Published: February 26, 2020

Brief Author’s Note— I split chapter 8 into two parts because it was soooo long. The action just kept coming. Part two is linked down at the bottom. I hope you enjoy!

8

KAYLA

Teleporting was not for the weak. It took a stomach made
of steel, which she most certainly did not have, to transport from one place to
the next. Kayla stared at her dinner on the cobblestone beneath her feet and
tried to get her stomach to settle.

It is alright,” a strong hand rubbed at her back.

She was so pathetic even a vampire took pity on her.

Only she would figure out a way to embarrass the hell
out of herself sandwiched in an alley between two buildings. Why couldn’t she
have found her way to the dumpster five feet away to relieved her guts there?
She glanced toward her father who stood at the entrance looking both ways as if
looking for something. She was going to ask, but opening her mouth made her
stomach push its contents on the cobblestone again.

One thing was for certain, she was never going to have
the school’s beef stroganoff again. Forget it. It tasted awful coming back up
and smelled even worse. She dry-heaved, then forced herself to move away from
the foulness. At least with it empty, her stomach settled.

“I think we can…” Her father turned around; his face
puckered into a frown before he stormed over. “Get your hands off my daughter.”

In one sudden motion, the warmth on her back was gone.

She jerked her head up. Garrick caught her father’s
wrist and had him pinned against a neighboring building. The wind around them
picked up, flashes of magic pulled from the cobblestones, then up to her
father’s hand then into Garrick forcing him to his knees. A cry of agony ripped
through Garrick as he clutched at his skull like he was trying to recover from
wasabi burn and brain freeze at the same time.

“Stop it. You’re hurting him.”

Her father doubled down on the pain.

“Stop,” she pleaded. “He saved me.”

Begrudgingly, her father let his magic dissipated from
Garrick. The tension in the alley relaxed. For a moment, the vampire rocked on
his knees in a daze as if his brain was trying to catch up to the fact that he
wasn’t in pain anymore.

“Are you okay?” She asked, wobbling to him to check on
him.

“Don’t go near him.”

She couldn’t even if she wanted to. Her father put some
sort of bullcrap forcefield around her preventing her from getting within a
three-foot radius.

“Dad, let me go, he’s hurt.”

“He’s dangerous. Look at him.”

“He’s not—” She didn’t even finish her sentence good before
a hiss erupted from Garrick’s throat. He wasn’t helping his case.

Come on, work with me here. She thought wryly.

In case he hadn’t noticed, her father was the one
holding all the cards at the moment. Hissing was the last thing he should have
done. He already looked like a demon summoned from the pits of hell with his eyes
black as night parading around out in the street for everyone to see. He
couldn’t go around hissing at her father too.

“We should have left him back at the house.”

“But, he saved me,” Kayla repeated again. There was no
way she was going to leave him in a house full of shifters. Not after what he’d
done for her. All night, he’d been at her side for reasons unknown. Only the
foremages knew why he’d even helped her in the first place. There was no way
she was going to leave him behind. She owed him her life.

Her father mumbled under his breath then checked the
street again. With a short nod to himself, he motioned for her to follow. “We
have to go.”

“Go where?”

“To the safehouse.”

“The what?”

“I’ll explain when we get there,” he paused when Garrick
stepped behind her. “He can’t come.”

Her feet stopped moving. Her father sucked his teeth the
same way he did when she was a child and he’d lost his patience with her for
wanting him to use magic to tidy up her room instead of having to clean it up
herself.

“Kayla,” he boomed in his dad voice. “You’re coming with
me.”

Usually, that voice was enough to make her eat all her
vegetables. She didn’t even flinch now. She wasn’t going to leave Garrick behind.
Unfortunately, her father had other plans. Crossing the two steps it took to
get to her, he grabbed at her until he got hold of her forearm and tugged.
“Let’s go.”

Garrick moved again.

“You,” he gave Garrick a pointed look. “Stay.”

If he stayed, so did she.

She dropped her weight onto her feet and dug her heels
in. Well, what was left of her heels anyway. Crap that hurt.

Her father jerked her forward. She yelped in pain as the
bottom of her feet scraped against the cobblestones. Her father paused, concern
blanketing his face as he looked her up and down.

“My feet,” she pointed to her bare toes.

He crouched down and wrapped a hand around her shin and
tugged at her leg to lift it. He examined the bottom of her dirty soles. They’d
been caked in disgusting. Even through the grime, several red blisters puckered
up under the skin.

“Why aren’t you healing?” He pulled her foot closer to
his face. Her entire balance came undone.

“Dad, what the hell?” She teetered, using the opposite
foot to shimmy around until she found her balance again.

“Your magic should be healing you. Why isn’t it?” Her
father cast a mistrusting stare at the vampire behind her before returning his
attention back to her foot. “We’ll deal with this later.”

Her father ran a hand over her heel, then her arch, then
up to the ball of her foot. She felt the magic in his hands heal the sores on
her feet. His hands were so warm, it almost felt like having her feet dipped
into a hot pedicure bath. She’d give her left tit for a full-service pedicure right
now. Her father placing his hand on them had just the right amount of soothing
and healing.

The skin on the underside of her foot cleared and when
he put her foot down, she was already forcing the other one in his face to heal
that one too. He did like he’d done so many other times throughout her life. For
every scraped knee, elbow and even the occasional ankle sprain, he’d patiently
heal it no matter how upset he was with her.

“Come on.” When she hesitated, his dark eyes flickered
to Garrick. “Marnie doesn’t like his kind. It’ll be up to her if he stays.”

That was dad code for saying the vampire was going to be
out of his hair one way or the other so there was no use in fighting her about
it. He’d done it a hundred times when she wanted to wear something to school
that was off dress code. He’d tell her not to wear it but would inevitably give
her the ‘the school’s going to decide if that’s acceptable or not’ spiel before
she left the house. Sometimes he was right. She just had to hope this time he
wasn’t.

She didn’t know a jot about Marnie, but if someone ran a safe house, they had to be understanding. Right?

Before exiting the alley, her father grabbed a hold of
her wrist tightly then rushed them across the street. This late at night, the
only cars passing were folks either leaving work late or going to work early. At
least there would be no one to scream when they took one look at Garrick.

The shirt he’d draped over her to go through the fire was in tatters across his shoulders. Burned to hell in places. His eyes hadn’t seen a shade of normal since she’d seen them in the warehouse. The vampire was unsettling, but she guessed he knew that. He seemed to keep a few paces behind them but followed them closely.

They scurried along the mostly vacant streets, dodging
in and out of alleys until they rounded the corner to what looked like a slice
of the French Quarter in the middle of Sun City.

It looked like someone transplanted three New Orleans’s style Victorian homes complete with double-decker gabled porches. There were even plants and vines winding up the wrought iron spindles connecting the

Her father walked toward the two-story house on the
corner.

That was the safe house?

Nothing about the oddity in front of her screamed safe.
It stuck out like a sore thumb. Or was that the point? Stick out so much no one
would dare think it harbored…who? Criminals? Fugitives?

Her stomach lurched at the thought. Which were they? She
stared at the sprinkle of greys peppering the back of her father’s head. This
entire night had been because the greasy man at the warehouse was looking for
her to get back at her father.

She needed to know why.

They climbed up the stairs to the front porch and her
father knocked in a sort of rhythm on the front door before waiting.

Lights illuminated the house, traveling from room to
room until someone opened the door.

A woman with high cheekbones, dark eyes and the most
illustrious brown skin she’d ever seen cracked the door open a sliver. A lit cigarette
dangled from her mouth as she drew an inhale. With her hair tied back by a colorful
scarf, it was super easy to read the look on her face that said they must have
lost their minds showing up to her door at such an indecent hour.

Marnie grunted before letting her disapproving sweep her
frame. “I don’t have any vacancies.”

“Marn, I need your help,” her father said, stepping into
view.

Her eyes widened. “Donovan?”

“I’m coming to call.”

Her eyes darted behind them looking up and down the street in alarm. The lights in her house dimmed like someone had turned the dial down. Marnie pulled her silk caftan around her and moved into the shadows of her house. Her dark pensive eyes flickered from her father then to her but paused when they met Garrick and settled into distrust.

Of course, it was too much to hope she’d miss the
vampire who stood behind them, cloaked in the shadows of her porch.

“Who’s he?”

“He’s a… friend,” Kayla said, eyes darting from her father
then back to Marnie.

The woman raised a disbelieving brow before her gaze
settled to Garrick.

“Only those pure of spirit can enter my house.”

With that she moved from the doorway to allow them
inside. What did she mean only those of pure spirit go inside?

Kayla entered behind her father to a quaint front sitting
room. Marnie eclipsed the doorway again, watching Garrick with keen interest.

His heavy footfalls walked across the porch evenly, yet
the wood underneath his feet groaned like it was going to splinter, then
crumbled under his feet. It was an old porch, but this sounded much different
than settling old creaky wooden planks. It was as if Marnie’s front porch was weighing
Garrick’s honor as he passed over it, judging him as he walked.

Something deep inside of her wanted him to be good.
Wanted Marnie’s enchanted porch to deem him worthy.

He made it to the threshold without the entire thing
collapsing so that had to be a good sign. Relief softened her face into a
grateful smile.

 “Now, let’s see the heart of you,” her sultry voice purred, daring him to cross the threshold into her house. Marnie moved back a step to let him cross.

This time, a smug smile upturned the corner of her lips. This was not a test she thought he could pass

Read Chapter 8 Part 2 Now

Author’s Note: I’ll tell you the winning votes at the end of part two.

See you there!

-Sabrina

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