He was a vampire, but he had also been human at one time. While he’d been a manipulative asshole in the short time I’d known him, he hadn’t done anything to physically harm me exactly, only use me. The holder was something else. Whoever it was seemed out for blood. Royce was smart enough to have let me go once he knew the papers had been doctored; it was the holder forcing him into acting like such an unconscionable, unreasoning shithead.
That made it much easier to make my next decision.
“I’ll save you,” I promised before turning on a booted heel and rushing past the people and through the offices, faster than I’d ever run in my life. The cubicles and doorways were a blur, and once out the door, I barely paused in my rush to the gleaming exit sign down the hallway. I’d take the stairs and meet Arnold and Sara outside so we could make a quick getaway.
But who will save you? asked that mocking voice in the back of my mind.
Chapter 30
Arnold and Sara were in the lobby, having a shouting match with the security guard, who was also shouting orders into a walkie-talkie and waving a gun at them. When my friends saw me burst out of the stairwell, they started shouting in relief at me instead. I couldn’t make out a single thing anyone was saying, and even though I was nearly shot by the skittish security guard, who trained his gun on me the instant I appeared, I didn’t stop running for the doors leading out into the street.
“Let’s get out of here!” I cried on my way past the guard desk.
They followed quickly enough, and I glanced back just long enough to see Arnold pointing in the direction of the car. Three blocks away, I finally spotted it, and only then turned to see what happened to Arnold and Sara.
They were trailing gamely behind, but a block and a half away. A New York City block is pretty dang long, and it surprised me to see how much distance I’d put between us. Strange. Just like my newfound strength and Annie Oakley shooting skills, it seemed I’d picked up some peculiar latent talents in the last half an hour or so. The sound of police sirens in the distance was getting louder, but I couldn’t see where they were. There was a part of me that simply knew that the cops were roughly half a mile away, coming toward Royce’s office building from a different direction than we’d been running. Weirded out, I started pacing, only then noticing I wasn’t even winded once Sara and Arnold joined me, huffing and puffing, a minute or so later.
“Go, speed racer.” Sara grinned at me weakly, taking a few quick breaths. “When did you turn into a marathon runner?”
“When…she…” Arnold gasped, wheezing more than I would’ve expected considering it was only a couple of blocks. Maybe he was a heavy smoker? “…put on…the…belt…”
Horrified, I looked down at the plain black leather circling my waist. “This did that?”
He nodded, braced his hands on his knees for a moment before clicking the car open. We all slid inside, me in the back, Sara in the front, and I cringed as something that sounded like faint, mocking laughter bounced around in my skull. I can do a lot more than that if you let me, that strange, whispery voice said.
“What the blue flying fuck!” I exclaimed, scrabbling at the belt buckle. Arnold and Sara twisted around in their seats, eyes wide as they stared at me having a fit over the buckle. It seemed like the tongue had adhered with superglue to the rest of the belt and wasn’t about to be pried loose by my frantic fingers.
That won’t help anything, it said, that edge of mocking laughter grating on what few nerves I had left. You’re stuck with me until sunrise. Relax.
“I won’t relax! Get out of my head!” I cried, redoubling my efforts. Sara and Arnold exchanged a look and I glared at them. “Snide looks aren’t helping me get this thing off any faster!”
“Uh, Shia, you do realize you were just talking to yourself, right?” Sara said, amused.
“She was talking to the belt,” Arnold said, though he was still staring at me like I’d grown two heads. I finally folded my arms across my chest and growled in frustration, quickly unfolding them when the guns started digging into my ribs again. Damn it, I had to remember how uncomfortable it was to do that. “It’s…uhh…It’s sentient. A dead hunter’s spirit inhabits it and gives it its power.” He had the grace to look sheepish, I’ll give him that.
Seething, I reached out and grabbed the collar of his shirt, practically dragging him into the back seat with me. He yelped and grabbed at my wrist, but wisely didn’t fight back. The way I was feeling just then, I probably would’ve punched his teeth in if he had. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?!”
“Would you have put it on if you’d known?” he shot back. That gave me pause. Knowing that some dead guy would be talking to me through a fashion accessory all night? No, no, I most definitely would not have put it on or even touched it with a ten-foot pole. However, I had to admit that it had saved my skin in the fight with Royce.
I gradually relaxed my grip on Arnold’s shirt so he could settle back in his own seat. Looking a trifle offended, he straightened his collar and started the car, quickly pulling out into the street. Probably so I wouldn’t pull that stunt of dragging him into the back with me again.
“It’s most likely been dying for someone to talk to. According to the logs, we’ve had it in the vault for over fifteen years, and I don’t think the coven that had it before The Circle used it more than a handful of times prior to giving it to us.”
“Great.” I was just thrilled to hear about the sordid—okay, boring—past of the talking inanimate object around my waist. “So when the sun comes up, I can take it off again, right?”
“Yes,” he said at the same time that weird voice started chattering at me. You heard the vampire, he wants you to return tomorrow night. You’ll need me as much as I need you. This is freedom for me. Wear me, let me out, and I will reward you with strength and knowledge beyond your wildest dreams. You don’t have to hunt if you don’t want to, just let me out, wear me, use me, LET ME GO LET ME OUT LET—
Sara had been saying something, but the droning of the belt kind of drowned her out. “Fine, whatever, just shut up already!” I said, relieved when it did as I said. I hastily turned to Sara. “Not you. Sorry, repeat that?”
“I said,” she replied dryly, “that you might want to consider wearing it until the current crisis is over. I take it by the way you were booking it out of there that things with Royce went south?”
Cringing at the thought of it, I nodded, wondering if the belt had anything to do with the fact that I wasn’t shaking in terror or suffering any kind of adrenaline rush. Especially after that battle royal in the conference room. I felt an odd sense of smugness just then, as if it read my thoughts and agreed with them. Creepy thing.
“Yeah. Apparently he doesn’t have the focus.”
Arnold almost snapped his own neck with whiplash when he looked back over his shoulder at me. “What?!”
Yelping, I pointed back at the road, and he turned his attention back just in time to keep from plowing into a cab cutting into our lane. Once he’d straightened out of fishtailing from braking so hard and my pulse resumed something resembling a normal pace, I continued my explanation.
“Someone was controlling him with it. I don’t think he really wanted to attack me, but it didn’t seem like he had a choice. We fought, I won, and I promised I’d try to bail him out.”
Arnold made a choking sound that sounded suspiciously like laughter. Sara, who was rigidly holding on to the oh-shit-handle on her door with one hand and the dashboard with the other, was staring at me over her shoulder. “You’re joking, right? Seriously, you, saving a vampire?”
I glared at her. “Oh, can it. I felt sorry for him. Besides, whoever was controlling him is seriously pissed off at me right now and is out for blood. Royce is my only lead to the one who actually has the stupid thing.”
“Check your forehead. Do you have a fever?”
“For God’s sake, Sara!” I smacked her shoulder, eliciting a pained “Ow!” out of her. “
If I don’t meet him tomorrow at his restaurant, I might as well throw in the towel. Whoever it is had some kind of evil master plan that I spoiled, and now they want me to pay for it. If I don’t go, I might never get another chance to find out who’s behind Veronica’s murder and trying to kill me now.”
“All right, all right.” She let go of her death grip on the door so she could rub her bruised shoulder. “Tomorrow night, though? What are we going to do until then?”
“Hide,” Arnold cut in before I could speak. “We’ll find a place to bed down for the day, a hotel or something out of town, and come back tomorrow night to find Royce. Maybe there’s something I can do in the meantime to track down the holder. Get some clues or something.”
“Why should I hide?” I asked, irritated. “I was safe enough at Sara’s before.”
“Because Royce has the resources to have tracked her down, and if you aren’t at your apartment, that’s the next logical place to look. After that fight, aren’t you worried whoever it is might try to find you to finish things off?”
Recalling the alien hatred blazing in those black-and-crimson eyes, I shuddered and nodded. “Yeah, but I shot his knee out. He’s not going to be finishing anything tonight.”
Arnold sighed at that, sounding tired and beaten. “I didn’t say Royce. I was talking about the holder. He’ll probably start using another vamp tonight, or switch to a Were to fight you during the day when the belt won’t protect you. Assuming the holder isn’t another vampire, who would probably rest during the day.”
“Oh, that’s just great. Peachy keen,” I grumped, settling back in the seat and wishing mightily I could cross my arms but having to make due with putting my clenched hands on my thighs.
“Honestly, I’m kind of surprised he didn’t gang up a bunch on you up there. It was just you and Royce?”
“Yeah,” I said, recalling how Royce had balked more than once against the one speaking through him to me. “He was trying not to fight me. A couple of times he managed to hold back when I think he was being ordered to attack.”
Arnold laughed, and I frowned at him. Laughter didn’t seem like a very appropriate response. “We’re in luck!”
I gave a very unladylike snort, followed by Sara’s own incredulous laughter. “Luck? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“No, we are,” he said, grinning wolfishly. I’d have been worried if he was a vamp or a Were with a look like that. “That means that the holder is weak-willed. Can’t control more than one Were or vamp at the same time. Not of Royce’s age and strength. Maybe a couple of younger ones, but at the very least, it’s an advantage in our favor.”
Wow. Maybe that explained why the holder was so bitchy and pissed off.
Sara threw in her own two cents. “Then we actually have a chance at beating this thing?”
Arnold nodded, and I breathed a deep sigh of relief. That was some of the best news I’d heard all week.
Chapter 31
Later that night, the three of us sat around a cheap, scarred table in a remarkably seedy hotel a few blocks down from Times Square. It was the only one we could find on short notice that would take cash and didn’t check ID against the names of their guests. That was primarily mine and Sara’s idea, not Arnold’s. Credit cards and everything else could be traced, and I was still pretty sure that, in addition to Royce, my ex, and the holder of the focus, the cops were probably looking for me in connection with Veronica’s death.
So we’d gotten two rooms, though so far the three of us hadn’t been interested in separating. Especially with roaches the size of Godzilla skittering around the floors and walls. Ugh.
“Remind me again why we’re doing this?” I propped my feet on the edge of my chair and wrapped my arms around my legs so I wouldn’t chance a bug running across my foot.
Arnold looked as grossed out as I felt, watching with morbid fascination as the shadowed outline of a roach sedately marched across the TV screen, right across the news anchor’s face. “I thought it would be safer than waiting around for a vamp or a Were to find you. I’m starting to think we should take our chances somewhere else.”
Sara curled her lip, staring at the TV, too. “Yeah, Roachzilla over there is big enough to be a Werebug. Screw this. Why don’t I just ask Janine if we can crash at her place for the night? She might even be out of the country so, if we’re lucky, we won’t have to deal with her face to face.”
“Who’s Janine?” Arnold asked.
“Janine’s? Are you sure?” I’m pretty sure my face showed about as much distaste for that idea as Sara and Arnold’s did for the roach.
“Uh, guys? Who’s Janine?” Arnold asked again, ignored by Sara and me.
She shrugged, not looking overly pleased. “Got any better ideas? I personally don’t want to wake up with bugs in my hair or crawling around on me while I sleep.”
Oh God. “Call her.”
She did. I heard Janine’s high, panic-frantic voice from across the room, and rubbed my temples. Guess she was in town. The belt was adding its own muted background noise somewhere in the back of my skull, twittering laughter that mocked the tinny, high-pitched tones coming out of Sara’s cell phone. Deciding to drown them both out, I finally answered Arnold’s question, talking a little louder than was strictly necessary. “Janine is Sara’s younger sister. She’s a bit of a pill. Nice enough, but very flighty and scared of everything.”
“Oh. Great. She going to have a problem with me being a spark?”
I started, and he cracked a goofy smile. Guess he thought it was funny to call himself a spark the way some minorities thought it was funny to refer to themselves in derogatory terms. “Probably. Just don’t do anything flashy, and we may not have to take her to the ER with a heart attack.”
He chuckled and nodded. “I can do that much.”
“You know,” I said, “you don’t act anything like I thought a mage would. I haven’t even really seen you do anything, except light those candles and make the wall disappear. You just said a word and poof, it happened. No grand gestures, no bolts of lightning from the sky or flashes of light. Is all magic like that?”
“No, not really. The only reason it was like that is because those spells were set to certain key words. The actual preparation work beforehand is where you get the sparkly lights and cracks of thunder in the background.” He grinned and I stared at him, trying to figure out if he was being serious or just pulling my leg.
“Want to see something cool?”
“Uhm,” I said, not sure I did. The belt chose that moment to interject a snide You know you’re curious. I wished mightily that it would just shut up. “Okay, I’m curious,” I said.
He cupped his hands together, whispering a few words so quietly I couldn’t hear them over the sound of Sara and Janine in the background. When he opened his hands, a tiny black mouse poked its head out between his fingers and I jerked back in surprise and fright.
“Oh my God, that’s a mouse! Get it out of here!” I might’ve jumped up on top of the bed if I wasn’t afraid there would be roaches under the covers.
He seemed disappointed at my reaction, and cradled the mouse up to his chest, lightly stroking its head with the tip of one finger as he frowned at me. “Bob’s my familiar, he won’t hurt you.”
“Stop being a baby, Shia,” Sara said across the room, covering the mouthpiece of the phone with one hand.
Reluctantly, I settled down a little more in my chair, taking a closer look—but that’s it. No way was I going to touch a mouse. “His name is Bob? You named your mouse Bob?” I asked, hearing the touch of a frightened whine in my voice and hating it. I hated the sound of mocking laughter from the belt even more.
“I didn’t name him, he named himself. He’s a familiar, not a normal mouse,” Arnold explained, putting his hand down on the table so the mouse could scamper down and start twitching his whiskers at me a little too close for comfort.
Making sure my legs were tucked very close to my chest so no
part of me was near enough to the table to touch it, I shot a look at Sara, who was listening to Janine jabbering and shrugging at me helplessly. “Um. What’s a familiar?”
“Kind of like an extra helping hand. Different types of animals do different things. Bob, like most rodents, is good at collecting information for me.” When he put his hand on the table, the mouse quickly ran over to it and leaned against it. His thumb absently ran along the slick black fur as he talked, and the mouse seemed happy enough to stay where it was, so I gradually started relaxing a little more. “Some magi like using birds to carry messages for them. It’s a little old-fashioned, especially considering most everyone has e-mail or a cell phone these days, so it’s mostly the backwoods Europeans still doing it. Some magi use cats, as they’re an excellent way to focus and channel energy between the world of the living and the dead. The Egyptians were particularly fond of them.”
“Why would anyone want to deal with the dead?” I asked him, not sure if I was actually curious or just trying to keep my attention on something other than the furball at his fingertips.
He pointed with his free hand in the general direction of my waist. “Things like that are made with the use of energy from where the dead linger. Different magi specialize in different forms of magic. That’s one of the benefits to working with a coven instead of going solo. When you have magi like me who specialize in information and security, it works well when you also have magi who specialize in defensive spellcasting, offensive spellcasting, with the occasional crafter to make artifacts like the belt to augment the intangible stuff the rest of us do. Even an illusionist has a place and purpose along with the rest of us. It just depends on what our clients want, or what the coven as a whole is striving to do. Our flexibility is part of what made The Circle’s services so in demand, and such a great place to work.”
A Vampire Bundle: The Real Werewives of Vampire County, When Darkness Comes, Real Vamps Don't Drink O-Neg, & Hunted by the Others Page 101
