“Wait a minute.” I hold up my hand. “You killed humans who mistreated their horses?”
“Yes,” he says as if he can’t see the issue with it.
“Just when I thought I couldn’t love you more…” I laugh and the doorbell rings. “I’ll get it,” I call to Eliza, not sure how she was planning on answering the door. Though if this is a vampire meal delivery service, I’m sure they’re used to walking into houses during daytime hours.
“Send her upstairs,” Eliza tells me and speeds up the curved staircase. I give her another few seconds to move out of the sun before opening the door.
“Hi,” I say awkwardly to the woman standing on the porch. She’s wearing a tight red dress, big hoop earrings, and heels so tall I’m not sure how she can balance. If she got up this morning and decided to look like a cheap hooker, she succeeded. The neighbors will be talking today, that’s for sure. “Come in.”
She smiles and steps inside. “Wow, this place is sweet. Should I take off my shoes?”
I close the door behind her. “Uh, probably. They don’t look very comfortable.”
“I got those Botox shots in my feet and don’t feel pain anymore.”
“That’s a thing?”
“Oh yeah! I can give you the number of a doc who’ll come right out to your house and do it.” She’s too chipper. Way too fucking chipper for someone who’s about to be bitten.
“Uh, no thanks.” I sweep my hand out at the stairs. “She’s upstairs. The door should be open.”
“Thanks, honey!” The woman jogs up the stairs and I’m left staring. Shaking myself, I go back into the kitchen.
“If I did cocaine and you drank from me, it would effect you, right?” I ask Lucas.
“Depends on how much you did and how much I drink.” His brows push together. “Why? Do you have some?”
“Gross, no. But that meal-on-heels that just got here for Eliza is very hyper. I’m not saying she’s on drugs, it just crossed my mind.”
“She probably took a B12 shot before she got here. Most do.” Lucas opens another cabinet and pulls out vitamins. “Speaking of, you should take these.”
I fill up my cup with water to wash down the B12 and iron supplements. “I have a favor to ask you.” I toss the pills in my mouth and take a drink of water. One gets stuck on my tongue and Lucas looks at me with a blank stare as I gag and cough. I hold up my hand, letting him know I’m okay. I take another drink and finally get the pill down.
“If it’s sex, yes.”
“It’s not sex. It has to do with a dead body, though.”
“You want me to bury the body from last night?”
“The opposite. I want the police to find it so he can be ID’d. His family will be notified then.”
Lucas stirs the macaroni and sticks his finger in the boiling water to test to see if they’re soft enough.
“That fast-healing thing must be nice,” I grumble.
“It is.” He turns off the burner and takes the pot over to the sink.
“You need a colander.”
“A what?”
“Actually…I don’t think you have one. And I have a way around it. Tip it in the sink and I’ll hold it.”
“But you’ll burn—oh, with magic.”
“Comes in handy from time to time.” Lucas drains the water and then adds the milk, butter, and cheese powder.
“You call this cheese?”
“I do. Some don’t. Nevertheless, it’s a staple in most American homes. It was the one thing Evander could make when we were kids. Tabatha wouldn’t let us use the stove when she wasn’t home until he was like thirteen. But we could use magic to boil water, so we ate it all the time.”
“Why did you return home to the Martins after you lived with Tabatha and Evander?” Lucas mixes everything up and then dishes half of it onto a plate for me. And then he gives me a fork.
That is not how you eat mac and cheese. He’ll learn eventually.
“I only went back a few times, and it wasn’t until I could defend myself that I stayed alone. Mostly, I wanted to see Abby. I was worried she’d be mistreated or something. She doesn’t have powers, but without me taking the spot, she kind of became a black sheep. Most visits were only a day trip with Tabatha there with me, but one summer when I was sixteen, Tabatha and Evander were visiting family and I didn’t want to intrude.”
“I take it your family treated you like shit then too.”
“Oh, of course. My father tried to keep me out of the house, but then someone tipped off the press that I was back, and that’s when my father spun that stupid tale about me being off in a third world country, devoting my life to the less fortunate. He had no choice but to let me stay at the house or else it would look bad. I just wanted to spend time with Abby, but she chose an internship at a hospital over hanging out with me. Now I know she agreed because she was scared of our father, but at the time it felt like a betrayal. That’s actually what made us lose contact.”
“She’s really making an effort now.”
“Yeah, she is and it’s nice.” Lucas kisses the top of my head and leaves the kitchen. I blow on my mac and cheese to cool it down. My familiars trot into the room, wanting some for themselves.
“It’s hot,” I warn, getting up to give them each a bowl. I trade my fork for a spoon while I’m up as well.
“It’s done.” Lucas comes back into the room holding a cell phone.
“What’s done?”
“I tipped off the police that there is a body inside the building.”
“You just called?” I take my seat at the island. “From your phone?”
“It’s a burner. I keep a few for instances like this.”
“For instances like calling in and reporting a body.”
Lucas nods. “Yeah.”
I laugh. “We are so normal it hurts.”
Chapter 18
When Eliza said we’d hang out and talk tonight, I assumed she meant at the house or maybe even a coffee house, even though she doesn’t drink coffee. I didn’t expect to be sitting at a table at the back of Taproom again, waiting for her to find time to come over as she tends the bar.
Which is fine, actually. This place is familiar, and I cast a circle around myself to keep people from coming over and talking to me. Lucas is in the basement torturing Dina, and I’ve been debating if I should go down and join him.
He’s probably more effective without me there. And sitting here by myself, I get to hold my feather.
“I’ve officially lost it,” I whisper to myself and put the feather in my purse before I start calling it my precious. I open the internet on my phone and do another search to see if any articles have been written yet about the headless body. Is murder so common here in Chicago this guy doesn’t even get a mention?
“We can talk now.” Eliza sits down across from me and looks at the time on her phone. “You have ten minutes.”
“Good thing I wrote down a list of questions.”
“You’re joking.”
“I am, actually. I thought we’d hang out more like friends, not like an interview. But since I’m on the clock, I’ll start. What do you like to do for fun?”
“Now why does it sound like you’re hitting on me?”
“Wishful thinking
on your part,” I spit back and Eliza smiles.
“Fine. Lately I’ve been on the hunt for particular antique items. There aren’t many flea markets open after dark, though. Makes it hard.”
“What are you looking for? I can go,” I offer, and Eliza just stares at me. “It’s not like I have much else to do these days. I’d like to stay busy to keep me distracted.”
“From demons?”
“Well, yeah, but on how I’m not part of my coven right now and how that lying bitch, Ruth, has weaseled her way into the Grand Coven.”
Eliza presses her lips together and inhales, looking disturbingly human. “That must be hard. I’ve never belonged to a group like that, but I can imagine how tightly bonded you all are.”
“Thank you. And yeah…I’m not close with every single person in the coven. There are too many for that. But the Covenstead and the Academy…that’s my home.”
“You really went to witch school?”
I nod. “I’m not supposed to tell vampires about it.”
“One of the first things I heard you say was how you have a tendency to do the opposite of what’s good for you.”
“Hah, isn’t that the truth.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-five.”
“You’ll be dead before you figure out how to do what’s good for you.”
“That’s probably true,” I agree ruefully. “Either from old age or murder.”
“My money is on murder.”
I laugh and then Eliza does too. “There’s a neat antique store in Thorne Hill,” I tell her. “The owner is scared of vampires and closes right at sunset.”
“Closing at sunset is too late to avoid vampires.”
“I know. There are only two vampires in Thorne Hill right now.”
“Must be young vampires. Most older ones would know to stay away from witches.”
“They are young. Probably turned within the last ten years or so. I’ve stayed away, and they haven’t caused any trouble.”
“What about the people in Thorne Hill.” Eliza rests her hands on the table. “It’s not just witches.”