Page of Swords (The Demon's Apprentice Book 2)

by Ben Reeder

  “Vamps like to make you flinch and they’ll push your buttons, it’s like a game to them,” T-Bone said. “One of ‘em gets in your face, smile. Don’t let ‘em think they got under your skin.”

  Steve nodded, and Shade stepped past Deek and took my hand. The beta snorted as we turned and headed across the road to the gate. We barely got off the main road when a vamp in a black suit appeared in front of us.

  “You are not welcome here,” he hissed at me. He was flashing fang at us, which meant he was taking us seriously enough to be rude.

  “Your Master’s people weren’t welcome in my home, either, but that didn’t stop them.” I told him. “His house is open to me until things are even between us.”

  He lowered his lip over his teeth and glared at me.

  “Big words for a demon’s little bitch,” he said. I took the blood-splattered handkerchief out of my pocket and tossed it at him. He rolled his shoulder to avoid letting it touch him, and I scored the next point in the game.

  “Take that to your Master, and see if I tell the truth. Then, when we get inside, call me that again.”

  He picked it up off the driveway and held it to his nose, then he frowned at me before he disappeared.

  As soon as he was gone, I let my hand fall on the butt of my paintball gun. I’d come armed to the teeth, with my paintball gun strapped to my left leg, my wand and touchstone in my jacket pocket, and a handful of charms wrapped around my right wrist. Going in to a cabal master’s lair with anything less than an arsenal on you was considered an insult if you didn’t know them personally, and Thraxus and I weren’t that close.

  Ten minutes later, the gate opened on its own. Everyone looked at me, and I started walking up the driveway. It was still a hundred yards or so to the house, and common courtesy would have been to send a car down for us whether we started walking or if we waited. The trick was in how long it was before he sent them.

  “So, if he sends a car down, we don’t get in,” Deek said.

  I nodded. It wasn’t that simple, but I didn’t have time to explain. Headlights lit up the ground in front of us, and I struggled to keep my face neutral. Everyone followed my example when I stepped to my right and waited at the side of the drive. A few seconds later, twenty feet of white limo followed the twin cones of light on the ground. It pulled up until the driver’s side window was even with me, and the tinted glass slid down with a hum. Behind it was a blond woman with ample curves in a shirt whose top three buttons had probably never seen a buttonhole. The ones below that strained to stay on the shirt, as they fought to contain what was beneath them. I tried not to stare, but it was like her cleavage had its own gravity. I wondered if even light escaped from it as she turned smoky blue eyes on me and smiled with full red lips.

  “I’m at your service, if you require a ride to the house,” the young woman behind the wheel said. The way she wrapped her voice around the words made it sound like she was offering another kind of ride entirely, and I was sure that was supposed to be the message I got. After all, what else do you send to tempt a fifteen year-old boy?

  Beside me, I could feel Shade tense.

  “Our host’s offer is both gracious and timely. I’m afraid that we can’t accept his generosity right now, if only because it wouldn’t be . . . proper, under the circumstances.” The words were slow and clumsy coming out of my mouth. I’d been talking like a normal person for the past six months, so the slightly formal cadence of the Veiled world took a little work to get back into.

  “If you should change your mind, the offer remains . . . open.” She shifted slightly in the seat, and I could see her knees move under the skirt. Yeah, that was about as subtle as wrecking ball.

  I stepped back, and she gave me a lingering smile as she pulled away. Shade’s glare was a weight on my skin as we waited for her to pass us by on the way back.

  “That wasn’t exactly turning her down,” she growled as she fell in beside me again. Deek chuckled, and earned himself equal time under her scrutiny.

  “I’m still a little rusty, okay? The Graces are a very precise art. It takes practice to get good at them, and more to stay good.” I glanced her way to see if she was going to let it go, but her face hadn’t softened any. Her hand tightened on mine, possessively, however, and I took it as a good omen.

  We made it the rest of the way to the house, and the door opened as we mounted the marble steps. The same guy from the gate was waiting for us, framed in the doorway like a man-shaped hole of darkness against the light. We still weren’t exactly invited in, which meant that I would lose most of my power if I crossed Thraxus’ threshold without being asked in.

  “So, am I still a demon’s bitch, or are you going to take my stuff and make me come in uninvited?” I asked as I got to the door. His eyes narrowed and he stayed in place for a second as we played the game and tried to see who would flinch first. The first option meant he’d have to close the door on me with an open complaint against his Master. His life would last about six seconds longer than his career as a doorman if he took that option. If he took door number two and made me come in unarmed and uninvited, it said to the whole world that his Master considered me a threat. He really had only one option, but the way I’d played it, it made him the one offering it, instead of me asking for it. To his credit, he smiled and stepped aside. He’d chosen door number three. In vampire politics, it meant I was slightly ahead in the game, since I wasn’t one of them. They hated making concessions to mortals.

  “My Lord asks that you come in, and he offers safe passage to you and those with you, if you wish it,” he said. My mouth twisted up into the half-grin my mom hated. Two things offered at once, the first of which I could expect as my due because I had a complaint against one of his people. The second, however, would leave me in is debt if I took him up on it.

  “We accept his invitation, but safe passage is not required. This is a matter of honor, I’m sure we will be able to handle things between us . . . amicably enough.” The doorman smiled, knowing I’d allowed his earlier insult to pass in order to leverage him into letting me keep my weapons. If he was on the dumb side, he would think he’d scored big on me and lose a lot of respect for me. If he was smart, he’d know that a little pride was a small price to pay for surviving the night. He stepped aside and gestured with one hand for us to step past him.

  Shade, Deek, and Steve followed me in. Over my shoulder, I saw them look around in awe. The foyer itself was huge, with a pair of white marble staircases on either side that led to a balcony. A pair of gilt double doors loomed on the far side of the balcony, with another pair below. White double doors on either side led into other sections of the house. A pair of statues missing the arms stood on either side of the foyer, and paintings framed in gold hung on the walls. I didn’t know Rembrandt from Bob Ross, but I was willing to bet all of them were originals, and worth more than some pieces of real estate. Red carpet that was thick enough to lose small pets in was laid in a path from the door to the staircases and the other exits from the room. A heavy chandelier hung in the middle of the room, and antique looking chairs and tables sat in corners, making the room look more welcoming than it was.

  The most disconcerting thing about the room, though, was the vampires scattered around it. One lounged in a chair on the ground floor, in a tux that looked almost a decade out of date. Another leaned on the banister of the right-hand staircase, wearing a leather jacket, a black t-shirt, and jeans. A third, a girl in a little black dress, lounged at the top of the stairs. It took me a moment to even notice them, and that bothered me. Young vamps had a hard time blending in with people because they forgot the basics. They would spend a long time not breathing, or they’d smile with their mouths open. But older vamps, while they could remember the basics better with years of practice, had a whole different level of creep factor when they weren’t putting on the act. They had a way of just going still that made it hard to forget that you were in the room with a walking corpse. Dead people just
don’t fidget or move randomly.

  Steve was stiff and pale beside Deek, and Shade’s hand trembled in mine, though I couldn’t tell if it was from fear or ferocity. Don’t get me wrong; I was having a hard time keeping it together myself. When the doors on the balcony opened, I had to fight the urge to grab my TK wand from my pocket. But then, Steve and I were probably sensing almost the same thing. I could feel the demonic presence press against my mystic senses, and I was sure Steve was getting major evil vibes off the blue-skinned demon that stepped out on to the upper level.

  It wore black robes that concealed most of its body, but its face was easy enough to see. A ring of small spines stuck out of its head and encircled its skull above the ears. Two larger horns curved away from its cheeks and around its face to end up a few inches apart, in front of the raised ridge of cartilage around its nostrils. A bony ridge separated the nostrils and stuck out a little, giving a two-dimensional illusion of a nose. Red eyes with vertical slits stared down at us for a moment, and I got the feeling this was one pissed-off demon.

  “Come,” it said with a voice that sounded like it was chewing rocks. “The Master awaits you.”

  Our escort led us up the left hand side of the stairs, and the female vamp moved to stand to the right side of us as we came up. She eyed Steve up and down, then stepped up to him with a hungry look in her eyes.

  “We like this one,” she said in a dry hiss. “It smells delicious. Fear and impotent anger. We think we’ll take it.” She lunged at him, and the big guy moved.

  I saw his arm as a blur, and the sound of flesh hitting something solid resounded through the foyer. The vamp flew away from him and hit the wall with a thud, then bounced off and hit the ground. Cracks spider-webbed away from where she hit, with the largest one behind where her spine had impacted. She tried to get back to her feet, and I tried to stop Steve. Both of us were too slow. He was on her in a heartbeat and had her held up in the air with one hand around her throat by the time I got to his side. The woman’s smile was fading as his fingers dug into her throat.

  “Choking her is of no use,” the blue-skinned demon said as he reached for Steve.

  I jumped between them and raised my hands.

  “Not trying to choke her,” Steve grunted as the vamp started to struggle against his grip. “Trying to break . . . her neck!”

  Her struggles became more desperate at that.

  “Steve, put her down!” I said over my shoulder to him.

  “No!” he barked. I turned, came around on his offhand side, and grabbed his face to make him look at me. His whole face was red from the effort he was putting into the death grip he had on the vamp, and veins were starting to pop out on his forehead. His eyes were distant, as if he was seeing a completely different world than the one I was standing in.

  “You’re going to get Crystal killed if you do this!” I said.

  His eyes focused on me and his arm lowered. The vampire scuttled back, and I saw the blue demon come around to his side. I had a bad feeling that things were about to start sucking.

  “You dare bring a Nazarite among us?” it grumbled.

  “A what?” Steve and I asked at the same time.

  It did a double take and stared at us for a second.

  “You truly do not know what he is,” it said. We shook our heads, and it gave us a disdainful look. “Perhaps it is best that we allow this to even the balance of things a bit between you and this august house.”

  I weighed that in my head against what I still had to do. I hated to give up even an ounce of the little bit of leverage I had, but if I didn’t, I’d end up with a pissed-off vampire lord and nothing to show for the trip out here.

  “A bit,” I agreed.

  “She was foolish to antagonize one whose first instinct is to kill. Especially an untrained boy.”

  “I apologize for acting in ignorance,” I countered. “I should have known better.”

  We bowed slightly to each other: an acknowledgement between equals for the moment. He turned and led us through the double doors, and into a broad hallway.

  The doors at the end opened before us, and we found ourselves entering a grand ballroom. I sensed a mix of vamps and humans and other races. One cold presence on the edge of my senses seemed to belong to a woman with jet black skin and oversized fangs drinking something out of a skull. Her red eyes looked at me with the kind of hunger that I usually reserved for my mom’s cooking. She smiled around her fangs before she turned away, and I was relieved to see the flame-red ponytail that ran down her back to her tailbone. Rakshasas didn’t usually like to spend a lot of time in U.S., so I was guessing a temporary guest. I looked around and guessed at maybe a hundred people in the room, or to be more accurate, less than fifty ‘people’ and the rest people-ish.

  Then my attention turned to the focal point of the room: the pale guy sitting on the raised platform on the far side of the room. Even though the platform was less than a foot high, it seemed like it was much higher. The man himself was bald, with ears that were pierced along the outside with multiple silver rings and a slightly elongated jaw. Sunken eyes were shadowed by heavy, dark eyebrows, and his fingers seemed too long, even without the claws on his fingertips. The plain, black jacket he wore looked Chinese, with a straight collar and buttons that were slightly off center.

  People milled about below him, vying for his attention, trying to get a scrap of his time. The demonic major domo made that part easy for me.

  “My Lord Thraxus,” he boomed.

  The room went quiet.

  “I present Chance Fortunato, apprentice mage, and advisor to Shade, alpha of the Diamond Lake Pack.”

  The crowd moved away from Thraxus’ chair as he stood to face me with his arms spread slightly.

  “Ah, the Red Count’s escaped apprentice. Welcome to my home, young man.” He gestured for me to come forward with a smile.

  I stepped to the edge of the low dais, and he reached down to put one hand on my shoulder, then he turned to usher me onto it as he moved toward the back of it. A pair of French doors waited at the back.

  “Furcas, please have the musicians strike up an air. Mr. Fortunato and I have a small bit of business to discuss,” he said over his shoulder as we headed for the doors. “Your friends will be seen to, never fear,” he said softly as I looked back over my shoulder. “So long as they have a modicum of good sense, they will leave here in the same shape they arrived.” His voice was a warm tenor, smooth and controlled. I gave Shade a nod, and she let Furcas usher them to one side.

  “That’s reassuring,” I replied as the doors opened before us at a gesture from him.

  “It’s meant to be,” he smiled as we stepped out onto the balcony. “Your lack of respect is hardly endearing.” Below us, I could see the lights of New Essex spread out in front of me like a net of sparkling jewels to the southeast. I put my hands on the stone balustrade.

  “Looks like you have enough people trying to kiss your ass already,” I said. “And, I like to stand out.” To my surprise, he started laughing.

  “It’s refreshing,” he said after a moment. “I don’t think there is enough room to attach another pair of lips at any pass. Pleasantries aside, let us address your claim of trespass. Your proof is a few drops of human blood you claim belongs to one of mine, on a handkerchief. Hardly convincing.” He said it with a smile, with a hint of menace under the light tone.

  “There’s more where that came from. It’s spread pretty randomly around my mom’s kitchen. If a half-trained apprentice like me can follow it to Inferno, then imagine what a fully trained mage could do with a few drops. Or even a wizard like Trevor Corwyn. Besides, you opened your gates to me based on those few drops of blood, so you know they can be traced back to you.”

  I didn’t turn away from the city as I spoke, but I glanced his way to see his eyebrows twitch and the corners of his mouth tighten.

  “Inferno . . .” he said softly. “If you followed him to Inferno, then he is one of Etien
ne’s creatures. Etienne is one of my eldest children, thus one of my most trusted. I give him a great deal of leeway, apprentice Fortunato. Your accusation is serious, and you have given me no reason why I should think Etienne sent his servants to you without provocation. Guilty or no, if I go to him, he will have some explanation prepared. The burden falls upon you, whom I have known for less than the span of an hour, to give me cause to mistrust the childe I sired almost three centuries ago.”

  His stare hit me like a brick. There was no mistaking the threat in his tone this time. This wasn’t a hint or an implication; it was a promise of a messy, painful death if I screwed this up. So I took a moment to think it through.

  “Dulka said once that you had five of the G’Honn fragments. The cops are investigating a bunch of disappearances . . . kids, mostly fringers, Goths, Emos, outsiders. Some runaways, a few just loners. The kind of kid most people outside of family wouldn’t miss. And guess what they found near where each kid was last seen?” I pulled the pictures Collins had given me out of my pocket and laid them down on the stone railing.

  “It’s Lemurian,” Thraxus commented flatly. “But very few would know it was from the G’Honn. You might, but the connection between this case and you, apprentice, is still far from clear.”

  “The girlfriend of one of the missing kids came to me, asking me to break a spell on her girlfriend. She’s a sensitive; she could feel the enchantment. I tracked it back to a guy named Julian. He ended up dead the next night, right under one of these,” I tapped the photos. “Guess who their prime suspect was? So, I cooperated with the cops, because I’m too pretty for juvie. The next morning, two guys showed up at my house, telling me to stop interfering in their master’s business. My guess? I got closer in one night than the cops have in five months. These guys work for Etienne, and the only thing he’d know about that I’ve been up to lately is this. And from what you just told me, if anyone would have a shot at the only collection of the fragments in the area, it’d be your boy Etienne. How’s that for a connection?” Thraxus looked at the photos for a few moments before he replied.