioned might belong to Casimir.”
I pause mid-step when I comprehend what he’s saying. “That poodle he’s obsessed with?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Fuck. I would prefer not to have to deal with Casimir on top of this. What bad luck we have today,” I mutter.
“I have the next address. Is that where we’re heading?”
“Call Casimir again. If he doesn’t answer, call his wolf.”
I get into the back seat of my car as Johnny hurries into the front and inputs the address before making the call.
This is exactly what that wretched vampire wants. Is it even considered a trap when I’m willingly walking into it and know of its existence?
I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I don’t even need to breathe, and yet Yorick forces my body to do the most annoying things.
“What’s going on now?” Casimir asks by way of greeting. I do like a man who gets straight to the point.
Casimir is another vampire who I turned, and he was a much more successful turn than the other one whose goal is evidently to see how much he can steal from me every year.
“Good evening, sir. We have received a call that someone has taken Yorick in an attempt to get my master to meet them,” Johnny answers.
“What do you mean by ‘taken’ Yorick? Is he not old enough to fight off most people?” Casimir asks.
I take over since I’m not sure how much Johnny picked up.
“He was poisoned, it seems. To me it appears like he was driving when a vampire staked him with some type of poisoned blade through the roof of the car. He lost a significant amount of blood, but I believe the poison is what allowed his capture.”
“What the hell happened?” Julian asks, making me realize that he’s listening in. “Why do they want you?”
“I don’t know. They’ve asked for an audience with me multiple times over the past month. I refuse to engage in foolish endeavors and have declined each one. They think that maiming and nearly killing one of my turned will make me rush to his aid.”
“Which you are doing, right? You’re going to save him, right?” Julian asks.
“It’s not like they’re actually going to keep him if I don’t go.”
“We’re coming. Give us the address. We’re like four hours from home, though. It’ll take us a while. I’m sorry we didn’t answer earlier, I was in a panel and we had our phones off since I was speaking at it.”
“I can handle it,” I assure Julian, since he sounds worried. “There is one more thing… I believe that Yorick possibly had Casimir’s dog with him when it happened.”
“My dog has been taken?” Casimir growls.
“It appears so. I could smell the dog at the scene, but he must have gone with Yorick because there’s no scent trail leading away from the location.
I didn’t smell any blood from him, so I’m sure he’s fine.
They have no reason to kill a dog if they’re simply wanting my attendance.
I will gather the dog and have Johnny return him to you as well. ”
Casimir doesn’t sound pleased with that. “I am coming. Send me the address right now. Wait, never mind. I have a tracker on Gustov’s collar in case any poor soul ever considered stealing him. I will slaughter them all.”
“Let’s just focus on saving Yorick and Gustov. We’re very far out, but we’ll be there as backup if you need it,” Julian says.
“I have this handled,” I repeat. I see that the address left in Yorick’s car is about two hours from here, and when I give it to them, they tell me it’s six hours from them.
What an irritation.