by Kat Cotton
“Remember, guys,” I said, “the pack stays together. We fight together. That’s how we’re strongest.”
Chapter 50 Clem: Video
“Did it work?” Kisho asked. “Is the power gone?”
He grabbed me as we loaded the van.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I tried to test it out and there’s nothing, but then it’s only worked before when I’ve been in danger. I don’t know enough about it to call on it at will.”
“Even if you can use it, don’t. We don’t know enough about it. Remember your promise.”
I nodded. Even though the simplest thing in the world would be to walk into that nest and zap the vamps to oblivion, I knew I couldn’t do that. Not only was it dangerous, I’d never betray my promise to Kisho.
“Have you felt cold since the other night?” he asked.
“Nope.” But then all I’d done was shag in the few days. I hadn’t really had time to get cold.
We all jumped in the van. Nic flashed me a look. He wanted to know what Kisho and I had talked about, but I had no intention of telling anyone about my freaky power. Especially Nic.
“Do what I say when we get there,” he said to me. “You have to stay safe.”
The whole sex-with-Nic thing was great, and it was nice to have him not bitching at me, but this protective boyfriend thing was getting out of hand. I could handle myself in a fight.
Once this was over, we needed to sit down and have a talk.
A relationship talk, with Nic? That kind of freaked me out more than this fight.
“I think there’s only the two entrances,” Andre said. “I wish we knew more. The building isn’t that big. It’s double story, but most of the vampires are bunking downstairs. I think the upstairs is mainly storerooms, as far as I could tell.”
“We have to work with what we’ve got,” Nic said. “The main thing is, we fight to kill. No holding back.”
That stopped all the chatter in the van. I knew they were all thinking the same thing: Oscar. I’d never really met him, but he’d been well-loved by the rest of the gang.
When we got to the lair, Jeb, Andre and Kisho headed to the back door.
The nest was in an abandoned video rental store. I guessed if you were looking for abandoned buildings, video rental places were a good start. It sat in the middle of a row of connected stores. Most of the stores had shut down already or would soon. The place on the right was one of those Asian bargain stores, and on the left, a kebab shop. That looked like it was in business but not open yet.
The large windows at the front of the building had been painted over with signage. Koala Video, the sign said. It included a picture of a koala. A koala with some kind of weird mutation. I wasn’t sure if the mutation was on purpose or just a result of bad artwork.
Kids had scraped their initials into the paint, making stripes down that koala. That meant sunlight could leak through to the front room. Only the most expendable vamps would be in that room.
The front door had a couple of old fence palings shoddily nailed over it. That wouldn’t stop anyone from getting in.
We waited for the guys to get in place at the back, then smashed through the front door. We had to catch them by surprise.
About ten vampires slept in the front room. We got most of them before they even woke properly. They were easy pickings. It seemed a shame to even stake them.
Only one put up a fight. Luis tackled him to the floor.
“Get the rest,” he said. “I can deal with this one.”
The room behind still had the aisles of shelves that had held the video cassettes. Four rows of vampires to deal with, most of them sleeping on the floor.
Nic took the first row, I took the second. Luis rushed in to join us, and he and Shelley took the last two rows. The ones that would’ve held the dodgy porn videos.
The only light in the room came from a flickering bulb in the stairwell. I should’ve taken the first row, since I was the only one who needed light.
I lost sight of the others as I got into the thick of the fight. Nic had been right; there was no time to use my aura. I had to fight with weapons. The rows of shelving made it easier to fight. Only one vamp could come at me at a time.
Knife in one hand, stake in the other, I punched and kicked and stabbed. Vampire dust rose in the air, choking my lungs.
Gross. That was dead vampire particles. I didn’t want my lungs filled with that shit.
I’d never attacked a whole nest before. One or two demons at the most, and usually outside, where the dusted vampires fell to the ground and blew away in the wind. Fighting like this in an enclosed space created a dust storm, and I had a feeling the building had dust enough without adding decimated vamps to the mix.
Sweat ran down my face, and I bet that vamp dust stuck to it.
My muscles ached, but as another vamp came at me, I flew up, kicking him in the face. He smashed into the shelves, and I staked the bastard before he hit the floor. The shelves wobbled—I hoped they didn’t land on Luis—then righted themselves.
It seemed like the more of these bastards we killed, the more piled into the room. Where the hell were they coming from? Down the stairs? From the room at the back? I’d only made it halfway down the aisle with the crush of the attack. If this shop had still been functioning, I’d never have made it to the 5 weekly rentals for $10 section, even.
A couple of vamps rushed in from behind me. Huh? How had they got around the others?
Who cared? I staked. I didn’t ask questions.
Another came at me from in front. He grabbed me around the neck, his fangs out. The bastard wanted to feed on me in the middle of all this? Inappropriate timing, dude.
I flashed him a sexy smile, not full force aura but enough to slow him down. And when that sucker slowed, I plunged my stake into his heart.
Before I could dust off my stake, one landed on me, knocking me to the floor. He’d been on top of the shelves? I kneed him in the balls, always an effective move. Then I squirmed to get my stake to him. He hadn’t kept the advantage for long.
Most of these vampires were young and stupid. It made them easy to dust. The only problem was the sheer numbers.
I jumped to my feet, hoping there’d been nothing nastier than vamp dust on that floor. No one came at me for a few seconds. I exhaled, trying to get that dust out of my lungs. Then someone knocked into my back. I spun around, ready to deliver a kick to their head.
But it was Kisho. “Sorry,” he said.
I tried to stop in mid-kick momentum but slammed my foot into the shelf and fell to the floor. He reached out and picked me up.
“Shit!” I yelped. “Behind you.”
Kisho turned in time to stop the attacker. More vampire dust.
I coughed, my lungs burning.
After that, I fought back-to-back with Kisho. That felt a lot more secure. The vamps kept coming; I kept dusting. I got a stitch in my side but pushed through. No time-outs in vamp fighting.
Around me, I heard grunts and screams and the slam of Andre’s baseball bat but couldn’t take anything in. I had to trust the pack fared okay.
All this dust. Damn vampires.
Finally, the aisle cleared. We waited a while to see if more vamps came at us, but nothing happened, so we looked for the others.
Shelley writhed on the floor in the corner. I ran to him. Knife wound. That’d hurt but shouldn’t be fatal. Luis helped me get him up.
“Take him to the van,” I said. “Get him out of this.”
Luis nodded.
Jeb and Andre finished off the last of the rogue vamps. We’d done it. Some had run, but most of the gang had been defeated.
Then I caught Kisho’s eye.
“Nic?” he mouthed at me.
Yeah, where the hell was Nic?
Chapter 51 Clem: Nic
Kisho and I rushed through the house. No sign of him.
“Upstairs!” Kisho said.
The fight had been downstairs. What had N
ic done?
Grunts came from one room. We headed there.
Damn Nic. He’d been so big on the pack staying together to fight, but he’d gone off on his own. That was so typical of him. I bet he had some grandiose plan that required me saving him.
We heard grunts again. The room at the end of the corridor.
Kisho and I both slammed into the room. First up, the stench of mildew and neglect hit me. Boxes and posters and other video shop merchandise were piled up against the wall, most of it falling apart from age and water damage. This room had more light than downstairs, but it was filled with crap.
Another grunt.
Then I saw Nic and Lucio, rolling around the floor with its moldy carpet. Lucio groaned as Nic gained control. Nic pinned his shoulders to the floor. Any second now, he’d stake that bastard. Except...
He looked up, saw us in the doorway, lost focus.
“Kill him!” I yelled. This was no time for hesitation.
Too late. Lucio flipped Nic onto his back. He growled with victory. Nic couldn’t lose, though. Not my Nic.
Lucio sat on Nic’s chest, his knees pressing into Nic’s arms. He unsheathed his knife and held it up.
“Get him, Nic!” I yelled.
But as I yelled, Lucio pressed the edge of the blade to Nic’s cheek.
“Move one muscle, and I’ll slice your pretty face,” he said.
Nic balked. He didn’t yell, but you could see it brewing in his chest.
Lucio growled again. That low rumble made him sound like a malcontent house pet.
Kisho grabbed my hand, holding me back.
“It’s an enchanted blade,” Lucio said to Nic. “These cuts won’t heal. Now, should I give you the mercy of death or the agony of disfigurement?’
I rushed forward. I’d get that bastard off Nic. Lucio would be no match for the three of us.
But one of his minions appeared from nowhere and grabbed my arms. I struggled and tried to fight him off, but his beefy fingers dug deep into my flesh. My chest tightened, not from the excess dust this time.
“One move and I’ll slice your pretty leader,” Lucio said. “I’ll slice his nose off his face.”
Hell, Nic would rather be dead than that. Still, I tried to break loose. Nic’s face had become paler than pale, and the fight seemed to have gone out of him.
“Let me go!” he yelled. “Whatever you want, you can have. We’ll go our separate ways.”
Lucio laughed. “Yeah, you’d say that because you’re desperate.”
He scraped the blade along Nic’s cheekbone, just a gentle scratch but enough to leave a mark. Nic flinched.
“Give me the woman,” Lucio said. “My boys would like her.”
I tried to shake the minion off. “He can’t give me to you. He doesn’t own me. I’m my own person. I have agency, you damn sexist pig.”
The creepy vampire just laughed again and leered at me as though he’d not heard a word I’d said.
I tried it then. The sex aura. I dug deep down, racking the full depth of my sex beams. In moments, that creepy prick would be my bitch.
I did the eyes. The ultimate, demon-killing sex eyes. I caught him in my glare. His gaze blurred, his body softened. I had him. I totally had him.
The lackey was still holding my arms tight, but surely Nic could free himself while I distracted Lucio. I’d draw Lucio to me, and Nic would no longer be pinned.
“Don’t do that to him!” Nic yelled.
My concentration snapped. Fuck.
“Fuck you, Nic. Don’t do that jealous boyfriend thing. Not here. Not now. Not ever. I’ll kill you myself.”
The sex aura was a one-time thing. Once the victim knew it was coming, it didn’t work. You had to get them by surprise.
We were fucked.
The minion grabbed me tighter, forcing his body way too close into my back. I felt his breath on my neck, hot and putrid.
“Yeah, Nic,” he said. “No point getting all jealous when my whole pack will go through her.”
That would not happen. That would never happen. Nic struggled to get free, but Lucio had the knife back against his face. Even if he planned to kill Nic eventually, watching him get sliced up first would be hell. My heart pounded. This couldn’t be the end. It just couldn’t.
Then I felt the energy surge from somewhere low in my belly. I guessed that answered the question. The sex hadn’t cleansed me. The power was as strong as ever.
My body buzzed. My cells tingled. I’d promised Kisho. I’d promised myself, but surely those promises meant nothing when Nic’s life was at risk.
The buzzing increased. I couldn’t fight it.
The minion dropped hold of me and backed away.
I raised my hand. I could stop this right now, before Lucio got his blade any closer to Nic’s face.
“Don’t!” Kisho screamed.
He tried to grab my hand, but the power repelled him. He flew across the room and slammed into a life-size cutout of the Terminator.
Nic tried to turn his head, but he didn’t have much range of motion. He made a kind of gurgling sound. Lucio pressed that knife into his skin, teasing him with the threat of damage.
“I have to,” I told Kisho.
“You promised.” Agony filled his voice.
To be honest, with the energy built up in me, I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t turn back. The buzzing intensified, growing to the point where, if I didn’t get rid of it, the zappy stuff inside me would make me self-combust.
A cough tickled in my throat. No. This was not the time. Damn vampire dust. I didn’t need to be hacking it up in mid-zap. I gulped. But the cough didn’t go away. If I coughed and zapped at the same time, I really might do myself damage. Next time I fought vampires in an enclosed space, I’d wear a safety mask.
“Nice glowy light, there, girlie,” Lucio said to me. “Not much use, though.”
He did not just call me ‘girlie’? I hated that. I hated that more than anything. I swallowed hard. This coughing fit could wait.
I wasn’t sure how careful my aim needed to be, but I didn’t want this energy to harm Nic.
My body reached a peak as the blue light surged from my hand. The air crackled. Sparks flickered.
The zappy stuff hit Lucio and lifted him off the floor.
Wow. I’d never done that before.
He writhed in pain, and the knife fell from his hand. I didn’t stop. Lucio flew across the room and landed in a pile of movie posters. The posters rolled across the floor.
Nic stared at me with a mixture of awe and terror.
“About time you did something,” he said. “You’re meant to be the world-famous demon fighter.”
So, things were back to normal, then.
Lucio groaned but didn’t try to get to his feet. I took a step toward him, and he backed away, but he couldn’t get traction on those boxes. His eyes widened.
Unlike him, I didn’t like to play around. I pulled out my stake and dusted him. Quick and simple.
“What the hell was that?” Nic said.
“We’ll explain in the car,” Kisho said. “We need to get this wrapped up first.”
I turned to the minion and held up my hand. He screamed and backed away. I was pretty sure he shat himself. It was just my hand, though. The power had dissipated.
“Just kidding,” I said, and staked him too. A quick, painless death.
The three of us headed downstairs.
“This shirt is totally ruined from that filthy carpet,” Nic said. “I loved this shirt.”
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t wear your best shirt when you go fighting,” I said. “What did you expect to happen?”
“I can’t fight in ugly clothes.”
The rest of the gang met us at the bottom of the stairs.
“Finished?” Andre asked. “We’ve done a sweep down here. Most of the vampires are gone, one way or another.”
Nic nodded. “I guess I should check in with the mayor at some point.”
<
br /> “When you do, ask him about my car,” I said. “That was part of the deal, remember?”
Nic snorted. “People have better things to think about than your car.”
“They have better things to think about than your shirt, too.” I put my arm around him and pulled him close to me. “I’m glad you’re alive.”
“Me too,” he said.
“Look at that,” Jeb said as we stepped outside. He stared up at the sky.
We all looked. A bright blue glow filled the sky. A weird blue glow.
I knew that glow. It was the same glow that came from me, only about a zillion times more intense. It made my energy look like a lit match against the full glare of the sun.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked.
“The Vampire King is back,” Kisho said.
I gulped. I was so fucked.
Chapter 51 Nic: Shimmer
Someone knocked at the door.
I opened it. Clem Starr stood there with a dirty old suitcase.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. I fought down the jumping in my heart.
“I’m moving in. You promised, remember?”
“That wasn’t me, that was Kisho. And he had no authority to promise that.”
She barged past me with her suitcase. “I’m not taking no for an answer. You need me. Who knows what you’ll do next. Adopt a Pegasus or a centaur or some other weird pet? You need someone to look after you, and I need to be protected from the Vampire King.”
Kisho came out of the kitchen and grabbed her suitcase. He took it upstairs. Lately, Kisho had been way out of hand.
“We’re fighting the Vampire King together,” she said. “If you go back on your deal, I’ll stake you in your sleep.”
“You can try.”
She did have a good point, though. We needed to fight the Vampire King, and that’d be much easier with a human around. Having her here would be as much protection for us as for her.
“Fine, then,” I said, “but I’m out of here.”
“Where are you going?”
“To find a Pegasus,” I said.
