The Vampire...In My Dreams (23 page)

The vamp still didn’t react, maybe unsure as to what to do with the creature. If she couldn’t slice it in two with her sword, or bite it, what could she do? Yet I was feeling panicked like Marissa and wanted the entity to work faster. But I didn’t say a word, concerned if I forced the issue, the demon would turn on me. I bit my tongue.

“With pleasure.” The demon’s words slid over her slippery tongue, and her watery arms reached out to Lynetta as if she was welcoming a child into her loving embrace.

Breaking the spell the demon seemed to have over her, Lynetta moved backward. But the demon rushed forth like a tidal wave, and with the strength of a typhoon, wrapped herself around the vamp.

Lynetta’s black snake eyes bulged. Her clothes grew wet and clung to her body. Water puddled on the floor around her feet. Then she struggled as if she suddenly realized an embrace from the water demon preceded death. Did she sense the water being pulled from every molecule in her body? Did she feel the life force being drawn from her, absorbed by the demon, leaving her cells empty and ready to collapse? Shrieking, she attempted a last struggle.

Her voice suddenly shriveled. Drained of water, her wizened body crumpled to the ground.

I stared down at the vamp. Her wet gown clung to skin hanging loose around her bones. Her eyelids were shut, thank the stars. I didn’t even want to know what eyeballs zapped of fluid would look like.

“Thank you,” Marissa said, getting nearer to the demon as if she wanted to give her a hug to show how grateful we were. To my horror, the demon smiled and slipped her arms around Marissa, soaking her to the skin.

My mouth dropped open in astonishment, but even more surprising, she released Marissa unharmed and turned to me.

Instantly, I worried that she didn’t appreciate that I’d called her instead of Marissa.

After all, she wasn’t my patron demon. I glanced down at Lynetta and envisioned the life being sucked out of my body in the same agonizing way. My skin chilled in the damp air.

Before I could utter a cry or word, Marissa’s patron demon reached her watery arms out and hugged me, too. I felt I’d been immersed in a warm tub while the water pressed in around me, gently and with a caressing, silky touch. “Keep her safe forever, warlock. Keep her safe.”

“With every ounce of strength I possess,” I promised.

Kate whispered to the demon, “Thank you.”

The patron demon released me, then nodded at Kate with a small smile on her liquid blue lips. Then she whirled into a spinning circle of water and vanished.

For a moment, we stood staring at Lynetta’s dehydrated body as if she still held some power over us, then I broke free of the spell and spoke first. “We have to get her to the tanning bed at once. As powerful as she is, I doubt she’ll remain in this state for long.”

Marissa patted her pocket. “I have the key to the nail shop right here. Let’s go.” Though she tried to sound unafraid, her voice trembled.

Worried that more of Lynetta’s minions might be returning from feeding any time now, I carried her body outside to my Bug at a sprint.

Marissa hurried to get the car door for me. “I thought you just popped in from the hospital or somewhere. I didn’t realize you drove here.”

I arched a brow. “I’ve been waiting right outside the house all along. I had to bring my car so I could take you both back home after this was over.”

“You were that sure it would all work out well?”

I sighed heavily. “We haven’t finished tonight’s work yet.” I glanced at the shriveled body of Lynetta, its former beauty robbed by the embrace of the water demon. With fervor, I hoped she would be a pile of ashes before she could do any more harm to anyone.

“But you thought we’d succeed,” Marissa insisted.

“Working together—the three of us—I had no doubt we’d make it.” Yet we weren’t out of danger. If Lynetta revived before we could use the tanning bed to put her to rest permanently, I feared we were all doomed.

I climbed into the backseat of the car with Lynetta, neither Kate nor Marissa wanting the job. Then Marissa drove toward the nail shop. We all hoped we wouldn’t be stopped along the way, though I sensed Marissa speeding a little. How could we explain the dehydrated mummy in my arms? Witches’ and warlocks’ science project?

Twice we passed a police car waiting in the dark, patrolling for drunks out at the late hour. With her vampiric night vision, Marissa caught site of them and slowed down, driving slightly under the speed limit.

Then we arrived at the nail shop. I noticed my brother’s car right away, and nearby, a police car.

“Great,” Marissa said, her voice hushed. “Now what do we do? If we try to carry a body into the nail shop to destroy it…”

“If my brother is here, maybe he can help us get out of this mess.”

The lights in the shop turned on. James bolted out the front door with a policeman following him—our older cousin, Bill, his nearly black hair cut short, his blue eyes smiling in greeting. He and James had always been fishing buddies, so what were they here fishing for now? Bill waved at me while I sat glued to the backseat, my mind frantic as to how we were going to explain this.

Marissa parked the car, then jumped out to try to head him off from seeing Lynetta’s shriveled body in the backseat with me.

“What’s happening?” James asked, his voice concerned.

Marissa tried to block him from nearing the car. “We’re all right, but…” She looked over at Bill who hung on her every word.

James waved a thumb at him. “He’s all right.”

Marissa folded her arms.
“Hmmm, if it turns out he’s not to be trusted, I guess I could wipe your cousin’s thoughts from his mind.”

“If James trusts Bill, he’s okay. Someone needs to get the door for me, like quick. I think Lynetta is stirring,”
I conveyed to Marissa as Lynetta’s body wiggled slightly in my arms. My heartbeat had already quickened to racer speed.

“Ohmigod.”
Marissa bolted for my car door and jerked it open. Kate squealed. But I hurried out of the car toward the building with the mummy dressed in an evening gown, not wanting to delay our work one more second.

“What the…?” James said, but let his words trail off and rushed after us.

Lynetta began to squirm. Her skin began to plump up. Sweat built up on my brow.

“Ohmigod,” Marissa said silently. She couldn’t call her patron demon again. Not for another month. We had to destroy Lynetta for good on our own.

Kate ran behind the others. “The last room!” she hollered, though Marissa seemed to already have the situation well under control, having done this the night before. She led the way.

To my surprise, Bill just followed the group, never uttering a word. I know he was used to some pretty bizarre situations, being a cop, but I didn’t figure he’d seen anything this weird.

“In here!” Marissa nearly screamed.

My anxiety level grew as the wrinkles in Lynetta’s skin began to fill with fluid like air pumped into an air mattress.

When she began to fight my confinement, I struggled to get her into the tanning coffin. She hissed and bared her grizzly teeth as I shoved her into the bed.

Together, the whole group of us slammed the lid down, but she thrust her hands out of the end of the tanning bed. With claw-like fingers, she grabbed the lid and tried to squirm out.

I grabbed the only weapon available. A rubber wastebasket. I pounded her head with it, trying to knock her back inside the bed. My brother tried to peel one of her wicked claws from the tanning bed lid while Kate worked on the other.

Marissa dashed to the setting on the unit and shoved it onto high, while the others held the lid shut as tightly as they could.

As soon as light emitted from the tanning bed, the creature screamed bloody murder. She pulled her arms inside the bed and shoved against the lid for several minutes. The searing of flesh burned in the air. My eyes watered while the pungent smell filled the room and curls of gray smoke rose from the ends of the bed.

James, Bill, Kate, and Marissa held the lid down. I could hear their hearts beating rapidly like mine, and sweat dribbled down James’s and Bill’s faces while I maintained vigilance with the wastepaper basket at one end of the bed, just in case the vamp stuck her head or arms out of it again.

When the time was up, Marissa quickly set it again. “Hold the lid. Don’t let it up whatever you do.”

“Surely she’s dead,” Kate whispered. “Isn’t she?”

“I’m not certain. I fried Joshua twice, but assume the first time turned him to ashes. He didn’t come to like she has. Lynetta is so much stronger. I’m not sure one tanning session will do it.”

Then a thump sounded in the bed and the lid began to rise.
Not dead
.

Everyone but me grabbed the lid while I readied my wastebasket weapon.

Then silence. No more smells, no more sounds, except for our heavy breathing.

When the timer had gone off a second time, Marissa set it again. Questioning her actions, I waited for an explanation.

“I have to be sure. I have to know she can’t get you.” Tears pricked her eyes as she fought to hold them back.

I leaned over and kissed her cheek, glad she cared so much about me. But the paleness of her skin worried me. I kept my wastepaper basket at the ready to clobber Lynetta just in case she poked her head out again, but I wanted to hold Marissa tightly instead. She seemed ready to collapse.

After frying the vamp five more times, Marissa finally consented to allowing us to open the lid, albeit reluctantly. But then she shouted, “No! Wait!” She quickly cast a protection spell, and Kate and I both repeated the chant to help increase the strength of the spell.

James and I lifted the lid while Bill held a gun at the ready. Didn’t he know bullets wouldn’t do a thing to a vampire? What had James told him? Maybe Bill hadn’t ever read vampire lore.

The glistening bed was empty. The room was as silent as a breezeless snowy day.

We all stared at the empty tanning bed. No ashes. No black evening gown. No dead vampire. My heart sank with defeat.

Marissa’s knees buckled, but before she crumpled to the floor, I grabbed for her and lifted her in my arms.

“Lynetta took a lot of her blood,” Kate said, her own voice unsteady. “Adrenaline and the will to terminate the vicious vamp were all that kept her on her feet.”

“Marissa, love.”
We hadn’t finished the job, and I knew before the night was over, Lynetta would return with a vengeance.

Chapter 24

MARISSA

When I awoke, Dominic hovered over me. His hand caressed mine with a gentle sweep back and forth. His sensitive touch warmed me all the way through to the marrow of my bones. As soon as his dark eyes caught my gaze, he kissed my cheek. “Thank God you’ve finally come to. How are you feeling?”

I looked around the hospital room and down at the flimsy hospital gown I wore, and the thin white blanket that covered me to my waist. A plastic ID bracelet encircled my wrist. The awful smell of antiseptics floated on the air, but the fragrance of red and white roses stacked on the bedside table helped to disguise the odor. “What am I doing—”

“We’re at the hospital. You received some blood, but…”

He glanced in the direction of one corner of the room. When I followed his gaze, my mouth dropped wide open. Dominic’s brother stood holding a crossbow fitted with a round wooden stake. Like a gigantic arrow, the sharp pointed end was wicked-looking. He winked at me.

“What’s going on?” I whispered to Dominic.

“We didn’t kill her, Marissa. Lynetta will come for us…you first, I figure. You stopped her from having me. She’ll want to destroy you, without a doubt.”

“We didn’t kill her,” I repeated, rubbing my temple, trying to recall what had happened. Then I remembered. Where her ashes and gown should have lain in the tanning bed, nothing remained. I searched Dominic’s dark brown eyes for answers. “Where’s Kate?”

She stepped out of the bathroom, holding a mallet and wooden stake. “Right here, Marissa.” She smiled. “We’re in this together.”

Tears choked in my throat. I had the best friends in all the world. “What about that policeman?”

“Cousin Bill,” Dominic said. “James let him in on the family secret, figuring we needed some more help. He’s got hall watch.”

“But his bullets won’t work on the vamp. Does he know that?”

“He’s been outfitted with a crossbow like James. The ward has been cleared of patients. No staff are allowed to visit, by order of the Witches’ and Warlocks’ Council. You have a virus that can cause you to cast dangerous spells should anyone attempt to enter the wing. However, the council met at your father’s house, and they’re trying to come up with solutions for destroying the evil…the evil vampires.”

It was the first time I’d heard him call them by their name. I shook my head. “Great. This will get all over school by tomorrow and…the dance!”

“We’ll still have time tomorrow night to attend the dance, if we can slay Lynetta before first light.”

My blood heated. “If that vamp makes me miss the dance…”

Dominic kissed my cheek with tenderness. “There will be next year. The most important mission is getting rid of Lynetta.”

I sighed heavily, wishing I could focus on the important issue, but I’d sorely miss dancing with the knight of my dreams. “You’re right,” I reluctantly conceded. I glanced down at my designer hospital gown. “I need to get changed.”

Dominic pointed at the I.V. attached to my arm and the blood dripping down the line. “You are not to go anywhere, love of my life. We’ll take care of her if she comes.”

“Why…why was your brother at the tanning salon? I mean, I’m glad he was, but…”

“Kate’s parents gave Cousin Bill permission to investigate the building after the police found her with her neck torn up in your parents’ car parked out front. When Bill told James he was investigating the incident, James figured he’d better let him in on what was going on with you and me. Anyway, Bill’s a great guy and is taking this mission to protect us seriously.”

“Thank God they were there when we arrived, but I sure wish the tanning bed had worked on the vamp.” I laid my head back against the pillow. Suddenly, I felt weary, like I’d swum the seven seas and back. So much for being Dominic’s savior. I knew she’d come again for him and I wouldn’t be able to lift a hand in his defense.