Once Upon A Midnight... (The Firsts Book 9.5)

  Once Upon A Midnight…

  C.L.Quinn

  Blak Kat Publishing

  November 2014

  All rights reserved

  One

  Merry sighed as she watched the snow pick up its pace. Yeah, it was beautiful, she loved the romance and elegance of a fresh snowfall, the glitter of the city lights on the fluffy white flakes at night, but driving in it was another matter. This one had gone all day.

  She dropped the chintz curtain back in place and walked away from the window. The gentle snowflakes floating down to cover Chicago’s streets were still visible through the sheer fabric that she’d left over the windows even after the little flower shop became hers.

  There really hadn’t been any reason to keep the shop open today. This type of snow had ensured no customers. But she didn’t have much of a reason to go home, either. Her next door neighbor, Mrs. Walton, would feed the kittens that she was trying to find homes for.

  She let her eyes move around the room. It was such an artfully designed display area, the ceiling and walls covered with long draped scarves in soft pastels. Christmas lights behind the scarves and a few snowmen decorations were all that Merry had added. The unique shelving and ceiling-to-floor treatments were the vision of the woman who had given the business to Merry about two years ago.

  Everything about that situation was odd; Lauren’s disappearance, the blood in her apartment, and especially the abruptness of the transfer of the shop to Merry with no cost and no strings attached. Lauren had even left the remainder of a small bank account to Merry.

  All of that was strange, but stranger yet was what Lauren had told her on the phone that last time they’d spoken.

  “Tell them you haven’t heard from me,” Lauren had insisted. She’d made it urgently clear, make sure that anyone who might ask knew that Merry knew nothing about Lauren.

  Nobody had ever asked. But Merry still wondered.

  What had happened to her employer and friend that she’d called after disappearing and never came back to her home or business? Merry knew that it was serious, had to be for someone to fade away like that. Even now, Merry remembered the sweet sadness in Lauren’s voice when she told her that the shop was hers. Merry didn’t think she would ever forget it.

  Lauren had told her that she thought the shop was beginning to make decent profits and she’d been right. That following spring, using Lauren’s ideas and some of her own, Merry’s arrangements had caught on, sending enough new clientele to the business that she’d had to hire on two full-time arrangers, a full time clerk, and a full time delivery guy.

  Today, though, with the storm forecast of 10 to 12 inches by nightfall, she’d sent them home. Through the nearly sheer curtains, she could see the snowflakes dancing more frantically. Multi-colored Christmas lights blinked through the snow-blurred scene from the night-club across the street and mirrored the ones blinking from the small Christmas tree near her display window. Another year coming to a close…Christmas was in two days.

  This holiday was always a little melancholy for her. Sitting in a small cold apartment without family or friends on Christmas day had never been the intention when she decided to take off at sixteen and live life on her own terms. Lauren hadn’t liked Christmas, either, so that one Christmas they’d spent together, drinking and eating pizza, had been her best. Once again, a sharp pinprick of pain in her chest reminded her of how much she missed the funny, sharp-tongued woman who’d built this shop.

  Now, the wind was picking up and that added another nasty element to the weather. Snow, with no wind, was lovely. Snow with sharp winds was one of her least favorite things of all. If she wanted to make it home, she needed to lock up and get there soon.

  As she turned to close down the register and kill the display lights, the bell above the door tinkled as someone came in.

  “God, Mer, why are you still here?”

  Heidi’s voice came to her through a thick scarf.

  Merry smiled. Heidi was always a welcome face. Her sunny disposition could melt any ice.

  Leaning against the counter, Merry smiled to the fabric-encased blonde woman who stood shivering in the doorway.

  “Me? How about you? You’re really nervous driving in snow.”

  “Yeah. I’m staying at the shop tonight. Cristopher asked if I would open tomorrow, and I don’t want to drive home and then turn around and drive back in the morning. I had an idea. Would you want to stay at the shop with me? We can dig into the inventory. Christopher has wine and whisky in the stockroom, and he keeps a full fridge of meats and cheeses. We can make sandwiches with those new artisan breads he’s been making this week.”

  Christopher’s Cakes was just two spaces down from Floral Magic on the same side of the street. Heidi and Merry had become fast friends over the past two years because they had similar backgrounds. Neither of them had finished high school, both had left home before they were eighteen to find their fortunes, and both had dreams that led far beyond the small lives they were living right now in one of Chicago’s less affluent neighborhoods.

  Standing in front of Merry right now, Heidi’s gloved hands were twisting the key ring she clutched back and forth, her big blue eyes worried. “Please? I don’t want to try to drive home in this, but I’m kind of freaked at the idea of staying at the shop all night by myself. You gotta help a sistah out!”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, my friend, of course I’ll stay with you. My drive is even longer than yours, and I think that the snow is coming harder than the forecast expected it to. I sure the hell don’t want to be out in it either. Okay, but let me get a few things closed down and cleaned up before I lock up. Keep an eye out for me. Maybe twenty minutes?”

  Bobbing her head, thrilled that Merry had agreed, Heidi waved her right hand to acknowledge her response. “We will have such a good time! We can watch Christmas movies on Chris’s computer, and braid each other’s hair. I love that sherry color on you. The black was so harsh.”

  “I thought I needed to look more professional. I know the color is still bright, but it’s who I am. People are just going to have to accept that I’m a little unconventional.”

  “Merry, you’re gorgeous, you know that. I wish I had your light green eyes and those breasts! I don’t think mine are any bigger now than when I was twelve!”

  “Like any guy can take his eyes off of you. You’ve had more dates this month than I’ve had in the past three years.”

  “Not for a lack of chances. I can name six men right now who would jump out of a plane to be with you.”

  “You’re dreaming. Well, let me get closed down and I’ll be there before I get snowed in here.”

  “Great! Be careful though, it’s already pretty slippery. See you in a few!”

  Merry nodded and flipped off two more display lights, but left the main light against the back wall illuminated for security. She’d had an alarm added last year, but keeping the lights on was one of the best ways to deter unwelcome nighttime visitors. As she approached the door to lock it, she saw a dark shadow pass in front of it and the door pushed open again, the bells happy to tinkle for another arrival.

  For a moment, Merry thought it must be Heidi again, but realized that it was a man, taller than she by a good six inches, even in her boots with four inch stacked heels.

  He was well dressed in a high-dollar men’s dress coat that covered him to mid-calf, a friendly smile on his face.

  “I’m sorry, miss, you look startled. Are you still open?”

  His voice was pleasant, his accent British. She’d never seen him before. And although he was nicely dressed with a pleasant demeanor, she had really good instinct
s about people. That was why she’d never gone home after her mother moved her latest boyfriend into their third-floor walk-up apartment in the Bronx years ago. When people were bad news, she always knew it.

  This man was very bad news. Suddenly, Lauren’s warning shot to mind again.

  “I’m sorry, sir, I’m getting ready to close. The storm’s too bad and I have someone waiting for me to drive me home.”

  “Do you?” He said, and looked around the room. “Where?”

  There was no doubt now. His response made it clear that he was not there to buy flowers. She was in danger and didn’t have a weapon in hand to protect herself. Behind the counter, on a shelf below the cash register, a loaded illegal handgun lay underneath a stuffed cat and beside an aerosol can filled with pepper spray. She needed to get back there before he realized that she was on to him.

  Carefully, Merry tilted her head and gave the man an easy smile. “Well, maybe I can help you. What kind of flowers were you looking for?” Slowly, she started to make her way back around the end of the counter farthest from the man.

  “White lilies. They’re quite lovely, aren’t they? Such a fine history for weddings and funerals.”

  Veiled threat. He wasn’t your average thief, that was certain. Lauren’s warning would apply here, assuming he even took the time to ask about her.

  Merry’s eyes shifted to the door. No one was passing, and even if they were, the snow had picked up to almost white-out conditions, so visibility was nearly zero.

  “Yes, they are lovely,” she said, trying desperately to control her breathing. She knew that her lips were trembling slightly, but she didn’t think he could see that in the low light. “Here, let me see if I have anything for you.”

  Moments before she reached the register, she heard a click and looked back at him. He already knew that she didn’t trust him. She knew that before she heard him rack the weapon he now held.

  “I hope that you do. Please keep your hands where I can see them and come back around here. Do not fuck with me. I know you guys too well.”

  “I don’t know who you mean.”

  The man snorted. “No, sure you don’t. Well, it is true that I haven’t been invited to your Christmas party. Yet. But you’re my ticket, pretty lady.”

  Complying with his command, she walked back around the counter, but Merry kept her pace painfully slow. “Look, mister, I really don’t know what you’re talking about. Now if you want to rob the place, I’ll pop the register. Good luck, though, it’s been dead in here for two days.” Bad choice of words!

  “You know I’m not here for cash. I need leverage to get your friends to talk to me. I need you, my dear.”

  Heart pounding, head spinning, Merry knew now that she would have to fight for her life. This man was going to kidnap her or worse. Even more terrifying was the fact that she really didn’t know what or who he wanted. Other than that cryptic message from Lauren two years ago, she had no idea what this was about at all. Her movements became staccato as she searched desperately for a way out of this.

  He was grinning, the gun held steadily right at her chest. That’s what did it. The grin. Who the fuck did he think he was that he thought he had the right to do this to her? She had to hope he was less inclined to shoot her than she was to save herself.

  On a split-second decision, she dropped and scurried back around the counter to grab the 38 revolver that she’d stolen from some asshole she’d stayed with right after she’d left home. It felt good in her hands, she knew how to use it, and she wasn’t afraid to. Carefully, she tried to work her way toward the front door, but the armed man was silent and she had no idea where he was. Stopping, Merry scanned in front of her, hoping to catch his reflection in the glass window that was nearly a mirror now that the light had failed outside. Just as she saw him moving toward the front of the shop, she turned and ran as quickly as possible to the back, slammed the door to the storeroom, and flicked the lock.

  “Yes!” she hissed, elated and relieved, as she backed away from the door, her gun still held upright and pointed at it just in case he tried to break through. But it was a stout door, decades old, built of thick hardwood with a very heavy hasp and lockset. He’d have to have some serious power to easily break through it. If only her fucking cell phone wasn’t out there under the counter with her bag!

  “Little flower girl, I need to tell you something,” he said suddenly.

  Merry didn’t know why, but just the sing-songy, humorous tone in his voice made her blood freeze. Although it seemed that, at the moment, she was safe, she knew, her famous never-wrong intuition warned her, she wasn’t. This man was careful, sly, and ruthless. Somehow she knew this would not turn out well for her.

  “I’ll say this once, flower girl, and then I’ll go. I will see you here in front of me, the gun surrendered, you polite and compliant, or I’m going to that little bakery a few doors down. First, I’ll rape that pretty little blonde that I know you’re quite close with. Then I’ll slit her throat. I think you understand that I’ll do that, because you are familiar with who I am. So, stay here, safe in your little room, and let me kill that sweet young girl. Or realize that I’m a motivated man, and that if I don’t take you now, I’ll come back for you. I’ll still get you, but that little girl will be dead.”

  Then, to show his callousness, Merry heard him begin to hum We Wish You A Merry Christmas. Her chest was so tight, she felt as if every breath she took, she had to consciously squeeze it out. Even then, it wouldn’t come. She was beginning to hyperventilate, but she didn’t have the luxury of panicking.

  In spite of her promise to herself years ago after she’d run away from home, and after she’d been assaulted by a group of three men looking for a good time, that she would never be a victim again, this was different. This time, she could choose to stay safe, but let Heidi pay the price of her choice. Or she could walk out there and face this vicious man that she knew would likely kill her eventually.

  Merry opened the door.

  As she walked out, she stopped just a few feet from the man. Her eyes moved from the top of the man’s perfectly styled hair, down past a designer business suit, to shoes that probably would pay her rent on the shop for two years. Her crystal-clear blue-green eyes stopped at his muddy browns.

  “There’s a deep darkness around you, buddy. You’ve hurt everything you’ve loved in your life, haven’t you?”

  “Don’t try to analyze me, little lady. I own you now, and if you’re a good girl, and don’t give me any shit, you just might live to see another Christmas. Right now, though, there aren’t any promises that you’ll see this one. You’re right about one thing, though. I do have a dark side, but there isn’t any reason that we both can’t get what we want. You’re a means to an end, Merry White. You don’t mean anything to me other than as bait to get something that I refuse to compromise about. So don’t make things complicated. I eliminate complications for a living.”

  He stepped closer and lifted her hair, now tinted a dark burgundy for the holiday season, the little silver bells earrings tinkling as his hand brushed them. Putting his lips against her neck, he paused there, and then licked.

  Merry closed her eyes as he released her and stepped back. Surprisingly gently, he spun her around and pulled her hands behind her back to use zip-ties to secure them.

  “Can’t I get my coat?” she asked, desperate for anything to stall him.

  “No. Come,” he said simply as he pulled her to the front of the shop. He paused before he opened the door and stared into her eyes again.

  “Is it really Merry White? Or is that your Christmas name?”

  What? This murdering bastard was really asking her about her name? She shook her head, her eyes burning into his.

  “I don’t understand the question. Why do you give a fuck about my name?”

  Shrugging, he pushed her out the door and turned her to the left away from Christopher’s Cakes.

  “I don’t really. But I find it interes
ting that people give their kids such shitty names. You have to have spent your school years being taunted. Unless you gave yourself that stupid holiday alias.”

  Merry didn’t answer him. All she cared about right now was that this asshole was taking them away from Heidi and that her friend would be safe. Later, when she had the time and got her wits about her again, she’d save herself.

  Two

  IN SOUTHERN FRANCE

  The noise level was rising. Eillia laughed as Park wrestled her own daughter, Eillia’s toddler, and Starla’s little boy. One second-generation extremely powerful first blood vampire was little match for three motivated children. Add three golden retriever dogs, and chaos was ensured.

  It came as no surprise when Park squealed. “Eillia, help!”

  Reaching for her own son, and Starla’s little Eras, Eillia swung both boys up, one in each arm, and swung them around.

  “You two would be wise to remember that Santa only comes for good little boys. Why don’t you go ask Daniel in there to get you an ice-cream cone?”

  The toddlers nodded vigorously and Eillia set their feet on the ground just seconds before they shot towards her mate, standing in the doorway to the dining room with an overly pleased grin.

  “You ladies need some help, I take it,” he laughed.

  “If we plan to finish decorating this tree before January, yes, please, my love. Could you and Marc take the kids to the sand while we get the house ready for the rest of the guests?”

  Daniel nodded. “If you promise to take care of me later tonight.”

  “I just told the kids that Santa only brings gifts to good little boys. Do you two think you qualify?”

  Daniel laughed and grabbed Eras to swing him up over his shoulder as he took Caedmon’s hand.

  “Cairine, do you want to come?” he called before he turned away. “We have some chocolate chip ice-cream.”

  The little red-headed girl’s curls bounced as she shook her head. “I want to help maman with the sparklies.”