“No, and I don’t trust her. I don’t trust her. She’s going to keep working to take control of this island and everybody in it. I know it. And more than that—Sandy, I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. So far, the vamps have been living in a truce with humans, but I think…” I fell silent. I didn’t want to say what I was thinking. But the look in Essie’s eyes when she had spoken about the future being a wildcard had chilled me.
“You think that there’s going to be an uprising among the vampires,” Franny said, popping in beside us. “You think they’ll start a mass attack on people?”
I grimaced. “Franny, you have to keep quiet about this. We can’t have it getting out.”
Closing my eyes, I remembered that last day, standing atop the hill in Romania as we watched a village burn to the ground. Fata Morgana and Cassandra and I had tracked them down. After my fires destroyed them, we walked away, becoming the party girls of the century. I had tucked away the blade and stake that had tasted so much blood, swearing never again to use them.
Flesh to fire, fire to flesh. Time to weave the silver mesh.
Time to hunt the bloody fiends, time to stake and burn amends.
“Do you think we’ll have to do it again? The world is so different now.” Sandy bit her lip.
“The world is vastly different, which means there are so many more people to hunt. So many more ways to vie for control. Aegis will fight with us.” I paused. “You know, when sailors committed mutiny, they were left on an island with a gun with one bullet in it. I have the feeling that’s what Aegis’s ring is. Apollo’s gift to him. A way out.”
Aegis and I still hadn’t talked about his ring. Every time I started to ask about it, he changed the subject. Some things were better left until it was the right time.
Standing, I slid the dagger into a sheath, and the stake into a matching one. Slipping both into my bag of magical tools, I closed the lid and turned to Sandy.
“Do you really want to do this?” she asked.
I stared at the trunk. “No. Not really. I didn’t think I’d have to ever revisit this path. But I guess we don’t always get what we want, do we?”
“No, Mick, we don’t.” Sandy gave me a quick hug. “But I’ll be there. Cassandra and Mad Maudlin back in action.” She paused for a moment. “Do you think we could find her?”
A shiver raced down my spine. “The question is, do we want to?”
“I miss her, even though…” Sandy shook her head. “I can’t help but wonder where she is. We’d know if she was dead.”
“Yeah, I know. She was the crazy one, you know. Not me. I ran wild. She was wildness incarnate.”
Sandy gave me an uneasy glance. “Yeah.” Then, sucking in a deep breath, she said, “Let’s get back to the party. You have B&B guests coming tomorrow and you’ll want to be ready to open.”
And tomorrow, any vampire that wants can walk into this house without asking. But I left my thoughts unsaid, and instead just nodded, pasting a smile on my face. My Prosperity spell had worked. In the past week we had booked every room for the rest of the year and into January.
“Come on, let’s go drink and dance the night away.”
THE BAND WAS taking a break from their set. I walked out to the back patio, freezing in the dark of the night, but unwilling to go find my coat. As I stared up at the stars cluttering the sky, Aegis joined me. He wrapped an arm around me and kissed the top of my head.
“Where did you and Sandy go?”
“Up to the attic. Well, one of the storage closets.” I inhaled the sharp tang of snow and cold and wood smoke.
“You’re wearing your weapons again, aren’t you, Mad Maudlin?”
His voice was so soft I almost missed what he said, but then it seeped through and I slowly turned to face him.
“The blade and the stake, aren’t they? Rumors say they’re sterling silver, with a core of adamant.”
Barely able to breathe, I forced out my words. “You know about them?”
“Of course I know. Don’t forget, I’m far older than you and have walked the back paths of the world for centuries beyond centuries. I told you, I knew who you were the day after you bought this house. I did my homework. Before you told me about it, I knew you were Mad Maudlin, vampire hunter. One of the most successful in history.”
“What else do you know?”
He laughed. “I know that you hunted down Dracula, that you traced his family and destroyed most of them. I know about the fires that haunt your dreams, and why you don’t like to talk about the past. I know that it was Dracula who turned the love of your life.” Aegis’s eyes flared, crimson for a moment, then back to their sparkling depths.
I leaned against him. “You know all of my secrets. But I didn’t tell you one. Essie knows who I am.”
He tilted his head to the side for a moment, staring at me, his expression unreadable. After a moment he held out his hands. “And that’s why you must wear your weapons, my love. Maddy, you and I bridge the gap. The bridge between the living and the dead can be a narrow one, but we manage it. I trust you.”
I reached out, the fingers of my left hand wrapping around his. And in the core of my heart, I could feel the stirrings of doubt, but they fell silent as his lips neared mine. “I trust you, too, Aegis. And yes, we will manage this bridge.”
And right then, in that moment, he leaned down and kissed me, and I left behind the guilt over loving him. As he wrapped his arms around me, the stars sparkled like diamonds and everything felt clean and new. And at that moment, Mad Maudlin returned and I welcomed her into my heart.
End