The Reluctant Goddess (The Montgomery Chronicles Book 2) (12 page)

Who the hell did he think he was?
 

I could feel myself growing warmer. I looked down at my hands, clenched on the steering wheel. My knuckles were white, but the backs of my hands were red, almost as if I’d become sunburned.
 

Had I been out in the sun too long?
 

Dan started walking toward the car. Emotions swirled inside me and around me until I was my own little tornado.
 

The hatred I felt for Niccolo Maddock was at the heart of the whirlwind. So, too, the confusion I felt at being changed to a vampire without my knowledge. Add in the hurts and disenchantment as I learned more about my only two living relatives and the knowledge that I was a vampire’s child. Mix in the grief about Ophelia and feeling responsible for her death.
 

Every emotion I'd felt for the last two months, bottled, and restrained, escaped their containment field and moved from my toes, through my body, and into the tips of my fingers. I lifted my arms, still staring at Dan through the windshield, feeling betrayed in a way I had never felt before. Even Bill, in his most asshole moments hadn't done what Dan was doing now, treating me as if I were a child.
 

 
My arms stretched out in front of me. I spread my fingers and released everything, feeling it rush out of me like a gust of air.
 

Dan jerked back, rocking on his heels, and nearly falling.

Well, well, evidently I had some other powers. I spread my fingers and directed all my emotions toward him.
 

To my great delight, Dan fell on his ass.

My moment of triumph lasted until Mike jerked open the car door.

"What the hell are you doing?"

I turned and looked at Mike. I don't know what he saw. But it was disconcerting enough that he stumbled back a few steps.

"Jesus," he said.

I have to hand it to Mike. He had more courage than most men I knew. He reached in and grabbed my wrist, pulling me out of the car.

"What are you doing? Leave him alone. He's doing it for you.”
 

"He's moving my apartment. He's moving my furniture. He didn’t even let me know.”
 

Whatever I'd done to Dan was dissipating, leaving me feeling as sick as when I’d taken my grandmother's potion.
 

"He doesn't have the right, Mike," I said, trying to pull my wrist free. When he refused to release me, I let my anger build again then looked at him, pointing at him with my free hand.
 

To my shock, Mike gathered me up in his arms, pressing me so firmly against his chest that my chin felt pushed back into my brain.

"He's only doing it to help you," he said.

I shoved at him, but it was like trying to move a mountain. I closed my eyes and envisioned him being slammed into the wall of the building. He started to move backward, but unfortunately he took me with him. I stopped that thought immediately.

"Let me go," I said, my voice muffled against his shirt.

The day was a chilly one, but Mike the Mountain evidently didn't feel the cold. Instead, he was like a furnace, giving off heat that could've warmed a room.

He didn't release me.

"Let her go, Mike."

The band of Mike's arms dropped, but I didn't turn. Mike stepped away without a word, leaving me alone with Dan.

At the moment, I preferred Mike the Mountain.

"I don't want to talk to you," I said.

"How long have you been able to do that pushy thing?"

None of his business.
 

I took a quick look at my arms and hands. They were back to normal color. What did the bright red skin color mean?

Can I tell you how tired I was of having questions and no answers? Even the answers I got I didn't like.

I flicked my hand at Dan, as if to dismiss him like a fly. I thought about him falling on his ass again, but he just stood there with legs braced, his face mimicking Mount Rushmore.
 

How dare he be mad? I was the one who was being uprooted and moved without my consent.

"I didn't tell you to move my stuff."

"The manager was going to put all your
stuff
in the street."

"He wouldn't have done that," I said, my voice a little less firm.

“He called me and told me he was going to do exactly that. What did you want me to do, just tell them to go ahead?"

"You could've told me."

“I tried, Marcie. You weren’t answering your phone.”
 

I looked at him. I’d turned off my phone in deference to Mr. Brown’s dislike of technology and hadn’t turned it back on.

"You could've told Mike. He could've told me."

There were a few more
could haves
in that statement than I liked.
 

He hadn't changed his stance. Dan, irritated, was a bit more intimidating than I liked.

I wanted to ball my hands up into fists and beat on his chest. Or slap him silly. Or push on him until he fell on his ass again. Then, while he was down on the ground, I would kick him.

"We only had a matter of hours, Marcie. I didn’t want people to rummage through your things or steal them, for that matter.”
 

I turned and looked at the truck. It was only about half the size of a regular moving van yet all of my possessions were fitting easily inside. Now I had another problem on my hands. What did I do with all of my belongings?

I couldn't make the truck circle the block while I arranged to rent another apartment somewhere. A place that rented to vampires but was vampire proof. A place where the witches couldn’t get to me. An apartment my mother couldn’t breech.
 

I was tired, that was the only reason I was so close to tears. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that I could see my entire “normal" life dissolving right in front of my eyes.
 

Maybe I should just build myself a pyramid somewhere and go and sit on the top of it, declaring myself a Dirugu.
 

Once I allowed my emotions free rein, they were overpowering me. I was angry at my grandmother who had let me live and who was probably questioning that decision now. I was angry at Doug, who’d turned me into a vampire. I was angry at Maddock, who tried to take advantage of the situation. I was angry at my own body that was somehow doing things it shouldn’t be doing. I was even angry at Dan for being kind and generous, only a small sign that I was losing my mind.
 

In the car, I had no idea that my anger could translate to a force. My body had known. Is that what being a Dirugu was? What else could I do? Was I suddenly going to turn invisible? Grow two heads?
 

I had a sick feeling in my stomach, like the time when I overdosed on cinnamon rolls. You know how you can eat something and after a while you are shocked at how many you’ve consumed? Some people are that way with potato chips or tacos. Me, it’s cinnamon rolls. Maybe it’s a combination of the fat and sugar that made me so sick once I stopped eating them.
 

I was feeling that way right now. Plus, I was burning up. Was it a side effect of the pushy thing?
 

I really did need to study myself and figure out what else I could do.
 

“You can stay at the castle for as long as you want, Marcie.”
 

“You didn’t take me to raise, Dan. Or protect.”
 

He didn’t say anything to that.
 

“What’s the fair market value of a suite in a castle?” I asked.
 

He named an obscenely low amount. I doubled it.
 

“I’ll pay that as rent,” I said.
 

“You don’t have to do that.”
 

I nodded. Paying him rent would at least allow me to cling to the myth that I was on my own and not dependent on a near stranger for safety.
 

"I can't stay with you forever," I said.

"Not forever. But for right now."

I nodded. "For now."

They were finishing up putting the last of my belongings in the truck. That stupid broom I’ve been meaning to replace for months was last, along with the trash can that had an elephant face. Silly little things that reflected me and somehow made me want to cry.
 

I should go into the apartment and make sure it was pristine. When I said as much to Dan, he shook his head.
 

“I’ve arranged for a maid service to come in,” he said.
 

I didn’t even bother arguing. Instead, I nodded and walked away from Dan, my shoulders straight, my tears held at bay.
 

Thanks to him, I had a place to stay and a refuge from the wicked, wicked world.
 

Why, then, did I resent the hell out of the situation?

C
HAPTER
T
HIRTEEN

Do I need uninsured vampire insurance?

I left Dan back at my apartment, certain that either he or Mike, or both of them, would be following me soon. Wouldn’t it be easier just to implant a GPS device in me? Or make me wear a very long leash?
 

A thought that prompted another: how much time had passed? Should I call the vet and check on Charlie?
 

Lately, I’d been occupied with thoughts of myself more than anyone else. I’d been the poster girl for selfishness. Of course, some of that was to be expected, but the truth was that I was a little tired of being so damn self-absorbed. Yes, I needed to find out what I was, but I needed to look around me from time to time, too. I wasn’t living on an island. I was interacting with other people. I was caring for an animal I’d kinda/sorta adopted.
 

God, please let Charlie be all right. And please help me to be a better person. Vampire. Creature.
 

I didn’t know if other vampires had faith, but I still believed in God. Granted, I was beginning to think God had a great sense of humor. Or maybe He was a ten year old kid in some alternate universe and He liked making up these creatures and putting them on a ball we called earth. Maybe we were just Legos in another dimension.
 

I fingered the card in my pocket. I’d planned on calling the fortune teller before Dan and I got into it. Now, it was after five, with darkness falling over the land, as they say.
 

With darkness came fear and Niccolo Maddock.
 

I would do myself in before I subjected myself to another mind rape. And I wasn’t the type to do myself in, which meant I had to find a way to dissuade Maddock from pursuing me. Since he was the most stubborn creature I’d ever come across, it would probably be easier to terminate him with prejudice.
 

Don’t you just love that expression? It means to kill someone, but it wraps it with so many words that it sounds almost benign.
 

I hadn’t learned anything about Maddock from Kenisha. She hadn’t leaned over the table and confided that Maddock was beginning to fear water. Did I possibly know why? Nor had I come out and asked about Maddock’s health. I hadn’t wanted to alert the Council that something might be wrong with the duke.
 

I didn't know very much about vampire politics. According to the Green Book, the consolidation of vampire lore and law, the Council had the final say about anything to do with vampires. Unless, of course, they broke a human law. Then, the humans got to adjudicate the infraction, but any punishment was doled out by the Council.

So, if they discovered I’d deliberately tried to kill Maddock, I could just imagine what they’d do to me. Hello sun. Or, because I was a special snowflake, I would probably be chained in a maternity ward and inseminated every nine months.
 

No, thank you.
 

There were only twelve councils in the world, so each Council was responsible for large swaths of territory. The San Antonio Council, for example, was responsible for the western half of the United States, with the Mississippi River being the dividing line. The Trenton Council handled everything east of that.

I knew Maddock was a Master, but I didn’t know if he was on the Council. How did you get to be one of the twelve members?

If they decided I should die - for good - was their word law? Did I have any recourse with the civilian authorities? Did the fact that I was somehow different from other vampires make me subject to different rules?
 

I didn’t know that either.

I needed to inform myself about vampire politics. I was up against Niccolo Maddock and he had an impressive arsenal. I had nothing except for the fact that I was odd. Oh, and I could do the pushy thing.
 

I grabbed my phone to call the vet to check up on Charlie, but I didn't turn it on. However, I did slow down, looking for a place to pull off to make the call. We’d recently passed a law that it was illegal to use your cell phone while driving. Plus, I’d seen enough serious accidents caused by texting that I never used my phone in the car.