TO BLACK WITH LOVE: Quentin Black Mystery #10

by Andrijeski, JC

  I also saw a lot with streaming, bloodshot eyes and bloody necks stumbling down the street, supported by their Purist friends.

  The black-clad cops were mostly aiming their weapons at the shadowed side of the streets now, presumably at vampires.

  Solonik probably had something to do with that, too.

  Now I could see the BART station entrance on fire. A half-dozen parked cars were on fire too, dotting the street heading north.

  Closer to us, a San Francisco MUNI bus also burned, its insides already gutted by fire, the seats burning through the row of smoke-blackened windows. Someone had shot out more than half the streetlights, but the fires gave us a lot of visibility, even with the smoke.

  Gunshots erupted from behind the bus as we approached, right before a snarl rose out of the dark. Before I could blink, a liquid, shadowy form leapt onto another form wearing black Kevlar.

  Gunshots went off in a string from the man’s rifle, but the gun swung wide as the vampire tore out his throat in a single, disconcertingly agile move.

  I stared as the vampire rode the limp form down to the pavement.

  The sheer grace of the move paralyzed me.

  I focused on the high-cheekboned face, the scarlet eyes that had replaced the dark, almond-shaped eyes I’d previously known. His face was contorted into an animalistic snarl, his fangs extended as he spat out something he’d ripped out of the man’s neck.

  Even so, I would have known that face anywhere.

  “NICK!” I screamed.

  He looked up, his whole body going still.

  He stared at me, a held breath, and I saw the violence in that look.

  Then shots rang out from above, aiming at him.

  He vanished, melting back into the dark before I could wrap my mind around what I’d just seen. I had no idea if he’d just killed a human or a seer.

  Without thought, I ran after him, shoving my way through the crowd.

  “Miri, no! No, goddamn it!”

  Black cursed in Prexci, even as I felt him leap after me.

  “NICK! WAIT!” I screamed, ignoring him, ignoring the alarm I felt off the seers around me. I felt Jem and Jax bolt after Black to follow me. “NICK! WAIT! COME BACK!”

  I shoved my way through a group of men who were staring down at the cop with his throat torn out, then ran for the bus. I yanked my gun out of a side holster, holding it up, but I didn’t slow down, or stop when I met the line of shadow.

  “Hey, lady…” one of the guys yelled out when I rounded the edge of the bus. “You don’t want to go back there! There’s things back there!”

  I ignored him, too.

  Venturing deeper into the dark, I took a breath. My eyes fought to adjust to the line of black outside the glow reflecting on the brick walls from the burning MUNI bus.

  I knew I only had a few seconds before Black and the rest of them caught up to me.

  “Nick!” I yelled. I squinted through the smoke and dark, scanning for movement. “Nick! I need to talk to you! You don’t know who these seers are! Tell Brick––”

  Hands grasped my upper arms.

  Before I could take a breath, my stomach abruptly dropped.

  It felt like falling off the edge of a cliff, only I was going up, not down.

  The closest I could come mentally was a roller coaster. It felt like I’d just been lurched upwards to follow the massive loop of a giant roller coaster.

  My feet left the ground.

  I’d barely forced out a gasp when my feet landed back on Earth, my boots sliding and stumbling on a metal mesh platform, bile lurching to my throat.

  “Jesus fucking christ…” I breathed out in a rush.

  The hands released my arms.

  I gripped the banister of a rickety fire escape, where I realized I now stood. Looking down, I absorbed that I was somehow at least three stories up. My mind couldn’t comprehend how I’d gotten there.

  I wasn’t alone.

  I looked up and around, and met red-tinted eyes that reflected firelight.

  Nick smiled at me, fangs visible between his lips.

  “Heya, doc,” he said.

  25

  Fire Escape

  MIRI! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU? Black’s mind exploded in mine, even as I heard him and the others through the earpiece I wore.

  “Get a drone over here! NOW!” Through my earpiece, I heard him instruct Zairei. “Seers only! And be fucking careful! My wife is back there! Don’t shoot to kill, for fuck’s sake! And tell them I’m here, that I sent you…”

  MIRI! GODDAMN IT… ANSWER ME!

  Swallowing, I stared at Nick, watching him look me over in the dark.

  I’m okay, Black. Nick’s got me. I’m on the fire escape.

  I felt a plume of terror leave Black’s light.

  It’s okay, Black––

  The FUCK it is! he exploded at me. How is that in any way okay?

  Which building? Jem sent. Which building, Miri?

  I can see the school bus burning at the end of the alley––

  “Well?” Nick said, smiling at me. “You called me, Miri. Did you want to talk, or…?” He held up his hand in a silent question. “Was all that screaming my name just a bit of melodrama?”

  “Nick.” I gripped the banister. Staring at him, the reality of him hit me in a way it hadn’t. “Nick, what are you doing? Why am I up here?”

  His smile widened. “Why are you up here? Didn’t you call for me, Miriam? Didn’t you say you needed to talk to me?”

  Biting my lip, trying to control the pounding of my heart in my chest, I stared at him, trying to see my friend in his eyes. I could barely see his face in all that dark, apart from glints from his crystal-like eyes in the firelight.

  I wondered if I should risk jumping over the banister.

  GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE, MIRI. SHOOT HIM AND RUN!

  I can’t shoot him, Black––

  The FUCK you can’t! He’ll be fine, Miriam! Shoot him! Shoot him right now, and run! We’re coming down the alley now!

  “He’s telling you to shoot me, isn’t he?” Nick’s smile returned, his fangs flashing in the dark. “Your husband.”

  He shrugged, those crystal eyes meeting mine.

  “He’s not wrong, Miriam.”

  “Nick.” I forced out a breath, staring at him, still gripping the gun in one of my hands, even as I used both to hold the rickety metal banister. “Nick… we came to warn you.”

  “Warn me?” Nick smiled, gliding silently closer to me. I watched his pale fingers reach out, gripping the banister a few feet from where I held it. “That’s so sweet, Miri. What is it you wanted to warn me about?”

  Swallowing, biting my lip at what I heard in his voice, I shook my head.

  “It’s Charles’ people out there. They’re here for you, Nick.” Forcing a breath, I turned my head, meeting his gaze. “Solonik is leading them. I know that won’t mean anything to you, but he’s not like regular seers. He’s stronger… stronger than most of the seers you’ve come across. Stronger than any of the seers we have here, maybe even Jem.”

  Nick let out a laugh.

  “You really came here to warn me? Really, Miri?”

  “Nick––”

  “And here I was thinking you were offering to give me my first real taste of seer.” Watching me stare at him, Nick smiled. “Trust me, I’m not about to turn down such a generous offer. I hear drinking one of you is like goddamned liquid sex.” His eyes flickered over me, his lips lifting in a faint smirk. “Is that true, Miriam? I admit, I’m fucking dying to try it.”

  “Nick, you need to listen to me. Solonik––”

  “I suppose your husband’s really the one I should ask.” Nick’s voice grew more melodious, still Nick’s but so different I stared at him. “Since I’ve been blood-sharing, I’ve seen him… your husband, I mean, enjoying himself with some of my brothers and sisters. The memories are vivid, doc. Really fucking vivid. Fucking being the operative term.”

  N
ick’s eyes studied mine through the dark.

  “I get it now, doc. I get why you wanted him. I hope you don’t mind my saying, I got pretty turned on, watching that.”

  Feeling a different kind of sickness rise to my gut, I shook my head.

  “Nick, you need to listen to me. You’re not safe. None of you are safe here. You need to tell Brick to pull your people out––”

  “I appreciate your concern. I really do.” Nick gripped the metal banister, that smile still teasing his lips. “And of course I’ll be happy to pass on any message you’d like… to brother Brick or whoever else. I’m still going to take you coming to me as an invitation though, doc.”

  He glided a bare inch closer.

  “…I hope your husband doesn’t mind. I’d be happy to do a threesome, but somehow I doubt he’d be into it.”

  He started to move towards me again and I raised the gun.

  I did it without thought, aiming it at his chest.

  Gripping the handle, I didn’t think about the next thing I did, either.

  I squeezed the trigger.

  Before I could complete the motion, though, Nick moved––so fast my eyes didn’t track the motion at all. The gun just left my numb fingers. I felt it go, realized Nick had knocked it out of my hand as easily as a human swats a fly.

  I heard the gun hit and clatter to the pavement below.

  “Miri!” Black shouted up. “Is that you?”

  I reached down for the gun on my other hip. Before I’d gotten a grip, Nick grabbed me around the arms and back, pinning my arms to my sides, pinning my chest to his. He trapped the rifle strapped around my back, pinning my arms, my hands.

  “BLACK!” I gasped. “BLACK! I’M UP HERE!”

  Nick chuckled, his arms like steel bands. “Yeah. Call him up here. Maybe I’ll get that threesome I was asking for, after all––”

  “Nick, goddamn it,” I snapped. “I’m trying to fucking help you!”

  “A little late for that, doc.”

  For the first time, real anger touched his voice.

  Somehow, that anger sounded more like the Nick I knew than anything else I’d heard from him. It silenced me briefly, causing me to stare up at him.

  His expression didn’t move.

  When the smile returned lazily to his lips, my own anger rose in a hot flush.

  “Goddamn it! You need to fucking listen to me, Nick!” I snapped. “Solonik is the seer from Bangkok. He’s the one who took me. Remember? He nearly killed me there. He nearly killed both of us, and he’s here for you now. Are you hearing me at all?”

  If Nick reacted to my words, I didn’t see it.

  His features were close to me now, so close my heart hammered in my chest as I looked up at him, staring at the faint reflections of light in those crystal eyes. I saw him looking at my mouth, his face only an inch or two from mine.

  I was about to try speaking to him again when he lowered his head. Before I could make a sound, before I could comprehend what he was doing, he pressed the length of his body into mine and sank his fangs into my throat.

  I screamed.

  * * *

  MY SCREAM DIED before I’d finished taking my first breath.

  I felt the venom hit my blood, and my mind lost cohesion, breaking apart like a pebble tossed on the surface of a still lake.

  Nick’s arms cinched around me tighter, and I felt a rush of pleasure off him that made me gasp, even as he injected more venom into my blood.

  I heard him drinking then, heard him let out a low growl, sucking in a breath without letting go of where he held me. His lips and tongue caressed my skin as he let out a softer sound, right before he wrapped his arm around me tighter, pressing his cock between my legs. Leaning me up against the window by the fire escape, he sank his fangs deeper…

  My head rolled back.

  I let out a gasp, my knees seeming to lose their ability to keep me upright.

  His fingers clenched in my hair.

  I felt Nick’s mind swim into mine, not like a seer’s, not even like how I remembered it happening with the vampires at Ship Rock. Instead, this evoked how I’d seen Nick move––a dark, liquid presence that surrounded me silently, before I even knew what was happening. I struggled against his arms when I felt him moving deeper into my mind, but I felt like a rabbit kicking in a wire snare.

  Nick paused long enough to raise his head.

  He kissed my mouth before my mind registered the change, then he was sucking on my tongue, nipping it with his fangs as he deepened the kiss, leaning his weight on me against the window sill. It shocked me. Not just that he kissed me, but the kiss itself. It shocked me like our first kiss shocked me, the one in my old apartment in the Richmond.

  That night in my apartment, nothing went like I expected.

  Nick hadn’t kissed how I’d expected.

  He’d kissed so much better than I’d expected.

  Nick let out a low growl, pressing me deeper into the window, kissing me again.

  Images flickered through his mind––of that night, of nights after that, of him remembering that kiss, of him remembering my hands on him and wanting to fuck, of him jerking off and wanting to fuck me, wanting to show up at my door.

  All of it hit at me in a guilty rush, even as pain slammed into my gut.

  He watched me remember, remembering with me. I felt it turning him on, even as he gripped my hair, kissing me again. I let out an involuntary sound and he gripped me tighter, raising his head to stare down at my face.

  Studying my eyes briefly, he smiled.

  His fingers brushed the hair out of my eyes, right before he lowered his mouth back to my throat. I practically heard his fangs extending––

  When a voice exploded out of the dark behind us.

  “Let go of her,” it growled. “Now.”

  Nick froze, his arms still wrapped around my back.

  Without releasing me, he turned his head, and I followed his eyes back over his shoulder.

  Black stood there.

  His appearance shocked me, and not only because I hadn’t felt him at all. His gold eyes shone brighter than usual, not quite glowing but right at the edge. He was breathing hard, his face holding so much fury it looked like a mask.

  That’s when I saw the sword notched up against Nick’s throat.

  “Let go of her.” Black’s voice dropped to a thicker growl, a menacing, animal-like snarl from deep in his chest. “I’ll fucking kill you Nick. Don’t think I won’t.”

  Nick released me slowly, smiling over his shoulder at Black.

  “No need to be greedy, Quentin,” he said. “I just wanted a taste.”

  “Back away from her. Right now.”

  Nick eased around slowly, turning so that the sword followed his throat. Then he was facing Black, stepping closer to him, away from me.

  “This must be a relief for you, Black,” Nick said. “Me being dead and all.”

  Unlike me, Black was unmoved by Nick’s words.

  “Sell that shit somewhere else, Naoko,” Black growled. “Seems to me you’re enjoying your new circumstances quite a bit––”

  “Lemonade out of lemons, as it were,” Nick smiled.

  I was coming back now, even though I could feel the venom rippling through my veins. My palm went to my neck and shoulder and I winced, closing my eyes against the shock of pain when I felt the open wound there.

  “Black,” I said, my voice breathless. “Be careful. Be really fucking careful.”

  “Back up, Miri,” Black said, his eyes never leaving Nick. “Towards Jem. Towards the ladder.”

  I looked to my right, and saw Jem standing there, in a combat crouch. His eyes never left Nick and Black, but he held out a hand to me, motioning for me to come closer.

  “Do as he says, Miri.”

  I edged sideways, still fighting to catch my breath, still fighting the venom vibrating my lungs, my skin, my muscles. It made my limbs shake, like a double dose of adrenaline mixed with some ki
nd of tranquilizer.

  Something about the effects made it difficult to stay in my body. I felt like I was floating, like some part of me was more in the Barrier than down here, on Earth. I tried to ground myself, to pull myself back down, but I couldn’t quite do it. I struggled to even walk in a straight line.

  It felt less like being drunk and more like being really sick with a fever.

  I gripped the rifle still slung around my back, holding the window for balance as I edged closer to Jem.

  I’d nearly reached him when another voice rose in my mind.

  Ilya… is that you?

  I stopped, gripping the brick wall.

  Another presence swam over me like a bad dream, closing my eyes. It left me there, panting, my blood jerking erratically in my veins.

  Darling girl… my chocolate…

  I choked. My heart leapt sideways in my chest, stopping my breath.

  Can it really be you? My beautiful Miriam, after all this time?

  Next to me, Jem grabbed my arm, hard.

  Some part of me reached for Black, but he felt far away, out of my reach.

  My light reached for his––

  Di'lanlente o' kitre-so’h. A hot cloud of pain plumed off Solonik’s light, hitting at me and making me jerk back. Your light has changed so much. So very, very much, ilya. Gaos…

  I felt my light try to fight his off, to withdrew from him in any way it could. I couldn’t get away from him, though. It was Bangkok all over again, with him invading my light and me helpless to keep him out. This time it was the vampire venom, the construct, not my broken light, but the effects were the same.

  I couldn’t keep him out.

  I grew more and more desperate, but it was like fighting smoke.

  I tried again to reach for Black, to find him, but I couldn’t do that either.

  I was trapped there, in that amorphous, smoke-like space––between Solonik, Nick’s venom, Nick himself, Uncle Charles’ construct, probably stress, missing blood, being separated from Black. Whatever the exact cocktail affecting my mind and light, I was lost there, unable to drag myself back to my body.

  Solonik kept talking to me.

  My little ilya has grown up. His desire hit out at me like a physical force, cloying. Your uncle tells me things, beautiful sister. He tells me he started your training. He tells me you are clever, you are quick to learn, that your light belongs to an old soul…