by Lexi Blake
“Halfer is fucking with us, Z.” Daniel ran a frustrated hand through his hair.
“I don’t know. We have to have a legitimate shot at getting the job done or I might be able to wriggle my way out of the contract.” After spending a little quality time with the demon, I doubted he was a wriggle-room kind of guy.
Daniel shook his head. “I don’t trust this. It feels bad.”
“I know, but what are we going to do? Are we going to watch them take that box into another dimension in the morning? We have no idea where the entry point will be. It could be a crowded street for all we know. This is a known quantity.”
“Do the job, don’t let the job do you,” Daniel said with a reasonable impersonation of my dad’s accent. It was my father’s mantra.
“So we go in and do the job and be ready for it all to go to hell.” It was our only option.
The phone on the table started to ring, and we all stopped. This was our chance.
Sarah made her way to the table and answered the phone with a crisp, professional voice. “Room service. How may we help you?”
I glanced at the monitor. The slightly smaller but still freakishly tall blond dude was speaking methodically into the phone. He seemed to be struggling with English. There was nothing in his manner that gave me the impression he knew anything was wrong. He seemed to be just another traveler ordering a meal from the hotel’s in room dining service. On the surface, he had no idea Daniel had rerouted the calls to this suite.
“Of course, sir, would you like the house salad with those?” Sarah asked. There was a reply on the end, and Sarah responded. “Yes, sir, it will be about fifteen minutes. Thank you.”
She hung up the phone. I watched the screen, looking for anything that could tell me this was a trap. In the background, the blond man was sitting in front of the television, switching through channels curiously, and his fellow travelers slowly joined him. They didn’t even look at the box on the table.
“Dev, start the loop,” Daniel said, checking his gun.
Dev pressed a few buttons so the security cameras on this floor would pick up nothing unusual, just empty, peaceful hallways. We’d cut into their security feed the day before and controlled the cameras. “Done.”
I took a deep breath. I was so going to regret this. “Okay guys, it’s show time.”
* * * *
In the best of circumstances, a thief wants to pull a job when the mark is out. A house burglar always waits until the occupants of the house he wants to rob are out for the evening. A home invasion is a different animal. The home invader wants to hurt and humiliate. The burglar wants to steal. If given the choice, the burglar will always choose non confrontation over the alternative. I would rather deal with a minefield of lasers than have to confront one single person defending their goods. Lasers might hurt, but they didn’t do stupid things like make you shoot them.
I didn’t want to hurt anyone, so we switched to our backup plan and loaded a tranquilizer gun with enough ketamine to put down a small rhino. Dev assured us it would work on the faeries. Daniel wanted to be sure by using it on Dev, but I nixed that experiment. I dearly hoped Dev was right because the last thing we needed was a violent fight. Still, I would put my vampire and werewolf up against faeries any day of the week.
Daniel and I pressed our backs against the wall as Neil approached the door to the Gilmore suite. I took a deep breath and flicked the safety off my modified gun. It was small and could be concealed but took several types of exotic rounds. It was one of Daniel’s inventions, and it had served us well. That night it was loaded with the tranquilizer rounds, but it easily took silver, wood, or cold iron.
Neil pushed the cart to the door and knocked. “Room service.”
Daniel’s hand brushed mine. “Stay with me. Unless I go down, and then you run like hell, okay?”
I nodded because I wasn’t exactly going to argue with him now. The door opened.
“Your order, sir.” Neil pushed the cart inside the door.
And the man just let him in. He didn’t ask to check his credentials. He didn’t ask Neil to stay in the hall while he checked the tray for weapons, which he would have found. He simply opened the door and let him in. My every instinct screamed that something was wrong with this scenario.
I heard the metal tray clink as Neil pulled it off the plate as though he were presenting the food.
There was no food, of course. There was just a gun, which Neil fired into the large faery as Daniel and I turned the corner and entered the room.
I shot the female, my tranquilizer dart finding her chest. It stuck there, squarely in the center of her lithe body, and I heard the slight hiss as the dart injected the drug into her system. She went down on one knee and then mercifully slid onto her back. Daniel shot the other male who was just getting off the couch to find out what all the fuss was about.
It was all over in less than ten seconds, and no one made a sound. If I were more trusting, I would have said job well done. I’m not that girl, and the perfect silence in the room just made me nervous.
“Neil, check the suite and make sure we didn’t miss anyone.” I held my gun over the female. Her eyes were still open, and I wasn’t sure she wouldn’t need another dose to send her to la la land. She seemed to have a stronger will than her male counterparts.
“We didn’t miss anything, Zoey.” Dev’s voice came over my ear piece.
“Can’t be too safe,” I said into the mike.
“Why?” the faery managed to ask. She fought the drug with admirable effort. She finally looked toward the box, and I was surprised to see the look in her eyes wasn’t covetous. She didn’t appear to be angry. Sadness. Regret. Those were the emotions plain on her face.
Something took over. It was that little rebellious streak that almost always got me in trouble, and it surely would now. I leaned over the fallen faery. “It’s just a job. Nothing personal. If you want your box back, go see a demon named Lucas Halfer. His true name is Brixalnax. He’s the one who wants the box.”
She slumped back on the carpet.
Daniel laughed and the sound was rich. I looked over, and he was smiling at me.
“I thought you would be pissed.”
He pulled out a small card and laid it on the coffee table. “Great minds think alike. I was going to leave the asshole’s business card.”
“Zoey,” Sarah’s voice came over the ear piece. “Keep it down in there. We have guests coming off the elevator.”
Daniel nodded and lowered his voice. “Get the box, Z. I’ll watch the door.”
Neil came out of the bedroom. “We’re alone. Is that it?”
I slid the backpack off my shoulders and reached for the box. It was surprisingly heavy. I couldn’t help but stare for a moment. What the cameras hadn’t shown was how truly beautiful the box was. My hands caressed it as it went in the pack. It was so shiny and pretty. Someone had spent time on it. Some artist had poured himself into this box. It was made of love. For the faintest moment, I thought I heard it whisper…
“Ready?” Neil asked, abruptly breaking the moment.
I zipped the box into my backpack. It took every inch of space in the extra-large pack. I shimmied my arms into the straps and settled it on my back. “That’s it.”
“Guys! You have company.” Sarah’s voice was tense in my ear.
“What kind of company?” Daniel’s gun was in his hand once more. He pulled a clip out of his pocket and reloaded. This time the bullets were silver. It was a gamble but a safe one. Silver works on most supernaturals, and it goes without saying it works on humans.
“Five.” Dev’s calmness was reassuring. “As far as I can see, they’re human. It might be a coincidence, but...”
The door suddenly opened, and I knew this was the trouble I had been expecting ever since I noticed the Light of Alhorra sitting out in the open. Whoever was coming through the door wasn’t breaking in. They had a freaking keycard.
I stood there, roote
d to the floor. I was pretty sure Dev and Sarah could hear my heart pounding through the ear pieces.
“Who the hell are you?” The first man to appear was large, his body built on muscular lines. His face was craggy as though the years between childhood and his current state had been rough enough to carve a perpetual expression of hate. His eyes shifted between me and Daniel.
Neil was nowhere to be seen. He’d disappeared, giving us the potential advantage of surprise if they thought Daniel and I were the only ones here.
Five men. Somehow they’d gotten through our wards and knew exactly where to find us. And they had come prepared. Each man carried two pistols and likely had more weapons hidden. But at that moment, I was mostly concerned with the ten guns pointed at us.
Daniel laid his gun on the coffee table, holding his hands up. “All right, everyone stay calm, and no one has to die.”
One of the other men, a shorter fellow who looked like he could use hygiene tips, laughed. “Yeah, you’d like that. Why don’t you give us that box and we’ll see what happens.”
“Box?” I took a deep breath and hoped they didn’t notice the backpack. I couldn’t lose the box now.
“My soul’s on the line here, bitch.” A short man with a plethora of tattoos stalked closer, stepping over the bodies of the faeries. “I want that box. Give it to me, and maybe I won’t leave you for what was coming up behind us.”
“You don’t want that, girl,” the unhygienic one spat. “You ever seen a demon?”
Fuck it all. It was my worst nightmare.
“Stop talking to the marks, Greg,” the bald guy said.
I took great exception to that statement. I sure as hell wasn’t a mark. I was the girl who took out marks. Except, of course, this time I had played straight into Halfer’s hands or claws or whatever he had.
“Now, girlie, hand over that pack on your back,” the leader was saying. “Thanks for taking out the faeries for us.”
He looked at me, and for the slightest second I thought I could reason with him. “No. I can’t do that. Let’s talk for a minute.”
I took a single step back, and then he smiled and fired his gun straight at my chest.
One minute I was waiting for the bullet to hit, and the next Daniel slammed me against the wall so hard I felt the breath knocked straight out of me. I hit the wall and bounced off it to the cold tile. Daniel’s body covered mine, surrounding me completely. I couldn’t move. I could barely breathe. Daniel rocked against me, his body jumping in odd, jerky motions. Every couple of seconds his back would spasm and press my body further into the hard tile.
Bullets. They shot Daniel over and over again.
The sounds cracked the air, threatening to split my ear drums. The box on my back pressed against my skin until I was almost certain it would cut through my clothes and stab into my flesh, but they were shooting Daniel. Pure panic assaulted me. How much could he take?
Daniel curled himself around me until I could barely breathe.
“Stop!” There was a chuckle. “I don’t think we need to waste more bullets. Haul that corpse off her and get the box.”
There was the comforting sound of a low, guttural canine growl and then the girlie-like sounds grown men can make when faced with a werewolf.
Bullets started to fly again, but Daniel wouldn’t move. I couldn’t see anything from my vantage point. There was a loud roar and then the sound Neil makes when he guts someone.
Then I felt a warm liquid hit my hands. I looked at the floor I was pressed against. Blood was everywhere, rivulets beginning to form rivers and pools. It was a rich, dark red, so red it had a purple cast to it. It was Daniel’s blood, and it was everywhere.
“Daniel? Daniel, please talk to me.” Was he already dead? Had he given his immortal life to protect my dumbass human one? I couldn’t stand the thought.
“I’m okay, Z. Idiots used regular bullets.” His voice shook, giving fine tremors to his words.
“Yeah, but they used a lot of them.” I could hear the tremble in my voice and realized I was on the verge of tears. I couldn’t afford to break down. I needed to stay calm and rational, so I took a deep breath and tried not to think about the fact that Daniel was losing his life’s blood.
“I just need a little blood, and I’ll be fine.” There was a small pause. I could hear the struggle continue, but the guns stopped firing. Daniel’s hands tangled in my hair. “God, you smell good, Zoey. You have to stay away from me until I’ve fed, baby. That smell…it’s been so freaking long…”
He growled a little, the sound skimming across my skin. He was dying and yet my skin lit at the sound of his hunger. I could feed him.
After what seemed like an eternity, he shifted his weight off me. Even through the obvious pain, he helped me up to a sitting position.
I winced as I realized I was sitting in Daniel’s blood. It covered me.
“Dev,” Daniel said, not looking up. His hands shook, and he stared at me with a focus I found a bit frightening. And arousing. The world had just exploded around us and I focused on Daniel and those alien eyes. I was staring at his fangs and wishing he would kiss me. “Nice of you to join us.”
Dev’s low gasp pulled me out of the moment. Dev stood in the living area. He held a gun in his hand, and his eyes widened at the sight of Daniel. “Holy shit, man, what the hell happened to you?”
“Flesh wound,” Daniel said.
“You can’t feed off her.” Dev's hand clenched around his gun and, for the briefest moment, I thought he might raise it to Daniel. But it stayed at his side. “You know what it would mean.”
It would mean he would live. “Danny, you have to.”
He turned away from me. “Tell Neil to leave a couple of them alive, please. I need them alive.”
Dev nodded, waiting a second before he turned and stalked off after Neil.
Daniel stood, his whole body shaking slightly. He stared into the room where Neil was playing with the men left over, treating them like chew toys. “Zoey, I need to help Neil and Dev. Promise me you’ll stay down. And, baby, please keep your eyes closed. I have to…I can’t do what I need to do with you watching. I just can’t.”
“All right.” I closed my eyes as he walked away. The sounds were terrible, but I kept my promise. Daniel needed to feed or he would die, and he hated it. I could handle it because it meant he would live, but if he didn’t want me to watch, then I would keep my eyes closed. There were grunts and groans and then there was just a sad moan and silence.
After what felt like an eternity, there was a tug on my arm, and Daniel hauled me up.
“It’s all right now, Z.” He looked no worse for the wear. In fact, he looked terrific. He practically glowed. His clothes were ruined, but he stared down at me with his alien eyes and his fangs extended, and, just for a second, he was a dark god.
“I’m so sorry, Zoey.” He shook his head and his eyes cleared. “I didn’t want you to see me like that.”
I ignored him because I didn’t have time for his undead angst. I could have told him I didn’t care what he did as long as he was alive. I would have gutted all five men myself if it would have spared him a moment’s pain. I took silent satisfaction in the fact that he was alive and they were not.
I moved from my spot and surveyed the battleground. There had been five men and they looked to be fully human. Hardly a fair fight. Someone had sent them in without silver bullets. Cannon fodder. Whoever sent these men meant them to be the first wave, and I had no doubt there was more to come.
The previously lovely suite now looked like a battlefield littered with corpses. The man who had tried to shoot me lay at my feet, his throat sporting two prominent marks. His skin was an ashen gray. The blood that previously filled his body now ran through Daniel’s veins and I thanked the universe for it.
Neil paced the floor of the room, his wolf body twitching and low growls coming from his throat. I rarely got to see him in his full wolf form. When we ran normal jobs, Neil usua
lly just changed an arm or a hand. When he fully transformed, we were usually in deep shit, and I didn’t get a chance to stare at him when we were running for our lives.
The wolf before me really was a thing of beauty. He was huge but perfectly proportioned. His fur was arctic white and looked like it would be heaven to touch.
The wolf seemed agitated. He walked between the bodies, his snout coming down, scenting, and then he forced himself away. He whinnied a sad, pleading little sound. Neil fought his base urge to feed. His tail swiped back and forth, his head coming up almost pleading my way. Except he wasn’t looking to me. I was about to go to him when I realized he was calling for Daniel.
Daniel walked over to him and placed a hand on Neil’s back. He stroked the white fur, and Neil calmed down. The wolf seemed more focused, and even his eyes seemed more human than before.
“Time for that after we save our asses, Neil,” Daniel said quietly.
“You can call wolves,” I whispered more to myself than anyone else.
It was a vampiric talent and one that should have taken Daniel hundreds of years to acquire. Dev had told me the truth. I didn’t know the whole story where Daniel was concerned. He’d hidden so much from me.
Daniel was far beyond an ordinary vampire.
Daniel stared at me, his eyes betraying his guilt. “Later. I’ll tell you everything later. We have to get you out of here now.”
“No, we have to get Sarah.” And we had to clean up. Bodies were messy. Bodies meant evidence.
Dev shook his head. “When I left her she was passing a magnet over the hard drives and getting ready to bolt.”
“Good girl.” Daniel nodded. It was standard procedure. It meant one less person for us to worry about. Daniel reached down and pulled the darts out of the faeries, pocketing the shells. “She’ll be safer that way. Make sure we haven’t left anything behind. What a cluster fuck.”
After a quick search of the room, Daniel declared it was as clean as it could get. We hadn’t fired a gun. The dead men had been taken apart by a wolf or exsanguinated by a vampire. “All right, let’s get the hell out of here.”
