I woke from what I thought was a dream, but my body had the sensations of Sebastian making love to me. I felt tired and sore. I pushed the sheets back and tried to stand, but I couldn’t. I became frantic. I called out to Terry.
“She came running into the room as if I was dying. I had alarmed her with my panicky voice. Then as Terry entered the room, Robbie and Ann rushed through the door to me. They looked equally concerned.
“What’s wrong, Zoey?” Robbie said. “I smell a vampire and a witch,” he said sniffing around.
“A witch? How could one get in here?” Terry questioned. “I was in the next room and I didn’t hear a thing.”
“You didn’t hear or see Sebastian visit Zoey, but I did,” Robbie said looking at Terry and then to me. “You are useless, Terry. You lead a detective to my door, and then you let a witch get past you.”
“Why didn’t you sniff out that witch?” Terry said in defiance to Robbie painting her as useless.
“Because my senses are tuned to vampires, and vampires such as you are, have instincts to know when witches are near.” Terry breathed loud and placed her hands on her hips.
“What’s going on?” I asked Robbie my eyes darting back and forth. The way I was feeling, light headed and paralyzed from my shoulders down, I didn’t have time for Robbie and Terry to fight and play the blame game.
“It means that she probably gave you something as you slept. It’s probably a powerful poison. The poison she gave you works slowly. First your legs and then it will eventually paralyze your entire body and leave you awake and speaking when she tortures you. Do you know anyone who would do that and especially with Sebastian nearby?” Of course I knew.
“Samantha,” Terry and I said as a chorus. “She has been trying to kill me from the day I learned about Sebastian and the day she realized that we were in love.”
“Never mind the history, is there anything that can be done?” Ann said looking up at Robbie. “You know all kinds of shifters and humans, do you know any witches, Robbie?”
“One,” he said. “She may be willing to help us. I’ll have go now. It will take some time to locate her. But hopefully I’ll get back before tonight. You have only a few hours.”
“Then why are you talking honey. Go.” And Ann pushed Robbie out of the room. She knew how to handle her big bad wolf.
When she came back she said with a quivering smile, “He is all bark and no bite. He has a soft side for women and a hard side for the male of the species. Raised by a single mother,” she said to me hoping to comfort me.
“If all else fail, I can have Sebastian change me,” I said looking scared and a little helpless. But I didn’t know where he had gone to.
“You sure you want that?” Ann asked.
“Will I have a choice? Sebastian said he would be back tonight. I have until sundown don’t I?” I looked to Terry for an answer.
“I don’t know, Zoey. All this shit is new to me. I’m learning like you, and this shit with vampires, shifters, witches has a high learning curve. I’ll let you know in a few hundred years.”
“I’m not sure I will be with you,” Terry. Terry sat on the side of the bed and held my hand. I couldn’t feel anything. Maybe I didn’t have until sundown.
“Where is that cat you brought me?” I needed anything to distract me from thinking.
“I have a confession. The cat isn’t a cat. Well not a domestic cat, but it’s a cat in the broadest sense of the word. It’s a Bobcat.” I blinked my eyes at her. It appeared my eyes and sense of speech were the only things working. “You know how much I love cats. You do too don’t you, Zoey?”
She had this pathetic sincere look on her now gorgeous face. I had never seen her look so beautiful and so vulnerable. Although becoming a vampire agreed with her, I didn’t think she was ready for this phase of her life. Who is ready to die and then become immortal, I questioned.
“Where did you find that Bobcat?” Ann questioned.
“At the zoo. Do you think I could take a kitten from its mother? Not without consequences. But then that’s another story. The mother was starving and she didn’t have enough milk for him. He was the runt of the litter. You know how I’m a sucker for the poor throwaways. You remember the cats I brought home, Zoey.”
“Yes, I remember. And where are they now that they don’t have you and me to feed them. Probably roaming around and eating mice or a cute little bird.”
“I couldn’t resist him when he looked into my eyes, I knew it was love,” Terry said.
She had great sympathy for animals, and that’s why it was so hard for her to feed on them. There wasn’t in love lost for humans with her and that’s why she wasn’t fazed by draining them of their blood.
“A Bobcat. Terry I can’t believe this. It will kill all the small animals in the forest around here. Robbie stocked the woodlands with deer and it will kill the young ones, and fish, and rabbits. Robbie had his stream stocked with fish so he didn’t have to go hunting around for food. And the birds, all the beautiful birds on the property will be his prey. Just wait until Robbie finds out,” Ann said. A whoosh of air flowed through her teeth.
“I give up, Terry. I have to get Zoey something to eat to counteract the poison.” Ann turned looking in the direction of the bathroom. Then she rushed inside and came out with a glass of water.
“What’s that?” Terry asked.
“Salt water,” Ann said putting it to my mouth. “Drink it. “My mother said it works on poison.” I did as she said and drank it all. I was willing to try anything.
“But I’m not sure anything will work. Maybe it will slow it down until Robbie returns with that witch. Even if he finds her she might refuse to come here.”
“Why would she do that?” Terry asked.
“Because they once had a thing,” Ann said looking to Terry.
“How can a werewolf and a witch have a thing?” Terry asked with a small laugh.
“The same way a vampire and a human and a werewolf and a human,” Ann said upset at the question. “I’m going, Zoey. Terry should be able to watch you until I get back.”
“Of course I can,” Terry said as if she took offense with what had been said about her. “You won’t tell Sebastian I was asleep on the job will you?” She said to Ann. Ann said nothing but turned and walked out before shaking her head at Terry.
“Why didn’t you hear her come in? Sebastian had been here most of the night, she must have come in when he left. How would she have gotten in?” I asked Terry.
Terry stood and walked to the window and looked out. There was a gap small enough for something to enter.
“That window. She must have come in through the window,” Terry said closing it and securing and testing the lock by opening and closing it. She peered through the window. “I can’t see anything for all these branches. Only a bird could have flown in here,” Terry said. “I can’t see a witch climbing that tree and getting in here.”
“They don’t climb trees, Terry. They move around as animals, and if their magic is strong enough, they transport themselves around invisible to me and you,” I said. I had read up on witches before I thought they existed.
And then I remembered the beautiful bird that had come to my window before, and then Samantha would show up. It then came to me yet still I refused to believe it.
“She must have transformed herself into a bird.”
Terry checked the locks again and fastened the locks on all the windows. “Now let her try to come in now. And I’m sleeping in here with you. She wouldn’t dare face me.” I wasn’t sure Terry was correct. Maybe she had a false sense of her new found powers, which could be good and bad.
My phone rang. No one calls anymore. I motioned for Terry to bring my purse and I promptly retrieved the phone.
At first I didn’t want to answer. But Aare and Samantha wouldn’t call on the phone, they didn’t have to. But now Samantha had found me. How did she find me that fast?
After retrieving the phone for me, Terry hit the speaker.
“Zoey. This is Ryan. I couldn’t help but thinking about you. I couldn’t wait to hear your voice. I can’t wait until tomorrow. It’s strange. Something has happened to me and it’s a good thing. I’m in love for the first time in my life.”
“Ryan, why are you telling me this?” I said as Terry frowned at me.
“Because I thought you should be the first to know,” he said.
“Who is this girl?”
“You.” His voice light and sincere rang true with that one word, and I got sick because I didn’t see him that way. I saw him as a father figure. I had to get out of the date.
“I’m sick, Ryan. I don’t know when I will be able to see you.”
“Can I come there?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t want to impose on my family any more than I am now doing.”
“But surely they wouldn’t say anything if I made a call on a sick person, besides I have questions to ask Mr. Wolff.”
Ryan wasn’t taking no for an answer and he insisted on seeing me. He was persistent, but I didn’t know if I would be around for his next interview or next anything. I agreed to see him if I were still alive which I thought wouldn’t be the case. At least not in a sense that he would understand.
“Yes. I’ll meet you at your apartment. Tomorrow night.”