“No,” she said as she flipped up, her wet hair somehow looking stellar with just a bit of finger combing. “I’ll get it. Thanks, though.”
By the time I got downstairs and grabbed my phone from behind the counter, there was a notification from PayWhiz telling me she’d paid me for my time. Nice. Being a part-time detective with Beth sure did line the pocketbook. And then some.
My focus was mainly on my phone as I walked out to my car. I nearly ran right into someone. With a gasp, I looked up, directly into Bryan’s brown eyes. His thinning hair whipped around in the spring breeze. “Speak of the devil,” I muttered, trying to calm my racing heart.
Not that Bryan was a devil, really, but he’d sure appeared out of thin air like one.
"Sorry if I startled you," he said, taking a little step back as if to make me more comfortable.
That was one thing I had to give the guy. For an intense, slightly awkward vampire, he walked that line between a little unsettling and not dangerous. Part of me wanted to find him as unthreatening as the Bryan we all knew from high school, but my time as Karma told me to be cautious of strange supernaturals.
“So,” I said awkwardly. It’d been three weeks since we’d seen hide or hair of this guy. And as soon as I mentioned his name, suddenly he was waiting for me beside my car. It was weird. “What are you doing here?”
He opened his mouth to reply, but I held up one finger. “No, better question. Where have you been for three weeks?”
With a grimace, Bryan leaned against my car like we were old friends, and I wouldn't mind. I didn’t mind, but it was a bit presumptuous of him. Maybe I didn’t like people leaning on my car for all he knew.Hmph.
“Someone has been watching me,” he said. “I’ve been trying to take care of them.”
I looked around and shifted from one foot to the other uneasily. What the heck did he mean by taking care of them? That sounded awfully ominous.
“Don’t worry.” Bryan touched my arm with the tip of his fingers, then pulled back like he'd realized what he'd done might make me uncomfortable. I looked him in the eye again. “I took care of it, really. They won’t be coming after me, or by extension Carol or you guys. I would never do anything to put Carol in danger. Never.”
That really didn’t make me feel any better whatsoever. Did that mean he’d killed the person trailing him? I wasn’t about to ask. That seemed like a need-to-know kind of thing and that was definitely something Ididn’tneed to know.
“Ah, well,” I said, struggling to figure out what to say. “What can I do for you, Bryan?”
He stood up, getting off of my car, finally. “Have you noticed all the supernatural creatures seem to be flocking to you?” he asked, his intense eyes locked onto me.
I froze, his words striking a chord inside me. I’d noticed. But I thought it was something about Mystic Hollow, not me. “What of it?” I queried evasively.
“Word is spreading, like I warned you last time we talked. And I mean far and wide. Everyone is talking about the new witch who has Karma’s powers.”
I shook my head. “I mean, I’m not really a witch, though.”
“Nobody knows that, do they?” He shrugged. “You’ve got some sort of amazing powers, and that’s all anyone cares about.”
Wow. What did that mean for me going forward? Was I going to continue being bombarded by requests for karmic help? Did it mean more time diving into backyard lakes? I sincerely hoped not.
“Listen, I kept my ear to the ground when I was trying to deal with my tail. I heard things about you that I shouldn’t have, things about you using your powers with a lot more abandon than the previous karma. You’ve got to keep a lower profile.” He sounded desperate, almost afraid.
I blinked rapidly, processing his words. “I don’t know how to do that. It's not like I'm advertising what I am on every billboard. I just keep getting all these jobs. But mostly they come to Beth, and I help with them, though.”
“I don’t know what you can change,” he said. “I just don’t want to see you hurt. But in the meantime, I have a great need for your special abilities.”
I arched one eyebrow. “Oh?”
Gravel crunched under Bryan’s feet as he stepped closer, right in my personal bubble. He stood so close I was really glad I’d taken the time to shower. Otherwise, he’d have been inhaling a big whiff of boggy water. “I need you to kill someone for me,” Bryan whispered. “Quillan, the vampire who Turned me.”
Kill someone? Oh, geez. Of course, he did.
“That’s not really how my powers work,” I told him slowly.
His face got this really intense look. “You have no idea what he did. What hedoes. How he hurt me. How he keeps hurting young people! The thing is, it’s not illegal to Turn an eighteen-year-old, not in the vampire world. But itisimmoral. If you just unleash karma on him, I know he’ll die.”
“So he hasn’t broken any laws?” I asked, feeling confused.
Bryan shook his head. “No. But—Wait, yes, he did. He turned me without my consent.”
