Chapter 10
Chapter
Ten
My hand hovers over the doorknob, and for the life of me, I can’t get myself to grab it.
I’m standing on the front porch, about to walk inside and see what kind of man—or monster—Devon has become.
What are the chances he’ll be normal…just with vampire speed and strength?
And that he’s not mad at me for not being able to stop Xavier from turning him?
I had my brothers drop me off at the end of the driveway, and I’ve been standing here for a good five minutes already.
Jerking my hand back, I let out a heavy sigh and shake my head.
I’m about to turn my face up to the sun and relent to avoid going inside altogether when Mabel’s voice comes from the video doorbell.
“Are you locked out? I can unlock the door for you.”
“Hey, Mabel. I’m not. I’m just…enjoying the sun.” I smile, realizing she can see me. “I’ll come in now.”
“Oh, goody! I missed you!”
Taking in a steadying breath, I push open the door and step inside. I don’t usually enter the house from the front, and the light vanishes behind me as the door closes, sealing me into the dark, vast foyer.
“Wren!” Mabel squeals and moves like a shadow through the dim light, throwing her arms around me.
The knot in my chest loosens with her embrace, and I hug her back.
A rush of emotions goes through me, and I want so badly to sit down and tell Mabel everything.
But I can’t trauma dump, now that I know her backstory on how she became a vampire.
“You saved me!”
“You helped free yourself.”
She pulls back and shakes her head. “You saved me. And you did it without killing anyone.”
I open my mouth only to snap it shut, not sure what to say.
“Maybe that can be our new way,” she whispers. “People don’t have to die.”
“That would be nice.” I slide my hands from her shoulder down to her arms and look at her, face coming into focus as my eyes adjust to the dim light. “You’re okay?”
“I heal pretty fast.”
“Physically, you’re fine, I know. I meant mentally. How are you doing?”
“Okay. That wasn’t fun.”
“No, it wasn’t,” I chuckle and look past her through the dark house. “Where is everybody?”
“Xavier, Theo, and Zeke are in the office. Devon is sleeping. He’s one of us now.” Mabel takes my hands. Her skin is smooth and cool to the touch. “Are you okay with that?”
“I don’t know what other choice I have, right? Being a vampire doesn’t seem all too bad.”
“It has its perks, but I do miss the sun.” She smiles and leans in, smelling my hair. “I never knew the sun smelled so good when I was alive.”
“It’s like one of those things you don’t miss until it’s gone,” I reply. “How is he doing? I don’t really know the protocol on this. Is that even the right thing to ask?”
She giggles and takes my hand. We start walking into the parlor where she has another tea party set up. This time, there are several stuffed animals sitting around the table, and each one has a real cupcake.
“The transformation went fine. I shared my tea with him and then Xavier told him to rest. I think just so the others could talk.”
“Wait, if Xavier tells him to do something, he has to listen?”
Mabel nods and pours more tea—only, it’s blood. “Yep.” She takes a drink and dabs her mouth with a lacy napkin. “All makers can command their progeny.”
“That’s why Xavier has to be the one to turn everyone.”
“Mm-hm.” She nods and offers me an empty tea cup.
“I guess that’s one way for him to stay the head of the family.”
“It doesn’t work as well on Theo. I think because they’re roughly the same age, so over the years, he learned how to resist the compulsion.”
“Does it work like being held spellbound?”
“I don’t remember what being held spellbound is like,” she tells me and offers her tea to a purple octopus, leaving a tiny blood stain on the stuffed animal’s face. “I told you, it’s hot,” she whispers.
“I guess that’s good you don’t remember.”
“Being commanded doesn’t change the way you think. It’s more like being held back physically.”
“Interesting,” I say and pick up one of the cupcakes from a tiered tray in the middle of the table. Physically, I’m hungry and I know I need calories. A cupcake isn’t the healthiest option, but it’s better than nothing. “Are you really okay?” I press. “You were kidnapped.”
She shrugs. “I’m fine. All healed up!”
“You know that’s not what I mean.”
“Well, ain’t I a sap? I sure pulled a bonehead.”
“What happened?” I ask gently.
“I want to say it all happened so fast and make it seem like I couldn’t have seen it coming,” she starts.
“But that wasn’t the case. I was shopping downtown and took some pictures with a couple of MayBells and then some guy came up and asked if I was Mabel Malus and I said yes, thinking he was a fan too.
Then someone shot me with a tranquilizer dart, like the ones used on wild animals.
” She shrugs again. “It took a moment for it to knock me out and in that time I probably should have run, but…I didn’t because I didn’t understand what was happening. ”
“You can’t put any blame on yourself. No one knows how they’ll handle a scary situation until it happens.” I blink and see Devon lying on the ground in front of me. “Trust me, I know from experience.”
“Next thing I know, I’m half-awake in that fridge but too drugged to move. I didn’t even know vampires could be drugged.”
“I never thought about it either, though it makes sense you could but would recover fast, hence constantly pumping you full of sedatives.”
“I only got drunk a few times in my human years. Sometimes, I’d have a drink or two with the hunters when they returned. And a drink or two was all that it took to get my mind all willy-nilly. I remember bits and pieces of the conversation those hunters had.”
“Which hunters?” I ask.
“The ones who took me. Larissa. Your sister. And the two others.”
“She’s not my sister.”
“Not by blood,” she says. “I could smell the difference right away. But, you were raised with her and sometimes we can confuse those close to us for family.” She tips her head.
“There’s that phrase, family isn’t always blood, and I get it.
Being related doesn’t mean you’ll be treated right or even with kindness.
” Her brows push together and she bites her lip, looking down at her tea cup.
“But blood is everything for us. I guess…I guess it’s both.
It’s a chosen family made with blood.” She puts the cup on the table.
“I wasn’t related to the Malus family, but now their blood runs through my veins.
And my children’s veins. But being alive and sharing blood isn’t the same as being undead and sharing blood. ”
“It is a weird concept to think about,” I agree.
“I went off on a tangent. Sorry for that, doll.”
“I don’t mind. I like when you do because you’ve made a lot of sense the couple times you’ve gone off on one.”
“I did?” She smiles, wrinkling her nose. “I don’t always remember what I’ve said.”
“Good thing I remember.” I chuckle and lean back, picking at the cupcake. Now that I know what Mabel went through in her final hours as a human, I feel even more empathy for her. “Have you talked to Devon yet?”
“Only for a moment. He has healed. Xavier’s blood is powerful.”
“I’m sure it is.”
“You want to know how Devon is doing, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” I say, debating on telling her that Devon’s last request was to not be turned. She’d understand. I think? She didn’t want to be turned. Hell, she didn’t want to be alive anymore and now she’s stuck for all eternity unless she ends herself or she’s murdered.
“He came to me,” I start, unable to keep everything bottled up. “Outside that factory.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know the details.” I shake my head. “He told me he found out something about the Russos and was really freaked out by it. Like, thought we should skip town and then figure things out kinda scared.”
“Oh, jeepers. He was shot before he got a chance to tell you?”
“Mh-hm,” I say with a nod. “I’ll ask him when I see him. Is he…um…like how he used to be?”
“Yes. But also no.” Mabel’s eyes go to the fake window, face blanking as she zones out. “We’re kinda like spiders, you know.”
“Who?”
“Vampires. Spiders sink their fangs into their prey and liquify the insides so they can drink it. We also use our fangs and drink the insides. I don’t know how to weave a web but it would be neat, wouldn’t it?
And all my babies could join.” She motions to her stuffed animals.
Man, it has to be rough being inside her head.
Though maybe being that aloof is peaceful.
I’ll never know.
“Did he talk to you or anything? I know he’s not dead, but it’s just weird that I watched his human life fade but he’s still here.”
“Zeke told me your best qualities shine when you wake up after being turned. Devon had a lot of good qualities. That’s why Xavier wanted him to pass them down.”
“Right.” I wrinkle my nose at the thought of being forced to carry a Malus baby into the world. We sit in silence as I finish the cupcake. “I’m exhausted,” I tell Mabel.
“I can only imagine. You’ve been awake for a very long time and humans need sleep.”
“We do, unfortunately.” My eyes close in a long blink. In this instance, I’m glad I’ll be able to sleep and forget about everything for a few hours. Though, I have a feeling I’m going to have a nightmare.
“You should go get some sleep. And then maybe we can go out tonight! There’s a new restaurant I saw yesterday while I was out—before I got kidnapped—and it’s just so cute it would make swell photos! You can order food so we have a reason to be there.”
I smile. “Yeah. That sounds nice, Mabel.”
She beams at me and takes another drink of blood from her pretty pink teacup.
I fold up the cupcake wrapper and take it with me as I leave the parlor, throwing it away in the kitchen.
The house is usually quiet, but there’s no staff here at the moment.
Filling up a glass with water, I slowly start toward the stairs, pausing for a moment when I get near Xavier’s office.
It’s in the back of the house, and has two large wooden doors sealing it away from the main living area.
I can hear his voice, muffled and speaking in Spanish.
Letting out a sigh, I keep going only to pause again at the top of the stairs.
“Devon?” I call quietly. He’s a vampire now. He’ll be able to hear me. “Are you awake?”
“Wren?” he calls back and my heart flutters in my chest. He sounds the same, which is to be expected, but it’s so damn reassuring to hear him say my name. “Are you okay?” I take a step down the hall and his bedroom door opens.
My pulse quickens when I see him and a smile breaks out on my face.
I set my glass of water on a console table against the wall opposite me and go to him, looking him up and down.
He’s healed, obviously, and looks pretty much the same.
There’s less color to his cheeks, but vampires don’t really look dead since their blood still circulates in their body, powered by black magic instead of their heart.
His chest isn’t rising and falling, but he hasn’t gotten out of the habit of blinking yet. If you didn’t know Devon was a vampire, it would be hard to guess.
“I’m sorry,” I start, unable to stop the apology from tumbling out of my mouth. “I know you didn’t want to be—”
“It’s okay,” Devon replies and hugs me. His body is cool, just like Xavier’s, and it unnerves me a bit, reminding me that my friend and the only other trusted human in this house is undead because my former boyfriend shot him.
“I’m glad I’m…” he trails off, burying his face against me. “You smell good.”
Oh shit. I forgot vampires can sense magic and it’s like offering drugs to an addict. “Devon,” I say and go to push him off. “Don’t—”
He’s too strong and doesn’t know how to control himself. His arms tighten around me and his fangs press into my skin.
“Devon, stop!” I conjure whips of magic and zap him with it, but it’s not enough to stop him and Devon’s fangs sink into my neck.