Page 54 of The Vampire and the Case of the Baleful Banshee

‘Okay, I’m out.’ I heard him chuckling in his office. Smartass.

Next I finished up what Sidnee had left, which wasn’t much – it had been a quiet night before the earthquake. Thinking of the quake spiked something in my mind. The earth gem could cause quakes…

I dialled Vitus Vogler’s number and the grouchy earth witch answered with a barked, ‘What?’

‘Can you double-check the earth gem is okay?’

‘It’s fine,’ he bit out.

‘Can you check it now, while I’m on the line?’

He huffed but I heard him moving through the house. ‘The wards are up, the box is there. Happy?’

‘Delighted,’ I said flatly and hung up. Damn. Maybe not everything in this place had a magical cause but I’d felt certain that the recent quakes were because of the earth gem rather than the usual non-magical rubbing together of tectonic plates. However, Sidnee had told me quakes were a dime a dozen here so I let it go.

I checked my phone; it was nearly time for my nail appointment. There was a text from my mum. I took a deep breath and opened it.

Elizabeth, I’m getting ready for my trip. How is the weather there? Dad can’t make it this time, I’m afraid. He has some important business that can’t be delayed. He sends his apologies; he’ll come next time. Your dad is sending one of his men to help me instead, a nice lad called John. Apparently he has business in Portlock, and I simply couldn’t manage all that luggage by myself! Looking forward to seeing you, darling. Ta ta for now x

I blew out a long slow breath. It was no surprise that Dad had cancelled because he’d been doing that my whole life, but I was surprised that it still stung. Business came first, always. But sending someone called John … surely that couldn’t be a coincidence? John was a common enough name but there was only one John who was linked with my father – and that was John the vampire. John who worked for the vampire King of Europe. John, who’d helped me to escape.

I tried to calm down and take the message one bit at a time. The weather? She could look that up herself but instead of telling her that I sighed and typed: It rains a lot. Bring a raincoat, and boots. It’s around 4 to 10 degrees. I didn’t acknowledge Dad’s lack of attendance: that was same old same old.

John’s presence – if it was the same John – sent a shard of fear through me. Was the vampire king sending John to Portlock to spy on me? To control me? Maybe John’s business here had nothing to do with me but my gut didn’t think so. Fingers crossed I was being too self-involved.

I ended the message with Looking forward to seeing you too, which was an outright lie. I didn’t want to say anything more because her phone might be tapped – the vampire king had tapped my phone and my emails before. I was grateful that I’d left all that bullshit behind; Connor would never be that underhanded with his people.

And even if sending John was part of the vampire king’s ploy to get me back to London, I knew that Connor would do everything in his power to protect me. Fated mates or not, he wouldn’t let any of his people be taken by that arsehole.

I sighed. Connor was never far from my thoughts. Despite my very best efforts, he was slowly sinking into my life and into my heart.

I tried to think about something else – someone else – and turned my thoughts back to my mum. How on earth would I cope with living with her for a whole month? Maybe I could convince her to stay at the hotel instead. Fluffy would despise her vapid Pomeranian, Arabella, who barked non-stop at anything and everything. She had small-man syndrome times a million, and she was incredibly stupid and ridiculously spoiled. Some days I thought Mum wished her dog was her daughter instead of me. Yes, I was being pathetic, but that dog got more affection in a day than I’ve had in my entire life.

I put away the world’s tiniest violin. I’d been raised with money and privilege and I was lucky; there were plenty of people who had it far worse. Maybe I’d have preferred to have been raised destitute with parents that loved me rather than being rich and ignored, but the grass was always greener, right?

Chapter 32

Before I went to my salon appointment, I popped home to have some blood and retrieve my key from under the plant pot. As I approached the house, my scalp started to itch. Huh.

I found the key and let myself in the back door. As I walked inside, the itching faded. The smell of fresh paint assailed my nose and the sound of heavy bass music bombarded my ears. If my intruders were criminals, they weren’t trying to hide.

I followed the blaring music to the front room where Connor Mackenzie was painting my graffitied wall a lovely shade of blue. He was using a roller and doing a little dance as he worked. When he caught sight of me he looked a little abashed, like a kid who’d been caught eating out of the biscuit tin. ‘Hey.’ He waved the paint roller at me.

‘Hey,’ I replied, beaming. ‘You’re painting.’

‘I am,’ he agreed. ‘You don’t mind? I hated the thought of you having to sit there with that threat on the wall. I didn’t want it in your headspace, and the borough is notoriously slow at getting around to jobs like this.’

‘That’s really kind of you. I don’t mind at all.’

He eyed the wall critically. ‘It might need another coat of paint. I’ve done two already, but we’ll see how it dries. Do you like the colour?’

‘I love it.’

His expression turned rueful. Something told me he was thinking that I loved the paint but not him. I grimaced. I didn’t want to wade into that right now; besides, maybe he was thinking something else that had nothing to do with me.

‘I thought you liked classical music?’ I nodded at his phone, which was blaring out club mixes.

He shrugged. ‘I do but I’m trying to expand my horizons.’ My heart swelled; he was listening to music he knew I loved.

---