Into the Woods (57 page)

“My God,” he whispered, not knowing what to do. Emily hadn’t been smelling the cat’s fur, she had been biting it!

“Oh my God . . .” he breathed again as the band hammered out a pulse-pounding beat and people howled like savages praying to their gods. “I have . . . to go.”

He scanned the bar, counting more than a dozen people unconscious, some being carried out the back to who knew what. There were too many people between the door and himself. Terrified, he took a step.

“Cooper.”

Felicity’s voice cut through the noise, diving to his middle and igniting his panic. He spun, knowing his fear was obvious when she held up a hand. Her hair was darker, and her eyes were now a deep brown. Cooper’s gaze flicked behind her to the doorman hoisting one of the men she had been talking to over his shoulder and carrying him away.

“Y-You . . .” he stammered, his stomach twisting. “My God . . .” He couldn’t say it. She was a beast. She’d bitten that man. Like a vampire. He’d known the woman had problems, but this was unreal!

Felicity wiped the corner of her mouth with a pinky before saying, “How else am I supposed to know which one tasted the best?”

Flip, but still true. Reeling, he staggered back, hand reaching for the support of the chair. “Oh my God!” he said louder. “This is not happening! You. All of you! This isn’t happening!”

Emily had crawled back under the pool table, and Felicity came close, making Cooper retreat until he couldn’t move any farther. “Keep your voice down!” she almost hissed, and Cooper could smell a weird, musky smell on her breath.

Not one of the beautiful people in the bar had red hair anymore. They were all black haired now, their faces pale and their lips red as they danced, their motions becoming wilder as they left their “invites” at the tables for others to remove so they could join the dance. The music had become bestial—arms flinging, feet stomping, chanting in unison.

“Oh my God,” he breathed. Feeling as if he might pass out, he fell into a chair and put his head in his hands. Things like this weren’t real! This wasn’t happening!

“Shit,” Felicity said, and she stood between him and the rest of the bar. “Emily, did you let him eat anything?”

“No, Mama,” came from under the pool table.

Cooper jerked when someone touched him, and he looked at the two in horror, Felicity peering at him in concern and Emily petting her kitten, passed out in her arms. “I gotta go,” he said thinly, and Felicity pushed him back into his chair.

She was stronger than she looked, and Cooper flopped back, feeling his chest where she’d touched him as she moved a chair to block everyone’s view of him and sat. “If you want to die, get up and run to a door you can’t open,” she said, her expression hard. “If you want to live, really live, sit down, shut up, and do what I tell you.”

This is not happening
.

“You can’t get out,” Felicity said, her musty breath mingling with his as she leaned close. “The veil is on the cusp of turning, and we’re in the gateway.”

He tried to stand again, and she put a hand on his chest, holding him down. “It’s sealed!” she whispered as she saw his panic. “There’s only one way to go, and that’s through the veil. You can either pass through with me as my consort or as part of my father’s larder. Listen to me!”

Panting, he looked up, seeing her dark eyes, her ebony hair—her red, red lips. Seeing his attention, she moved her hand from his chest to his fingers, holding them lightly. Behind Felicity, people danced, and he nodded, humoring her. He had to get out of here.

“I’m immortal, Cooper,” she said, a curious lilt to her voice as if she delighted in it. “I’ve been raising Emily and Leonard alone after my fool husband died when a hunter thought a bearskin rug would be a fine thing to have. I love my children, but they grow so slowly, and I’m tired of doing this alone. I can’t trust anyone else.”

Cooper tried to stand, halting when she squeezed his hand and his knees threatened to give out. “You drink blood!” he whispered, cold as he saw Emily sitting cross-legged under the pool table with the kitten. “Oh God, she’s killing that cat,” he moaned.

“Don’t be silly,” Felicity snapped. “That cat has to last Emily for at least a year. She’s not about to kill it.” She turned, smiling. “Are you, lovey?”

“No, Mama,” the little girl said, hugging the unmoving animal.

Nausea bubbled up, and Cooper forced it down. “I don’t feel good,” he said, unable to keep his head up. He shivered when Felicity touched his hair, petting him. Shoving her hand off him, he stared at the lyrical figures wildly dancing, the food he had been told not to eat, and the unconscious people being carried away. “You’re fairies,” he said, and Felicity blinked. “My grandmother told me never to eat with fairies or I’d be spirited away for a hundred years.”

“Fairies?” Felicity said, laughing. “Fairies are facets of us given their own identity by ignorant humans who see only half of it. A wispy daydream of us at our green-eyed least. Vampire is more the truth, and even then you get it wrong. We can break through the veil at any time, but only when it’s at its thinnest can we bring anyone back. Immortal doesn’t mean invincible, and beyond the veil, we are safe from you.”

It’s the solstice
, he remembered, feeling haggard. “Don’t touch me,” he demanded as she tried to pet him again, and this time, she backed off as if he’d slapped her, a hurt expression on her face. “You drugged me,” he accused.

“No, it’s the veil,” she said, leaning to look under the pool table. “Emily, bring Leonard out to meet Mr. Cooper properly,” she said, then smiled at him. “You’re in the gateway. Until you land to one side or the other, it feels as if you’re holding your breath.”

Gateway? Cooper watched a little boy crawl out behind Emily, his chubby fingers holding tight to her hand. He had to be about four, shy as he snuck glances at Cooper from behind his mother.
Leonard? They named the bat after him?

In a sudden surge of fear, he figured it out.
Leonard
is
the bat
. Emily had tried to sell her brother. What older sister hadn’t wanted to do that at some point? She’d tried to trade her little brother for a pet she hadn’t bothered to name. “I’m in hell,” he whispered, and Felicity huffed.

“Don’t be silly,” she said as she pulled Leonard onto her lap. “Hell smells better than the swill you breathe.”

Cooper sat up, adrenaline giving him strength. He wanted to stand but wasn’t sure his legs would hold him. “You’re a demon,” he said. “You are
eating people
!”

Anger flickered over her face, and she jiggled Leonard a little too hard. “We are
not
demons,” she said hotly. “Filthy little . . . stinky-tailed vermin.” Her expression became coaxing. “Please, Cooper. We’re running out of time. If I had wanted to poison you, I could have done it. I want to take you home—not as food, but as an equal. I need help, and Emily likes you. So do I. I can’t trust anyone else.”

Emily was nodding, clearly having been in on the decision.

“One kiss,” Felicity soothed him, her hand on his arm to make him shudder. “With that, the veil will part for you as it does for all of us. I don’t want another cow. My father keeps me well set. I’ve been careful. I’ve enough for two. Enough for all of us until the veil thins again in a year.”

Enough? Enough what? Enough bodies suspended between life and death to feed upon?

“Oh my God!” he whispered, panic rising anew. He had to get out of here!

“Please,” Felicity begged, looking as beautiful with her black hair and her dark eyes as she had with her red hair and green eyes. “I’m offering you everything a man wants. A beautiful wife, loving, obedient children. Power, status, people moving aside as you walk by. I’m from a wealthy house, Cooper. Old blood. And Cooper? We dance. We dance
forever
,” she said, her eyes glowing with possibility. “You could have every earthly pleasure before you’re too old to enjoy it, because it comes with everlasting life. I promise!”

Fingers trembling, he looked at his hand, seeing in his thoughts as if it was worn and aged already. The music beat like a second, communal heart. Guttural groans from the dance floor were like the passion that she promised him. His head came up, and he stared at little Leonard, the boy grinning to show red teeth before he slid from his mother and ducked behind his sister.

“You’re animals,” he breathed.

“As if you are not,” Felicity said indignantly.

Yeah, but we don’t generally eat each other
. He groaned, leaning away from her, from immortality, from savagery beyond belief. This was a nightmare. A freaking nightmare.

“Cooper. Listen to me,” Felicity said, a new urgency in her voice. “The veil is thickening. If we wait much longer, you can’t come through. I know this is a lot, but I promise I will love you, and you will learn to love me. I just don’t have time right now!”

She laughed, shaking her head ruefully. “I’m going to live forever, and I don’t have the time. Cooper, let me mark you so the veil will let you through. Just one kiss, and you’ll see everything as it truly is, not the faded wisps that the sun bleaches everything into. Be my husband. Be Emily’s and Leonard’s father. Please.”

Behind Felicity, the dance floor was going empty. People were being carried away, slung over shoulders with their arms dangling. Food? “No!” he said forcefully, and her eyes went round with surprise. “You are a bloodsucking monster!” he shouted as he found the strength to rise to his feet.

The music died, and pale faces turned. “All of you,” he panted into the sudden silence, weaving on his feet.

Everyone was looking at them, and Felicity bowed her head. “Why can’t I find just one decent man? Just one?”

From across the room, her father stood. “Damn you, Felicity. I said no,” he said, pointing directly at two young men. “Take him. Dump enough wine down his throat to get him across. I want this one as an object lesson.”

“No!” Felicity stood in a panic, and Cooper blinked up at her, heart pounding. “If you won’t allow me a new husband from the families, I’ll make one!”

“I won’t allow you a new husband because I decided your line should die out, you stupid cow!” her father exclaimed, and the remaining dancers began to leave the dance floor and gather their things, skulking to stay out of his sight. “You and the ill-gotten spawn that ignorant sidestepper engendered. Who do you think closed the veil to him?”

“Papa!” she shrieked, her eyes shifting to a pale green. “You? You killed my husband?”

Cooper tensed, eyeing the door. It looked too far away with too many people between him and it. But no one was looking at him. Sweat broke out. They were animals, feeding on people. Feeding on him. Feeding on his cat!

In sudden impulse, he grabbed the animal. Emily shrieked and Felicity turned, tears slipping from her eyes. Grunting, Cooper shoved them both at the two men coming for him. Amid yells and screams, they all went down. Heart pounding, he ran for the polished bar.

The kitten tucked under his arm didn’t move. He hoped it was still alive as he shoved a woman of incredible beauty out of his way. A cry of outrage followed by a laugh went up, and his tired legs found strength. Hands grasped him, but he slipped them all, jumping onto the bar and running down it, scrambling to avoid the reaching hands.

“Someone catch him!” the old man demanded. Felicity was crying at his feet and Emily was curled into a ball, sobbing for her kitten.

Cooper jumped from the end of the bar, fumbling for his car keys knowing he’d have precious few seconds to get in and get it started. Feeling like he might make it, Cooper hit the door at a run, slamming into the lever, but the door didn’t move. Panic hit him. The thick wood took his pounding, giving nothing. The lever rattled up and down, but nothing happened. Through the smoked glass, the moon shown through the trees—tall, huge pine trees green in the snow and moonlight. It wasn’t the parking lot.

He stared, jerked out of his shock when someone touched him. “No!” he shouted as he was yanked backward into the room, grunting as he hit the floor and curled up to avoid crushing the kitten. His keys went flying, the Harley bell that his grandmother had given him ringing clear and sharp as it pinged across the floor.

As one, every single vampire cowered, howling in pain. He froze, seeing the little bell roll in a circle to become silent. First one, then another black head rose to look at him, pain still etched on their faces.

Cooper surged after his keys, scrambling on the floor until the little key chain with the Florida emblem and the Harley biker bell that his grandmother said would keep him from hitting potholes was back in his grasp. “You’re animals!” he shouted, shaking it to make it ring, and they all fell back in pain. Only Felicity’s father stood tall at the far end of the room. Blood trickled from the man’s ear, and Cooper remembered the bells on the shop door hadn’t rung when Emily and Felicity crossed the threshold.

With a renewed hope, he ran for the door. “Let me out! Let me through!” he screamed, pounding on it.

A crack split the air, throwing him back into the bar. The lights went out as he hit the floor, landing awkwardly so he wouldn’t hurt the kitten still in his arms. The door swung out and open, and the cold night smelling of exhaust spilled in: gray snow, frozen slush, leafless trees, and the lights from the gas station across the street illuminating the parking lot that held a scattering of cars.

Standing beside his snow-covered Volvo, staring at the bar with her feet spread wide and her hands on her hips, was Kay.

Scrambling, Cooper lunged for the door as it began to close.

“Cooper!” Kay cried, her red scarf flying as she ran forward. “Don’t let the door shut! For God’s sake, keep it open! Keep it open!”

Cooper scrambled out onto the threshold, breathing in the smell of exhaust and cold snow. The people in line waiting to get in were gone. Behind him, the bar was filled with angry howls and screams. The moon was down. It had to be almost dawn. Felicity’s cry of pain jerked him straight and he looked behind him into the darkness. She was a monster. Why should he care? She wanted to turn him into a goddamned dancing fey, bloodsucking vampire!