AllFreeNovel
Share Us
How stupid that I’d let myself get swept up into a hex battle. It felt childish in retrospect, but before, it had been about more than that. I’d gone to see Trixie this morning simply because I’d wanted to see her again. She’d started the hexing game; I was just continuing it.
I sniffed the air, still not sensing any signs that Trixie had returned to her apartment. I’d been catching whiffs of her roommate moving around all evening, so I knew for a fact that the windows were open in Trixie’s apartment. Emmy was brewing some potion that smelled like strawberries and unicorn hair, and I really didn’t want to know the details.
Pouring myself another glass of bourbon from the almost empty bottle next to me, I tapped my fingers. Vampires could hold their alcohol well, but even so, I’d been drinking since Belinda had stopped responding to my texts and I was starting to feel it. I hadn’t been drunk in decades.
I was just preparing to send myself to bed before I acted on a stupid idea—like maybe going down to the seventh floor and knocking on Trixie’s door to see if she’d made it home safely—when I smelled it.
Blood. Fresh blood. Judging by the way the scent rose all the way up to the penthouse, it was a lot of blood. I was on my feet in a flash. I could tell the blood belonged to a female. Based on personal experience, I knew the female didn’t have much blood left to lose before her death.
I took the stairs in seconds. Flew through the back door in a breath. The smell of blood just about bowled me over as I hurtled into the alley and saw her. A woman, all right—pretty brunette hair, slight figure, jeans and a sweatshirt, sprawled face-first on the ground.
“Trixie,” I roared, and threw myself at the body, ignoring the pool of blood on the ground despite every one of my instincts telling me to drink, drink, drink.
“Trixie, baby,” I groaned. “Stay with me. Stay with me, honey, I’ll fix you.”
But already, I knew it was too late. There was no heartbeat, no subtle rise and fall of the chest. No signs of life whatsoever.
I rolled her over gently, and as I did, I hated myself for the wash of relief when I realized that the blank face staring back at me didn’t belong to Trixie. I’d never seen this woman before. Never smelled her. It wasn’t her.
It was a shock to my system how blinded I’d been that I’d missed all the cues. If I’d just paused up in the penthouse, I would’ve realized the blood I smelled didn’t belong to Trixie. I knew how she smelled. But I’d panicked.
None of my logical impulses had fired when I’d caught the smell of blood. Nothing about my response had been strategic. A dead female near my apartment, with the knowledge that Trixie wasn’t home yet, and I’d flown off the handle, a nervous wreck that it was her.
I breathed heavily, checked for any sign of life on the mystery woman. If I could’ve done anything to save her, I would’ve. I would’ve turned her immortal, gave her my blood to heal—hell, I would’ve performed CPR. But the poor thing was too far gone.
I gently closed her eyes and took a step back. I flicked my phone open, made a call to the police and reported the body.
As I spoke, my eyes scanned her figure. My brain was starting to function again now that I’d processed Trixie wasn’t dead. I hadn’t known how much that meant to me until this very moment.
I leaned in closer, noting the obvious stab wound to the woman’s chest. That had definitely contributed to her bleeding out, but as I squinted, I could tell it was just a cover.
There were two fang marks in her neck, barely discernible. The marks of an experienced vampire. Marks from my brother.
I had no doubt this was Sebastian’s morbid way of leaving me a message. A woman who vaguely resembled Trixie left for dead directly beneath my penthouse? It wasn’t an accident.
I hung up, waited until the cops arrived, then gave my statement. When they let me go, I dragged myself up to the seventh floor. I didn’t pause to consider whether anyone was sleeping as I knocked on the door.
Emmy opened it, her eyes magnified behind huge goggles that made her look like a fish. “Yes? Oh, it’s you. Something going on out there? I saw some flashing lights.”
“Something,” I rasped. “Is Trixie home?”
“No.”
“Where is she?”
“Why?” Emmy frowned at me.
“I’ve got a message for her.”
“Do you want her phone number? Don’t you have it yet?”
“I will find her if you don’t tell me. I need to make sure she’s safe.”
Emmy gave me a skeptical glance. “You’re lucky that I think you’re in love with her, or I’d never share her whereabouts. That, and you’re a scary rich vampire who could find her anyway, so there’s no point really in fighting you on it. Just don’t hurt her, okay? Promise me.”
“That’s the least of my intentions.”
Emmy rolled her eyes like I was doing a terrible job of not hurting her friend. “Trixie is staying at her grandmother’s house tonight up in Crystal Rivers. She had a rough day and needed a break from city life. You wouldn’t know anything about that rough day, would you?”
