by C. J. Pinard
“This place is sweet!” Face said as he walked toward me. “Pool tables, too? Damn, I think I’ll set up my apartment in the back and just live here.”
I laughed. “It’s only a stone’s throw from the clubhouse to here. You can come play pool whenever you want.”
He beamed his too-pretty mug at me. “Thanks, man.”
“I thought we were opening the club tonight,” Phoenix commented as we rushed to our bikes parked out back of the new club.
“Tomorrow,” I said, slinging my leg over my Hog and starting it up. I slammed on the gas and peeled out of the parking lot with my men following behind me.
It had taken me three months to get the clubhouse to how I wanted it, and the Cobalt Room as well. And yet, only two nights in the city and we were already being called to take care of a problem.
I stopped when we reached the deserted farmer’s market. It was 2 a.m., and while things were anything from quiet in the French Quarter, the area right outside it, where the daytime tourists loved to visit, was pretty calm. Except for the snarling pack of wolves standing twenty feet from us.
“What’s the deal?” Kovah asked, pulling out his beloved dagger. That thing had killed so many creatures I was surprised it wasn’t permanently stained red.
“Wolves been creeping around the Quarter. Scarin’ the tourists,” Shadow said, staring at the snarling beasts.
“No, not just scaring them. Two dead humans in an alley a couple blocks from here,” I said, pointing behind a building to our left, just beyond St. Louis Cathedral. “Throats torn to shreds, hearts missing.” I’d gleaned that little factoid from an anonymous tip.
“Asshole dogs,” Face said, his near perfect Hollywood jaw bunching in annoyance.
We were in front of the world-famous pastry shop and knew we’d need to dispose of those bodies before morning when the tourists came to get their powdered-sugar goodies for breakfast.
I looked up at the full moon blazing down on us, then back to the wolves. “Get the fuck outta here and go back to wherever you hang out during the day. Or go jump in the Mississippi. I don’t give a flying fuck. Just stay away from this area and the humans or I’ll have my friend here make the nearby businesses wonder why they smell burning dog hair when they open up tomorrow morning.”
Phoenix’s hand blazed to life, fire dancing on his fist, a smirk on his face.
The wolves seemed to understand me, and they looked at each other, obviously having one of their telepathic discussions. Was this really up for debate with them? What was the alternative?
“I’m gonna count to five, and then I’m gonna start shooting.” I pulled the pearl-handled revolver from the back of my pants and cocked the hammer with my thumb, the muzzle aimed toward the sky. For now. “One…”
Of course they couldn’t just fucking listen. The damn things pounced at us. With a sinister laugh, Kovah lunged right at one, slicing the leg off the first one as it yelped and fell to the ground. He shoved his beloved knife into its chest and hopped off before the thing morphed back into a human.
Really not wanting to use my gun because of the noise it would attract, I dodged the fangs of another and then tackled it to the ground while its back was to me. I didn’t want to kill it, but with it snarling, biting, and bucking under me, I had no choice but to break its neck. The sickening crack sounded right before it began to change shape back into a human.
Shadow disappeared and then reappeared in front of one, also breaking its neck quickly and dropping it to the ground.
Phoenix raised his hand, ready to set fire to another, and I grabbed his wrist. “Wait.”
He nodded in acknowledgment.
Seeing the flame dancing on his fist, the mutt turned tail and bolted off in the opposite direction, the remaining four or so bounding behind it. They quickly disappeared from sight.
Seeing the threat gone, I gestured for my men to take the three now-human wolves and dump them in the river. The NOPD could fish them out in a few weeks when their bloated bodies showed up on shore, but they would never figure out who killed them.
After they were disposed of, we went into the alley behind the famous cathedral. The human victims’ bodies lay prone, their eyes open, blood covering their necks and chests.
“Let’s clean this up,” I said.
“I say we leave them,” Phoenix said, the moonlight glinting off his shiny red hair. “If we throw them in the river, their families will wonder what happened to them.” He pierced me with a serious stare. “Trust me, that’s way worse than knowing they’re dead.”
He was right. I crouched down, closed their eyes with my fingertips, and we left the area. We could have prevented their deaths had we known these wolves were sleazing around the Quarter, picking off tourists.
“Call nine-one-one, at least they can get this cleaned up before morning,” I said to Face. He always kept an untraceable burner phone on him.
“Got you,” Face said, reaching into his pocket.
This would be the last time they did this. I was going to find the rest of these mutts, their leader, and their entire pack, and end them.
Chapter 7
Hell To Pay
Most of us in the club didn’t have relationships for a reason—it was too complicated. Relationships were work and being that we were pretty much on-call 24/7 made little time for personal connections. Being vampires, we could not procreate, so the only reason to have a committed relationship was for the companionship. The Nighthawks had become my family and that was the way I liked it. I’d had hookups with club whores and randoms to satisfy my primal needs in the past. A night here, a week there, but it never went past that, and I never wanted it to.
We’d been in the new clubhouse almost a month now. We’d recruited six new members who were currently working as prospects. They did our grunt work and had to prove themselves. Once they passed all the tests and the initiation process, they’d get patched and tatted. The wings of the Nighthawks were required to be tattooed anywhere visible on the body. Arm, chest, and back were the common locations. My wings spread across my entire chest because I was proud of what I’d started and managed to keep afloat for years.
So far, our biggest income was the Cobalt Room. I wasn’t a huge fan of the name, but the club came with it, so I left it. It was already pretty successful when I bought it, so there was no need to go confusing the regulars who frequented the joint. They would know it was under new management, but there would be no really big changes except a tweak of the hours so we could hold church.
A rap on my office door broke me out of my concentration. “Hey, boss.”
“Paz, what’s up?”
He had that same look all prospects did; nervous to talk to me, but that hopeful gleam in his eyes. “Are we allowed to bring our old ladies to the club?”
“You have a wife?” I asked, biting back a smile.
He nodded as he ran his fingers through his dark-brown hair. “Girlfriend, but yeah, two years now.”
“Okay. She know what you are?”
“Yeah, she’s a vamp too.”
“You two live together?” I asked. No reason to know that other than I was just curious.
“Yes. She works from home doing customer service over the phone for some big company.”
I nodded. “Okay, well, yes, she’s welcome at the club. Obviously she knows to keep everything a secret.”
“For sure,” he replied with a smile. “Thanks, boss.”
“No problem. Now, did you get the cells cleaned out?”
“Yep, they’re spotless. Anything else you need?”
I waved a hand. “Go find Shadow, he’ll find something for you to do, I’m sure.”
“You got it, boss.” He disappeared behind the door and closed it on his way out.
I stared at the screen for the order of liquor I was trying to place. The chapel in Shreveport was just booze for us so I didn’t order it very often since the spirits rarely did anything for us. But this was different
. I referred to my bar owner’s book I had picked up in a local bookstore and it told me how much of each type of spirit to order for the size of the club. I’d bartended for years before joining my first MC, but things were different now. There were so many new brands and types of liquor, plus the populations were higher, so the book definitely came in handy.
After that was done, I was about to move on to supplies—cocktail napkins, stirrers, bar snacks, et cetera, when there was another knock on my door.
“Come in,” I called out.
Shadow popped his head in. “I got a tip on that pack leader. What do you want me to do?”
“Follow up. Take Face and Phoenix. Full moon tomorrow night and we are not going to have a repeat of last month.”
He nodded. “You got it, boss. Also, we’ve got a rogue vamp on the loose in the Garden District. Want me to handle that as well?”
I shook my head and stood up. “No, follow up on the pack leader. Text me the details on the vamp and I’ll take a couple guys with me and take care of that.”
“Copy that.”
He left the office with me right behind him. I grabbed my jacket and keys and went into the main area of the clubhouse. Kovah and Venom were sitting in the large breakroom shooting the shit. Kovah was drinking a beer. Venom was shoveling a very large slice of pizza into his mouth. I made a face. Human food literally repulsed me since I was turned. “Rogue vamp in the Garden District. Let’s ride.”
They both put their items down and rushed out the door after me.
We parked our bikes a few blocks away from where this alleged wild vamp was last seen. The scent of jasmine mixed with blood hit my nose as soon as we arrived in front of the cemetery.
“Garden District’s kind of a big place,” Kovah commented. “Where exactly was he seen last and who reported it?”
I pulled out my phone and read the details to him and Venom. “Spotted feeding from a human in or near Lafayette Cemetery.”
I stared out at the old cemetery and looked at my brothers.
Kovah turned to look at me. “You’re telling me that asshole is creeping around that cemetery and we have to find him in there?”
I lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “I guess that’s where we start.”
“That’s a big-ass cemetery though,” Kovah commented.
“Who reported it?” Venom asked, pulling out a toothpick and putting it between his teeth. I could only imagine what kind of shit he had stuck in there.
I pulled my phone out and read Shadow’s text. “Anonymous tip.” I looked at the guys. “Remember Face set up that snitch text thing for supes. Anyone can report anything via text, and it stays anonymous.”
“Yeah, I figured. Description?”
Looking down at my phone. “Vague. White male, dark clothing.”
“Oh, that narrows it down,” Venom said with an eyeroll. “That describes half the population of the damn city.”
“True,” I said. “I’m sure if anyone is inside there at this time of night it’s not for a good reason. So we just capture anything or anyone in there. Got it?” I asked.
“Okay, let’s go get this fucker,” Kovah said, loading a bolt into his crossbow pistol.
Venom pulled out his knife and I made sure my pearl-handled revolver was still tucked into the back of my pants.
The gate to the cemetery was closed so we decided to go around the back first before breaking the lock in case we didn’t need to. The report had said he was seen feeding behind the cemetery.
Kovah was right, this was a big-ass place, spanning an entire city block. The entrance was straight from the street, and the backside had some kind of house or business across the street from it. Using vampire speed, I arrived at the back first. There was a lot of blood on the dirty white wall and in the grass beneath it. It was fresh and it was human. But there was no body. Venom and Kovah arrived a few seconds later.
I pointed at the blood. “Human blood.”
Venom bent down and dipped his fingers in it, then lifted it to his nose. “Very human. Very fresh, mixed with vampire stench. I’d venture to say victim is female too, but I haven’t mastered that quite yet.”
“You’re old as dirt. If you haven’t mastered it yet, you never will.” Kovah threw him a smartass grin.
Venom flipped him off. “Fuck you, freak.”
“Okay, let’s go find this guy. He couldn’t have gotten far,” I said.
“Got his scent,” Venom commented.
I nodded and we followed him around to the side of the cemetery.
“Scent stops here.”
“Weird. He must be inside then.” I pointed at the stone wall surrounding the creepy place.
“Fuck,” Venom said. “Guess we climb over.”
“I can jump over,” I said. “I’ll boost you guys over first.”
Kovah tossed his crossbow pistol over the wall while Venom tucked his knife back into its sheath on his belt. I put my hand down and let Kovah, and then Venom jump up. After they were on top, I crouched down and jumped, landing on the top. The wall was quite thick, to where we had to take a few steps across to get down to the other side.
We jumped down and I put my finger to my lips as we began our search.
Venom waved at us to follow him as he obviously caught a scent. We weaved our way through above-ground tombs and mausoleums as Venom quickly led the way. Our feet pounded the pavement, and I tried to breathe through my mouth, as the scent of death was threatening to choke me. Most of the corpses here were long dead, but I could smell some sort of fresh death here as well. Not like, just-died-yesterday, but within the past year or so. I had learned through my research that families shared crypts here and they would open one up to put a new family member in once they died. The concept of burying the dead above ground was pretty gruesome to me when I learned about it, but it made sense for a city that literally sat below sea level.
Venom stopped short and we almost barreled into him. He pointed straight ahead, and I saw a man crouched down next to a large crypt holding a girl, his head moving wildly against her neck.
“Hey, asshole,” Kovah called out.
I lifted my gun while Venom took on a defensive stance, knife in hand.
The vampire looked up, his skin alabaster in the moonlight, blood covering the bottom half of his chin and his entire neck. He dropped the very dead girl, who was damn near decapitated from the feeding, and used vampire speed to run away.
Kovah fired two bolts from his crossbow, and from the yelp and then smell of vampire blood, at least one hit him.
“You guys go that way, I’ll go this way!” I called out, speeding around the graves to where he was heading while the other two chased behind him.
I caught him careening toward the wall at the side of the cemetery, but he was too slow for me. I grabbed his ankle as he was about to jump and slammed his face to the ground. I flipped him over and he snarled and spat at me.
This was no ordinary vampire. It seemed to be one of those feral ones—the ones the succubus bitches made when they turned a guy. Note to self: Locate all the succubae in the city and kill them all. They were nothing but redheaded menaces.
Venom and Kovah caught up to me quickly.
Kovah’s lip lifted in disgust. “Feral fiend. Succubus victim.”
“Finish him,” I said on a sigh.
“I got it,” Venom said, waving a hand. He leaned down and quickly sliced the guy’s head off while he snarled and tried to bite my wolf friend.
I jumped up in time to watch him turn black, then gray, then to ash. It happened very slowly since he was a newly made vampire.
“That’s one for the books,” Kovah said with a head shake. He frowned and pointed to the ash. “We gotta find the succubus who did that.”
“Agreed.” I nodded.
That poor kid probably was at the wrong place at the wrong time and fell victim to one of those witches’ charms. Never stood a chance.
Chapter 8
Blood &
Bone
Venom stood next to me holding a whiskey and chuckled. “Looks like the trash is gonna take itself out tonight.”
I smiled at his metaphor. “You’re not wrong. I mean, of all the clubs for the bitch to wander into.”
We vampires could sense each other. It took me a really long time to learn it, but when a succubus—who was nothing more than a vampire who fed on souls as well as a little blood—came prancing into my bar, we were all on high alert. Venom being a wolf scented her and her human friends immediately.
I pulled out my phone and texted Kovah, who had the night off. I knew he had plans with his vampire wife, but also knew he wouldn’t want to miss this.
Me: Get to the bar stat. You’ve got to see this.
It took him ten minutes to reply.
Kovah: Is it an emergency?
Me: If you consider a succubus in my club an emergency, then yes.
Kovah: OMW
I chuckled and pocketed the phone. His pretty wife would be pissed but I knew I’d never hear the end of it if I didn’t let him in on this. The reason for Kovah’s hybrid existence was because of a succubus and he had a personal vendetta against every single one he came across. Nobody better to get rid of this one than him. I’d been a vampire almost four decades, but when I heard his story, it was definitely one for the history books.
If vampires kept history books.
Shadow materialized next to me and almost made me jump. “Don’t fucking do that!”
He grinned. “Sorry. I was in the clubhouse and was too lazy to walk over here.”
“Asshole.” I shook my head.
“Whatcha got?” he asked, stroking his thick beard with his fingertips.
I tilted my head toward the succubus and her human girlfriends. They were ordering shots by the dozen, and I was gonna keep taking her money until I decided it was time to escort her outside and kill her.
Can’t take it with you, babe.
“So, what’s the plan?” Shadow asked.
