Page 27

I held my hand out and compelled the bone. It landed neatly in my palm.

“Thank you,” I said, watching her eyes grow to the size of saucers. She was a damned good actress; I had to give her that.

Turning on my heel, I walked away, her screams echoing in my head combined with the screeching of the fucking crow.

I couldn’t risk turning around. I couldn’t afford to take a single misstep. To do so meant certain death and the loss of everyone I knew. I’d lost my parents and I’d lost my wife and that was more than enough for my lifetime.

My wife’s hair was the same color as Brittney’s, a cornsilk blonde. It had been nearly the same length as well, although Brittney’s had a different texture.

The woman in the pit had the softest skin I’d ever felt, and I had to wonder if its delicate texture would decompose faster than expected, due to its uniqueness. Then I wondered if I could spell a portion and save it, keep it in a box with the couple strands of her hair I’d stolen a few nights ago when I found her in my home.

Then I remembered the woman herself was a trap. The demons would have done as much research on me as possible before they began their operation, and it was an open secret I preferred blondes. What better way to take me down?

The crow continued to fuss as I walked, and I waved my hand at it, sealing its beak shut. I couldn’t think with the commotion.

Brittney had already been in my house several times and not once had I detected any magic in her veins or any spells or sorcery lingering in her energy. The Kakians had found a way to get close to me, but their weapon was now in a hole in the ground. They had been much too close.

While I had been aware the demons had been wandering the woods and knew where I was, not a single one of them breached my house. The woman had made her way inside more than once and they would try again.

What I didn’t know was what method they would now employ, or whether I should desert this home I’d grown rather fond of. It wasn’t like I could hire a moving company or rent a storage unit, or do any of the normal, human-based activities involving relocation. The contents of my home made that impossible.

I tugged the bone fragment from my pocket and rubbed my finger over it. Brittney’s handling of the object had left a signature on it, and my heightened senses detected her DNA. She had played with it, examining it, and from what I knew of her, I had to assume she’d looked at it under a microscope and tried to figure out what made it different.

I smiled to myself as I imagined her consternation over the iridescence before her heart tripped prettily when it dawned on her that what she held was one of a kind. She had an eye for the esoteric and unusual, and I wondered if she Googled “Hausburg” after she left the university library.

When I threw the bone down into a bowl, I took a deep breath. I’d set a trap, but I almost felt like I was more of a victim than she was. My entire life was at risk and here I was, mooning over a spy.

Leaving thoughts of her behind, I marched into my kitchen and pulled a glass from the cabinet, eyeing the streaks in the dust on my countertop. One long trail from a finger reminded me of the invitation I’d recently received, for a coronation in the Second Realm, and I tried to focus on that dubious event rather than the pang in my chest.

I poured myself some blood, bemoaning my lack of anything fresh. After I drank the contents, I threw the glass down in the garbage bin, smashing the other one beneath it. I couldn’t remember why I’d taken to throwing away drinkware, but the destruction was satisfying.

After getting myself a new cup and a refill, I settled in my living room in front of the fire, letting the ambient heat warm my bones. Temperatures didn’t affect me much, but my human DNA appreciated the gesture. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t relax. The words on the pages of the book I held in my lap swirled in circles, and the concentration needed to make any sense of them just wouldn’t arrive.

Such concentration was necessary, as the tome was a mysterious and old diary about New England’s Wickford and Thorne families. The area was ripe with magic and lore, and the more I knew about such happenings, old and new, the more prepared I was for anything. Knowledge was power and this book was spelled to be difficult to read unless one could focus.

Giving up, I tossed the book on the table beside my seat and opened the Hausburg. I removed the bottle of ink and grabbed a quill and sheet of paper from my desk. Much to my delight, when I opened the well, a droplet lifted and hovered about the container. I stabbed the point of my pen into the floating liquid and quickly wrote my acceptance to the earlier invitation.

Just then, the leader of my crows flew into the room and landed on the back of the sofa. As I eyed him, he hopped from side to side, his claws lightly scratching the wood. As he bounced back and forth, he cocked his head side to side, and it appeared he was dancing. His beak was open a fraction, as if he smiled.

“Come here,” I ordered him, holding out my arm. He landed and stared up at me, his eyes glittering. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

His head bounced up and down, and I narrowed my eyes before rolling the paper and shoving it inside his outstretched beak. “Deliver this and return.”

He may or may not have shaken his rear end at me before he took his leave.

If the Kakians had meant to turn my life upside down—they’d succeeded.

The bird’s behavior did not sit right with me, and I had to wonder if Brittney bewitched him. She contained no magic, but that did not mean the demons hadn’t been able to cast a disguise.

There was also the matter of my own fascination with the woman blinding me. More than once, I’d let her live, and I was currently paying the price for that oversight. She’d waltzed right into my home, and my response was to let my desire overrule my intellect. I’d allowed her free rein to wander the building while I followed her around, drooling.

The amount of doors I’d opened hit me, and I grabbed the edge of my desk to steady myself. I had failed not only as a human but as a vampire, blinded by lust.

The injured woman I’d left helpless in a hole in the ground miles away from civilization had nearly taken me out. But that was what she deserved for trying to play with me. There was no Realm in existence where such a crime wouldn’t go unpunished.

If she had any painkillers in that little backpack of hers, all the better to draw out her suffering by letting her last longer. She wouldn’t pass out from agony but rather, she could lie there and stew.

Did she have a blanket? If she died from exposure, she wouldn’t have suffered nearly long enough.