The Samantha Rain Mysteries

Chapter 17

17

The vampire paused and placed her hands on her hips. “Lilith. What are you doing here?”

“I could ask the same of you,” the other woman scoffed.

Sam cringed. This was exactly what she’d been trying to avoid. Why did everyone keep meeting in her house at the least convenient time and make such a ruckus? Where were the days when she came home after a long shift and found the house empty and quiet. With a little smooth music from the radio and a cold drink in her hand, it was the perfect end to a strenuous day.

Instead of her preferred silence she had two bickering women, a toddler in a towel on her hip, and a hellhound with a taste for shoes. The lack of furniture and cosy knick-knacks meant the house had never been this empty and yet, it wasn’t empty at all.

There was only one person to blame for that.

Lilith.

She glanced at the beautiful woman and hid a smile. There was something about her… Her presence, the confidence she radiated. Sam almost couldn’t remember a time she hadn’t had the annoying Nox in her life, even though they hadn’t known each other for that long. Maybe all this noise wasn’t so bad after all.

“Sam? What’s going on?” Lilith asked.

Her voice held a strange twang, but Sam couldn’t place what it was. Jealousy? Or was that what she wanted the other woman to feel?

Before she could explain the strange situation, Catalina interrupted. “I was just leaving. Samantha, walk me to the door?”

“Umm…” Sam stared from woman to woman, caught between two intense looks. Lilith looked like she could start shooting lighting at any moment but Sam reasoned that wouldn’t pass until Catalina left. If she had an opportunity to get rid of the vampire, she should take it.

“Just a moment,” she said to Lilith. “Sorry.”

With an insulted hum, she turned away from Sam and swayed to the kitchen. Her dress moved around her hips, pronouncing her dramatic exit. An effect ruined by the barking hellhound puppy chasing after her.

Sam let out a breath and as much as she wanted to go after Lilith to explain, she had to deal with Catalina first. She held the toddler out to Catalina who looked at him like she’d never seen anything so disgusting.

“My duffel bag is still in the kitchen,” she said.

“Yeah, that’s not happening.” Sam pushed the child in Catalina’s arms, her patience gone from Lilith’s arrival. “He’s your responsibility so just deal with it.”

Surprise flashed through the vampire’s eyes as she accepted the toddler and held him close. For a moment, she resembled a deer in headlights but the boy giggled and Catalina relaxed. “Hey, this is actually not that bad.”

“Better get used to it. Until we find out where the kid came from, he’s staying with you.”

“I guess he’s kind of cute. Like a rat.”

Samantha shook her head in disbelief. “Anyway. If you’re going to look after him, you’ll need lots more things. You should buy clothes, a cot, age-appropriate toys. A child this age also needs a strict food-regime. At least one of each basic food group every day and lots of stimulation.”

“Can’t you do that for me?”

“Do I look like your maid or servant?”

“No, but you know more than I do.” Catalina held up the toddler so he could look at Sam. With a pouty voice, she pretended to speak for him. “Don’t do it for me, do it for the child.”

Samantha took in a sharp breath. “Wow, that’s some blatant emotional manipulation.”

“Is it working?”

“This time,” she admitted reluctantly. “Fine, I’ll pick up some things for the child, but you’re not off the hook. Now if you don’t mind, I have to go deal with Lilith. I should never have lied and kept this a secret.”

“I appreciate it though. I knew you were trustworthy,” Catalina scratched her neck and winced. “But good luck. Lilith’s temper is… legendary. Although you might be spared. Perks of being together, hmm?”

“What? Together?” Sam laughed loudly, maybe a little too loud. “We’re not together.”

“Really?”

“Of course not. You’re crazy. Me and Lilith? Us? Imagine that!”

“Hah… My apologies, it just looked like— You know what, doesn’t matter. Thanks for your help today.” Catalina shot her something that resembled a grateful smile and stepped outside.

Before she could stop herself, Sam blurted. “What did it look like?”

Catalina turned back. “What?”

“What makes you think we are together?” She lowered her voice. “Lilith and me?”

“I don’t know, maybe it’s the way she looks at you? We had a little fling and she never looked at me like that. If she had, maybe we wouldn’t have stopped. Anyway… Not important.” A pensive look crossed Catalina’s face before she turned away. She made her way down the path and paused to look back. “Oh, when you stop by the church use your identification and my guards will let you in without questions.”

“Will do. Wait, identification?” Sam called after her, but the vampire was gone. With a sigh, she closed the door and took a moment to compose herself. These Nocturnal women were a real handful.

She took a deep breath and mustered up the courage to face the one waiting in the kitchen. If Catalina was right, she was in for a bollocking of a lifetime.

Cautiously, she paused in the door frame. “Hey.”

Lilith looked up from the cup of coffee she’d made herself. A polite smile decorated her face, but the blue in her eyes was ice cold. “Hi.”

Sam gulped. This was going to be bad.

“I… I’ll have some coffee as well. Would you like another cup?” she proposed, searching for a distraction. Just to have something to occupy herself before she got chewed out.

“No, I’m good.”

“Okay.” She rummaged through the cupboards for her favourite mug, just to buy some extra time, but settled for a regular cup. She shot Lilith an awkward smile before returning to the coffee machine. At least the gurgling and grinding cut through the tense silence hanging in the kitchen.

With a loud hiss, the machine released some steam and trickled coffee into her mug. The bitter but appetising smell filled the kitchen, adding the illusion of home to the empty house. A perfect cup in less than a minute. Damn her stupid, excellent machine. If only it took more time.

She rubbed her finger a couple of times, twisting an imaginary ring round and round as she faced Lilith. There was only so long she could put off the unavoidable.

The Nox carefully folded her hands together as she stared back with flickering eyes. “So… You and Catalina? What’s—”

“I’ve been seeing Catalina,” Sam blurted out. “She invited me to come to her church and I drank strange wine.”

“Oh.” Lilith opened her mouth like she was going to say something, but nothing came out. Instead, she just kept nodding like a bobblehead.

What was she thinking?

Sam couldn’t recognise the expression on her face despite having worked with people for years.

She twirled her imaginary ring again, the nerves stacking up with every passing second. “She asked me to keep it between us. I know, I should’ve told you, but I didn’t know. Especially about the kid, that’s just so—”

“No, it’s fine. I understand,” Lilith interrupted, but her tone suggested otherwise. She clicked her tongue dismissively and averted her gaze. “I mean, that explains the kid.”

Sam stared at the other woman, a little taken aback. “It does?”

“Yes, if you want to date Catalina—”

“Woah, woah. Date? No, no, nooo. No, I didn’t mean see her like that.”

Relief stretched across Lilith’s face, brightening her entire expression. “What? But you said—”

“Yes, but… No. I didn’t explain it properly. No, she asked me to help her as friends. Friends, nothing more. Nothing. More,” she rambled, accentuating every nothing with a fist on the island.

They sat opposite each other, locked in silence, every tense second made worse by the ticking of the clock.

After what seemed like an eternity, Lilith released a breath. “Oof. I mean, it’s not that I don’t approve, but… You and Catalina. That would just be weird.”

“I agree.” Sam nodded as she ran her hands along the marble surface, marvelling at the smoothness. She’d never really paid much attention to it but right now anything that wasn’t Lilith was suddenly fascinating.

“That doesn’t explain the kid though. Your ‘nephew’,” Lilith said.

Sam blushed. There were few things worse than being caught in a lie.

She shot Lilith an apologetic smile. “No, you’re right, he’s not my nephew. He wandered into Catalina’s church and she’s trying to find out where he came from so she can send him back but she can’t have her clan know a toddler bypassed all her security. It sounds like a weird point of pride.”

“Hmmm, I know all about her pride. Why didn’t you just tell me this?”

“I… don’t know. I wasn’t sure whether I was allowed to help people from other clans and…”

“You didn’t know whether you could trust me. I understand, after all the trickery and deceit I put you through, I wouldn’t trust me either.” Lilith mustered a smile, but didn’t manage to cover up the sadness in her eyes. Instead, she rose from the high chair and smoothed out her dress. “It’s fine, I’ll win your trust back. I’d be a pretty lousy partner if you couldn’t trust me, right?”

“What? We’re not partners,” Sam squeaked, her cheeks flaring up. What was Lilith talking about?

The other woman shot her a strange look. “Yes, we are.”

Sam tried to swallow but her mouth was too dry. She drew a shaky breath, suddenly nervous and jittery. The idea that Lilith thought they were together set fire to her stomach and awoke butterflies in her chest.

Luckily, Lilith didn’t seem to notice any of her turmoil.

The other woman slurped from her coffee. “We’ve been partners for a while, haven’t we? Or isn’t that what the police would call it?”

The police.

Professional partners.

The words fell over Samantha like a cold shower and tore through her nervous bliss. That was what Lilith meant?

She did her best to hide her disappointment and keep a straight face, but she didn’t manage to swallow the lump in her throat. Only after a breath or two, she managed to speak again. “Right… That kind of partner.”

“Yes.” Lilith’s eyes shimmered. “What did you think I was talking about?”

“No, I was thinking the same thing,” Sam lied. She coughed to cover up her embarrassment and tightened her grip on her mug. She was such an i***t. Of course Lilith didn’t mean together together. Like someone Lilith’s caliber wouldn’t want a relationship with her.

Heck, Sam didn’t want a relationship with the Nox. She’d just come out of a marriage and her divorce wasn’t even cold yet. This was not the time to start dating again, especially not Lilith.

And yet… For a moment, that hadn’t sounded like such a terrible idea. The exact opposite, in fact.

“Sam?”

“Hmm?” Torn from her thoughts, Sam blinked the tempting ideas away. “What?”

“I asked if you were finally ready to visit the morgue? You were so insistent earlier on and I have to admit, I’ve been thinking about the whole situation”

“Oh, right. Of course.”

“Then let’s get going. Or do I need to chop-chop you?”

“No, I’m coming.” Samantha smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. It didn’t look like Lilith had noticed any of her turmoil. She wasn’t going to let her stupid feelings ruin a perfectly good friendship. No, she would just smother the embers in her stomach so they sizzled out and left nothing but ash. That was the adult thing to do. To take disappointment, bury it deep inside, and smile like everything was f*****g fine.