Chapter 12
TWELVE
The next several days passed in a haze. Coffee. Home. Apothecary work. Rinse and repeat.
I kept forgetting to call Cora, mostly because I was more worried about keeping my head than figuring out why I was suddenly eating like a bodybuilder during competition season.
No sign of Alric or the Shifter King. I’d managed to tame my response to the humans coming in, but I was still eating steak by the truckload. Even Edmund had commented on my new culinary habits and expressed concern for my arteries.
After a particularly trying day, I heaved myself out of my vehicle and was trudging up the steps to my house, when a cool, cultured voice spoke.
“Hello, Alex.”
Terror rolled down my spine at the crisp sound of Alric’s voice. I froze and debated running, before quickly discarding that idea. The Prime would catch me before I made it off the steps.
I slowly turned. Alric stood less than a foot away, impossibly beautiful.
The Prime looked carved from stone, hard and immovable.
His face was a blank mask, though his eyes burned with anger.
Few tricked him successfully, and I’d almost done it.
One stupid movement and my ruse was uncovered. Just like scent, blood never lied.
He wore a white button-down shirt and gray slacks this time. No tie, the first two buttons of the shirt undone, showing off a pale expanse of skin. The same golden ring adorned his finger.
I swallowed and took a step back.
He was on me in an instant, inches separating our faces. “How interesting for you to suddenly come back from the dead.” He said the word interesting like it was anything but.
Silas had wanted me to live. Alric thought it better that I die.
“I saw your life’s blood pumping from your body like a geyser,” Alric hissed, his eyes glowing that strange green. “How did you come back from a certain mortal wound?”
He lifted a finger and tugged on one of my curls, not gently. Pain made my eyes water.
“I’ll never forget the smell of your blood as you lay dying.” He inhaled, his nostrils flaring. “You smell like a meadow, but something dark lies within. I’ve never smelled its like before. You are not just a hedgewitch, are you?”
I wanted to take another step back, but his finger was tangled tightly in my hair, keeping my face right where he wanted.
“I won’t say anything,” I swore, a tremble threading through my voice.
“I-I don’t care that you were out there, and what happened was an accident.
There’s no need to take this any further. ”
Saying anything would not only bring Silas and Alric’s wrath down upon me, it could rile the witches.
Our kind protected their own, regardless of what coven they belonged to, even more so now, after what we’d done to our own kind all those years ago.
Witches strove hard to keep the peace and didn’t engage in most conflicts between supernaturals, but when provoked, they responded with so much force even the vampires realized they might be in trouble.
A single witch might not present much of a threat to a vampire, but united witches were a different story.
Thankfully, that had only happened a couple of times before the shifters and vampires realized they were better off leaving our kind alone.
Alric smelled like magic and, oddly enough, plants.
His face so close to mine revealed the Prime had been turned when he was older, maybe in his early to mid-thirties.
Faint lines creased the edges of his eyes, the only sign of age on his almost perfect face.
Somehow, that made him seem like less of a monster to me.
Stupid, really, when he could rip my throat out and my only reaction would be “eep” before I lay dead on the floor.
Ignoring my vow to keep quiet for now, Alric pressed. “Why were you in that alley?” His cool breath brushed over my face.
My eyes narrowed. Some of my memories were fuzzy, but I remembered him spotting Beckett and chasing after him. Was he testing how much I knew? “Running from another vampire.”
Alric’s lips curved in a cruel smile. “And you happened to run into the Prime. You have fantastic luck, my dear.”
He had no idea.
“Let me go,” I whispered. “Please. You’ll have no trouble from me.”
But Alric did not loosen his grip. He held me tight, unconcerned about the flickering curtains from the other houses. As he should be. No one would dare make a negative post about the Prime. He had fingers in every corporation and organization all over the state and country.
“You almost fooled me, you know.” Alric’s green eyes glittered. “How karmic for you to cut your finger. Almost like the universe insisted we meet.” A slow smile curved his lips. “Again.”
My fists clenched. “What do you want?”
“What every man wants when he almost kills someone.”
I swallowed hard. “To finish the job?”
A surprised laugh broke from the vampire. He abruptly released me and stepped away. “To apologize.”
My eyes narrowed. The fear I felt when he spoke burned away. “You left me for dead.”
Alric took a step closer. “I did.”
“I almost bled out in the alley!”
“Regrettable.”
I snorted. “Only an ancient immortal would say something like bleeding to death is regrettable.”
Alric winced. “Ancient? Ouch.”
His switch from terrifying to charming made me twitchy. Was that a special skill they taught in vampire school?
“Ancient and arrogant,” I snapped. “How the hell do you know where I live anyway?”
His smile made my breath catch. How could someone so scary be so pretty? Totally unfair. “Age comes with certain gifts.”
“Forget my address,” I grumbled as I fished my keys from my purse.
A soft gust of wind and suddenly Alric stood only inches away. I went still, the keys dangling between my fingers.
“How can I forget the address of a beautiful woman?”
The spell broken, I lifted my head and rolled my eyes.
“Please. Beautiful women are a dime a dozen in your circle. Don’t play stupid games with me, Prime.
You left me for dead and now some misplaced sense of guilt is driving you to apologize.
” I waved my hand at him. “Fine. Apology accepted. Let’s forget we ever met, okay?
I won’t tell anyone what happened, and we go our separate ways.
Never the twain shall meet and all that. ”
Alric tilted his head and studied me, a soft glow turning his eyes the color of jade. “You speak to me like a fishwife.”
“I have no idea what that is, but I assume it isn’t flattering.” I turned to unlock my door. “Please go away. I lived. You’re good. We can pretend this never happened.”
Alric wrapped his fingers around my wrist as I twisted my hand to open the door. “Have dinner with me.”
My mouth dropped open. “What? No.”
Alric was so close, but this time he didn’t seem so terrifying. His presence overwhelmed all my senses. His breath smelled like mint, and he wore an unfamiliar cologne that smelled like cedar and balsam. A lock of golden hair fell over his forehead, giving him a rakish air. I took a few steps back.
“Why not?”
It took a moment for my brain to unstick.
The Vampire Prime was here, and he was asking me to dinner.
Had I somehow stepped into an alternate dimension?
“Because I’m a hedgewitch and you’re the Vampire Prime.
You’re asking me to dinner because you still feel guilty.
All I want is to be left alone. You’re off the hook.
I forgive you. I’d tell you to go say five Hail Marys, but you’ll probably burst into flames, so go do whatever vampires do to absolve themselves of sin. ”
Alric blinked. “You have zero respect for authority.”
“I’m not a vampire. You hold no dominion over me.”
He lifted his hand and stroked a cool finger down the column of my throat. I froze. “I am a predator who is far more powerful than you.”
“Resorting to threats now?” I said through a thick throat. “I’m stunned, I tell you.”
A huff of laughter and Alric dropped his hand. “I will ask you once more. Come to dinner with me.”
“And I will tell you once more. No.”
His brilliant green eyes flashed with anger. “Very well.” He backed up a step. “I’m sure I can find someone interested in the two couriers coming by your house at periodic times to pick up a large number of packages that smell suspiciously… witchy.”
My hand clenched around my keys.
“I wouldn’t have thought much of it, but when they showed up for the third time, I followed one of them and asked a few questions.”
He’d whammied my couriers! Asshole.
“They couldn’t tell me much, but I found their method of getting paid very interesting.
Tell me, Alex. What kind of business are you running from your basement that requires two couriers and untraceable payment methods?
And also requires those couriers to mail from four separate post offices in two different cities? ”
If I had a rowan stake, I’d shove it in his heart so hard right now.
“One dinner,” I snapped. “Then you leave me alone.”
I wanted to slap the satisfied smile off his face. “One dinner,” he agreed.
“Then you’ll leave me alone,” I repeated.
“Hmm. We will see,” Alric said right before he disappeared in a gust of wind. In the place where he’d just been standing twirled a black business card with golden lettering. I snatched the stupid thing from the air and shoved it inside my pocket.
What an asshole. With a sigh, I pushed open my door, only for Edmund to accost me the second I crossed the threshold.
“The VAMPIRE PRIME?”
“Yes,” I said with another sigh.
“You were attacked by the Prime and you thought that wasn’t an important thing for me to know?”
“Why does it matter?” I put my keys onto the hook by the door and kicked my shoes off.
The house shivered. Edmund was throwing a tantrum.
“Because you mentioned blood getting in your mouth! You’ve been feeling off lately, and you haven’t connected the dots?
A vampire doesn’t need to bite someone to turn them.
They just prefer it. Why would they choose to use their claws when they can sip the world’s finest wine? ”