Hex and the Single Witch (Vehicle City Vampires) by Roxanne Rhoads

big messy equation. On top of
all that was my family. They would surely put a damper on the relationship if
it did attempt to go somewhere…
    “I’m glad the
police sent you.” Galen broke through my thoughts and offered me a seat on a
large plush sofa, the color of blood.
    I sat down and
smiled, a little. “I am the official Preternatural Liaison. It’s my job.” I
sighed again; right then I wished it wasn’t my job to investigate him.
    Galen sat down
next to me, careful to leave some distance between us. “I know, but there are
other members of the P.I.T. Crew. I was afraid they might send one of them,
someone not Other. You are one of us.” He almost looked a little frightened.
    I wanted to
reach out and sooth his fears, to protect him from the madness.
    I kept my hands
in my lap.
    “I do and I
don’t understand. I know something is very off about this whole situation. The
killer is dangerous and full of major magick, old, dark, magick. Yet somehow it
all leads to you. Even though, I don’t sense any old magick coming from you.” I
tried to read him or get something from him I could use to determine one
hundred percent he wasn’t the killer, but he was blocked. Nothing swirled around
him, no dark magick. Only exquisite electricity flowed in the air between us.
    “It is not me,
Anwyn. I wish I could prove it to you. You have no reason to believe me. We
barely know each other…” He paused, looking earnest and a little scared. “Let
me explain a little about me. From the beginning. As far as my kind go I am
relatively young, made into a vampire in Regency England.”
    Ah, that
explains his overly polite mannerisms and formal tone. So he was barely two
hundred years old, maybe less, almost a baby in vampire terms. “Oookkaaay?”
    Galen stood up
and paced around the room looking slightly fearful and very trepidatious. “I
just thought you should know. And you should know about my sire… an evil,
sadistic vampire. His father was the leader of the vampire council. Because of
this, my sire got away with murder, literally murder…constantly. Humans, vamps,
Others. Did not matter. He broke all the rules and never got punished for
anything.” He paused and turned away from me, taking in a deep breath like he was
gathering enough strength to continue.
    After a moment
of silence he continued, “Before being changed, my sire…he kidnapped and killed
my entire family. First he killed my father and brother. He kept my mother and
sister alive, repeatedly raping them and drinking their blood. When finally he
tired of them, he drained the life from them. Even then the torture did not
stop…he continued to defile their dead bodies in front of me. It lasted for
days.”
    I gasped; Galen
paused and looked at me. He studied me, as if gauging my reaction. Anguish on
his face was clear, horror, like something that just happened yesterday. How
awful! Should I show him sympathy or reveal the horror I felt, the horror he
must have went through witnessing so much pain?
    He went on, “He
still had not turned me yet. He liked my human fear, my human reactions. I was
so weak and completely worthless against his power. He saved me for last
because he said he wanted to keep me for my beauty, an asset to him. Which, I
surely was for so long…too long. I wish he would have killed me, I wish fate
would have been much kinder than what I had to endure for the next century.”
Galen continued to pace around the room, his body rigid and tense, veins
bulging, his jaw tight.
    It made him look
ferocious and frightening along with anguished and remorseful. This couldn’t be
an easy story to tell. And I had a feeling it would get worse.
    “My sire made
the Marquis De Sade look like a boyscout and Jack the Ripper look like a common
criminal. He loved beautiful things—beautiful people and Others. He loved to
turn the beauty into an abomination, to ruin it. Especially vampires and weres
he could defile over and over. Our beauty would