by Helen Bell
“I’m already dead; I’m a vampire. And I do not wish to be one. Please, respect my decision. It’s an honorable way for a Memphis warrior to end her existence. I’d have challenged her before, but I just now thought about it,” she said.
“No, Alice, you are not doing this, which means we have less than ten minutes to come up with a better plan, a plan where we both escape from here. You’re coming with me.” If by any miracle we did get out of the castle, I’d ask Gideon to help her deal with being a vampire.
“We have no time left. I hear the guards’ footsteps. They’ll be here in seconds,” she said.
“Alice, please,” I started, but she vanished from the room in a blink. Then, three vampires walked in. Without uttering a word, one of them grabbed me by the arm, and I was dragged outside the room. My terror escalated with each step as they forced me downstairs and down a few narrow corridors. After passing through three halls and making a few more turns, we reached the back courtyard of the castle. It was surrounded by a thick stone wall and lit by flaming torches.
The cold night air blew against my face while the guard pulled me across the lawn, toward a stage. I coughed, and a wave of dizziness passed through me as they tugged me up the makeshift stairs. Once we reached center stage, I looked out at the large crowd of about three hundred vampires, all in their uniforms. They were standing at attention in formation, facing the elevated platform I was on.
In heels and a short white dress, Pam stepped onto the stage too. Two vampires were at her sides, both of them in the same uniform: tight black pants, a warrior belt, leather armor, and leather gauntlets on their forearms. When the guard let go of my arm, Pam walked to me.
She stopped beside me and turned to the crowd, like she was about to make some speech about my execution, and I was out of time and options. Across the courtyard, Alice strode with purpose toward the stage. She looked determined, but scared out of her mind. So I did the only thing I could think to do. I stepped in front of Pam and said loudly, “I challenge your queen.”
The odds were against me; I was sick, weak, and she was a queen of warriors, after all. But fighting her was the only option I had to try and save both Alice and me.
Pam laughed. “You? Challenging my queen?”
Her patronizing tone nettled me. I raised my chin. “If I win, I go free and choose one of your warriors to come with me.”
She snarled at me. “You fool. The great queen of Memphis warriors will never degrade herself by fighting a mere mortal.” She turned to address the crowd. “It’s time to …” Her voice died away as the vampires in the far back parted like the Red Sea for a shadowy figure passing through. Did their queen accept my challenge?
I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, and shifted to watch one of Pam’s vampires move to my side. Her eyes were trained on the crowd.
I returned my attention to the figure gliding through the warriors, then jumping into the air and levitating gracefully onto the stage. Light fell on the figure’s face.
I blinked and sucked in a sharp breath.
Chapter 16
Gideon moved toward me and the vampires, wearing his knee-length, black leather coat and dark pants. What was he doing here? How did he find me?
Surprise flashed in the eyes of the vampire by my side before she said, “It’s a great honor to have you here.”
“It’s not a social call, Lucilla. I’m here for the human. She is mine.” Gideon’s voice was stern.
Lucilla? She was the queen? I looked at her. Her olive skin shone in the bright moonlight, a braid of brown hair thrown over her shoulder.
Her welcoming expression fell into a serious countenance. “The human’s blood doesn’t smell marked.”
He glanced at my face, which was probably in bad shape, and his jaw set.
His irises glowed bright gold as he looked back at her. “She is still mine. Release her, or blood will be shed.” His tone dripped venom.
There was a long silence before she finally said, “Very well, Gideon, I’ll release her. But I do not appreciate being threatened. It’s the last time you come here making demands.” She gave him a long, hostile look. Then her focus switched to me. “You may leave.”
Someone from the crowd moved and approached the stage. Alice! She asked Pam for permission to get onto the stage. After she received it, she climbed the stairs to the stage.
I was about to make up a story about why I needed Alice to come with me when she said to me, “I’m glad you’re free and don’t need my help anymore.” A crimson tear trickled down her cheek. Fear displayed on her face as her stare went toward Lucilla. “I challenge you for the throne.”
“No, Alice, don’t!” I pleaded, and one of the guards whooshed to Alice, plunging a dagger into her heart.
“Assisting a human? Traitor!” the guard spat out as Alice fell to the floor. She lay in a widening pool of blood while her skin turned grayish. A smile spread across her lips before she died.
Without warning, a hot wave of nausea cramped my stomach. Unable to fight it off, I bent over and threw up. When I straightened, a spike of pain drove through my head, overwhelming me. I lost my balance, and two hands studied me.
“We’re leaving. Now.” I heard Gideon’s voice behind me. His hand took mine, guiding me out a back gate. A luxurious car sitting near a copse of pines came into view, a short distance ahead of us. We stepped next to it, and my body trembled with cold. He removed his coat and slung it over my shoulders, then helped me into the car. As he walked around it, I laid my head on the window glass, and in seconds sleep claimed me.
The next thing I knew, we were in Thomas’s penthouse, and Gideon was carrying me in his arms to the guest room I’d slept in for the past week.
He put me down onto the bed. Standing next to it, he ran his fingers through his hair and shook his head in anger, his eyes flecked with bright gold. “What in God’s name were you thinking, leaving here while you were still sick?”
“I got Lucas’s address. I had to throw caution to the wind and go over there. If it hadn’t been for those warriors, I’d have made it back to the penthouse safely.” I recounted everything that had happened in Lucas’s apartment. Gideon asked for the description of the illusionist who had stolen the thumb drive. I gave him something better: the private investigator’s full name. He pulled out his phone. While he typed a text, I let my eyelids drift closed, just for a bit, but I went out of focus and dozed off.
When I woke up, I felt much better and like myself again.
“The doctor injected you with two doses of medicine and BFB,” Gideon said. “This and the doses he gave you before you ran off have healed the bruises and cuts on your body and face. Your soul has fully recovered too.” I pressed a hand into the mattress and pushed myself upright. The room lit up, and memories of recent events seeped into my head: the castle, the Memphis warriors, me almost beheaded, Alice.
“Alice … She died,” I breathed.
“She did, but it looks like it was her wish to end her existence,” he said, perching on the bed next to me.
The image of her smile right before her soul had left her body surfaced in my mind. “She hated that she was a vampire.” My eyes met his. “What is it like to be one?”
“Sometimes it’s good, sometimes not.”
“Do you miss being human?”
“Occasionally.”
He didn’t expand further, so I changed the subject. “How come the queen agreed to hand me over to you so easily? There were three hundred warriors there and only one of you; they could’ve taken you out without a problem.”
“Yes, they’d have defeated me, eventually. However, I wouldn’t say it’d have been done without a problem, and Lucilla knew that. She let you go because to her, you’re a mere human, insignificant, and as such, you’re not worth losing half of her warriors’ lives over.” He didn’t supply any more details, like how Lucilla knew him, or what their history was. And it was clear he wouldn’t.
I s
ighed. “How did you find me, anyway?”
“After I left here, I decided to drive out of the city to buy blood bags instead of going to a nearby vampire bar and ordering a Donor. Three hours later, I discovered you weren’t in the bedroom, which didn’t come as a surprise since you never listen. So I borrowed Thomas’s car.”
“Thomas’s car? Isn’t he blind?”
“His driver isn’t. After he gave me the key, I compelled a human police officer to ping your cell phone. The wonder of modern technology.”
“And compulsion,” I added and glanced down at the tattoo. 649. Good, the number hadn’t plummeted this time. I told him what had happened with the snake. When I finished, I asked, “Why would the tattoo turn me into a skilled fighter? The Memphis’s Ruler, Pam, claimed that black magic doesn’t protect its host.”
“Perhaps Pam was wrong,” he said, and before I knew what had happened, his dagger was pressed across my neck while his left hand pulled my head back by my hair.
Alarmed and shocked, I was careful not to move. “Wh-what are you doing?”
“Testing the tattoo’s reaction to your life being in danger.” He withdrew the blade from my throat, pulling away from me.
“And what if it had reacted?” My voice rose, but I couldn’t help it. What had he been thinking? “The snake could’ve sucked the life out of you.”
“I’d have gotten a warning first,” he said. “The snake was a warning, but the witch and warriors tried to fight it, so it killed them. The black magic will kill only if someone hurts it directly, not if someone hurts you.” He pushed his weapon back in its place and updated me about Lucas’s thumb drive.
I gulped air. “You have it? How’d you get your hands on it so fast?”
“Ian Robinson is a well-known PI in the Hidden World. It wasn’t hard for Thomas to find his office and steal the flash drive back.”
“Thomas is back?”
He got to his feet. “Yes, he’s downstairs on the phone with Olivia. Now that you’re fully recovered, I’ll go down and join him. The flash drive is password-protected, and Thomas’s tech guy will be here soon to crack it.”
When he turned to the door, I looked over at the large window covered with a gray blind. “Wait. What time is it? How long have I been out?”
He stopped and glanced at his Rolex. “It’s seven p.m. You slept for fifteen hours.”
“Wow,” I murmured. I kicked my way out of the covers and hopped off the bed, feeling no nausea or dizziness. “I’ll go take a quick shower and then meet you downstairs.”
He nodded and took off.
Not wasting time, I showered, dried off, dragged on a pair of jeans, a V-neck sweater, and my boots and headed downstairs. There, I followed the voices coming from the living room. The walls of windows gave a superb night view of the city. My eyes were glued to the skyline of Manhattan as I turned right and moved forward to the brightly lit living room.
“I reckon you feel better, Miss Newbern,” Thomas said.
My gaze slid to the plush couch where Thomas, dressed in a pricey navy-blue suit, sat next to another dude with a computer in his lap.
Gideon stood in front of them, and I stopped next to him. “I’m better, thank you.”
The stranger’s gaze was fixed on the computer screen, his fingers flying over the keys.
“I take it he’s the tech guy,” I said.
The guy looked up. He was attractive, with a buzz cut, lean body, and sun-kissed skin.
The corners of his lips went up as his gaze took me in from head to toe. “Got that right, hot thing, and you look exactly like the girl who’s gonna ride my cock later tonight.”
His rude comment left me speechless. Not Gideon, though. “Not if it’s cut off,” he said, the muscle ticking in his jaw betraying the calmness in his voice.
Gideon’s threat erased the cockiness from the guy’s face, and he stammered, “I-I didn’t mean to … I’m sor—”
“You got on his wick. It’d be wise of you to shut it, then get on and do the job I’ve paid you for, and quite handsomely I might add,” Thomas advised him.
“Y-yeah, no worries, man. I’m already halfway to cracking the password,” he said and returned his attention back to his laptop.
Ten minutes later, he announced, “Done. You can access the file.” He set the open computer on the black coffee table and got to his feet, telling Gideon, “Here, have a look.” Gideon took his place on the couch, and I joined him.
Facing the computer, I leaned over and put my fingers on the touch pad to move the cursor. The thumb drive contained one file, a thumbnail image of a video named “Demons”.
I said to Thomas, “He did it; everything’s working.”
The tech guy started toward the front door. “Okay, then, uh, I’ll show myself out.” Not waiting for a response, he left.
I hit play. Gideon and I watched the video. The footage was shaky, probably taken from a cell phone. The camera was trained on Lucas’s face as he spoke to it in a low voice.
“Two days ago, I received an email from a woman who recently discovered my site, The Mysterious World of the Fae. She’s certain her boss is a vampire. Yes, a real vampire. And I believe her. They exist, folks, and they are dangerous. If you find yourself around one, run. Run like hell. My sister didn’t. She went out with someone who I think was a vampire. If you’re a frequent visitor to my site, you already know I suspect something bad happened to her. Out of the blue, she decided to cut ties with us—her family. It’s not like her. Since then, I’ve been searching for her.” He was silent for a short moment, as if thinking about her before resuming his speech. “Anyway, that woman from the email started a new job six months ago as a secretary in a law firm, and on several occasions, she’s overheard her boss mentioning vampires.
“She thought he was crazy but out of curiosity searched the internet for the undead and supernatural beings. She came across my site, thinking everything on it was nonsense. Then one evening she saw her boss drinking from what seemed like a blood bag while he was on the phone, not aware his secretary was peering at him through the cracked-open door.
“He was talking about some missing girls, then set up a meeting with the person on the other end of the line. Familiar with my sister’s story, the woman sent me an email telling me about the meeting. It’s supposed to take place in this almost deserted parking lot tonight.” The grainy footage spanned slowly as Lucas showed the viewers his surroundings.
Lucas stood by a silver sedan, next to the driver’s door. Aside from that car, there was a truck parked in the far corner of the lot, a Chevrolet beside the silver sedan, and a van opposite his car. The streetlamps in the almost empty parking lot cast gold light mixed with the bright moonlight. It was quiet. An occasional wail of the wind disturbed the silence. The camera was on the parking lot when he talked once more.
“My balls are freezing off out here, but I can’t go back home. They’re lat—wait, someone’s coming.” Lucas ducked behind his car, judging by the change of the video feed. Then, the camera was carefully raised so it could film the new arrival: a black Mercedes. It parked near the van across from Lucas. A man climbed out of the Mercedes, rocking a suit and a trench coat. Because of the quality of the video, the features of his face were hard to make out, but somehow Gideon recognized him.
“Andrew Bassino,” he murmured.
I hit pause. “You know him? Who is he?”
“He’s a solicitor, a vampire, and a bastard who would sell his own mum for money,” Thomas answered me.
“Let’s see who he’s meeting with,” Gideon said and resumed the video. Andrew waited outside his car for about a minute before another car rolled in, a shiny Bentley. It stopped in front of him, blocking him from the camera’s view. The front passenger door thrust open. A woman climbed out. A black coat covered her body.
“He’s meeting with the royal demon that killed the human,” Gideon told Thomas, who let out a curse.
Andrew hurried around the
Bentley to greet her. She pulled something out of her purse and handed it to him. The camera zoomed in on her hand.
“It’s a package,” Lucas whispered. “Who is that woman? If anyone recog—” He stopped when Andrew turned to look in the sedan’s direction. “Shit, he spotted me.” The camera jerked up and down, and there was a sound of jangling keys. The door to the sedan opened, and Lucas got in, starting the car. The footage showed the car ceiling, as if the cell phone had been laid down on the passenger seat. “Phew, got away just in the nick of time. Jesus, this shit is bat crazy. I have to find out who she is and what that package in her hand was. And how it’s connected to my sister,” Lucas said, and then the video cut off. The battery of his phone seemed to have died.
I flipped the laptop closed and looked at Gideon. “He probably intended to post it to his site, but the demon murdered him before he had the chance.”
“She didn’t want anyone to link her to the missing girls,” Gideon said.
“Or anyone to see her doing business with a vampire,” Thomas added.
“Do you happen to know where we can find Andrew now?” I asked them.
“At his law firm, working,” Gideon replied.
“Is it a vampiric law firm? Do they work during the overnight hours with clients living around the world?” I wondered out loud.
“No, they work in daylight hours as well. Their offices have tempered glass, which UV rays can’t penetrate,” Thomas told me.
Gideon stood up and headed for the door. “Let’s have a little chitty chat with Andrew.”
Chapter 17
After a thirty-minute ride, the three of us reached a high-rise office building in Midtown Manhattan. After we entered the spacious lobby through the revolving doors, Gideon compelled the security guard to let us pass, and we proceeded to the bank of elevators. We stepped inside one of them, Gideon pushed the button on the elevator panel, and the car began its ascent. The doors slid open at the thirtieth floor, revealing the firm’s main lobby and a modern wood panel wall boasting the law firm’s name in large silver letters. We got out and stepped up to the front desk. The reception area was empty. Something felt wrong. Standing beside Thomas, I looked around. Where was everyone?
