Craved (12 page)

I tapped Fiona’s cheek, trying to wake
her, but she didn’t even stir. I checked her pulse and was relieved
to feel the slow thump of her heartbeat. Aiden was peeking out of
the curtain so I stood up and joined him. Women in short skirts and
bras were carrying trays of what looked like shot glasses through
the crowd. Each person took a glass and threw back the liquid. As
soon as their glasses were empty, they dropped them to the floor
and within seconds, their eyes turned the bright blue I had seen
before.

“Is it
brew
?” I asked Aiden.

“Has to be, I don’t know of any blood
that would turn a vampires’ eyes that color.”

The situation just went to hell in a
hand basket. I had no clue how the three of us were going to get
out of a club full of vampires tripping on witches’ blood. I could
phone Micah and have him call for the cavalry, but I wasn’t sure if
even they would be able to handle all of these vampires. I had no
clue how brew affect vampires. It seemed it turned them into
salivating monsters.

“Can you make yourself and Fiona
invisible? Aiden asked. I gave him an unbelievable look.

“Sorry, no I forgot my cloak of
invisibility at home,” I told him sarcastically, “What do I look
like, Harry Potter?” I know he was trying to think of an easy exit,
but my sarcasm boiled to the surface whenever I felt backed into a
corner.

“I’d love to hear any ideas you have,”
he snapped back. I thought for a couple of minutes and realized I
could use magic to remove us from the premises.

“I might not be able to make us
invisible, but I can use glamour,” I told him. Now it was his turn
to give me an unbelievable look.

“Glamour doesn’t work on vampires,
Gwen,” he said, as if I were a child he was explaining colors
to.

“Not that kind of glamour, glamour as
in appearance. I can change what we look like to them.”

As far as ideas went, it
was the best we had. I got to work, starting with Fiona. I
channeled my magic and waved my hands over her body, envisioning
her as a young man with skin the color of creamed coffee.
Instantly, Fiona’s skin started to darken and her feminine features
turned masculine. It only took a couple of minutes before
Fiona
looked like
a
Frank
.

We heard footsteps coming closer, so I
pushed Aiden onto the other couch and waved my hand over his
eyes.

“What…?,” he exclaimed, but I shook my
head to tell him to be quiet. I magicked his eyes to change to the
electric blue, blending in with the tripped-out vamps, and then I
changed my eyes to match. I straddled his lap and planted a kiss
onto his surprised lips. He was hesitant at first, but that quickly
faded and he began to kiss me back with a different kind of
hunger.

The curtain was pulled back
and I turned to face our intruders. To them, we just looked like
two vampires tripping on
brew
and taking advantage of our so-called high. Two
women stumbled inside, their eyes bright blue. They giggled and
smiled at what they saw, but didn’t leave. They lazily walked over
to the couch and plopped themselves down, next to Aiden and
me.

“Care for more company?” The first
girl asked. She looked to be in her mid to late thirties. Her hair
was cut in a pixie style and bright purple. Her clothing looked
like it had been pulled straight from a 80s movie: denim skirt,
fishnet stockings that were ripped in various places, and a sweater
that had the top cut to hang off her shoulders.

“I don’t share,” I told them with as
much aggression as I could scrape up. 80s girl began to stroke
Aiden’s arm while the other girl, who had been quiet, began to rub
my leg.

“Why don’t you ask him what he
wants?”

Aiden looked at me and then helped me
off his lap. He gave me one last kiss before turning his attention
back to the trollop twins. They smiled at him and licked their lips
while I stared, dumbfounded. I didn’t know what Aiden was going to
do, but if he so much as touched one of them, I’d zap his
ass.

He moved so quickly that all I saw was
a blur of motion and then the limp bodies of the two girls, their
necks in an awkward position.

“You killed them?”

“I had to, Gwen; they saw what we
looked like. If I let them live, it would put you at risk and I’m
not going to let that happen,” he said, his voice lacking
regret.

I stared at the two limp bodies in
shock. I knew Aiden had probably killed before, since vampires were
a predatory species, but to actually see him kill was a different
story.

“I could have wiped their memories,” I
told him.

“These are two women who drink
witches’ blood, who would kill you just to get a high. Are you
telling me they didn’t deserve to die?”

I understood where he was coming from
but it didn’t mean I had to like it. He picked up Fiona and I
quickly changed my appearance into a large muscular man. My head
was shaved and my black t-shirt was stretched to its limits against
my faux muscles. I expected Aiden to make some smart-ass comment
but he was silent, maybe worried that I thought of him differently,
now that I’d seen him kill.

I’d worry about that later, Right now;
we had to get out of there. We stepped out of the small room and
made our way down the stairs. All of the vampires were in some sort
of trance. The heavy metal music thumped through the speakers while
the vamps rocked to the beat.

I tried to portray the facial features
a big muscular man might have. I drew my eyebrows together and
scowled at everyone, hoping I looked more threatening than
ridiculous. When we got to the last step, I noticed the barmaids
were back with humans in tow. Some vampires were in the middle of
having sex on the various couches that lined the wall. I gawked in
surprise, but drew my attention back to the exit sign.

A short black man thrust a human into
me and I barely caught her before she collapsed.

“I’m finished, now it’s time to find a
piece of ass,” he said as he made his way through the out of
control crowd. The girl looked up at me with fear and interest. I
didn’t say anything to her; instead I grabbed her arm and continued
to the exit. She looked like she’d seen better days. The word
“junkie” came to mind when I observed her appearance. Her hair was
messy and her clothes looked stained in various places. She was so
skinny, her bones were clear against her pale skin.

I shot a quick glance over my shoulder
to see that Aiden was still following. The door was just ahead and
it seemed I couldn’t get there quick enough. I picked up my pace
and burst through the doors.

The night air was a blessed relief
after being in the stuffy club. Micah was leaning against the
building and instantly went on alert when he saw that Aiden had two
men with him.

“Where’s Gwen?” he snarled. I waved
both of my hands over my body and felt my disguise slip away. The
girl shrieked and Micah stared in surprise. I’d have laughed if I
hadn’t been so drained from the tension of what I’d just witnessed.
If Fiona wanted to get me back to my partying frame of mind, she’d
just failed immensely.

After calming the girl down and
casting a forgetful spell, (so she’d stay away from future
vampires), we were finally in the car and on our way back to Flora.
Fiona was still asleep in the backseat with Aiden. Everyone in the
small car seemed to choke on their words. I knew Micah wanted to
know what happened, but I was still in shock at everything I’d seen
and not in any state of mind to elaborate on the
details.

In my twenty-six years, I had met a
lot of vampires but they had all seemed civilized and maybe the
ones I knew actually were. The ones I saw tonight, however, the
druggies such as they were, were a different story. I couldn’t get
over how their bodies swayed with an inhuman grace against the
music and the icy blue of their eyes. The way they bit into the
humans and the roughness of their sexual desires. In that state,
there was nothing human about them; in that state they were
beasts.

The weight that Wyatt had felt drop
onto him when he suspected the first murder had to do with brew,
now felt like it was sitting comfortably on my shoulders. If brew
was addictive, how long before every young vampire started drinking
it? How long before witches became their main target? How long
before the Witches Council took matters into their own hands and a
war between our two species arose?

There was a short scream from the
backseat and I turned to see what had happened. Micah swerved but
regained control and shot a look through the rearview mirror. Fiona
had woken up and was looking at her arms with shock and
confusion.

“Give me a mirror,” she said as she
observed her hands. I fished through my purse and pulled out a
small compact to hand to her. Once she opened it though, it began
to recite a poem to her. After the enchanted mirror finished
sweet-talking her, she closed it and everyone in the car looked at
me.

“What? They’re new at the store and I
thought they were cool,” I said, defending a very embarrassing
moment.

“Why do I look like, Taye Diggs?”
Fiona asked.

“It’s a glamour spell; we had to have
a disguise to get out of the club.” Fiona released a heavy sigh and
waved her hands over her body, causing the disguise to slip away.
She rubbed her head with the palm of her hand and
groaned.

“I’m going to have a hangover from
hell in the morning,” she said and then paused to think. “But I
only had two drinks,” she added. I thought about the mojito I had
had and didn’t remember it tasting funny or feeling the slightest
bit different. Maybe it took two drinks?

“I think your drink was drugged,”
Aiden said to Fiona.

“Why would they drug her?” Micah
chimed in.

“Gwen and Fiona were both marked. They
stamped their hands. I think it’s how they single out the witches
and then they drug their drinks so that they can kidnap and bleed
them,” Aiden said in a disgusted tone.

Micah looked at me with a steely gaze
and it took me a moment to understand why his anger was directed at
me. I bit my lip when I realized that Aiden had just admitted that
he knew about brew and that I was the blabbermouth that had told
him.

“What is going on?” Fiona asked,
concern dripping from her voice. Micah let out a heavy sigh and I
shrugged my shoulders at him.

“Aiden’s a vampire; I thought he might
have heard something. Plus Fiona should know what’s going on
because it is our blood that’s being poached,” I said. I didn’t
think Micah really wanted to tell Fiona what was going on, but she
already knew we were keeping something from her and that cat
couldn’t be put back in its bag; she’d nag us until she got her
way. I could understand why the FPD wanted to keep this hush-hush,
because if the witch population got wind they were being murdered
specifically for their blood, all hell would break loose. The FPD
wanted to handle this as quickly and quietly as possible but if
they didn’t put a stop to it soon, the Witches Council would have
no other choice than to intervene.

“If I tell her, what’s to say that she
won’t run off and tell her father or some other witch who will then
turn around and tell someone else? It’s a snowball effect that I’m
worried about, since you yourself told someone,” Micah said,
sounding aggravated.

“I only told one person and that’s
only because he’s a vampire, someone who I thought could help. I
haven’t told any witches and if you’re worried about Fiona telling
anyone than I’ll bewitch her gossip pertaining to this topic.” I
wasn’t sure that Fiona would like to have a spell cast upon her,
but it was necessary so that word didn’t get out and cause panic
amongst the witches.

“Excuse me, I’m right here, so quit
talking like I’m not,” Fiona snapped. I gave her an apologetic
smile and waited for Micah to give me the go ahead. His head nod
was reluctant but good enough for me.

“Fiona, as Micah has boldly stated,
this isn’t public knowledge,” I said with a serious look. She
nodded her head and just to make sure the information I was about
to spill would in fact stay in the car, I intertwined magic with my
words so that Fiona wouldn’t be able to repeat what she’d heard. If
she tried to say anything about brew, the words would catch in her
throat, unable to form or be uttered by her lips. She had often
used this spell on me whenever she wanted to keep a wild weekend
that had gotten a little out of hand from leaving my own lips. It
was harmless but effective when you wanted secrecy.

I went on to tell her everything Micah
and Wyatt had told me about brew. Her eyes grew wide with the news
but she kept quiet so that I could explain everything. Although the
FPD wasn’t comfortable with me sharing this news with my best
friend, it was for her benefit. Maybe with this news she’d be more
careful and consequently, not end up like the other witches, just a
body in a ditch.

“This is not to be spread around,”
Micah said, giving me a warning look.

I smiled and said, “Ask her what I
just told her.” He gave me an unbelievable look but shot Fiona a
glance through the rearview mirror.