Page 6 of Her Reborn Mate

Although the pain in my body had subsided, the effects of Wolf’s Bane still debilitated me from moving too swiftly or traveling for long distances. I was already exhausted as it was. I needed food, a good night’s sleep, a bath, and new clothes.

Now, whom did I know who could provide me with all of that while remaining discreet?

Chapter 3: Alexis

Whatever fumes I was running on were already exhausted when I reached Bangor. There was no more fight left in me. Although I had never been a quitter, in my mind, the most convenient solution to all my woes right now was to just let go and let the vampire kill me. At least then, I would be able to locate Will’s spirit in the afterlife, give him a good ethereal beating for dying on me, and then ask him what he’d meant when he had said Ariana’s name. There was a one-way ticket to all of that happening, and it was wrapped around my throat, drawing out my life force.

It would have all happened exactly like that had Izzie not been standing there in the back, her hands grasping the baseball bat as if she was some sort of hero in a dystopian video game.

“Your flesh crawls with fear,” the vampire said, his face next to mine. It took me a second to realize what he was doing. He wasn’t just choking me; his claws were digging into the skin of my neck, drawing blood, undoubtedly attracting the vampires that had come along with him.

And that was when it ended, my passive acceptance of death. A cluster of vampires in this back alley would mean havoc for Izzie and everyone in the bar. A bunch of feral vampires loose in the streets of Bangor, driven into a frenzy by blood…who knew what hell would break loose if that’d happened?

Izzie’s bat collided with the back of the vampire’s head, breaking his crushing hold on my neck. I slid down the floor as fresh air burst through me, granting me back my sight and eliminating my passive acceptance of fate. I struggled to my feet, trying to understand what had just happened. Izzie still held the baseball bat in her hands, with one of its ends steeped in blood. The vampire was reeling, holding his bloodied head with both hands.

As he staggered about the alley, he eventually passed through a spot where sunlight had managed to shine despite all the wires, rooftops, and awnings. The moment he came into the sunlight, his skin started sizzling. The vampire yelled and made a run for the darker part of the alley.

Izzie stood by me, one hand clinging to the bat, the other wrapped around my shoulder. Ever since the death of my parents, I had never felt such a feeling of familial protection. It was not the same with Will. He had been my lover. Half the time, I had to help him adjust to the ways of the new world. Vince and Maliha, while close friends and all, were within my age bracket, and although they had helped me out a lot, it had never been like this. Never the comforting arm on my shoulder.

Only mom used to do that.

“Fucking meth heads,” Izzie spat. “We’re in the middle of one of the worst drug epidemics in the country. The streets are filled with junkies shooting scag in their system, smoking meth, and doing all those new sorts of designer drugs that have a fifty-fifty chance of getting you high or killing you. Best buy yourself a handgun and stand your ground when you get jumped like this.”

Neither did I have the heart to tell her that I knew exactly where the meth had been coming from, nor did I have it in me to inform her that the thing she had driven away was not some drug addict but a scorned vampire. All I knew was I had to stick around, if not just for my sake, then for Izzie’s.

“That bed still up for grabs?” I asked.

“For sure. Just…be extra cautious of these folk in the alleys. Half of them are stoned out of their gourds and don’t know what they’re doing. The other half is just in pursuit of chaos. You best avoid both.”

“This isn’t the first time you’ve had to defend your property I’m assuming,” I said.

“Honey, I’ve lost count.”

“I never understood why there’d be a full-fledged bar in the middle of the back alleys. Why not a main road or avenue?” I asked. It was only a deflective question meant to slow Izzie down. What I was really looking out for was the vampire. Had his friends arrived? The rooftops and alleys were clear so far, but that could mean anything. Maybe they were ganging up around the corner.

“This bar was part of the old town. Everything around it was built within the last five to fifteen years. Mulligan’s has been around for a hundred years. At this point, only those who know of its existence come to visit it. It’s a sanctuary if you think about it like that. Just every so often, we pick up a stray.”

“Hey, don’t expect me to meow.”

“I don’t expect none of that. Although, do take the First Aid kit to your room, patch up your neck, and come back down for lunch. I will show you the ropes on running the place, and then we can get you started in the kitchen or behind the bar.”

“Thank you.” I was mostly just grateful that I didn’t have to shift into my wolf form in front of Izzie. More grateful that the sun had been where it had been and had scared the vampire away. I could not help but think how docile I had been when the vampire was choking me. How could I have let myself accept death in such a lackluster way?

“Don’t mention it,” Izzie said, sliding behind the bar lithely. “Just find your room, and see if it’s to your liking. Don’t go expecting the Ritz or anything. The last person who stayed there was a bit of a hoarder and a kleptomaniac. That’s why we had to fire him.”

I picked up the First Aid kit and climbed up the dingy staircase. It smelled like the inside of Will’s ship on the staircase. All this wood, some of it wet, some gone soft from mold. There was a big window on the top of the staircase from where I could see beyond the alleys. In the distance, the murky waters of the Penobscot river flowed in a zig-zag. Beyond that was the lush green forest that I had come from.

There was only one door on the first floor. It was black, like most of the bar’s interior. I gently pushed it open, preparing myself for whatever awaited me in there. As Izzie had instructed, I was not expecting the Ritz.

But to my surprise, it was not bad at all. Keeping in theme with the bar, the floor and the walls were made of black wood. There was a giant window on one side of the room from where I could see the Penobscot even clearer. The alleys spread below me like a series of webs. From here, I could see into most of them, just as I could see past them onto the main road, on the rooftops of all the buildings around me, and at the wilderness in back of Bangor.

I had the urge to open the window and let the fresh air come in. The room was not shabby by any means. The only thing wrong with it was the stuffy smell. I slid open the windows and greeted the cold air inside, now turning my attention to the rest of the room.

There was a shabby bed in one corner, stripped of its bedsheet and pillow covers. The mattress atop it was stained yellow in numerous places. I was no one to complain. For me, all of this stuff came for free. I could fix this fixer-upper of a place in no time. But with what money?

I opened the cabinet, only now realizing what Izzie meant when she said that the previous tenant had been a kleptomaniac. Given all the stuff in the cabinets, I wouldn’t have to go on a shopping spree to fix this place. Most everything that I needed was already in there. Linen, pillow covers, candelabras, rugs, crockery, utensils…the cupboard had it all. There was even a designated section for stolen clothes. I yanked some of them out and sniffed them. Other than the scent of the cupboard, these clothes didn’t have any odor and didn’t look dirty. I chose a plaid shirt and black jeans from this pile, fished out a towel from the cupboard, and then headed into the bathroom.

After a hot shower, I put on my clothes, bandaged my neck, refreshed my old bandages, and then headed down. I had exhausted my limit of spending time all by myself. The more I stayed by myself, the more the horrors of my previous life came to haunt me. It was a lingering sadness that saw loneliness as an opportunity to attack when all my defenses were down. It all revolved around my dead mate and the last word he had said.

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