60. Winnie

CHAPTER SIXTY

WINNIE

Komal: I don’t care how tired you are from moving or how much you want to shag your hot vampire fiancé after he wakes up from his daynap, we’d better see you at book club tonight!

(And this probably goes without saying, but Beth’s bringing Louise Cake. Do not eat the Louise Cake. It contains things that no Louise Cake should ever contain.)

“ D o you really like it?”

“I told you I like it. What will it take to make you believe me, human?” Alaric growls. “Perhaps if I tie you to it and lick you all over your body until you beg for mercy? Then would you believe that I like it?”

“Maybe.” I grin. “Or maybe you’d have to bite me, to really convince me.”

Alaric sits across from me in front of the blazing fire, his ‘Vampires Need Snuggles’ cushion behind his back and his dark gaze drawn upwards by the large display case I’ve installed along one wall of the sitting room. It houses a selection of his swords and weapons.

I understand now why he was holding on to them. Each one of them is a part of his story. They bear the scars of the battles he’s fought. Even though the scars on his soul will never heal, they are part of his story. Part of what makes him the vampire I fell in love with.

Things that break can be repaired, and become all the more beautiful for the cracks. Even hearts. Even souls.

Not every chapter of our stories is smutty or nice or bloodless, but who are we without the history we carry around with us?

Alaric lifts his goblet to his mouth, taking a deep sip. His eyes drop to my face, heavy with pleasure, flecked with golden firelight. “What did you do with the rest of the swords?” he asks.

“They’re in trunks down in the dungeon. I thought maybe you could make them into a sculpture or add another wing to the Stabby Chic Hall. Ooh, better yet, we could use them to decorate the walls of my office! That way, when new clients walk in, they’ll know that they’d better listen to me…or else.”

“But if you’re ever called to go through with your threat, your unruly client would quickly discover that you have two left feet and can barely swing a blade.”

“I’m sure that with an eternity to practice, I’ll be able to stab something. Maybe not my target, but something . It would help if my swordmaster can get through a lesson without grinding his giant vampire cock into me and fucking me against his loom.”

Alaric raises a dark slash of eyebrow. “Is that a complaint…or a request?”

I snuggle deeper into my chair. Alaric has just arisen from his nap, but I’ve been busy all day, moving my things back into the castle and arranging my new office desk in the bay window of the library. If I’m going to see Dracluttera clients in Argleton as well as London, then I need a place to work, and I couldn’t ask for more than the scenic view down the valley from my very own Beauty and the Beast library.

And speaking of my beast…

Alaric may be sipping his blood like he has no other care in the world, but I can tell from the way his eyebrow twitches that he’s excited to get to his creative wing of the castle and work on his new project. He’s putting together an art exhibition with Quoth – after the success of Alaric’s moonscapes, they think they might be able to get a London gallery interested. And Komal has asked him if she can install his model of Argleton in the tourist office, so he wants to give it a fresh coat of paint.

It’s amazing how tidy Black Crag is now that Alaric has outlets for his passions. He gets such a thrill from seeing people enjoy his work, and then he takes that thrill out on my body. We all win.

Especially me.

Eternity is a long time for regrets.

We decided to keep the house in London. I’ll go down there every few weeks to see clients and Alaric and I will stay in the city and practice being in the world. He’s yet to experience the joy of late-night gallery openings, fast food, escape rooms, and terrible musical productions, but I intend to show him everything .

And as for my Kiss, we haven’t set a date yet, but we’re talking about it, getting used to the idea. I’m not ready yet, but I think I will be soon.

“Gideon has been talking you up to anyone on the Sanctus Estate. My mother and Perdita have been spreading the word at their respective courts. I think you’ll have no end of clients willing to pay top dollar for Dracluttera services. That is, if you don’t mind avoiding garlic before client meetings?” Alaric raises an eyebrow.

I tilt my G&T towards him. “I don’t know. I do love garlic, especially in Reginald’s cooking. But not as much as I love you.”

“Reginald is so pleased to have you back.” Alaric sets down his empty goblet. “He loves having someone to cook for. You know that when he found out you left, he yelled at me.”

“I don’t believe it.” Reginald has never raised his voice above a polite murmur. Never .

“It’s true. He called me a most colourful assortment of names, none of which can be repeated in the company of a lady.” His tongue lashes against his lower lip, licking up a droplet of blood. “It was his idea to give you the key to Black Crag. He always believed you’d come back. He even helped me clean out the priest hole. Well, most of it.”

“Most of it?” A familiar worry stabs my chest. I don’t want surprises when piles of stuff are concerned.

“Yes. We decided to save this.” Alaric reaches into his pocket and pulls out a fist. “I made it in my forge.”

He unfolds from the chair, and as he stalks across the rug towards me, there’s something of the predator in his eyes. But then he drops to his knees in front of me, holding out his hand.

He unfolds his long fingers to reveal a ring.

I gasp, my usual reaction to anything when Alaric is involved. The ring is perfect . It has a rough, organic surface, and the gold bears the deep lustre of age. A large, blood-red ruby in the rough shape of a heart sits at the centre.

I tear my eyes from the stone to look at Alaric. The firelight bathes his high cheekbones, his alabaster skin, and the firm line of his mouth. The black depths of his eyes reach inside me – deep and sharp and hard as anthracite, creating a perch for the butterflies that never seem to stop dancing when he’s near me.

“A wise person told me once that I should be more vulnerable.” His lip quirks a little. “That no matter how high I built my castle walls, someone would tear them down. That someone was you, Winnie. You sieged straight into my heart and razed those walls to dust, and I laid down my arms and let you do it because I didn’t even realise how desperately I wanted to be free. I have everything I ever dared to wish for and more, all because of you, and all I want is to give you everything you deserve. You told me once that your intention for your life is that you deserve to be happy. And I hope, I wish, that maybe, you could be happy with me, as my wife.”

My heart and my lips answer at the same time. “Hell yes!”

I fall into him and he falls into me and we’re hugging and kissing and crying and laughing and it’s perfect . He pulls me down onto the rug with him, rolling me beneath him, pressing the hard planes of his body against mine as he slots the ring onto my finger, and I can’t believe he’s mine forever…

“Ms. Preston, you have a visitor.”

Alaric curses as I jerk upright, straightening my blazer. “I do?”

“She’s waiting in the entrance hall. I didn’t know if I should invite her in.”

I comb my fingers through my hair as I rush downstairs. Claire stands beside one of Alaric’s suits of armour, fiddling with his teddy bear display. She sees me and drops a knight bear on the floor.

“Winnie? I’m sorry for showing up like this. I didn’t know if you’d see me. I…”

She turns away, bending to pick up the bear. She squeezes him against her chest.

Before I came to Argleton, I couldn’t think about Claire without picturing her and Patrick together behind my back. Her betrayal tainted every happy memory we shared. But now, with the weight of Alaric’s ring on my fingers, all I feel is loss .

Eternity is a long time for regrets.

I descend the final step. “Claire, I’m so sorry about Patrick.”

She sniffs, burying her face in the teddy bear’s soft fur. Alaric has donated most of his bear collection to the local children’s hospital, but I’m grateful we decided to keep this one.

I step towards Claire and hold out my arms.

“Really?” She raises a crooked eyebrow.

“Life’s too short to hold a grudge.”

She falls into my arms. I’m crying and she’s crying and we’re laughing and talking over each other, and my heart swells to have her back again. I’ve missed her.

Claire wipes her eyes and babbles, “I’m so sorry about everything, Winnie. I never meant to hurt you. Patrick and I just happened. Patrick is…was wonderful. He made me feel as though I was invincible, that we could conquer the world together. But I’m sorry that falling in love meant that I lost my oldest friend. I’m sorry because I can’t even imagine the hurt we caused by going behind your back, and I wanted so badly to make it okay that I thought if I just pretended, the way I always did, that you’d forgive me. I wanted to tell you the whole time but he said you weren’t in a good place emotionally to deal with it?—”

“He wasn’t wrong. I’m sorry, too. I was so angry and hurt that I wanted to punish you more than I cared about our friendship. I want us to go back to?—”

“Yes!” She bounces with excitement. “I want that, too. More than anything! I saw Faye on the telly. You left the Clutter Queens! I’m so happy – I was always telling you that she was taking advantage of you.”

I beam at her. “When you’re right, you’re right. I wish I’d listened sooner, but I’m excited about my new venture. And that’s not all the news I have to share. Alaric and I were pretending to be engaged before, to make you and Patrick mad, but we’re engaged for real now.”

I hold up my finger, wiggling my beautiful ring for her. But instead of exclaiming with delight, she frowns.

“Winnie, I have to tell you something, but you’re not going to like it.”

“Is it worse than telling me you’re stealing my fiancé?” I grin. “Because I think I can handle it.”

“It’s about Lord Valerian.” She glances at the empty staircase. “Can he hear us?”

He’s a vampire with super hearing, so yes, definitely. “He’s locked away in his studio. Why?”

“Well, after we met the two of you at the pub, Patrick was kind of freaked out.”

Probably because Alaric flashed his fangs at him. He tends to have that effect on cheating exes.

Claire continues, “Patrick went off to one to see his clients. I barely saw him the whole week, because the client insisted on having these long meetings in the middle of the night. Weird, right? Well, it gets weirder. When he finally did walk in the door, he was different.”

My heart thuds. “Different how?”

“Kind of…wan. Listless. He kept rubbing his neck and muttering strange things. Then it wore off and he got agitated, his eyes wide with terror. He kept saying he couldn’t go back to his client, that they were going to hurt him again. I asked him if he’d got himself mixed up in something illegal, but he said it was even worse than that…” Claire shudders. “He kept saying that he needed to warn you, that your Lord Valerian was ‘one of them.’ I said we could drive up to the castle, but that made him even more agitated. When he saw you at the fete, he decided he was going to try and get you alone to tell you whatever it was that was on his mind, but then…”

But then someone killed him.

With everything that’s happened, I’d forgotten about Patrick wanting to talk with me at the fete. My stomach clenches. Does this have something to do with the real killer? “Do you have any idea what he wanted to tell me about Alaric?”

She shakes her head, her curls tumbling over her shoulders. “All I know is that your boyfriend frightened him. And not just because of the sword.”

Patrick knew that Alaric was a vampire.

That’s the only thing that could explain his reaction. And whatever his clients had done to him, he was so terrified of them that he was going to run away. And that’s what got him killed.

“Do you know who Patrick’s client was?”

“Yes. The Sanctus Estate.”

“Patrick was working for the Sanctus Estate?” Isis shrieks. “That connects him to Danny. How did we not know this?”

I’m back in my favourite beanbag, munching on one of Celeste’s red velvet cupcakes with a mug of tea in my other hand, while Beth tries in vain to get everyone to try one of her cordyceps-infused wheatgrass jellies. The ladies of the Nevermore Murder Club and Smutty Book Coven are spread out around me, enjoying two of their favourite pastimes – solving a supernatural murder and teasing each other mercilessly as only good friends can.

And now they’re my friends. I can’t believe how lucky I am.

I finally finished reading Mina’s series, and as predicted, it explains everything about the strange and magical bookshop, and why Mina has three husbands who are famous fictional villains brought to life. But that’s a story for another day. Today, we’re back trying to solve the latest supernatural murder mystery in Argleton, and whether we’re dealing with one killer, or two.

Since I left for London, not much has happened. There have been no more huskings, and after Gideon whisked the body away, the police have given up the chase.

But after what Claire told me, I’m no longer sure if we can trust Gideon Blake.

“I can’t believe it didn’t occur to me,” I say. “Patrick’s work was making bespoke windows, and of course a vampire property development would require special sun-resistant glass.”

“I don’t blame you, Winnie. You were distracted by the hot vampire lord.” Isis glares at Maisie. “ Some people, whose literal job it is to investigate , should have uncovered that information.”

Our resident gumshoe throws up her hands in mock surrender. “Patrick’s firm wasn’t going to release information about his clients to the press. Hayes knew, but he didn’t offer it up, and then we thought we got the murderer.”

“Patrick was a consultant, and Danny was a labourer. They’re not exactly hanging out in the same smoko shed,” says Dora.

“But it’s a connection.” I toy with the handle of my mug. “And that’s not all. I think Patrick figured out that vampires exist. On the night of the Midsummer Festival, he said he had something important to tell me about my fiancé. After he was killed, I didn’t think much about what it was, because it didn’t seem important, but now I think he was coming to tell me that Alaric is a vampire. He saw Alaric smile at him once, and he put it all together and…Claire said he was terrified of going back to work.”

“And we know from Arabella’s client that Danny also knew about the existence of vampires,” Komal adds. “And he was getting his neck sucked.”

“Claire said that Patrick was rubbing his neck after one of his client meetings.”

“Let me get my witchy mind around this. You’re saying that someone at Sanctus is hiring humans to work on the estate, using them as food, and then getting rid of anyone who realises what they’re working on?” Isis says. “And we think it’s Gideon?”

“I don’t know what to think. Gideon is Alaric’s friend, and he helped us catch Baylor.”

“Of course he did. That throws the scent off him.” Isis slaps her thigh. “Besides, that Baylor was a scumbag. He got what he deserved.”

“I don’t trust anyone with the name Gideon,” Arabella thrusts her nose in the air. “That name has been ruined forever for me.”

“Ex-boyfriend?” Komal smirks.

“Something like that.”

“There has to be more to it than this,” Dora says. “We don’t have the whole story.”

“No.” I glare pointedly at the object in the octagonal turret covered with the purple cloth. “We don’t.”

Isis thrusts her hands on her hips. “Don’t be impatient. You’ll get all our secrets – including what’s under that cloth – after your initiation.”

“Which is set for…next Thursday.” Komal consults her crowded date planner. “And yes, Celeste, I’ve noted that you’ll be at your mum’s place.”

“Oh goody,” I reach for one of Celeste’s Sally Lunn buns. “Two hours of freezing my tits off while we dance around naked in a cow field. I can’t wait.”

“You’ll have to deal. The rest of us did. And Beth did hers during a snowstorm.” Komal snaps shut her date planner. “Now, back to murders. We have to get someone inside Sanctus to figure out what’s going on.”

“That’s easy!” Isis pipes up. “One of us gets a job there and seduces Gideon into telling them the truth. I vote Beth.”

“Excuse me?” Beth glares at Isis. “Why me? What about you?”

“I’m too important.” Isis puffs out her chest. “I’m the psychic. My skills are needed elsewhere. The only skill you bring to the table is pole dancing, which will come in handy for the seduction?—”

I shake my head. “We’re not using humans as vampire bait again.”

“Sanctus are looking for buyers for the remaining houses, right?” Maisie says. “Someone who lived there could get right up close to the action and figure out what’s going on.”

“But none of us are vampires except for Alaric,” I point out. “And my betrothed is many things, but a skilled and cunning spy is not one of them.”

“Fine.” Arabella sighs. “I will do it.”

All eyes swivel to her.

“What makes you think you’re going to be able to infiltrate a community of rich, snobby vampires?” Isis asks.

“Because,” Arabella flicks her hair over her shoulder. “As a vampire myself, I’ve purchased a home in the Sanctus Estate.”