by Skye Knizley
"Shit," Raven muttered.
"Ravenel?"
"I killed all the vampires in the lab and someone else set me up for killing their boss. I might have already killed the mage I'm looking for."
The Mambo straightened and pulled two jars of beans, one black and one white, from the shelf behind her.
"Hold out your hands, girl!" she instructed.
Raven complied and watched as the Mambo poured a quantity of beans from each jar into Raven's hands, white in her left and black in her right.
"Now cup your hands and mix the beans and pour them on the counter," Marie said, pulling a pencil from her hair.
Raven rolled the beans between her hands and then poured them into a neat pile on the counter. Using her pencil the Mambo removed beans three at a time until only one bean was left, a white one.
"Baron Samedi says the witch and the one who holds her leash are both still out there," Marie said, putting the beans in the trash. "I am sure you will find them, in time."
"Time isn't something I have a whole lot of," Raven replied. "What kind of spell is causing this? Does it require any special trappings or somewhere to cast it from?"
"You know as well as I that trafficking with the dark side of magik is a dangerous game," Marie said. "You would need willingly donated vampire blood, pieces of the victim's hair or fingernails and a dark altar upon which to cast the spell."
"Vampire blood seems to be given freely all over this damn city," Raven groused. "They can pick up a pint at Club Purgatory if they want. The altar could be a little trickier. Would it be small, something portable or would it have to be something solid and permanent?"
"The magik that turns vampire blood into Forsaken blood is the darkest of magik, Ravenel my child. It can only be created on a permanent dark altar in a place of great evil."
"I figured. I don't suppose you know of such a place?" Raven asked hopefully.
Marie shook her head and there was hurt in her eyes. "Child, you have known me since you were, but a girl," Marie said. "You know I do not traffic in such things and haven't since before you were born."
"I'm sorry, Marie," Raven said, squeezing the Mambo's hand. "It's the cop in me. Forgive me?"
"Always, my girl," Marie said with a smile.
Raven smiled back and leaned across the counter to kiss Marie's cheek. "I'd better go before someone starts looking for me. Thank you for your help."
"You're welcome, love."
Raven exited the store and hurried back to the Bass, which was sitting right where she'd left it. She was reaching to open the door when she spotted a wooden box sitting on the roof. The box was wrapped with a purple bow and a note flapped in the wind. Raven picked up the box and sat in the car, out of the cold wind.
Ray (the card read)
I know you didn't nail DeGrey. I've got all the evidence, but Frost
acts like he is completely blind to what is about to bite his nose.
Thought you might need this. And if you're looking for that
Dark Altar, try the ruins beneath the abandoned church at Sag Bridge.
I wasn't always your favorite technician.
~ hugs
Aspen
Raven opened the box and almost screamed with joy. Inside was her Automag, a new Uncle Mike's shoulder holster and two fully-loaded magazines with a third in the gun.
"Aspen, I am going to kiss you when I see you!" she exclaimed.
She slipped out of her jacket; moments later she was slipping it back on to conceal the Automag that now hung comfortably under her left armpit. She hadn't realized how naked she felt without the pistol with her. Now she felt complete, and somehow safe. It was a comforting sensation, but also a little disturbing that she was more concerned about her gun than her badge.
She shook off the sensation and started the Bass' 6.2 liter engine. The steady thrum of the engine was like a mechanical heartbeat. It would never replace Eleanor's angry roar, but it wasn't bad, and she had to admit the interior was far more comfortable than the Shelby had been. The car had in-dash GPS for starters. She punched up the location of Sag Bridge on the car's sat-nav and frowned. Sunrise was only a few hours away, it would be up and people would be about long before she could finish searching the ruins. Besides, a mini skirt, heels and a blouse you could almost see through was hardly the right outfit for the occasion. Her best bet was to head home and get a good day's sleep and start over in the morning.
She sighed and put the car in reverse. When she looked over her shoulder she saw her sister Pandora running up behind her. Raven put her foot on the brake and reached over to open the door for her sister who fell into the seat gratefully. As usual the platinum blonde was dressed in head to toe leather; leather catsuit, under a leather corset, knee high boots with platform heels, wrist length gloves and a collar. She looked like an S&M enthusiast's wet dream.
Pandora slammed the door behind her and pressed the lock button. "I thought I recognized the new toy mother bought for you. We have to get out of here!"
Raven rolled her eyes in annoyance. Pandora had probably seen a mosquito. "Dora, what are you talking about?"
"Renegade soldiers," she replied. "Club Purgatory is crawling with them. They're lining up anyone who is part of our family or has had dealings with us and shooting them! We're next if we don't get out of here! Do that crazy driving you do!"
Raven stared at her older sister as of she'd grown an extra head. "Are you serious?"
"Of course I'm serious!" Dora yelled. "They're everywhere, armed to the teeth and looking for me!"
Raven shook her head. "Not serious about that. Serious we bail on our family and friends. Are you nuts?"
"No, Ray! I'm a fucking coward! Now please, take me home!" Pandora screamed, on the edge of panic.
Raven put the car into neutral. "Give me your wrist!"
"What?" Dora asked in confusion.
"I'm not fully healed from the explosion. Give me your damn wrist!" Raven ordered.
Without further question Dora pulled off her glove and offered Raven one thin wrist. The dhampyr lowered her mouth and bit, drinking deep of her sister's claret. When she opened her eyes they'd become angry, feral slits. She pulled free and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand.
"You take the car back to the house," she said. "You get one scratch on it and you're buying me a new one."
"Ravenel…what are you going to do?" Dora asked, pulling her glove back on.
"Take some of these renegade scumbags to school. I'm sick of this crap," she replied.
Raven climbed from the car and began walking determinedly toward Club Purgatory, her heels making an angry clack on the pavement with every step. She held her breath, hoping Pandora would catch up. Instead she heard the Bass' engine roar and the car accelerate away.
Raven shook her head but kept walking. She was Fürstin, after all. The Chosen of the Mistress of the City. Yeah…right. One injured half-vampire against who knew how many vampires, probably armed to the teeth.
For once there was no line outside Club Purgatory and Raven walked straight inside. There was no weapon check-girl either. Raven figured she was inside with everyone else, or worse. It was a bad sign that Pandora was the only one who had escaped.
Raven paused at the plastic curtain and peeked through. Just as Pandora had said, a bunch of black-uniformed vampires were separating the crowd. She recognized her brother Thad, beaten, bloodied and zip-tied to one of the club's dance poles and her sister Gemma tied to another. Friends like Pashta and Bruno and a dozen others huddled against the wall, covered by the armed vampires.
"Damnit, Dora you wuss!" Raven murmured.
Seeing only one choice, Raven kicked off her heels and stepped through the curtain, letting it flap shut behind her. Immediately one of the Renegade guards covered her with his weapon.
"Ah, Ravenel," a voice said. "I was wondering when you'd come to try and rescue these pathetic sheep.
"Pathetic only to you, Xavier," Raven replied to
her unseen brother. "How's my favorite renegade lap-dog?"
"I'd rather be a lap-dog than a blind sheep, sister. Unholster that cannon of yours and drop it behind you if you please."
"Whitey, I know you aren't the smartest man on the short bus, but have you seen the outfit mom has me wearing? Where do you suppose I would hide a weapon?" Raven asked, so cool she could shame an ice-cube.
Xavier appeared in her view, his cocky smile in place beneath his shocking pink eyes and wild white hair. He was dressed in leather pants, combat boots and armor that covered his arms and hands but left his chest bare.
"Good point, Ravenel," he said. "The slut look suits you. Maybe I will make you my pet. Once you are properly broken in, of course."
Raven ignored the barb and replied, "You look good too, bro. What do you call it? 'Stake me please'?"
Xavier sneered and backhanded Raven across the face. She felt blood trickle from the corner of her mouth, but she ignored the tiny rivulet of crimson.
"Is that the best you've got, Whitey? Your boys are watching, you know. They're snickering that big bad Xavier can't take down a dhampyr," she taunted.
Xavier growled and balled up his fist for a roundhouse punch. Raven caught it a few inches from her face. She smiled grimly and twisted. A moment later Xavier was on his back, his arm broken in three places, the bone sticking out from his forearm. Raven kicked his bare ribs hard enough to shatter a few and then stomped on his shoulder-joint, popping it like an overripe fruit leaving his right arm useless, at least for a while.
"So, does anyone else want to play?" she asked, turning away from the whimpering bloodsucker at her feet. "Or are you going to piss off and let my friends and family go?"
Twenty vampires armed with Heckler & Koch submachine guns turned toward her, the rifles ready to fire.
Raven sighed and shook her head in mock sadness. "Yeah. I saw that one coming. Where does he get you guys? Idiots R Us?"
Their first shots rang out where she had been standing a heartbeat later, clipping Xavier as he was regaining his feet. He spun from the impact and dropped back to the floor in a bloody heap like so much raw hamburger. Raven slid behind the bar on her back and drew her Automag. She turned to look back the way she'd come, but the gunfire from the renegade vampires had pushed Xavier out of her line of fire. He'd been lucky they hadn't hit his head or his heart or he'd already be dust and bad taste.
Bullets bounced off the bar and Raven could hear 'Lius screaming for the men to stop shooting up his club. When the shooting finally stopped Raven popped up from behind the bar. The black-garbed vampires were re-loading instead of paying attention, a mistake that cost them dearly. Raven vaulted the bar and fired a single shot while still in the air. Cornelius, standing with Strohm's men, gagged on the 30 caliber bullet and then exploded in a shower of sparks and dust.
Raven just kept moving, the Automag spitting flame until it clicked empty, leaving only fifteen of Strohm's army still standing. The red-haired blur cartwheeled and picked up a fallen Heckler and Koch, firing it with one hand, killing two more vamps and scattering the rest as she leapt up behind Thad. She pulled a knife from his belt and cut the ties from his wrists, letting him collapse to the ground. He nodded his thanks, but clearly was in no shape to fight; blood oozed from his shattered face and dozens of cuts on his torso and arms. Raven handed him the H&K and pushed him off the stage and under cover.
"Thirteen is my lucky number, boys," she called out, replacing the Automag's clip and standing. "Are you still in the game or are you going home to lick your wounds and hope your master doesn't put a stake in you for shear incompetence?"
The vampire soldiers she had scattered gathered themselves into a pyramid-shaped formation and began advancing, their H&K's spitting vampire-slaying rounds. Raven leapt and dodged on the small stage, using the pole to spin like an exotic dancer. Somehow it worked and she somehow always managed to be where the bullets weren't. By the time the army needed to reload again, eight more of them were ash.
Sweat glistened on Raven's exposed skin and blood oozed from a dozen grazes on her arms and legs, wounds that were already healing as she slammed the third magazine into the grip of her Automag.
"And then there were five," she said. "Look, I'm in no mood for this. Has no one explained who I am to you? Okay. I'm Ravenel Estrith Valentina Tempeste, Mistress Valentina's chosen one and Fürstin to the Mistress of the City. You know what that means? It means I can kill you with a napkin if I really have to. Why don't you idiots grab Xavier and haul ass so I can let all these nice people go?"
She glanced at the glowing pile of ash in front of her. "Unless you'd rather join the dust pile? I do have some questions for my idiot brother."
The vampires looked at one another and then, to a man, dropped their rifles and backed away. They paused and lifted the groaning figure of Xavier and dragged him out, never looking back.
Raven holstered her Automag and leapt across to Gemma, who seemed unharmed.
Once she was free, the young-looking ginger-haired girl hugged Raven tight.
"It's okay, sis," Raven said. After the hug continued longer than was comfortable she said "Okay, this is silly, you're a hundred years older than me and I haven't seen you since I was a kid. Let go!"
"Aye, but I'm not a pureblood or a Mistress. Ye saved my life!" Gemma replied in a Scottish accent.
Raven snorted and extricated herself from her sister so she could release everyone else. When she got to Pashta she kissed the woman's cheek before cutting her free. "How do you feel about being the new owner of this place? I believe the current manager has been relieved of his position."
Pashta grinned. "The deed and everything is in the safe. Do you really mean it?"
"Of course. You will have some work to do, but I'm sick of having to kill the bouncer every time I want a club soda," Raven replied, helping the other woman stand.
Pashta laughed. "You've got a deal, Ravenel. Maybe I can really make something of this place now that grease spot Cornelius isn't in the way."
"I'm sure you can and I am sure my mother will approve of you being in charge. Would you get a bottle of claret? I think my brother could use a drink," Raven said.
Pashta nodded and hurried off, rubbing life back into her wrists.
Raven walked back to the stage and knelt next to Thad. He'd been well dressed in a grey suit and burgundy shirt before Xavier and his clowns had gotten a hold of him.
"Hey, T," she said. "How are you feeling?"
Thad sat up against the stage and smirked. "Like my little brother just kicked my ass."
"Pashta is bringing you some claret, you'll be right as rain in a few minutes. Tell me what happened?" Raven asked.
Thad shook his head. "I have no clue, Ray. Gemma had just gotten back to town so we decided to take a night out and we ended up here. A few minutes later Xavier and his goons stormed the place. I didn't even know they were here until they kicked the lycans out and started sorting the crowd into us and what he kept calling sheep. Ray, they fed on anyone that wasn't mom's friends or family. They tossed the bodies out back. They killed twenty or thirty people just to get to us!"
Raven nodded, watching Pashta hurrying toward them with a warm bottle in her hand.
"Yeah, I sort of figured that out when I didn't see people running out of here screaming."
Pashta knelt next to Raven and offered the bottle to Thad who drank from it gratefully.
"T, how come they kicked the crap out of you, but never laid a hand on Gemma?"
Thad wiped his mouth and groaned as his wounds began to heal.
"I think Xavier was working off all those wrestling matches he lost when we were kids," he said. "He never mentioned Gemma other than to say she would burn with the rest of us."
"Did she say why she came home from Canada?" Raven asked, looking to where Gemma was standing with the other survivors.
"I didn't ask, I was just happy to see her. Ray, why are you playing cop?" Thad asked.
&
nbsp; Raven looked back at Thad, who was almost entirely healed from his beating. "Because it's my job. I have someone killing off our family one by one, I have two unsolved murders that may involve magik of some kind and now Gemma is home after, what, fifteen years?"
"That isn't long in vampire years, Ravenel," Thad said in a serious voice.
Raven straightened and used a stage towel to wipe the blood from her legs. "Ugh, don't use your big brother voice on me. If I hadn't come for you, you would both be piles of ash by now. In my years fifteen is a long fricking time and it seems weird she comes home just in time to get you in trouble and be useless."
"She's not pureblood…" Thad started. Raven grabbed him by what was left of his shirt and raised him to eye level.
"Neither am I," she growled. "I am so sick of hearing that shit. You idiots cut yourselves with scalpels so you can see how your arm works, you get your eyeballs tattooed, Pandora has piercings where I didn't even know you could get piercings and you always fall back on who is pureblood and who isn't when the shit hits the fan. You all have mom's blood flowing through your veins. Why don't you fucking act like it and stop rolling over every time some idiot with silver or wood points a gun at you?"
She dropped Thad without waiting for an answer.
"Pash, you have a mess out back, I'm sorry to say. I know Cornelius kept kerosene and flares for just such an emergency and there are old drains to sweep the ash into. If you're very lucky my useless-ass brother may help."
With that she turned on her heel and walked out of the club, muttering, "they aren't half-blooded, they're half-witted."
* * *
The sun was shining through the room darkening drapes in Raven's bed chamber like the beam from God's very own flashlight. Raven groaned and pulled a pillow over her head, guessing she'd been asleep less than two hours.
When the sun refused to go away she got up and pulled the curtains tightly closed and flopped back on the bed, wrapping the blankets around her like a cocoon. She was in that blissful state of being almost asleep, almost awake when someone knocked on the door.
