Alison pulled the door open with the enthusiasm of a child knowing a present awaited her on the other side. It was day number five of flower deliveries for both herself and Vanessa. As if Alfred had somehow been a fly on the wall during their conversation about receiving flowers, Vanessa’s remained roses, with only their color altering, while Alison received a variance of bouquets. Each one bigger and better than the one before it.
She carried the flowers into the kitchen, set them down on the counter, and went to the butler’s pantry to rummage for more vases. “I wonder how long he’s going to keep this up. We’re running out of vases.”
Vanessa leaned her elbow on the counter while she fondled the velvety pink rose buds. “As far as I’m concerned, he need never stop. I’ll just go buy more vases.”
“The house smells really good,” Alison said with a gleam in her eye.&
The restaurant was in a part of the city that they’d never been to, making it a little tougher to find than they’d expected. Even so, their moods were light when the host led them to their table and the waiter took their order.Although her inheritance made her disgustingly rich, Alison never let the wealth alter who she was or how she lived. She seldom did something that allowed her to remember and enjoy the fact she could do pretty much whatever she wanted. This dinner would be an exception. She ordered their best bottle of wine and insisted that Vanessa not so much as peek at the prices. She was to order whatever she wanted without a thought to the cost.They both started with a caprese salad with pesto and a Panzanella. Vanessa ordered her much coveted chicken marsala while Alison decided to try the wild garlic and ricotta ravioli with lamb soup. For dessert, they ordered panna cotta with raspberry coulis
The cool, moist glass felt refreshing as Nick rested his forehead against the window pane. He’d been moved from the dank and dark underground cell to a prison on the open sea a few days earlier. It required minimal guards to move him, since the loss of circulation from being tied for so long rendered his limbs practically useless. He was only now getting full use of them back. Anticipating the return of his strength, his captor allowed him freedom for one night, but then shacked both a wrist and an ankle the following morning.Although he still hadn’t met his captor, he suspected it was a shadow walker up to no good. He’d strained his memory, trying to think who he might have angered enough to do such a dastardly thing to him, but could come up with no one.He’d lost track of the amount of time he’d been held captive, but from the shape and position of the moon, he knew it was approaching one month. 
Alfred drummed his fingers on the top of the kitchen table while he waited for Vanessa to serve him the morning cup of coffee she insisted on preparing. Normally, he’d find her incessant flirting amusing, but with so much riding on his success with Alison, her friend was rapidly becoming a nuisance that he couldn’t afford to have. Heloise’s frantic phone call telling him that Nick guessed his kidnappers were shadow walkers billowed the embers of his determination into enormous flames. Time was of the essence.He also needed to speed things along with Alison. He was making progress, but not nearly fast enough. He’d managed to get her to kiss him the night before, only to be told how guilty she felt because Vanessa liked him too. Since he’d already had sex with Vanessa -never mind the circumstances behind that sex- she felt she was wronging her friend by allowing anything to happen between them.He’d
Alison was sitting at the kitchen table when Alfred entered. She responded to his bright smile with one of her own. “Have you seen Vanessa this morning?”Remembering a conversation that he’d eavesdropped on via the hidden camera, he said, “She mentioned that she’d planned on going back to school. Her car is gone. Maybe she’s enrolling?” He walked to the coffee pot. “Do you mind if I have some? My coffee maker is on the blink.”“Please, help yourself,” Alison said, while scowling in thought as she struggled to remember that fact. “When did she say this?”“Yesterday,” he said with his back to her as he calmly placed a few drops from the vile Ocilian gave him into the remnants of the pot of rich, dark java. He carried the pot over to her and replenished her cup without asking. She smiled her thanks as she added more cream and the
Martin wore a look of surprise when Alfred answered Alison’s front door. “Fancy seeing you here. What miracle occurred to get you back into this house?”“Flowers,” Alfred said over his shoulder as he walked back into the kitchen. “I’ve got cookies that need to come out of the oven.”Martin followed him into the kitchen and looked around. The table was laden with freshly baked oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies. He inhaled their tantalizing aroma while reaching for a generously sized oatmeal with raisons. He took a bite and hummed his appreciation when the delicious flavors burst forth from its soft center. “I’m confused.”“Really?” Alfred said as he removed a batch of hot cookies from the baking sheet. “Why so?”“How are you here?” Martin asked. “Why are you here? Where’s Nick? Where’
In an effort to make amends as well as make himself useful, Martin offered to fire up the grill for barbequed chicken. He’d spent enough time around Alison to know that it was one of her favorite foods. When her face lit up at the offer, he knew he was on his way back into her good graces.While at the grill, he did his best to observe both Alfred and Alison. He’d seen too much of her interaction with Nick to believe that she’d walk away from him and accept Alfred so fully in such a short period of time. Something was amiss. What confused him was the fact that Alfred was also a victim of the pizza lacing and magic that day. Although he had no doubt that Alfred had, at some point over the years, taken part in a ménage á trios, he found it hard to believe that his cousin would stoop so low as to deliberately participate in such a vicious one as that. They’d not only abused poor Vanessa’s
Martin returned to Alison’s home with a heavy heart. He’d spent the night searching for Vanessa in all the places he thought she might go to, but with no luck. Now, he had the burden of having to tell her that her friend didn’t go back to their old apartment, as she’d thought. She was sure to be worried and upset. These weren’t good things to be when one was making their first shift into shadow land.It was late afternoon on the night of the new moon when he knocked on her front door. When he got no response, he walked around to the back of the house and knocked on the kitchen door.Again, nothing,He tried the handle, found the door unlocked, and walked inside.Standing perfectly still, he listened for signs of life in the house. He could hear the faint sounds of love making coming from upstairs. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to decipher that it was Alison and Alfred
Nick wrestled with what to do. It was the night of the new moon and he should be returning to shadow land for regeneration and rejuvenation. He could skip one new moon with limited consequences to himself, but more than that would be a problem.He guessed his captor was a shadow person simply by the way he was being treated. It wasn’t as cruel and harsh as one would expect from a hunter who was simply waiting for him to leave his body on the new moon, so it could be destroyed before he returned. Hunters had a sick way of thinking that, since the body was empty of the spirit because it was in shadow land, they weren’t committing murder by destroying it. They failed to understand that a small part of the soul and the spirit were still connected to the body and not all was departed. If that was the case, then the shadow walker would truly be dead.If he was correct and his captor was a shadow walker, then he should be return