Charming (48 page)
“I don’t know how to say this politely,” I said. “But get lost.” A strange girl who looked like my dead ex? That smelled like trouble.
I kept one hand firmly on my wound and tried not to think about how my blood was slowly soaking a cheap bar napkin. It had started to snow and I blew on my other hand to try to warm it. Minneapolis was cold as Hades, but I didn’t think my aunts would expect me here.
“I know a safe place,” she said, panting a little as she caught up with me. “You’re fast. It took me a few blocks to find you.”
I swayed and stumbled and she grabbed me to help me stay upright. I moved away from her. “I can walk on my own,” I croaked.
“Suit yourself.”
We walked in silence for a moment.
She was so close that our arms brushed and I could smell her fresh citrusy scent. It didn’t seem like her. I had expected her perfume to be something that suggested smooth whiskey and rumpled sheets.
“My car’s this way,” she said.
I wasn’t sure I could trust her, but I was definitely attracted to her. It had been a long time since I’d felt anything that strongly. I shook my head to clear it.
It was the floral barrette that decided it for me. It looked like it belonged on a third-grader. I went along with her, even though my instinct warned me against it. I could pick up my Caddy in the morning. I’d made sure no one would spot it and if anyone tried to touch it, they’d regret it.
“What makes you think I need a safe place to stay?”
“The fact that you only had fifty dollars, no credit card, fake ID,” she replied. She handed me my worn leather wallet.
I shot her a look. “I had a hundred in my wallet, not fifty.”
“I wasn’t going to keep it,” she said, offended. “I wanted to see if Nyx was your real name.”
I hesitated. She was cute, more than cute really, and I barely had enough money on me for a bus ticket out of there.
“So what’s your real name?” I asked.
“What gave it away?”
I’d surprised her. Good. “You aren’t as clever as you think you are,” I said. What gave it away was that she waited a beat too long before she answered to Meadow. “What’s the con?”
“It’s not a con,” she replied. “I’ll explain in the car.”
The distant wail of sirens made my decision easy. The scenery would be better with Meadow than where the cops would take me. I seriously doubted I’d find out her real name. I didn’t really blame her. Names had power.
For instance, Nyx wasn’t my real name, either, but I had taken it after the last time Gaston had found me, and I’d grown fond of it. I’d found myself reaching for that name more than any other, giving it out as easily as normal people did their given names. Regular Joes handed out their true names like verbal party favors instead of what they really were, secrets they should guard with their lives.
We came alongside a cherry-red Lexus with a license plate that read ZOOM-ZMM.
Meadow opened the passenger door and gestured for me to get in. I slid in cautiously.
“
I
don’t give people phony names,” I told her. A lie, but she didn’t have to know that. “You were Meadow earlier. What’s your story?”
She shrugged. “My name is Elizabeth. My real name.” She looked me up and down. “You should see a doctor.”
“No doctors,” I said. She didn’t seem surprised. Was she a poor little rich girl who picked up criminals for kicks? Not that
I was a criminal, but I wasn’t the kind of boy you brought home to meet the folks, either.
“I’ll take you to the cottage.” She started the car and pulled out without bothering to look in the mirror. I winced, but it didn’t slow her down. She gripped the wheel tightly, and I noticed her long slender fingers had nails that were bitten to the quick.
She drove without fear, taking the turns on the icy road with cavalier abandon. I didn’t find it appealing, especially after she took a speed bump at fifty and my head went all fuzzy.
“Elizabeth, do you mind slowing down?” I said. I didn’t believe that she’d given me her real name this time, either, but I liked the name Elizabeth.
She didn’t answer, but she did slow down. When she turned a corner, though, jarring pain radiated out from my heart to my head. That was the last thing I remembered before I passed out.
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Chapter 1: A Blonde and a Vampire Walk into a Bar…
Interlude: The Last Interlude, I Promise
Chapter 2: If Shoving You is wrong, I Don’t Want to do Right
Chapter 3: Back to our Regularly Scheduled Deprogramming
Chapter 4: Which one of You ordered the Stake?
Chapter 5: The Norse Whisperer
Chapter 7: How to Ghoul-Proof Your Home
Chapter 9: The First Rule of Real Estate
Chapter 10: Mental Reservations for Two
Chapter 11: Blood, Bath, and Beyond
Chapter 12: All the Lonely People
Chapter 13: Geas, That’s too Bad
Chapter 14: Coming Up Snake Eyes
Chapter 15: The Lesson of The Lava Lamp
Chapter 17: Psychopomp and Circumstance
Chapter 18: You’re no Gentleman’s Club
Chapter 20: Getting a Little Chili in Here
Chapter 21: Never Get Caught with Your Pants down on a full Moon
Chapter 22: The Truck stops Here
Chapter 25: Well, There Goes That Security Deposit
Chapter 26: Boys And Their Toys
Chapter 28: Sig and I Talk Before the Vampire Thing is Done
Chapter 30: Eat, Drink, and be Wary
Chapter 31: Charge of the Night Brigade
Chapter 33: If You Battle Monsters
Chapter 34: The Shortest Chapter in the Book
Chapter 35: Once More with Feeling
Chapter 36: End with a Fang, not a Whimper
Chapter 38: All’s Well that Doesn’t… Well… End.
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2013 by Elliott James LLC
Excerpt from
Strange Fates
copyright © 2013 by Marlene Perez
Cover design by Wendy Chan
Cover photograph by Shirley Green
Cover copyright © 2013 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First ebook edition: September 2013
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ISBN 978-0-316-25338-3
