Something Wanton (Mystics & Mayhem) (16 page)

It took a whole second for me to assess him as the Bad Boy type.  His hair was gelled into perfect waves that were meant to appear carelessly disheveled, and he was dressed from head to toe in black leather.  It molded to his muscular chest and arms like a second skin and made his long legs seem even longer.  His eyes were dancing with humor, but there was also something hard there, like he was ready to fight and would just love to have an excuse.  His beautiful face—yes, apparently
all
frigging vamps are beautiful—was marred by a scar that ran the length of his jaw line, making him appear just as dangerous as he probably was.

And how did I know he was a vampire?  Because I could sense him, sense that another predator had entered my territory.  It didn’t do much for my already boiling temper.

“
Who
is
he
?” I asked sharply, jabbing my finger toward the new guy while pinning Nathan with a vicious glare.

He had brought an
audience to yell at me?  It was bad enough that he was treating me like a child—or like the leprechaun-sized version of Godzilla who might go rampaging through Moonlight sucking the life out of its inhabitants at any moment—but it was just plain insulting that he would bring someone along to watch the show. 

In lieu of an answer, he just stood there like he didn’t quite know what to say. 

“Zander Montgomery,” the new arrival said, bowing sarcastically, breaking into the glaring contest between me and Nathan.  “My friends call me Zan; everybody else calls me…well, a lot worse.”

“Add me to that second category!”

“He’s a friend,” Nathan sighed, finally deciding he had something to say after all.  “He came to help.”

“
Like your last friend who came to help us?”  I asked cruelly.  “He’d better watch his back, then.  Look what happened to her.”

I regretted the words the second they were out of my mouth.  It was more than just the stricken look on Nathan’s face, more than the evil glare his buddy leveled at me.  It was the fact that Sierra had been my friend—kind of.  She had been a survivor for more than half a millennium, and now she was gone.  She hadn’t deserved to die the way she had.  Nobody deserved that.

“Did it escape your notice that nine witches in this area have gone missing?” the new guy drawled, earning him a glare from not only me, but Tyler and Nathan, too—which he ignored.  “I know you’re new to all this mystical shit, but surely even you can recognize the signs of a group of witch hunters at work.”

My blood froze in my veins. 
Witch hunters?  There were witch hunters in Moonlight and nobody had told me?  Did they think I wouldn’t care because I wasn’t a witch anymore?  Well, I did!  My best friends were witches.  My Grams was a witch!

“You knew, and you didn’t say anything?” I asked, my voice deceptively soft, looking from Tyler to Nathan.  “You knew this creeper was out there, that he could go after Kim and Blake, and you didn’t
tell
me?”

“Yes,” Nathan said softly.  “We’ve known for a while.  We thought, at first, that it was just a regular sweep.  They do that sometimes, hit places known to be havens for
the supernatural.”

“But they’re not,”
the new guy threw in.  “They’re looking for something
very
specific.”

“And you know this…how?” I asked, balling up my fists to keep from slapping that patronizing smirk off his
face.  “You seem to be very informed.  What?  Do you get the Creeper Newsletter or something?”

He shrugged and smiled.  “Let’s just say I know a girl who knows a guy who knows another guy…”  I growled in frustration when his voice trailed off.  The jerk had the audacity to
wink
.

“Play nice, beautiful,” Tyler said quietly when it looked like I was going to give in and slap the guy after all.  “We have a lot to talk about, and not a lot of time.  Plans have to be made, and we can’t do that if we’re fighting amongst ourselves.”

I rolled my eyes.  Leave it to Ty to play peacemaker.  “Just who are these guys looking for, anyway?”

“You,” Nathan said, watching my face.  “
Em, they’re looking for
you
.”

“Me?” I repeated, confused.  “Why would a witch hunter be looking for
me
?  I’m not a witch anymore.”

I watched Tyler’s eyes widen in surprise before he turned an accusing glare in Nathan’s direction.  Even the new guy seemed surprised by my answer.  Only Nathan seemed to understand, and the uncomfortable look on his face made me want to hit something. 

Him
.

“In case you boys didn’t get the memo
, Ember the Super Witch is gone,” I hissed. “I am a
darkling
now.  I even have the pasty skin and weird eyes to prove it.    Now, if you’ll excuse me, I don’t think I want to be here anymore.”

I was too hurt by the reminder of what I had lost to worry about how bitter I sounded.  And I sounded
really
bitter.  Fed up with stupid immortal beings in general—and the three in front of me in particular—I pushed past them and walked away before I could say anything else to make myself sound even more pathetic. 

No one tried to stop me and I didn’t know whether to be relieved or hurt.  I mean, shouldn’t they have at least tried to talk to me?  Didn’t anyone even care that I was wandering off alone when a bunch of hunters were
supposedly out to get me?

As for me, I was looking forward to having someone to take my anger and frustration out on.  If Nathan thought I was going to run and hide in a hole somewhere, he had something else coming to him.  I wasn’t hiding from anything or anyone anymore.  Come to think of it,
the only person I had ever hidden from was
myself
. 

If a bunch of weak-ass hunters wanted to find me, let them.  They were going to be in for all kinds of nasty surprises when they did, the least of which being that they were hunting someone who was no longer a witch.

“Hey, Firecracker! Wait up!”

I kept walking.  It said a lot about the state of my relationships with the two men left behind that it was a stranger chasing after me.
  Of course, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.  They had probably been thrilled to have someone to pass me off to.

“You
are
a fast one!”

I came to a screeching halt when I saw Zen or Zed or whatever his name was leaning against the stop sign at the end of the block.  His gaze was locked on my face and I felt like I was being x-rayed, the look was so intense.

“Go away,” I grumbled, trying to step around him.

He simply moved into my path.  The really annoying smirk on his face did nothing for my already simmering temper.  I went the other way, and he got in my way again.  Seeing his game for what it was, I gave up and just stood there.  The acid-producing glare I gave him should have killed him on the spot, but he didn’t seem to care that he was totally pissing me off.  The entire time I was glaring at him that same smirk stayed firmly in place on his full lips.

“What do you want?” I demanded, tossing my hair back and lifting my chin, a pose my friends would have told him meant that I wasn’t in the mood to be pleasant.

He caught a glimpse of my mark and his smirk slipped just a little, but he didn’t lose it completely.  I sympathized.  Seeing
the mark that bound Nathan and I together for the rest of time had that effect on me, too.

“Afraid I drew the short straw,” he told me, shrugging.  I sucked in a deep, hissing breath through my teeth and he chuckled.  If I found out they had actually drawn straws to see who would come after me…  “I think they’re afraid of you, Firecracker.”

“
That
would actually make them smarter than you, Zed.”

“It’s
Zan
, actually,” he corrected me.  “You know, you should really learn to control that temper of yours.  When they unbind you it could get you in a lot of trouble.”

“I’m not bound!” I yelled, throwing my hands up in frustration.   “Once again, for the mentally impaired, I’m a
darkling
!  I got all kinds of lame demonoid powers and lost all the cool witchy ones I used to have when my asshole of a boyfriend decided to call my soul back from the lost plane and only brought back
half
of me!  And the
wrong
half at that!”

The smirk disappeared from his lips like the sun before a thunderstorm.  It seemed I had found a way to get under his skin
after all.  Nathan had said they were old friends and I could see Zan was completely loyal to him.  I understood that, if I didn’t understand anything else, because Kim and I were the same way.

“Don’t talk about him that way,” Zan said, his voice low and angry.  “Do you really think you’re the only one suffering here?  You are in serious need of a reality check, little girl.  Nate’s paying the price for
your hero complex just like you are, so watch your mouth.”

Little girl?  He really had
no
idea who he was dealing with, did he?  He seemed surprised, but didn’t back away, when I took a step closer to him.  I wondered how long it had been since someone had stood up to him.  It was probably long overdue, and I was just the person to remind him what it felt like.

“Maybe he is,” I told him, my voice just as low and deadly as his had been.  “But let me tell you what it cost
me
.  It cost me my friends.  It cost me myself, because I no longer know who I am or what I want.  It cost me my powers.  It cost me my humanity.  But worse than all of that, it cost me
him.
  I lost him that night as surely as I lost my heartbeat or my nice little witchy abilities.  How is
that
for a reality check, asshole?”

He frowned at me, and I thought I saw a glimmer of understanding in his eyes before he did a complete turnaround and was smirking at me again.  Confused by his reaction, I gave up and pushed my way past him.  To my surprise, he actually let me.

Now, if he had just melted into the sidewalk and left me alone I would have been ecstatic.  But, because the Bad Karma Fairy hates me and thinks I should suffer incessantly, he didn’t.

“You know,” he said conversationally, falling in step beside me like
we
were old friends.  “You remind me of someone.”

“Is that right?” I muttered, rolling my eyes.  “Maybe we met in another life—and I probably didn’t like you then, either.”

He chuckled.  “Have you ever met
anyone
who intimidated you, Firecracker?”

“Not really.”  He gave me a skeptical look, and I shrugged.  “Let’s just say I’m not that easily impressed.”

“No, I guess you wouldn’t be,” he mumbled under his breath.  I didn’t care enough to want to know what that was supposed to mean, so I didn’t ask.  When he decided I wasn’t going to fall into his trap, he changed tactics.  “I can see why Nathan is so fascinated with you.  You have this…energy about you.  Hell, even I’m not immune to it.  And from what I saw of your other buddy back there, he’s so wrapped up in it he can’t see straight.”

“Tyler’s an ass,” I grumbled, wondering why that description seemed to fit every male I met except Blake—and even he had his moments.  “You two should be best friends in no time.”

I rolled my eyes when he laughed, then decided to just ignore him.  The idea was that if I didn’t talk to him he would just go away.  But, like most of my ideas, it didn’t quite work.  I really tried to ignore his running commentary on Moonlight, but I couldn’t completely tune him out. 

“This is a nice town you have here,” he said, checking out the old houses and ancient oaks that lined the street we were walking down.  “
I’ve never been to Moonlight.  I prefer the city to the country—more to do, you know.”

“Nobody’s keeping you here,” I sighed, wishing he would just go away already.  “Feel free to leave whenever you get ready.  God knows
I
won’t miss your company.”

“Give me time.  I’ll grow on you.”

I snorted skeptically, thinking he was delusional.  I would be more likely to give
mold
a chance to grow on me than this egotistical, snobbish, overbearing vampire.

“You don’t believe me?” Zan asked, smirking again.  “Just wait.  You’ll see.  I’ll win you over with my boyish charm.”

Yep.  Totally delusional.

Still, as he kept up his chatter, I found myself relaxing with him.  When he spotted batty old Mrs. Imogen, the local nut, wandering around her yard talking to nothing and nobody at the top of her lungs, and commented on how charmingly her broke-down old carpet slippers matched her multi-colored tent of a housecoat, I couldn’t keep my lips from twitching just a little.

“She smiles!” he exclaimed, clutching at his chest like the shock was just too much for him.  “And a really beautiful smile it is, too!  You should do it more often.  On second thought, don’t.  I think I might fall in love and start acting as pathetic as Nate if you do.”

I knew he was full of it, but it was nice to have someone notice something as simple as my smile rather than my new darkling status. Once he shut up, he was downright pleasant to be around.  We spent the rest of the walk home in silence, but it wasn’t awkward anymore.  It was calming, actually, walking with someone who wasn’t
depressed or angry, and I found myself slowly but surely letting my anger go.

The welcoming committee waiting for me at home killed whatever good feelings I
’d managed to find.  I sighed as we rounded the corner and I saw that all the usual suspects were waiting for me.  In addition to Nathan’s car, Blake’s truck was in the driveway, meaning Kim was there too, and Tyler’s Jeep was parked behind it.

And then I caught sight of my worst nightmare.  Grams was waiting at the window, her arms crossed over her chest and an expression on her face that reminded me distinctly of clouds right before a mega-thunderstorm.  Suddenly, my morning didn’t seem so bad.  Compared to the drama waiting for me in that house, it had been smooth sailing, dead girl or no dead girl.

“You know, we’re gonna have to go in there eventually,” Zan said, sounding way too sympathetic for my liking, when I just stood there staring at Grams through the window.  “Better to go ahead and get it over with, right?”

If he said so.  Personally, I was ready to run the other direction.  Dealing with Grams when she was just being Grams was bad enough.  Dealing with Grams when she was pissed… I would have rather walked in front of a bus. 

But he was right.  I couldn’t just stand on the sidewalk forever.  For one, I hadn’t brought extra clothes or enough Nexus.  For another, I didn’t have anywhere else to go. 

“Come on, let’s face the Inquisition,” I muttered, striding toward the house.

Zan followed me across the street willingly enough.  I had to stop before I opened the door, though, praying for a little more patience than I felt like I had.  If I was lucky, I could just escape to my room and avoid the demands for explanations I didn’t have.  Hell, I wouldn’t even have known where to
start
.

Yeah, I wasn’t
that lucky.  You’re
so
surprised, right?

“Where have you been?” Grams demanded in a near roar the second I walked through the door.  “Do you have any idea what could have happened to you?”

“Nope,” I told her, shrugging and dropping my bag by the counter. 
And I really don’t care anymore,
I thought.  I didn’t say it, but I wanted to.  “Don’t worry, Grams, Nathan made sure I had a guard dog.  He didn’t bother doing it himself, but all’s well that ends well, right?”

“Anything?” Nathan asked quietly. 

“I thought I felt something a couple of miles from here, but it was gone before I could pinpoint it,” Zan said, leaning against the counter on his elbows and examining the people who had been waiting for us with keen interest.  “Nice little army you have here.”

“Be quiet, Zander!” Grams snapped, still zeroing in on me as her prime target.  “Ember, I insist that you explain yourself!”

Explain what?  Explain that I had tried to be human again only to find myself in yet another true-life horror story?  Explain that I was sick of being stuck in the house when I was supposed to be enjoying my senior year with my friends?  Explain that my boyfriend wouldn’t come near me with a ten foot pole?  If she wanted me to explain things to her, she really needed to be more specific.

I didn’t dare say that out loud, though.  She was mad enough already.  Instead, I sat down and started digging through my bag for another syringe.  Without meeting anyone’s eyes, I popped the little orange top off and stuck it in my thigh through my tights, moaning inwardly as the drug inside helped ease the ever-present shriveling of my veins that had been getting worse and worse over the last hour.

“Now, Ember!” Grams yelled, finally at the end of her patience.

“What do you want to know?” I yelled back, all the anger I thought I had gotten control of on the walk home rearing back up and blinding me with a wash of red.  “I didn’t do anything wrong! 
I went to school!  God forbid!”

The kitchen was
so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.  Kim seemed shocked and Blake looked more than a little apprehensive.  Tyler just let out a sad little sigh, like he had expected the confrontation to go badly and I had lived up to his expectations with style.  Nathan was staring at his feet, one hand shoved in his pocket, hiding his eyes from me completely.  And Zan looked… kind of impressed, actually.

Grams’ reaction really hurt me.  Her face went chalk white, and she slumped into the chair next to her, her hands trembling.  I blinked hard against the burning of tears that would never fall when I realized she was afraid.  My own grandmother was afraid of me.  I knew it was my own fault, that I hadn’t controlled the darkness in my voice and that my eyes were probably glowing like neon-blue party lanterns, but it still hurt.

Nathan reached for me as I ran past him, but I dodged him and kept going.  I didn’t stop until I slammed the door of my room behind me and slid down the surface of it, effectively blocking it with my own body.  Then, not knowing what else to do, I just sat there, wishing with everything I had that I could cry.  I would have given what was left of me to shed just one single tear.  Just one little drop of the pressure in my chest that was making it damn near impossible to breathe.

I looked around me, desperate to focus on something besides the memory of the fear in Grams’ eyes.  The dark,
modern furniture gleamed in the weak sunlight filtering through the drapes.  There was a pile of clothes at the foot of the bed where I had tried on and discarded several outfits while trying to decide what to wear for my return to the land of the living.  My books were stacked by the bed with my iPod laying on top of them, waiting for my return.

I just didn’t want to
be
there anymore.  I wanted to be anywhere else.  It wasn’t just the room, it was the whole house and the vampire I was sharing it with.  It was everything, even me.  Maybe if I could just get away, go somewhere else for a while, it wouldn’t be so hard to get my life back under control.