Cherry Blossom (Vampire Cherry Book 2) (12 page)

I don’t need to breathe, but I felt suffocated by his proximity. I forced a smile. “All’s well that ends well. And now we know Ruby’s potion has started working, so that’s something.”

Also, I was now certain he was lying. Asking him about it wouldn’t help, when the lie had spilled out so easily, so I had to watch him and pray he had good reason to keep the truth from me.

Alex grinned, our previous discussion already forgotten. “Does that mean we can have a picnic?”

“It still wears off too fast, but in a couple of days…”

“Good.” He pulled me to him for a kiss that lasted a couple seconds more than was appropriate in front of company. By the time we parted, Constantine was no longer in the basement.

We were in the kitchen, having a civilized meal with my parents, and all I could think about was how Alex had lied. I couldn’t fathom the reason. What could have been so bad about his dream that he was afraid to share it with me?

I tried to make sense of what I’d seen in the clearing, but something kept nudging at the back of my mind.

He’d been walking, not wandering. He’d meant to go to that specific spot. Sure, it was possible he remembered it from our search for Willoughby the night before. He was a cop, and trained to be perceptive and remember details. But had one short jaunt through the woods been sufficient for him to memorize the path? Even the stupid log he’d sat on? He hadn’t stumbled once.

I needed to look up how sleepwalking worked. Maybe he was actually seeing the scenery around him, and I was just driving myself crazy for no reason.

“Want some more pasta salad?”

“Huh? Yeah, thanks.” I lifted my plate for Alex to serve me two more heaps of the yummy combination of pasta, smocked tuna, corn, carrot, dill, and capers—with enough mayo to clog the arteries of the humans at the table.

He studied my face. “Are you all right? You haven’t said a word since we sat down.”

Dad piped in, always to the rescue even after all the years I wasn’t around to be his little girl. “She’s probably still excited about walking in the sun. It’s been a while.”

It really had, and I didn’t even have time to enjoy its warm caress on my face. Not with Alex being a weird robot from planet Weirdo.

The thought I couldn’t quite form glided just past the edge of my conscious mind. I tried to snatch it, but it swam away, fast as lightning. Stupid thought.

“Yeah, everything’s been so overwhelming.” I smiled at Alex and gave his hand a light squeeze, before turning my full attention to the food. “This is really good.”

Mom beamed. “I knew you’d like it. And I have ice cream for after.”

It was a lucky thing we couldn’t gain weight after our death. Not so lucky that we couldn’t lose any, but oh well.

“Are you going to look for that man again tonight?” Mom always had a way of making things sound normal. The homicidal vampire who’d turned me and left Alex for dead was now ‘that man.’ Just as Ádísa was ‘that horrible woman,’ and I was still alive.

Alex’s fork hovered in front of his mouth for a second too long. He didn’t like the idea. Maybe a confrontation with Willoughby scared him. Maybe that was what the dream and his irregular behavior had been about.

Sadly, I was sure he’d been enjoying himself at that clearing.

Worse, I was afraid whatever he kept from me was sinister. Something he wanted to keep to himself, not to protect me from.

My phone rang in my pocket. I was entirely too willing to let it go to voicemail, but it might be something important. I pulled it out. Constantine’s home number.

“Everything okay?” It would be Sheena. I couldn’t imagine Wesley or any of the vampettes calling me instead of Constantine.

“Here yes. There…not so sure.” I could picture one perfectly shaped black eyebrow arched in reproach.

“We’re managing.” I pushed my chair back. “I’ll be right back,” I said to my table companions, and went to the living room. The more distance between me and the other vampires, the better the chances they wouldn’t listen in on my conversation. They both supposedly had better manners than that, but I wanted to keep my ass covered in any case.

“Alex is being weird,” I whispered in the receiver, once I was reasonably sure of my privacy.

“Maybe he’s sniffed out Willoughby,” Sheena said. “Wesley told me to call you. He tried tall-blond-and gorgeous, but the call wouldn’t go through. We got word your maker is there, and planning something nasty.” She pronounced the word as nay-stee, pouring gallons of distaste into it.

I knew she used theatrics to cover her fear of him. He’d threatened to kill her more than once, after all.

“Do we know specifics?” I asked. “Like maybe where he’s staying?”

“Do you want his bank account number too? No, we don’t know specifics. We just know there have been sightings of a tall, dark, and handsome vampire terrorizing that area. Resident vampires have taken it upon themselves to clean after him, but nobody wants to go up against him.”

One sentence had spawned a myriad questions. I decided to start with what I deemed as most important. “Terrorizing? There have been more attacks than the one we know of? Are the victims dead?”

“Don’t know who you know of.”

“A young redheaded woman.”

Sheena blew out her breath noisily. “Hon, he’s attacked three young women, and they’re all redheads. Good news is they’re alive, and the vampires of the area have made sure they don’t remember their attacker.”

So much for the red hair being a coincidence. It’s impossible for us to get migraines, but I swore a spot behind my left eye throbbed. I pressed the heel of my hand against my temple, willing away the phantom pain. “Why?”

“Because there would be chaos, if the whole town knew undead monsters walked among them? Why do you think?”

I wanted to return her snappishness, but reminded myself it wasn’t Sheena I wanted to kill. Slowly, as if talking to a child, I said, “No, I mean why does he leave them alive, and not bother to alter their memories? That’s not his usual MO.”

“Maybe he wants to cause chaos? How should I know how a psycho vampire thinks? Just, please stay safe.”

“I will.” I was about to hang up the phone, when another question popped up. “Sheena, how do they know it’s him?”

She snorted. “He’s the only vampire unaccounted for in the census, and the description matches his.”

“Is tall, dark, and handsome all they’ve got? What about his clothes? The color of his eyes, maybe?”

“I have to check up on that, but I think Wesley said he looks casual and inconspicuous. Nothing that sticks out too much. I’ll get back to you on the clothes—and I doubt anyone got close enough to see his
eyes
, Cherry.”

My fingers went numb, and I almost dropped the phone. Casual was not a word that would ever describe my maker. It did, however, fit another tall, dark, and handsome
unregistered
vampire. “No need.” I tried to sound calm, but my voice shook. “Won’t make a difference anyway. We know whom to look for.”

But did we?

“Call me if there’s any development,” Sheena said. “And tell Constantine to check in more often. Mini-yous are having withdrawals, and it’s like PMSing to the power of bitch.”

I laughed, but my heart wasn’t into it. “I’ll tell him. Talk soon, babe.”

“And call me if you manage that threesome.”

This time my laugh was a little more real. I hung up and turned around.

Constantine leaned against the wall. Vampires can be stealthy, but it still amazed me how a man his size could move around so quietly. He was close enough to touch, and I just bet he’d heard Sheena’s naughty parting words.

Fuck.

Or not, if I didn’t want Alex to kill us both.

The thought sobered me. Alex and killing was nothing to joke about. Not if my train of thought wasn’t widely derailed.

“I need to talk to you,” I said to Constantine in a hushed tone. “But not here.”

“Are you going to try and lure me into the threesome your friend mentioned?” His voice was as quiet as mine. “You know I won’t need much convincing, but I’m rather certain your boyfriend will be less open-minded.”

So he wasn’t going to let that drop. Eh, I was still free to bypass it. “Something is seriously wrong. Maybe we can find some way to sneak away for a few, later? I don’t want Alex to hear.”

He shrugged. “Then speak freely. His mother called, and he stepped outside to take it.”

I inhaled deeply—I may not need air to survive, but I need it to speak, and I had to get the words out fast. Before love and loyalty stifled them, and risked everything and everyone around me. “I think it’s Alex. I think he’s the one attacking women.”

Constantine arched an eyebrow. “Your gallant knight? What makes you say that?”

“I don’t have specific proof. Just a gut feeling. He’s been acting weird. Hiding things, bringing up obstacles to finding Willoughby... Remember he was the first to say we shouldn’t go see Willoughby’s victim at the hospital? Maybe he was afraid she’d recognize him. And according to Sheena, Wesley spoke to someone who said Willoughby has attacked two more redheads in the area. Only he doesn’t wipe their memories. The locals do.”

And who were the local vampires in San Luis Obispo? How come I hadn’t noticed any nocturnal neighbors when I still lived here?

Then again, I hadn’t noticed my
grandmother
was a vampire—or that she was even my grandmother.

“Willoughby must have a reason for doing that. To create panic, possibly, or draw out the local undead population for whatever purpose. What does that have to do with Alex?”

“Your spies only think the vampire doing it is Willoughby because of his physical description, and ’cause he’s the only one whose whereabouts aren’t recorded in the census.”

“So…?”

“They said he’s—as Sheena put it—casual and inconspicuous.”

“That would be out of character for Willoughby. He is a pretentious prick, after all.” The words were ironic, coming from someone who lived in a mansion, but at least Constantine deigned to wear jeans and a T most days.

“Also, kind of important, Alex isn’t even
in
the census,” I said, pulling my thoughts away from Constantine’s stylistic choices.

Constantine pursed his lips. “What you’re suggesting is highly improbable. We—You’ve been with the man near constantly.”

“Except for when he sleepwalked. What if he’s done it before?”

“He hasn’t back home. He’d have burned to a crisp. Even if he’d found a way around that before the potion, there are alarm systems in place at the mansion. He couldn’t have wandered off.”

“Plus we’d have heard about more attacks,” I muttered. “It doesn’t make sense. Why here? What triggered his sleepwalking?”

“It could still be a stand-alone event, Cherry.” Constantine gave me a smile that would have been reassuring if I didn’t know him enough to make out the doubt in his eyes. “He could have dreamed of something that made him walk to the woods.”

I huffed and blew my bangs out of my face. “It’s more than that. I know it. Something has gotten to him.” Could be the same something that had toned down Constantine’s sarcasm since we got to my hometown. My family? The sense of belonging…or not?

“If that’s the case, what has changed in his circumstances? Think, Cherry.”

“If it’s not late-onset fear of commitment, it could be Ruby’s potion. He could be allergic, or something.” Fuck, I really didn’t want the potion to be at fault. I wanted us to keep taking it.

“I somehow doubt it’s either.” Constantine inched closer to me, and traced his thumb along the wall, right by my shoulder. I sensed his need to touch me, but couldn’t allow myself the comfort of his touch.

I took a step back. “Whatever it is, we have to watch him. Constantly. I think whatever he’s dreaming of is making him dangerous. Maybe it’s just that he won’t drink blood. Maybe his subconscious craves it, and he goes after humans in his sleep.”

He dropped his hand and nodded.

“Honey?” Mom’s voice came from the kitchen. “Will you get the boys and come back to the table? It’s dessert time.”

“Sure, Mom,” I called back. To Constantine I said, “At least there have been no fatalities, right?”

“Right.” There was sorrow in Constantine’s gaze. The kind I’d expect to accompany really bad news. I was grateful when he said nothing else.

I exited the house from the back door and rounded the side toward the front porch. Alex wasn’t there. I backtracked and checked the other side. Nothing. He wasn’t in the shed either.

I could feel panic rising inside me with every minute that passed. “Alex? Where are you?” I called out. Constantine came up behind me. “Can you try his cell phone?” I asked.

“Already on it.” He brought the phone to his ear, but a moment later shook his head. “Straight to voicemail.”

“Shit. What if he heard us? He must be devastated, thinking he might be the one who hurt those women.” I started to take off, but Constantine was next to me in a flash.

He grabbed my forearm and held me in place. “Cherry, there’s one possibility we haven’t considered.”

“What?” I was barely listening, needing to go after Alex immediately, before he did something stupid, or Willoughby found him and decided to finish what he’d started.

Constantine shook me lightly, until I met his gaze. “His actions may not have been subconscious,” he said.

“What are you talking about?” I didn’t know my voice could be pitched so high. Why was he stalling me? I’d lost Alex before, when my maker had bled him to the brink of death and left him for me to find. I couldn’t let it happen again.

“Cherry, there’s a chance Alex didn’t run because he found out what he’s been doing, but because we did!”