Tricks and Treats

by J. C. Diem

  Despite being small and delicate, the female vamp was holding her own. She was wielding two daggers and she was keeping her attackers at bay. The trio were armed with knives of their own, but they couldn’t break through her guard. From the snarls on their faces, they meant business. I had a feeling that I’d arrived just in time to prevent a murder from occurring.

  Chesi slid off my shoulders and hid herself in a hedge that was being tended to by a skeleton gardener. She had to remain a secret from the rulers of Nox, since she wasn’t supposed to be here. Inilvian had smuggled the air elemental into the city and the dragon was now trapped here along with the rest of us.

  “What’s going on here?” I called out when it became apparent the vamps didn’t realize they had an audience. It was telling that no gawkers had turned up. Instead, the area was deserted. Night Cursed didn’t want to become involved in the affairs of others, especially when they were uncursed.

  The female cast a brief look at me, then did a doubletake. Her hair was midnight black and hung to her waist. She was even smaller than Quilla, but she clearly knew how to fight. Black blood dripped from her daggers from where she’d scored cuts on her opponents.

  “This doesn’t concern you, Night Cursed dog,” one of the men said with a sneer when he glanced at me. He had a foreign accent and I sensed he was a century or so old.

  “Leave, or we’ll kill you after we kill her,” another man threatened in the same accent.

  “You are Xiara Evora, Guardian of Nox, are you not?” the female asked. Her accent was foreign, but it was different from theirs. As always, I couldn’t define where they came from. I wasn’t exactly a linguistic expert.

  “That’s me,” I confirmed and the three men exchanged worried looks. They were new to the City of Night and hadn’t immediately known who I was on sight.

  “I require your assistance,” she said. “As you just heard, these men plan to murder me. It’s your job to ensure they fail.”

  She was right, of course. I wasn’t about to stand there and let them kill someone right in front of me, even if she was evil. She’d asked for help, which gave me extra incentive to step in. “Move along, boys,” I suggested and ambled across the neatly cut grass towards them.

  “Night Cursed creatures like you aren’t allowed to harm us,” the third man said, gesturing with his knife for emphasis. His accent was so thick I could barely understand him. Their skin hadn’t seen the touch of sunlight in over a century, so despite being swarthy, they looked almost pale.

  “That might be true for the rest of my kin, but I’m allowed to use my silver sword on you if you try to harm me, or others while you’re in my presence,” I informed him. Wrath’s holy glow increased in brightness as I drew closer to them. The woman moved back, holding up a hand to shield her face from the glare. I stood between her and her attackers, knowing they weren’t going to do the sensible thing and walk away. It was obvious that they were out for blood.

  “Kill them both!” the first man ordered and they rushed at me with the shocking speed that their kind could use when they needed to.

  Wrath’s holy light blazed brightly, forcing the three male vampires to abandon their attack on me. Steam rose from their exposed skin and they had to back away before they began to melt. If I stabbed them through the heart, or decapitated them with Wrath, they would instantly turn to ash. He was the only weapon that had that effect on their kind.

  “You’re forbidden from killing us, worm!” one of the men spat, shielding his watering eyes with his arm while glaring at me as he squinted against the light.

  “What do you think is going to happen if you murder an uncursed citizen?” I asked them as they tried to circle around behind me to reach the female bloodsucker. “The Immortal Triumvirate will order me to kill you,” I answered for them. “Like the lady said, it’s my job to keep her safe, even if she’s undead like you lot.”

  “Ms. Evora will not allow you to harm me,” the woman said. Her voice was low and commanding enough to make them hesitate. “Leave now, before she uses her silver blade to punish you.”

  “You know we won’t stop searching until we find the artifact,” the first man who seemed to be their leader said.

  “I have no idea what or where the artifact is!” she hissed in anger. “I am a master vampire and you pathetic minions are beneath me!” I cast a look over my shoulder to see her dark gray eyes were furious. Her fangs descended and she braced herself for a fight. The uncursed leeches could call on their fangs at will, but the Night Cursed didn’t have that option. Their fangs were always on display.

  One of the men feinted at me. I called his bluff and my silver blade scored a long cut on his forearm. He spat an obscenity as he dropped his knife and clutched the wound. Steam rose from his injury, but he would heal eventually. Iron weapons did the same type of damage to the fae. “Bitch!” he said viciously, glaring at me in hatred.

  “I’ve been called worse,” I said dryly, thinking of Gip, Captain Shortbeard’s sidekick. The parrot had a foul mouth and he didn’t like women.

  “Let’s end this,” the woman said and sprang into action. Her daggers weren’t made of silver, but the blades were wickedly sharp. My brooch transformed into a shield now that the fight was on in earnest. I used Wrath to keep one of the men at bay while I slashed at a second one with my sword. The woman targeted their leader. She scored a slice across his throat that made black blood splatter all over her. He began to heal immediately, but she’d severed his vocal cords, so he could only make gross gargling noises.

  Working together, we forced the trio to flee. “Lord Kreaton will have the artifact that he seeks, Jardine!” their leader said threateningly in a raspy voice. His wound hadn’t healed completely yet. They climbed into a carriage that had just pulled up and it took off. The staff at one of the hospitals would feed them blood so they could heal without any complications. Injured uncursed always took priority over the Night Cursed.

  Chapter Six

  “WHAT ARTIFACT ARE THOSE men are looking for?” I asked the master vampire while cleaning my silver blade on my ripped jeans. I sheathed it when I was done.

  Squinting against the holy glow that was fading to a more bearable level, Jardine shook her head. “I can’t tell you that. It would endanger your life if you knew.”

  “I’m Night Cursed,” I reminded her. “I die all the time.” That was a lie. I hardly ever died. Chesi usually managed to get me to the hospital where Travis worked so he could patch me up when I was badly injured on the job.

  “Ah, yes,” Jardine said, delicate black eyebrows drawing down. “I have only been in Nox for a short time. I’m not used to the strange rules and its stranger inhabitants.” She paused to look me up and down. “Do you even know how long the City of Night has existed?”

  I blinked at her in confusion. “Nox has always been here.”

  “That isn’t so,” she said in a pitying tone. “Nox and the Night Cursed were created by black magic on Halloween a mere decade ago. You and your kind became trapped in these forms.” She gestured at my outfit. “You will not age, you cannot have children and you cannot die. You relive the same night over and over and you never remember anything that happens to you for long, no matter how horrific your ordeal was.”

  Pain lanced through my head at the knowledge that Nox had only been created ten years ago. I dropped my staff and grasped my head. I found myself on my knees as images from the past decade flitted through my mind. Time didn’t flow the same for the Night Cursed. We noticed the seasons changing, but that was all. Being told that I’d only been here for a decade was messing with my mind.

  “Don’t worry,” Jardine said. “You’ll forget all about this conversation soon. You’ll go back to being a mindless minion who does the bidding of your masters without question.”

  “Since I won’t remember it, why don’t you tell me what those men were looking for?” I asked when the pain faded from my head. My voice was slightly hoarse as if I’d been screa
ming. I hadn’t met many uncursed vampires and had assumed they were all evil. Jardine seemed different from the others. She actually seemed to be concerned about my welfare.

  Hesitating, the vampire looked around to make sure we were alone. “A powerful artifact was smuggled into Nox recently,” she whispered as I climbed back to my feet. “Lord Kreaton is questioning all new vampire arrivals in the hope that he can find it and take possession of it. His men have been ordered to eradicate anyone who they think will be a threat to him.”

  “What is the artifact?” I asked just as quietly. “What does it do?”

  “It’s a mystery,” she replied, but I sensed she was lying. She knew what it was and what it did. Either she’d smuggled the item into Nox herself, or she knew who was responsible for it. “Thank you for your assistance, Ms. Evora,” she said. “I must get back to my kiss where I’ll be safe.” With a rush of wind that blew my ponytail back behind me, she disappeared.

  Chesi flew over to me and draped herself over my shoulders again. “That was weird,” I murmured. She nodded in agreement, then poked me in the cheek with a tiny finger. I took that as a hint that it was time to leave the Vampire District.

  The pain in my head was down to a low throb as I headed on foot towards one of the bridges that would carry me to the Fae District. Now that Jardine had informed me that I’d been in Nox for a decade, I could vaguely recall the years passing. I had no recollection of arriving in the city. It seemed like I’d always been here, but I could only recall the past ten years. Inilvian had been six or so when I’d last seen her. She would be a teenager now. The fae aged the same as human children until they reached eighteen. When they reached maturity, they looked as ageless as the rest of their kin.

  Chesi sensed my gloomy mood and huddled against me. I knew she missed the little fairy who had been her best friend. I’d barely known Inilvian, but I hadn’t forgotten her. It was a shock to realize she’d been imprisoned in her pink room for a decade. Quilla had seen a vision that the fairy would live out her life in her prison. I had no idea where she was, but the Immortal Triumvirate had been behind her disappearance. Some of their men had come to take the little girl away and that was the last time I’d seen her.

  Chesi made a small, miserable noise. “I miss her, too,” I said and scratched her beneath her chin.

  A carriage pulled to a stop next to me and I climbed inside. I wasn’t hurt, but the driver knew where I wanted to go. The skeletons were linked to the Night Cursed and they could pluck the information from our minds. We rumbled from the Fae District to the Shifter District where my hot doctor boyfriend worked.

  The hospital was busy, as always. Since I wasn’t injured, I had to wait for Travis to take a break. One of his sexy nurses informed him that I was waiting to see him. He finally drew me into an empty room to talk. “Hey, doc,” I said in greeting.

  “Hey, babe. You don’t look hurt,” Travis said as he scanned me for injuries.

  “I’m fine, for once,” I reassured him.

  Chesi reached over and placed her paw on his face. He smiled down at her and stroked her between her eyes. “Your little guardian is good at keeping you alive,” he said.

  “She gets a lot of practice,” I said with a smirk. “I ran into four uncursed vamps tonight,” I went on, dropping my voice. “Three men were attacking a female master. They were looking for something and it seemed they were going to kill her whether she had it or not.”

  Travis didn’t seem surprised to hear that. His backstory was unique. He was a sexy, charismatic doctor and women were drawn to him. They trusted him and told him things they wouldn’t tell anyone else. That included secrets they should probably keep to themselves. “I’ve heard rumors that new vampires are being detained and questioned,” he said, keeping his voice down as well.

  “Jardine said they’ve killed a few of her kind,” I whispered. “She said Lord Kreaton wants a powerful artifact that was smuggled into Nox recently.”

  Travis frowned and absentmindedly called up a red lollipop for me. I took it and stuck it into my mouth. We had to pretend he’d treated me and good patients always received a lollipop. “I’ll ask around and see if I can learn anything about it,” he said. He would have to restrict his questions to the Night Cursed. The uncursed would remember it if he started asking about a mysterious artifact that was hidden somewhere in the city.

  “I’ll ask Quilla if she knows anything about it,” I said. The gypsy hadn’t mentioned that she’d had any visions about any artifacts, but it couldn’t hurt to ask if she’d seen any visions that involved Lord Kreaton.

  “I’ve got a few minutes to spare,” Travis said and gave me an exaggerated leer.

  “Really?” I said coyly, then deliberately licked my lollipop. His eyes dropped to my mouth and his pupils dilated. “What do you suggest we do? Do you want to play a game of cards?” That was what the boys did when they got together in our building. They also played pool, darts and other activities to keep them busy.

  “I have something much more energetic in mind,” my main squeeze said with a grin. He took my lollipop from me and tossed it over his shoulder. It vanished before it could hit the ground and he pulled me to him. He kissed me long and hard, then there was a flurry of movement as we stripped each other off.

  Chapter Seven

  I HEARD GIGGLES COMING from the door and turned to see a gaggle of sexy nurses peering in at us through the window. Travis grinned at them, then whisked the privacy curtain shut. Their chorus of disappointed groans made me snort out a laugh. My amusement fled when he picked me up and sat me down on the bed. He dropped to his knees and I watched him as his mouth went to work on driving me towards ecstasy.

  Travis gripped me by my thighs to catch me when I forgot how narrow the bed was and I tried to lie down. Half of my body hung off the bed and my ponytail was dragging on the floor, but he didn’t let that stop him. When my cries became breathless with need, he stood up and drove himself into me. I held onto the edge of the bed and wrapped my legs around him. If I’d been a normal human, I would have passed out from the blood rushing to my head. Since I was the Guardian of Nox and I was linked to the Immortal Triumvirate, I was far tougher than a normal person.

  Travis knew I could take it and his hands roamed up to my breasts as he drove us to the edge. His hips slammed against me over and over and I held onto him tightly with my legs as pleasure built inside me. A few more thrusts tipped us both over and we climaxed together in our usual mind-blowing orgasm.

  I held up my hand and Travis grasped it and pulled me back up. “Your face is bright red, babe,” he informed me with a pleased grin.

  “You try lying upside down while I ride you and we’ll see how red your face turns,” I grumbled in mock annoyance as we cleaned ourselves up.

  “Challenge accepted,” Travis said solemnly, then we both snickered. When we were dressed again, he held his hand out. He magically called the half-eaten lollipop back and popped it into my mouth. “I’ll let you know if I find out anything about the artifact,” he promised, then returned to work.

  Chesi had abandoned me as soon as Travis had kissed me. She settled around my shoulders again after I left the hospital. She made a scolding noise at me for getting distracted, but I wasn’t going to let her kill my good mood. I didn’t get to see Travis as often as I liked. Unlike Quilla and Marigold, the love of my life didn’t live with me. I only got to see him on games night, when I was badly wounded, or on rare instances like tonight when I needed him to snoop for information for me.

  I spent the next couple of hours patrolling the Shifter District before catching a carriage home. I stared out the window at the scenery during the journey. The skeletons had shaped the hedges into fae creatures and hideous monsters. I wasn’t sure if it was their idea, or if the Triumvirate had given them the order to do it. The hedges always told a story. I saw knights defeating fire-breathing dragons and saving damsels in distress. Vampires feasted on helpless prey, then were staked by an an
gry mob. Witches and wizards bamboozled entire villages, then were burned at the stake or were drowned for their crimes.

  It occurred to me that the stories all ended in death for the bad guys. Our leaders had created unsubtle hints about the fate that would befall anyone who defied them. Some of the hedge stories were about me. In all of them, I wielded my staff and my sword to cut down the evil monsters and bad guys. One depicted me chasing down an evil clown and beheading him. The clown’s name had been Bonzo, not that any of the Night Cursed could remember him. Only those of us with backstories were able to recall the events that happened within the City of Night.

  My mood had turned dark by the time we reached the warehouse where I lived. I nodded at the skeletal driver when it pulled up next to the building. It nodded back, then the magically powered vehicle took off after I climbed out.

  It was disconcerting to realize I’d only lived in the warehouse for a decade. Chesi patted me on the cheek when I almost stumbled from dizziness as I entered the building. I glanced at the entertaining area to see it was empty. The fireplace that appeared in winter was absent, but the brown leather couches, coffee table, dartboard, pool table and other furniture were there.

  I trudged upstairs, let myself into my apartment, then leaned back against the door. Chesi wriggled free and zoomed over to lie on the rug near the couch. My dizziness passed, but a heavy feeling of dread remained. Only my close friends and I knew that we had a task to do. It was related to the unholy trinity, but we didn’t know what it was, or when we would be called on to do it. Like many things in Nox, our true purpose was a mystery.

  It took a few nights before Travis got back to me. I woke up with Chesi curled up on my stomach. She was clutching a rolled-up letter in her fist. I opened it and read it to see it was from my hot doctor boyfriend. Travis hadn’t heard anything about an artifact so far, but he would keep his ear to the ground. I’d asked Quilla if she’d heard about the mysterious object, but she’d come up blank as well.