by C. B. Miller
Figures. I’m not the freaking new guy on a job, finally, and that only because I have to do it solo.
She reached out and clamped down on my shoulder, “Don’t look so glum. I trust you to get to the bottom of this. If I thought you needed help, I’d give it to you. You’re a bright young and oh so very resourceful man.” Eden grinned.
“Now, go get some rest, burn off some energy or whatever. You’ll need to see Stanley in the morning. He has something of mine I think you should have.” She released her grip on my shoulder and patted me on the head. Turning her attention to Jerit, she helped him up onto the dais and shook her head as she looked him over.
“Now, what are we going to do with you, I wonder.” She muttered and spun him around slowly.
Taking my cue to leave, I turned on my heels and walked out. She was right. I was going to need some time to rest and relax. I had my work cut out for me, and dealing with ghosts wasn’t one of my favorite activities.
***
Cold fingers wrapped around my throat and hauled me into the air. I awoke to Sunshine’s pale face as my bed covers slid off and exposed me to the chill air. Her violet eyes darted down my body for a moment before lowering me so I could stand on my bed to face her.
“Time for work, Kaedin,” Sunshine said. Her mouth was twisted upwards, and excitement radiated off her as she held me in mid-air, waiting for me to fully awake.
“Good morning to you as well. What do I owe this pleasure?” I choked out.
She waved a pale finger in my face, and her grin widened. Her raven hair fell over one eye as she looked at me innocently. “It seems there’s been a complication. Things went poorly last night, so your orders have been amended.”
The way she said ‘amended’ turned my blood cold and banished the last bit of sleep, beckoning me back to bed. Earning a pre-sunrise wake-up call was never a good thing.
“What things? Did another pack turn up missing? Shit, did someone spot Nigel or his pack?”
Sunshine shook her head. “Nothing quite that dramatic.” Sunshine pointed at my phone and pouted. “I let you sleep in and everything.”
I looked down at my cell phone and blinked at the time. It was nearly nine in the morning. Sunshine should have crawled back in her hole, resting until nightfall like the rest of her kind. She was at least dressed for bed, assuming she slept in one of those nighties on the front cover of those risque lingerie catalogs. It was a sheer black material that did little to cover her body.
“Now, go get ready. You should probably have some breakfast before I debrief you.” She ran a finger down my cheek, and her all-knowing smile returned. She turned away slowly in a well-practiced manner to ensure I got an eye full of her body before disappearing in a blur.
Sunshine delighted in tormenting me, but she had never stayed up past dawn to do so. Vampires didn’t stay up late unless there was a special reason to.
I shook those thoughts away and grabbed clean clothes from the small shelf that served as my nightstand and clothes drawer. When Eden explained that my living expenses were covered as part of our arrangement, I assumed that I would get one of the apartments in the building. She’s around five hundred years old, and her idea of how much space someone needs to live is at odds with modern living. Now, I live in a twelve by sixteen foot room with what little remains of my worldly belongings. Other than our individual rooms, the rest of the building is filled with communal spaces. That included the bathrooms and showers.
I looked around my spartan room, found my towel, making sure it passed the sniff test before heading to the showers. I muttered a prayer that they were empty and swore at the growing sound of running water as I approached. Turning the corner, I braced, not sure who would still be around at this time of day, and almost dropped my toiletries at the sight of Sunshine leaning up against the wall. Steam was beginning to fill the room from several running shower heads on the far side of the gang shower.
“What are you doing here?” I asked warily.
Sunshine grinned and waved her hand towards the showers. “I thought I’d be helpful and warm up the water for you.”
“Helpful, now that is probably the last word I’d use to describe you. Staying up past your bedtime just to be nice isn’t exactly in your nature.”
She feigned pain at my words and pouted again. Sunshine is a beautiful woman turned into a Goth Queen. 5’5”, athletic without being too skinny, large ‘natural’ breasts, moderate curves, and a lower half that you only see on magazine covers. Raven black hair, dark violet eyes, pale skin, and lips a natural red that is somehow gloomy without appearing dull.
Ignoring her, I proceeded to undress and ducked into the water, letting the warmth soak into my muscles and the steam clear my sinuses.
Might as well take advantage of the situation.
“That hurts, Kaedin. Still, I should have known better. And here I was going to talk to you privately about something important.”
The undead have a tendency to withhold information, and if she was up past sunrise, there had to be something crucial she needed to tell me. I turned toward her and poked my head out of the water. “Ok, so talk.”
Not sure why she wanted to talk here.
Sunshine stalked clockwise around the room, running her fingers along the wall, “Finding out what happened to Nigel’s pack isn’t your top priority. In fact, Eden wants you to focus exclusively on your new task.”
“And that would be?”
“Something more in line with your capabilities, delivery boy.”
I bit back a colorful retort, not wanting to irritate her further, even though it was clear she was doing her best to annoy me. “And that would be?” I asked.
“We’ll get to that. I want you to prove something to me.”
“Ok, what’s that?”
“That men can truly multitask.” Sunshine lifted her nightie up, and I turned my back to her.
Vampires were apex predators, not just because they were supernaturally fast, strong, and resilient. They used every tool at their disposal to disarm their prey and reel them in, including sex appeal. Maybe it was part of their human origins or part of humanity’s own social vulnerability. I didn’t have to know why vampires, regardless of gender, worked people over socially to know hormones can be hard to control and lead to bad decisions. As a wight, I may not be totally human any longer, but I still had the same need for companionship.
“I’m sure you didn’t turn on the showers just for a lesson in love-making,” I retorted.
Sunshine might be gorgeous, but I don’t sleep with co-workers. Especially ones that might eat me.
“Eww, no. I wanted to talk about Nigel’s pack. More specifically, I still want you to work your magic to find them.”
I let out a breath of relief, glad that I didn’t have to turn down the advances of Eden’s left hand.
“Sure, I can probably spare some time to keep an eye out.”
“Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to distract you from your new task.”
I didn’t like the way she kept dodging around what Eden wants me to do now. I didn’t know how involved the new task was going to be either, but Sunshine did. That meant she might be setting me up for some type of failure. She hasn’t been my biggest fan since I joined six months ago.
It would be sweet to prove her wrong, though.
“I’m pretty sure I can handle it. I mean, it can’t be that hard if it’s something simple enough that Eden was going to send me out alone to do.”
I heard the change in water as Sunshine walked up behind me and put a hand on my shoulder. She turned me around and leaned up close to me, our bodies almost touching.
“One of these days, I will break that Boy Scout can-do attitude of yours. You are a talented delivery boy, but I think this time you will fail her. Care to make a wager? I’ll put $1000 down, say 3 to 1 odds?”
“Cash? That’s lame. Is that just what you happen to have handy between your legs?”
“What
do you suggest then?”
“How about a degkrat?”
Sunshine’s jaw dropped.
It was hard not to break out into a smile, knowing I had taken things much further than she was prepared for. She was like a magnificent sculpture poised in mid-wash with the stillness that only the undead can possess. Water flowed over her marble skin from the showerhead leaving perfect grooves in the foam covering her for a few seconds. Evidently, my counter threw her significantly off her game.
A degkrat is a form of vampiric favor in which a future debt is owed in exchange for a service rendered. Since wights like myself are really second-class citizens in the world of vampires, earning a degkrat is a major achievement. Degkrats are essentially vampiric currency with a bunch of rules. Typically, only those on the road to Conversion can even potentially earn those. If you have been selected to be a wight, your chances at Conversion are usually slim. Most vampires are emotional about whom they gift with Conversion. Wights are tools. One is not typically emotionally attached to their hammer.
Slowly a smile started to cross her face into an inhuman Chesire Cat grin that only the flesh-weaving vampires like Eden can do. It suddenly dawned on me that I should have gotten the additional information about today’s task before upping the stakes of any wager.
I guess that’s why I’m a hammer.
“Done.” She whispered.
“By our Blood, we bind our Words to our Deeds”
Slowly her left forefinger warped into a vicious talon and drew a line of blood down her bosom while muttering some Slavic words I didn’t know. Always something sexual with her, just a taste, a tease of the potential. Suddenly she jabbed me with the talon in my right shoulder, not enough to cause any real damage but enough to draw blood.
And pain.
I could feel whatever it was she was doing working its way through my blood like a fresh shot of coffee. The magic coursed through me and felt like warm tendrils worming their way through the veins and arteries in my body, and a cold hard sense of foreboding struck me that I had better not deviate from our deal. I’ve only seen Eden use magic twice, but I didn’t realize Sunshine could do it as well. I had thought her the weaker of Eden’s lieutenants. It looks like she may be holding back.
Her grin grew a bit larger.
“Wait, what do I owe you if I fail?”
“A degkrat, of course.”
“What the hell could I do for you that could pay off that type of debt?” The words flew from my lips too fast, and I could hear the shrill tone as it bounced off the concrete walls.“ Assuming you survive, I am going to find out the whole reason you were personally chosen by Eden for this particular venture, of course. There’s something different about you that Eden likes, and that bothers me. You haven’t even been remade yet, although that should have happened months ago. You don’t suffer the side effects of the bond. She permits your tongue like you are one of us, yet you aren’t marked for Conversion. She protects you from battle. I will find out what it is that makes you oh so special and different. I might even make it fun for you.”
Hot water hit me, and my skin stung as she stepped to the side. I stood there for a few moments in silence as she waited for me to respond.
I’m so screwed.
She grabbed my hand. “Don’t you ever take this thing off?” Her fingers caressed the inscriptions along the ring on my forefinger.”
I pulled my hand away from hers and shook my head. “No. Remember when we first met, and you asked me where my weapons were? Anything to protect me from vampires, and who knows what else goes bump in the night?” I held my hand up between us. “I took that lesson to heart.”
Her grin disappeared, and she looked at me coolly. “Find me in the kitchen when you are done cleaning up. I don’t plan on sleeping yet.” Sunshine rinsed off and left.
Chapter Four
I pushed aside the nagging worry, gnawing at my gut, cleaned off, and got dressed. I made sure to take my time, stopping to drop my stuff off in my room before I went to the kitchen. The smell of frying bacon reached my nose, and I found Sunshine cooking a full breakfast when I entered the spacious chef’s kitchen. She served up an omelet, four pieces of rye toast, bacon, and sausage, placing it at the table, and motioned for me to sit.
My appetite disappeared at her kindness.
“Since when do you cook?”
“I’m in a good mood, despite being kept up late.” She placed her hands on the table and leaned in. “I don’t mind being kept up as long as it is fun. Work is not fun, Kaedin.” She stood up, pulled a chair out, and plopped down. For just a second, I thought there was a hint of a smile on her face.
I took a bite of the omelet, and hunger overrode my wariness. It was delicious. I nodded in thanks and motioned for Sunshine to speak.
“Robert was carrying an item of great importance last night and lost it. It’s a dagger made of copper with a silver inlay. Looks like this.” She pulled out a cellphone and tossed it at me . “Eden needs you to recover it today. If you scroll through the gallery, there’s some pictures of the ladies we believe are responsible for this theft. Eden believes they are mages.”
Mages were rare, crazy powerful, and Eden hated their kind for some reason. Something everyone found rather ironic since she was a talented magic-user herself, and she was besties with a vampiric mage as well. They, like many things in the supernatural world, were way out of my league, and I didn’t like the fact I was being sent to find them alone.
“Any particular reason to think they are mages?”
Sunshine motioned for me to look through the gallery. She waited in silence while I savored my breakfast and scrolled through the pictures, which all seemed to be from a variety of security cameras.
I pieced together the fight between Robert and his as-of-yet unknown assailants. Anya drove their black armored SUV through a residential neighborhood, and the windshield exploded as she came to a halt at a stop sign. Whatever struck the vehicle must have taken her out, as the subsequent few frames showed everyone abandoning the SUV and running back the way they came.
At least protocol was followed last night; Robert wasn’t alone as he ran. I spotted another vampire, Bruce, among the half dozen wights with him. As I swiped through the gallery, the group lost one and then another to their assailants. It was a massacre, from what I could see. Whoever these people were, they set up an ambush that funneled Robert and his crew towards somewhere of their choosing.
Robert and Bruce must have realized that when they were all that was left of the group. They turned a corner and broke down the front door of the closest house. The view changed to the home across the street in the following video, and two women were chasing after them. When they reached the door, the picture flashed, whiting out the scene for half a second. I went back through it frame by frame and made out the faint image of the two women holding their arms outstretched, lightning arcing from their hands toward another figure in the doorway. They stepped over something or someone and entered the house.
The next video showed the women leaving the house nearly four minutes later carrying an ugly green hard case. The same one that Robert had when he was running.
I froze mid-forkful and zoomed in on the last video, running it through frame by frame. The image quality was good, but the nighttime washed out most of the detail, yet the tattoo on one of the women’s arms felt like something I’d seen recently. I couldn’t remember where.
Sunshine perked up, “Notice something?”
“Maybe. One of the women has a tattoo on her right arm, and I feel like I’ve seen that symbol somewhere recently. Do you recognize it?”
I showed her the enlarged still, and Sunshine shook her head.
“If you figure it out, do tell.” Sunshine purred and held up two fingers, “Now there are two things; Recover that dagger and kill those two mages. Bonus points for finding out how they knew we were moving the dagger.”
“Who all knew you were moving it?”
Sunshine bit her lip and paused, “Just a few people besides us. Mr. Johnson, Kaeth, and Segane.”
The fork slipped from my hands and clattered loudly against my plate . “You’re not suggesting….”
Those three were the biggest vampire powerhouses I knew besides Eden. Segane was a vampire strong enough to unite all of the supernaturals in town into a single faction, making him Chicago’s overlord. It was doubtful Mr. Johnson was his real name, but he didn’t even have a first name as far as I could tell, and Kaeth was a Keeper. Some sort of vampire diplomat.
All of which were some of Eden’s closest compatriots.
Sunshine shrugged noncommittally.
“Where were you moving it to?”
Sunshine leaned in. “Robert was bringing it here.”
***
I came out the employee’s only entrance at the bottom of the stairs and into Eden’s Pretties. The entire first floor of the building was devoted to Eden’s passion; body art. She dabbled in other mediums but always returned to the human body as her canvas; tattoos weren’t enough of an artistic release for her.
If someone wanted extra joints and maybe lengthen their fingers or a second row of teeth? No problem. Bone-plated forearms, sure come right in. Eden also did some risque work with people with body dysmorphia, helping them to reach their ideal personal shape into reality. Cliche modifications were beneath her, and she had a dozen of premier tattoo artists and piercers working the shop for her. A split tongue wasn’t of interest. Now figuring out how to add three or four inches to each bone segment might get her interest. Examples of her work covered every free space on the walls, and in some places, were plastered on the floor and ceiling.
All of this added up to Eden’s Pretties being one of the top tattoo and piercing destinations in all of North America and arguably the world. The shop was open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three-hundred and sixty-four days a year. The only day the shop was closed was the summer solstice.
