“I’d aim that look on yourself if I were you. I’m not the one crawling over a stranger’s bed, licking it. Get off there.” Urgh. “Shoo!”
Iza chooses that moment to enter the room, sees Keon, lets out a shriek, and throws the basket of laundry she’s carrying into the air.
Keon hisses at her. I expect Iza to scream again, but instead, she lets out a sound that is part growl, part snarl. It makes the hairs on my nape quiver with terror and, only the assurance that the imp would never hurt me keeps me from running from the room screaming.
I stare at the petite imp with newfound respect. I guess she’s recovered from the shock of finding blue boy on her mistress’s bed.
Keon backs up and climbs off the bed as Iza places her hands on her hips and approaches, spewing words I don’t understand. They sound like curses, though. Lots of curses.
Keon’s eyes narrow, his tail coming up over his shoulder, arrowhead tip quivering.
“Um, Iza?”
She huffs. “Now I have to change the sheets. Again.” She jabs a finger at Keon. “You. You do not come in here, or I will do it. No more warnings. Now get out.”
Blue boy doesn’t argue. Instead, he skirts around the bed and hurries toward me and the door. I step aside in time to avoid being knocked aside, and then he’s out of the room, slamming the door in his wake as if to make a point he hasn’t articulated yet.
Iza picks up the laundry, as calm as can be, and begins to refold it and place it neatly in the basket. The imp has a system.
“What jussst happened?” Cyril asks.
Yeah, I’m wondering the same thing. “Um…Iza? What the hell just happened?”
“I told him if he didn’t leave immediately, I’d bite him.”
Blue boy was scared of a bite?
She looks up at me, her mournful eyes alight with glee. “Imp bites are very painful to some daemons. Excruciating, in fact. They can make them sick for days, and in some cases, even kill…” Her eyes widened. “He is one of those daemons. Don’t worry. I’ll keep him away from my Fee.”
Well, well, looks like we had our own lethal weapon on staff.
Leaving her to her enthusiastic bed-stripping, I head out into the corridor to find blue boy leaning up against the wall.
“I’ll slit its throat,” he says. “I’ll find it when it sleeps and I’ll—”
I jump without thinking, and I’m beside him, my dagger at his throat. “Sorry? What was that?”
I expect him to flinch, to tense, to do something, but he merely smiles. “You could be a Blade.”
“No, thanks. I prefer not having a leash around my neck.” I jump again and make sure there’s enough distance between us because being close to him makes my skin crawl. “Stay away from Iza and stay out of Fee’s room. You’re here to help Fee at the Academy not spy on her, so just stick to that, yeah?”
“You don’t give me orders?”
“Oh, I know. It’s not an order, it’s a warning.” I slice a sharp look his way before turning my back on him. It’s a bold move. One that lets him know I’m not afraid of him.
“Has he moved?” I whisper from the corner of my mouth.
“No,” Cyril says. “But I think he might be checking out your buttocksss.”
Now that is alarming.
“Eyes up, dirty blue boy. Eyes up.”
A surprised chuckle follows in my wake.
Chapter Seventeen
Fee
My pack closed in, but no one moved to attack. They’d all heard the vamp’s plea, and they were just as confused as me.
“Help us…” the vamp said again.
The passenger door opened, and a woman got out. She staggered around the van on unsteady legs and fell to a crouch beside the man.
“Ella?” he asked.
“She’s okay. They’re all okay,” the woman replied.
All? “Hey.” I snapped my fingers to get their attention. “You do realize you just busted your van into a Loup pack house?”
“Regency, yes?” The female looked hopeful.
She was also more alert than the male vamp, less about to keel over.
“You did this on purpose?” Grayson asked.
“No, not the damage,” she said. “Bryson lost control. He hasn’t fed in weeks. We’ve been running for over a month, and they found us. We didn’t know where else to go.”
“We’re not in the business of helping vamps,” Bastian sneered. “We in the business of killing them.”
And it was unlikely that these vamps weren’t aware of that fact. They’d come here out of desperation. We were the lesser of two evils.
“Bastian.” I gave him a look that said stop.
His chest heaved in annoyance, but he inclined his head and obliged.
“Who are you running from?”
“I don’t know who they are or why they want us, but they’ve been rounding up vamps for weeks,” the woman said. “We managed to avoid them by masking our scent.”
“Not much of a mask,” Bastian said. “I’d be able to smell you for miles.”
“But not the vamp scent. You won’t smell that, and neither do they. If they find you, then you’re never seen again,” she said. “I saw them…I saw their fangs. They’re like us, but…but they’re different.” Her eyes widened. “They look completely human.”
There were eight vamps crammed into the van, and the house stank to high heaven when they all spilled out. Bobby herded them outside, and several Loup surrounded them to make sure they stayed put.
But they weren’t a danger to us. Not in this condition. And they weren’t acting like regular vamps either. They sat huddled, hugging each other as if…As if they cared about one another.
“This is freaking me out,” Dean said. “This is not typical vamp behavior.”
“No,” Grayson agreed. “Vamps are predators. They have low empathy and huge egos. Their instinct is to hunt and kill.”
“This would explain why the vamp attacks suddenly dropped,” Dean said. “And why we’ve barely seen a vamp for weeks.”
I’d seen this before. “Hunter and I caught one a couple of weeks ago. He was filthy and stunk to high heaven. He mentioned something about being hunted.”
“What happened?” Grayson asked.
“Hunter ordered his Loup to kill him. He thought the vamp was high.” I sighed. “I could have stopped him, but I didn’t.”
“It’s not your fault,” Grayson said. “Vamp behavior has been out of whack recently. They’re solo creatures, at the most living in pairs or trios, but recently they’ve been nesting in large numbers, and now this… There has to be a link.”
“We need to investigate,” Dean said. “If there’s a new breed of vamp hunting the old breed, then we need to know why. We need to know what the fuck is happening to change the vamp behavior.”
Grayson nodded in agreement. “Change patrol protocol to keep an eye out for this new kind of vamp that look completely human. You’ll need to work on scent alone.”
Kristoff, the witch turned vampire who worked with the Dominus, might be able to do some digging, or he might already know something.
He might have got the details of the Dread rendezvous slightly incorrect, but Conah had cleared him when it came to duplicity. The vampire’s information had been correct to the best of his knowledge.
We could use him now. “I know someone who might be able to help. I’ll call Azazel and get him to reach out.”
Grayson nodded. “In the meantime, these vamps are under our protection.” He shook his head. “Never thought I’d fucking say those words. Bastian, get them set up in the garage. Give them blankets and see if you can get hold of some pig’s blood. I need to call the other packs and clue them in.”
Grayson walked away with his phone to his ear.
I turned to my beta. “Dean, what’s the landline number here?”
He smiled. “We need to get you a mobile for Necro use.”
I held up my comm. “This usua
lly works well enough, but yeah, I need a mobile for when I’m in the city.”
“I’ll sort it for you.”
He tapped the landline number into the comm for me, and I sent it to Azazel with a message to call me if he was in the city.
The phone rang a few moments later.
“Azazel?”
“Fee, is everything all right?” He sounded tired, as if he’d been asleep and I’d woken him. I loved the sound of his just-waking-up voice.
I closed my eyes, reveling in it. “Yes. Everything’s fine, but I need you to do something for me.”
“Anything.”
“I need you to contact Kristoff.”
Azazel called back fifteen minutes later, sounding worried. I sat at the island in the kitchen nursing a cup of coffee, one eye on the Loup going back and forth with blankets and supplies for the vamps, and my full auditory attention on Azazel’s gravelly voice.
“Kristoff’s line’s dead,” Azazel said. “The number’s been disconnected. It’s not like him to get cut off and not be in touch to let us know. We’ve been working together for a long time.”
Uriel came to mind. “Seems to be the season for not being able to get hold of people.”
Bobby placed a plate of cookies in front of me, freshly baked from the smell of them. Yep, looked like the house was fully awake now.
“What do you mean?” Azazel asked.
Grayson walked by and gave my nape a reassuring squeeze before heading outside.
“Uriel hasn’t been answering my calls.”
“Comm?”
“Not the comm, and not when I call him with intent.”
“That isn’t like him.”
“I’m beginning to think I need to pay the Beyond a visit.”
“Uriel is a celestial, and the Beyond is a vast place. He could simply be out of reach at the moment.”
“I know, but he was looking into the Dread’s story, and now he’s gone all radio silence…I need to be sure he’s okay.”
“I’ll take you after your visit to Deadside in a couple of days.” He sounded weary and it pressed my worry button.
“Are you all right?”
“You mean aside from missing you?” There was a smile in his voice, which pushed back the anxiety a little.
“Yes, aside from that. You sound tired. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you tired.”
“I haven’t been feeling like myself lately.”
“You’re sick? I didn’t think we could get sick.”
“We can’t, but we do require a vast amount of energy. Energy we get from our connection to our voralexes. The search for you, and then playing catch-up with my outlier duties as well as Academy training setup, might have overtaxed me. I’ll stop off at my voralex and charge up tomorrow.”
He sounded like he was making excuses. This was Azazel, the ancient son of Lilith. He didn’t get overtaxed.
“Azazel…”
“I’m fine, Fee. I promise you. I’ll let you know if I get hold of Kristoff.”
I wanted to push, but there was nothing I could do from here, and nagging him wasn’t going to help. Azazel had been around for a long time. He knew how to take care of himself, and I had pack business to take care of right now. I needed to focus on my duties here.
I let it go and blew a kiss into the phone. “I love you.”
“I love you more.”
He ended the call, and I set the landline back in its cradle.
Dean strode out of the lift carrying a mattress. He glanced at the phone, then back at me. “Any luck?”
“No. Our contact is missing.” I gnawed on my bottom lip. “I’d like to speak to the vamps again.”
“You think they’re hiding something from us?”
“No. I think maybe we’re asking the wrong questions.”
Dean smiled with his eyes. “Okay, Poirot, let’s do this.”
Chapter Eighteen
The garage was a large building situated to the left of the firehouse. The pack used it to house the two vans and two cars that belonged to us. There was a workshop at the back and all sorts of mechanical equipment to maintain the motors. But even with all this stuff, there was enough room for the vamps to set up camp. Mattresses had been pushed up against the wall, blankets and pillows supplied. Someone had brought in a couple of camping lanterns, and if not for the offensive reek, the place might have been cozy.
While Bastian was off on a quest for pig’s blood, the other members of the pack worked on clearing the debris in the house and fixing the busted door, an expense we would have to foot the bill for.
“We told you all we know,” Ella, the female vamp, said. The others nodded in agreement.
I believed her, but I also believed there was more relevant information that she probably didn’t even realize was pertinent. It was my job to find it.
“I’m not here to ask about the vamps that are hunting you.”
She looked confused. “Then what?”
I stood with my back to the Rover, Dean to my left, Grayson to my right. “I’m wondering why you suddenly decided to start nesting.”
Her brow furrowed. “What? Nesting?”
“Yes, coming together in groups. Aren’t vamps usually solitary hunters?”
Even though my experience had pitted me against groups of vamps, the lore stated vamps lived alone and hunted alone. I guess things had been changing for a while, but no one had taken notice.
Ella seemed to consider my question, then shrugged. “It felt right.”
“Uh-huh, and when did it start to feel right?”
“A few months ago. I woke up, and I wanted to…connect. I met Dan that night.” She glanced down at the gaunt vamp lying with his head in her lap. “We connected.”
“And after that?”
“We found Dottie and Fran and Jack and we…We were a family. It felt right.” She rubbed her temple.
“After that, we met more,” one of the other vamps said. “There were thirty, maybe forty of us, and there were two more groups too. We bunked down in the old museums, but those weeks are kind of a blur, to be honest.”
“I remember them coming for us in the gray light of the dawn,” Ella said. “We barely escaped the first time. The rest of our family was captured. We were forced to go into hiding.”
“And then the withdrawal hit,” the other vamp said.
Ella looked grim. “We realized we were addicted to Bliss. We’d been feeding on humans whose blood was tainted with it for weeks. The high…God, it was something else, and then we weren’t able to hunt without fear of being hunted.”
Bliss… Puzzle pieces began to click in my mind.
“But the drive is gone,” one of the male vamps said. He looked almost wistful. “I want to feed. I’m hungry, but…the excitement of the kill has gone.”
I needed more information. “And how long have you been clean?”
“Almost a month now,” Ella said.
“What are you thinking, Fee?” Grayson asked.
“I’m thinking where the fuck did Bliss come from? No one seems to know, right?”
“Right,” Grayson said. “It hit the streets a few months back and then somehow made it to humans.”
“And vamps feed off humans. Vamps find this Bliss addictive, and then vamp behavior starts to change…They start to gather in groups…Groups are easier to reap.” I raised my brows, looking from Dean to Grayson. “See what I’m saying?”
Grayson cursed. “You think Bliss was put on the streets to fuck with the vamps. To alter their behavior and make it easier for this organization to capture them.”
“It fits,” Dean said. “But the question is, what do these hunters want?”
“Only one way to find out,” Grayson said. “We catch one of the fuckers.”
Sounded like a plan.
Eldrick pulled me into a hug as soon as I stepped out of the lift. I relaxed against him and hugged him back.
“I was so worried. I’ve never been that worrie
d before.” He pulled away slightly to look at me. “I’m sorry this happened. It should never have happened.”
“It’s okay. I’m okay.”
His mouth tightened. “Grayson told me you requested we leave Hunter be?”
I moved past him and strode into the penthouse. “How about you make us some coffee, and I’ll fill you in on the fine print.”
Fifteen minutes later, Eldrick looked decidedly pale. “A Tribus? I thought that was a myth.” He rubbed a hand over his mouth. “Hunter and Grayson…what a mess.”
“Right?”
He looked up at me sharply. “You know what Hunter’s father did?”
I nodded. “He told me.”
“He was an emotional mess when he came to me,” Eldrick said. “Oh, he never showed it, but I saw it. I recognized it.”
It was my turn to give him a sharp look. “What do you mean?”
He gave me a dry smile. “Your grandfather was a hard man, and his lack of affection, the lack of closeness, was always a shadow over me growing up, but I knew he loved me. Hunter didn’t have that assurance. Quite the opposite, in fact.”
“So, you made him your successor?”
He smiled and shook his head. “Not a decision taken lightly, believe me. Hunter is…brilliant. His mind is sharp, he’s a leader, and he has a heart of gold. At least I believed he did until I started to hear about his darker side—the beat-downs, the dodgy dealings.” Eldrick sighed. “I should have known he was being set up. I should have confronted him about it all, and maybe we could have caught Larson sooner.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Larson suggested we hold off and watch things play out, catch Hunter red-handed. I see now he was simply buying himself time. Hunter was innocent.”
Hunter wasn’t a monster. I’d accepted that fact in the cabin when we fought side by side. Still, it was going to take some time to wholly accept this new version of him.
“He acted rashly taking you,” Eldrick continued. “I won’t excuse that, but he’s a good man who has a lot of healing to do.” He was watching me intensely. “I assume by asking me to forgive him, you’re telling me that you intend to reach out to him?”
Reaper Undone (Deadside Reapers Book 5) Page 10
