Next, I went inside the Starbucks. It was a typical ‘Bucks, as Tammy would call it. She was the coffee addict in the family. I was a very different kind of addict. This ‘Bucks had all the sleek, postmodern, industrial décor that one came to expect from a Starbucks. A lot of seating. Open space, with a small hallway that led off to the bathrooms. I examined the women’s. Typical: a single room with the toilet in the far corner. A sink. A metal trash can. Nowhere to hide. A quick peek in the men’s restroom suggested the same.
I sighed, and then headed out to the lobby. I ordered a venti water, which sounded a lot fancier than it looked. I sat in the far booth and studied the interior, searching for any psychic hits or evidence of foul play.
I got neither.
I hate when that happens.
Chapter Seven
The three of us were jogging.
A human, a vampire, and a witch. Yes, I know it sounds like the opening to a bad joke: a human, a vampire, and a witch go to a bar. The human orders a glass of wine. The vampire orders a goblet of blood. The witch orders a magic potion. Or something like that.
“Well?” asked Allison.
“Well, what?”
“What’s the punchline?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I was making it up as I go.”
“Oh, God,” said Mary Lou, “are you two doing your mind-thingy again?”
“That might be the first time I heard anyone call telepathy a thingy,” said Allison. For the most part, Allison and my sister, Mary Lou, got along marvelously.
Except...
Except Mary Lou, as the only one of us without any obvious extrasensory abilities, felt like the odd woman out. I suspected she might be a little jealous of my friendship and easy communication with Allison. I reminded my sister that, as of yet, I had no ability to read her mind, which was the case for all of my blood relatives. It was no slight on her, and it didn’t mean I loved her any less. My daughter, of course, was a different story; she could read family members’ minds, mine included.
Your daughter, thought Allison, telepathically following my train of thought, is going to be powerful.
I’m not sure what to think about that, I thought back.
But it’s not going to happen for a while still, came Allison’s reply.
Oh? Is that a psychic hit? I silently asked my friend, whose own psychic abilities were getting scarily strong.
Scary?
Scary as in unknown.
Nice catch, thought Allison. And, yes, that is a psychic hit. I do, after all, work for a prestigious Psychic Hotline.
I grinned. In fact, Allison was one of the few legit psychics who worked at the Hotline, as she called it. Recently, her cases had become...interesting, to say the least.
Only if you consider removing a demon from the world’s most haunted house as interesting, she thought.
Oh, I do, I thought. And you can quit bragging.
Yes, my friend was growing more and more powerful. And apparently, her head was growing bigger, too.
I heard that, she shot back. And it’s not. I still have nightmares about that night.
As she thought those words, I saw the image that flashed through her mind, the image of a man killing himself before her, a man who had been demon-possessed himself.
I should have shuddered at watching the image of the knife being drawn across the man’s own throat. I should have been horrified by the blood that spilled down like a crimson waterfall. I should have been shocked, revolted and scared. But I was none of that.
I was intrigued.
I was interested.
I was...excited.
You scare me sometimes, Sam, came Allison’s words. I mean, really scare me sometimes.
I scare myself, too.
“Oh my God,” said Mary Lou. “You two are so rude. I’m right here, you know.”
“We’re not talking about you, Mary Lou,” I said.
“Well, then, how about talk to me? As in, include me in your conversation. It’s seriously rude to think behind someone’s back. Or whatever. You know what I mean!”
I looked at Allison and she looked at me and we both snorted.
“It’s not funny, you guys,” said Mary Lou, slowing down. As she slowed down, her massively heaving chest slowed down, too. And so did the bouncing eyeballs of any and all guys that we passed. “It’s rude to us immortals.”
“Mortals,” I corrected, and did all I could to stifle a giggle. I heard Allison giggling in my head. “I’m immortal. You’re mortal.”
“Well, whatever. You’re still my sister and you’re still being rude.”
“You’re right,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
“I mean, I’ve gone through just as much shit as you guys. Maybe more so. I think I deserve, at this point, to be let in on all your secrets.”
“Some of our secrets,” I said. “Trust me, there are some things you don’t want to know.”
“Well, let me be the judge of that.”
I shook my head as we continued to jog. Yes, Mary Lou had had a rough time a few months ago, of that there was no doubt. She’d been kidnapped by Rachel Hanner, a homicidal vampire who happened to be a Fullerton PD homicide cop—a vampire who had been my one-time friend. Although Mary Lou had been threatened, and Fang had held a knife to her throat, she hadn’t been hurt. Still, I could only imagine her fear when she’d been attacked and taken hostage. Yes, it had been a bad day for my sister. But that didn’t mean she should know every deep, dark secret that I had.
“We’ll see,” I said, and left it at that.
My sister didn’t like that answer, but mercifully, let it go.
Although the sun had set an hour ago, the western sky was still aglow with oranges and yellows and reds. I loved that glow. It meant the damnable sun had finally moved on. It meant the worst part of my day—the part just before the sunset—was finally over. It meant I could relax. It meant I could be all that I’m capable of being. It meant I could be who I was meant to be.
A killer.
I shook my head as we jogged. Those words, of course, were not mine. They were hers. The demon that possessed me, although demon wasn’t quite the right word. She had been human once, mortal once. But now, she was so much more.
A highly evolved dark master.
A fancy title, I thought, for a murderous bitch.
Her words appeared in my mind only rarely. But when they did, I always got a jolt, followed by a cold chill. And, trust me, it was damned hard to give a vampire a cold chill. Anyway, I was certain I would never get used to her words in my head.