by K. F. Breene
“Agnon? That’s the demon’s name?”
He nodded. There was an opportunistic gleam in his eyes, and another wave of fear washed over me.
This was bad. I needed to get out of here.
And, of course, it was at that moment that my coffee arrived. Vlad got one, too, before the vampire lackey headed outside.
At least I only had one vampire to contend with if things went sour. Granted, that one vampire was probably too much for me to handle without burning down the coffee shop, but I’d definitely give it the ol’ college try. Seattle had plenty of coffee shops; they wouldn’t miss one.
“I really have no idea, Vlad,” I said, wrapping my hands around the warmth of the paper cup. “Like I said, I was brought here to track down a few mages who were sacrificing people in order to call a level-four demon. This new situation is as surprising to me as it is to you. Surprising, and daunting. I’m going to have to rely on my mage friends to banish it.”
He studied me in silence, his dark eyes holding mine. Suddenly, I was overcome with an intense urge to crumble at his feet and beg to reveal all I knew. I could feel it weighing on my shoulders and churning my guts. I didn’t know if this was some special superpower of his, or just the desire to buckle under his obvious expectations, but it was potent.
Vlad took a slow sip of coffee before carefully setting his cup back onto the table. “What would you say if I told you that the aswang you defeated started its journey in Northern California, and made a beeline from there to New Orleans? Straight to your house.”
I felt my brow lower as I tried to process what he’d said. “Huh?”
I didn’t quite get there.
“I was sure Darius knew about that. No matter.” He leaned back and crossed an ankle over his knee. “I see he has taken your blood.”
I flinched, but stopped myself from reaching for my neck. A vampire’s saliva healed the bite wound pretty quickly. Teamed with my healing capabilities, I knew that mark, and any others, were long gone.
“I promised Roger that Darius could take from me if he needed to, that’s all,” I said. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
His smile spoke volumes. He knew Darius and I had gotten a lot more intimate than the mere taking of blood.
That was embarrassing.
“As of late, Darius has made a habit of guarding you very closely,” Vlad went on. “You, and any information about you. Any records regarding your past or present have been hidden or destroyed. Even that which should be public record. For a vampire who has always relished having no ties from which he can’t immediately walk away, I find this curious. And now a demon shows up on the surface, looking for something it appears to value highly, and you just happen to show up at the same place, nearly at the same time. All these elements are a recipe for a hearty soup.”
“I don’t know much about soup, but Darius just wants what he can’t have. That’s the long and short of it. He wants to control me, and I want to stab him with sharp things.”
Vlad took another sip of coffee, his eyes still glued to mine. It felt like he was peeling back the front of my forehead to get a peek at my thoughts. I felt completely naked. Utterly exposed to his prying.
If I stayed here, I was bound to reveal something I didn’t want to.
How many times do you need to come to that conclusion before you stand up and walk out, idiot?
“What is it that makes you so unique, Reagan Somerset? What has this demon come to the surface to find?” He paused. His head tilted. “What has Darius stumbled upon?”
“Blood that tastes better than it smells, if he can be believed.” I rose and turned toward the door.
There was a blur of movement, and Vlad was suddenly blocking my way. Someone in the cafe gasped.
His smile had turned feral. “It is in your best interest to sit back down, Miss Somerset. We are not done speaking.”
Mad shivers driven by adrenaline worked through my body. This was about to get real. Where were the shifters when you needed them? “Yes, we are.”
Vlad’s body loosened, about to make a move. I braced myself, my power pounding within me.
Outside, a body flew across the length of the cafe window. It landed out of sight. The door swung open and in walked the best sight I’d ever seen.
“Vlad,” Darius said in a quiet whip crack of a voice. “Step away from her.”
Vlad’s eyes crinkled and his head tilted toward me, just a fraction. Approval. For what, I had no idea.
He turned around slowly, facing a vampire taller and broader than himself. Of course, that didn’t mean anything. Not to vampires their age.
“I was just speaking of you,” Vlad said, not stepping to the side. “You’ve thoroughly covered her in your scent. Was that by design?”
“I’ve already submitted the bonding paperwork,” Darius said, thankfully ignoring that gross question. “Per the bylaws, she has been claimed until they come to a decision. She is under my protection. You are wasting your time here.”
“I can easily deny your request,” Vlad responded.
“You could try.” The power and confidence in Darius’s voice fluttered my insides. “Of course, you would have to wait for Winston to return from his pilgrimage. The request is frozen until such a time. You know what it means to flout our laws.”
I shifted enough to see the sly grin soak up Vlad’s face. “I have taught you well. Too well, perhaps.” He took a step toward Darius and lowered his voice. “What have you found, old friend? It must be a diamond in the rough for you to act like this. Curiosity is eating away at me.”
Darius ignored that question, too. “Have you made contact with the demon?”
A predatory gleam flashed in Vlad’s eyes. “Let’s step outside.”
Darius pushed open the door, and both men looked at me, waiting for me to go first.
“You try to kidnap me, stalk me, threaten me, manipulate me, but oh look, you’ll hold the door for me,” I mumbled. “You guys are something else.”
“Is that not what you desire?” Vlad asked, following me out the door. Darius moved to my side, placing himself between Vlad and I.
“No. I’d rather be left alone.”
Vlad smiled like he didn’t believe me. To Darius, he said, “From what I can gather, the demon is from a sect known for their ambition. They have power in plenty, and play the game well. They’ve sent Agnon to the surface, promising rewards if it completes its mission. That’s all anyone knows, but the…coincidences are telling.” Vlad glanced at me.
“How does this demon affect your plans?” Darius asked.
Vlad spread his hands. “Not at all. I am merely along for the ride.”
“And the mages in the area—do they have any bearing on your intentions?”
“From what I hear, your people have already started to dabble in the politics of this area. I’ve granted you the professional courtesy of staying clear. I am not meeting with anyone outside of this specific situation while I am here.”
I frowned up at Darius. What sort of dabbling was he doing, and why wasn’t he helping me more if he had connections?
If Darius saw my questioning gaze, he didn’t let on. He nodded at Vlad. “I’ll see you in the lair.”
“I’ll look forward to hearing about this exquisite treasure you’ve collected.” Yuck.
Vlad bowed to us and then reached out his hand. The male vampire melted out of the night and handed over my phone. Before he turned away, I was the recipient of an intense scowl.
“Dude, you started it. Just be glad your face healed,” I said. His scowl deepened.
“Here you go, Reagan.” Vlad handed it to me. “Take care of yourself.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled.
Vlad’s eyes twinkled as he bowed again. “Something tells me I’m going to regret passing you off to Darius. Ah well. Such is life. You can’t be lucky all the time.” He winked before he turned and strode away.
“Lucy, you have some ’splaining to do,
” I said to Darius as I pulled up the text message app on my phone.
Immediately, an outgoing message from me to Darius caught my eye. It informed him I’d meet him at the hotel in a half-hour.
The vamp must have sent it, but Darius hadn’t known that.
“You ignored my text, I see.” I pulled up an old group message between Callie, Dizzy, and myself.
“I knew you didn’t send it.”
“How?”
“It was much too polite.”
I nodded, because that was a good call, as I texted Callie and Dizzy where to meet us. When that was done, I turned my attention back to Darius. “What’s this about the aswang?”
I pointed to the right because I needed something to eat, and there was a restaurant down the way.
“Vlad knows about that, does he?” I barely heard Darius sigh.
“The question is, why don’t I know about that?”
“I wanted more evidence. When I got it, I had other things on my mind.” His touch slid down my back and across the top of my butt. I wiggled out of the way, knowing exactly what had been on his mind. “It seems my fears—our fears—are coming to fruition. The demon from—”
“I know that part. What I don’t know is how the aswang fits into this.”
“The aswang that you killed didn’t come from New Orleans. Or anywhere in Louisiana. It left a chain of murder victims across the country. If one painted a line on the map, stringing those murders together…”
“You’d get that Northern California town.” I let out a breath slowly.
“The aswang fed every so often en route to New Orleans, stopping and killing one person before moving along. Its first feed in town was across the street from your house.”
“It was spooked off from there, I think,” I said.
“Yes. But it didn’t leave town quickly, as it had done on those other stops. It lingered, killing again. And again. I believe that was to gain strength. Only after the last feed did it try to infect you.”
“It wouldn’t have succeeded, and not because of stupid Garret firebombing my face. So then what?”
“I’m not sure. But it seems that the powerful demon sent the aswang to you specifically. Then it came here, possibly hijacking the mages’ summons—”
“Everyone knows these things can happen but me. Why is that?”
“—and when the aswang failed in its duty, whatever it might’ve been, you were sent for. The demon is trying to suss out your power. There can be no other explanation.”
“I was sent for by Seattle PD, though. And even if the MLE office had a hand in my coming, I doubt any of them hold hands with demons.”
“The demon, no. The mages summoning the demon, however, had already stopped the MLE office from investigating. How hard would it be for one of the mages to put a bug in the detective’s ear and call in reinforcements from your branch? Specifically, you, the number one bounty hunter in the country. The human detective would go along with that in a heartbeat. And he did.”
“Except I’m not number one. I’m literally a nobody. That’s a long shot.”
“You worked directly with Detective Smith just once, and that was enough to make him your biggest fan.”
I gave up arguing. It didn’t change the situation.
“I’m not sure the demon wants to meet me face to face,” I said. I told Darius about the crime scene and what had happened afterward.
“That stands to reason. It’s looking for the heir to the Dark Kingdom; it must assume you are all-powerful, like your father.”
“Joke is on him. Or me, I guess, depending on how you look at it.”
Darius’s eyes softened. He stopped me and reached up, waiting for my flinch to subside before he ran a thumb across my lips. A fierce explosion of heat blasted through me. My lady bits tightened up—half painful, half pleasurable.
“Nope.” I slapped his hand away. Now was definitely not the time. I had a level-five demon on my ass. I had to stay focused.
“Together, with the Banks,” he said in a low, intimate voice, ignoring my reaction, “we can defeat it. I will keep you safe, Reagan.”
“I think it’ll definitely be a team effort. Okay, game face. I need to find addresses for those mages the bartender named. After I scarf down a quick bite, let’s hook up with Callie and Dizzy, and we’ll pay them a visit.” I threw up a finger at him. “And don’t, for one minute, think I am ignoring the fact that you initiated the bonding stuff. We will most certainly circle back to that.”
“I am looking forward to it.”
“You really shouldn’t be. It isn’t going to go well for you.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
An hour and a half later, I was crouched in a hedge with Callie and Dizzy, staring at the front door of a house that was about a half-hour outside of Seattle. The area was on the rural side, with the next house probably a half-acre to an acre away, separated by trees and wild grasses. In front of us, a wicked spell twisted and turned, invisible to the naked eye. This wasn’t a mere surveillance spell, like the one we’d encountered at the other house—it was designed for active security. Out in the boondocks, this mage wanted to make sure his homestead was protected. I bet the neighbors knew to steer clear of this whacko.
“What’s the plan?” Callie asked, her hand in her satchel.
I glanced off to the right, where Darius waited in deep shadow. He hadn’t wanted to join us in the spider-web-infested bush for some reason.
“Cut down the spell and charge in?” I asked. “I did the creeping around thing with the last one, and that was the pits.”
“Should we go through the front, or the back?” Dizzy whispered. “The light we saw was at the back.”
We’d taken a tour of the outside, monitoring the complex spell, seeing if it wrapped around the whole house. It did.
“Or we could split up,” I said. “After I slice down the spell, I’ll hit the back, and you come in through the front. Darius can wait at the side. At the sliding glass door. Unless the mage jumps out a window, we’ll have him.”
“This is probably a stupid question, but can Darius hold his own against a mage of reasonable power?” Callie asked.
“Yes, that is a stupid question.” I dug in my pouch. “We can also make the spell go boom. That’d get him all excited. Maybe he’d do something stupid.”
“Whatever we do, we’ll get him excited. I doubt this guy has seen half as much power on his doorstep as what we’re packing.” Callie squinted in the darkness. “Judging by the complexity of this spell, its power, and the way it’s set up, I’m guessing we’ve found the lead mage.”
“I agree.” Dizzy dug into his satchel before extracting a leafy plant. “A mage such as this would want to be in charge. He’d want underlings. It would stand to reason he’s the lead.”
“Happy days,” I whispered. “Remind me to pay a visit to that bartender and thank him.”
“Joe, you mean?” Callie asked.
“I have no idea. I had Darius with me, remember? Shifters don’t play nice with vampires.” I blew out a breath. “Screw it. Let’s do this. You guys wait until you hear a crash, then run for the door.”
Callie nodded and tucked the flap of her satchel at the back so the interior was open and accessible.
I crouch-ran behind the row of shrubbery until I reached the edge and straightened up. I stuck to the deep shadows, and Darius fell in behind me a moment later. “Side door,” I whispered, moving quickly.
Without a word, he peeled off.
The blood must’ve worked. He wasn’t being overprotective. That was good news.
Fire raged within me as I jumped over a rock and made for the back door. Deep down, I also felt that pounding cold, pulsing like a beacon, yelling at me to use it. I wished it would also yell instructions.
I slipped through the gate and around the back, heading toward the porch. Stripes of light glowed between the cracks in the curtains. A wind chime lay, twisted and broken, on the ground
next to a beam of wood supporting the roof.
Magic vibrated across my skin, singing the current of the spell. He hadn’t encircled his whole yard, just the area around his house, and not far out. So, he was more worried about B&E than Peeping Toms. Interesting.
What did he do about pizza deliveries?
I pulled out my sword as that cold lump of power inside me started to grow. It ate away the edges of the fire, cannibalizing my power.
What in holy hades? I braced my hand to my chest.
My heart started to beat faster, and I had no idea why. Sweat beaded on my forehead and upper lip. My chest constricted, squeezing the breath out of my lungs, nearly cutting off my air supply.
The cold power throbbed now, pounding outward. Taking over. Stifling.
I squeezed my eyes shut, focusing on the fire. On the power I knew how to control. Otherwise, I’d be a sitting duck for this mage, unable to throw magic of my own, and when my sword ran out of stored power, equally unable to slice through his attacks.
“I feel you.”
I jumped in fright at the horrible rasp that crawled over my skin like a centipede, and spun. Rocks flew out from all around me, focused in their assault. They struck a human man with a crooked smile and unusually widened eyes standing within a cluster of bamboo. The bamboo stalks bowed away from him, creaking, before swinging back and thwapping his body.
Did I do that?
He staggered out, his hands raised to ward the attack away, but his smile grew. He rose into the sky, feet completely off the ground, and shoved his hands backward. His shoulders popped out of the sockets. The cluster of bamboo snapped and cracked before flattening like gale-force winds had blown through it. Then the plants ripped up from the ground. Dirt clung to their roots before the whole lot was flung away by unseen hands.
Holy balls, that was a lot of power. I wasn’t facing a mage, but a demon who had complete control over a human’s body.
I felt my hands fist as an uncomfortable truth accosted me.
It was the demon. The level five. I could feel the strength of his power smacking against me, pulsing in time to the coldness within. Pushing down my fire.
