The Vampre's Salvation

by Martha Woods

  Tariq cleared his throat, not quite able to maintain eye contact with either of us. “We organized everything with Faye, and we were on the way to the other groups before we realized that we knew a way to save Vincent.”

  “But… how did you get in here?” I asked, “I thought the door was… locked…” I looked around the corner at the door, deadbolt broken and the lock shattered. “You broke my door?”

  “We heard screaming!” Tabitha said, “We thought that Alvin had found his way here, or you were having another one of your visions or something! We didn’t know that you were… doing other things in here.”

  Even through all my embarrassment, I had to laugh at that, “‘Other things’? Tabitha, you can just call it what it is.”

  “I only met you recently, I don’t want to talk about your sex life!” She groaned, letting her hands fall to her sides. “Can we just hurry up and get to the plan please? And can you put some pants on?”

  I jogged quickly to the bedroom, as keen on conversing in my underwear as they were. By the time I came out Damon had already seated them properly and gotten them something to drink, no doubt to soothe how dry their throats had gotten from the events of the last few minutes. They already looked much more comfortable than they had when they’d first come in, Tariq stripping off his jacket to reveal arms that were tightly corded with muscle, the cuffs of his rolled-up shirt straining to accommodate. Yeah, he would definitely be Cara’s type, I should definitely introduce them.

  “I don’t know if I told you this, but you have a very nice apartment, Amy.” Tariq looked around, eyes falling on a few album covers that I had framed on the walls. “It’s much more… lived in than I expected.”

  “I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not.” I smiled, sitting down opposite him and nudging him with my foot. “Should I be thankful or offended?”

  “Oh no, it’s… a lot of cops that I’ve met in my time more or less live out of a briefcase, I haven’t really met one that had much of a life before.” He shrugged, giving a small smile. “But I suppose most others don’t quite lead the life that you do, do they?”

  “No, no they don’t. I guess that makes us all pretty special doesn’t it?”

  “You have a boyfriend in purgatory,” Tabitha snorted, pulling out a diary from her bag. “I don’t know if I’d say that’s a reason to celebrate being special.”

  I looked down at the book that she had pulled out, a very old leather cover is the first thing that I notice about it. This was a book that had some very serious history about it, and the fact that I could feel that energy without even touching the book with my hands told me all I needed to know about what it contained.

  “Is that part of the plan?” I asked, pointing down at the book. “Is that the key to saving Vincent?”

  “Kind of, it’ll tell us what we need to do to save him, that’s more or less the same thing.” She put it down on the coffee table, flipping through the pages until she came to the spot she had marked. “The key to saving someone from purgatory is an equivalent exchange, something to show that you respect the power of the realm and are willing to deal on their terms for the return of what you desire.”

  The room was silent, not so much out of disbelief or shock, more that Damon and myself had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

  “Um…” Damon said, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. “Can you say that to us in English please?”

  “Purgatory isn’t a charity, if you want to get something out you have to throw something else right in alongside it. In this case, that means that you have to put someone else in there before you can pull Vincent out.” Tabitha grimaced. “It’s hardly an elegant or… a pleasant thing to do, but it’s the only thing you can do.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, surely, I had made a mistake somewhere along the way. A quick glance at Damon told me he was thinking much the same, neither of us were expecting to learn that human sacrifice was going to be a requirement to save someone close to us when we had woken up, that was something that you generally learned about during a heated emotional moment, not when you were greeting friends in your living room.

  “That can’t be right,” I said, “What do you mean we have to put someone in there, we need to sacrifice someone is that what you’re telling us?”

  “I can do the sacrificing,” Tariq said, though he looked very uncomfortable saying it. “You just need to… bring them to me, and state who it is you want to exchange them for. After that, it should all be up to me.”

  “But I…” But what? What could I possibly say? That I couldn’t go through with it? Then how was I going to get Vincent back to me, was someone else going to be able to do that? I couldn’t just agree to it either, I was a cop for god’s sake, unlike some of my colleagues over the years I still valued life quite fully, I couldn’t justify taking a life no matter how badly I wanted someone back. Sure, Tariq would be doing the actual sacrificing part, but delivering someone to be killed made you just as guilty of ending a life as the person who struck the final blow, there was no denying that.

  “Amy,” Damon said, snapping me out of my trance. “I know that this isn’t what you wanted to do, but… this really might be the only way to get him back, and as confusing as this is for me, I think I want you to get him back.”

  “You? Getting all sentimental over a bloodsucker?” I laughed at his scowl, “What have you done with the real Damon?”

  “Yeah laugh it up, I’m so weird for wanting you to be happy.” He sat down next to me, expression turning serious. “Look, I’ve been a hunter for most of my life, and in that time, I’ve had to make a lot of tough calls, some of which meant that people didn’t get to walk away from them. This is a tough call, but I think that you have the strength to make it.”

  I sucked in a breath through my teeth, considering my options carefully before making a decision. As much as I wanted to think otherwise, there was no other real option for me to consider, it was as obvious as it could possibly be that I was going to choose to save Vincent, no matter what it was I had to do. I just wish that it hadn’t been a literal worst-case scenario.

  “What… what would I have to do?” I couldn’t believe that I was agreeing to this, but between losing Vincent and throwing someone else in to replace him, it wasn’t much of a choice at all.

  “You won’t have to do much, just deliver them to my feet and ensure that they cannot move away from the ritual.” He smiled, leaning over to grab my hand in comfort. “It is very important that they remain alive, so you won’t have to dirty your hands by taking a life.”

  “We both know that’s not true, but I’m glad you’re saying it anyway.” I returned his smile, albeit weakly, my head spinning while I tried to reconcile what it was I planned to do with the oath I had taken to protect. I had always considered myself better than the hypocrites that abused their power, but wasn’t that what I was doing here? How could I do something like this and consider myself worthy enough to still go to work?

  “I might have a suggestion on who we could choose,” Tabitha said, a surprising amount of malice in her voice. Whoever it was must really have rubbed her the wrong way. “We need to kill Alvin; a prison isn’t going to be able to hold him it’s the only way we can be sure. Why not toss him into a place that’ll make absolutely sure that he can’t leave?”

  “Oh… wow, how did I not think of that?” The thought made me feel a little better, but I still couldn’t shake away those instincts that I’d held for my entire life. “What would stop someone else from trying to bring him back just like Vincent though?”

  “We placed Vincent there for his own protection, they are keeping him intact out of an understanding that we will uphold our end of the bargain.” Tariq shuddered, seemingly the thought alone of being trapped there enough to rattle his cage. “If someone is thrown there with the intention of having them never leave, or if the bargain is not upheld, they get torn into so many pieces that there would b
e no hope of ever recovering them. Trust me, if he goes in there he will not be coming back out.”

  It didn’t seem right to act like judge, jury, and executioner, to dish out such an extreme punishment without a trial, but then I thought of India. That incredible, beautiful young woman who had such a future ahead of her, and the four other women just like her who spent their last moments in terror as their possessed loved ones tore them to pieces. Anyone would agree that this was all the justice that he deserved, it was far more than he had given to his victims.

  “I still need to do more research into what the ritual would specifically entail, but I assure you that it would be performed by someone very capable.” Tariq grinned. “Not to sound overconfident.”

  “Trust me, Tariq, I’ve seen your work, I know that you’re very skilled. I’d be a piece of barbeque if you weren’t.”

  Damon nodded. “I can’t remember if I thanked you or not but… thank you for keeping her safe, especially when I was in no position to.”

  “Don’t worry about it brother, what is the point of having friends if you’re not there to help them?” He winced. “I wasn’t saying that to rub it in, merely saying I was doing my duty.”

  “I know, I know…” Damon squeezed his shoulder, tapping it lightly before taking a seat next to me. “I’m glad that Amy has so many people that can watch her back, not that she needs it but… well just because we can fight alone doesn’t mean we should have to, right?”

  “Absolutely,” I said, “Which reminds me, I need to organize with the vampires on their part in the plan. Do you think that you can handle the witches and the werewolves Tariq?”

  “No trouble at all,” He said, “With Tabitha here, we’ll be in and out in no time, she has already managed to charm a few of the werewolves in spite of herself.”

  Tabitha blushed. “I didn’t mean to, I just said that their fur looked soft when they were transforming, how was I supposed to know that was flirting?”

  “How do you react when someone says they like your hair?”

  “...Fair enough. But I swear if one of them starts hitting on me when we get there…”

  “Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll keep their hands to themselves,” He said, “Tensions are still too high for anyone to even consider mixing with someone outside their own group, though I’m sure many an eye is going to wander towards you.”

  “Let’s hope that’s all that wanders towards me…” Tabitha shook her head, looking at me and Damon apologetically. “Sorry we shouldn’t be having this discussion here, you’ve got so much to do and we’re just using up all your time.”

  I shook my head but stood up nonetheless. “Not at all, take it from me getting involved with one of those groups is… well, it’s way more stressful than you’d think it would be, but it’s nice if you can find someone that you really care about.”

  “Like with you and Vincent?”

  “Yeah, like with me and Vincent.” I paused, thinking that over before shrugging. “Actually, not quite, for the most part, I can’t stand the other vampires that I’ve met, and almost every hunter that I’ve met aside from Damon has been the biggest asshole in the world, so maybe my advice wasn’t actually that good.”

  Tabitha rolled her eyes, stepping into my arms for a hug and wincing at her still recent wounds being tugged on. “I’ll try and ignore every word that you just said then. Good luck with the vampires.”

  “Thanks,” I said, “I have a feeling that I’m going to need it.”

  “Oh please,” Damon said, “Compared to convincing Tristian to play along with all of this you have the easy job.”

  An instinctive scowl found its way onto my face at the mention of that name. I hadn’t considered that he would be involved in the fight, but with as much skill and influence that he possessed it only made sense that he would. Still, I wouldn’t forget anytime soon that he had tried to kill Vincent, lied to me about Damon’s whereabouts, and been a complete prick to me every time that we had met, so if someone accidentally broke his arm in the fight I wouldn’t exactly be in tears.

  “Yep, that’s the face I thought you would get.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead, holding me close and squeezing his arms around my shoulders. “Honestly, I’m pretty pissed at him as well, he’s one of the reasons you more or less got married to Vincent, but we need him and his guys. I could scrounge together some of my own but not as many as we can get with him.”

  “I know, I know…” I sighed, leaning my head against his chest. “But if he makes any trouble I’m going to knock him on his ass, just know that.’

  “Believe me, Amy, I was under no other impressions that you wouldn’t.” He nodded his farewell to the other two still present, giving me one final kiss before stepping out past the still ruined door.

  Tariq watched him go, his gaze freezing when he remembered that he had evidently kicked my door in as part of some misguided attempt to save me. “I… I will pay for that.”

  Chapter 2

  Even with such a small amount of time left before Rick decided to storm the castle and arrest me for a crime that I hadn’t committed (technically) and that he wouldn’t be able to hold me on anyway, I still had to stop on the way to the mansion to grab myself a coffee. It had been a stressful couple of days, and sex alone wasn’t enough to wake me up after a sleep, no matter how amazing it might have been. So amazing in fact that I found myself spacing out in my car, wondering how it would feel when someone else was there in person to make the fantasy become reality.

  I still remembered very clearly the way that Damon had reacted in my dream to Vincent laying his hands on his behind and pushing him deeper into me, if something like that could actually happen I think I would have found tangible proof of God being real and looking out for me personally. It was strange, I hadn’t really considered being with two men at the same time before, it had come into my mind of course but never as more than just a passing fantasy, but now that it had become a distinct possibility it was all I could think about.

  It had felt so good being between them in my dream, and Damon’s brief experiment with his fingers had been far better than I could have possibly hoped, but it just made my mind travel to places that were even further than I could have thought. They could definitely put me between them like the dream, but what about at either end… or with me kneeling in front of them or… oh, my god, there was no way they could fit into the same place at once!

  With a shake of my head and a quick raising of my hands, ripping them out of my waistband where they had unconsciously travelled while my mind went wild, I opened my door and jumped out of my car. There were many things that had gone wrong over the last few days that I had made it through, I was not going to be brought down by someone catching me touching myself in my car in the parking lot outside a coffee shop. That dog just wasn’t going to hunt.

  I was in so much of a flustered haze that I barely remembered ordering my coffee, just standing on the other side of the counter and nodding my thanks when they handed me a cup with my name on it. The heat from the warm drink helped to center me a little, hands warming down to the bone while I sighed and took sip after slow sip. I had never been this insatiable, I’d had a healthy sex life before, and sure sometimes I dragged my partner back to bed right after we’d finished, but there was no reason that I would… suddenly…

  I looked down at the marking around my finger, the black ring faded but still clearly visible, and suddenly everything made sense.

  “You fucker…” I laughed in disbelief, twisting the mark back and forth and wondering if Vincent could feel it. “I should have known to bond with a vampire would cause something like this, god knows you’re all horny enough to put the professionals to shame…”

  Which reminded me of exactly where I was going next, darkness falling once more and the creatures that went bump in the night deciding that now was the time to get up. Or in the likely case of Mika and Ivanka, go down.

  Tossing my empty cup into the trash
, I walked outside to my car, hoping that the cold air would have the same effect on me as a cold shower. God knows that I was going to need one after meeting with the vampires, there was just seemingly no end to their hedonism, something that they rubbed in my face every chance they could, both figuratively and almost literally, especially with how… touchy the three of my contacts were. I still wasn’t decided on how I felt about them, on the one hand, they were very useful allies that I could count on to do their part, they were selfish, not stupid after all.

  But on the other, I couldn’t forget the fact that they drank the blood of innocent people, that they had used me to get close to one of their victims before making a show of trying to seduce me with her body laying right next to us.

  So, in light of that, I don’t think “Good guy” is a title that really fits them.

  But I was learning more and more that they really weren’t so different in how they operated than anyone else was, the werewolves had done horrifying things, so had the witches and especially the hunters. It was just the way life worked out here, there was seemingly no other way to go about it. So, while to me what they do might be unthinkable, maybe the only thing I wasn’t seeing was how inapplicable a mortal sense of morals was to beings that had been alive before electricity had been invented. If I had lived that long I might see things in a slightly different context than someone who had been born yesterday.

  Passing by the police station I was almost tempted to drop in, see what progress they weren’t making on the case and maybe setting the other team members desks on fire for their very transparent sexism, but I was operating on thin ice and a time limit as it was. Maybe tomorrow when everything was cleared up I could go and do that, but for now, it would have to wait.

  The gates of the mansion loomed in front of me, so ostentatious and so abundantly gothic that the only possible people you could think lived in that house were either vampires or the Addams family. And though they were certainly a family of sorts, I would hardly say that they were as approachable as Morticia or Gomez. Being jumped in the foyer by Morticia was distinctly a fantasy, nowhere near a reality as evident with these colorful characters.