Mojo Queen (17 page)

The kitchen was my next destination. Sometimes I left food here but I couldn’t remember when I’d done that last. A snack would be good right about now, though. I rummaged through the fridge and the pantry, disappointed to find only stale crackers and the greasy remains of pizza bought for Seth and Levi. I passed on both. The pizza made me think of Levi dead, covered in snake bites and wrapped in sheets. How the hell could that be explained to any authorities, or the boy’s family?

A painful shriek cut through my thoughts. Daniel must have drunk the garlic and holy water. I wanted to go to him, offer whatever help and comfort I could. I was scared, though. I’d never seen Daniel out of control but if anything could push him over the edge, it was this. My fear shamed me but I didn’t want to be in position where I had to fight him off. I knew he wouldn’t want that, either, so I sat at the kitchen table and waited.

The screams continued. Judging from how bad they sounded, the tonic was doing its job. The worst thing about this hex was how slowly it worked. That’s why snakes kept forming, kept tearing Daniel up inside and killing him. Either Delia had designed it to work that way because, unlike Blake, she’d known Daniel was a vampire, or it just kind of happened on its own because he was a vampire. My guess was the former because I was pretty damn sure she used tainted blood to hex him. Either way, it was torture for him. The cure would be as bad or worse. Several methods to reverse this kind of hex existed but they took time, causing the creatures to be expelled from the body over days so as to not cause too much trauma. This tonic, though, worked quickly. Which meant that all the snakes were coming out in rapid succession as his body purged itself of the hex, sort of an evil Master Cleanse.

The sound of something shattering reached the kitchen. I hoped he didn’t tear up his bedroom too much but that sounded an awful lot like one of his antique lamps. I stood with the intent to make coffee, thought better of it and sat back down. What if it was something other than blood that was tainted? Like say, the coffee, milk, or sugar? I’d do without.

I glanced at a clock. Thirty minutes since Blake had left. How long could it take to get to Daniel’s contact, whoever that was, and get a few bags of O positive? Sitting around waiting was driving me crazy, so I decided to make myself useful. Whatever blood was in the fridge needed to be disposed of, so I found a pair of dishwashing gloves and got to work. I carried several bags to the counter with the pitcher of purifying herbs, turned on the faucet and started pouring. First some of the herbal mix, then the first bag of blood, more herbs and so on. As a side benefit, this completely killed my desire for a snack.

Everything had to go. Like losing food after a prolonged power outage, everything was suspect. The milk went down the drain next. Orange juice, apple juice, all of the sweet tea. The bottom of the sink looked like an Escher nightmare. All the while there were occasional screams and sounds of breakage from upstairs. If I’d had any nerve pills I would have been popping them like candy. What the hell was taking Blake so long? I didn’t want to think about the possibility that Delia had found him.

As I debated whether to dump coffee beans and sugar down the garbage disposal, I realized the noise from upstairs had ceased. I set the container of beans down and listened. Nothing. Had Daniel died again? Did he need help? I took the gloves off and ran back to the front porch. Seth was pacing in the circular drive, still muttering bible passages. There was no sign of Blake.

I moved to the stairwell, staring up at the second floor landing. The eerie silence plucked at my nerves like an out-of-tune guitar. I put one foot on the bottom step, gripping the railing. Blake’s words of caution echoed in my thoughts. I knew he was right, that I should stay downstairs and wait for him to return with blood. But that was my cousin and my best friend up there, going through hell and some of the worst pain he’d ever experienced in his unnaturally long life. Maybe if I just knocked on the locked door, see if Daniel was able to talk.

I ran up the stairs, trying not to feel too vulnerable at not having any protective charms with me. I knew Daniel needed blood but I had a hard time accepting he could really hurt me. The bright sunshine yellow of his aura indicated great power and self-control. Yes, he was a vampire, but he was also a disciplined creature with morals and values.

I listened at the door for a long moment, hearing nothing. Knocked lightly. Still nothing. I called his name. Silence. Tested the knob to find it still locked. I couldn’t bring myself to knock or call his name any louder. I would go back downstairs and wait for Blake to return with the blood Daniel needed. There was really nothing I could do for my friend until then, anyway.

The knob twisted as I turned to leave. Something tore at the back of my shirt before I could take a step. I was thrown flat on my back on the floor, the wind knocked out of me. Daniel crouched over me, one hand on my shoulder, holding me down. His eyes were a metallic blue-black, his aura full of hungry scarlet, fangs fully extended.

The most sickening fear I’d ever felt in my life threatened to turn me inside out. “You don’t want to do this, bubba.”

“You smell like sweet cream.” His voice came out in an ugly snarl I’d never heard from him. “Let’s see how you taste.”

He lowered his head, his fingers biting into my shoulder. I kicked, struggling for purchase, trying to get out from under him. He easily held me down with his vampire strength. As his fangs got closer I struck out with my fists, doing more damage to my hands than his chest and jaw. He caught my wrists and pinned me to the floor, his body heavy over mine. Panic exploded in me.

“Please Daniel no!” I screamed. His cold hard mouth on my neck made something in me snap. With no planning or forethought, I ripped the lid off that can of magic whoop ass in me and threw it at him as hard as I could.

It knocked him across the room. He crashed into the wall beside the door, cracking the drywall and the wood trim. His blue-black eyes went completely dark as he picked himself up. I struggled to stand. Nausea and vertigo wouldn’t let me. I tipped back to the floor, facedown this time and realizing I’d probably used up everything I had in that one shot. Curling my fingers to better grip the carpet, I dragged myself a few inches forward. Something vise-like closed on one ankle and yanked me back.

I screamed, more from fear than pain. He dragged my body to the bed, my head bumping against the frame, tossed me gracelessly toward the pillows. I lurched to one side, trying to throw myself to the floor. He caught me. He held me in front of him, both of us on our knees, his fingers bruising as he gripped my jaw. I felt so weak I would have collapsed if he hadn’t held me up. He pulled his lips back to reveal his fangs. A fleeting image of the two of us driving some back road singing along to his favorite classic country music flashed through my mind. Then I closed my eyes.

“What the hell, man!” A voice I didn’t recognize.

“Hey!” Blake’s voice. “Got something here for you.”

I opened my eyes as Daniel let go of me, nearly sliding off the bed. An unfamiliar man stood just inside the doorway next to Blake. The stranger wore ragged jeans and a stained white t-shirt. He had an unhealthy, gaunt look to him that usually meant meth addict. He clutched at his neck with one hand, blood seeping out past his fingers. Daniel moved in a blur toward him. The man didn’t even have a chance to scream. Daniel’s fangs sank into the flesh of his neck, jerking and tearing. Blood poured from the man’s carotid. What Daniel didn’t manage to swallow painted his mouth and chin.

Blake picked me up, carrying me from the room. I couldn’t stop staring at Daniel in horror as he dragged the stranger to the floor, his throat working frantically as he drank. Blake kicked the door shut behind us, sending something skittering across the hallway. A small pocketknife, the blade coated in blood.

He carried me down the stairs, the jostling not doing my nausea any good. I wasn’t sure if I said something out loud about feeling sick, or just thought it and he could tell anyway. Either way, he took me to the downstairs bathroom. I sank to my knees in front of the toilet, amazed to discover there was still anything in my stomach to come back up after hours of not eating. Blake held my hair out of the way, murmuring softly and rubbing my back.

Stomach empty, I leaned against the cool tile of the wall. Blake flushed the toilet and lowered the seat. He ran water over the hand towel, wrung it out then kneeled before me, wiping my face gently. I didn’t trust myself to speak yet so we sat in silence for a while.

“Who was that man?” I coughed, my throat rough.

Blake swung his backpack off, unzipped it and pulled out a bottle of water. He opened it and handed it to me. I drank, too tired to argue.

“Daniel explained to me that he would need fresh blood after being so badly damaged. He told me what he does when bags of donated blood aren’t enough.”

“What, just grab some poor bastard off the street and murder him?”

“No,” he snapped. “I wouldn’t be a party to that. He uses the sex offender data base.”

I drew my eyebrows together, not understanding. Blake continued, “Sex offenders are required to register when they get out of jail. Daniel said he keeps an eye on the database.”

“So that’s supposed to excuse this? Because the man was a sex offender?” I put the cap back on the water bottle and shoved it at him, pulling myself to my feet.

“He raped a child. I checked all the public records I could at the library, fast as I could. That’s why it took me so long. I searched online and I passed on several on the registry. This guy, though…” Blake shook his head, grimacing. “My conscience is clear.
He raped a child
.”

I stared at him hard. Plenty of times I’d seen black market bags of blood in Daniel’s refrigerator. He’d never talked about how he bought them, or from whom, or what else his diet might consist of. It just wasn’t something we’d ever discussed. I had to admit, it wasn’t something I had ever wanted to know.

Blake ran a hand through his thick black hair. “Look. He didn’t want you to know. For what it’s worth, he didn’t want you to know.”

“How is that supposed to be worth something?”

He shrugged. “Let’s just go sit outside, okay?”

I shook my head, waved him away.

“Look, I really think it’s better if we go sit in the sun for a while, you know? Come with me,” he cajoled. For the first time in what felt like days the spark was back in his dark chocolate eyes. It felt like days but had we even been here two hours yet?

“Come on,” he said. “Don’t make me sit out there alone with Seth.”

Reluctantly, I let him drape an arm around me and lead me to the porch. As we neared the front door we heard a cry from upstairs. It sounded like a cry of pain, and it was not Daniel’s voice. I broke away from Blake and ran the rest of the way out of the house.

* * * *

The late winter cold, stress and exhaustion, and hunger weren’t doing me and Seth any favors. I got tired of listening to the kid so I sent Blake to the kitchen for the pitchers of potion I’d brewed. I would save some for the house but it wouldn’t hurt to spread a little around the grounds, just as a precaution. That kept me busy for a while. Blake produced more candy bars from his backpack after I finished. It took a little coaxing but I managed to get Seth to eat one.

It was nearly two hours before I heard from Daniel. He sent me a text message that said simply,
I’m okay now
. I showed it to Blake and we went inside, leaving Seth on the porch swing.

We met him in the kitchen. Daniel had showered and dressed in fresh clothes, looking much healthier now. He wouldn’t quite meet my eyes and I kept Blake between us.

Daniel said, “I think we need to get out to the lake house and lay low, at least until we figure out what to do next.”

I nodded. “Seeing as how both our homes have been attacked, it’s either that or a motel.”

“What, you have a vacation home or something?” Blake asked.

Daniel nodded once, still looking at the floor more than anything else. “It’s on Kentucky Lake, a couple hours from here. It’s big enough for all of us.”

“We’ll leave at twilight then,” I said. I left the room, telling myself I wanted to check on Seth, who was out in the sunshine, where Daniel couldn’t go.

Twilight felt like a long time coming.

We took the SUV since we wouldn’t all fit in the Miata. Daniel drove, Seth rode shotgun, mercifully done with reading random passages from his bible out loud. I sat in the back with Blake and tried to keep my distance from him. It worked about as well this time as any other. Dude had no respect for personal space. His hand was warm on the back of my neck, strong fingers massaging tense muscles. I supposed I could have made him stop but I was too damn tired to argue and hell, it wasn’t the worst thing.

We stopped at a drive-in for the three of us who needed real food. Halfway through a cheeseburger I realized it was the most I’d eaten all day. It wasn’t sitting well on my stomach, either, so I gave up the greasy burger for some nice plain tater tots. After eating it didn’t take long for the drive to lull me to sleep.

His hands roamed my body, his lips insistent against mine. Not that I put up any kind of protest. I pulled him to me, wanting to crush myself against his hard muscle. I couldn’t tell if we were standing, sitting or lying down, I couldn’t see anything but dim flickers of silver in the dark. All I could feel was him. All I wanted was him.

I woke as the SUV came to a stop. For some reason it was no surprise to find myself cuddled up next to Blake, his arm around my shoulders. He had slid his long form down in the seat and rested his head against the back. His eyes were still closed but I couldn’t tell if he was really sleeping.

A door slammed. Daniel had exited the vehicle and was walking to the luggage compartment. My glasses were folded and hung on my shirt front. I could see Daniel’s yellow-gold aura through the window’s dark tint. It should have reassured me but it didn’t.

“We there?” Blake opened his eyes.