by Jeff Hale
Aerick went after them, driving them back, the swords a definitive danger. The lead female vampire watched Aerick with slitted eyes, still not joining in as her companions harried Aerick.
“Cowards!” she screamed at them as Aerick continued to keep them at bay. “Kill them already!”
Two male vampires pressed the attack, coming in at Aerick from either side, their shapes a blur at how fast they were moving. Aerick countered them, impaling one with the ice blade in a backwards stab, then pushing off and using the momentum to body slam the second, knocking him back several feet and giving Aerick enough time to burn the one stuck on the frost sword with a fiery blast from the hand holding the flame weapon. I was suddenly reminded of that odd phone call from the cop in Vegas, questioning me about Aerick and arson, and now I wasn’t so sure.
I also wasn’t sure whether fire killed vampires or not, but the vampire screamed, his skin charring and crackling, making me want to gag from the smell, and lay still on the ground. The ice blade winked out of existence just as Aerick cut through the body with his fire blade, and this one, too, vanished in a small explosion of energy.
I heard the crack of lightning overhead like I had earlier, and looked up to see dark and furious clouds rolling in on us from a previously clear night. Lightning flashed, and the bolt seared the ground between us, making us both jump. We both looked toward the lead vampire, saw that she was concentrating on the localized storm, and Aerick sent a second blast of flame in her direction. The vampire never moved her eyes, but suddenly she wasn’t there, the flame dissipating into the night, and I heard her laughter from behind us. We both turned to face her.
“Silly boy, did you think I was as weak at these?” She indicated the remaining vampires. She looked down at the ground, saw the homeless man that I had injured not far from her and strode toward him. She put a foot on his neck, pressing hard, the man’s eyes bulging as he tried to breathe, and then there was an audible crunch as she crushed his neck. “Can’t have witnesses, now can we?”
“I know who you work for, bitch!” Aerick yelled out, dropping into a defensive stance as he glared at her.
“Do you, now? And yet you still try to protect the little cat? Foolish sorcerer!” she sneered out, gesturing with her hands to her minions.
One of the other vampires lunged in at us again, actually managing to get hold of me. He knocked me onto my back, my teeth snapping at his face, claws sinking into his flesh as he tried to get a purchase on me.
I growled; my fangs were bigger and longer than his, and I tore into what I could get a hold of, his shoulder. I expected blood when I bit him, surprised when there was none, and did my best to savage his shoulder from the rest of him. He quit struggling and I heard a thud; Aerick had removed his head and it had fallen to the ground beside me. The head and the body on top of me dissolved in a shower of energy again. I got my paws underneath me, shook myself; we still had two left.
The two lesser vampires closed in on us, trying to flank us. The localized storm still crackled overhead and I could feel its energy pulsing around us and through me. I flattened myself as close to the ground as possible, lashing out at legs and feet as another bolt struck the grass inches away from me.
It was a good thing I did. Aerick let loose with a backwards kick over my head that sent one of them flying, then swung the leg around, using its momentum to send him into a spin, both the fire blade and the newly resummoned ice blade making brilliant patterns in the night as they spun with him, catching the other vampire off guard, the magic blades cutting through her like so much melty butter. She dispersed in a flash of power.
I snarled as I felt hands grab me, pulling me backwards. The one Aerick had kicked away had taken advantage to move back up on me. I squirmed in his grip, sinking claws into him. I had seen that they died if beheaded, so I aimed all my attacks for that area, claws, fangs, shredding the skin and pulling with all my strength.
The vampire wrapped his arms around me, trying to crush me, but I planted my hind paws in his stomach and rabbit kicked, breaking the hold. I felt heat near my tail from Aerick’s blade driving into the vampire’s lower body just as I felt his head finally pull free from his neck with a sickening tear, and he turned into so much energy. I shook myself, got my footing and looked toward the remaining vampire, the leader.
She was pissed now, I could tell. She pulled three bolts of lightning from the sky and hurled them successively at Aerick, trying to shut him down. He reflected the first one with a quickly conjured shield of ice, the ice melting as rapidly as it had been formed. The second he countered with a fire blast of his own, the flames meeting the lightning halfway and both dispersing into the darkness. The third actually caught him on the left side as he tried to roll out of the way and I heard him grunt in pain.
Aerick sprang to his feet, barely noticing the electrical burn despite the thin wisp of smoke that came from his shirt. He was advancing on her now, slashing at her with the blades, and I watched the intricate dance as she dodged each of Aerick’s attacks artfully; she had given up on her storm, unable to keep her concentration on it. She tried to close with Aerick several times and I could see the frustration growing on her face as Aerick kept her away.
She snarled when Aerick’s ice blade finally made its mark on her skin, the vampire’s hand going to the long gash on the opposite arm. “You’re not a sorcerer!” she gasped out, then she gave me a final baleful look before she retreated and vanished into the night.
Aerick didn’t let his guard down, waiting patiently for the vampire’s next attack, but it never came, and after a quarter hour of vigilance we both came to the conclusion that the vampire had recognized that eventually Aerick would kill her, and that she had fled for her life. It also meant she would probably be calling in reinforcements.
I pushed the cat back down into hiding, my human skin feeling tight and almost constraining now as I shifted back. Aerick shook his head and blinked at me a few times.
“You’ve been keeping secrets, Katelyn,” he admonished softly, still not dropping his guard, but he dismissed both his blades. He pulled a cell phone from the pocket of his black jeans and dialed a number.
I looked him up and down. “I’m not the only one it seems.” I shivered, despite the warm June air. I was naked after all. Now that we were out of immediate danger, my modesty seemed to be coming back and I tried ineffectually to cover myself.
Aerick had the cell phone to his ear, but he saw my efforts and pulled his t-shirt off over his head, tossing it to me. Moonlight shone on toned bare flesh, but I was too tired and emotionally drained to appreciate the view he presented. I did notice that the wound from the lightning seemed to be gone, somehow healed.
I pulled the t-shirt on, thankful that Aerick had a muscled enough physique and was tall enough to need a larger size. It barely covered me, and had a burn hole in the side, but it was better than nothing at all.
“What the hell happened to that burn she gave you?” I asked, pointing to his side.
“Ice blade. It drains their life and heals me,” he said, then turned his attention back to the phone. “Nina? Are you in Richland yet?” he asked, and I pricked my ears up.
I hadn’t seen Nina since the evening of the Senior Party; between the vampire attack and the world going apeshit, there just hadn’t been a chance.
“Yeah, I took off as soon as you called. There’s a cop been staring at me for the last ten minutes,” she told him, then laughed tightly.
“Okay, I need you to GPS this intersection and come get us just as quick as you can. We need to get out of here.” He was walking as he talked, me following almost on his heels and he stopped at the intersection to read the names of the two streets. “Craighill and Comstock.”
“Gotcha. Might take me a couple minutes… wait, what? Are you here already?” she asked, disbelief evident in her voice.
“Yes, you need to hurry, Nina.”
“Working on it, working on it. How in hell did you get from Las Vegas to Ric
hland in less than an hour and a half?”
“I had some friends teleport me.”
Nina snorted into the phone. “Well you’ll just have to put up with normal transport back I guess. I got ya on the GPS, I’m about three minutes away as long as that cop doesn’t decide to follow me. Where are we headed to once I get you two? Back to Kat’s?”
“No.”
I grabbed Aerick’s shoulder. “Rick, I need to go back home, my mom is probably about ready to have a coronary!”
Not to mention the fact that there would be three pissed off supernaturals if I wasn’t returned safe.
He snapped his cell phone shut. “There are vampires after us, Kat, and that bitch that took off is going to come back with more, guaranteed. Do you really want to drag them back to your house? Sure, they probably know where you live, but if you’re there, they’ll kill everyone in their way to get to you.”
He was right. If I was at home, then my mother and Kris wouldn’t be safe. “Then where are we going?”
“I’m taking you home with me, back to Vegas. Vampires aren’t welcome there and there are some… rather powerful beings that make sure they know it. I know it’s a long way, but it’s the only way I can be sure you’ll be safe.”
“Can I at least call my mom and let her know?” I held my hand out for his phone.
He shook his head. “If you think there aren’t any of them watching your house right now, you’d be stupid. They have powers, and not all of them have the same ones. One of them overhears the phone conversation to your mom and we have them dogging our asses the whole way to Vegas.” He gave me a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry, Kat, but I am not taking any chances with your life, with Nina’s life, hell with my life. I’m good, but they know what I am, and they send enough pure bloods, I’m not sure I can handle them all.”
I pouted at him, folding my arms over my chest.
He laughed dryly. “It’s only a fifteen hour trip, fourteen the way Nina drives. Your mom will survive. You can call her when we get there, let her know you’re okay and where you are. Wouldn’t she rather know you were someplace the vampires would have a harder time getting to you, than trying to outrun them?”
I nodded curtly, still not happy about the situation, but trusting him to know what was best. I heard a car engine and tensed up, but when I turned to look, it was Nina’s SUV. We didn’t waste any time, getting into the vehicle almost before she got it stopped. I sat in the back seat while Aerick rode shotgun.
“Jesus, Kat, what the hell happened to your clothes?” Nina asked, glancing at me in the rearview mirror.
I smiled wryly. “I shifted, so I guess they’re lying back there where…” I didn’t finish, not wanting to remember what else was there. I saw Cody’s face again and I squinched my eyes shut against the tears that threatened.
“There’s a duffel bag in the back there, I’ve got some stuff that should fit, just pull out what you want,” Nina told me.
“Thanks, Nina.”
I leaned over the back of the seat, found the duffel bag and began to paw through it, ignoring Nina’s whistle; Aerick’s t-shirt wasn’t doing a very good job of covering my ass. I finally found the only things that weren’t extremely revealing; a red shirt and pants pajama set that was covered with little black cats and, ironically enough the words ‘Naughty Kitty’ emblazoned all over it. But it would cover me. I appropriated a pair of underwear, or at least what Nina considered underwear, as well; unfortunately, her bras would be too small.
We drove through the rest of the night, keeping to the outskirts of any town we might pass through. Aerick had no plans for us to stop for anything other than gas, bathroom breaks, and food. I fell asleep somewhere around five a.m. and didn’t wake up again until we stopped at a rest area. My sleep had been troubled, full of visions of death, of pale vampire faces, and Cody’s eyes.
We stretched our legs at the rest stop and I took advantage of the running water to wash as best I could. Aerick had reclaimed his t-shirt and kept a watchful eye while Nina and I used the facilities.
There were vending machines there, full of candy, chips and soda, and Aerick tossed his wallet my way as he headed to the men’s room. I opened it up to fish a few bills out, my gaze briefly captured by a photo inside of younger Aerick with a petite blonde girl. I knew that he had had a serious girlfriend when he was younger, and that she had died. I could only guess that this must be her.
Feeling guilty, as though I had invaded his privacy, I yanked the money out and flipped the wallet shut. Nina and I then raided the machines, getting snacks and drinks and I handed Aerick his wallet back when he returned, not mentioning the picture.
It was a little after noon and we still had a few hours ahead of us, but so far there were no signs that we were being followed and I hoped that the daylight would only hinder them more. I knew that hybrids, or at least Matt, didn’t need to sleep during the day, but I didn’t know what the sun might, or might not do to regular vampires.
It seemed Aerick was right; with no way to know that we would be fleeing Richland, or if we did, where we would go, our drive was blissfully uneventful. We came into Las Vegas at late afternoon, hitting the first of many military checkpoints that we got through fairly easily once Aerick showed them his ID.
Aerick had told us the place was still in major upheaval when he left, so to expect delays because we might not be able to make a straight shot through to our destination, a place called the Velvet Flame, where Aerick had once taken me on a double date.
Aerick explained that a friend of his, a very powerful person named Lucien, owned the nightclub, and that currently it was being used as a sanctuary of sorts for supernaturals and anyone else who needed it. It was off the Strip, near the Treasure Island, but according to Aerick, the Strip had turned into something like a mini warzone; anyone traveling through it was fair game although the military did their best to keep things as under control as possible.
Before we even got to the Strip, I could see a lot of the damage that Vegas had sustained. There were many buildings that had been recently burned to the ground, others with new graffiti, debris and garbage littering the properties. Despite everything, there were more people moving about than you would have figured, including many small groups who seemed to be roving the town armed. They seemed more like Old West posses than gangs.
The Strip was a mess. There wasn’t a casino or hotel that hadn’t been damaged, one way or the other, some more so than others; the ones with the least damage, where building code safety wasn’t really an issue, were already back in business, the city trying to lose as little revenue as possible.
Broken glass glittered in the sunlight, chunks of metal and concrete strewn everywhere. The fountains outside the Bellagio were still, the fake volcano at the Mirage was stuck continuously erupting, the Stratosphere had an alarming tilt to it, and one of the ships in the Treasure Island pools had been actually sunk. The Luxor seemed to have gotten the worst of it; the Sphinx that had sat outside was gone, as was half the casino.
Despite all the destruction, repairs were already underway just about everywhere you looked. Men and women in hard hats hauled old materials out and new ones in, and cranes and winches moved heavier objects. But that wasn’t the surprising part; mixed in with human workers were others who clearly were not. Some looked completely inhuman, with wings and multi-hued skins, scales and feathers, horns and tails. Others were like Aerick, sorcerers, using their magic to help lift and direct glass and wood. As I watched, one young female sorcerer not much older than myself made an intricate gesture with her hands, and the dirt and concrete surrounding a crater in a nearby intersection began to shudder and move, finally reforming to fix the street. At the rate the supernatural workers were going, within a week you wouldn’t be able to tell that anything had even happened.
A couple of gunshots rang out from a block or two away as Nina drove us determinedly to the Velvet Flame, where it was nestled almost across the street from the Trea
sure Island. Almost immediately, two winged fae, the rest of their bodies covered in shimmering blue armor of some sort, flew off in the direction of the shots, presumably to investigate and deal with it.
Nina pulled around to the back of the building. There was a parking garage back there, and as we pulled into the entrance, a human enough looking man came over to the window and looked inside. He smiled at Nina, giving her a nod, then tipped his head to Aerick. He glanced towards me, his bright red eyes intense in their scrutiny, and Aerick told him that I was with them. He made a motion with his head, then waved us through, Nina quickly finding a place to park.
We all climbed tiredly out of the SUV, Aerick leading us over to what looked like an elevator door. But when we got in, Aerick didn’t hit any buttons for a floor. Instead, we waited for a minute, then doors on the other side opened.
It hadn’t felt like we had gone anywhere, but these new doors opened out into a huge room. It looked like a dance club to me, and the music was almost deafeningly loud, the bass making the multicolored glass floor vibrate. Strobe lights came to life at various points around the room, part of the laser light show that swirled its way across the high ceiling and walls. The walls and floor were lined with tubing that lit up as actual flames shot through them, running from deep red to blue white.
Straight ahead as we entered was a small sectioned off dining area for those who wanted to watch people dance while they ate. Four bars formed a broken square in the center of the dining area, assuring that no one would be waiting long. At the moment there were two bartenders, a male and a female, one meticulously inspecting glasses, and the other in the process of pouring drinks. There were a few people at the tables, as well as five people standing around the bar waiting for their drinks. They were dressed in anything from jeans to minidresses.
At the midway point of each side of the nearest dance floor was a raised platform that sported a dancing cage, but only one of them had an occupant at this time. He, and I was surprised it was a he, wore very little; a pair of shiny red hot pants and buckle bedecked suspenders. His hair was frosted bleach blonde on brown and he wore heavy eyeliner, but even the makeup didn’t detract from the fact that he had a well-toned body and face to make girls cry. Possibly some guys as well.
