A Vampire's Christmas Carol

If their futures were mixed, then that had to mean she came back to him. Hope flooded through Ben. “Good. Do it, just—”

Snow swirled around them. The snowflakes were moving so fast then that they almost looked like wings—an angel’s wings.

The twisting, gnarled trees vanished in that blur of white.

“Remember,” Jamison growled, “you asked for this.”

Ben heard screams then. Voices rising and falling in desperation. So many voices.

So much pain. So much fear.

What did they all fear?

Is it me? Did they fear him? In the future, what would he do?

But then the snow vanished once more, and Ben saw…Simone.

Chapter Eight

“Simone!” Ben cried out her name.

“Aw, man, come on,” Jamison shook his head in disgust. “You know it doesn’t work like that. This is your third freakin’ time tonight with this crap. Get the drill down, okay? No one can hear you or see you in these visions. That’s just how it goes.”

Simone was walking in front of Ben. They were…in Desolate? Yes, the shifter had transported them back to the heart of the little town. Ben glanced around and recognized the town’s lone bar. The bar waited just a few feet away.

He hurried to keep pace with Simone. She might not be able to see or hear him, but he had no intention of losing sight of her.

The bar’s door opened. A man wearing a heavy coat staggered out. His eyes locked on Simone. “Well, hello, there, sweet—”

She grabbed him and rammed the man against the bar’s outer wall. Then she sank her fangs into the man’s neck.

“Surprise,” Jamison said.

Ben could only shake his head. This isn’t right. “No, she’s an angel!”

“Not in this future, she’s not. Actually…she hasn’t been a full angel in about ten years.”

Ben’s eyes were on Simone. The man wasn’t fighting her. He couldn’t. She’d just—she’d ripped his throat open.

Simone?

She let the man fall when she was done with him. Then she wiped her mouth, stopping long enough to lick the blood from her fingers.

And she headed into the bar.

Screams came then. Ben lurched forward when the cries erupted.

Jamison blocked his path. “You know what she’s doing in there. Wasn’t that—” He jerked his thumb toward the dead body. “Wasn’t that enough of a future glimpse for you?”

Ben’s gut twisted. “Simone isn’t like this.”

“You mean, she wasn’t.”

The screams quieted.

“I told you.” Jamison nodded and flashed that toothy grin of his. One that held an evil edge. “She gave up a lot for you.”

Simone appeared in the doorway again. Her blonde hair gleamed in the bar’s light, and that light also clearly showed the blood that soaked her shirt.

“There’s a price for magic.” Jamison turned his head and watched as Simone walked away. The woman was even whistling. “Especially for the kind of mojo she wanted used on you tonight.”

Ben peered into the bar’s window. Three bodies were sprawled across the wooden floor inside that place. “This isn’t her.” He grabbed Jamison by his t-shirt once again. “This is some trick you’re using to mess with my mind. Now show me her, the real Simone. Show me her future.”

Jamison’s hands came up, and four-inch long claws had sprung from his fingertips. “Move ‘em,” he ordered Ben, “or lose those hands.”

Ben didn’t move them. “Don’t make me kill you, shifter.”

“You mean…the way you killed Simone?”

That hit went straight to Ben’s heart.

And so did Jamison’s claws. Because they sank deep into Ben’s chest. “Warned you…” Jamison ground out.

Ben pushed Jamison back as his blood dripped onto the sidewalk. “Bastard, you said you’d cut off my hands.”

“So I went for your heart instead. Maybe I was trying to see if you had one. I mean, use your freaking head. What do you think happened to the woman after you took all her blood ten years ago? You took her blood, and then you turned her.”

No. Ben’s gaze flew around the area, but he didn’t see Simone. I can’t lose her! “I didn’t give her my blood.”

“Uh, yeah, you did. It wasn’t a lot, I’ll grant you that much. The stories say it was just a drop or two, but that was enough to seal the deal, and enough to turn Simone into the first vampire-angel that the world has ever seen.” Jamison smirked. “Come on, it’s not like she was involved with any other vamp. Your blood did this to her.”

And Ben remembered a kiss. A last, desperate kiss in his penthouse. His lips had crushed against Simone’s, and, for just a second, he’d tasted blood. “No,” he whispered.

“Um, yes,” Jamison tossed right back. “And let me tell you, a lot of powerful folks were sure shocked by that change. Angels aren’t supposed to become vampires. Vampires are evil and dark, and they only exist to kill.”

Ben flashed fang at him.

“My point exactly.” Jamison flashed his own fangs, then said, “Angels are supposed to be good. They’re the protectors. To see one changed like Simone, it shook up the powers-that-be. They kept her in lockdown until they could see what she’d become and what she’d do.”

Ben brushed past the guy. Simone was close. She had to still be close by.

Another scream broke the night.

Ben ran toward that fading sound. Simone! He just had to get close to her once more and then—

He rounded a corner.

And staggered to a stop.

This time, Simone’s prey was a woman. Blood dripped down the woman’s throat as Simone laughed.

“No!” Ben yelled. “This isn’t you, baby! Stop!” She was the one who helped people. In the future, there was no way that Simone could become like this.

“Three freaking times,” Jamison’s voice was disgusted as he headed to Ben’s side, “and you still act like folks in these visions can hear you. I told you, they can’t. She can’t.”

Simone’s hands rose. They curled around the woman’s neck.

“Don’t,” Ben whispered.

Simone jerked her hands to the right. The snap of the woman’s neck was too loud in the quiet of that narrow alley.

“Take a close look. What’s missing from this picture?” Jamison asked, his words sharp. “I mean, other than the whole soul that Simone used to have?”