3

Alicia shook her head. “Witches do love their dramatic arrivals and exits, don’t they?” 

I must have looked very pale and shocked because she came directly to my side and put her cool hand on my arm. 

“Don’t worry, Thierry will be fine,” she assured me.

“He just got poofed away,” I said, my mouth dry.

“The witches here call it transporting, but if you ask me, poofed is a better description. Now, come, sit down. Try to breathe. Have some tea. It’s actually delicious.”

She guided me to my chair and poured a cup of tea for me. I took it with trembling fingers and sipped from the cup. She was right, it was very good. Not a forbidden, gut-destroying Pumpkin Spice Latte, but still. Pretty damn good.

While I wasn’t thrilled that Thierry didn’t tell me the whole truth about this assignment, I knew his hands were tied. The Ring elders didn’t particularly like me to begin with, thinking I was a troublemaker. Which, of course, I was. I was still trying to figure out a way for Thierry to break his contract, which currently had him in the position of traveling consultant for the next fifty years.

That timeline didn’t really work for me.

I was the troublemaking, bad influence on a master vampire the Ring clearly wanted to draw back into the fold—a fold of ancient, powerful men making life or death decisions on behalf of vampires all around the world while safely perched on their fancy golden thrones.

I’d never been to the Ring headquarters (I knew it was somewhere in California but didn’t know much more than that), but I liked to imagine that there were golden thrones there. Maybe even a dragon or two. But this was probably due to my recent binge of Game of Thrones.

“Have you ever been to the Ring headquarters?” I asked aloud.

“No,” Alicia replied. “Why, have you?”

“No. It’s kind of cloaked in secrets, isn’t it?”

“And covered in secret sauce,” she agreed.

I eyed her. “That sounds like something I’d say.”

She grinned. “I know being witness to the level of hocus-pocus you just saw is a bit of a shock if you’re not used to it. It’s kind of like a Las Vegas show on acid.”

“Are you used to it?” I asked.  

“Not really. But I’ve been around longer than you. After another century, just imagine all the things you’ll have experienced.”

“I try not to think that far ahead,” I admitted, and scanned the empty diner. “So. What do you do for fun in this town? It seems I have a few hours to kill.”

Alicia gave a dismissive wave. “Oh, I’m done with Assjacket now. I got exactly what I needed.”

My gaze snapped back to hers, hyper-focusing on any clues to her choice to come here in the first place. “That’s great. Congrats. So, if you’re in no hurry to go back to your husband, now what?”

She gave me a broad smile. “Let’s just say I’m a woman with big plans.”

I got the feeling that she wanted to talk, which would be incredibly helpful in finding out about her alleged, but potentially evil boyfriend. And since it seemed we shared a similar sense of humor, that might help establish a nice rapport here. 

I felt a sudden and very strong urge to impress Thierry with my sleuthing abilities on this assignment. It was my birthday in a couple of weeks, and I really wanted to earn a big, sparkly birthday present.

A diamond bracelet would be lovely. But if I got to unwrap it on a Hawaiian beach during a tardy-but-welcome honeymoon, it would be even lovelier.

I mean, a girl could dream.

“Big plans, you say?” I asked casually. “Okay, you’ve piqued my curiosity. If you need a friendly ear, I actually have two of them available right now.” 

Alicia regarded me for a moment in silence. “First, give me your opinion, Sarah. Do you think I should go back to my husband like he wants me to?”

I decided to answer her seriously, which probably wouldn’t be the same answer that Thierry would give. “I think you should do whatever makes you happy. It’s your life.”

“You think happiness is important?”

“One hundred percent,” I told her firmly. “Life’s way too short to be miserable, especially if you’re immortal.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Alicia sipped thoughtfully from her teacup and studied me for another moment in silence before she spoke again. “I know we just met, but I feel like you and I could be good friends.”

I wasn’t entirely sure I felt the same way, but I figured it was best to play along. “I feel the same way,” I replied.

“Do you know how hard it is to find friends you can really trust? Who’ll be there for you through thick and thin, the good times and the bad? Who will have your back no matter what?”

I thought of Amy and how it seemed that we’d recently drifted apart, and my throat tightened. It felt like grief, like I’d lost something very important, and I had no idea how to fix it. 

“It is hard,” I said. “That’s why, if you’re lucky enough to have that kind of friendship, you need to hold onto it with both hands and never let go.”

“Exactly. Let me ask you another question, Sarah: do you like being a vampire?”

It wasn’t a question usually asked so directly, but I appreciated her bluntness. “Honestly? It depends on the day. It’s been a bit of a rocky road since I was sired, but…I mean, I have Thierry. I seriously don’t know what I’d have done without him.”

“You’re so lucky,” Alicia said wistfully. “Thierry’s a good man. I thought I married a good one, too, but Franklin…” She shook her head. “He was only looking for some arm candy to take to events, not a partner to share his life with. And it took me far too many years to realize that.”

“You live, you learn,” I replied. “And sometimes you move on.”

“True.”

“Is that why you’re here?” I ventured. “Because you’re moving on to…oh, I don’t know. Someone else?”

“Actually, yes. And—to be honest? Something else, as well.”

Now I was on the edge of my seat, but I knew I couldn’t push too much or she might clam up. “Now you’ve got my full attention.”

“It’s nice to have someone to talk to,” Alicia said, “Especially someone who understands the problems of vampire life. When I was sired, it was all very new and frightening to me. I didn’t have any movies, or novels, or television shows to reference—either the sparkling or the horror-filled ones. Just a wounded neck, a thirst for blood, and a million questions.”

I was disappointed she’d so quickly hopped to another subject. Still, I decided to follow her lead without trying to force the conversation too much. “I’d seen my share of vampire entertainment before I became one,” I admitted. “So, I was mostly bummed that I couldn’t turn into a bat. I mean, talk about a letdown.”

Alicia chuckled at this. “Would you really want to turn into a bat?”

I shrugged. “Is it wrong that I’d like the option?”

“I suppose not. But that’s just it; there are so many limitations to a potentially endless life. It’s made me question so many things that I’ve taken for granted all these years—about what I really want the most.”

“Have you come to any conclusions?” I asked.

“I have.” A wicked smile played at her lips. “I want what Franklin has. What Thierry has. What so many master vampires have that has been denied to me all of my existence.”

“Which is?”

“Power,” she said simply. “And it was only recently that I met a special someone who showed me the path I could take to…well, let’s just say, level up.”

And we’d officially arrived at our destination: evil boyfriend talk. I seriously deserved a shiny trophy.

Easy peasy. Thierry would be so impressed.

Time to nail down the details before Thierry returned, and we put Assjacket in the rearview mirror. “Let me guess, you want to be a Ring elder with this special someone’s help?”

“Oh, no,” she replied with a shudder. “Definitely not. I couldn’t imagine a more dreary career.”

“Absolutely no judgment here, Alicia, but I’m assuming you’re talking about a boyfriend? One that your husband probably doesn’t know about?”

“I suppose you could call him that,” she said, her eyes shining. “Oh, Sarah, he’s incredible in so many ways. He’s opened my eyes to a myriad of possibilities I’ve never even considered before.”

“Sounds…dreamy. Is he here in this town too?”

“Oh, no. He’s in Paris.”

Okay, so all she’d really admitted to was having an affair with someone currently on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. That didn’t exactly line up with anything fishy happening here and now.

“Tell me more about him,” I said. “I mean, if you want to.”

“I’d love to, actually. Damon…” Alicia sighed dreamily. “Well, he’s the kind of man who can make all your dreams come true.”

I had a name. I had a location. This was good, even though I had started to feel a bit guilty by my shameless prying. Alicia seemed truly happy talking about this dude. She’d lit up for the first time just by saying his name.

“So my dream of becoming a bat could finally come to fruition,” I joked.

Alicia chuckled. “You never know.”

“Is he a vampire?”

“No. Actually, he’s a shoemaker.”

I blinked. “A shoemaker.”

She nodded. “He makes the most exquisite shoes you’ve ever seen in your life.”

The answer came as a surprise, of course. A shoemaker who lived in France. That didn’t exactly sound like a criminal mastermind to me.

“Well, I do love me some shoes,” I admitted. “And if you’re saying he can make dreams come true, too—what’s your dream?”

Her bright expression turned serious in the span of a heartbeat. “My dream, Sarah, is to be able to wield real magic as easily as one of the witches here in this town. That is true power.”

Based on her boyfriend being a dreamy shoemaker, I kind of figured she wanted a killer pair of heels. My mistake.

I spread my hands. “Unfortunately, there’s not much magic in being a vampire. Unless you learn some nifty card tricks.”

“That’s what I always believed, too. At least, until Damon opened my eyes to the magical possibilities hidden in the shadows for anyone to find if they know the way.”

A shiver went down my spine. She sounded so certain. This wasn’t just a pipe dream. This was serious.

“Those must be some amazing shoes,” I said.

“Oh, you have no idea how amazing they are,” she said with a knowing smile.

I had to admit, I was a bit confused. But I still felt like I was on the right track here to uncover some useful information.

Thierry believed this boyfriend could be a true threat against the Ring. It sounded like he might be using Alicia—the wife of a Ring elder—to get closer to his ultimate goal, whatever that might be. Clearly, to me, at least, this alleged cobbler had ulterior motives for his relationship with Alicia, which she might know nothing about.

And he’d lured her in with false promises of power and magic.

Super shady.

“Sounds like you’ve been doing your research about magic,” I said. “I guess that’s why you’re here hanging around all these witches.”

“I came here to see the Baba Yaga specifically,” she said. “But she’s not the easiest person to come face to face with, especially if you’re a vampire.”

“She seemed perfectly happy to be face to face with Thierry,” I reminded her.

“Well, Thierry is a powerful man, and a very attractive man, which is definitely the Baba Yaga’s type. The fact that he’s also a vampire seems to be beside the point.” Alicia grinned wide enough to show off the tips of her fangs. “He sure made for a fantastic distraction. Even better than I thought.”

I cocked my head, confused. “What do you mean?”

Alicia’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “I’m trying to decide if I can trust you, Sarah.”

Not even slightly, I thought.

I mean, I was usually trustworthy. Iron-clad. But I’d only just met this woman, and everything she said knocked me off balance as I tried to figure out if she was an innocent bystander or a legitimate threat to vampirekind.

But, hey, if Mrs. My-Dream-is-Magic wanted to start a fast-and-furious friendship with me, one in which she would confide all sorts of useful information that could stop some potentially evil shoe-lovin’ boyfriend from causing chaos, who was I to complain? 

“You can trust me,” I said. “With gossip, with an old family recipe. With your new kitten while you’re away on vacation. With whatever you want to get off your chest. I’m super trustworthy.”

“That’s very good to hear. Because I desperately need to share this with somebody.” Alicia dropped something on the table between us.

I squinted at it. “Are those…blonde hairs?”

“They certainly are.”

“Yours?”

“No.”

There was only one other person with that hair color who’d crossed my path today. I rose my widening eyes from the hairs up to Alicia. “They’re the Baba Yaga’s?”

Her grin widened further. “You got it.”

“That super awkward hug…”

Alicia spread her hands. “I took my opportunity when it presented itself. She didn’t feel a thing.”

I leaned back in my seat, confused, regarding Alicia as she unfastened the chain around her neck, which held a large silver heart-shaped locket.

“Since this isn’t an episode of CSI: Assjacket,” I said, feeling myself tense up. “I’m going to take a wild guess and say that this is some sort of a spell.”

“Not a spell so much as a test.” Alicia opened the locket. “Damon wanted me to prove that I’m worthy to help him with a very big problem he has, one that will show him how much I care about him. And it’s taken me a bit of time and a whole lot of effort to gather all the ingredients I needed.”

There was a tiny tangle of hairs already in the locket that Alicia gingerly extracted so she could wrap the Baba Yaga’s blond hairs around it.

“What are those?” I asked, my throat tight.

“A couple master vampire's hairs—my husband’s, from the last time I saw him; a bit of fur from a feline familiar, hair from a werewolf both in wolf and human form, and the pièce de résistance…the Baba Yaga’s magic-infused follicles.” Alicia snapped the locket closed and put the necklace back on, letting the pendant fall to her chest between her ample cleavage.

“I hate to be the party pooper here,” I said. “But this is a friendly reminder that you are a vampire, not a witch. We can be cursed or bespelled, but we can’t exactly cast the curses or bespellings.”

“Usually, you’d be right,” Alicia said with a nod. “There is a type of magic in us that makes us what we are, Sarah, but it’s not something we can channel at will. That’s why I have this to help both contain and channel the magic.” She tapped the locket.

“It’s cute,” I allowed.

“It’s a gift from Damon.”

“The shoemaker you said can make your dreams come true.”

“The one and only.” She slipped the locket under her shirt. “So, since you’re free for a few hours, do you feel like going shopping with me?”

The change in subject was so abrupt that I felt a wave of dizziness. I tried to rally since I knew I had to keep up my façade of being Alicia’s brand new bestie until I got the real dirt.

If that meant I had to go shopping with her, which, let’s face it, was one of my favorite pastimes, then I would just have to make that sacrifice.

“I’d love to,” I said. “Although, judging from the drive here, I didn’t see that many stores.”

“Oh, no. Not here. I’m going to take you to my absolute favorite place for shopping.”

I didn’t know West Virginia or the surrounding towns, so I’d have to take her word for it. “All right, sure. Let’s go. Although, Thierry has the car keys with him, so I’m hoping you have wheels?”

Alicia stood up from the table, hoisting her handbag over her shoulder, and I followed her lead. I eyed her very mischievous grin with both amusement and a bit of trepidation.

“Oh, Sarah,” she said. “Thanks to the Baba Yaga’s unknowing generosity, I may never need to drive anywhere ever again.”

She grasped my wrist, and I looked down with a frown.

“What are you—?” I began.

But I couldn’t get the whole sentence out before a thick ribbon of glittering rainbow-colored smoke surrounded us, and the diner disappeared completely.