Eyes of Ice

by J. C. Andrijeski

  He found himself staring into Kit’s wide-eyed face.

  Seeing the fear in her blue and brown enhanced eyes, he slid swiftly back to his full height, normalizing his stance.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  “Jesus, Nick––”

  “Sorry.” He held up a hand in a peace gesture. “I’m sorry. Just don’t… sneak up on me right now.” He fought back a scowl, shoving his hands into the pockets of his coat, and fighting embarrassment. “It’s not a good night for it.”

  He felt his embarrassment turn into something closer to guilt when he saw the fear that remained in her eyes. Forcing a human-like exhale, he made an effort to relax, to calm the hell down, even as his eyes shifted to Charlie, who stood just behind Kit.

  Unlike Kit, Charlie looked more concerned than alarmed.

  “You okay?” she said.

  Nick exhaled a second time, combing a hand through his still-damp hair.

  He glanced at Kit, feeling even more guilty for scaring her when he saw her trying to pretend he hadn’t.

  “Yeah,” he said, gruff. He nudged Kit gently with a hand. “Sorry, kid. Really. Let’s get out of here, though. I’ve got things to tell both of you.”

  “So you really didn’t see anything while you were down there?” Charlie said a few minutes later, when they were far out of range of the pro-vampire ring. “Nothing at all? Did anyone have any awareness that vampires have been disappearing on fight nights?”

  Nick shook his head.

  “No idea,” he said. “I didn’t ask. There was no opening to ask.” Thinking, he added sarcastically, “Of course, I was unconscious for a good chunk of my time down there, so, you know, if they’d wanted to take all my blood and rip my heart out of my chest, they definitely could have. Points in their favor, really––”

  Kit snorted a laugh, and Nick glanced at her, smiling back.

  “What about before that?” Charlie said, undaunted by either his sarcasm or Kit’s laugh. “Anything catch your notice about Farlucci’s operation? Any warning bells, or even just directions I might want to check out?”

  They were back in the tunnel, the one that led up towards the train station exit.

  It was even more full of people than Nick remembered from the first time he’d passed through. Luckily, most of the crowd he saw still seemed to be heading down towards the fights, and thus in the opposite direction as him, Kit and Charlie, so the trains shouldn’t be too swamped yet. Then again, Nick probably wasn’t going to be getting on the train, not anytime soon.

  Thinking about that, Nick remembered the card.

  Fishing it out of his pocket, he handed it to Kit, who walked on his right.

  “You know anything about this place?” he said, gruff, watching Kit’s face cautiously as she plucked the card from his fingers. “We were invited. All of us. I’m thinking we probably need to go… me and Charlie, anyway. You don’t have to.”

  He watched Kit read the front of the card, noting the location of the underground club in Queens. She seemed to have calmed down from where he’d scared her, but Nick was still nervous at how quiet she’d gotten.

  He added,

  “…Before that, though, I figure I owe you pie.” He watched her face as she looked at the card. “You being the trophy winner and all, pie is the least I can do. Or, if you prefer, I can just buy you drinks at the club. I don’t know how you youngsters celebrate these days… personally, I would go with the pie.”

  Kit grunted a half-laugh, rolling her eyes.

  He was relieved to see her relax when she glanced up at him next.

  “He invited you to their post-fight party?” Kit said. “Farlucci did?”

  “Can I see that?” Charlie said, peering around Nick to Kit, and holding out her hand.

  “––One of his underlings, yeah,” Nick said, answering Kit.

  He took the card back from Kit’s fingers and handed it over to Charlie, who was practically salivating to look at the damned thing.

  “They’re trying to recruit me,” he added to Kit, glancing at Charlie as she stared down at the card’s face. “Onto their regular fight roster, I mean. I think they’re hoping I’ll go to the club and chat up their other fighters. The guy who gave me the card basically told me to do that. Presumably, they’re hoping their other contracted fighters will regale me with tales of sexy vampire groupies, hot tub parties, vampire drugs, more money than I can possibly spend––”

  Kit burst out in another laugh, knocking into him with an arm.

  Shrugging, he shoved his hands in his coat pockets.

  “It’s a ballsy move,” he said, smiling back at her. “Given those same vamps could just as easily tell me it’s a scam, and they earn every credit, and then some, and not only in ripped off jawbones and broken backs.”

  Grunting as he thought about that, he added,

  “Falucci’s confident, I’ll give him that––”

  “Yeah,” Kit grunted back. “No shit.”

  She sounded a little in awe when she added,

  “He didn’t waste any time though, did he? Farlucci. With the recruitment thing, I mean. One fight, and they offer you a contract. That’s just, like… unheard of. Usually they make you do a couple. Even after a good fight, they want to make sure it’s not a fluke.”

  Nick glanced at her, frowning.

  “Weird, right?” he said. “I thought so, too. Really, I thought he was pulling my leg when he first brought it up. I practically got in an argument with him about it. I ended up telling him I was a Midnight. I even told them my real name… and mentioned the Kellerman case, mostly to stop him from calling up Morley or the lieutenant at the precinct––”

  “I didn’t say it’s weird,” Kit said, shrugging. “Just really damned unusual.”

  The frown returned to her lips as she gave him a more serious stare.

  “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, Nick. You were fucking terrifying in that ring. Like… a whole different person. I bet Farlucci saw nothing but credit chips dancing behind his eyes once he saw that. I really thought you’d killed that other vamp––”

  But Nick was already rolling his eyes.

  “I didn’t even do much,” he muttered. “It’s not like those were fancy moves. And no way can you kill a vamp by breaking his spine––”

  “Do you have any idea how fast you were?” Kit blurted.

  He turned, quirking an eyebrow at her, but her expression didn’t waver.

  Looking at her, he realized she’d been restraining herself from saying anything until now. She was practically quivering with reaction, he realized, some combination of awe, disbelief, excitement, fear.

  “I mean, you were amazing, Nick,” Kit gushed. “I mean that. But it was pretty freaky. No one knew how to react. The whole place went dead silent. I don’t really blame Ms. St. Maarten for freaking out. She kept asking me who you were––”

  “They’re pro fighters,” Nick reminded her. “That vamp must have logged more time in the ring than me, so I was expecting more of a fight. Honestly, I was pretty surprised he went down that easy. I hope most of their fighters are better than he was, or––”

  Kit burst out in a disbelieving laugh.

  Nick looked at her again, frowning.

  She only shook her head, that disbelief reflected in her eyes.

  “Nick. You might be pretty, but you are clueless.” At his deepening frown, she held up a hand. “I saw that same exact vampire fight last week. He creamed his opponent. He fucking creamed him, Nick. Honestly? It was pretty gross. He slashed him to bits with those damned nails of his. I’ve never seen so much blood… not even in a vamp fight.”

  She swallowed, shoving her hands in her pockets.

  She looked strangely young when she looked up at him next.

  “I was pretty worried,” she confessed. “When I saw who they’d paired you with, I kind of freaked out. I thought it was going to be a bloodbath all over again. I was ranting at Charlie about how we had to
get you the fuck out of there––”

  “She was,” Charlie confirmed, without looking up from something she was doing on the wristband she wore. “She also threatened to report me, if anything happened to you.”

  Taking one hand out of her jeans pocket, Kit motioned vaguely towards the homicide detective, as if to say, you see?

  “Then you did your… thing,” Kit added. “And it was just over. It was over so fast, most of us didn’t even know it was over. Most of us had to watch the replays like three times to even understand what happened. I’ve never seen anyone move that fast, Nick. Human. Vampire. No one. I don’t think any of us had.”

  Nick frowned.

  More than anything, he found her words baffling.

  In the end, all he could do is shrug.

  “In the war, it was less unusual,” he said.

  “Sure, it was,” Kit said, laughing and shaking her head, half in outrage. “Oh, and bullshit, Nick. You’re not really going to pretend that was normal, what we saw––?”

  Before she could get any further, Charlie’s voice cut her off.

  “Nick’s right,” the homicide detective said, her voice low, tense. “We have to go. To this party. All three of us.”

  Nick and Kit looked at her.

  They might have looked at her for different reasons, though.

  Nick frowned down at Charlie when she met his gaze, making a subtle gesture with his fingers. He didn’t want Kit going. It hadn’t really hit him how much he didn’t want her going––not until Charlie spoke.

  Charlie only shook her head, though.

  “I’m sorry, Nick,” the detective said apologetically, glancing between him and Kit and shaking her head. “But I really have to ask both of you if you’ll go to this with me, at least for a little while. Keep her with you the whole time, if you want… and she can leave early. But it would help me a ton if I could get in there unnoticed. I could do that, if I went in with both of you. They wouldn’t look twice at me if I was the guest of two fighters… if they know you’re a cop and I’m a cop, it’s going to look weird.”

  “She’s I.S.F.,” Nick growled. “And no. She’s just a kid.”

  “Hey!” Kit said, outraged. “I’m twenty-four!”

  “My point exactly,” Nick said, giving her a hard look. “There will be vampires there, Kit. A lot of them––”

  “And Farlucci. And a lot of human fighters,” she shot back. “And it might actually help my fighting career… or hadn’t that occurred to you?”

  Charlie frowned at Nick. “Just keep her with you,” she said. “She’ll be with both of us. She’ll be fine. No one’s going to fuck with you, Nick… not after tonight’s performance.”

  “And I don’t need a babysitter, Mr. Overprotective Grumpypants,” Kit grumbled, obviously offended as she folded her arms, glaring at him. She aimed a thumb at Charlie. “Jeez. This cop isn’t even that much older than me, and you’re not coddling her.”

  “Maybe I like you more,” Nick retorted.

  Charlie let out a half-laugh.

  Kit wasn’t amused.

  “Or maybe you’ve got some weird hang-up with me,” she shot back. “One where you constantly treat me like I’m fourteen instead of twenty-four.”

  Nick scowled, feeling ganged up on.

  He did treat Kit like she was young.

  He knew he did, but couldn’t seem to help himself.

  Something about her brought it out in him.

  He found himself flashing back to his kid sister, Maya, back when he was human. She hadn’t been all that amused by his “big brother bullshit” either, as she called it, especially when it resulted in Nick punching her then-husband in the face when he found out the fucker had an affair while his sister was eight months pregnant.

  Thinking about that now, he looked between the two of them, his lip twitching over his fangs.

  Finally, seeing the outrage on Kit’s face, and the calm implacability of Charlie’s expression, he felt himself giving in.

  “Fine,” he said. He glared at Kit. “You’re not leaving my sight. I mean it, Kit.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re being ridiculous. They have groupies and blood whores for the fighters. I won’t get a second glance, trust me––”

  “Just the fact that you think that tells me I can’t leave you alone,” he growled back. “Vampires like to hunt, Kit. These vampires are more or less paid to let those instincts run wild. They’re going to find you a lot more interesting than some venom-addicted blood whore––”

  “She’ll be fine, Nick,” Charlie said, holding up a hand between them. “Honestly, I’m more worried about you than I am about her, in a place like that.”

  At Kit’s smirk, Nick turned on Charlie, feeling his annoyance intensify.

  But Charlie wasn’t looking at him.

  Her face grim, she was focused on the tunnel ahead, obviously thinking ahead to where they were going, at least if the internal focus of her eyes was any indication.

  “…And I really think you should consider letting them recruit you,” Charlie added, obviously thinking aloud, including them in only part of the conversation she was having with herself. “At least for a little while,” she added. “Until I can get a handle on the case.”

  Nick and Kit exchanged looks.

  Kit let out a disbelieving snort.

  Nick had a similar reaction, at least initially.

  Thinking about it, though, he could see Charlie’s point.

  He wasn’t sure how thrilled he was with the idea of fighting more cage matches, no matter how well it paid––but he would have wanted the same thing, if their positions were reversed. Charlie had an “in” now. She had an honest-to-God informant in a subculture where gaining access wasn’t easy.

  She wasn’t going to want to give that up, not until she knew whether and how Farlucci was involved in her case. Even if Farlucci himself was squeaky clean, there was a good chance these killers-slash-vampire harvesters were tied somehow to his organization.

  For the same reason, the club was a good place to start.

  “We’ll talk about that later,” Nick said.

  Glancing between the two of them, trying not to be worried about Kit coming along as a tourist on a damned murder investigation, he shoved his hands in his pockets, glancing ahead to where the escalators to the train platform were now visible.

  “…Let’s just get through tonight, first,” he added, gruff.

  Chapter 10

  Purity

  He still hadn’t called Wynter.

  Well, he called her… technically.

  But he hadn’t called her.

  He sent her a text.

  Like a fucking coward, he sent her a written text, not even a verbal message, telling her he was all right, that he’d give her a real call tomorrow.

  Guilt brought an actual, physical pain to his chest whenever he let himself think about what he’d written, not to mention the fact that he’d shut off his headset to incoming texts and other messages after he wrote it.

  Thinking about that now, Nick winced again, raising a hand to his ear in reflex, squinting against the throbbing strobe lights and heavy thump of bass. After a few seconds of trying to see through the colorful, flashing lights, he plucked out the dark contact lenses he wore, sticking them back into the small case Tom had given him.

  He glanced around the floor of the club.

  Charlie was leaning against the bar, talking to a vamp fighter.

  Flirting with him, really.

  The vamp was handsome, with long black hair, muscular if lean shoulders and chest, and a snake tattoo on his neck that glowed a pale green. He was also definitely interested.

  Nick had seen him staring down Charlie’s top for the past twenty or so minutes, not to mention the flash of his too-white fangs that showed whenever he laughed at something Charlie said, or whenever he smiled at her.

  He’d also seen the vamp staring at Charlie’s throat.

  Still, he
wasn’t hiding his interest, or treating her overtly like prey… and Charlie was an adult. If she wanted to go home with a vampire, or hell, screw him in one of the filthy, graffiti-covered bathroom stalls of this place while he fed on her, that was definitely her prerogative.

  It was hard to view his other human charge the same.

  At the thought, Nick’s eyes slid to his left, taking in the massive dance floor, which was filled with jerking, gyrating, and swaying humans and vamps, along with giant purple, blue and green virtual starbursts, virtual animals and mythical creatures, virtual trees and mushrooms, and even virtual robots, most of them overtly sexual in design. The sheer number of lights and three-dimensional illusions made it slightly more difficult to make out faces.

  He found her in a few seconds, though.

  Kit was dancing––with a female human, not a vampire.

  Nick found that only marginally reassuring.

  Truthfully, as he stood there, he was wondering more and more why he was there. He had no interest in talking to Farlucci’s fighters. He, Kit and Charlie had gotten in easily enough, with a few of Farlucci’s fighters approaching him within seconds of Nick walking through the door.

  The fact that they came up so quickly told Nick two things.

  One, Farlucci sent out some kind of company-wide notice, likely with Nick’s face attached, telling everyone who he was; and two, Farlucci told them he might show up at the club that night, and that if he did, they should be hospitable.

  When Nick more or less brushed them off, however, they gave him space.

  Whatever Farlucci told them, Nick also saw them sizing him up.

  A few did so in a curious, interested, colleague to colleague kind of way––but a number of those stares were significantly less friendly. At the very least, that latter group viewed him warily, and Nick caught a few stares that made him think they were mentally calculating things they might try against him in the ring already, in the event they were paired in a fight.

  Watching them stare at him, he found himself thinking he’d have a tougher time in his next few fights. That was assuming there were any more fights after tonight… and assuming he didn’t get jumped in the alley when he left the club tonight.