Page 41 of The Accidental Detectives

The ache radiating through my body began to subside, and as it did, my anger grew. When my hands finally pulled apart, so did my feet. Pushing away from Marty, I was on them in two seconds flat. My skin looked like I’d been through a damn shredder, but my anger was bigger than any pain I was feeling.

Feeling so helpless always made me ragey, and I wanted blood.Sonja’s blood. The awesome power of my vampiric healing surged through me as I ran at Sonja, pushing Robbie out of the way and grabbing her by the front of her floaty dress.

I hurled her at the far wall of what I now realized was a completely empty room. Dragging her upward, I shook her hard, so much so, her bones literally rattled—music to my ears. “I’m gonna rip your witchy ass from limb to limb, you whacked bitch!”

Raising my fist high, the plan was to ram it into her face and introduce her nose to her brain, but Robbie stopped me.

Her voice was loud and clear and very unlike the timid woman I’d met just months ago. “Vampire! You’ll do no such thing! Put that fist away and put it away now, or I’ll be forced to rip it off!”

Hands touched my shoulders…gentle, motherly, soothing hands. “Nina,” Wanda whispered in my ear. “Stop. It’s not worth the clan paying us a visit because we killed someone not our own. You’ll start a war. Think of Charlie and Carl. Greg. Thinkof all of us. You’re no good to us in jail. You’re no good if in the future, there are other children who might need help.”

As mentioned before, Wanda has a way. My anger evaporated on a dime. Instantly, I let my fist fall to my side as Robbie wrapped her free arm around me and gave me a hug. “It’s all okay now, vampire. I’ve got you. I’ll take care of her.”

Wiping at my eyes, I looked at her with a hard expression. “She’ll be punished?”

Robbie nodded. “In ways you can’t even imagine. I promise. Now stop. Rest. Are you all right?”

My smile was wry. I didn’t like admitting it, but this time, it had been really close. “I’m fine. I’ll heal.”

She touched a strand of my hair with a soft gasp. “She set your hair on fire? I thought that wasourthing?” she teased.

I relented with a chuckle, letting my anger fade away, giving her a hug back. “How the hell did you find us?”

Wanda, who had Brenda up and moving, smiled at me as we made our way to the door—a door I could now actually see. “Your phone tracker. I know you didn’t think it was a good idea to put them on our phones, but I guess they came in handy?”

Grabbing her hand, I nodded. “Yeah. I was wrong. Okay?”

She chuckled. “Mama knows best. Now, Robbie, come here and give me a kiss. You’re a godsend. I don’t know what we would have done without you.”

She winked, gripping a haggard Sonja/Lorelai hard by the arm as Wanda and Marty gave her a hug. “Always,” she said with a warm smile.

I hugged her again, too. “Thank you,” I whispered in her ear. “You saved my life.”

She tugged a length of my hair with a grin. “I remember you once doing the same thing for me. Now go home and help Brenda rest.” She turned to Sonja. “We have a date with the witch council, don’t we, naughty girl?”

Robbie snapped her fingers, and then she and Sonja were gone.

As I followed Marty and Wanda outside the room, I realized it was Sonja’s apartment. We were in Owen’s apartment complex.

Witch magic is a freaky thing.

Taking the steps one at a time, because my ankle was still mending, I had a question. “Guys…? Who the fuck is Lorelai Bettencourt?”

Epilogue

All’s well that ends well—for now…

A week later,once we’d recuperated from our ordeal, we invited Brenda over to meet some of Archibald and Tater Tot’s bingo buddies.

There were all manner of paranormal people for her to get to know, and she seemed to fit in really well.

As I watched them all laugh and talk, while Doug and Brenda’s dogs played with my dog, Waffles, I couldn’t help but grin.

Shit had turned out okay, and it left me feeling good that we’d helped make that happen. We sure hadn’t done it with much skill—we had a lot to learn—but I felt like we’d done a service to our community.

An older vampire by the name of Gaston had been flirting with Brenda from jump, pulling out chairs and holding doors open for her. He had Brenda giggling like a giddy schoolgirl, and if I was smelling the sitch right? She liked Gaston, too. They had chemistry, and it was fun to watch her smile so much.

Bertrand was being Bertrand. That godforsaken camera in everyone’s face, filming the festivities in order to finish up his cinematography project. At least it wasn’t inmyface, but I did end up wearing a Jason mask to make up for how cranky I’d been with him. He’d told us just yesterday, he was moving on to greener pastures.

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