Neck Deep In Vampires (A BBW Urban Fantasy) (5 page)

             
“Sorry, I felt dizzy for a second. Weird. That’s never happened to me before,” I said, bewildered.

             
“More than a second.” I realized that Barney was no longer in my purse. He’d jumped out and was at my feet. When had that happened?

             
“How long?” I asked, feeling uneasiness ripple through me.

             
“About a minute. You were just standing there staring into space,” he said. “By the way, heads up, we’re about to get mugged.”

             
I heard footsteps pounding towards me, and three men rushed out of an alley.

             
I’m sure I looked like a very tempting target. There I was, a lone woman, strolling down the street in the middle of the night with my purse dangling off my shoulder. I was wearing flimsy flip-flops; to look at me, you wouldn’t even think that I could run fast.

             
Appearances, in my case, are quite deceiving.  The first one came at me, and I grabbed him and literally hurled him through the air, bouncing him off a parked car. The car alarm went off. He slumped to the ground, unconscious, blood gushing from his nose. The other two stared in shock, and then jumped on me, both at the same time. 

             
Barney leaped on one of them, attaching himself to his face, and raked at his face with his claws.  “Ahhhh! Get off me!” The guy screamed.  He grabbed at Barney with both hands. I moved so fast that a normal human would only see a blur, grabbed both hands, and yanked them off of Barney, pulling his arms so hard they popped out of their sockets.  He fell to the ground, screaming, and Barney jumped off of him.

             
“Don’t touch my cat, you son of a bitch!” I yelled.

             
The third guy took a swing at me, and I easily ducked under it, grabbed him around the waist, lifted him off his feet, and hurled him down the block.  He landed about twenty feet away. When he landed, I could hear bones breaking.

             
I heard shouts, and I looked up and saw people looking out of their windows.  The cops would be here soon. The last thing I wanted to do was draw attention to myself.

             
I quickly scooped up Barney, and ran down the block. I wove through some back alleys, picking up speed as soon as I was sure nobody was watching me, and finally made it back to my apartment building.

             
“We sure showed them, didn’t we?” Barney crowed as I jogged up the stairs to the apartment. “I had them on the run!”

             
“Uh, why, yes. Yes you did. Perhaps next time you should leave all the fighting to me,” I added. “Your powers might be just a little too strong.”

             
As we approached the apartment door, he said quietly “You called me your cat.”

             
“What? Oh, good heavens, Barney. I don’t – I mean – for the time being, okay. I’m not even a witch. You should find a witch to work with.  And I might move back to New York.”

             
“What? They don’t have cats in New York?” he grumbled.

             
I couldn’t tell him that in a few weeks, I might be dead, or running for my life, so I just didn’t answer.

             
As we walked in the door, Camille and Peyton, who were in the living room, looked at me with surprise.

             
“Did you get lucky or something? Your dress is ripped, and your hair is all messed up,” Camille said.

             
I could hardly get lucky without Nicholas
…the thought flashed through my mind unbidden, and I pushed it away quickly.

             
“No, it was just kind of muggy out tonight. As in, three guys tried to mug me.”

             
“What? Are you all right? Did they hurt you?” Peyton and Camille rushed over to me, as Barney strolled past her into the kitchen.

             
“Tell them the part where I kicked those guys asses,” Barney called out, as he headed for some sliced roast beef that Camille had put in a bowl for him.

             
“I’m fine,” I said, waving Peyton off. I put my purse down on the counter. “Seriously, this is me we’re talking about here. One vampire versus three humans? They flew through the air with the greatest of ease. Then they kissed the pavement. They’ll all be wasting taxpayer dollars in the hospital for the next few months while their bones knit back together.”

             
“Maybe you shouldn’t walk around by yourself at night,” Camille said anxiously.

             
I managed a grim smile. “Or, maybe I should. I could consider myself on cleanup duty.” Then I sighed. “But you’re probably right, I’ll have to be a little more observant. I could have actually outrun them in a heartbeat, or for that matter I could have Compelled them to leave me alone; I wanted to stick around because I wanted to kick their asses.  This city is too small, though. If I keep beating up the local criminals, the cops are going to notice.”

             
I headed back to my room for a change of clothes and a long shower, and another late night self satisfaction session in which I pictured Nicholas above me, crooning my name.

The next morning, as I slept, Barney headed out in the morning to talk to the other familiars at Bay Breeze.  Camille went grocery shopping for Barney, and, she told me later, hung out at the beach for a few hours while I got my daytime sleep in. She had the sunburn to prove it.  Peyton went out during the day to sight see.  In the early evening, I snacked on Camille and skulked inside the apartment, waiting for the fiery orb of death to finally set.

Barney returned
at night, but he didn’t have any news.  None of the missing familiars had turned up yet, he told me as he attacked a can of cat food that I dumped into a bowl for him. Their witches were reporting that they could sense their energy, that they were still alive but distressed. All familiars at Bay Breeze were now required to be indoors, locked up in their houses before the sun went down.

The sun was melting into the horizon in a lake of fire when a knock sounded firmly on my door.  I checked through the peephole and was surprised to see Mirabelle standing there in the hallway.
 

“
Mirabelle, this is unexpected.  What brings you here?” I said, pulling the door open.

Mirabelle
glanced around her as if she wanted to make sure she hadn’t been seen, then came in and sat on the sofa, setting her oversized handbag down on the coffee table.  The handbag rippled, and a white cat crawled out.

“Hello,” I said to the cat.

“I’m Snowdrop. Pleased to meet you.” Her voice in my mind was high and light.

“Likewise,” I said. Mirabelle looked shocked.

“You can hear her?”

“Clear as a bell.”

“I brought her with me because I don’t dare leave her alone,” Mirabelle said, worry puckering her face.  “Not until we find our missing familiars and figure out what’s behind all this.”

“Hey, Snowy!
Long time no see, dollface.” Barney strolled into the room, tail held high.

“
Hmmph!” she turned her back on him and began washing her face with her paw.

Barney glanced at me and shrugged. “There’s some history there,” he said to me.

Snowy paused in her grooming and shot him an icy look. “I’ve moved on, thank you. I’m seeing an American shorthair who’s more cat than you could ever hope to be. And I hope that Siamese hussy gave you fleas and ticks.” Then she went back to vigorous face washing.

Barney sauntered back out of the room, looking not at all bothered.
What a player.

“I might have known
he was the one who told you,” Mirabelle said, scowling. “That trouble-maker.”

“You got that right,” I said. “May I offer you something to drink?”
             

At her expression of horror, I said hastily “I meant a normal drink, for heaven’s sake! Bottled water, soda, juice, I think we have some wine coolers. My Thralls are human.”

“Oh, of course that’s what you meant,” she said, looking relieved. “No thank you, though.”

I settled into the chair facing her.  “So how can I help you?”

“First, let me apologize for last night,” Mirabelle said. “I do want your help, but we’d have to keep it quiet. Our community isn’t used to working with vampires. I’ve heard that you have very progressive views on inter-species cooperation, and I appreciate that. It’s just the timing is awkward. If you have a minute, I’d like to explain.”

“All right,” I said.

“Our coven is in turmoil right now. My mother passed away two months ago, after having served as High Priestess for the past forty years. The transition period when a new High Priestess steps in is always a challenging one, but this is an especially troubling time. First of all, there was some controversy surrounding my selection; it was voted in by the Coven Elders, but my sister felt that her daughter should have gotten the position.  It’s true that my niece has very strong powers, but she isn’t capable of leading the coven. Aside from the fact that she’s too young and inexperienced, she also doesn’t have the personality for it.”

I couldn’t have agreed with her more.

“I also heard your sister say something how you’re all about to lose your homes?”

“Oh, that won’t happen. A ri
val coven is after our property, and they’re taking us to court over the land rights, but they won’t win.”

“Why would they want your property?”

She wrinkled up her face in distaste. “They’ve had their eye on the property that Bay Breeze was built on since the early 1900s, because it’s built on what’s known as a Nexus of Power.  Basically, there are areas of the earth where magical power is concentrated, and witches always congregate there. Our land is among one of the more powerful Nexuses, and so the Palmetto Coven would love to have it.  A rancher originally owned the property, a human who didn’t know about its magical properties.  Now, the rancher inherited the property from his father.  The Palmetto High Priestess has taken us to court, claiming that she has new documents claiming that there was a new will which cut the rancher out entirely and left the property to his brother. Apparently, the brother’s descendants are claiming they really own the land – and we already know they would sell in to the Palmetto coven. The will is a fraud, there’s nothing to worry about.”

“And yet, you look worried,” I said.

“The land is very precious to us.  The location is perfect, our power is very strong because of where we live, and the loss of the land would be a tremendous blow to our coven. December Cornwall, the High Priestess, is known for fighting dirty.” She sighed.  “We’re hoping she hasn’t managed to get to the judge.”

“So how does this relate to the missing familiars?”

“I suspect that either December is behind it, or, frankly, I hate to say it, but Narcissa can’t be ruled out.  My sister would benefit by undermining me and making me look weak; December would benefit by distracting us and causing us to turn against each other.”

“What about Leona? Did she want the position of High Priestess?”

“Oh, no.  She’s never been interested in power. She flits from one thing to another, one job to another. And she doesn’t like conflict, which pretty much comes with the job description. She made it very clear to my mother from early on that she wouldn’t want to be High Priestess.”

I nodded.
“All right. What is that you want me to do?”

“I know that you can
read minds, and you can compel people to tell you the truth,” she said. “I’d like you to question the people that might have any knowledge of what happened.”

I considered this. “
Well, as I mentioned last night, I normally am very reluctant to use those powers, but given that your familiars are missing and in grave danger, I’ll make an exception. Tell me some more about what’s going on.”

“Well, the familiars have disappeared at night.  Normally, they roam around the sub
division freely, and sometimes they go over the subdivision walls, but they always return by morning.  Over the past month, half a dozen of them have not returned.   With the first couple, we thought they might have just had an accident, been hit by a car, taken by a wild animal – it can happen, of course. However, the fact that they are not dead, and the fact that so many of them disappeared…” she glanced nervously at Snowdrop.

“
Last night another one disappeared.  It was an orange tabby named Pumpkin. His owner last saw him in the afternoon, he told her he was going to go out for a bit and promised to be in before dark. He never came back.  We have video cameras in place all around the perimeter; we’re reviewing it, but we haven’t found any footage of him yet.  We also have security guards. I’d like you to speak to the head of security, Thomas Diamond, and see if he knows anything.  Then, I’d like you to speak to the veterinarian who treats all of our familiars. She works in the community, but she lives in Bay Breeze and she’s also a witch.  I’d also like you to talk with the woman who sells us all of our pet food. Those two women are the only thing I can think of that all the familiars have in common.”