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Chapter Ten
Okay, so I might have been overambitious when I said I could turn Denise into a world-class fighter. Even under the best of circumstances, doing that in less than two days would be hard. Trying to do that while supernaturally sloshed? That was next to impossible.
It wasn’t easy on Denise, either. Imagine trying to learn to fight from a sky-high teacher. If Denise took a shot every time I said “See what I did there? Don’t do that,” I wouldn’t be the only one so intoxicated that I had to incorporate tripping into our fighting routine.
Still, we muddled through, after we found an Airbnb cottage up the coast near Dogtown; an unincorporated community in Marin County that used to be called Woodville. The place lacked every amenity we’d enjoyed at the Ritz’s beach house, and that was fine. It also lacked neighbors for at least a mile in every direction. The population of Dogtown was only thirty people, so the owner was all too happy to make the unexpected reservation, even at that pre-dawn hour.
The small, one-bedroom cottage had a fine layer of dust over the scant furnishings, plus the only scents I caught were must and mildew, but its neglect suited me. No one being here recently meant that no one would come into contact with our contagious magic. Also on the plus side, the little cottage had a flat yard bordered by the nearby forest. That’s where I trained Denise until I felt a lot more sober, which coincided with it being harder for me to move as the effects of Ashael’s blood wore off.
Denise helped me back into the house. I could still walk, but if I thought I was staggering before, it was nothing compared to how my muscles were seizing up now.
“Put me on the couch,” I said. “You take the bed. You need the sleep, and it won’t matter where I am once I freeze up.”
She gave me a pitying look, though thankfully, she didn’t argue. She just helped me onto the sofa.
“I’ll put your knives and your phone next to you,” she said, and briefly disappeared into the bedroom. When she came back, she set my knapsack near my feet.
“Thanks. I want to use my cell to record a message, while I can still speak enough to do it.”
Her expression clouded as she sat next to me. “You’re recording a message for Bones?”
“Yeah,” was all I said.
She was silent. Then, she said, “I suppose I should do the same for Spade,” in a tone much thicker from emotion.
I felt so awful, it took me a moment to reply. “I’m sorry, Denise. If I hadn’t gone after that scent of blood—”
“Then you wouldn’t be the person who saved my life the night we met,” she interrupted, her tone turning hard despite her eyes brightening with unshed tears. “If you remember, a vampire was turning my neck into an all-you-could-eat buffet. You heard my scream, came running, killed him, and saved me. So no, I won’t let you apologize for saving that boy tonight, either. Saving people is what you do, and I’m glad because I wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t.”
Now I was the one fighting back tears. “I was the lucky one that night. Your friendship has saved me so many times.”
“Metaphorically, maybe,” Denise allowed, with a little smile. “Especially when you were so miserable while you were hiding from Bones. But that wasn’t the only time you saved my life. You also did it when a horde of zombie-like things attacked that New Year’s Eve, and you did it when a vampire drug dealer was trying to turn me into his latest sellable product.”
“I wasn’t alone any of those other times,” I protested.
She took my hand. “You’re not alone now either, Cat.”
My throat closed up. Not from the spell overcoming me. From all the emotions welling up to take away my voice.
“Thank you,” I finally managed to say.
She squeezed my hand. “You’re welcome.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes. Then she said, “You shouldn’t just leave a recorded message. You should call Bones.”
Oh, how I wanted to! I’d give anything to hear his voice right now, but if I did, I knew how it would end.
“I can’t. No matter how I pretend, Bones will know something’s wrong, and if he knows that, he’ll track me down. Then, he’ll get infected, too. I can’t let him do that. If things go south, one of us needs to be there for Katie.”
Denise gave me a sad smile. “That’s why I’m not calling Spade. He’d insist on coming, too. We don’t have a child to worry about raising, but regardless, I don’t want him getting infected. Ashael’s power upgrade to my demon brands might protect me from the immobilization spell, but I’m still marked as a sea goddess sacrifice, and I’m still contagious, too.”
I squeezed her hand. “We’ll kill the witch who hexed us. That’ll reverse both spells, and we’ll both be okay.”
She squeezed back. “I know we will. And, hey, in the meantime,” her tone brightened, “I get to learn how to fight. I’ve wanted to do that for years, but Spade kept brushing me off when I’d ask him to teach me.”
“Why?” Her husband was notoriously overprotective, and the vampire world was frequently violent. Because of both, I would’ve thought Spade would be all over teaching Denise how to defend herself if she asked him.
“I think he…took it personally.” Denise sounded bemused. “Like I was implying that he wasn’t doing a good job protecting me when it wasn’t that at all. I wanted to learn how to fight for me. It had nothing to do with him or his abilities.”
