“Okay, grab a couple and let’s start carrying them to my car.”
The woman nodded. “I really am sorry.”
Calico doubted that. If she hadn’t found the website and gotten the Google Alert and tricked the woman into meeting, she’d have never seen the books again. But that didn’t matter. She found the books. She hefted two of the bags, which weren’t as heavy as they looked. Lizzi picked up two more, grunting and obviously struggling against the weight.
They walked the bags back down the hall and dropped them with loud thumps by the front door. Lizzi’s downstairs neighbors wouldn’t be happy. They started back down the hall to grab another load when there was a knock at the door. That was a little too fast to be someone complaining. Calico kept going to the office and Lizzi turned back to answer it. Calico thought about the woman bolting but didn’t really care.
The rest happened in slow motion. First, her stupid mind didn’t think anything of the knock when she should have been hyper-paranoid. About everything. A man’s deep voice said something and Lizzi replied.
The hair on the back of Calico’s neck rose. She left the bags and hurried out front as the man asked, “May I come in?”
As Calico yelled, “NO!” the woman said, “I guess so.”
Calico came around the corner and froze. Stepping into the apartment was the man from her vision. No. The vampire from her vision of Tabby and Aunt Patrice in the alley. It had to be Lorcán. He was tall, immaculately dressed in a gray three-piece suit, a head of dark unruly hair touched with gray, and strikingly handsome, despite his ashen complexion and strangely piercing blue-gray eyes. But she knew him from somewhere else. She had a déjà vu feeling of having seen him in person.
Lizzi looked back at Calico. “What?”
The man smiled. “She was trying to warn you not to invite me in. You see, I can only enter your home if I’m invited.”
Lizzi looked between Lorcán and Calico. “Do you know him?”
Calico didn’t answer. She unzipped her jacket and pulled out two of the rowan heartwood stakes. She held one with the cudgel facing out and the other with the wickedly sharp point facing out.
Lizzi backed away. “What’s going on?”
“Well,” said Calico, “this is your lucky day. You wanted to witness the supernatural. This asshole is a vampire.”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
“What?” said Lizzi.
“You claim you believe in this shit. Well, here you go,” said Calico.
“Ciarán. Garbhán. You may come in,” said Lorcán.
Two men, dressed as well as their master, stepped into view. They were clean and neat but weren’t anywhere as handsome as Lorcán. Their skin, however, was just as ashen.
Calico said, “But the sun.”
One of the men smiled and held up ski masks, gloves, and two sets of dark goggles. He tossed the sunblockers to the side.
Fuck. Her inexperience just got her and Lizzi killed.
“Get out of my apartment,” Lizzi said, her voice quavering as she grabbed her phone. “I’ll call the cops.”
Lorcán plucked the phone from her and crushed it with a sharp crackle of glass and dropped the mangled device at her feet. “No outside interference.”
One of the vampires shut and locked the deadbolt, then tore the doorknob free.
Calico moved toward Lizzi. “Lock yourself in your room.”
She didn’t move. “This is a joke, right? Trying to scare me because of the shit I pulled? Well, mission accomplished. I apologize. Now just take the damn books.”
Calico winced at the mention of the books.
Lorcán glanced at the garbage bags. “What a pleasant surprise.”
“I don’t get why you care about them,” said Calico.
Lorcán looked a bit confused. “Surely you understand my desire. You have read them all, yes?”
Calico hesitated before she nodded. “Of course.”
Lorcán tilted his head. “You have not read them. Interesting. And what of my newest thrall, Winston? He was supposed to deliver you to me, along with the books.”
Did he really not know Winston was in her basement? She wasn’t keen on giving the vampire any information, but she wondered what his response would be. “I killed him.”
Lorcán arched an eyebrow. “Indeed. Impressive for one who is not bandruí gaiscíoch. Of course, he had little experience with his new dark powers. I assume you caught him by surprise?”
“Screw you.”
“And what of your curiosity? Do you not wonder about your family?” he said.
It came out of her mouth as almost a growl, “Don’t you fucking talk about my parents.”
He smiled. “Ah, yes, your parents. I had nearly forgotten.”
A door slammed behind Calico. Lizzi was gone.
“But I was referring to Patrice and Tabitha. They represented themselves well, though to no avail, of course, or I would not be standing here.”
“How did you find my parents?”
“Tabitha was quite helpful in that regard.”
“Bullshit! She would never tell you.”
“Perhaps, but there are other ways.”
Calico pointed at him. “The daemón and the rowan tree. Holy shit. You were there.”
“Excuse me?”
“You were one of the druí trying to send the daemón back to the lower realm of Dubnos. You were at the rowan tree. I saw you there.”
Lorcán’s face clouded. “Saw me?”
“You’re one of the first infections. Patient zeroes.”
“I am one of the Céad—progenitor and harbinger.”
“Harbinger?”
“How did you defeat Balor?”
“Who?”
“The daemón.”
“Ah, I didn’t know his name. But fuck you.”
“Perhaps just another bit of luck. But it does not matter, as Balor will recover. And your family is already destroyed.”
Calico tried to smirk and look confident but felt like an idiot. “I’m not dead yet.”
“True. Of course, Tabitha is not dead, either. But neither of these current facts will aid the two of you. You will be dead quite soon.”
Calico didn’t hear anything after the vampire said Tabby was still alive.
“I do not want you to get the wrong impression. Tabitha is in my care and will be put to good use in the days to come. But your time within your mortal coil has come to an end. Ciarán, kill her. Garbhán take care of the other woman.”
Ciarán shot forward as though attached to an overwound spring. He was faster than Tabby had been. However, it was quite evident that he was no fighter and lacked almost all coordination. Even with his speed, Calico twisted to the side, tripping him as his lunge carried him past her, to where he whomped into a couch.
She spun and smashed the heavy iron end of the rowan baton into the back of his head as he rose. It stunned him, slowing him down. She drove the sharpened end of the other baton into the side of his neck. He jumped sideways, like a spider, which pulled the stake from her hand and left it lodged in him.
“No!” yelled Lorcán, leaping forward, even faster than Ciarán. With a backhanded slap, he sent Calico tumbling across the living room.
Her head spun and she saw two Lorcáns and two Ciaráns. Lorcán pulled the stake from the other vampire’s neck and pressed his hand against the gurgling wound as blood welled up through his fingers.
Reeling, Calico staggered to her feet and careened into the little hallway, pulling another stake from her vest. Garbhán kicked in the closed door to the office.
“Get away from me!” yelled Lizzi, swinging a large wood paper cutter. She missed and Garbhán yanked it from her.
Calico leaped through the doorway and plunged the sharp end of the stake into his back. He arched and cried out. She smashed the iron cudgel of the other baton into the side of his head with a loud thunk. He staggered sideways and tried to reach for the stake. It hadn’t penetrated very far,
certainly not far enough to puncture his heart. Calico struck him in the head again and he fell to his knees.
She spun, a fast and controlled pirouette on the ball of one foot. When the metal smashed into the back of his head this time, it had a wetter sound and Garbhán fell forward.
“Here!” yelled Lizzi, her voice in the hysterical range. She used a foot to push the paper cutter toward Calico.
The wood was over an inch thick and weighed a couple of pounds. Calico dropped the stake and grabbed the paper cutter in both hands, raising it above her head and swinging down hard. It hammered in the stake protruding from the vampire’s back.
Garbhán stopped moving.
Leaping to her feet, Calico pulled open the strong metal cutting arm as wide is it would go. She grabbed the vampire’s hair and lifted, sliding his neck between the cutting arm and the wood block.
“Oh, sweet Mary,” Lizzi said, turning away and covering her face.
Calico slammed the bottom of her boot into the cutting arm. It went through an inch or so of the vampire’s neck before her foot slipped off.
Calico grabbed Lizzi. She tried to pull away, but Calico held fast.
“Step on the board.”
Lizzi shook her head. Calico jerked her backward a step. She stumbled and nearly fell.
“Now, goddammit. Step on it!”
Lizzi made a gagging noise but put first one heel and then the other on the edge of the board. Calico kept her hands on the woman’s arms for balance and put the ball of her foot back on the cutting arm with all her weight behind it.
The sharp edge sliced halfway through his neck. Calico bounced a few times on the metal arm. Lizzi mewled and shook her head with each jostle.
The cutting arm finished with a wet metallic snick against the board. The vampire’s head rolled forward against the back of Lizzi’s ankles as blood poured from the body. Lizzi yelled strange not-quite-words and skittered away as Calico released her.
Calico jumped past the woman to one of the windows. She pushed it up as far as it would open and knocked the screen out into the courtyard below.
“Climb out.”
“It’s too high.”
Calico pulled a power strip from the wall. “I’ll lower you down with this. Just, you know, sit on the ledge to start.”
Dazed, Lizzi managed to climb onto her desk, turn around, knock over her two monitors, and dangle her feet outside the window.
“Okay, scrunch down some and lean out. I’ll hand you the cord.”
As Lizzi leaned, Calico shoved. The woman yelled and plummeted from view. Hopefully she wouldn’t break anything. Calico dropped the power strip and started to climb through the window when someone grabbed her ponytail and lifted her. She dangled a foot off the floor, Lorcán holding her aloft. In the doorway stood Ciarán pressing a kitchen towel to his neck.
Calico reached to her vest for the last rowan stake, but Lorcán grabbed it and tossed it aside.
He looked down at Garbhán, his face full of fury. “We will drink you until you are nothing more than a husk.” He leaned in close and bared his fangs.
Calico lashed out in desperation and Lorcán staggered back a few steps, thin lines of blood appearing on his face, his left eye ripped open. What the hell just happened?
Snarling, he flung her across the room. She crashed into the wall next to the door, nearly blacking out. Staying low, using her lack of height as an advantage, she scurried past Ciarán, who clumsily grabbed for her.
She came upright and ran into the living room. Stunned, but refusing to slow down, she grabbed a chair, spun in another pirouette, and flung it at the sliding glass doors. The chair crashed through the glass and she followed right behind, ducking and leading with her shoulder. She hit the balcony deck and the chair awkwardly, huffing air, but didn’t stop as she vaulted the railing.
It was more of a fall than she’d expected. Calico flailed in the air for a long second before landing briefly on her feet, rolling once on the grass, and coming up running. Nothing seemed broken or even twisted. She made it to the parking lot and jumped into her car.
Calico squealed the tires of her little red Audi on the way out of the complex. Should she chance going back to the hotel? They must have followed her from there. But they couldn’t get into her room without her invitation. Right? Though they’d be able to talk a maid into inviting them in. She had to move again. And they had the books. Most of them, anyway. What a fustercluck.
But Tabby is alive.
She slammed on the brakes, cars honking, tires squealing around her, but she didn’t get hit, not that she cared. She barely registered yells and cussing outside.
Tabby was still alive.
Her mind was still wonky from Lorcán throwing her into the wall, but now it spun like a carnival ride. The world outside was a blur of too-bright light and chaos. Hell, her hands gripping the steering wheel were a blur.
Someone pounded on her window, but she didn’t look up. It took several moments—it could have been several minutes for all she knew—before her hands finally came back into focus. Then her brow furrowed, and she raised her right hand.
She had no nails to speak of, keeping them short out of habit of her fight training. How had she cut his face like that? She nearly tore out his eye. And the furrows she’d made weren’t wide enough for fingernails. They were thin cuts, as if sliced with a knife.
Someone kept pounding on her window, yelling profanities. She turned slowly toward a red-faced man, saliva spraying from his mouth and covering the window. She mouthed, “Fuck you,” and mashed the gas pedal to the floor.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Lizzi landed awkwardly, twisted an ankle, and fell hard. The ground popped her in the face. She pushed herself up, groggy, and limped across the courtyard. At the next group of apartments, she stopped to catch her breath and look back. No one was following her.
You’re not worth following.
Thank Mother Mary Full of Marshmallows. Her first thought was to drive far away—or at least to her parents—but she didn’t have anything on her. No purse or keys, her phone was destroyed, and no money. What could she do? She sat down in an alcove, staring at the dusty green paint on the wall opposite her. Something tickled her lips. She tasted blood. She tilted her head back, immediately swallowing blood from her nose. She wept silently, her body shuddering.
She just witnessed a murder.
Or what if she just witnessed her first prime incident? The good-looking guy mangled her phone with one hand like it was nothing. But was there anything they did that proved they were vampires? Maybe they were psychotic cosplayers, taking their vampire and hunter characters literally—to the point of even killing each other.
Sweet molasses. Lizzi had to call the cops. Where was the closest phone? There was Theresa, who lived on the other side of the complex, but what if those psychos were watching her?
She jerked in fear at hearing footsteps, but they were residents, a man and woman coming down the alcove stairs. They stopped when they saw her.
“Are you okay?” asked the woman.
Lizzi didn’t look up and tried to sound like she hadn’t been crying. “I’m fine.” She failed.
“What’s wrong?” They stepped toward her.
“Nothing. It’s okay. Just a thing, uh, with my boyfriend. Please, I just need to be alone.”
“Well, okay, but—Jesus, is that blood? Darren, that’s blood!”
“Jesus,” whispered Darren.
“You’re coming with us.”
“No!” said Lizzi. “You don’t understand. It’s okay. I mean, it’s not, but I’m heading to the manager’s office to call the cops.”
The woman, a plump white girl in her twenties, bent down and put her arm around her back and gently lifted. “Come on. We’ll walk you there.”
Lizzi stood.
“Oh, shit,” whispered Darren.
The woman looked at Lizzi’s face. “He beat you up?”
She almost laugh
ed. “No. It’s—never mind. I can get to the manager’s office on my own. I appreciate—”
“We’re not leaving you.” The woman said it with finality.
Lizzi sighed and let herself be walked from the alcove, though she had to move slowly, her ankle hurting a lot worse after sitting. They went out toward the parking lot, going down a few long concrete steps. Lizzi grabbed the handrail to keep as much weight off her ankle as she could.
Emerging from the next alcove, two well-dressed men walked toward the parking lot carrying something large between them. They wore ski masks and dark goggles. It took her fuddled brain a moment to realize it was the men from her apartment and they were carrying a section of rolled up carpet. Why would they be stealing her carpet?
Are you that stupid?
Oh mayonnaise, it was the body of that girl or their friend, or both.
She pulled away from the woman and hobbled back up the steps as quickly as she could toward the alcove. The young couple stared after her. She stopped and waved frantically for them to follow. Instead, they stared like idiots and then turned to look at the parking lot.
The woman pointed. “Is that your boyfriend?”
Lizzi hissed at them in a loud whisper. “Stop pointing and get up here!”
The woman looked at Darren. “It’s him. Come on, let’s go have a talk with him.”
Darren hesitated. “Why are they wearing ski masks?”
The woman frowned, looking back at the two men just as Lizzi dove at them, knocking them from the sidewalk onto the grass. The man and woman yelled as they fell and Lizzi scrambled to cover their mouths.
She whispered, “You have to shut up. If those men see us, they will kill us. I’m not joking. They will kill us. So shut the fuck—”
The shadows of the two men crossed over them. Lizzi scrambled to her feet and yelled, “Run!”
Dark Vigil Page 15
