by Holly Ryan
“Damn, Sunshine. You’re right.” Eddie smiled like my mashed potato brain had done something good. He glanced at the devil. “The universe didn’t fall apart then.”
“Where is he?” My eyes widened. “Not in the woodshed still, I hope.”
Sawyer shook his head. “After he worked through his bloodlust, he left.”
“He...left?” But we had so much to talk about. Like why a framed photo of Mom sat on his desk in the police department. I was fairly certain he was my dad, whom I’d never known and Mom had refused to talk about. But if he’d just walked his vampire self out of the woodshed... Well, that made me feel pretty damn small. My heart may have stopped beating, but my emotions were just as pure and raw as ever. A pained sound clicked in my throat because I wanted to hurl insults at him, but I couldn’t.
“Hey.” Sawyer leaned in and tucked his finger under my chin so I’d look up into his warm ochre eyes. “He didn’t go far. He unofficially took on your slayer role while you were out of commission. Instead of killing newborns, he takes them to the Senate mansion to help them work through their bloodlust until they’re able to rejoin vampire society.”
“Like rehab?” I asked.
Sawyer nodded. “It’s what you did for him.”
“And what you did for me.” Geez, this was a lot to take in all at once. I stood, needing a blood break even though I’d just had one. Processing everything made me thirsty. After I heated my mug of blood in the microwave, I searched the cupboards for some cinnamon and then added a dash. And then another. I took a drink and immediately downed the whole thing. “Tastes like pie!”
Laughter erupted in the kitchen, a precious, musical sound that seeped underneath my skin. That was what I wanted. Not all this serious shit.
Jacek took my hand again when I rejoined them at the table. “We’ve been so concerned about you, we didn’t even think to ask him how Detective Appelt stole your power without the universe imploding.”
“Now that he’s lucid, we can ask him,” I said. “The sooner the better.” And a lot more questions as well. “In the meantime, what about Paul? You must’ve seen him to know he’s not dead.”
“We’ve seen him.” Eddie stood and began to pace the length of the table. Cleo went to follow him.
“What’s he doing?” I asked.
The four guys shared grimaces between each other, and I knew right then I wouldn’t like what I heard. Except for seeing my vamps and dog again, I hadn’t liked pretty much everything since I’d come downstairs. That’s what I got for getting out of bed.
The devil cleared his throat. “The trapdoor is practically bleeding darkness. It doesn’t look good.”
It was just like what I saw in the lake back at the Senate mansion. Paul, in god form, the dimension where he was from leaking out into this one.
“He’s trying to take over our dimension,” I said. “What do you want to bet if he gets his power back, that’s exactly what he’ll be able to do?”
Eddie nodded, Cleo still pacing at his side like they were playing a game. “That’s kind of what we were thinking too. Luc contained Paul’s darkness to the graveyard and put a repellant spell around it so no humans go near it.”
I shuffled around what he’d just said and snagged on the name Luc. Oh, him. The devil, or jackass as I sometimes referred to him. It was curious that he was now on a first-name basis with my vamps since they’d once been at each other’s throats. Curious and fucking annoying. He was the one who’d chosen me as the slayer, and moved Paul’s lake back into the trapdoor, doing exactly what Paul had wanted, just to save me. But the joke was on him because now I was dead.
And less than a month from now, I would be insane. Maybe dead too. These were dark days indeed. I rubbed my eyes, kind of done with all of this.
Sawyer rubbed my back. “We know this is a lot to take in, especially after you just woke up.”
I groaned and shook my head. “I was never a morning person, or afternoon person, really. Daytime as a whole for me is questionable. I find I do best with bad news between 10:00 and 10:01 p.m.”
Jacek grinned, a teasing glint in his eyes. “We’ll keep that in mind for next time.”
Sawyer set his hand on my thigh again and chuckled. “It’s a good thing you’re a vampire.”
The devil frowned in obvious disagreement.
A sudden realization jolted down my back. “Shit. My online classes. I was so close to finishing my semester. All that hard work for—”
“Relax, Sunshine.” Eddie stopped behind his chair and winked. “I hacked into your laptop and finished out the semester for you.”
“You...” A light, impossibly giddy feeling in spite of these dark days flooded my chest. “You did? Eddie, I could just kiss you.”
His lips twitched, and a wave of heat curled low in my belly at the way he looked at me. “We’ll get to that.”
Oh yes. We most definitely would.
Jacek lifted his chin toward Eddie. “He only had three tries to figure out your password.”
Eddie smiled. “I got it in two.”
It took some mental jump rope to remember what it was after all this time. Then it clicked. “Spongebob+Sandy4Evah? There’s no way you got it in two. Really?”
“No, not really,” Jacek said. “I saw you type it in once, and I told him.”
I laughed, and it felt ridiculously good. Someday I’d be able to do that all day with them for a literal eternity. I vowed to make that happen, no matter what, and soon.
“Well...” I glanced at the clock above Eddie’s head and stood. My feet itched. My gut cramped. It was time to go patrolling. “It’s ten o’clock. I’m now fully equipped to handle bad news like a champ. Thanks for coming to my naked TED Talk.”
“Whoa. What?” Jacek stood with me, as did Sawyer and the devil.
“Where are you going?” Eddie asked.
“Outside. I won’t fight anything unless it has fangs, excluding you three.” I marched around the table toward the living room, my feet tingling to move, to do something productive after an eleven-month-long hiatus. “Unless Paul starts a fight.”
Sawyer blurred in front of me, blocking my way with his size. “Are you sure you’re ready?”
“Well, I’ve been outside before.”
He took my shoulders and dipped his head to look in my eyes. “I mean are you ready to see what’s coming, what’s already here.”
“I’ve already seen it.”
He stepped back and vigorously rubbed his hand over his frown as if he didn’t totally believe I had. It must’ve been a total shitstorm out there, which meant I would probably need—
“Clothes. I need some.”
“Or not,” they said in unison, or some slight variation of disagreement.
I snorted. “Do I have any here that are only semi-mangled?”
The four of them shook their heads, but it was Jacek’s grin that gave them all away.
“Upstairs in the guest bedroom closet,” he said. “There should be enough up there for the vampire slayer.”
Vampire. Slayer. Vampire slash slayer. Whew boy, that would take some getting used to.
I flashed up the stairs, feeling four pairs of heated gazes caressing my ass as I went. I gave them a little extra wiggle because they more than deserved it. Even the devil—Luc—in some small way, but his slice of the wiggle was proportionately smaller.
When I burst into the guest room closet, my jaw began a slow and steady descent to the floor. This was no ordinary closet like the one stuffed into my apartment. I could drag in a king-sized mattress and sleep here. I could open my own restaurant in here. Or I could just squeal like a total girl at the rows and rows of boots, pants, shirts, and jackets. I chose the latter because damn, this was heaven. Everything appeared to be sized just right and perfect—no tennis shoes, only jeans and yoga pants, short-sleeved cotton tees with Bugs Bunny, Patrick, Marvin the Martian, and the rest of my faves, and leather, oh, sweet leather on these kickass-looking
jackets and boots. It was perfect in every way possible.
I dressed quickly, delighting in the feel of the clothes as they rolled over my skin. This house had always heightened my sensations, but now, as a dead person, everything felt new and...intoxicating. I never wanted to get used to it.
Cleo had followed me upstairs and now sniffed at everything to see if it passed inspection while I sank onto a low stool in the closet to lace up a pair of black, studded boots. I could kick so many asses with these. Namely—
Movement shifted in the mirror hanging on the inside of the half-closed closet door. Not Cleo. She’d burrowed out of the mirror’s range, her wagging tail clicking the plastic hangers together on the lower rod.
“Hello?” I called.
My vamps would just walk in. So would the devil if it meant seeing me naked again.
I hadn’t imagined it. I hadn’t. I finished up lacing my boots and then went to check if I really was alone, just to be sure. Yep, I had imagined it. No one was there. It was just as I thought.
Cleo brushed past me and led the way out of the guest room, not one hair on her back bristling with her stranger-danger sense. The fine hairs along my back sure did though. I followed her at a near crawl, listening and seeing and feeling.
“Slayer?” Jacek said from the bottom of the stairs.
I jumped and then rested my hand on the banister in case I tumbled down them before I answered him.
“You okay?” His bright grin wavered as he studied me. He carried several stakes, sharpened exactly as I preferred when I did it myself—about the circumference of a nice-sized cock with a deadly point.
I didn’t want to explain what hadn’t happened. Not right now. “Just trying to find enough words to say thank you for the amazing closet and everything in it.”
Eddie appeared next to him and smiled up at me. “We couldn’t go into your apartment to raid your closet, but it turns out we didn’t need to. We know what you like.”
That they did, in all the important ways.
“It’s perfect.” I started down the steps while taming my wild curls up into a bun on top of my head.
Jacek held a stake out to me, and I took it then secured my bun Pebbles-style. Warmth flooded my chest at how well they knew me and everything they’d done for me, right down to the little details. Not that I’d tried to hide anything from them—in fact, I’d probably spilled too much about myself—but they’d paid attention. All three of them. Such a small, obvious thing to do for someone, but it meant the world to me.
I took the remaining stakes and put one in my inner jacket pocket, another through the belt loops in the back of my jeans, and another down into my boot. Eddie handed me Night’s Fall, my magic bird-sword, and Luc handed me the god bone, his eyes twinkling up a sapphire storm.
Cleo whined and trotted out of the kitchen toward Sawyer who waited by the door, his hand on the knob.
“You’re sure you’re ready?” he asked.
“Damn right I’m ready.”
He opened the door.
Chapter Two
Yeah, no. Never mind. I wasn’t ready.
As soon as Sawyer opened the door, a wave of crushing darkness crested just outside, a wall of pure evil, and then smashed down. Midnight-black smothered everything outside—the sky, the yard, and even the houses across the street. The air tasted dead and cold, and even though I didn’t need to draw in a breath, I knew if I did, it would drag icy needles down the inside of my lungs.
I’d felt Paul’s presence before, especially in his own dimension, but this... This was something else entirely. It was horrible.
I took a hesitant step out onto the porch and secured the god bone in my jacket pocket, only because I didn’t want to drop it with the constant tremble quaking down my spine. Cleo followed, nudging her nose under my hand so I’d stroke her ears.
“Where’s all this coming from if I have Paul’s power?” I choked out. “This feels much more intense.”
“Wait till you get to the graveyard,” Jacek said behind me.
“After your last battle with him, he went quiet for a while.” Eddie stepped past me to the edge of the porch. “And then certain bodies started disappearing from graveyards all over the world.”
“What?” I snapped my gaze to him and to the cemetery just beyond his shoulder.
“Slayers,” he said, his face grim. “Recent ones.”
He didn’t even have to say it. I could read from the torturous gleam in his amber eyes that one of the bodies Paul had dug up had been Eddie’s sister.
“Why?” I whispered.
Luc circled around Cleo and me and then stopped, studying me closely. “He’s having the hardest time killing you. I figure he’s gathering up all the slayers and scraping any remnants of his power from their dusty bones. The bodies are probably floating in his lake underneath the trapdoor.”
“The lake is a portal to his dimension,” I said.
“Well, shit.” The devil raked his hand through his blond, diamond-spiked hair and looked away, his jaw tight. “He’s probably collecting a ton of power there too. If I would’ve known that, I wouldn’t have moved his fucking lake portal thing back.”
He seemed genuinely pissed at himself, which was a different look for the usually arrogant devil.
“I’m not sure how you could’ve known that. Paul’s not exactly a talk-your-ear-off type of god anyway.” It felt kind of awkward to try to soothe him, so I touched my hand to Eddie’s back instead and funneled into him how very sorry I was for slayers being taken from their graves, most specifically his sister. “We’ll get her back and put her at rest again, okay?”
He nodded down at the porch steps.
Sawyer stepped up next to Eddie, his gaze on me. “Now that Paul’s lake is back below the trapdoor, we believe he was collecting all the bodies of the slayers he’d missed since it was moved to the mansion. If his lake is a portal, then is this darkness Paul’s attempt to take over this dimension?”
I nodded. “I think that’s his goal, yes. I saw something similar in the lake showing an image of when Paul first came here.”
Jacek sighed. “So that means you’re the only thing stopping him, right?”
Luc turned to look at me. “If he kills you, I have to be fast enough to transfer your slayer power to someone else. But keeping all this darkness contained and repelling humans from the graveyard is eating up a lot of my focus and magic. He’s a god growing in power, and I’m...not.”
He was startling me all over the place tonight with his bursts of straight-up honesty. It showed a vulnerable side I’d never seen before, and it was nice. Weird, but nice. And no, that didn’t mean I would be dropping my pants for him. Not ever.
I smiled at him, though, to show him I appreciated it. “Paul won’t kill me. Permanently, I mean.” That was a promise, mashed potato brain and all.
Luc gave me a long look, a slow smile curling those sinful lips. “That’s why I said it. I have no doubt he won’t kill you permanently.”
“Can you move the lake again?” I asked. “Take away the power he’s collected in the slayer bodies?”
“He shut the trapdoor. No one can get in, not even him.” Jacek nodded to Luc.
“Well, how did you move it the first time?” I asked.
Luc shrugged, his leather jacket creaking with the movement. “He didn’t see me coming then. He knows I’m here now after our rendezvous at the Senate mansion.”
Stupid doors and their never-ending unwillingness to behave like a working door. “So we need the trapdoor open and for Paul to get out of there?”
Luc nodded. “That should do it.”
“Okay.” I skirted around all of them and then zipped down the steps that led to the sidewalk.
A wall soon blocked my path, made up of three vampires and a devil. The most solid, muscular kind of wall imaginable.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Jacek asked.
“I’m going to go knock on the trapdoor and
invite Paul out to play so the devil can work his lake magic, of course.”
The immovable wall tightened around me.
“Belle, you’ve been out of commission for eleven months,” Sawyer said. “Spend a day, at the very least, to get your legs underneath you.”
“But...” I pointed to my legs, which were gloriously underneath me already, though I did understand his concern. “I know you’re worried about me, and I love you even more for it—”
A screeching groan sounded from the direction of the cemetery, cracking through the silent, dark night as loud as thunder. The five of us—and Cleo—whirled to stare, perfectly still. Waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, I strode past the guys and made a beeline for the cemetery gate. Cleo flopped along with me as my furry rebel sidekick.
“Sunshine, am I going to have to tie you up?” Eddie asked from behind me.
“Yes, please do. After my patrol.” Though there was a distinct lack of newborn vampires around. Still, my itchy feet and gut cramps fueled the direction I was currently strolling.
No. Not strolling. My steps hesitated. Where had that even come from? I’d unofficially banned that word from my vocabulary.
I came to a stop, but the sound of my footsteps continued on. Step. Step. Step.
What the hell was happening? The footsteps grew louder, echoing between my ears until it was the only thing I heard. They even drowned my vamps’ voices and the devil, who had all leaped in front of me to stare with deep creases between their eyes.
They weren’t walking. None of us made that stepping sound.
“Don’t you hear that?” I shouted it to hear myself over the steady footsteps. Coming closer.
“Hear what?” Sawyer mouthed, or maybe he said it out loud.
Step. Step. They came from behind me, creeping up while my back was turned. I spun around. And froze.
Paul. Paul was there, not creeping up behind me, but climbing up the porch steps of my vamps’ house. I recognized him instantly in his human form. I would recognize him instantly in his god form too. The door of the house slammed open in front of him without him even touching it, the warm glow inside highlighting his greasy long hair and the stripes on his bowling shirt sleeves and shoes. He strode inside, and the sound of the footsteps stopped.
