My mentor raised his right hand. Metal red straps, wide as the ribbon on a wrapped present, were strapped around his forearm. Goblin lettering glowed gold against the blood-colored steel. The Gauntlet of Greckhite didn’t look all that impressive—its edges were faded and worn and it was covered with scratches and scrapes—but there was something magnetic about the way it encircled Bill’s arm. It was impossible to tear my eyes away from that awful power.
“Like the new jewelry, kid? Your little girlfriend gave it to me.”
Krissy squeezed past the big man, shaking her head. Her eyes were exactly as expressionless as they’d been when she walked into my safe house and pointed the gun in my face. She looked at me and licked her lips. Then she turned back to Bill and said, in a decidedly un-Krissy voice, “This is not the time for games, human. As much fun as it would be to play with the little knight, we have important work to do.”
Bill nodded and grinned. “I never was one to argue wit’ a lady. Get outta our way, Dave.”
I drew my knife. “You know I’m not gonna do that.”
“I said move.”
“Not gonna happen.”
Bill rolled his eyes. Then he raised his hand again. The symbols on the Gauntlet glowed brighter. I felt the heat rising from them, strong enough to give me the feeling of sunburn. The knife flew from my hand and embedded itself all the way across the room to the hilt in the front door.
“Move,” Bill said.
“No.”
Bill took a deep breath, like a bull preparing to charge. He made a fist and whipped his hand down. The floorboards creaked, moaned, and finally gave. Wood splintered, and I was falling through empty air.
I landed, totally un-catlike, on my back. There was a desk teetering on the edge of the jagged hole in the floor above. I rolled away, a second before I’d have been clonked in the head. Bill and Krissy hopped over the hole without so much as looking down.
Earl moaned. A fallen desk pinned his arm to the floor. I pushed it away, grunting with the effort. His arm hung at an obscene angle.
“What happened, sir?” he asked.
“Bill’s a bad guy,” I said. “You okay?”
He lifted the arm experimentally. He winced. “I think it’s broken.”
“I need to know what happened here,” I said. “Did Krissy say anything when she came in?”
“No, sir. Just walked in and went straight for the basement.”
The basement. Where we were now. I looked around. Broken office furniture littered the place. The gate to the pyramid trap was open. It looked intact, save for some scorching around the gate. A pink JanSport backpack lay near the sandstone.
Krissy—no, not Krissy, because she was clearly enthralled again—the thing that was using Krissy’s body had somehow found the Gauntlet. she’d brought it down here, given it to Bill, and the rest was obvious and history.
I crouched next to Earl. “Listen, you need to get yourself to the hospital.”
He tried to push himself to his feet with his bad arm and let out a gasp of air. “You’re going to need help, sir.”
“This is gonna be a tough one, Lieutenant. If you’re not a hundred percent, I can’t use you.”
He winced, but didn’t argue.
“Get to Queens Hospital,” I said. “Stay with Rob and Madison. That’s an order, soldier.”
“Marine.”
“Sorry?”
“I’m a marine, sir. Not a soldier.”
I shook my head and gripped his good shoulder. “No, you’re a knight.”
He smiled weakly. “Thank you, sir. Now go save the world.”
Bill’s sword was gone. No surprise there. I found my own sword in the rubble, pulled the knife from the front door, and left the office.
I had to find Bill. And I had no idea how to start.
It’s not easy to find someone when you have no idea where to look, especially in a city the size of New York. Bill could have been anywhere in the city by now, with the power now at his disposal.
I needed to think. So I did what I always do when I need to get the ol’ brainpower taps flowing: I started walking.
I didn’t get far before I realized I needed to get off the street. I was dirty, bloody, and covered with a thin layer of a gray-white dust. Definitely attention-grabbing. I looked suspicious, a prime candidate for stop-and-frisk. As far as I knew, it wasn’t actually illegal to carry an arming sword in New York City, but it would lead to some interesting questions. Questions I didn’t have time to answer.
So I got a cab. The driver eyed me suspiciously, but he didn’t comment as I settled in. There wasn’t much in my wallet until my first captain’s paycheck came in, but it would be enough for a cab ride or two, as long as I could keep them reasonably short.
“Where to?” the driver said, his voice heavily accented.
I didn’t know. I had no idea where Bill was. One thing I was sure of, though: This was going to be a one-way trip. On my best day, at the top of my game, I figured my odds of taking Bill in a sword fight were fifty-fifty. I wasn’t at the top of my game. Once you added the Gauntlet into the mix, it was starting to look like I was heading to a slaughter. I couldn’t beat him, but I didn’t have to. I only had to stop him.
I was the only active, uninjured knight for a hundred miles. And that was fine with me. A larger-than-I’d-like-to-admit part of my brain howled in approval at the idea of killing Bill. I realized with a sudden sick sense of dread that I wanted to cut off his head.
I opened my mouth, to answer the driver’s question and to make myself forget the line of dark thoughts that were sprinkling my brain, and suddenly I knew. Not in an Isaac Newton, Eureka! moment of inspiration, but more like some old god had opened my brain and dropped the information in. It was creepy, but I had an image of a building. An old, dark-bricked house that towered like the castle of a feudal lord.
I recognized the building. I knew where it was.
It had been on the sidewalk outside of that building that I had first met Bill.
Chapter 30
“165th Street and Washington Avenue,” I said.
The driver nodded, stone-faced at the thought of taking the Deegan into the Bronx, but he put the car in gear without verbalized complaint. I leaned back against the grimy seat and did my best not to breathe too deeply though my nose. I kept running a finger along the wire that wrapped around the hilt of the sword. I didn’t get a burst of energy the way I did when I brandished in in battle, but each time came with a little jolt like sticking a finger in a power outlet only more pleasant. I still wasn’t sure I could take Bill—in fact, I was still pretty sure I couldn’t—but I felt better about my chances.
Half an hour later the cab pulled alongside a curb. I hopped out and handed the driver a wad of bills, including a tip. As he drove away, he was shaking his head. I guess he didn’t get a lot of fares toting around medieval weaponry.
There was a a fenced-in park across a narrow street. It was empty. A storefront Baptist church stood abandoned. Traffic was audible in the distance, but no cars cruised down the street. I recognized the feeling of dread that was gathering deep in my gut. This was the territory of a vampire nest.
The building looked much the same way as it had when I first met Bill. It towered above its neighbors, which were mostly two story affairs, its pointed roof reaching into the sky like the head of some ancient monster. The windows were boarded and, for good measure, spray-painted black. The dark brick made it look like the fortress of some monstrous movie villain. A black, iron fence made it clear that the house and the rest of the corner were separated.
I hopped the fence and made my way across the tiny, weed-clogged space of emptiness that passed for a lawn. The front door was chained and padlocked. I drew my sword and slashed the chain. Blue sparks danced and the heavy metal links fell to the ground in two pieces. I swallowed hard and pushed through the door. It was as black as midnight inside. It was the middle of the morning.
I kept my sword drawn as I ente
red. It was darker than most New York nights. So dark that I couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of me. Somewhere in the house a board creaked.
A knight’s relationship with his sword is an interesting thing. They’re not alive or anything, but after a time they start to feel like an extension of your body. Yeah, I know a psychologist would have a field day with that. As long as I was holding the weapon, I had easy access to the power contained within the blade. The same way my brain could send a signal to raise my arm, I simply thought it, and a beam of blue-white light erupted from the tip of the blade. It shone into the darkness like a sapphire flashlight. At least now I could see where I was going.
The interior walls on the first floor had been mostly stripped away. Here and there along the mostly wide-open space, bits of sheetrock sprouted from the floor like stalagmites. That was a lot of potential hiding places.
An edge of the blue light caught something vaguely man-sized scurrying along the back wall. I tried to track it, but it was no use. Whatever it had been seemed to vanish. My heart pounded against my rib cage like a convict rattling the bars. Even with the light coming from the sword, I didn’t want to venture too far into the house. Not with those spider traps everywhere. Not with whatever that thing had been.
“Come on, Bill,” I called. “You wanted me here. I’m here.”
Nothing. Darkness and silence.
I waved the light around quickly, hoping to catch a glimpse of my mentor or whoever he’d brought with him for backup. No use. As far as I could see, I was completely alone in the house. I backed up, planning to put my back to the wall so no one could sneak up behind me. I bumped into the doorframe. The door was closed.
I hadn’t heard anyone close it.
A floorboard creaked. This one sounded closer. The house seemed to be laughing at me.
“I’m not here to play hide and seek,” I said. “Let’s go, Bill. Face me like a man.”
Instead of Bill’s, the voice that answered was female, heavy with hunger and thick with lust. “But I am not a man. There is no one named ‘Bill’ here, little knight, but perhaps you can play with me?”
Electric lights flared into life. I flung my arm in front of my eyes to protect against the sudden glare. An angry hissing filled the air, like the deflation of a tire. I pulled my arm away, looked around the room, and immediately wished I hadn't.
I was surrounded by vampires. A dozen of the black-eyed, slavering, and hissing monsters were on all sides of me. At the center of the circle stood Loretta. Unlike her compatriots, she still wore her human face. She looked crazy and hungry and sexy. She wasn’t showing her fangs, but there was nothing human about the expression on her face.
Loretta didn’t try to hide her glee as she clapped her hands and said, “We can finally play our game, little knight.”
I swallowed a mouthful of fear and looked around. A small, childish, part of me was unwisely thrilled. Bill thought I was enough of a threat that he’d rather send a hit squad after me rather than facing me in direct battle. I shoved that thought aside—respect from your father figure is only useful if you’re alive.
I released the breath I was holding and the power in my sword. The energy from the blade slowed into the room. It stirred Loretta’s cornsilk-fine hair like a gentle breeze.
“Hey, Loretta,” I said, trying to sound casual and collected. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”
“I know you didn’t,” she said. “I surprised you, didn’t I, little knight? But that is alright. Now we can play.” There was a starving fire in her eyes. It was terrifying.
As casually as I could, I shifted my sword so the blade ran parallel to the floor. As traps went, this one was pretty damned effective. A dozen vamps was too many for me to take on at once. But Bill had made a mistake: Loretta wanted me to herself. Vampires are like any pack-based predator—if you put down the leader, the rest of the group will give you respect. Maybe enough respect so I’d have time to get away and out the door.
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s play.”
Her eyes flashed, then tuned black. “The same game that you played with Bobby. I understand you won.”
My heart sank. She knew what had happened to her brother. Not just a crazy she-vamp, but a vengeance-minded crazy she-vamp. This could be a problem.
You beat Bobby, little knight,” she continued. “Then I beat the pretty girl. Next I will beat you and all will be well.”
I frowned. “What pretty girl would that be?”
She rolled her eyes. “The one that I used to free your big friend. I beat her with my mind.”
Krissy. So Loretta was the vampire behind the enthrallment. “And you’re the one that gave her the Gauntlet?” when she frowned, I clarified, “The pretty red bracelets.”
“Oh. Of course. Bobby gave it to me right before he went off to play with you.”
“And where did he get it?”
She shrugged. “He’s always had it. For years and years. But it wouldn’t work for him, so Bobby went off to see the old man.”
The Gauntlet of Greckhite didn’t work for Roberto. Maybe you had to be alive for the thing to operate correctly. I wouldn’t be surprised—goblins and vampires historically didn’t get along very well. Could explain why the vamps were willing to work with Bill.
“Are you ready to begin the game?”
My mouth hung half-open for a moment. Instead of answering, I swung my blade so it was pointed at her face. I wasn’t close to hitting her, but she leaped back, laughing with childish delight. The rest of the vampires backed away, forming into a gladiatorial arena.
Loretta charged suddenly, closing the distance in a matter of seconds. I’d seen vampires cut loose, speed-wise, before. That’s not what this was. She wanted to let me see her coming. Son of a bitch, she really was playing with me.
Well, hell. I could play, too.
I flung myself to the left and landed awkwardly on my shoulder. I turned it into a passable roll and came to my feet, twirling the sword. With my free hand, I drew the knife.
Loretta was a few yards away, pacing like a lioness waiting for a zoo visitor to fall into the enclosure. She stared at me, maddeningly patient. She wanted me to attack this time. After all, if this was a game, it was my turn.
I lowered the sword and charged, letting out a wordless scream. She opened and closed her hand like a cat testing her claws. Just before I’d have speared her like a pig, she pirouetted out of the way. I swung the sword as I passed. She jerked back, but the sword tore into the skin of her neck. A couple of drops of black blood fell to the floor and darkened the blade.
She howled, but the pained cry turned into a joyful shout. Her face lit up in a perverse combination of delight and anger.
My charge had carried me directly towards a vampire on the perimeter, and he had leaped out of the way to avoid being bowled over. I was free from the arena. I backed towards a shadowy corner, twirling my sword one-handed. It was exactly the kind of showy, useless move that was more likely to get me killed than to impress anybody, but it seemed like the thing to do. I’d just scored the first point of the game.
A few of the vampires laughed. One even clapped quietly. This was, hands down, the weirdest fight I’d ever been in. And I once drowned a ghoul in a bowl of orange Jell-O.
“Well done, little knight,” said Loretta. “You took the game off the board.”
“I was never one for board games,” I said with another flourish of the sword. “I guess it’s your turn now.”
If it was possible, Loretta’s smile got even wider. And she charged. She was ten yards away now, and she lowered her head like a rhino. Nine yards away. Eight, seven.
When she was five years away, I flung my knife. I was never great at knife-throwing. Even when I was practicing regularly, I could never make the blade hit the target. It had been almost a year since I trained, so I considered myself lucky to make contact. The hilt bounced off her shoulder with enough force to slow her down a hair. She had been
coming at me with the speed of a wrecking ball. Now she was closing in on as fast as a professional linebacker. She was just slow enough for me to slam the sword into the European beak that was her nose.
She went down, clutching at her face. I ran forward, hoping to get the sword to her throat before she could recover. She twisted like a cobra, though, and sprang to her feet. “Well played, little knight,” she said. “But you’ve lost your little blade.”
“That’s okay,” I said, giving the sword another spin. “I still have the big one.”
Loretta grinned. “My turn.”
Suddenly, she was on me, so fast I never saw her coming. I landed hard on my back as her hands wrapped around my wrists. She slammed my sword-hand once, twice, three times against the floor until my fingers opened instinctively. The sword clattered to the floor. She punched me in the face until blood ran from my nose.
Loretta leaned down and licked the blood from my lips. She threw back her head and crowed, “I knew it! You taste so good, little knight.” With her free hand, she tossed my sword away. It landed somewhere in the dark. “And now you’ve lost the big blade, too. What will you do?” She shook her head like a dog coming out of the ocean, and her beautiful human face reasserted itself. “What do you say, little knight? I believe I’ve won the game.”
Then she gripped my chin between her thumb and forefinger. She forced my face to hers.
I tried to fight, but she was too strong.
I looked into her eyes.
And everything went black.
Chapter 31
I came to in darkness. A storm raged, somewhere in the distance, violently audible, but I couldn’t see it. Wind howled in a black-clouded sky. Something buzzed nearby like angry hornets.
Beyond all of that, I heard laughter. A woman’s laugh, throaty and raw and powerful.
“Dave?”
This was a different woman’s voice, quieter and closer. I blinked and had to force myself to look around me.
Near me, standing alone in the darkness, was Krissy.
“Dave, is that you?”
Dave Carver (Book 1): Thicker Than Blood Page 20
