DARLENE DREAMT of immense power. She controlled any spirit that passed by her. They would bend to her will and do whatever she requested. The thrill of it made her feel more alive than she ever had before, even if she was in the world of the dead.
Then someone tugged on her skirt. Darlene looked down to see a young boy. She had seen him before, in a dream over a month ago, calling out to her. He looked normal enough, with blond hair cut close to his head and big blue eyes. He wore a torn, muddy soccer uniform.
“He’s coming,” the boy warned.
Darlene frowned and reached out for him, but he slid through her fingertips like water. He faded away, leaving her alone.
Darlene’s eyes opened slowly. A loud noise can be heard from outside her apartment. She could hear people talking. Groggily, she looked over at her alarm clock, which showed it was a little past eight in the morning. She had hoped to get another couple hours of sleep in before the start of her shift at the bookshop.
She rubbed her eyes, thinking back to the dream she had. The dreams were growing more vivid lately. Darlene was starting to think they weren’t even dreams but something more. Maybe she truly was in the other world while she slept. She decided she’d have to see Rosamund and ask if that was even possible.
Darlene sat up and was surprised to see the drowned woman peeking into her room. She only left the bathroom in times of emergency. Her milky white eyes made Darlene wish she could go back to bed.
Instead, she asked, “What is it?”
Darlene knew almost nothing about the drowned woman. She was hesitant to speak and was loyal to Darlene because she could see her and interact with her – apparently saving her from a terrible life of no one ever seeing her roaming spirit again. Her clothes were too ruined for Darlene to think of any time period that they could belong to. She had decided not to pry into the drowned woman’s old life and merely accept the fact she had a roommate who lived in her bathroom.
“Your neighbor was killed,” the drowned woman told her.
Darlene frowned. The apartment next to her on the right was empty, which meant… Her eyebrows shot up. The other apartment was home to the old lady who was constantly and consistently a pain in Darlene’s ass. She would gripe about any and all noises Darlene made and threatened to call the police on a daily basis. However, lately, she had been bragging about having a boyfriend, which seemed to thrill her.
Darlene began to get out of bed. “Are you serious? Do you know anything else?”
“The body is unsightly.”
Darlene didn’t want to know what that meant. She put her hair up hastily and tugged a sweater on. It was winter now and even though the sun was out, it was sure to be chilly. Darlene opened the door to the hallway and found a swarm of police officers as well as paramedics.
One of the cops saw her and tried to block her from going into the old woman’s apartment. “Ma’am, please step back inside your home.”
“What happened?” Darlene asked, playing dumb as best as she could.
“Ma’am, please, go back inside.”
Darlene tore her gaze away from the front of the old woman’s apartment and looked at the young officer. “Is she okay?”
“Ma’am, an officer will be by to question you later. Please go back inside until this area is all clear.”
The paramedics left the woman’s apartment, carrying out the stretcher, which had a white sheet over it. Darlene’s heart pounded. She was transfixed. The police officer was irritated, trying to get her back into her apartment. As Darlene took a step back, the old lady’s hand slid out from under the sheet, and Darlene’s breath caught in her throat. Along her wrist were bite marks – clearly a vampire’s.
“Fine, I’m going,” she snapped suddenly, stepping back into her apartment and shutting the door, catching her breath.
The drowned woman floated over to her, concern on her features. “Did you see the corpse?”
“I saw her wrist. Vampire bite marks. What did you see?”
The woman looked sad. “Wounds that matched those of one given by a werewolf.”
Darlene felt as if her heart was going to pop.
***
“When I said get a normal job, I didn’t mean here with me.” Maria looked at Idris, her thick glasses making her eyes look like an insect’s.
Idris shifted his weight uncomfortably. He hadn’t thought this all the way through. That seemed to be his biggest problem regarding everything. His wrist began to itch, which it did whenever he was stressed and was being reminded of his own Exsul status. Maria never seemed to be bothered by her own Exsul tattoo, but she had been Exsul a lot longer.
That was the entire reason why Idris started visiting Maria. It had been two months since the debacle with Atticus, Liara and Darlene. In one fell swoop, he had blown up everything in his life.
His relationship with Darlene had crumbled and burned in front of his eyes, by his own hand. He had pushed her away and then lashed out in such a disgusting manner that she was now dating Mark, the leader of Roman’s old pack.
Atticus, the man who had Changed him, a maggot on the planet, had somehow infested his way back into Idris’s life. Idris had let him and the fault was with him. Atticus promised him a pack, which was the only thing Idris wanted back. Instead, he lost all sense of himself and who he was. He had ended Atticus’s life, but at that point, the damage had been done.
Liara still treated him with respect, which Idris felt he didn’t deserve. Yes, he had stopped Atticus from killing her, but he still had gotten upset when she refused to support their Exsul pack idea. As Idris recovered in the hospital, Liara had come to see him and said that she forgave him. She was forever a better person than he was. Before Liara left, she told Idris to forgive himself and work to be a better person.
Idris had taken her words seriously. The first thing he had done once he got out of the hospital was get out of that disgusting motel room he had been holed up in since Lucian went missing. He rented a small bachelor’s pad on the opposite side of town, away from Darlene, in case he suddenly felt like seeing her. The next thing he did was take Darlene’s advice and went to see Maria.
Maria had been an Exsul for a long time and used magic to hide herself from other werewolves, although it hadn’t been strong enough for Liara. Idris had treated her like trash when he had found out about her Exsul status, something he had been too embarrassed to admit. But Maria was able to make a life for herself outside of the pack, now owning a book store that specialized in books no one wanted. If she could be content as an Exsul, why couldn’t he?
“Speak up, boy.” Maria crossed her arms – she was always tough on him, but in a motherly way that Idris never had as a kid.
“I don’t have enough experience to get hired anywhere else,” he mumbled, abashed.
“What did you do for work before this?”
Idris shrugged. “I fixed cars whenever I was able to find the work. Sometimes I protected people, like a body guard. Before all of this happened and I was second-in-command to Lucian, I helped him run his hardware store.”
“So go work at a hardware store.”
Idris cringed. “I…tried. The interview didn’t go so well.”
Understatement of the year. When the guy interviewing him role played as a difficult customer, Idris found himself irritated until he finally told the guy to Google what he wanted if he didn’t want to listen to him.
Maria sighed, her bangles on her wrists clattering together. “Idris, you know why I don’t want you working here.”
He did. Darlene still worked here and having an ex-couple working together was something that made Maria nervous. It made Idris nervous, too, but there was no way anyone else would hire him with a blank resume where all his references were dead or paranormal.
“Can’t I work in the back?”
“The back? You mean the closet where we put extra books?” Her face softened. “I’ll ask around for you, okay?”
“Thanks, Maria.”
“What are your plans for today?” It was the daily question she asked him, either by text or in person, to try to get Idris’s head on straight.
“I planned on going to go to the library. Read there. Try to relax. I used to like to read. As a kid, I mean. Before everything happened.”
Maria nodded in approval and opened her mouth to speak when the door to the bookshop opened. Idris turned around and saw Darlene fly in. Idris tried to control the way his heart beat quickly when he saw her. You messed up and you don’t deserve her. He prepared himself for Darlene’s glare when she saw him, but she barely glanced at him as she ran up to Maria.
“Jacob,” she breathed. “He’s back.”
Maria stiffened. Idris’s breath caught in his throat. Jacob – Lucian’s vampire/werewolf hybrid who had escaped the night Lucian was killed. There had been no sign of him. Idris assumed Lucian’s plan had failed and Jacob was dead somewhere. Darlene recounted the story quickly, ending with what her ghost had told her. Maria paced the floor.
Idris spoke first, although he loathed to do so. “Didn’t she…” He realized he still didn’t know her name.
“Gertrude, apparently,” Darlene answered for him.
“Didn’t Gertrude have a boyfriend recently?”
He hadn’t wanted to bring that up, for the mere fact that Gertrude was the reason Idris had found out about Darlene running to Mark. But if that stirred up any memories for Darlene, it didn’t show on her face.
“That’s right. You don’t think it could be Jacob, do you? I never saw him around but…Who else would be close enough to get to her?”
“Were there any clues in the apartment that could have been left for you?” Maria asked.
Darlene shrugged. “If so, there was nothing overt. Otherwise the cops would have been all over me again, like with Rebecca.”
Idris chewed on his lip, thinking. “The only other person who was in on Lucian’s plan was Vivica. And has anyone seen her lately?”
Darlene and Maria shook their heads. Idris hadn’t seen her either, not since the night that Darlene had to stake Rebecca and Vivica had been so consumed with getting Idris back she had orchestrated his battle with Roman. There hadn’t been any peep from her since. While that was a blessing, it was also worrisome. Vivica was not one to stay idle for long. Idris hadn’t thought of her much since Atticus and the aftermath, but now that Jacob was back, a sick feeling formed in his stomach.
“I’m going to look for her in the catacombs,” he said. “Maybe your ghost can help you get into Gertrude’s apartment?”
Darlene nodded. “Good idea. I should wear gloves though, shouldn’t I? I don’t want anything of mine left at the crime scene.”
Idris looked at Maria, who nodded gently at him to go and find Vivica. He zipped up his jacket, getting ready to go out in the cold. As he walked toward the door, Darlene called to him. He stopped.
“Be careful.”
“You, too.”
He headed out toward his truck.