by Jeff Hale
“Very well.” Matt actually sounded relieved. “I apologize for my intrusion, then. I will be on my way.”
“Wait. Why did you ask me for him when you were very obviously trying to help him last night?” Gregor wanted to know.
“Lochlan contacted me shortly after I awoke. Something Aerick was doing last night alerted Lochlan to the fact that Aerick was here. I’m not sure how, but Lochlan has his secrets. Lochlan informed me that since I refused to kill Aerick, the least I could do was demand you turn him over to me, alive, to bring back to him. I knew you wouldn’t turn him over, so I agreed, knowing it would do no harm and I wouldn’t have to refuse Lochlan a second time.”
“Perhaps it is you that treads the thin line, Matthew. Your secret is not so safe as you would believe,” I heard Gregor say.
“Maybe not. I must return now, and give my master the news that you would not relinquish your neutrality.” I heard the front door open and then close.
“You may come down now, Mr. Kerensky,” Gregor called out.
I shook my head in surprise and finished walking down the stairs. When I got to the bottom I headed across the great room and to the dining room. I had been right. Gregor sat at the head of the table, Krysa at his right. Despite what she wore while with the band, Krysa was dressed rather conservatively today in a dress that hearkened back to the eighteen hundreds.
“You heard that, did you?” Gregor asked.
I nodded, unsure whether or not to come fully into the room.
Gregor stood and motioned towards an empty chair in invitation. “Perhaps I should explain,” he said.
“Explain what, exactly? I don’t really care about vamp politics,” I said truthfully, taking a chair at the far end of the table from them.
“Perhaps not, but this goes beyond vampire politics, which I do believe that I told you we no longer have a hand in. There is a reason for that. Our demon patron, Vassago, was destroyed several centuries ago when he moved directly against a creature known in the English language as Doomflare. Doomflare is a True dragon, and furthermore is a Death dragon. Doomflare was able to use his mastery of necromancy to take control of the one asset that Vassago was counting on; us. I cannot tell you much more than that, and I will trust that you will tell no one else of this knowledge. If the other families were to learn of our secret they would move against us, and even Doomflare would not be able to protect us against such an onslaught.” He stood and pushed his chair in, then walked past me and out of the dining room. He stopped by the front door and opened it.
I knew a dismissal when I saw one. I stood and walked out of the open door, turning to regard Gregor as I did so. “So that’s why I felt no demonic taint when you were leaking Aetheric energy earlier?” I asked, curious.
“That is correct. And something else you should be aware of; those of our family that were created after Doomflare became our patron are not dead. They are known in some circles as Dhampyr. Half vampires. Kyra is such a creature. She is not a corpse as you so delicately put it. Something for you to think on before she returns to your city to speak with your Phoenix lord,” Gregor said in a low voice to me.
“Why would you send her to speak with Lucien?” I asked.
“To arrange a treaty so that we can move into the city. I cannot tell you more than that,” he said
“Wait. So is that what Kaycee meant when she said that the La’Mortes don’t feed the way normal vampires do anymore?”
“Yes. We feed on… elemental energy,” he said, nodding briefly.
“So you don’t feed on humans anymore?” I asked, confused.
He didn’t answer me and I was pretty sure my question was going to be ignored, but Krysa came up next to him. “We can, in a way,” she said quietly. “For example, we are tied to a dragon of the earth element. We can feed on the minerals in a human. We need so little of what a human intakes that it is negligible to their health. The pure essence of the earth element from the mineral is all we need.”
“Hmmm. So you’re creatures of elemental energy now. Interesting. I will… think about that,” I said contemplatively.
“Your plane is waiting,” Gregor reminded me. “Good night and good luck, Mr. Kerensky.” He bowed and closed the door behind me.
The limo was waiting in the driveway. I got into it and found it empty this time except for the driver. The ride to the airport was silent, giving me time to think about the mysterious Serena lookalike again and the many different scenarios that could possibly happen if I ever got a chance to actually talk to her. The thoughts were beginning to eat me from the inside out. I needed to talk to the girl, and badly. It was becoming an obsession, and I had noticed that whenever my mind had a chance to wander, in invariably went back to her.
And that’s where my mind was when there was a loud squealing of metal on metal. I felt the limo lurch sharply to the right, heard more metal squealing, then the limo rocked hard as something impacted heavily with it. My stomach tried to retreat into my throat as the vehicle went into a free fall. I made the mistake of looking out the window at about that time and saw water rushing up to greet the car. Without thinking, I activated my shield and tried to teleport back up to the large blue bridge that the limo had been pushed off of. Luckily, the temperatures in the Tri-cities during the summer evenings were still warm enough to allow for it.
Traffic was already beginning to become snarled from whatever had attacked the limo, but my sudden appearance on the bridge resulted in more horns blaring and a few more accidents. Lightning struck the bridge around me, three massive bolts, and the wind whipped into a frenzy, pushing cars around, and the accidents soon became pileups. The lightning and wind wasn’t natural and I looked for the source, my eyes focusing on five people standing on the bridge and heading towards me.
Not people. Vampires.
I conjured my blades. The leader of the little group was familiar to me. Her silvery-white hair snapped around her face in the wind, and she wore leather pants and a tight fitting, dark tank top. I’d seen the woman once before, when I had come to Kat’s rescue almost a year ago. Kat had given me a frantic phone call asking, no, begging for me to help her because she was in some sort of danger. She had been terrified, and I could tell just by the tone of her voice that her life was in mortal peril. I had used MAGE’s teleportation facilities to get to the Tri-Cities as fast as I could. That’s when I had found Kat, hunted by a pack of vampires led by the same silver-haired woman.
“See, boys, I told you he came back,” she called towards the others, motioning at me. “The La’Mortes may be good at getting information, but they never keep it to themselves. Not if you meet their asking price.”
One moved towards me with astonishing quickness. I poured Aetheric energy into my muscles to enhance my strength, speed, and toughness, and counter-charged the vamp. He leapt toward me, and I leapt into the air to meet him, swinging both blades in a horizontal swipe that hit him square in the waist and stomach. His attack was aborted as he fell to the ground, down, but not out. These vamps were obviously a tougher breed than the ones she had brought with her before.
“Always getting into trouble, aren’t you?” I heard a familiar voice shout out over the din of wind, cars, and lightning. I threw a quick glance over one shoulder to see Matt hopping over a smoking cluster of cars.
“Seems to find me, even when I want a day off,” I lamented back sarcastically.
“I caught their scent, and figured they might be after you, so I followed them. Looks like I was right. Darien always did tell me I had a knack with that sort of thing.”
“More of the killing, less of the bringing up the obsessive emo werewolf, huh?” I said, going into a side roll to my left as a bolt of lightning leapt from the female’s hand and blasted the concrete where I had just been into slag.
The vamp I had just put down leapt onto my back and I spun, slamming him into one of the nearby bridge supports. He jumped straight up, off my back, and as he came down I stepped to one si
de and brought my foot up, catching him in the chin, and with the Aetheric strength, sending him straight back into the air.
I jumped up after him, dismissed my ice blade, grabbed him by the throat and slammed him down into the concrete, cratering it, and brought my fire blade down into his face, causing him to burst into bright motes of Aether as the blood in his body ignited from contact with the Aetheric energy from my blade. Had my magic or the strike not been strong enough the blade would have not only been somewhat deflected by his toughened skin, like earlier, but wouldn’t have even penetrated the slight anti-magic effect that all vamps had. I felt searing pain as a bolt of lightning slammed into my side. I saw the female still standing back, flinging bolts of lightning as the others rushed to engage either myself or Matt.
I saw Matt punch one in the face with a bit of a downward angle, pushing the guy’s head into Matt’s knee as he brought it up. As the vamp staggered backwards from that, Matt pummeled him with three shots to the ribs, causing him to go completely off guard. I then watched as Matt pulled something from a pocket in his jacket and threw it in the vamp’s face, causing it to scream in agony as smoke and blood poured off it. Eventually the vamp fell to the ground, its head completely gone and the body quickly followed suit.
The other backed off a second and considered Matt, keeping his guard up the whole time. I turned as another rushed at me, and knowing that another bolt of lightning was heading my way, I paused a second before grabbing that vamp as he closed with me. I pulled him into the trajectory of the bolt, only partially deflecting it as it washed over him and hit a glancing shot on my shoulder. I dropped the vamp as my arm burned in agony.
He stood quickly, and almost literally went into a cyclone of motion, bringing an electrified sword to bear against me in his attacks. It took my complete concentration to not get hit by his over-whelming assault. He spun into and through his attacks with such precision that even though he had one blade and I had two, my parries barely came in time. I parried up, left, down-left, right, up, down, right, left, right-up, and with each parry I took a step away and tried to occasionally get to his side, but he was having none of it.
Then something strange happened. I felt my movements become sluggish, and he got several strikes through my defenses, each blow coming with more force than it should have, like he was using the very air to add force to his blows, and of course there was the electricity. I fell to the ground, a smoking ruin. I wasn’t out yet though.
As the vamp stalked over to me, I threw my ice blade at him, stood quickly, and rushed to him. As soon as the ice blade hit home in his chest, I grabbed the handle and began to drain the Aetheric essence from his body, literally feeding from him, draining his blood away, turning it into pure energy and using it to heal some of the wounds he had caused. He eventually turned to energy motes.
I turned my attentions to the lead female, only to find she had fled. Again. I slumped to the ground as Matt finished off the other vamp by stabbing him with a silvery looking weapon of some sort.
He looked over to where I was and hurried to my side. He helped me to my feet, then as the sound of sirens pierced the night air, he threw me over one shoulder and hopped a few cars to an SUV that was intact on the other side of the median. He shoved me into the passenger seat, then got in and maneuvered the vehicle through the traffic until we were off of the bridge and heading into a nearby park. He stopped the car in a semi-secluded area, then got out and took me to a nearby picnic table. You notice the most absurd things when you’re about to pass out from pain. In this case, I saw what looked like a sleek looking boat set atop large pole nearby. Vaguely I could see flashing lights up and behind us and I could only assume it was from the bridge.
Matt kept the vehicle on so he could use the headlights to see by. He left me on the table to get some sort of kit from the back, then hurried back over to me. He set the kit on the table, opened it, then began to treat my wounds, some of which were still pretty extensive. I recognized that kit, though it had been a long time since I had seen him use it.
“Just like old times, huh?” I asked weakly, laughing, which only caused me to cough painfully.
“Yep. What is it with you and lightning bolts by the way?” Matt quipped as he tended to the worst wound, the electrical burn that spanned from my chest all the way to my hip. The last time we had worked together, it had been against a particularly powerful Air sorcerer.
“Dunno. You’d think that I’d have learned how to dodge those by now,” I said, starting to feel better. I had no idea what Matt had in that kit of his, but he could damn near work miracles with it.
“There,” he said, helping me to sit up then standing back. “With your own healing capabilities, you should be good as new in no time. Now, I guess you’ll be needing a lift to the airport?” he asked, motioning towards his SUV.
“That would be appreciated.” I stood on my own, then limped my way to the vehicle and got inside. We traveled to the airport in silence, and once we got there I looked at him, finally realizing something.
“What was that stuff you threw at that vamp’s face? And what kind of weapon was that?” I asked him, curious.
“The first, alchemically liquefied UV. The weapon was a simple silver dagger with… something… added to it.”
“Silver?”
“Yes, we have quite a bad reaction to it with the… special additive. Not that you have to worry about it. Your weapons obviously work just fine against us.”
“Why are you even here? Why would you really give the La’Mortes that information?”
“I needed information in return.” He shrugged. “They had it. I traded, knowing it would reach you in the end.”
“What information did you need so badly as to betray your master?”
“I have a… friend that I needed to find out information on. There’s more to her than even she realizes.”
“Kat?” I found myself asking.
“No, no one you know,” Matt said with a tone of finality. This conversation was over in no uncertain terms.
“Well, thanks for the help. I appreciate it. I have an agency now, we could use someone of your talents,” I offered.
He actually thought about it for several moments before shaking his head. “Maybe in the future, but not now. And probably not anytime soon. I appreciate the offer, however.”
I nodded and got out of the SUV, then headed into the airport. My backpack had gone down with the limo, but luckily I didn’t need a ticket since the La’Mortes private jet was waiting. I got settled on the plane and tried to relax with a drink brought to me by the same scantily clad stewardess. It had been a long two days and it was time to go home. Time to find that girl and finally find out who she really was. I would think that if it was Serena she would have actually said something to me at the party, though she hadn’t had much of a chance, just like I hadn’t really.
Despite my thoughts constantly being on that girl, I was half tempted to fuck that stewardess. I had no idea where it was coming from, but I almost threw everything to the winds. My principles, my ethics, everything. I felt something deep within me wanting out, and I had no idea where that part of me had come from.
What the hell is going on with me? I stuffed whatever was happening deep into the recesses of my mind and tried my best to ignore it. When I landed back in Vegas I headed immediately home. It was a few hours past midnight and Dave was sound asleep so I went to my room, threw myself on my bed, and crashed.
SIX
I woke to my phone ringing. I grabbed it off the nightstand and checked the time through sleep blurry eyes. It was eight p.m. and I had slept through most of the day. Damn vamps had fucked up my entire sleep schedule. I was going to have to change that. The ringtone went off again and I pressed the button to answer it.
“Yeah?” I asked tiredly.
“You need to come to the office. New case came in,” Raven said crisply.
“Yeah. Sure. Be right there. I need to pick up some money
anyway.” I didn’t feel like arguing with her that it was past office hours and the weekend. We needed the business and for all I knew, this was the only time the client could come in. I had to go down there anyway to get some cash since I kept most of it at the office. With Raven constantly in and out of the place, I just felt it was safer there than at the apartment.
“Good. Hurry,” she said, then hung up.
I hopped out of bed with more energy than I really felt, then pulled on clean jeans and a dark button up shirt. A check of the apartment told me that Dave had already left for work, so I made sure to lock the door behind me when I left. It was warm enough to teleport, but I wasn’t in any particular hurry and sometimes, I just liked doing things the way I had in the past, back when everything was still normal, so I caught a bus instead. The moment I started using magic for everything was when I knew I’d start to lose myself to it. I didn’t want that. I wanted to be able to remember what it was to be a normal human.
Raven’s car was parked out front of the office when I got there and the front door was unlocked. I let myself in and went straight for my personal safe to get the cash I figured I would need for a while. As I shut the safe, I heard giggling. At least, I thought it was giggling.
Curious, I held still and increased my hearing to see if I could catch it again. I wasn’t disappointed; a few minutes later the noise came again. From Raven’s office. Even more odd, from Raven herself. I’d never known Raven to... giggle.
I walked over to her office. Her blinds were closed. It had taken me a little over an hour to get to the office, and the sun had already set, so there was no reason for the blinds to be down if there was a vampire in there. I knocked on the door and got no answer, but I did hear more giggling.
Do I really want to know?
But she had told me there was a client, so I could only assume this person was saying something extraordinarily funny or was so amazingly handsome that the guy had turned Raven into a giggling schoolgirl. Either way, she was expecting me, so I opened the door, pushed it inwards, took a step into her office, and froze in complete disbelief.
