Chapter Seven
Isadora
When I heard a knock at the front door with the drum of a human heart on the other side, I had only expected Mel.
However, as I opened it, I was met with the surprise of Erie at her side with her hand grasping Mel’s like a lost child.
Erie’s dark gilded eyes stared into mine as her mind probed at my own.
I opened the door to my mind, letting her in.
Can we keep her?
No, we cannot keep the mundane.
I like her. She’s not like the donors back home, Isa.
She must stay here, Erie. She will turn into one of those donors if we take her back with us. Think of what my father will do.
Erie tore herself from my mind like a child would storm out of a room during a tantrum. Her eyes softened into a more child-like way and looked up at Melinda, lip jutting out in a pout.
“Isadora says I can’t keep you.”
Mel chuckled at this, but not out of amusement of her suffering but out of sympathy to a plight that seemed only a child could have.
With a comforting squeeze delivered to Erie’s hand, Mel knelt down to see eye to eye with the child vampire.
It must be strange to Mel for someone over a hundred years old would have the form of a child, but vampires were still a new concept of reality for her. One she was quickly adapting to.
“Unfortunately, in this world that’s not as acceptable. Would being friends be alright for now?” Erie pursed her lips as she contemplated the answer she would give. “I’ll even give you a pinky promise that we will be friends for as long as I live. Pinky promises are important to human friendships.”
I watched as Melinda held up a hand with only her pinky raised. Erie looked at it before wrapping hers around Mel’s. I felt a small wave of jealousy wash over me that had me squatting in front of them.
I raised my pinky, looking to Mel for permission. She nodded and I wrapped my pinky around theirs, my jealousy now quelled. I felt kind of childish about my response, but Mel seemed to have a pull to her that made it hard to not want to be close to her.
“Friends.” Erie smiled while I mirrored her and Mel looked pleased with the outcome.
There was a twinge of amusement in her stormy gray eyes as she beheld the intertwining fingers.
As I surveyed her reaction, I could see a glimmer of sadness that I was almost too worried to ask about.
The sadness dissipated in an instant as her smile grew.
“Okay, well, since we are friends can I ask how you managed to also leave Shadowhaven?” I chuckled at her bluntness, but silently commended her for being able to manipulate Erie so easily.
Mel seemed to understand I needed the answer as well and was able to think quickly on her feet for an effective solution on how to get those answers.
“Lucien brought me with him.”
The pit that had started to hollow my stomach began to grow more as the fear gripped me into paralysis. Lucien was here. Lucien was out there somewhere, looking for us. Looking for me.
As my thoughts ran rapidly with that paralyzing fear, I felt something warm grasp my hand.
Pulled halfway from those thoughts, I looked down to find Mel’s hand over mine.
My eyes raised to meet hers. Her sympathetic gaze let me know that my fear was written all over my face.
I never got to experience this warmth from someone before.
It was nice.
She squeezed my hand gently. “He won’t hurt you. Any of you.”
I snorted at her empty promise. What would she do against a vampire?
Against him? She held my gaze in hers. Those stormy eyes were filled with a fierce determination that let me know that even if she couldn’t defeat Lucien, she would not go down without a fight.
She would fight for us. Practically strangers and yet she would risk her life for a promise—for us.
“Why?”
“We’re friends, remember?” Mel quipped before standing up straighter. “Friends protect each other. So, I promise he will not hurt any of you as long as I’m around. I’ve never broken a promise and I don’t plan to start.”
I knew that she didn’t stand a chance against my brother, but her promise made the threat of his arrival lessen. Ambrose’s presence ruined the moment we shared with his normal bored tone directed towards Mel with a hint of iciness that he mastered through imitating Lucien.
“You are but a mere mortal, Melinda Hardgrave. Lucien could have your heart removed from your chest before you let out a breath. He’s fierce, cunning, calculating and above all else he is the most powerful member of our coven.
Do you still intend to keep your promise knowing all of that? ” Ambrose fired in her direction.
He wasn’t wrong but the venomous tone he used was unnecessary against someone that was not an enemy. Unfazed by his tone, Mel walked over to Ambrose with no waver in her movements as she confidently strutted over to him.
“Your words will do nothing to deter me. Lucien may be powerful in your world, but this is my world. Here in the mundane world we have a thing called “home turf advantage”. He is out of his element while I am in mine,” Mel said.
She drove her point in further and further with each step she took.
“I’ve killed pigs, rabbits, squirrels, chickens and deer.
I’ve even skinned and cooked them. I’m not as weak as you think I am.
Nor do I cower at the sight of blood or death. ”
Erie let out a breath as her eyes held a newfound respect for the human before us.
My gaze echoed hers and when I looked towards Ambrose, he held the same.
Melinda had officially gained the mutual respect of all of us, even if it was purely out of sympathy for the moronic hole she had dug for herself.
She would definitely be a match for Lucien, but not if it came to a fight.
His strength and speed far surpassed hers.
Although, he definitely would have to work hard if he wanted to wear down her conviction.
“Very well. I cannot help you, but I support you.”
She wrapped him in a hug, taking us all by surprise. Ambrose stood there rigid with his gold eyes wide. Mel hugged him harder after a couple beats passed. “If you don’t hug back I will only squeeze harder.” With a roll of his eyes, he wrapped his arms around her.
“Humans are strange," he muttered, but for the first time in a while, his voice held no malice. It seemed almost as if he was genuinely touched by her actions.
“I think this human is growing on you,” she replied before pulling away and turning to face Erie. “Erie, where did you and Lucien part ways?”
“Um, I think we were at the town line near a fishing spot and some giant tree that looked like a sycamore from my science books," Erie answered with her nose scrunched in concentration as she recalled the location. Mel nodded before looking at me. Seeing her intentions through her gaze, I sped in front of her. My hands gripped her arms, trying to drive the point home that she can’t do this now.
“Isa, it will just be a conversation. Besides, I doubt vampires are immune to this,” she spoke before pulling out a device from her pocket. “I never run without having some form of protection. Especially because I run mostly while it’s dark.”
The device crackled with electricity while a cruel smile turned her lips. Something about this device made her happy and it was slightly startling for me.
“What is that?”
“A taser.”
Ambrose snatched it from her hands, turning it over to analyze it.
“It’s so small. I doubt it can do much against one of us.
” To prove his point, he touched the end to his arm before pressing the button Mel had to initiate the electrical current.
His body began convulsing as his hand remained stuck in its position with the taser before he fell to the ground, unconscious.
Erie gasped, running to her twin. Looking at the device, she took it and delivered a few more quick shocks to her brother.
Each time earned a new twitch and groan of pain from the unconscious vampire.
“I love this. I need one of these when Ambrose gets on my nerves," she giggled with glee before shocking her brother a fifth time. “Can I have this one?”
“I have more at home, but let me take this one and I will bring one next time. ”
Erie handed the device back with a pout. “You’re a lot smarter than the humans in Shadowhaven. Granted, they are mostly donors or indentured servants.”
“Donors? Like blood donors?”
Erie nodded before sitting on her brother with a yawn.
“Yeah, they get paid really good money to offer themselves to our vampiric diet. Purebloods like ourselves can eat normal food, but occasionally we need to consume human blood to keep our strength as well as fuel the magic we possess. The Unseelies Lucien loves use them for pleasure, chaos or whatever will satiate their demented diet. At least, that’s what he says. ”
“Sounds like a real winner," Mel muttered under her breath.
The two of us laughed as we echoed her thoughts.
Lucien was not a crown jewel, but he was powerful enough that no one kept him in check.
As I eyed Mel, I wondered what life might be like for us if she was able to keep him in check.
Unfortunately, she was mundane and Lucien would hardly allow donors to speak to him so there was no way of finding out.
“What do you plan to do? I mean, are you just going to shock him?”
Mel did a tricky flip with the taser, slipping it into her pocket before joking, “If he doesn’t see reason then I will make him see stars.”
“Be careful. Call us and we can be there in seconds.”
She smiled gratefully before heading towards the front door. I followed behind her, leaving Erie to poke and prod her brother in his unconscious state. She was probably more thrilled about her brother’s idiocy than she revealed to us.
“Isa,” Mel interrupted my train of thought.
When she saw I was focused on her now, she continued.
“If you want to stay here then stay here. Your brother may have power, but you still have free will in this world. Don’t let him control you.
You are not weak. I’m not just talking about the color of your eyes, but the power you possess beyond that.
Remember that, Isa. Remember and never let a man control you. Sibling or not.”
My eyes burned with the tears I wanted to shed from her kind words, but I held them back.
I only offered a smile as she left the house.
Doing a quick survey of the outside, I let out a sigh of relief that Lucien was not lurking outside before shutting and locking the door behind me.
Erie had remained in the living room while still teasing her unconscious brother when I returned.
“How did you meet her?” Erie asked while laying atop her brother like he was a bed. “She was very nice. It was strange though, she didn’t seem to be affected by my charms.”
“Ambrose said he had a hard time getting into her head when we met her. We actually had tried to get into Agatha’s place of work here, but she had entrusted the code to Melinda. The two of us went to her dwelling to get it, but she ended up driving us there.”
The past flashed through my mind as I recalled the way she reacted to our secret. Chuckling, I went on about everything that had happened that day. Upon hearing her lack of horror or fear, Erie balked.
“You’re telling me that mundane just embraced it? A new reality that she wasn’t privy to before? She’s an odd one.”
“Ugh,” Ambrose groaned as he started to come after his incident. Erie was quick to remove herself from atop him, appearing by my side. His gold eyes searched the room for Melinda, but she had left a while ago. “Where’s the human?”
“She went to confront Lucien,” I answered. “After your display that the taser would in fact work against a vampire, she was more than happy to seek him out.”
“She’s a lunatic. Did you even try to stop her? Any of you?” he asked with slight concern. My brow raised at that, but made no comment about it. “Of course you didn’t.”
“Far be it from me to stop her. She’s more stubborn than Lucien,” Erie replied. “I’m going to find a meal. Care to join me, brother? With your humiliating display, I’m sure it won’t kill you now to feed with me.”
Ambrose snarled at her, but she just turned on her heel and exited out the back door with more pep in her step. I watched as he followed after her and waited until they were gone to head upstairs to get the last bit of peaceful sleep I would have for a while.