Page 55 of Midlife Vampire Unexpected

“The wraiths?” Thrain let out of deep sigh. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. What am I going to do with a bunch of wraiths?”

I looked at him sideways with a slight grin. “Piss off the dark Fae.”

“And why would I want to do that?” he asked, but I could hear in his tone of voice I had piqued his interest.

“Don’t you want an army of wraiths under your command?” I asked.

“But to do that, somebody has to go in to that seething mess and put the demon symbols in blood on the doorway.” Thrain rubbed his chin.

“I’ll do it,” I said. “We just need your permission.”

“You’re not doing it,” Antonio said.

“I’m the only other dark creature here,” I pointed out.

“Thrain can write the symbols or one of his minions,” Antonio motioned towards Thrain’s hulking demon guards.

They both growled in unison.

“It has to be a fresh offering,” I said, “and you don’t have a choice in the matter. It’s my decision to make, not yours.”

“But they can affect me.”

“I’m the fastest of everybody here,” I said. “I go in there, I do the symbols, I take a zombie dog, and we take care of business.”

“The dog’s not going to work as a sacrifice,” Thrain said. “We expect real blood. If you’re not going to use real blood, I might as well just open the portal myself, which defeats the goal of the wraiths being offered to me.”

“I can get some of the butchered animals from the farm where I live,” Matheus offered.

“That’ll do.” Thrain shrugged

I looked over at Antonio who was glowering from the side of the room. I could tell he wasn’t happy about the decision we’d made, but I was the only obvious choice. Now we had to carry it out without a hitch and we’d be set.

“Can you fly?” I asked Thrain.

“I didn’t get these wings for looks.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

“Then I suggest you drop me from the top.”

A low growl went up from Antonio. “This is getting worse by the minute. I don’t like it.”

“Isn’t your prime directive to watch Bianca?” I asked.

“Well, maybe somewhere along the way my prime directive got changed,” he said. “Maybe I’m a little more concerned about you at the moment.”

A slight tittering hush fell across the room as everybody looked at Antonio.

I went up to him and kissed him. “I know you’re worried. I’m going to be okay. I promise.” I just hoped I wasn’t lying.

Chapter 40

There was something about being carried by a demon I didn’t like. It might’ve been the way he unceremoniously lifted me by my armpits with my feet dangling. It wasn’t exactly flying first class. Antonio had been upset before I had left, but with the entire coven backing my decision to be the one to go into the cemetery, he really didn’t have a say in what I was going to do. I took it into consideration because I wasn’t a complete asshole, but it was pretty obvious I was the one who was supposed to go into the cemetery.

The plan was perfect. Thrain was going to drop me. I would land, go to the crypt, and trace the blood symbols using the sacrificial blood Matheus had grabbed for me. There was no way I was prepared to kill an animal for a blood sacrifice, but he had known which ones the rancher had already marked for butchering. So, he’d done the butchering a bit early and gotten me the blood, which I was craving. It had been a long day without food.

First, though, I had to deliver Thrain’s sacrifice; an animal killed in his name. Thrain looked a bit disgruntled about the fact we’d gotten away with using a zombie dog for the last sacrifice. In fact, he pointed out pretty clearly that was why it had gone wrong and the demon had gotten loose rather than being forced to go to the entry of the fire.

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