Her Vampire Ward Read Free

them
- it was a painful and violent process.
    "I
heard you on the phone," he said, "We are in danger, aren't
we?"
    "Not
yet, Alek," I said, "We are... concerned. But there's still
no reason to believe that they'll find us."
    "I
should leave." He spoke in nearly a whisper. "I didn't want
endanger anyone else."
    "This
is our job. This is what we do. Get dressed. There's some cow's blood
in the fridge. I know it won't help much, but it's better than
nothing."
    "And
then?"
    "We
wait."

    -

    The
third alarm went off while Alek was flipping through one of the few
magazines we kept in the room's drawers. I was scanning through the
security camera feeds on my phone and braiding and re-braiding my
hair to work off my nerves, though the pulsing tone was wearing on my
brain. I realized I was breathing in time with it.
    "Are
you and Daniel twins?" he asked suddenly. I hadn't realized that
he was watching me mess with my hair. I knotted it quickly and let
the messy braid hang over my shoulder.
    "No.
He's two years older. We get that a lot, though." We both
strongly resembled our father, with our black hair, deep blue eyes,
strong jawlines. I'd inherited my mother's full lips, but that was
the only resemblance either of us had.
    "What
is that thing you do?" he asked, a half-smile on his lips. It
was surprisingly charming. I imagined he must be quite handsome once
fed and rested, and quickly pushed the image away. "Good cop,
bad cop?"
    I
chuckled. "No. We didn't arrest you. More like compassionate
cop, business cop. He tells you what you need to know, I keep you
calm."
    Alek
nodded, and opened his mouth to say something else just as the
alarm's tone changed. It rose a note and pulsed faster. The third
alarm. Still not meant to induce panic, but waking everyone into a
sense of urgency. It was effective - I felt like my breathing and
heart rate rose with it.
    I
spoke into the walkie. "Report?"
    Carolyn's
voice was tight. "They pinged a truck."
    "Shit.
Didn't we cast on the garage?"
    "Yes,
twice. This guy is good."
    "No
kidding."
    "We're
going to maintain the spells at smaller intervals. Cast on your room
and stand by."
    I
sprung from the bed, opened the closet, and punched in the code on
the little electronic safe.
    "What's
going on? Eve?" I could hear the strain in his voice as he said
my name, rather then the formal "Ms. Ballard." I wondered
again what the warlock had done to scare him so badly.
    "Stay
calm, Alek." I'd found that unless the information put them in
danger, it was best to explain to a client what was happening. No
matter how scary, the unknown was always worse. "The warlock
detected matter that isn't from this area, that entered it very
recently. Something small, some dust or dirt from the city, maybe. It
traveled outside the range of our magic after our spells were cast,
and he found it. That's the ping." I pulled the contents of the
safe out - a bowl, some packets of herbs and mystery bits of things,
a pack of matches. "Basically, foreign matter touched by magic.”
I tried to keep the concern out of my voice. We'd had witches and
warlocks penetrate our spells before, but never from so far away, and
never when we were working so hard to maintain the protective magic
that hid the motel. I opened a packet and emptied its contents into
the bowl. "Now, a ping alone is worthless. You could cast that
detection cloud anywhere at all and ping all day. If he decides to
take a closer look, investigate at all, though..." I lit a match
and dropped it into the bowl. It produced a sweet odor, like basil. I
muttered the incantations and a thin, tiny trail of blue smoke rose.
"Another few layers of protection. No reason to worry."
Even though the alarms hadn't calmed, yet.
    "I
see. Are you always so honest with your clients?"
    "As
long as they aren't hysterical." I set the smoking bowl on the
desk.
    "What
now?" he asked.
    "More
waiting."

    -

    The
fourth and fifth alarms sounded two hours later. The field team had
gone silent, afraid that