Page 5 of Unholy Gambit: Checkmate in Blood (A Paranormal Halloween #5)
His bone-deep pallor wasn’t just lack of sun, it whispered vampire in every shadowy pathway deep inside her brain, where her nightmares lived.
He hadn’t exactly denied it, had he? Her mind kept circling back to the same question, the one that’d been chewing at her since he first stepped out of her night terrors and into her life.
“Why now?” she asked quietly, meeting his gaze.
Your psychiatrist recognized your memories had been overwritten. He contacted… let’s say the boss of that section of France at that time. He’d heard the story from me, so more phone calls were made.
Her heart raced in her chest. Slammed against her ribs. Cold fear surged through her like an icy mountain stream.
Are you here to make me forget the dream?
His answer came without hesitation, steady and firm. I don’t know what your psychiatrist expects of me, but I won’t make you forget me.
Relief crashed over her, warm and comforting, smothering the cold still coiled inside.
An instinctive, treacherous trust curled in her gut. She shouldn’t believe him so quickly, not when logic demanded caution, but the bare truth in his voice resonated down to her marrow: now that he’d arrived, he had no intention of erasing her again.
She nodded, slid her makeup and brush into her kit, and tucked it behind a fake cemetery headstone.
The coat’s inner pocket held her key fob, driver’s license, credit card, and some cash. She also carried a nine-millimeter Sig Sauer in a belly band over the top of her unitard, well-hidden under the layers of zombie clothes.
Their script had them coming at the attendees from the left side of the trail, twenty yards back. When they got halfway there, a sound would play to make the patrons look to their right, where three zombies would be five feet off the path, stumbling toward them.
Everyone practiced their zombie walks, some of the staff walked through for a dress rehearsal, and then it was time for the first paying customers.
* * * * *
Axel watched Aury closely, quietly monitoring how her knee held up. An hour in, he set the chair where they’d decided it should go, stood beside it, and gave her a pointed look.
“Okay, fine, but only fifteen minutes.”
The chair and footstool were black fabric over a dark frame, and she looked convincingly unanimated.
Stretched out, head lagging to the side, sunglasses so you couldn’t see her eyes.
He knew the sunglasses weren’t as dark as they seemed.
A dip into her mind assured him she could see people approaching.
Her job was to sit up when the patrons came near, an extra scare after they’d been startled by the zombies on the other side of the trail, and the misdirection pulled them right into her space.
Four groups through, it was clear the setup worked better than having her mobile, and he had a feeling Ruby planned it that way from the start.
He was only a little surprised when a group came through consisting of Marco, Cora, Josef with a tiger, along with Etta and the Slayer.
A redheaded woman carried the energy of Mother Nature, and she was with the Lion King and Mordecai. That one made Axel pause, Marco had some powerful friends.
Moira was there with another vampire, a bear shifter, and a werewolf. There were others, too, he knew the vampires, though not the name they were going by in this decade but he hadn’t met any of the shapeshifters or humans.
The group seemed to be having fun, and when they passed, Aury telepathed, You know them?
Not the whole group. Just a few.
Which means there were some vampires, but not all were.
That martial brain again, figuring out more than she should with just a few facts.
He telepathed as much of an explanation as he could get away with.
There’s this big rule that says I can’t tell you other people’s secrets.
There’s also a rule about not telling you my secrets, but there’s a legal workaround we’ll handle later, so I can speak freely about how I may or may not be different.
I’ll never be able to tell you about other people, though.
I shouldn’t trust you, but it’s like I know in my heart you won’t break your promise about never lying to me.
When it was finally time to leave, he was tempted to pick her up and carry her out, but he merely walked with her while carrying the bags with her unique chair and footstool, because he understood the importance of walking in and out under her own power.
He did, however, give her a tiny bit of levitation, a small gravity adjustment.
What did you do?
Lightened the load on your knee by a third. I can do more, if you’d like.
She shook her head. Thank you, but please don’t do that again without telling me first.
Vampires rarely have need of a restroom, and he wasn’t interested in playing human for his Aurélie, so he stood outside the one she went into, following her thoughts as she moved. The knee was tired, but with only a little pain, and she opted not to turn her pain signals down.
Humans aren’t supposed to be able to do that, but he’d forever altered her when she was five years old.
He stood beside her when she told Ruby she was going to eat with him and would meet her later at the apartment. Ruby smiled at him, hugged Aurélie, and turned to a waiting group, each with a problem they needed her to solve.
“Let’s take your car to Ruby’s,” he told her. “That way I can drop you off at the restaurant, and you can go in and grab a table while I park.”
She knew he was doing it so she wouldn’t have to walk far, and she appreciated his phrasing, like it was about saving time. And if they were packed, it would, so she didn’t argue.
But she’d just met him, and she wanted her own transportation. She wasn’t big on trust, his Aurélie. She looked at his rental, a Genesis G70, and then looked at him. You saved my life once, but you’re pretty intense. This is just getting food and then returning me to Ruby’s? Nothing else?
I will do nothing against your will. Nor will I interfere with your will, unless I need to do so to save your life.
He could see her calculating, tactical brain working through the possibilities. “For this night, I need you to not interfere with my willpower under any circumstances.”
She said it out loud, and he could see that she did so because this was important. She wanted it to be a physical vibration, not merely something in her mind.
“For this night, I’ll agree.”
It was a little after eleven. It would be a new day in forty-five minutes.