“Wow. My brother can actually say things like that,” she exhaled in amazement. “I wish you’d go back with us.”
“What do you mean?”
“It may be second to a prison there, but if you were there then I might actually enjoy my life. If you went with us, I might actually go back.” Sadness clouded her eyes as she thought over it.
I wasn’t sure I would go with them to Shadowhaven. If I was being honest, the thought of living there or even visiting hadnever crossed my mind. The only reason I would move there had only recently stepped into my life.
“I really need to go for a run. Do you have any pants that would be more comfortable than this dress,” I asked, gesturing to the sundress I still wore from last night.
The talk of clothes snapped Isadora out of her thoughts and had her in a much happier mood. She looked through what she had until she produced a pair of black leggings that looked similar to ones I had at home. I changed right there in front of her, eager to get out on the path.
“You have a tattoo,” she commented, touching the small of my back where it was. “Has Lucien seen this?”
“No, why? Does it look bad? I got it to remember my mother. She had the same one on her back,” I explained. The silence became deafening with her lack of response.
When I turned around, she was scrolling through her phone with brows furrowed in concentration. I could tell she was searching for something so I waited semi-patiently until she finally discovered it. She pointed the phone screen at me to show me a black brick building with neon words and an image of a black dahlia on it. The place was named after the flower and something about it seemed familiar but not at the same time. Sensing my confusion, she explained what she was showing me.
“This is a club in the upper center side of Shadowhaven where most witches and fae congregate. I think your mom might have been part of the coven that resides inside the club. The witches specialize in shadow magic so not many get close enough to learn any secrets. I’m sure you could ask Lucien about it sometime,” she explained this to me while flipping through pictures of the inside and outside. The people looked normal to me, but as I observed more and more, I started to notice the glimmer of wings attached to some while others were doing tricks with fire without a nearby flame. Fae and witches.
“It seems I’m uncovering more and more as the days pass. I think I might get overloaded,” I spoke while shoving my feet back into my sneakers. Pushing the thought from my mind, I stretched before heading out of the room. “I’m going for my run. I’ll be back in an hour.”
“I’ll tell Lucien if he asks. I think he went out hunting earlier,” she told me. My footsteps paused at the mention of Lucien hunting. She must have picked up on my worry because she was quick to explain. “Animals. He went to find a mountain lion or something big. Erie told him you’d be upset if he fed off one of your humans.”
I exhaled with relief. “Yeah, I would have been. Tell Erie I said thank you for that.”
I left then, glad that they lived closer to the trail than I did. The run was exactly what I needed with the wind carrying the smell of nature as the air moved past me while cooling my skin. I always enjoyed a good run, but I could never run competitively.
Lost in my thoughts, I was unaware of the man that had begun catching up to me until I was slammed into the dirt ground with the fallen tree branches cutting into my arm. I tried to scream, but he covered my mouth before I could utter a sound, muffling it. I tried, instead, to push my entire weight into my attacker. He stumbled away just enough that it allowed me a moment to get back on my feet.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell who it was by the weird metal mask he wore.
“Who are you?”
His laugh was dark and twisted. “Witches don’t get to ask questions of a hunter. They simply die at our blades,” he spoke before lunging at me.
The moment I dodged out of the way, my elbow collided with his face and I felt the crunch of bone under my arm. Iturned, finding his nose was now bleeding out of the mask from the impact. It only seemed to anger him as he lunged at me again with more ferocity. Dodging failed me this time as he produced another blade and managed to sink it into my stomach. Gasping, I stared at the blade that protruded from my abdomen.
“Shit,” I hissed through clenched teeth. He used that moment to pull out a gun, pointing it at me.
As I stared down the silver barrel, the darkness inside left me as hollow as it appeared. I would have thought my life would have flashed before my eyes or I would think of every regret I had, but my mind was blank. A cold fear had gripped me, leaving no part of me had a response for the horrid ending in store for me.
“Night, night, witch,” the man said before the sound of the gun going off echoed around us. I closed my eyes and braced myself for death, but nothing came. Silence clung to the air, but I felt a different presence in front of me that had me opening my eyes.
“Lucien,” I breathed with relief, staring at the leather back of my mate. I was safe. The adrenaline left my body like a deflated balloon, sinking onto the forest floor.
“This town is full of monsters,” the man was saying when I finally focused on what was being said. Lucien dropped the bullet onto the ground with a growl that sounded more animalistic than human, showing his true vampiric nature. “We will meet again. Very soon.”
“No, you don’t,” Lucien snarled as the man threw something at his feet that created a smoke shield. By the time Lucien tried to grab him, he was already gone and the smoke was all that was left. “Bastard!”
“Lucien,” I whimpered from my spot on the ground, the pain starting to grow from the knife. His attention turned to me and then to the blade that was still inside me.
“Melinda.”
He was quick to pick me from the damp ground and rush me back to the house. Without warning, he kicked the front door down. It flew into the entryway, nearly hitting Erie as she held a bowl in hand.
The moment she saw me, the bowl crashed to the ground and sent a red liquid with cereal inside splashing on the ground. He maneuvered around her to place me on the kitchen table where Ambrose was sitting with the local paper in hand. The paper was discarded as the young vampire leaped to his feet to avoid me.
“What is going on?” Isadora demanded as she stomped down the stairs. “I was curling my hair and it felt like the whole house just shook. I smelt blood. What the—. Mel?”
