35. Wren

CHAPTER 35

Wren

“ W ren? Wren?” Someone was calling my name, but from a distance, or at least it sounded that way. “Wren, wake up.”

The muffled words were followed by a searing pain, and my eyes flew open in time to see Myrtle raking her claws down my arm.

“Hey! Get lost.”

Was I late giving her breakfast or something? Making me bleed sure wasn’t the right way to ask for extra maple syrup. But Myrtle scratched me again, on my leg this time. What was her problem? I sat up to shoo her away, and when I saw Caria lying at my side and Delphine-slash-Lola kneeling over me, the memories came rushing back. Laurent, Rick, Vee… Where was Vee? I looked all around, but she was gone.

“Where’s Vee?” I asked, although I didn’t expect an answer, not when the only person capable of replying was a four-year-old stuck in somebody else’s body.

“I didn’t see her.”

Which meant Rick had dragged her away. I’d found Caria but lost another friend instead. And now I knew the truth—Vee was a friend. Yes, she was a vampire, but she’d come here to save me, only to land in grave danger herself.

And Blane… He might have been the literal devil, but Laurent was the real monster.

Yelling came from outside. Had a neighbour called 911 yet? Was anyone close enough to hear the commotion? We needed help, but what could cops do against a man who shrugged off bullets and thought nothing of breaking the law? Vee was gone, I had no idea where Blane and Joseph were, and I was left with a cat, a preschooler, and a barely conscious Caria.

I had to keep them safe.

“What should I do?” I whispered, more to myself than anyone else.

“Mom says that if I’m scared, I should call her,” Lola said.

I thought of Marianna, lying motionless on the floor under Aurelia’s watch. “That won’t work.”

“But I have a phone. I found it in my pocket.”

Should we run or hide? The only thing I knew for certain was that we couldn’t stand around in the hallway. Where were all the guards?

“I know the number by heart,” Lola said.

Pulse racing, I cracked open the nearest door. The room was in semidarkness, lit only by the full moon and a few decorative lights around the pool beyond, and as my eyes adjusted, I could make out couches grouped around a coffee table, squashy couches, not like the style-over-comfort furniture in the great room. I herded Lola inside, relieved when Myrtle followed, and then went back for Caria.

“Wren?” she mumbled.

Thank goodness. “Yes, it’s me. Can you stand?”

In answer, she slumped against the wall. Dammit!

She’d always been much slimmer than me, and now she was positively skeletal, but it still took an effort to haul her into the small living room where we were taking refuge. I dragged her behind the nearest couch, although if a guard appeared with a gun, the cushions wouldn’t do much to stop a bullet. Where were the guards? I’d seen several earlier, but now the house was eerily quiet. All the noise was coming from outside.

“Mom?” Had Lola managed to make a call? “I want Mom.”

“Shhh,” I told her, mindful of Vee’s words earlier. “Don’t make a noise.”

She held out the phone. “The lady wants you.”

Tell me she isn’t talking to an emergency dispatcher. What would I even say? Oh hey, ma’am. I’m trapped in a house with two immortal psychos, one of them just grabbed my vampire saviour, and the devil is outside trying to help. Did we need a SWAT team or an exorcist?

I pressed the phone to my ear. “Who is this?”

“Aurelia.” Oh, thank goodness. “Where’s Blane?”

“I don’t freaking know!”

“Who’s with you? Just Lola?”

“Caria, but she’s delirious, and Myrtle too.”

“Put Myrtle on the phone.”

“How? Myrtle’s a damn cat.”

“She changed back? Oops, awkward.”

“Changed back?” The horrifying truth suddenly dawned. Cat-Myrtle. Girl-Myrtle. The fact that I’d never seen the two of them in the same place at the same time. “You have to be kidding me.”

“She doesn’t have much control over the whole shape-shifting thing.” Aurelia giggled. “Just find a spot to hunker down and wait for Blane and Joseph and Vee to do their thing.”

“Vee’s gone. Some guy grabbed her and I must have blacked out, but I don’t know how long for.” A memory flitted past, and I closed my eyes and caught hold of it. “A wedding ring. He said something about a wedding ring, but I thought she was dating a cop?”

Silence.

“Aurelia?”

“I’m thinking. It might be Voltaire.”

“Who’s Voltaire?”

“Another vampire.”

Another vampire? I tried not to hyperventilate. “He said his name was Rick, and he was strong enough to overpower her.” Plus he’d grabbed my gun in a blink. “And fast. He was fast too.”

“Okay, that sounds like Voltaire. Try to keep out of his way.”

No kidding. “What do you think I’m doing? And there might be two of them. I shot Laurent and he didn’t die, so I don’t think he’s human either.” Another horrifying thought popped into my head. “What about the guards? Can they create more vampires?”

“Uh, probably?”

Great. Just great. My voice dropped to a whisper. “And Delphine? What if Lola’s in a vampire body?”

“No, no, that’s impossible. She died, and now her body has Lola’s soul.”

Thank goodness for small mercies. “We have to find Vee.”

“To do that, you need to find Blane and Joseph first. They’re the only ones strong enough to take on Voltaire.”

I glanced out the window. The yard looked so peaceful, but danger lurked around every corner. Vampires, guards with guns, and— Holy crap! An enormous dog ran around the corner, and the dog was on fire. The beast launched itself into the swimming pool with a high-pitched howl, and water exploded upward like a geyser. Lola shrieked as it splattered against the window in front of us.

“What happened?” Aurelia demanded.

“A giant flaming dog just jumped into the swimming pool.”

“Like, a guard dog?”

“How should I know?” It scrambled halfway out of the water, huge paws resting on the pool deck, and shook water off its head. Our gazes met through the glass, and I found myself staring into angry yellow-orange eyes.

“I don’t like that doggy,” Lola said, taking a step backward. I tried to join her, but my knees threatened to give way.

“Oh, shit.”

“What?” Aurelia asked through the phone.

“The dog saw me.”

“It’s still outside, right?”

I eyed up the thin pane of glass between us as the beast climbed fully out of the pool and tilted its head to one side, probably trying to decide whether I’d be one bite or two.

“Yes, but I’m not sure that matters. And I’m not sure it’s a guard dog either.”

“So what is it?”

With its fur burned away, the creature reminded me of Zuul out of Ghostbusters , but that was just fiction. Wasn’t it? I mean, I’d always assumed Interview with the Vampire was a figment of the author’s imagination, but I’d clearly been wrong about that, hadn’t I?

“Do you have a Gatekeeper in your world?” I asked Aurelia. “A Keymaster?”

“Uh, no? We don’t have gates in the conventional sense.”

Phew. “Okay, so maybe this thing is a…wolf?” I swallowed hard. “Its eyes are glowing yellow. ”

“Yellow? You’re sure?”

“It’s staring right at me.”

And I knew, I just knew, that it was sizing me up, readying itself to smash through the glass. The moment I tried to run, it would spring. It was toying with me the way a cat—not Myrtle, obviously—would play with a mouse.

“Then it must be a werewolf,” Aurelia said, slightly breathless. “How exciting. You need to find wolfsbane or a silver bullet.”

Exciting? Exciting?

“I don’t even know what wolfsbane is, and where the hell am I meant to find a silver bullet?”

“Wolfsbane is a plant with purple flowers, more of a weed really.”

“It grows in Vegas?”

A pause. “Perhaps the silver bullet would be easier to get ahold of. Or a silver knife might work? As long as it goes right into the werewolf’s brain, that’s the important thing.”

Oh sure, all I had to do was stick a silver object into its brain. Simple.

“Tell Blane I want to be buried rather than cremated.”

“Don’t be so negative. Blane and Joseph can help.”

“Blane and Joseph are missing in action.” And so was Laurent.

The werewolf took a step forward, its mouth curved in what seemed to be a grin, but when Lola clutched at my arm, those yellow eyes blazed as if it couldn’t decide whether to be amused or annoyed by these pathetic humans who dreamed of survival when there was no way to escape.

Ticktock, ticktock.

Time was running out.

“Did you ever play hide-and-seek with your mom?” I asked Lola, and she nodded. “When I tell you to run, you need to hide, okay? ”

I’d always known that coming here would be a suicide mission, and now I had one final job to do: draw the werewolf away from Lola, away from Caria, away from Myrtle. I wasn’t scared of death, not anymore. Because thanks to Blane and Aurelia, I knew it wasn’t the end. I’d be back, and next time around, I’d make smarter decisions. In my twenty-seven years of life, I’d only seen the surface of this world, but now I knew there was so much more to it than I’d ever imagined, some good, some bad. The devil had taught me about love, and the charming, hot guy with the sexy accent had taught me that looks could be deceiving. Maybe Blane would put flowers on my grave?

The werewolf sprang.

“Run!” I yelled, but before I could spin around, a blur came out of nowhere and barrelled into the beast. Another almighty splash, and this time, the wall of water carried with it a lawn chair that cracked the window. My turn to scream, and not just from the shock.

Because I recognised the man grappling with the werewolf in the pool. His clothing was in tatters, and his skin was shredded too, but it was unmistakably Blane.

And now there was only one thing that mattered.

Finding something sharp and silver.

Flowers on a grave.

I knew where to look.