Stones Unturned (10 page)

"What is it, Arthur?" Ceridwen asked, holding a homemade rag doll fashioned to look like the Fey princess.

"I'm just tired," he said, the weight of the future suddenly bearing down upon him now that they were home. "I'm not as young as I used to be, you know." He managed a small smile.

Ceridwen dropped the doll to the floor and moved to stand beside him. "I was going to suggest that we clean up the mess we've made with our return," she said, reaching out to stroke the side of his face with a long, delicate finger. Her breath was warm against his skin and smelled strongly of mint, as she spoke softly into his ear.

"But I guess it can wait — until after you've rested from your travels." Her tongue darted out, snake-like, sensually tracing the inside of his ear.

Conan Doyle pulled her close. "An excellent suggestion, my love." He kissed her fully on the mouth. "I do so appreciate your concern for my well-being."

She chuckled, taking his hand in hers.

So much for rest. There would come a time in the foreseeable future when the opportunity for distractions would be rare. Dark times were on the horizon, and he would need the memories of times such this, when they could surrender to their passions, to give him the strength to deal with the realities of an uncertain future.

A future that was inexorably drawing closer.

CHAPTER FIVE

Eve had awakened restless.

She blamed it mostly on the Cherubim. In her death-like dream state she continued to see his smirking face as he came at her across the writhing dance floor, a floor covered in fighting rats, slick with the blood that oozed from their tattered bodies. It made it hard to dance, but she still tried, slipping and sliding in her Louis Vuitton boots as she danced toward the back doors to escape the angel and get away from the rats.

But she sensed something outside — something that didn't belong there.

Something dangerous.

Now Eve took a sip from her Au Bon Pain latte, trying to push the disturbing dream imagery from her mind as she stared out the front window of the café. Something had caught her eye.

She hoped she was wrong. Anything that might interrupt her shopping spree would be unwelcome. She wanted to replace the silk blouse the college boy had ruined, but as soon as she had entered Copley Place, that simple errand had been fanned into a roaring fire that compelled her to spend. With a satisfied smile, she surveyed the chairs across from her, piled high with shopping bags. Eve had already paid visits to Gucci, Armani Exchange, and Stuart Weitzman, and had even stopped in to Godiva to satisfy a chocolate craving.

It was all about satisfying cravings tonight.

Eve turned her focus back to the front window, predatory eyes scanning the crowds walking about outside. She found the girl again, neo-Goth, no more than sixteen, dressed entirely in black, a streak of bright pink running through her straight, shoulder-length hair.

Eve wondered how long it had been since she had been turned.

Goth girl was talking with a little blond chick dressed a little more conservatively in cutesy bunny T-shirt and a cheerleading jacket.
Took the T in from the burbs, did we, sweetie?
Eve thought, breaking off a piece of the croissant she'd bought with her latte and popping it into her mouth.

Girls.
Well, at least one of them was a girl.

The neo-Goth was a vampire. The average person wouldn't have the slightest idea, but Eve could pick them out of a crowd of a million. That was just how things were with a mother and her children.

She suppressed the feeling of guilt she always experienced when coming upon one of the poor creatures that had been afflicted with the curse she had begun so very long ago.

The two girls moved toward the escalator that would take them into the main shopping area of Copley Place. Eve popped another bite of croissant into her mouth and took one more swig of her latte as she stood up to leave. Grabbing her bags, she left the store to follow the girls.

At the top of the stairs she quickly zipped into a costume jewelry store and, smiling at the woman behind the counter, asked if she wouldn't mind watching her bags while she went to the ladies' room. The woman obliged, and Eve smiled as she complimented the woman's earrings. Then she walked from the store, her hands now free.

It took her a minute, but she found the girls about to turn the corner heading toward the water fountain in the center of the mall. They were chatting up a storm, the suburban girl completely captivated by her undead companion.

Eve pretended to study a window display as the pair passed the smoke shop, briefly stepping inside to check out a copy of
US Weekly
before continuing on their way. To anyone else, they were two typical high school girls, but to Eve they had an altogether different story.

Where most saw teenagers shopping, she saw predator and prey.

She couldn't remember exactly when she had taken it upon herself to hunt down the spawn of her curse. Sometime during the Bronze Age, she thought. Her memory wasn't all that sharp when it came to matters from the distant past, especially since she'd spent most of it in a bloodthirsty rage. But sometime, long ago, she had decided that it was her mission to clean up the mess she had started. She'd been at it for a very long time, but was nowhere close to completing her quest.

That was the problem with curses; there was always someone new to pass it on.

The two girls ended up on the top level of the parking garage. It was practically deserted. Eve had carefully followed them up the metal stairs, listening to Miss Suburbia whining about not using the elevator.
If she only knew what's about to happen to her, she'd really have something to whine about
, Eve thought.

From the doorway, Eve watched the two walking across the garage. The dark-haired girl had put her hand into the back pocket of the other's jeans and pulled her close. They stopped to share a kiss, and Eve tensed.

The black-clad girl leaned in, clearly happy with the situation. The vampire teen put a hand around her partner's shoulder, as she steered her toward a car parked in the shadows near the wall.

At the driver's side door they started to kiss again. The vampire roughly pushed her partner back against the car, and the younger girl seemed surprised.

Eve could feel the vampire's excitement and hunger pulsing in the air like the heartbeats they both used to have, and decided it was time to make her move. She darted out from the doorway, sprinting across the garage, just as the vampire revealed her true nature. They all took such pleasure in revealing what they truly were to their prey, it was almost as if they fed on the terror as well as the blood.

Goth-girl pulled back her head, holding on to the shoulders of her friend, and with a hiss opened her mouth. Glistening white, razor-sharp teeth flashed, the canines distending as she opened her mouth wider to bite.

"Not tonight, sugar," Eve said. She grabbed a fistful of the girl's hair and yanked her head back before her fangs could break the skin of the other girl's throat.

The vampire went wild, spinning around to face Eve, her hair tearing away from the scalp. "You don't know what you're dealing with, bitch," she snarled.

Eve smiled sadly, nodding ever so slightly. "Sorry to say I do."

A spark of recognition appeared on the young vampire's face as she suddenly understood who had interrupted her feeding. They all knew her; they could feel the connection deep inside themselves. It usually played out the same. First came the shock of recognition, followed by sheer panic as they realized their lives were forfeit.

The vampire started to run, but Eve was faster, suddenly in front of the young creature, clawed hands gripping the sides of her face. She looked down into the vampire's eyes, paralyzing her with a stare.

"Please," the vampire begged, but Eve had made up her mind thousands of years ago. There would be no mercy for the spawn of her curse.

"I'm sorry," she said, leaning close to whisper in the girl's ear. "But go to your final rest knowing that whoever did this to you will meet up with me sooner or later."

The girl struggled momentarily but then went limp as she realized the futility of her actions. With a surge of terrible strength, Eve twisted the girl's head and tore it from her body. There was an explosion of blood, but within seconds it turned to a spray of ash. Both the wretched thing's head, still in Eve's hands, and the body that slumped to the floor of the garage dissolved away to nothing before her eyes.

Then there was only dust.

Eve brushed the ashen remains of the girl from the front of her cashmere sweater and jeans before turning her gaze toward on the vampire's potential victim. The girl just stood there in her cheerleading jacket, her mouth open, trying to scream but emitting only little squeaks.

"You all right?" Eve asked the girl, checking to be certain that she hadn't been bitten.

The girl stood stiffly against the car, continuing to make those annoying sounds. Eve pressed a well-manicured finger against the girl's lips, momentarily silencing her.

"Hush now," she said. "You're going to be fine, but I want you to remember something. I want you always to be careful. Pretty girls can sometimes be just as dangerous as pretty boys."

The girl stared, wide-eyed.

"Will you remember that for me?" Eve asked her.

As the girl slowly nodded, Eve pulled her finger away.

"Good," she said, leaving the girl and walking toward the exit. She glanced at her watch. She still had more than an hour to shop before the mall closed.

Though he would never have admitted it to anyone, Danny missed Dr. Graves. With the violent fantasies and flashes of savage anger he'd been having the past few days, he would have liked to talk with the ghost. He thought he could have told Graves what was going on with him, but there was no one else he felt that comfortable with. No one else he was sure he could trust.

Lying in bed, the image of the two terrified children from the aquarium flashed before his mind's eye, followed by the painful memory of the look on his mother's face.

He rolled over, punching at the pillow beneath his head. He and his mother had avoided talking about the incident at the aquarium, but he knew it was only a matter of time before she would bring it up. The anger roiled inside him, and he again wished that Graves were here.

Danny couldn't talk about this stuff with his mother; she was already freaked out enough by the changes in her son. He had considered talking with Mr. Doyle, but since he and Ceridwen had returned, they'd been hidden away in Doyle's rooms, and Danny didn't figure they'd take kindly to the interruption. Clay was away with Graves, so that removed him from the mix, and Danny just didn't feel comfortable talking with the others. Squire would probably just laugh at him anyway, and Eve . . . well she was just so damned hot, he would be too embarrassed to share his feelings with her.

He flipped over again, trying to get comfortable and hoping to drift off to sleep, but his body refused to let him. His skin was itching like crazy.

Finally, Danny tossed off his covers and stomped across the room to the bathroom.
Maybe a hot shower'll help,
he thought, turning on the faucet and letting the water run over his hands. Standing by the tub, waiting for the water to heat up, he glanced down casually at the center of his chest, at the small hanging growth he'd noticed there earlier.

Is it bigger?
he wondered, squeezing the rubbery sack between his dripping fingers.
Great, something else to worry about,
he thought, before being distracted by a faint sound of screaming from outside.

He turned off the water in the tub and returned to his room, listening. Somebody outside was pretty upset, and by the scent he picked up, he knew exactly who it was. There were too many people in the house for him to go up the stairs unseen, and use the door to the roof. Instead, he opened his window and climbed out onto the stone ledge, then began to climb. His claws fit easily in the crevices between the stones. Window frames and gutters made easy handholds.

In seconds, he was on the roof. He wanted to see what the story was, and then he would go back to his room, take a long, hot shower and hopefully get some sleep.

The November air felt good on his tingling flesh, as he padded barefoot across the rooftop to look out over the edge at the apartment building on Mount Vernon Street.

The cute girl and her sleazy boyfriend were there again, and this time they were in the middle of a heated argument; something to do with the guy talking to another girl at a club while she sat alone like a big loser, waiting for him to come back. He, of course, denied the whole thing, telling her that she was drunk and blowing everything out of proportion.

They're both drunk
. He could smell the stink of alcohol wafting off of them as if they'd doused themselves in it like perfume.

The argument was becoming more heated, and then the guy did what even Danny knew you should never do to a drunk and angry girl.

He laughed at her.

Her response was quick and brutal. She slapped the bemused grin right off his face, shrieking every four-letter word in the book at him and telling him she never wanted to see him again.

What happened next took Danny totally by surprise. It looked as though the guy was going to leave, but then he spun around and punched the girl square in the face. The vicious blow knocked her off her feet, and she tumbled to the ground. Her head bounced off the sidewalk, and she twitched once and then lay still. The smell of blood was in the air again, and it aroused the fury that lay in Danny's heart like a prowling beast, ready to pounce.

He tried to step back from the edge of the roof.
It's none of my business.

But the girl had hit her head on the sidewalk pretty hard. And the son of a bitch shouldn't have hit her in the first place. Maybe once he would have been too afraid to step in, but now there wasn't room in him for fear. Only for rage.