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Alicia’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “I’m trying to decide if I can trust you, Sarah.”
Not even slightly, I thought.
I mean, I was usually trustworthy. Iron-clad. But I’d only just met this woman, and everything she said knocked me off balance as I tried to figure out if she was an innocent bystander or a legitimate threat to vampirekind.
But, hey, if Mrs. My-Dream-is-Magic wanted to start a fast-and-furious friendship with me, one in which she would confide all sorts of useful information that could stop some potentially evil shoe-lovin’ boyfriend from causing chaos, who was I to complain?
“You can trust me,” I said. “With gossip, with an old family recipe. With your new kitten while you’re away on vacation. With whatever you want to get off your chest. I’m super trustworthy.”
“That’s very good to hear. Because I desperately need to share this with somebody.” Alicia dropped something on the table between us.
I squinted at it. “Are those…blonde hairs?”
“They certainly are.”
“Yours?”
“No.”
There was only one other person with that hair color who’d crossed my path today. I rose my widening eyes from the hairs up to Alicia. “They’re the Baba Yaga’s?”
Her grin widened further. “You got it.”
“That super awkward hug…”
Alicia spread her hands. “I took my opportunity when it presented itself. She didn’t feel a thing.”
I leaned back in my seat, confused, regarding Alicia as she unfastened the chain around her neck, which held a large silver heart-shaped locket.
“Since this isn’t an episode of CSI: Assjacket,” I said, feeling myself tense up. “I’m going to take a wild guess and say that this is some sort of a spell.”
“Not a spell so much as a test.” Alicia opened the locket. “Damon wanted me to prove that I’m worthy to help him with a very big problem he has, one that will show him how much I care about him. And it’s taken me a bit of time and a whole lot of effort to gather all the ingredients I needed.”
There was a tiny tangle of hairs already in the locket that Alicia gingerly extracted so she could wrap the Baba Yaga’s blond hairs around it.
“What are those?” I asked, my throat tight.
“A couple master vampire's hairs—my husband’s, from the last time I saw him; a bit of fur from a feline familiar, hair from a werewolf both in wolf and human form, and the pièce de résistance…the Baba Yaga’s magic-infused follicles.” Alicia snapped the locket closed and put the necklace back on, letting the pendant fall to her chest between her ample cleavage.
“I hate to be the party pooper here,” I said. “But this is a friendly reminder that you are a vampire, not a witch. We can be cursed or bespelled, but we can’t exactly cast the curses or bespellings.”
“Usually, you’d be right,” Alicia said with a nod. “There is a type of magic in us that makes us what we are, Sarah, but it’s not something we can channel at will. That’s why I have this to help both contain and channel the magic.” She tapped the locket.
“It’s cute,” I allowed.
“It’s a gift from Damon.”
“The shoemaker you said can make your dreams come true.”
“The one and only.” She slipped the locket under her shirt. “So, since you’re free for a few hours, do you feel like going shopping with me?”
The change in subject was so abrupt that I felt a wave of dizziness. I tried to rally since I knew I had to keep up my façade of being Alicia’s brand new bestie until I got the real dirt.
If that meant I had to go shopping with her, which, let’s face it, was one of my favorite pastimes, then I would just have to make that sacrifice.
“I’d love to,” I said. “Although, judging from the drive here, I didn’t see that many stores.”
“Oh, no. Not here. I’m going to take you to my absolute favorite place for shopping.”
I didn’t know West Virginia or the surrounding towns, so I’d have to take her word for it. “All right, sure. Let’s go. Although, Thierry has the car keys with him, so I’m hoping you have wheels?”
Alicia stood up from the table, hoisting her handbag over her shoulder, and I followed her lead. I eyed her very mischievous grin with both amusement and a bit of trepidation.
“Oh, Sarah,” she said. “Thanks to the Baba Yaga’s unknowing generosity, I may never need to drive anywhere ever again.”
She grasped my wrist, and I looked down with a frown.
“What are you—?” I began.
But I couldn’t get the whole sentence out before a thick ribbon of glittering rainbow-colored smoke surrounded us, and the diner disappeared completely.
