Kissed by Darkness

by Shéa MacLeod

  He squeezed my hand and went back to muttering over the Book while I headed for the front door. “Hey, Eddie,” I turned back, remembering something. “One thing before I go.”

  “Yes, my dear?” He glanced up from the book.

  “Lately I’ve been noticing something odd about the vampires I’ve been fighting.”

  He frowned. “Odd?”

  “Yeah, their eyes. All the vampires I’ve seen over the last few days have had these red, glowing eyes. I’d expect to see that on a demon, but a vampire?”

  “How odd, indeed.” Eddie frowned even harder, if that was possible. “I only know of one way to make fundamental changes to vampire physiology and that is to change the power that controls them.”

  Vampires were usually controlled by one of two things. They were either controlled by the one who turned them, or they were controlled by the most powerful vampire in their clan if their maker wasn’t strong enough to hold them. Since both types of masters controlled using vampiric powers, the physiology of the vampire being controlled wouldn’t change.

  “What sort of change would have to happen to turn their eyes red? Would a demon do it?” The only time I’d ever heard of any creature-controlling vamp other than another more powerful vamp was the occasional demon.

  “I suppose it might, depending on the type of demonic power used to control the vampires. But I’ve never heard of anything like it.” Eddie seemed unsure, but it was as good a theory as any.

  “OK, thanks, Eddie. I really appreciate your help.”

  I headed out to my car, my mind in a whirl. I was starting to feel a bit like Alice complete with rabbit hole. Curiouser and curiouser.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The sun was still up when I exited Eddie’s shop, leaving the bell above the door jangling merrily behind me, so I decided to swing by Cordelia’s. I thought for a minute about calling ahead then figured it was pointless since I apparently had some kind of psychic Bat Signal where she was concerned; either that, or Bastet told her. Gods knew that cat was a piece of weird. Cordelia had probably already put the teakettle on.

  The traffic was unusually light for rush hour and I made it across town in record time, this time with The Who blaring loud enough to wake the neighborhood. Even more amazing was finding a parking space just around the corner from Cordelia’s building. How lucky. I frowned as I locked the car door. Somehow I didn’t think luck had anything to do with it. Call me skeptical, but finding a parking space anywhere near the Park Blocks during rush hour pretty much took an act of nature or a miracle of the gods.

  “Hello, precious girl!” I was engulfed in a flurry of jade silk and floral perfume the minute I came through the door. I managed to extricate myself from Cordelia’s embrace before I completely suffocated. “Listen, I know you’re having a challenging time right now,” she said, patting me on the back, “but let’s have some tea and a chat. That always helps.”

  She disappeared down the hall, her bright green robe billowing behind her. Force of nature, indeed. Seriously, who on earth wears a silk robe over blue jeans and a turtleneck sweater? Especially one with a Chinese dragon embroidered on the back? It was pretty, though.

  “Come on in. Bastet’s really been looking forward to seeing you again.” Naturally, the cat wanted to see me. Who else? Rolling my eyes I stepped into the living room.

  “We saw that.” There was laughter in her voice. “I know I sound like a crazy cat woman, but trust me. She’s talked about nothing else all week.”

  I blinked. “Of course not. What else would she talk about?” Catnip? Seafood flavor versus chicken flavor kitty treats? Honestly, if Cordelia really did go ‘round the bend, who’d notice?

  As usual, there was a steaming pot of tea and two teacups perched precariously on the coffee table. Cordelia had draped herself dramatically across an overstuffed chair, so I was left to shovel cushions around until I could find a spot on the couch large enough for my backside. Bastet glared at me from where she lounged on a particularly plush pillow dead in the center of the couch. Yep, she looked happy to see me all right.

  “So, tell me, what’s been happening. I want all the gossip!” Her rings sparkled in the late afternoon sunlight streaming through the windows. I was not really much of a jewelry person, so rings on every finger seemed like overkill, but they looked nice on her long, slender fingers.

  “Um, I thought you already knew everything. You know psychic and all that.” I leaned forward to take the cup of tea she held out to me. The fragile blue and gold china made me slightly nervous. Handling delicate things freaked me out a little. I may have been hell on wheels when it came to killing monsters, but graceful I was not. I also recognized the pattern as a rather rare antique Wedgewood which I so did not want to have to find a replacement for if I broke it. It wasn’t the cost that worried me. It was the fact that it would be a major pain in the ass to try to find a new one.

  “Oh, I don’t know everything,” she laughed lightly. “Just mostly everything. Bastet, now she knows everything.” She winked at the cat. Bastet just glowered and twitched her tail. I was sort of glad I wasn’t the only one she gave attitude. “So, come on Morgan. I want all the juicy details.”

  I caught her up on the madness that had become my life. Up to and including the weirdness that was Inigo and the trouble both he and Jack gave my hormones, plus my nearly sleeping with Jack and the confusion I felt about the whole thing. Again, I avoided the whole Sunwalker scenario. It was just too much. Plus I figured that she might very well already know. If she didn’t, I wasn’t telling. Not yet.

  Cordelia nodded sagely and delicately sipped at her tea. “Catnip.”

  “What?” I blinked at her. Had she been listening in on my snarky thoughts about Bastet? Or maybe Bastet had tattled on me. With that cat anything was possible.

  “Have you ever seen a cat on catnip? They go completely crazy and rub themselves all over everyone and everything like they want to soak up every bit of pleasure they can. Jack’s your catnip. Maybe Inigo, too. Oh, how nice! Two catnips!” She looked entirely too pleased about the prospect as she clapped her hands gleefully. She looked for all the world like a kid let loose in Disneyland.

  “No. No, no, no! There is no catnip.” I shook my head most emphatically. “I do not rub myself all over them. Well, maybe a little. But that’s not my fault. There is no catnip!”

  Cordelia just looked smug and her eyes twinkled with laughter. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Look, can we stay on topic? Forget about catnip, OK? I just want to know what is going on with Inigo. Heck, I’d love to know what’s going on with me.”

  “And Jack?” She smiled altogether too much like that cat that stole the cream. I think I might have growled at her. She burst out in a rich belly laugh which made me think of Christmas pudding with rum sauce. Weird that her laughter always made me think of Christmas and food. Not sure what that meant. “All right,” she thrust her hand out. “Tea cup.”

  I slurped the last of my tea, tipped the cup upside down on the saucer and handed it to her. I had no idea how on earth anyone read tea leaves. It looked like a bunch of brown gunk stuck on the bottom of a cup to me. I guess that was why Cordelia was the psychic clairvoyant, and I was the badass vampire Hunter.

  “Let’s see,” she said, tipping the cup this way and that trying to catch the dying light, “this Darkness business. All I can say is that it’s a part of you. Just like your green eyes and your bad driving.”

  “Hey!”

  She smirked at me then peered back into the depths of the cup. “It’s new, but it’s not new.” She frowned a little as though struggling to explain something she understood but had no real words for. “I mean, it’s always been in you, part of you, but it’s new. Newly woken. Something … something woke it up.” Her frown grew deeper.

  “What do you mean, ‘something woke it up’?”

  She shook her head. “I’m not sure. This is all a litt
le … “

  “Hinky?”

  Her laugh tinkled. “Yeah. Hinky. Has anyone ever told you that you’ve an interesting grasp of the English language?”

  “It has been noted,” I said, dryly.

  She smiled a little at that. “Well, this ability of yours, to draw on the power of the Dark, it’s only the beginning. There is more to come. Much more.” She frowned into the cup, obviously perturbed by what she saw.

  “Shit, what does that mean?” As if some bizarre new channeling power and possible immortality weren’t bad enough. How much crazier could my life possibly get?

  Note to self: Don’t ask such stupid questions. The Universe will be sure and answer them. Usually in a way you don’t like.

  She frowned some more, tipping the teacup back and forth and muttering a little under her breath. “I’m not really sure. All I can see is that there is more to come for you both with this ability and with others, much more. There is someone who will show you the way, someone who knows the truth. Unfortunately, that someone isn’t me.”

  She placed the cup down and leaned back in her chair. “But this gift is definitely part of what I told you was coming, the changes. I’m sorry I can’t be any clearer than that, but I can only work with what I’m given. Unfortunately I’m not being given much.” She threw an annoyed look in the general vicinity of heaven. I’d hate to be on the receiving end of that look.

  I sighed. “Thanks for looking.”

  “Anytime. Now, about your Inigo … “

  I rolled my eyes. I was doing a lot of that lately. It was a wonder they didn’t roll right out of my head. “He’s not my Inigo. And I swear to all the gods there’s something weird going on with him.”

  “I’ll ask.” She folded her hands over her stomach and closed her eyes.

  I glanced over at Bastet who gave me a baleful look, then turned her head haughtily. Bloody arrogant cat.

  “Well, I never!” Cordelia sat up abruptly. “How rude.”

  “What is it?”

  “Do you know what they told me?” She spluttered. “They told me to mind my own business. Oh, they’re happy enough to boss me around when it suits them, but the minute they don’t want to answer my questions … irritating little trolls.”

  I could only assume that ‘they’ meant the Beings of the Otherside; angels, spirit guides, ghosts and whatnot. I wondered what they thought about being called trolls. “They couldn’t tell you anything about Inigo, I take it?”

  “More like they wouldn’t tell me anything. I swear, some days.” She drew in a deep breath and made fluttery motions with her hands as though splashing something on herself. “Positive thoughts. Positive energy.” She gave me a beatific smile. “There. I feel much better now.”

  “This is getting weird. First Eddie’s book won’t show us anything about Inigo, and now you can’t get anything on him.”

  She shook her head her expression pensive. “I honestly don’t know what’s going on, Morgan. Honestly. But I think maybe it’s something you shouldn’t mess with. They were quite specific that Inigo was not something I should be getting involved with.”

  She frowned a little and her eyes got a faraway look in them like they do when you’re remembering something. “Sometimes there’s a reason things are kept secret.”

  “Yeah, you could be right.”

  There was no way I was giving up on figuring out the whole Inigo thing, but I had other stuff to worry about at the moment. I had a clan of vampires trying to kill me, a magic amulet to find, the death of a Sunwalker to prevent, and my lovely new ability to deal with, not to mention the very real possibility that I may no longer be human at all. I didn’t have time to worry about Inigo right then. Someday soon, though, I was going to figure out what was going on with him, whether the Powers That Be liked it or not.

  ***

  It was dark out with a slight chill in the air when I left Cordelia’s. A gentle breeze teased my hair sending a few strands of red dancing across my face. It was a bit early in the year for such a chill, but sometimes I felt things that weren’t really there in the physical world. Like cold fronts in the middle of summer. I shoved my hands into my pockets and strolled slowly toward the car, my mind in a whirl over the things Cordelia had told me.

  The phone ringing jarred me out of my thoughts. “Hello?”

  “Morgan, it’s Jack. Are you all right?”

  “Of course I’m all right. Why?”

  There was a slight hesitation. “Last night I got this strange feeling like you might be in trouble. I tried to hone in on you, but I couldn’t. Something was blocking me.” His voice held an edge of frustration. “I called, but Inigo answered. Said you’d gone to bed with a headache.”

  Shit. Oh, shit. “Um, yeah. I’m fine Jack. Like Inigo said, it was just a headache. I get them sometimes. Inigo brought me some herbs that help.” I was going to hell for lying. Or I would be if I believed in hell.

  “Uh, huh.” He didn’t sound like he believed me.

  “Listen Jack, I appreciate you calling but, ah, I gotta go. Talk later?”

  “Sure, OK.” He cleared his throat. “Be careful.”

  “Sure. Bye Jack.” Awkward. Why did everything have to be some damn complicated?

  I was nearly back to the car when I felt the tingling grip at the back of my skull that told me there was a vampire nearby. I quickly scanned both sides of the street and then I saw him, one of the vamps that nested with Kaldan. He was striding down the sidewalk on the other side of the Park Blocks, completely ignoring everything around him. He didn’t even see me. It was beyond brilliant. I couldn’t have planned it better myself.

  Of course, it could be a trap, in fact it probably was, but faintness of heart never kicked evil vampire ass. When opportunity knocked, who was I to question? So, I yanked out my cell phone and hit speed dial.

  “This better be good. I haven’t had my dinner yet.” Kabita’s tone was just about sharp enough to draw blood.

  “Yeah, yeah, Cranky. Listen. I just spotted one of Kaldan’s flunkies. I’m going after him.” I think the sound she made was something between a shriek and a squeak, but it was hard to tell. It certainly wasn’t a “Yay, go you” kind of sound. It was much closer to a “you crazy lunatic” kind of sound, but I was used to that from Kabita.

  “Not by yourself. Do you hear me, Morgan Bailey? Not by yourself, you bloody idiot!” Kabita’s voice had gone high enough to make dogs deaf.

  “I’m only going to follow him. Track him back to wherever Kaldan is hiding. I’ll ring you when I’m there.” I disconnected before she could start screaming at me again. I knew that after she finished cussing me out six ways to Sunday, she’d round up Inigo and head my way. At any rate, I’d have a posse at my back before I hit Kaldan’s. I wasn’t stupid. Well, not often, anyway.

  I followed the flunky as he hurried through the Park Blocks to Burnside Street and then up the street toward my old stomping grounds. I’d lived in an adorable little studio apartment just off southwest Burnside with a big claw foot bathtub and a bed that slid into the wall under a set of built-in bookshelves before fate, and a bad but thankfully short-lived relationship, had sent me to London.

  There were a lot of places vampires could hide in that area, not to mention its close proximity to Pittock Mansion which might explain its popularity as a feeding ground. The underground Shanghai tunnels would make a perfect way to move about during the day without turning into a pile of ash.

  Ten minutes later, the vamp stopped and I had to duck behind a parked car while he did a quick check to make sure no one was following him. Either he was really, really dumb, or this was a definite setup.

  He hurried down a narrow side street and disappeared through a steel door into the shadows beyond. The door clanged shut behind him. It looked like another one of the many ordinary old brick warehouses in the Pearl District, but looks could be deceiving.

  Over the past ten years or so, most of the warehouses in this part of town had bee
n remodeled and turned into everything from trendy art studios to snazzy high security loft apartments. It was more common to see pretentious yuppies than blue-collar workers down here these days. I was betting whatever this particular warehouse had been turned into, the security would make Fort Knox look like a playground. Unless it was a trap, of course, then I’d be able to walk right in.

  My pocket started vibrating.

  “Where are you?” Kabita sounded pissed. OK, so I couldn’t exactly blame her, but what did she expect? That I’d just let the thing get away? As if.

  “Eleventh, just a couple blocks off Burnside. He’s gone into one of the old warehouses in the Pearl District.” I rattled off the building number to her.

  “Sit tight. We’ll be there in five minutes. Do you hear me? Do not go in. Morgan? Morgan? Dammit!”

  I disconnected and shoved the phone back in my pocket. Going in alone was really, really stupid. I knew that. Five minutes was a long time, though. They could be doing anything in there.

  I yanked the phone back out of my pocket to check the time. Four minutes. Shit. I paced back and forth on my side of the street. No windows, one door. I couldn’t see them and they couldn’t see me, but I’d bet anything they knew I was out there just like I knew without a doubt Kaldan was inside waiting. I couldn’t sense him through all the steel and brick, but I knew it without a shadow of a doubt.

  Three minutes. “Hurry up, Kabita,” I muttered under my breath. I could only hope the waiting was making Kaldan as antsy as it was making me. Antsy vamps were dangerous, but just like the people they used to be, they were also more likely to make mistakes. Vamps who made mistakes were easier for me to kill.

  Two minutes. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. Every molecule of my body was screaming at me to get inside, but I knew that was a good way to get myself killed. I couldn’t sense anything through the brick and steel walls of the warehouse, but my gut told me there was a nest in there and going in alone was a really good way to get myself killed, so I stayed melted into the shadows on my side of the street and paced like a good little Hunter.