of the stairs. “She just went downstairs. She’ll be right back. Is there something you need that I can get for you?”
“No. The postman is coming through the gate with a package and I was hoping she could sign for it so I don’t have to leave my post,” Drina explained, shifting on the spot with indecision.
“You go on and get back to your post. I can get the door,” Allie assured her, and turned to walk toward it.
“No, no, no,” Drina cried, rushing down the stairs as Allie reached the entry and peered out. The mailman was just closing the gate, his back to the house, when she looked out, but she could see his mail bag and the large box he was carrying. Turning to walk slowly up the sidewalk, he dug through his bag, eventually pulling out a sheaf of multicolored papers.
“Someone’s got a big package coming,” Allie commented as Drina reached her side.
The woman glanced out at the mailman and nodded, but then said, “Go wait in the kitchen.”
Allie’s eyebrows rose at the order. “Why? It’s just the mailman.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want you by the door when I open it. Go on. The kitchen.” She waved her hand in a shooing motion and Allie grimaced, but moved away.
“Fine. I’ll go make coffee,” she announced, starting into the dining room, but then paused and turned to look back as she heard the front door open and the rumble of a deep voice.
“Sure. I thought you guys had digital things to sign nowadays,” she heard Drina say with amusement as she turned her back to the man and placed the stack of multicolored papers on the open door to have a flat surface to sign on.
Allie’s gaze shifted to the mailman then and her eyes widened slightly. He looked familiar. She was trying to sort out where she’d seen him before when three things happened in quick succession. She heard a door open behind her, felt a cold draft, and heard the murmur of Mabel’s and Elvi’s voices as they apparently returned, a second door opened and she heard Tricia call a greeting, and then movement drew Allie’s attention down to the box the mailman held and she saw that it was open and he was pulling a machete out of it.
“Drina!” she shouted in warning as he swung the machete back. She rushed forward as he started to bring it down.
“I’d just pulled out the machete when the human screamed a warning. The vampire bitch turned and saw it coming at her. She tried to duck, but I still clipped her a good one in the head.”
Allie could hear the speaker, but she couldn’t see anything. She was lying on a cold, damp floor on her stomach, her head turned to the side with her eyes closed and no desire to open them. Her head was pounding as if she was the one who had taken the machete to the head. In fact, Allie wasn’t sure she hadn’t. The last thing she remembered was running to Drina and then pain exploding in her head. Now there was blood dripping down her face, and terrible pain radiating from the back of her skull. If he hadn’t hacked her in the head like he had Drina, then the man had thumped her with the handle of it hard enough to do some serious damage.
“Just a head wound?” another voice asked, this one closer to her. Standing over her, she guessed, and at first thought he was talking to her. But then the other man answered.
“Yes. I was going to cut her head off, but once the human screamed there was no chance of that happening. The bitch’ll be out of commission for a while, though.”
“Yes, yes. Good. But how did you end up bringing Allie instead of the boy, Stephen? It is your son we want.”
Stephen. Stella’s husband, Allie thought, and realized suddenly why he’d looked familiar to her when she’d first seen him there in the door. She’d looked at the picture in the locket often enough since Stella died that she was sure she would have recognized him at once if he hadn’t been dressed in the mailman gear. That had thrown her off.
“Well,” Stephen said, “she rushed over to try to help the vamp bitch. But her scream had raised the alarm. People were coming from every direction. There was no chance of looking for Liam, so I knocked her out, threw her over my