by J. C. Diem
“I almost forgot,” I said when that thought sparked my memory. “Remember Jardine, the master vampire Lord Kreaton’s minions tried to kill?”
“Sure,” Quilla said. “Did you run into her again?”
“I saw her and a bunch of other masters having a meeting,” I explained. “Chesi used her magic to let me listen to their conversation.” I described what I’d heard and my friends exchanged glances.
“How fortuitous that you just happened to be near the park at the exact moment the master vampires were about to have their meeting,” Jasper said and rubbed his bearded chin thoughtfully. “It’s rather extraordinary, really.”
“The vamps are plotting against Lord Kreaton,” Quilla said with a nasty grin. “They’re going to side with whoever will be forming a rebellion.”
“They would be unlikely allies,” Marigold said doubtfully. “How could anyone trust their kind?”
“I don’t think all vampires are as evil as we believe,” I said. “Jardine didn’t want to tell me about the artifact because she thought it would endanger my life. She was trying to protect me.”
“I’ve met a few uncursed vampires and they’re not all as bad as the Night Cursed ones,” Steve added. “Some of them have been almost friendly.”
“Were they female?” Quilla asked suspiciously. She had a jealous streak, but it was nowhere near as dangerous as Marigold’s.
“Yep,” Steve said teasingly. “A few of them have offered to suck my blood...but not from my neck.” He glanced meaningfully down at his groin.
Quilla narrowed her eyes, seething on the inside. “You’re sleeping on the couch come dawn, buddy,” she said.
“I’ll try, but you know I’ll be lying next to you when we wake up.”
The gypsy heaved a sigh and stuffed another cookie into her mouth. We all knew Steve spoke the truth. No matter where we were at dawn, come nightfall, we would all be back in our beds, coffins, graves or wherever it was that we slept.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
IT QUICKLY BECAME APPARENT that I had a new stalker when our meeting ended and we headed to work. I sensed Crowmon’s strange presence across the street, but I couldn’t see him. The jester was hiding himself in the shadows with his olde-worlde magic. Travis and Steve shared a carriage, since they both worked in the Shifter District. Marigold and Jasper headed to Pirate Cove. Gip was still riled up about being teased by Chesi and grumbled beneath his breath as they headed for their carriage. The dragon had vanished, but she would find me eventually.
“I think I’ll walk,” I said to Quilla when another carriage halted in front of us. I’d intended to ride along with her, but changed my mind.
“Be careful,” my bestie said, picking up that we were being watched from reading my mind.
“I will,” I vowed and watched her leave. While I knew some of what the trickster could do, I didn’t know the full extent of his abilities. It was best to play it safe and pretend I didn’t know he was there.
I’d fallen into the habit of checking the padlocks on the graveyards. One of the cemeteries was dedicated to the worker crew and it was never locked. Only the unarmed skeletons and a few random ghosts called that particular boneyard their home. Zombies and ghouls needed to be contained, so they were housed in the other cemeteries.
Crowmon trailed after me as I made my way to the south where the graveyards were. I nodded at the skeletons who were diligently pruning trees and shaping hedges. Their bones creaked when they nodded back. It didn’t matter to me that the workers were so low in the hierarchy of Nox. They worked hard and they deserved respect. It was a pity the uncursed population didn’t share my attitude.
To back up that thought, I saw a wizard and his witch girlfriend who had ventured into our District to gawk at the Night Cursed just ahead. To them, we were a tourist attraction, so they were probably new arrivals to the city.
“Ugh, get out of my way, you disgusting thing!” the witch exclaimed when a skeleton brushed against her as it was trimming a hedge. “It touched me!” she said to her date in horror. Neither of them were wearing robes or pointed hats, but I could sense what they were.
“I’ll teach the vile creatures their place, love,” the wizard declared and a wand appeared in his hand. They were both British going by their accents.
My brooch morphed into a shield and I leaped to intercept the spell that he cast at the skeleton. It was a lightning bolt and it buzzed against the magical metal for a few seconds before dissipating. “I would advise you not to do that again,” I said in a menacing tone. The skeleton clutched its shears to its bony chest and its teeth were chattering in fear. “The work crews are just doing their jobs. They won’t harm you.”
“It did harm me,” the witch insisted in a strident tone. “It touched me with its vile bones.”
“Everyone knows the Night Cursed monsters are unpredictable,” the wizard said with his upper lip curled. His wand was pointed somewhere between the skeleton and me. “We’ve heard rumors that their kind can turn on us at a moment’s notice.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to inform them that we only attacked their kind when we were being possessed by a demon, but I held it in. It wasn’t common knowledge what Azazel was up to. I didn’t want the news that some of us were susceptible to possession to spread. “If you leave us alone, we’ll leave you alone,” I said to them both. “Attacking Night Cursed without provocation is against the rules,” I added.
“It touched me!” the witch said again, dredging up some fake tears.
“Stay out of its way next time,” I suggested coldly. “Unlike you, we have work to do. We don’t have time to stroll around, gawking at people and beings who are simply fulfilling their purpose.”
“And exactly what is your purpose, young lady?” the wizard asked, drawing himself up and staring down his nose at me. I knew I looked as ageless as the rest of my kind, but he assumed he was older than me.
“I’m Xiara Evora and I hunt evil monsters and bad guys,” I replied automatically. “I’m the Guardian of Nox and I punish anyone who breaks the rules,” I added with a meaningful look at his wand.
The pair exchanged alarmed glances when they realized who I was. “We meant no harm,” the wizard said and hastily made his wand disappear.
“We’ll just be going now,” the witch added. Her face had lost a few shades of color after learning who she was speaking to. Unlike the harmless skeleton, I was allowed to use my weapon on them if given enough provocation. Even the newbies had heard that much about me.
I waited for a carriage to turn up and cart them away before I allowed myself to smile. I knew without seeing it that it was nasty. The skeleton gave me a shaky nod of thanks, then returned to its job. I nodded back, then continued my patrol with Crowmon trailing along behind me like a lost puppy.
One by one, I checked the cemeteries to find the locks were secure. I could still feel the blessing the holy folks had performed on them. No demon would be able to touch the locks until the holy power wore off. When it did, I would ask the priests, nuns and monks to bless them again.
I was walking away from the last graveyard when I felt magic being cast. A metallic slithering noise and a thud sounded when the padlock and chain came loose and fell to the ground. I spun around to see the wrought iron gate swinging open. Hearing the jingling of bells as the invisible jester cavorted in glee at his prank, I raced over to close the gates before the undead inhabitants realized what had happened.
Wrath began to glow more brightly as the zombies, ghouls and armed skeletons drifted closer. I bent down and picked up the chain and wrapped it around the bars. Picking the padlock up, I examined it closely. It didn’t seem to be broken, so I threaded it through the links in the chain and clicked it shut.
“That was quick thinking, lass,” Crowmon said as he stepped out from behind a tree where he’d been hiding. The glee in his light green eyes was palpable.
“Who are you?” I asked, pretending that we’d never met.
>
“I’m a friend,” he lied. “It looked like the undead horde was going to make a bid for freedom for a second there. We wouldn’t want that to happen, would we?”
“No, we wouldn’t,” I agreed. “A lot of Night Cursed citizens would die and the uncursed would be traumatized from seeing the carnage.”
He covered a grin with his hand and pretended to scratch an itch on his cheek. “That would be regrettable,” he said, barely able to contain his amusement. It was obvious he’d found something new to entertain himself with now that he could no longer steal from his victims; me.
“As the Guardian of Nox, it’s my duty to prevent anyone from tampering with the gates to the cemeteries,” I said in a cool tone. “I can sense you’re magical, stranger. You wouldn’t have anything to do with the padlock and chain falling off so suddenly, would you?”
Crowmon eyed me speculatively. “You can sense magic, can you, girly?” he asked.
“I can sense all kinds of things,” I informed him in a suspicious tone. “My radar is telling me that you’re more than just a clown.”
“I’m a jester,” he corrected me indignantly. “A trickster, if you will.”
“Well, I’m a hunter,” I said and gestured at Wrath. “It’s within my rights to drag you to the Immortal Triumvirate if I suspect you intend to do harm. In fact, I’m tempted take you to them right now and inform them that you attempted to create havoc that would have resulted in a lot of deaths. If they bring in some holy men and women to question you, they’ll know if you’re lying or not. If you’re found guilty, you’ll be sentenced to death.”
Crowmon’s eyes glittered with sly intelligence. “There’s no need for that, Guardian of Nox,” he said soothingly. “None of the monsters managed to escape and no harm was done.”
“Make sure it stays that way, trickster,” I ordered, then I turned on my heel and stalked off.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
OF COURSE, THAT WASN’T the end of it. Every night when I went out on patrol, the trickster god followed in my wake. Crowmon had decided the best way for him to entertain himself was to interfere with my job. He shadowed me and used his olde-worlde magic to bamboozle people into starting fights. I lost count of how many brawls I was forced to break up. He always targeted the Night Cursed. He wasn’t stupid enough to use the uncursed civilians as his puppets. Not when it meant they could be injured. He knew he would suffer the consequences if I figured out what he was up to. It just proved how arrogant he was that he was so certain I didn’t have a clue about his idiotic pranks.
I was patrolling the Vampire District a few weeks later and I was thoroughly sick and tired of being the clown’s target. My shoulders were tense from the expectation of another prank being pulled. Crowmon was somewhere in the area, hiding himself in shadow again.
A trio of Night Cursed leeches dressed in black and wearing gothic black eyeshadow came around the corner. The annoying deity seized the opportunity and cast a spell on them. I felt it pass by, then the leeches stiffened and their eyes came to rest on me. They were blank rather than wary at seeing the Guardian of Nox in their territory.
Without warning, all three monsters went on the attack. Two were female and the other one was male. He was half a foot taller than me and was far more muscular, but I wasn’t afraid of him. Wrath’s holy light would scare them off.
Right on cue, white light blazed from the staff. I heard a malevolent giggle when the trio of leeches didn’t break off their attack. The jester’s compulsion spell overrode their survival instincts and one of the women lunged at me. My brooch transformed into a shield to fend her off. Steam rose from her flesh as she tried to bite me. Her face began to melt at being in close proximity to the divine power of my weapon. In another few seconds, she would burst into ash and her life would be extinguished forever.
Wrath banked his glow before it could become lethal. I dropped him and drew my sword instead. Fangs snapped at my face and I rammed my blade into the half-melted woman’s stomach. She didn’t react to the pain, so I pulled it out and aimed higher. It slid into her heart and she went limp. The male vamp picked me up and threw me at a stone fence that encased the backyard of a mansion. A huge oak tree stood on the other side, shedding a few leaves as I flew towards the fence. I slammed into the wall and landed on my face. The wind was knocked out of me for a few seconds and I struggled to recover.
I could hear Crowmon laughing his head off somewhere. The bells on his hat and shoes rang merrily with his mirth. My mouth became fixed in a grim line as I clambered to my feet. The compulsion spell worked in my favor when the leeches got in each other’s way. They were both so fixated on trying to kill me that they collided together. I stabbed them both in the heart and they fell to the ground.
A skeleton crew that had been working in the front yard of the mansion across the street ambled over to gather up the bodies. The corpses would be hidden out of sight somewhere until they would regenerate the following night. Hearing the shrill laughter of the jester coming from somewhere above me, I looked up and searched the rooftops. Pasty faces of the uncursed residents of the nearby stone houses were watching me. They drew backwards when they saw my anger, but they weren’t the ones I was interested in. I saw Crowmon peering down at me from a rooftop, then grinned nastily when I sensed Chesi zooming towards him.
Crowmon let out a shriek of alarm when the air elemental flicked wind at him. He was sent flying by the small gale and plummeted towards the ground. At the last second, he used magic to halt his fall.
“Oh, look, a jester,” I said in mock surprise. “That was a close one,” I said as he righted himself and stood up. “What were you doing up on that roof?”
“I was just watching the show, lass,” he said nonchalantly as he adjusted his cuffs. “It was stupid of those vampires to attack you, but you didn’t seem to have any trouble subduing them.”
“I wonder why they attacked me?” I said in a musing tone while pinning him with my gaze. I was sick of him and his pranks, but it would be dangerous to let him become aware that I was more than I seemed.
“They’re Night Cursed,” the jester said with a shrug that made his bells jingle. “Who knows what goes through their addled heads?”
“Our heads aren’t addled, little man,” I retorted.
“I’m a god, lass,” Crowmon said, taking instant insult at my tone. “You should treat me with respect.”
“A god?” I asked, raising both eyebrows and looking him up and down. “Why would a god dress like a clown?” He hated being called a clown and I knew it would push his buttons.
“I’m dressed like a jester,” he corrected me with a glower. “How many times do I have to tell you that?”
“We’ve just met, dude,” I said mockingly. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen you.”
“Idiotic Night Cursed moron,” he muttered. “We’ve met a dozen times, lass, but you’re too stupid to remember it.”
Rage welled up inside me at his contemptuous tone, but I clamped down on it. “I guess you’re just not that memorable,” I said with a sneer.
Crowmon’s eyes bulged in outraged insult and his hands clenched tightly. “You want to see something memorable, girly?” he asked, voice turning raspy from anger. “Watch this!” He pointed at the oak tree behind the stone wall and it began to move. I sensed him drawing power from the Night Cursed in the immediate area, but he couldn’t draw it from me. My link to the Immortal Triumvirate protected me from the theft of energy.
The oak tree became sentient with tortured wooden groans. A crude face formed in the trunk and its eyes opened. A gaping maw with wooden teeth roared at me and its branches swept towards me. They knocked part of the fence down, creating a wide gap that gave access to the back yard of the property.
“Is that memorable enough for you, Guardian of Nox?” Crowmon asked in satisfaction, then he vanished. I knew he hadn’t gone far because I could still sense him. He wasn’t about to leave now that he’d created a new and e
ven more exciting spectacle to watch.
I dodged back, but I’d underestimated how fast the oak tree could move. It snatched me up in one of its branches and began to squeeze me tightly. I chopped away at the limb with my sword and managed to sever it before it could squash the life out of me. Wrath still lay on the ground and he came to my hand when I called him. His holy glow intensified as vampires left their houses to see what all the noise was about.
Limbs flailing, the oak smashed the windows of the house behind it. It fished around inside and pulled out two Night Cursed bloodsuckers. They were torn apart and black blood splattered all over the grass.
“Don’t just stand there, do something!” an uncursed master vampire shouted at me.
“What the hell do you expect me to do?” I shouted back, waving my sword at the oak. “It’s a freaking tree!”
“I thought your staff could kill anything!” he retorted with a sneer.
Wrath pulsed once in agreement. I could sense his eagerness to do his job, but I didn’t have permission to destroy the tree. It was a sentient being now, even if it was an evil one. “The Immortal Triumvirate will have to order me to kill it before I can take it down!” I pointed out with a helpless shrug.
“That thing is ruining my house!” the Night Cursed master who owned the building wailed in dismay. Blood stained her mouth and the mouths of her kiss. It seemed my fight with the tree had interrupted their meal. The oak delved into the broken windows again and came out with a Night Cursed witch. She was unconscious from blood loss and made no attempt to save herself when the branches squeezed her to death.
