Chapter 25
I cross one arm over my chest and stretch, letting out a breath.
I just finished a grueling workout, one I know I’m going to feel in the morning.
It’s been several days since I’ve pushed myself like this, and it felt good to get back to it.
Mentally, it was a good break, and gave me maybe an hour’s worth of peace from the thoughts running a million miles an hour in my head.
So much has changed in such a short time, and I can’t wrap my head around half of it.
“I hardly ever come down here,” Mabel says, appearing in the doorway of the workout room.
“I don’t think so.” She shrugs and picks up a fifty pound weight with one hand as if it’s nothing. “Though whatever skills you were proficient in as a human tend to get magnified.”
“Makes sense.” I finish stretching my arms and move on to my legs.
I hate stretching and have to force myself to do it at the end of each workout.
“I would like a warning before I am turned. Like a good few months to grow out my hair and get to how I wanted to look physically. Because you can’t change your form once you’re a vampire.
” I blink and shake my head. “Man, that’s really weird to think about.
You’re literally stuck looking the exact same way forever.
You can’t gain or lose weight. Or get a tattoo. What about piercings?”
“These heal every time I take them out,” she tells me, turning her head to show me her earrings.
“Ouch.”
“Beauty is pain.”
I shake my head. “That’s such an antiquated way of thinking.”
“I know. For a while there, I thought things were getting better, but now ‘rib remodeling’ is all the rage.”
“Rib remodeling?” I question.
She nods. “I see it all over my FYP. Humans are paying to have their ribs broken and reset just to have a smaller waist.”
“That’s insane.”
“Tell me about it.” She puts the weight down and moves in front of the large mirror, looking at herself. Her gaze is anything but vain, but rather, she’s looking at herself curiously. “I’ve only been on this earth for a century or so, but immortality makes you look at things differently.”
“I can only imagine. Which is hard to do, actually. Life feels so short and long and if I’m lucky, I’ll get eighty or so years here, and by the time I reach fifty, I hope to have things figured out. But I’m halfway there and I’m just as clueless as ever.”
“Everyone is. Even those of us who consider fifty years a blink of an eye.” Her eyes get sad. “Knowing you’ll only die if you’re murdered or walk into the sun…” She shakes her head. “It’s something I haven’t quite figured out yet either, if that makes you feel better.”
“It does a little.”
She turns, giving me a soft smile. “Haven’t we all been told how time will tell or how time heals all wounds. Knowing I have all the time in the world doesn’t solve anything. It makes things more complicated, really.”
“I’m sure. I think knowing that life is short and that it can be taken away at any moment gives a lot of people a reason to keep going, to get up every day, and to try and…
I don’t know…have a fulfilling life. But having endless time.
” I shake my head and look at her. “Now that’s a mindfuck that I never thought about before. ”
“Right? But speaking of time,” she starts and the sadness melts away from her pretty face as she smiles. “Want to go out tonight? The boys have business to attend to and I’ve been hankering for a girls’ night!”
“Uh, sure. Where would we go?”
“There’s a new nightclub that just opened up a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been following them on social media and they invited me to the VIP lounge anytime I want. We could get all dolled up and fancy ourselves a night on the town!”
“That actually sounds pretty fun,” I tell her. “The last time I went to a nightclub, it was after we hunted these monsters in the Keys.”
“What kind of monsters?”
“Duppies,” I say, expecting her to know what I’m talking about. “It’s the spirit of an evil person, basically.”
“Oh, cool! Did you get it?”
“Of course. It had been wreaking havoc on this little island for like a year. Which is why we went out to celebrate.”
“We should find a demon to hunt,” she says seriously. “I never got to.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” I laugh. “Though it’s not that hard if you know what to look for.”
“What do you look for?”
I get to my feet and roll my neck. “Strange deaths, certain signs, and I’m pretty good at locating demonic energy.”
“Oh, that reminds me! I reached out to my friend and she’s working on getting something together for you.”
“Really? Thank you so much.” Letting out a heavy sigh, I roll my neck. “You said the boys have business?”
She nods and then narrows her eyes. “Xavier didn’t tell you?”
“No. I, uh, haven’t seen him since last night.
” The dinner lasted several hours, and I thought it went well despite the werewolves seeming to grow increasingly against a vampire-witch union.
I could sense their apprehension, worried that the two kinds teaming up would make it damn near impossible to take down the Malus Family if it ever came to it.
When Xavier asked if I had any bad feelings on anything, I played it off, not wanting to be the one responsible for starting a war between vampires and werewolves based on a feeling.
I still don’t know if he would have listened when I tried to explain that while they might have felt that way, it doesn’t mean they’d act on it at all.
You can be completely annoyed by something or someone and not do anything about it.
A few moments pass before she speaks again, and while I can't understand what she’s feeling, it’s pretty obvious she’s dying to say something. “I don’t always know what they’re up to. And I don’t want to. All I want to know is what we are wearing and when should we leave to get blowouts?”
“As soon as the sun sets?”
Mabel jumps up and down. “Yes! I’ll go make some calls. You probably don’t have going-out clothes. We can shop, too!”
I smile, telling myself there’s nothing wrong with trying to enjoy the life I’ve been thrust into. “Yeah. That sounds fun.”
* * *
“All right, my little May Bells,” Mabel says to the livestream.
“It’s about to get loud so I’m going to end the live here, but I’ll take you with me all night!
Just follow my stories!” She blows a kiss to the camera and I wave goodbye before she ends the stream.
She really is a natural and gained several thousand new followers just since yesterday.
The bouncer, knowing who we are, lets us bypass the line out the door and we go right into the nightclub.
The place is packed already, alive with people dancing and partying.
It’s 1990s night here tonight, and both Mabel and I are dressed in Buffy the Vampire Hunter inspired outfits, which she kept laughing about given the fact that she’s a vampire and I’m a hunter.
The irony wasn’t lost on me, and I feel very comfortable in tight vegan leather pants, combat boots, and a black crop top.
If only I could have strapped a couple of knives to my thigh, I would really feel at home.
We have a table reserved for us, and Mabel gets drinks for us right away. We’re up on the second floor, seated at a table that overlooks the dance floor from a balcony.
“Can you drink half of this?” she asks me, extending her vodka tonic my way. “I just want to hold it so it looks like I’ve been drinking it.”
“Yeah,” I say as her words sink in. I know she didn’t want to become a vampire, and now she wants to hold the drink so it looks like she’s human. I don’t drink often, so chugging half this cocktail hits me only moments later.
Mabel and I are having fun when a familiar feeling hits me.
“Hey,” I say to her and take another drink. “You said you wanted to hunt demons, right?”
“Yeah. I did say that. Are there demons here?”
“Yep.” I point, following where the dark energy is coming from. Anyone else would see a cocktail waitress carrying a bottle to a table. But I can see the darkness in her eyes. “The waitress and the two girls at the table behind her.”
“Ohhh, what kind of demons?”
I let my eyes fall closed for a moment, getting a better read on the energy. “Succubus.”
“Sex demons. Good place for it,” she chides and motions to people grinding on each other on the dance floor. “This place has a very sexy vibe.”
“That it does.” I watch the waitress give the bottle to a group of younger guys. They ask who sent it and she points to the girls at the table and they wave and giggle. The guys, who already seem a bit drunk, high-five each other, thinking they just scored and are going to get lucky tonight.
Little do they know, that’s exactly what these demons want. The guys head over and the two girls stand up, pointing to the back of the club. There are private rooms back there, meant to be reserved for parties or private events.
“This is going to be fun,” I say, finishing my drink and setting the glass down. Mabel takes my hand and leads me through the club, weaving our way around people. Right as we’re going down the stairs, I sense another wave of familiar energy.
But this time, it stops me in my tracks.
“Wren, what’s wrong?” Mabel asks, giving my hand a little tug. My face has gone white, and she follows my gaze to the people I’m staring at, who are also rooted to the spot.
Vivian and Marco Russo.