by D. N. Hoxa
“A few but they have next to no power. I’ve felt them. They hang around here sometimes,” Frosty said.
The smell of Mauve’s perfume filled my nostrils when I took a deep breath. The bottles were so pretty that I had to run my fingers over some of them.
“Do vampires smell dead?” I asked Frosty. It couldn’t have been the reason why Mauve was so obsessed with perfumes. Or…she stored something else in the bottles.
The idea hit me when something pricked my skin, only slightly. I barely noticed. I stopped moving.
“We don’t smell like anything,” Frosty said with a snort. “She just liked scents.”
She just likes scents. That much was obvious. It would have been obvious for anyone who knew her.
I moved my hand over the bottles again, and this time, I focused all of my senses on the tips of my fingers. The bottle, the glass of which felt like a rose’s thorn on my skin, was tall and shaped like the body of a curvy woman. The perfume inside it had the color of light honey. I grabbed it and my fingers touched more imaginary thorns.
“Stand back,” I said to Frosty, though he didn’t look like he was going to come inside the room soon.
“What? What is it?”
But I didn’t respond. I had no idea what it was, just that it was something. My heart began to pound inside my chest as I put the bottle down on the table again, away from the rest of the perfumes. I kneeled in front of it and examined the innocent looking liquid inside. What about it was sending electrical charges up my fingers?
I opened the burgundy colored lid and inhaled deeply. The smell was sweet but not too much, a scent I could imagine on a lady in a really fancy dress. Expensive. But that wasn’t all. There was something else hidden in there. Something…
“That was her fav—” Frosty’s words were cut off by the sound of something hard falling on the floor. When I looked back, I found the vampire with his face against the carpet, eyes open but unmoving.
“Frosty?”
But Frosty didn’t move, nor did he look like he would be able to any time soon. I turned to the honey-colored perfume, too shocked to move for a second. I put the lid back on before I hurried to Frosty, dragged his body outside, and shut the door to Mauve’s room.
Cursing under my breath, I rubbed my nose in hopes to get that smell out as fast as possible. It looked like we just found the way Samayan and his people had poisoned the vampires they kidnapped.
The hiss that came from the end of the hallway made me look up and jump to my feet, both hands on my guns. Three vampires stood atop the stairway, their eyes silver and their fangs long. They hissed at me again.
“This isn’t what it looks like. I didn’t render him unconscious.” Not like me to explain, but as I said the words, I realized that I wouldn’t have believed myself if I found me in the same situation. Their leader was lying motionless on the floor and the stranger he brought with him was standing next to his body. Why would anyone believe it?
They didn’t. They charged at me instead.
“Ah, hell,” I mumbled and let go of my guns. I went for Bob and a katana instead. I didn’t want to kill those vampires. They had every right to be pissed off. I was standing in their territory with their leader motionless at my feet.
The first one that reached me went right for my katana’s tip. The sword went through his gut and came out the other way. Shit. No better way to trap a non-silver weapon than in the body of a vampire. I let go of the handle and reached for my other one just as the other two materialized in front of me. With Bob in one hand and my katana in the other, I sliced Xs in front of me as fast as my arms would let me. The vampires moved in slow motion in front of my eyes, but even so they managed to hit me two or three times, once on my jaw. I fell back and my back almost touched the door to Mauve’s room. The guns hidden in the back of my pants made my fingers itch as I tried to fend them off without really hurting them.
“Stop it,” I hissed. I really didn’t want to kill them, but they came at me fast, and the one with my first katana buried in his gut took the other one off my hands, too.
What the hell, I thought, and before any of them could hit me again, I opened the door to Mauve’s room.
One second. Two. Three…
The three of them collapsed on top of Frosty’s body. I slammed the door closed again, cursing under my breath. I needed to get the bodies somewhere nobody could see. I didn’t want anyone else to get the wrong idea. The only way I would be able to stop them would be with silver bullets or by exposing them to the poison used to…well, poison vampires. The worst part was, I had no idea how long the effect lasted, but without wasting time, I sheathed both my katanas and Bob—having to take my sword out of a vampire body was no fun, definitely not sanitary—and I pulled the bodies to the door on my left. Thankfully, it was open. The room was a lot smaller than Mauve’s, but it would have to do. I threw the three vampires that had attacked me on the bed, once after the other, before I returned to Frosty.
His eyes were still open. I turned him on his back, then managed to lean his torso against the wall. He was a lot heavier than it looked. I slapped him a couple of times for lack of a better idea.
“Hey. Wake up,” I said. “Come on.” Another slap.
I couldn’t even feel his pulse because he had none, but he didn’t look dead. Well, deader than usual. If Kirsten had been able to come out of her trance, so would Frosty. All I had to do was give him blood.
Shit. I’d never given my blood to a vampire before. There was something about the fangs that made me sick to my stomach. I hated to be put in that position, but what other choice did I have? Enough time had already been wasted. So gritting my teeth, I took out Bob again and ran its blade on my palm. The wrist and neck were just too fragile for me—no thanks.
The hot blood filled my fist before I could blink. I pulled Frosty’s body to the floor again, and I opened his jaw before I began to squeeze blood into his mouth. My skin was going nowhere near him. No, sir. There was only so much I was willing to sacrifice for him.
“Come on, come on, come on,” I chanted as drop after drop of blood fell into his mouth and slid down his throat. My wound was already healing, and I hoped to God I wouldn’t have to cut myself again, when…
A blink. A breath intake. Strong fingers around my forearm.
“Frosty, get it under control,” I warned as I tried to get my hand back. He’d caught it so fast, I had no chance of seeing it in time to pull back. He looked at the blood drying on my palm, the drops that hadn’t made it to his mouth, and his fangs elongated while his eyes turned silver. He was okay. That was all that mattered. Which was what I told myself when I used my other hand to slap the hell out of him.
“Let me go!” I hissed. The next second, I was free, and I’d been pulling back so hard, I fell right on my ass on the floor. “Goddamn it.”
“Star, I’m sorry,” Frosty whispered as he slowly pulled himself to sit up, looking around the hallways like he’d just woken up from the longest sleep. “What the hell happened?”
With a deep sigh, I rested against the wall. “They used Mauve’s perfume to poison her. One of the strongest things I’ve ever seen. I’d just opened the lid when you collapsed.”
“Fucking hell,” Frosty whispered, his eyes still silver as he mulled it over.
“Three of your vampires came at me when they saw you lying there. They charged me, and I didn’t want to kill them. I opened the door to Mauve’s room and guess what? It took three seconds for them to collapse. Three.”
I definitely wanted to meet the warlock who had brewed that potion. He was annoyingly good at his job.
“They dared to attack you?” said Frosty, his thick eyebrows narrowed.
“You would’ve done the same. They’re in there.” I pointed at the door to our left.
“I apologize on their behalf,” Frosty said, which made me roll my eyes. We had more important things to do.
“Don’t bother. Just make sure somebody bri
ngs them blood. I’m not sharing mine again.”
“Thank you,” he said, looking at me with his eyes sparkling silver like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Was it that much of a surprise that I wasn’t a fucking monster like they thought? I’d come all the way to New York to help him, for God’s sake! It shouldn’t have been such a shock. And that had no business affecting me the way it did.
“Tell me what it felt like,” I said as we made our way down the hallway. He was going to need more blood to fully come back to his senses. I could still see his fangs.
“Like…nothing,” Frosty said, shaking his head in wonder. “I didn’t even feel it. One second I was saying something, and the next, I could taste blood in my mouth. Shit.”
Shit, indeed. “We need a warlock or a witch, someone that can identify what it is. It didn’t do anything to me, so I’m guessing it affects only vampires. Others should be safe from it.”
“I’ll get right to it,” said Frosty, and he disappeared down the stairs.
I checked my phone as I walked inside the restaurant, hoping I’d had a call or a text from Aaron or Kyle. Nothing. Frosty was behind the counter, a large glass of blood already empty in his hands. Red touched his cheeks for a second, and his eyes lost all hint of silver.
“Our witch for hire is on her way.” His voice was stronger. “While we wait for her, you should eat something.”
“Not hungry.” Food was the last thing on my mind, even though my stomach kept growling.
“Already ordered. You need your strength.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ll remind you yet again that I am no bloodsucker. I don’t dry out that fast.”
Frosty grinned. “Something tells me you’ll be easier to talk to with some food in your stomach.”
My mouth opened to object when the blue door to the restaurant—or bar, whatever they wanted to call it—opened, and two human girls walked in, one of them carrying a plastic bag. They both kept their eyes down, and they barely made it close enough to leave the bag on the counter before they turned and bolted for the door again. Maybe I really was scary…
Frosty grabbed the bag and slid it all the way to the other side of the counter where I was. “Eat.”
The smell of french fries and freshly cooked chicken fingers hit my nostrils hard, finally expelling Mauve’s poison perfume. Maybe Frosty was right. I needed to eat. I needed my full strength, especially after having been attacked by three vampires I didn’t want to kill. So I reluctantly opened the plastic bag and ate.
I was halfway through when my phone rang. I pushed the bag away and made for the door. Outside, the sun fell straight on my face and screen so I didn’t even check the caller ID.
“We found two,” Aaron said.
“Names and addresses,” I replied as my heart pounded. This was faster than I expected, and I was ready to run—on all fours if I had to—all the way to the end of the world to find the demons who’d done this to the vampires.
“The more powerful one is in London, but the other is in New York. Kyle thinks he might not be powerful enough, but he will definitely know who is,” Aaron said.
“That’s good enough.” A lot better than standing around, waiting.
“I’m sending Jack over at nightfall,” Aaron said. “I’ll text you the name and address of the demon. In the meantime, we’ll keep looking.”
“Can he feel her?” Though I didn’t want to and couldn’t afford to think about Ella in those moments without completely losing it, it was always better to know.
“Nothing,” Aaron said.
I could almost see him pressing his lips, looking down at his feet.
“Text me the address. I’m on my way.”
“Okay,” he said with a breath. “And Star? I’m sorry I can’t be there with you.”
It killed me to have to have such a formal conversation with the man I loved with all my being.
“I’m sorry, too. but we’ll be all right.”
I hung up before he could say anything else. The image of him walking into and out of my room the night before haunted me like a fucking ghost. I needed to keep it as far from my thoughts as possible until this mess was cleared. Until I knew how to find my sister. Aaron, even Illyon, had to take a step back for now.
“Any news?”
The sun no longer fell on my face. Dark clouds loomed above us, and Frosty had come out. Before I could answer, Aaron’s text came through. I had an address.
“This is where I’m going. If I don’t make it back by nightfall, come look for me.” I showed him the screen of my phone.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go alone. That’s a demon we’re talking about.”
“It’s a very good idea. Just keep me updated if another one of your vampires appears on the street.”
The ashes of Addy were still there on the sidewalk from where the sun had scorched her.
“Be careful, will you?” Frosty called as I ran towards the street, blood hot in my veins. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t plan to be careful. I planned to do whatever it took to find out who the demon was and how to get to him before sundown.
16
——————————
Another vampire on the sidewalk, the text message from Frosty said. I was minutes away from the tattoo parlor that was the address for Abrax, the lesser demon. Kyle called, too. Said the information had come from Sam. Not that I didn’t believe Kyle’s judgment, but Sam was a bigger part of the supernatural world, so if he thought the demon Abrax would know who was kidnapping vampires, I believed it.
Frosty was probably already questioning the new vampire, but I doubted she’d have anything to say other than what Kirsten told us. A dark, wet, tomb-like place, away from here—which could only mean one thing: the female vampires were taken to another dimension. Could have been the Fairy Realm, but I doubted Samayan would be allowed there. Fairies were fairies, after all.
Abrax’s tattoo parlor was right across the street from me. I’d had to take a cab to the Bronx, and the neighborhood didn’t exactly look friendly. Fitting for a demon. I checked my weapons to make sure everything was in place as passersby looked at me with raised brows for a second, then looked the other way. They’d seen stranger things than girls with swords on her back—the only visible weapons on me.
A deep breath later, I crossed the road as my senses washed over the entire block. The sensation coming off the small shop with no sign on it prickled my skin like a million small needles. A demon was in there, all right. But so was a fairy.
“Damn it,” I cursed under my breath. Fairies could be a pain in the ass, and whoever was in there was powerful enough to cause trouble. The icy feeling atop the sense of smoke confirmed they were Unseelie. I was alone and without backup, but I couldn’t back down now. Time was wasting. Without another thought, I pushed the glass door open.
The shop was small, a single chair behind a tiny, possibly handmade counter, and the walls were covered in pieces of paper with tattoo drawings on them. Two old and worn, green armchairs stood in the corner. Not a place I would trust to get a tattoo, but thankfully, that wasn’t why I was there.
The demon and the fairy were behind the door to the side of the chair, my senses said. The door was white, stained with ink and other stuff I didn’t want to even know about, and a second later, it opened.
“We’re closed. Didn’t you see the sign?”
The man that came out was big, covered in tattoos, and with a ponytail to match my own. His eyes were so green, they seemed to shimmer. His hands were huge. A fist from him would knock most unconscious. Not that he looked like a demon, but I knew he was. My senses were all over the place. He released the same kind of sneaky, mysterious energy that Aaron gave off. It covered his power like an invisible blanket, even from me. Definitely powerful.
He opened his mouth to speak again, but then his eyes grew a tiny bit wider. He’d seen the handles of my katanas, their sheaths strapped behind my back. The
re were two ways I could do this. I could either try talking and then fighting, or I could start fighting, get him in a powerless position, and then talk.
I opted for the latter.
With Bob in one hand and a katana in the other, I jumped forward without word. He was surprised, but he expected it. Why else would I have reached for weapons?
He moved to the side and grabbed a needle from the metal stand next to the tattoo chair. Good. He was unarmed. He moved with grace, much like Aaron did, and moved away when I tried to cut through his chest with my katana. His hand caught my arm outstretched, and he hit my elbow so hard, my whole body shook. My katana fell to the floor.
I gave my arm a second to recover, the pain barely registering in my brain. More important things to focus on, like the sharp needle I barely dodged that had been aimed at my throat. I moved fast and Bob’s tip caught his shoulder. The demon jumped back with no real damage. My left arm seemed strong enough now, so while he analyzed me, I reached for my second katana.
“Who the fuck are you?” he said with a growl, his voice low and hard.
It was hard to predict his next move when he moved the way he did, so sneakily, so I barely missed his fist when he charged at me. I jumped to the other side of the chair and cut a straight line over his shoulder blades. He hissed like a vampire would and aimed for my face again, now showing me his teeth. I stopped his arm and buried Bob’s bloodthirsty blade in his gut as deep as it would go. No sign of pain from the demon, which only pissed me off more, because, like I said before, time was wasting.
He grabbed my wrist while Bob was still in him, and I raised my other arm, my katana ready to be buried, too. But the demon caught my other wrist, too. He then brought his head down, fast, and his forehead touched the tip of my nose. Thank God. That huge a head would have broken it, and I would’ve found myself at a disadvantage, fast. Luckily, I moved away, and before he could regain his balance, I went for the oldest trick in the book: I kicked him right in the balls. Demon or not, he had the body of a human. It hurt like hell to be hit in the crotch, and the split second it took for him to regain his balance gave me the chance to pull my head back and then hit him on his nose, just as he was about to do to me. Only this time, my forehead did meet with his bone, and by God, I felt like I’d been struck by lightning. I doubted I’d broken anything because it had felt like I slammed my forehead to a huge hammer, but the blood that trickled from his nose said otherwise.
