Chapter 3
“MADDY? MADDY? CAN you hear me?” The voice seemed to be coming from a distance, but it sounded familiar. “Maddy, wake up. Maddy?”
My eyes flickered and the next moment, I was staring at Sandy. I realized I was in a bed, warm and dry, and there was an IV needle in my arm. What had happened? Why was I in the hospital? I closed my eyes and a vision of swirling waves lashed around me, and all I could see everywhere I looked was dark, rolling water. The taste of brine lay heavy on my tongue. Another moment and it all swept back to me. The boat. The storm. The waves trying to drag us—
“Aegis? Where is he? Is he all right?”
“It’s okay, hon. Yes, he’s all right. He’s asleep for the day, safely tucked away from the light. You’re lucky, though. Garret thought the storm might be too much so he called you and Aegis, but neither one of you answered. So he went down to the marina and found both of you on the shore. Aegis was struggling to carry you up, but he was weak—something sapped some of his energy.”
“Vampires aren’t exactly like the Energizer Bunny. They can over-exert themselves and he was doing his best to get us both to shore. But I don’t know how he swam all the way in.” I was starting to remember the details.
“He told Garret that some massive wave came rumbling beneath you and carried you to shore, tossing you on the beach before retreating. Garret called an ambulance for you, then he contacted me. Once they determined you’d live, I made Aegis go home.” She brushed my hair out of my eyes. “Maddy, we almost lost you,” she said softly. “You were hypothermic. Aegis said you passed out when the wave picked you up, and that you had been in the water far too long.”
“Every time I close my eyes I see spinning whirlpools and waves. It’s making me dizzy.” I leaned back against the stark white pillows, shivering. I felt incredibly cold. “I’m chilled to the bone.”
“Your temperature’s normal,” Jordan Farrows said as he walked through the door. He was a doctor who specialized in magical ailments but I had started going to him because he was good at his job and I trusted him. “But you’ll likely feel that intense chill for a while. You don’t have the energy to spare to try to raise your heat level, so don’t even think about it, but I’ll have the nurse bring an extra blanket.”
“How am I doing?” I shifted, trying to stop the feeling of motion. “It feels like everything spins when I move.”
“You ended up with a lot of water in your ears. We drained them, but you’re going to have one hell of an earache by tomorrow and you will probably have some pretty strong vertigo for a few days.” He looked over my chart. “You should be fine, but you were knocked around a lot and you’re going to have a lot of bruises. If you were human, you would have frozen to death. It looks like your sense of survival kicked in and you instinctively raised the temperature around your body enough to keep you alive, but it depleted you magically. You’ll need to rest up for a while before you try any heavy-duty spells. Got it?”
“Yeah, I get it. When can I go home?” I wanted to hide out in my own bed, safe under the comforter.
“I’ll discharge you around noon, if you feel up to leaving. But no driving for a few days. Agreed?” He tapped the chart with his pencil.
I nodded. “Agreed.” Another flash of memory hit me and I reached for my neck, hoping that Aegis’s present was still there. “My necklace—and my pentacle. Please don’t tell me they were ripped away in the water.”
“I’ll have the nurse check. We have everything you came in with up front.” And with that, Jordan started toward the door. He glanced over his shoulder. “You were very lucky, Maddy.”
“I know,” I said softly. “Can you disconnect the IVs now? I want to get up.”
Jordan laughed. “Only you would ask that. Yes, I think you’re fine now. We had to get some nutrients into you and you were—don’t laugh—dehydrated.” He motioned to the nurse, who began to disconnect the IVs from my arm. I winced as she withdrew the needle and put pressure on my arm for a moment, then taped a cotton ball over it.
I couldn’t stand without the room spinning, so the nurse brought me a shower chair and I sat beneath the warm water, leery as it splashed down on me. Even though it felt good, the fact that it was showering my face made me feel claustrophobic and I was grateful when I was done.
Sandy helped me dress. She had brought me a change of clothes, and grateful, I slid into the warm, flowing dress. It was a soft knit, and I felt like I was snuggled in a soft blanket. I slipped on the socks and boots she had thought to bring, and she guided me over to the banquette by the window that overlooked the parking lot. The realization of how close I had come to dying hit home, and the fear from the night before rushed back. My stomach tightened into a knot.
“I almost bit the big one, Sandy. Is this how you felt when that car hit you?” I realized I was shaking. A few months back, in late June, a couple of discontented thugs had tried to take out my best friend. We had managed to catch them, but that had been far too close of a call.
“Yeah, pretty much. At least after I woke up in the hospital. During the attack, it was all too quick for me to really think much of anything.”
I nodded. “Last night, all I can remember is the waves crashing over us and the chill of the water and Aegis trying his best to swim us to shore. If that wave hadn’t pushed us in, I don’t think I would have made it. Aegis would have, but not me.”
Just then a nurse came in with an envelope. “I’ve brought your possessions that were on you when you came in.”
I knew my purse wasn’t there—which meant I’d have to replace all of my ID, as well as my phone and my keys. I opened the envelope and shook it out in my lap. There was my pentacle, and the necklace from Aegis. I slipped them around my neck before realizing there was something else in the envelope. As the last item landed in my hand, I gasped.
“Sandy…” I held it up.
The second pentacle was exactly like mine, only it was bronze. I looked over Sandy. She stared at it, then touched her chest, where her gold pentacle rested—again, exactly like mine.
“Fata,” she whispered.
Fata, Sandy, and I had commissioned matching pentacles from a jeweler. He had made them, and mine was silver, Sandy’s gold, and Fata’s had been bronze. I turned the pentacle over and sure enough, on the back was an engraved “F.”
“Is she really here? Did she bring me in? Aegis would have mentioned her, surely.” I desperately wanted to talk to him, but he was asleep.
“He didn’t say a word.” Sandy slowly reached out and touched the pentacle sitting in my hand. “Fata. I wonder if she’s on the island.”
“The storm—it was her doing, I know it in my gut. She brought me to safety with her waves. That has to be it. But why didn’t she stay?” I wasn’t sure how I felt. Nearly drowning was rough enough, but wondering what Fata was up to added a whole ‘nother level of stress.
“I think we’ll have to wait until she decides to show herself. Maddy, it’s been a long time. We don’t know who we’ll be dealing with. Fata Morgana was always on the wild side. I know you don’t like talking about it, but when she left—s”
I cut her off. I really didn’t feel like talking about that last night, especially right now. “Yeah, she had slipped over the edge.”
“Exactly. We don’t know if she’s still there, dancing on the wild side, or if she’s had time to let the past go.”
And with that, we fell silent. I wondered what Sandy was really thinking, but given I didn’t know what I was thinking myself, I decided to change the subject until the doctor discharged me.
AN HOUR LATER, I was ready to go. Sandy made me sit in a wheelchair until we reached the parking lot. When we were at her van, I stood and immediately was grateful for how pushy she had been. I almost faceplanted onto the asphalt. As she helped me into the passenger side, her phone rang.
“Can you get that while I run back to grab a bottle of water from the vending machine?” She motioned to her purse. “It’s probably Max.”
I pulled her phone out of her purse and frowned. The number was unfamiliar. “Cassandra Clauson’s phone. May I take a message?”
“Is Ms. Clauson available?” The voice was deep and very, very business-like. “It’s important. This is Mills Wayfair, her lawyer.”
“She’ll be back in a few moments. May I help you?” I wasn’t sure if I could do anything, but he sounded insistent.
“Please have her call me back immediately.” He hung up abruptly. I wasn’t sure whether to be offended, but decided he was probably busy. If the news was as important as it seemed to be, he’d be focused on whatever it was and not up to playing Mr. Congeniality.
Sandy returned a few minutes later, water in hand.
“Phone your lawyer. He called and said he needs to talk to you and that it’s important.”
“It can wait till I get you home,” Sandy said, buckling her seat belt and starting the van. She eased out of the parking lot and fifteen minutes later, we were sitting in my driveway. “Once I get you inside, I’ll call Mills.”
“Is he human?” A number of lawyers were human—they seemed to excel at the profession.
“No, actually.” Sandy opened my door and helped me get out. She brushed off my insistence that I could make it into the house without a problem and guided me across the back yard from the driveway.
Kelson saw us coming and opened the door, running out to help. She, too, refused to listen to my protests and took my other arm. I felt like a little old lady they were helping to cross the street, but I bit back my irritation. The doctor had said I would be unsteady for a few days, and he was right— if Sandy and Kelson let go, I’d probably end up on my ass.
I eased into a kitchen chair and leaned back, sighing. “Sometimes, home looks mighty fine,” I said.
“You hungry?”
“Oh gods, yes. Hospital food sucks. Well, actually, I didn’t have hospital food. Just nutrients in an IV solution. So bring on the bacon.” I flashed Kelson a wide smile, grateful for her presence.
Sandy pulled out her phone and moved off to one side to return Mills’s call.
Kelson brought out a dozen eggs, a loaf of bread, and a bowl of fruit salad. She began heating a skillet, then cracked three of the eggs into a bowl, pausing to gesture at Sandy. Sandy shook her head, so Kelson left it at that and whipped the eggs into a frothy blend, then poured them into the crackling skillet. She popped two pieces of bread into the toaster, then put away the carton of eggs and the rest of the loaf. After spooning fruit salad into a bowl, she began to scramble the eggs.
Sandy let out a soft cry. “You can’t be serious?” She didn’t sound excited, just shocked. “They couldn’t be mistaken, could they?” A pause, then, “All right. Yes, I understand, No, I’m fine with that, but… Oh, Mills. How am I ever going to tell her?” She sounded heartbroken, now.
I straightened up, watching her carefully. Kelson quietly set my plate of toast and eggs in front of me, along with the bowl of fruit. I nodded her my thanks and absently sprinkled salt on the eggs and bit into them, my gaze glued to Sandy.
She was wiping away a tear, and she looked so bereft that I knew something had gone horribly wrong. A few more murmured words into her phone and she slowly dropped into the chair opposite me, setting her phone on the table. She stared at it like it might bite her.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
She raised her gaze to meet mine. “Derry’s dead. My lawyer called to tell me that Jenna’s mother died, and she left specifications in the will that I am now Jenna’s legal guardian.”
I blinked. Derry Knight was a gadabout woman who probably never should have had children. She was fun loving and free-spirited, but not the best mother. Jenna had turned out remarkably well for a child whose main parent wasn’t invested in their existence. Derry had taken off on a two-year world tour, leaving Jenna in Sandy’s care, and Jenna was blossoming out. She lived at the Neverfall Academy for Gifted Students, but she stayed with Sandy every other weekend and knew she could always call us if she needed.
“Derry’s dead? What happened?”
“Apparently, Derry was hiking in Kakadu National Park in Australia. They told her not to go out alone at night, because that’s when a number of the venomous snakes come out.” Sandy rubbed her forehead, pinching her brow between her fingers.
“I can see this one coming. Derry ignored their warnings.” The little I remembered of Derry had mostly been her refusal to play by the rules.
“Yeah. She hiked out to Jim Jim Falls late one night. She slipped out of camp before their guide could notice. By the next morning, they discovered her disappearance. The guides went out to look for her and found her near the falls, dead. She had been bitten by a coastal taipan and she was dead when they found her.” Sandy gave me a mute look. Finally, she said, “How the hell do I tell Jenna? It’s up to me. I’m her legal guardian now.”
“Do you want help? I can go with you.” With food in my stomach, I felt like curling up under a fuzzy blanket and taking a nap, but if Sandy needed me, I was here.
She shook her head. “No, this is my responsibility. I’ll ask Max if he can help. He’s scheduled to leave on a business trip over to Bellingham for a day or so, but I think he’ll have the time to drive up to Neverfall with me before he catches the ferry.” She quietly accepted the mocha that Kelson pressed into her hands.
Kelson brought me a triple-shot mocha. Not as strong as I wanted it, but it would do for now. I sipped the frothy chocolate and peppermint and closed my eyes, trying not to picture Derry, lying there alone, dying. It was just too harsh.
Finally, I rested my elbows on the table. “Derry lived life on her own terms. She knew the dangers. She was warned and yet, she decided the risk was worth it. Sometimes you can play the odds and win, and other times, you lose. This time, her number came up. There’s nothing you could have done to stop it. The best you can do now is to be strong for Jenna. I know Derry was your friend, but that little girl is going to need you. She adores you.”
Sandy finished her drink, and pushed back from the table. “I know. Derry was selfish, when it comes down to it. She never cared as much about Jenna as she did herself. I’ll head out now.”
“Let me know how it goes,” I said, waving as she left.
Kelson carried my empty dishes back to the sink. I let out a long sigh, staring at the table. “Well, it’s been one hell of a twenty-four hours. Last night was Aegis’s and my first anniversary. I guess the party got a little wild, didn’t it?”
She settled in at the table with me. “You know, sometimes life just likes to put the hammer down on celebrations. But you’re both safe, and I imagine after you’ve had a few days to relax, you’ll be fine.”
I thought of the bronze pentacle in my pocket. “Fine” wasn’t exactly the word I would use to describe my life at this moment. I wasn’t sure whether to tell her about Fata Morgana. Kelson lived in the Bewitching Bedlam. She would find out sooner or later, but right now, I needed to process everything that had happened.
I was saved from making a decision when the house phone rang. Kelson went to answer it, and that reminded me that I needed a new cell phone as soon as possible. And identification, and I had to call the bank about my credit cards, all of which were lying at the bottom of the Salish Sea.
“It’s Delia,” Kelson said, bringing me the cordless unit.
“Hey, what’s shaking?” I wasn’t sure if Delia had heard what happened to me. She had to have tried my cell phone.
“You lose your phone? I’ve been trying to get you all day.” She sounded worried and irritated, rolled up into one.
I let out a soft breath. “I spent part of last night and this morning in the hospital, and right now my phone, along with my identification and credit cards, is down under the water, feeding the fishies. What’s going on?”
That stopped her, but only for a moment. “What happened?”
“Aegis and I went out for a midnight boat ride to celebrate our first anniversary and unfortunately, the storm broke the boat and sent us into the water. If it hadn’t been for Aegis I would have died. He did his best to swim to shore with me, but I passed out. A giant wave came in, swirling us into the shore. I’m not sure of what happened after that. I don’t even remember being on the beach. I woke up in the hospital, with Sandy by my side.
“She said that Aegis had managed to save me. Garret had come down to check on us, since we were in his boat. He was worried about the storm and with good reason. He found us there on the shore. I’m not sure what would’ve happened if he hadn’t come to check. Aegis would probably have managed to get me to safety and then himself into the dark, but there’s no telling.”
For a moment, Delia was silent. Then she said, “Maddy, I’m so glad you’re all right. I had no idea. We didn’t get any notice at the station—and even if we did—I was home for the evening with a stomachache. Is there anything you need?”
“Well, I can’t drive for a few days. Apparently I have a serious case of vertigo. I need to get a new copy of my driver’s license, and I need to buy a new phone. I can do the latter online, but I think to replace my driver’s license they’re going to want to see me in person. Could you drive me there? Sandy had some bad news this afternoon and she had to leave.”
I could have asked Kelson to take me out to get my license, but I didn’t like to leave the Bewitching Bedlam empty. Granted, we only had Mr. Mosswood as a guest, but you never knew who was going to drop in. I also had a feeling Delia wanted to talk to me and right now, I didn’t feel like talking on the phone.
“Do you mind if I drop over? I’d be happy to take you down to the DMV, and there’s something else I want to talk to you about. I might as well do it in person. I can be there in fifteen minutes.”
“That’s fine. I’ll have to ask you to help me out to your car because I’m a little unsteady on my feet.” I hated asking for help, and it was hard for me to admit when I needed assistance. I was the first one there when my friends needed help, and I was always willing to lend a hand. But when it came to my own needs, like a good share of the women in this country—be they human or witches—I always put myself last.
“You can always ask me for help, Maddy. You know that. I’ll see you in a little bit.” The line went silent and I handed the phone back to Kelson.
DELIA DIDN’T BOTHER coming to the front door when she arrived. She just came around back and knocked on the slider. I motioned for her to come in. The worried look on her face concerned me, and I had the feeling it wasn’t for my benefit. Which meant something was wrong.
Gingerly, I stood, holding the table for balance. The room swayed like a pendulum. Yeah, I wasn’t ready to walk on my own.
“Whoa, I feel like I was partying all night instead of flailing around in the water.” I grasped the back of the nearest chair as my knees folded and my butt abruptly met the chair seat. “Okay, so much for that attempt.”
“Are you sure you should go downtown?” Kelson hurried over, frowning. She glanced at Delia. “Maddy just got home from the hospital. I’m not sure if it’s a good idea that she goes out.”
“Thank you, mother hen, but I’m all right.” Even though I didn’t feel okay, I wasn’t about to admit it.
Delia stared at me for a moment. “I think your driver’s license can wait for a day. Come on, let me help you into the living room so you can rest.”
“You too? I’m fine, really.” With both of them hovering over me, I knew I’d never get anything done.
Delia backed up about five feet away from me, away from the chairs. “All right, I challenge you. You walk to me without falling down or weaving, and we can go. No using the chairs for balance, and one misstep sends your ass into the parlor, to rest on the sofa.”
“Challenge accepted.” I motioned for her to step back. As I cautiously stood, another wave of dizziness rushed through my head. I tried to steady myself, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly as I set one foot in front of the other. The first two steps I managed. But on the third, everything went rushing around me in a widening circle. The room was starting to spin. Before Delia could jump to help me, I landed on the ground on my knees and elbows.
“Maddy, are you all right?” Kelson ran forward and knelt beside me. I lifted my head, having a hard time focusing on her face.
“Uhhh…” I couldn’t speak, I was so queasy.
“I thought so.” Delia motioned to Kelson. “Help me get her up and into the parlor.”
Together, they carried me into the parlor, where they unceremoniously dumped me on the sofa, with a bunch of pillows behind my back. I moaned. I had bruised my knees when I hit the floor. We had beautiful tile in the kitchen, but it was a hard surface to fall on and it wasn’t smooth. Instead, it was slate slabs that jutted up enough in some areas. Kelson took one look at my knees and elbows and vanished, calling back over her shoulder that she was going for first-aid supplies.
“I don’t need first aid. I’m all right. And I don’t want to spend my day stuck on the sofa.” I was starting to feel cranky. The past twenty-four hours had been one big clusterfuck and I was right at the center of it.
“You stay put. You’re in no shape to be going anywhere. What did your doctor tell you?”
I started to huff, but then gave it up. I didn’t even have the energy to be indignant. “Jordan told me to go home and stay off my feet for four days. I guess you’re right. I’m in no more shape to go shopping than I am to run a marathon.”
“Then that’s what you need to do. I can talk to you right here, and when you’re feeling better I will happily drive you down to the DMV to get your license. It’s not like anybody swiped it and is going to try to steal your identity. And you can make a call to the credit card company from the sofa.” Delia pulled a chair over next to the sofa and sat down, leaning back as though she had had a rough day.
“You were going to talk to me about something. What happened?”
Kelson came through the door right then with bandages and antibiotic ointment. Delia waited until she had finished doctoring my knees and my elbows. Then, without a word, Kelson vanished back through the kitchen door.
“We have a problem on our hands,” she said. “We found a dead body this morning about ten minutes from Neverfall.”
“Not a student?” I asked, instantly worried about Jenna.
“No, this was a woman. I’m not sure of her age but she looked to be in her thirties. I believe that she’s a shifter, but I’m not certain. We couldn’t find any identification on her, but I think she’s from Bedlam. She looks familiar, but I can’t place her.” Delia pressed the tips of her fingers together as she stared at the floor.
“What happened to her? You wouldn’t be telling me this unless there was something suspicious going on.”
She gave me a long look, then nodded slowly. “The reason I’m telling you this is because it was a vampire kill. She was drained of blood. Exsanguinated. I don’t think there was a drop left in her body.” Delia closed her eyes and shook her head. “It was ugly, Maddy. A brutal death. The fang marks were deep and thick, and it looked like whoever the vampire was, they meant it to hurt.”
I caught my breath. Vampire kills in Bedlam were rare, especially since the vampires who lived here remained on notice of good behavior. The town council allowed them to stay as long as they behaved themselves. And I was on the town council.
“Have there been any other attacks that you know of?”
“No. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been any, but none have come to our attention. Maddy, have you talked to Essie lately?”
I happened to know the Queen of the Pacific Northwest Vampire Nation. Actually, I had an uneasy truce with Essie Vanderbilt. We shared several secrets that neither of us wanted the rest of the island to know. Delia knew about them, and a few others, but if the knowledge we shared managed to get out to the general populace, there would be widespread panic and that was the last thing either of us wanted.
“I haven’t talked to Essie for a while, actually. It looks like it might be time to pay her a visit.”
“Not until you’re in good-enough shape that you can run. Though time may be of the essence. I hate to ask this, but can you call her and ask her to come over to your place?”
I shook my head. “No way am I letting Essie Vanderbilt in my house. However, Aegis could drive me over there after he wakes up, and stick around to make sure that I’m safe. I can ask Essie to meet us in front of her house. That may be the best way to go about this. I don’t trust her in my house. Even though I could rescind the invitation, you never know what spells she’s dug up.” Realizing what I had just said, I shut my mouth before Delia could ask what I meant. There were some secrets I hadn’t told her, for her own safety.
“I suppose that will have to do. Thank you, Maddy. You know I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t important. We haven’t had a vampire kill on Bedlam in fifty years. At least not vampire against one of the Otherkin. And definitely not a vampire against the humans. The only ones that the vampires have killed in those fifty years are other vampires.”
“Don’t forget about Rose. In the end, she was a vampire casualty, even though she was killed with a knife.”
“You’re right.” Delia rose, straightening the top of her uniform. She stared at me for a moment, then added, “Be careful. Remember, you’re a target and you know why. Never forget that, because the moment you do, they’ll come out of the woodwork after you. And that’s the last thing you want.”
I hesitated, wondering if I should tell her about Fata Morgana, then decided she had enough on her mind already. After all, anticipating a visit from an old friend who was fucknuts cuckoo was quite a different thing than worrying about a rogue vampire running around town killing people.
As Kelson showed Delia to the door, I yawned and leaned back against the pillows, grateful that they had made me stay home. Before I knew what was happening, Bubba and Luna were curled up on my legs and I fell asleep to the soft hush of the wind blowing outside.