But all that strength and Tabby was now helpless. No doubt terrified. Calico couldn’t stop shaking out of fear and anger. She wanted to run to Tabby, run through the halls of their high school and beat the crap out of horrible Samantha in the girls’ locker room. Where was fucking Cait Sidhe now warning her that Tabby was in trouble?
“Why didn’t you warn me in time to save her? Why did you let her run off with Aunt Patrice? What fucking good—”
Molten gold eyes stared at her through tears of rage. Palmerroy spoke, but she didn’t hear him. She lifted her hand, remembering Lorcán’s eye nearly ripped from his face. The fingers slashed him as though made of razors. In her rage, through blurry tear-filled eyes, she thought she saw the outline of a cat’s paw around her hand. She flexed and the paw flexed. It shimmered with a purple light. When she glanced at Palmerroy, he looked stunned.
“Jesus, your eyes, and there’s—you’re glowing.”
She lifted her other hand and saw a paw there as well. She flexed the fingers on both hands and razor-sharp claws unsheathed, she thought she could almost hear them.
Cait Sidhe hadn’t left her.
Tabby. Calico used both hands, inserting the purple claws beneath the door’s metal plate. There was an audible scraping of the claws against metal. Dazed with wonder, she yanked hard, grimacing. The door squealed and opened a fraction.
“What the hell’s going on?” whispered Palmerroy.
She braced her foot against the wall and heaved. The metal plate bent outward and the door shrieked. There was a loud snap of metal breaking and the door flew open. She bounced back nimbly as it swung wide. Myron rounded the corner into the alley.
“Don’t do it!” yelled the cop, before he skidded to a stop, gaping at her.
No, not at her, but at her companion.
“Jesus, is that you, Palm?”
Palmerroy said quietly, “I’ll stall them as long as I can.”
Calico disappeared into the building.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Going from bright daylight into darkness should have blinded her, but Calico saw the hallway clearly with the eyes of a cat. Her ears pricked at the sound of voices behind her. She recognized Palmerroy and Myron, and then Jerry joined them.
“What the hell, Palm? Was the hospital just a gag? Why?”
“Not a gag, believe me. Let me show you something.”
She ignored the rest as she found the stairs. She quickly removed her sweatpants and stuffed it—along with her phone, wallet, and hotel key—under the first step. Unzipping the jacket for access to the stakes, she sprinted up the stairs. It didn’t feel like she was moving faster than usual, but she got up the stairs quickly, and stopped on the third floor. Lorcán’s voice came through the metal stairwell door.
“Put her in the circle.”
Her. It must be Tabby.
Lorcán spoke again, but it wasn’t English. Something guttural and ugly. Calico shuddered. She slid out a rowan baton from her vest and then frowned at her hand. The paw was still there, but it was her human hand wrapped around the baton.
She put her other hand around the doorknob and turned it, but the door barely moved when she pulled. It was heavy and unbalanced. She gave a little jerk, and it squeaked. Freezing, she listened to Lorcán’s voice, but it didn’t change as he intoned in that weird chant. And she recognized the style, if not the words; it was similar to what the druí priest had spoken in front of the rowan tree.
She eased the door open a centimeter at a time. The interior was dark—the only source of light was a circle on the floor with a maroon glow. Her eyes, however, saw everything clearly, including Tabby lying in the circle.
Calico’s heart thundered and every nerve in her body jangled spastically at seeing her sister. She couldn’t stop herself and she yanked the door open and started in.
Someone big knocked her on her ass. Her head smacked into the closing door behind her. A large man, or rather a large vampire, loomed over her and grinned, his blue-gray eyes shining. She swung the rowan stake. The sharp point sliced his cheek. He growled and jumped back, giving her time to pull free another stake.
Unlike Ciarán or even Lorcán, this vampire was jacked with muscles. He looked like he’d just come straight from the gym with a tight t-shirt and workout shorts. The MMA logo on the t-shirt wasn’t a good sign.
He leaned down, no smile this time, eager to inflict serious damage. She embedded a stake into his forearm. He jerked his arm away, pulling the stake from her hand, but he left an opening for Calico. She bashed his head with the iron cudgel of the other stake. The vampire staggered back, blood rolling down his forehead as he pulled the first stake from his forearm and flung it across the cavernous room.
As she rose, two more muscled vampires appeared from either side, moving fast. They grabbed Calico’s arms and hauled her the rest of the way to her feet. They wore the same type of gym outfit as the first.
She struggled, but she couldn’t pull free of their steel grips. She looked helplessly at her sister, who was trussed up like a mummy in duct tape of all things, only her feet and head exposed. A naked Lorcán stood near her, making motions with his hands and speaking in that horrible tongue. Then she saw the daemón hovering over Tabby.
“No,” she said softly.
Lorcán paused his chanting and glanced at her, his brow furrowing. “What has happened to you?”
She wanted to tell him she was going to kill him, or some other hero bullshit, but it sounded horribly lame in her mind while two vampires held her prisoner.
Continue! The voice came from the very air.
She cringed. The voice of the daemón was terrifying. Lorcán continued the ritual.
Calico called out, “Tabby, I’m here! It’s going to be okay.”
“Calico?”
Her heart broke at hearing her sister’s voice, so small and scared in the darkness. Her sister’s head moved, eyes blinking, but Calico doubted she could see anything.
“It’s me. Don’t worry.”
“Get out of here! They’ll kill you.”
The two vampires carried her across the huge room. Detrick Palmerroy suddenly appeared in front of them. He looked anxious. “My friends are coming up.”
“Can you do anything to these vampires?” said Calico.
The vampires stopped and stared at Palmerroy’s apparition.
“I can’t touch them.”
“Then get the daemón. Do what you did to it back in Denver.”
Across the room, Tabby bucked and twisted despite the duct-tape wrapping. Was she in pain or trying to escape? The daemón wrapped her in fog.
“Oh, God.” Palmerroy’s voice trembled in fear. “I’ll—I’ll try.” He flew toward Tabby and the daemón.
Grunting in obvious pain, Tabby managed to say, “Run, Calico! Get out of here!”
Calico dropped the stake and tried to use her claws on the two vampires, but they held her arms so firmly that she couldn’t reach them. She was able to kick at them, however.
She felt like an idiot for not thinking of it more quickly. Her feet glowed purple, with the outline of large cat paws around them. Curling her legs up beneath her, she unsheathed the claws, twisted, and raked open one of the vampire’s bare thighs. He howled like a wounded dog and let go, leaping out of range.
As she turned toward the other vampire, he punched her hard in the side of the face. Holding her with one hand so she couldn’t turn away, he bludgeoned her. She swiped her claws over the hand holding her, ripping it open, but he didn’t let go.
Instead, the vampire yanked her toward him as he drove a fist once more into her face. The room whirled, her eyes bleary and her mind tilting. She lashed out with her back claws but missed. Then hands grabbed her from behind, pulling both her arms back. The vampire striking her in the face let go and really teed off, punching her again and again.
Calico’s mind reeled as she started to pass out, then the vampire stopped hitting her as light sabers stabbed t
he darkness. Voices yelled, “Police! Don’t fucking move. Freeze! Stay where you are.” Multiple voices. The other vampire let her go and she fell to the floor.
She was just conscious enough to see that the light sabers were LED flashlights held by Palmerroy’s three police buddies. Guns drawn, they kept yelling. They were in deep shit; they just didn’t know it. One of them found a light switch on the wall. Incandescent bulbs spaced dozens of yards from each other lit the room in a quasi-twilight. But it was enough light for the humans to see by.
She glanced toward Lorcán, realizing she was only looking through one eye, the other swollen shut by the vampire’s pummeling. Lorcán held a wooden box—it was the same one First Sister had used to trap the daemón all those years ago!
Then she saw Palmerroy. There was no blinding white light coming from him. The daemón shadow wrapped around him, turning the cop to vapor as it pulled him into the box.
Lorcán glanced toward the corporeal cops. “More interference,” he said. “We must hurry.”
The daemón uncoiled from Palmerroy, who floated away from the box like a drowning victim under water. He grew dimmer and then disappeared completely. Lorcán dropped the box and returned to chanting. Tabby had been still during this, but now she bucked and writhed again, crying out in pain as the daemón’s gray form flowed over her like a smoky cocoon.
Calico crawled toward her sister. Behind her, guns went off. In the cavernous space, the shots echoed and crashed like fireworks. She didn’t look back, her one good eye fixed on Tabby. Her sister wasn’t that far away, but the crawling was frustratingly slow, her mind too addled to move any faster, her limbs barely responding. She heard a sickening snap in front of her and Tabby screamed.
It wasn’t just a grunt of pain; it was an elongated scream. Calico was certain a bone inside her sister had broken. She tried to move faster and only managed to slip and plant her face into the floor. Shaking her head, she kept crawling.
Another snap. The screams were torturous echoes in her head.
“Stop it!” yelled Calico.
Lorcán glanced over at her outburst, but his chanting didn’t stop or waver. The daemón’s form changed, looking like a roiling black liquid shimmering over her sister’s contorted body. Calico whimpered, her heart aching. She blinked back tears and found that both eyes were blinking. She could see through her beaten eye—she was healing. She found herself crawling a little faster, finally closing the space between them.
When she reached the outer edge of the glowing maroon circle, heat came from it. She couldn’t make out Tabby’s features beneath the boiling liquid, but her sister still squirmed and cried out. She was still alive.
Calico reached for her. The glowing circle had a physical membrane to it, like pushing her hand through gelatin. She strained against it and got her hand through the barrier. Grabbing for Tabby’s shoulder, her hand went through the daemón. It was freezing cold, hurting like dry ice.
Calico didn’t let the pain stop her and she unsheathed her purple claws into Tabby’s shoulder. She certainly didn’t want to hurt her sister, but it was the only way to get a strong grip.
“Hang on, Tabs,” said Calico, rolling away and pulling Tabby with her.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
At first Tabby slid over the wood floor, but the maroon barrier stopped her. It was like her sister came up against steel. Calico pulled with all her strength, but Tabby was trapped inside the circle.
Lorcán.
Maybe if she could get the vampire to stop chanting that would break the spell. She retracted her claws and pushed herself unsteadily to her feet. The hand she’d used to grab Tabby throbbed horribly and was black, as though dyed.
She pulled out a rowan stake. Still chanting, Lorcán moved too late to deflect her thrust. The stake punctured his chest. He cried out and struck her, knocking her back several feet, but she didn’t fall.
As he grabbed the stake, Calico pulled another from her vest and stumbled forward. She embedded it close to the first with one hand and raked his bare abdomen with the claws of the other. He snarled and swung at her, but she ducked beneath.
She felt better, her mind almost clear. Surging up, she struck the metal head of the second stake with her palm, jamming it deep into his chest. He gasped and flailed backward several steps before collapsing.
Calico whirled toward Tabby. The daemón was gone. She didn’t know where—it was something to worry about later. Relief overwhelmed her, making her feel drunk.
The circle no longer glowed. Tabby’s face was pale and bruised. Calico fell to her knees next to her sister and used her claws to cut the duct tape. Tabby was unconscious, but her chest moved.
“Thank God,” said Calico. “You’re still alive.”
She cradled Tabs and bent to touch foreheads. “We did it.” She sobbed, rocking slowly.
Yelling finally drew her attention back to the police. They were still alive, but only because the vampires had decided to play with their food. The humans were bunched together facing out, their guns gone, yelling to one another about what they should do. They looked dazed while the vampires grinned and circled, bouncing lightly on the balls of their feet. Ciarán stood near, watching with obvious amusement. He happened to glance back toward Calico and Lorcán and his eyes went wide.
“What have you done?” he bellowed, his voice echoing through the room.
The other vampires turned. The cops used the distraction to attack, which didn’t help them in the least. Myron tackled one of them, who went down easily enough, but the vampire rolled and flipped the cop off him. Myron hit the floor on his back with a resounding thump that Calico felt through the floorboards.
Jerry throat-punched another vampire, who punched the cop in the chest. The man staggered and fell to his knees, gasping for air. Evers came in fast and swung at a vampire’s face, who deflected the hit and grabbed the man in an embrace. The vampire forced the cop’s head to the side and buried his fangs into his neck. The vampires were done playing.
Calico had to help them. “I’ll be right back,” she said.
Her sister moved and grimaced. Her eyelids fluttered and Calico watched eagerly. Tabby’s green eyes opened. A slight smile touched her sister’s lips as she whispered, “Sweet girl,” a moment before her body stiffened and her eyes swirled with blood and dark power covering the irises.
No.
Then Ciarán was on Calico, grabbing and flinging her away.
The daemón growled, “Lift me.” There was the barest trace of Tabby in the sound of that voice, but it was mostly a deep horrible corruption.
As Calico hit the floor a good twenty feet away and rolled, Ciarán picked the daemón up and ran toward a door on the other side of the large room. She started after them when the sounds of the cops’ yells of pain and terror stopped her. Every cell of her body wanted to go after Tabby, but the daemón already had her. That was done. The cops, however, were still alive.
“Fuck me,” she muttered.
She had to save Evers first, but as she approached, bending and pulling the two stakes from her right calf, the vampire who’d struck Jerry turned on her. He actually hissed.
Jerry, still trying to breathe from the punch to his chest, managed between gasps, “What are you doing? Get out of here.”
She glanced past the vampire at the cop as he tried to get to his feet. “Try to help your lieutenant.” She held up one of the stakes. “Take one of these.”
Jerry looked confused, but she tossed him the stake. As she hoped, the vampire lunged for it and she followed right behind, unsheathing the claws of her free hand. Before the vampire could alter his path, she smashed the iron cudgel against his head and brought her claws up into his gut, embedding them as deep as they would go.
She then spun and tore her claws free of his abdomen, laying it open. Blood and gore splashed across Jerry. The cop sprawled back as though struck with a roundhouse kick.
Calico completed her pirouette, cracking the vampire�
��s head with the cudgel. He fell, a pool of blood forming beneath him. Flipping the stake, she took the blunt end in both hands, lifted it high, and slammed it into the vampire’s back. She drove it in so hard the tip embedded into the floor beneath him. He cried out and then was still.
Jerry pushed himself back to his feet, his eyes wide, his face covered in blood, his mouth moving, incoherent words tumbling out. It looked as though his sanity had taken a small break.
Behind him, the vampire sucked greedily at Evers’s neck, blood drooling to the floor. The cop struck weakly at the vampire, his arms barely moving.
Calico started for them when Myron yelled, “Look out!”
She turned as the vampire who’d been fighting Myron slammed into her, the two hitting the floor with a bang as loud as a gunshot. It hurt like hell, her head snapping back and hitting the wood. The vampire was on top, keeping her pinned with her arms out wide as he moved to her neck. His mouth gaped open. She was trapped, unable to bring her claws into play or to grab one of the stakes.
She bucked wildly, keeping him off balance, and as he brought his face toward her neck, she drove her forehead into his nose. He grunted with pain, as she did as well. Then he cried out and arched his back. Myron stood over them for a moment before the vampire backhanded him, sending him crashing across the floor.
Freed, Calico slashed at the vampire’s exposed throat, nearly decapitating him. He pressed against the gaping wound as blood no warmer than the room splattered Calico. She shoved him to the side and sprang up, ready to finish him, but he was already dead, the front of his throat gone. She grabbed his head, twisted, broke the neck. With her claws, she finished slicing through the remaining ligaments and muscle, completing his decapitation.
She stood up, sucking in air and waiting for her head to clear. But then she gasped in utter disbelief at Lorcán. She couldn’t have missed his heart, but the vampire was standing. He was unsteady, swaying as he dropped the two rowan stakes. He glanced at her before staggering toward the same door Ciarán and the daemón had used.
Dark Vigil Page 19
