Moon Child (Vampire for Hire #4) (17 page)

“That’s not good enough. Not in this
case.”

“Soon, Detective. I’ve had a rough
night.”

“I bet. You vampires are weird. Take care of
yourself, Samantha, and expect a visit from me soon.”

“Looking forward to it.”

“Don’t sass me,” he said, chuckling, and hung
up.

I was about to head inside when I got another
call. This one was a local Orange County number. It was probably
work related but I wasn’t interested. I was about to hang up when I
got an overwhelming sense that I should definitely pick up.

Damn psychic ability.

I clicked on, immediately regretting it
because my sunscreen wasn’t applied as thick as it should have
been. Already I was feeling the first wave of some serious
pain.

“Samantha Moon?” asked a pleasant young
man.

“You got her,” I said.

“You removed a book from our library the
other day and we would like it returned.”

“Who is this?”

“I’m with the university.”

I frowned. “How did you know about the book?
How did you know it was me?”

But he ignored my question and asked
cheerily: “We would like our book back, Miss Moon.”

I forgot about the heat, about the searing
pain. “I don’t have it anymore.”

“I see,” said the voice, somehow even more
cheerily. “Then there will be a fine. We will need that taken care
of immediately.”

“A fine? How much?”

“I think you know the price, Miss Moon.” And
the moment he said that, the medallion in my chest pulsed with heat
of its own. “I will be expecting you soon.”

And he hung up.

Chapter Fifty-one

I was back at the university library, and
this time I was certain a bastard in a bow tie wasn’t following
me.

Anthony wouldn’t be released for another few
hours and Tammy was with Mary Lou. Feeling an odd sense that I was
either stepping into a trap, or into something extraordinary, I
moved through the busy ground floor, and on an impulse I stopped at
the main desk.

“Who works in the Occult Reading Room?” I
asked the flirty young clerk.

“In the Occult Reading Room? No one. It’s a
self-service reading room. But I could help you if you—”

“Thank you,” I said, and turned away. I
headed over to the bank of elevators. In a daze, admittedly.

At the third floor, which was as empty as the
first time I had been here, with my curiosity and wariness growing
exponentially, I made my way down an empty aisle, stepping lightly
over the dull acrylic flooring. With each step, my shoulder ached.
My throat was still raw and red and for now I kept a scarf around
it. The air conditioner hummed from seemingly everywhere.

At the end of the aisle I came to the far
wall. Ahead of me was the opening to the Occult Reading Room. Would
the same young man be there? The young man with the bright eyes and
the slightly pointed beard, a young man I hadn’t thought much about
the first time I had seen him, but who was now very much the object
of my attention.

Prepared for just about anything, I moved
forward, all too aware that the medallion on my chest was growing
warmer and warmer.

* * *

The same young man was there, and he was once
again sitting behind what I had assumed was an employee desk, but
was, in fact, just an oversized reading desk.

I sat cautiously opposite him, noting that my
own inner alarm system was as quiet as could be. In fact, I even
felt oddly at peace, perhaps for the first time in a long, long
time.

“You don’t really work here,” I said, as I
sat my purse on the floor next to me.

“Not officially,” he said, dipping his head
slightly, apologetically.

He couldn’t have been more than twenty-five,
perhaps even as young as twenty. He looked like a student, surely.
Other than the bright twinkle in his eye and his pointy beard, he
looked unremarkable.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Archibald Maximus, of course,” he said. “You
can just call me Max, though.”

I stared at him a long time. His aura was
violet. A beautiful violet unlike anything I had ever seen. “How
old are you, Max?”

He gave me a half smile. “Does it
matter?”

“I guess not,” I said. I liked the way Max
looked at me. He didn’t stare rudely. In fact, he seemed to find
great pleasure in looking at me, as if he were soaking me up,
remembering my every detail. Normally, I don’t like to draw
attention to myself and I like to be ignored. But sometimes I make
exceptions. “You’re not a student here, are you?”

He smiled warmly. “No.”

“And you’re not twenty-something,
either?”

“Let’s just say no.”

We looked at each other some more. I noticed
now how perfectly groomed his beard was. I also noticed that his
blue eyes were not really blue...holy hell, were they violet?

“I...I don’t have your book,” I said.

“I know.”

“I don’t know what happened to it.”

“That’s okay.”

“Do I still owe a fine?”

His lips broke into a wide smile, his cheeks
rising high enough that the fine point of his beard wasn’t so
fine.

“I don’t think the library would appreciate
me taking fines for books that don’t officially exist.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s okay if you don’t understand. There’s
lots I don’t understand, too. That’s half the fun: finding
answers.” He leaned forward a little and his gaze locked onto the
area just beneath my throat, an area that was now throbbing with
real warmth.

“Ah, I see you’re wearing the medallion. Or,
more accurately, it’s wearing you.”

Which should have been a highly unlikely
statement, since the medallion was currently concealed beneath my
shirt.

“I...was protecting it. I had no idea it
would...”

“Attach itself to you?”

“Yes.”

“Would you like for me to remove it?”

“Yes. But I had heard—”

“The seal was permanent?”

“Yes.”

“Normally, yes. But I’m fairly familiar with
it. Would you mind?” he asked.

I shook my head and he got up from behind the
desk and stepped around to me.

“Just try to relax,” he said.

He put his hands on my shoulders, which sent
a shiver of warm energy through me, charging me from the inside.
Next he moved his fingers around my throat and slipped them down
inside my shirt.

I gasped and felt a different kind of
thrill.

His searching hands found the medallion,
where he rested the flat of his palms over it. There was no pain,
just a sense of...release.

A moment later he removed his hands, and held
up the gleaming medallion. He grinned.

I was relieved beyond words. There was hope
again. There was hope my son could live a normal life.

“Now, Sam, what would you like to do with
this?”

But I was having difficulty speaking. I was
so afraid to have hope, so afraid to believe. I tried speaking
again: “I had heard that the medallion...” but I couldn’t get the
words out.

“You had heard that it could reverse
vampirism?”

“Yes,” I said, but I was terrified to hear
his answer. Oh, sweet Jesus. What if he couldn’t do it? Or what if
he said no? What would I do then?

“Yes,” he said, smiling. “The medallion can
do this. Or, rather, the magic encoded within it can.”

“And you...you can decode this?”

He nodded. “I can, Sam. And before you ask,
yes, I will help your little one.”

Relief flooded me. So much so that I couldn’t
stop shaking. He reached out and took my hand.

“You’ve had a rough few days, haven’t
you?”

I could only nod as the shaking, the relief,
overcame me.

“You’re never alone, Sam. Ever. As hard as
life might seem, there’s always hope. There’s always a way, and
there’s always love. Always.”

I waited before I was certain I could speak,
then asked, “How did you know I was looking for you?”

“How do you know I wasn’t looking for you?”
he asked, eyes twinkling. He saw my confusion and smiled sweetly.
“Very few call my name, Sam, but when they do, I listen.”

I couldn’t speak. I could only nod my
thanks.

He said, “Now give me a few minutes. Feel
free to peruse the books, but stay away from the ones that call out
to you. They’re trouble.”

I told him I would be careful, and he slipped
away into a side room and closed the door. A few minutes later, he
returned holding a small glass container with a cork cap, filled
with amber liquid.

“Have your son drink this tonight. He will
sleep soundly for twenty-four hours, and will awaken with little
memory of the past few days.”

“And he will be...human?”

“As human as ever.”

“And the medallion?” I asked.

He motioned to the amber liquid. “The
medallion is no more.”

I raised the glass container, mystified.
“It’s in here?”

He winked. “Distilled through, let’s just
say, highly-advanced alchemical means. And Samantha?”

“Yes?”

“There’s only enough for one.”

“Somehow I knew that.”

“Remember, Samantha, there’s always an
answer. Somewhere. You just have to look.”

I hugged the young man as hard as I could,
and thanked him. When I finally pulled away, I saw that my own
tears had stained his white shirt.

“I’m always here, Samantha, if you ever need
anything.”

“Here in the Occult Reading Room?”

He grinned and winked. “There’s a lot to
read. Oh, I have one question: How did you come upon my name?”

I told him about the creepy old gnome who
lived in Fullerton. As I spoke, Max pulled on his pointed
beard.

“And he bargained for your son’s life?” he
asked.

“I’m horrible, I know. I was desperate.”

“Not to fear, Sam. One cannot bargain with
another’s life. Ever.”

I looked at him sharply. “What do you
mean?”

“I mean, your son is safe.”

“And the creepy old gnome?”

“The creepy old gnome will never bother you
again.”

I hugged him for a second time. Somehow, even
tighter.

Chapter Fifty-two

It was a week later.

Summer was in full bloom and I was working a
few cases. I had two cheating spouse cases and an undercover
assignment working for a shipping company to find the reason for
their occasional missing shipments. Two nights ago, I had gone on a
date with Kingsley, to the musical premier of Annie in Los Angeles.
He had kissed me goodnight and bowed slightly, and I was reminded
all over again of his grace and charm and just how old he really
was. Yes, we still had our issues, but to his credit he had dropped
his loser client once and for all.

Fang was there, too. Always texting, IMing
and emailing. During one of our exchanges, I told him that Kingsley
and I were going to explore a relationship together, but I always
wanted Fang as my friend.

He had paused for a few minutes before
answering. When he did, he said that, of course, we would always be
friends and that he was happy for me. To his credit, he appeared to
be happy for me, but I could feel his hurt. We were, after all,
still deeply connected.

Danny had visited the kids once, and although
he seemed pleased that his son was alive and well and not a freak,
as he liked to call me, I could see that his old suspicion was
back. The fear was back. The hate was back.

Admittedly, I almost preferred Danny like
this. I could handle his hate and suspicion. His flirting this past
week had just been damn creepy.

Now it was a Saturday evening and I would
work the night shift later. It was dinner time, and I called the
kids in from the backyard where they were playing on a Slip N’
Slide. Both were as red as tomatoes from their sun block having
long since worn off, and never had I been more happy to see a
sunburn on my son. Anthony was showing no ill effects from either
the vampirism or the Kawasaki Disease, either.

My son was back, alive and healthy. Had I
altered his soul’s journey? Maybe. Had I played with his karma? No
doubt.

But he was back. Oh, yes, he was back.

Dripping and arguing, they came running
inside, snatching hot dogs and chips. A few minutes later, Mary Lou
and her family arrived. My sister gave me a big hug and Anthony an
even bigger hug.

We all settled in with hot dogs and chips—or
water, in my case—and put in a movie. About halfway through the
movie a strong and foul smell permeated my living room, and that’s
when the looks started.

“Mommy did it!” Anthony cried out,
giggling.

“That’s it,” I said, grabbing him and
throwing him over my legs, exposing his bony butt to the air. I was
soon playing butt bongos off his little tush while he squealed with
laughter. Soon Tammy joined in and so did my sister. There might
have been some tickling thrown in for good measure.

It was later, at night, when I was putting
Anthony to sleep when he looked up at me and said, “Thank you,
Mommy.”

“For what?”

“For what you did.”

“What did I do?”

“You know, Mommy,” he said, and reached up
and hugged me tighter than he had ever hugged me before.

The End

Samantha Moon Returns in:

(Vampire for Hire #5)

Coming Soon!

_________________________________

Additionally, read Fang’s backstory in:

Kindle or Nook

Also, Samantha Moon

stars in in her very own short story in:

Kindle or Nook