Page 92 of Of Flame and Fate

“Yes, you are,” I insist. “You’re demonstrating fear.”

“I’m not demonstrating. I’m fucking swimming in it. Did you hear that guy? The one in the gargoyle head? He sounded possessed!”

“That’s just Hank,” I tell him.

“Hank?” He allows his legs to slide to the floor. “So Hank is all right? He won’t hurt me?”

Bren laughs. “Are you kidding? He would totally rip out your kidneys.”

“Bren,” I warn.

His blue eyes brim with humor. “Well, he would,” he mumbles.

“It doesn’t matter,” I offer quickly.

“It doesn’t matter?” Johnny asks, his voice shrilled. “These are my kidneys we’re talking about.” He glances out of the window and tries to unlock the door. It’s a stupid thing to do. The meticulously kept landscape may create the impression of a tranquil and safe environment, except vampire guards lurk in the shadows, protecting the compound. Johnny was safer on the mountain with the bears and the potential demon infestation.

“Johnny, get a hold of yourself,” I tell him.

“You said I’d be safe here,” he reminds me. “That this was a good place to be until the witches came for me.”

“You will be safe,” I say. “The vamps won’t harm you unless provoked or in defense of their master. That doesn’t mean they won’t try to screw with you.”

I groan when he curls inward. “You can’t behave this way in front of the vamps. They’ll eat you alive—” I hold out my hand when he pales. “Sorry, they won’t actually eat you. But they sure as hell won’t respect you.”

My pep talk does nothing. If anything, he’s close to hysterics and I can’t have that.

I point at him. “You’re the Fate,” I remind him. “You have to walk into that compound like you’re the baddest mother fucker in the room.”

“Just don’t verbalize it,” Gemini adds.

“Oh, yeah,” Bren agrees. “Totally don’t verbalize that shit.” He nudges Johnny. “Unless you want to kiss those kidneys goodbye.”

“Will you stop it,” I tell him when sweat pours down Johnny’s face. “You’re not helping.”

An idea sparks in my head. “Think about what it was like to walk out on stage, or attend an event where everyone knew who you were. Were you scared?”

“No, but my fans worshipped me.” He glances at Bren. “They weren’t threatening to tear out my organs.”

“That’s not the only reason,” I say. “You weren’t scared because you were Johnny Fate. You’re still Johnny Fate. But instead of being a rock god, you’re the new god in Witchville.”

I’m trying to make him feel better, but the words are hard to say. The only reason he’s getting the title is because Destiny is losing the crown. I suppose that’s why my voice softens and Johnny seems to cling to my every word. “Believe you’re strong and formidable, and they will, too.”

I angle my body back toward the front as Gemini pulls onto the long circular drive. He parks directly in front of the stone steps leading up to the two-story double doors. On both sides of each step waits a vampire dressed in a designer black suit. They’re all newly made, deadly, and waiting for one false move.

“Remember what I said,” I tell Johnny. I swing open the door. “Come on, it’s show time.”

I step out, my head high and my shoulders back. Unlike Johnny, the vamps don’t scare me. “Hank here?” I ask.

The female vamp at the top hops down in the time it takes me to reach the base of the steps. She smiles with all the warmth of a cobra. “He’s coming,” she says.

Yes, he is, and does he ever know how to make an appearance. A human, dressed like a scantily dressed Little Bo-Peep races down the steps, giggling and glancing back to make sure she’s being followed.

And is she ever! Hank, the naughty sheep, is steadily in pursuit. I know it’s him despite that he’s only wearing a black speedo and a rubber sheep mask.

It’s not a gift. I’d recognize that eight-pack anywhere.

He stops in front of me, peeling off his mask, his sweat-soaked hair glued to his face as if camera-ready for some kind of athletic photo shoot. “Look who’s here,” he tells me. “My favorite weird sister.”

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