Demon Lord 4: White Jade Reaper

by Morgan Blayde

  Watch the wings! My inner dragon was back to yelling at me.

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I opened up and back winged furiously. This didn’t stop me from running across a bed and mashing myself against someone’s armoire. I fell heavily to the floor.

  Ummmph! More pain. Lovely. I hope no one heard that. Who am I kidding? The vampires outside are heading this way along with half the vamp soldiers in the building. The rest will be holed up with Raspy, keeping the vampire princess safe from the vendetta she’s instigated. I really hope I’m wrong and Vlad is off somewhere having his coffin waxed and polished.

  I stood and folded my wings to my back so I could move about easier in confined spaces. As long as I was at the armoire, I opened the damaged door and peered inside. A male was staying here, someone with a bigger build. That was fine. I borrowed a leather jacket to cover my naked torso. The coat went over the wings. I may look like a hunchback, but a stylish one.

  I brought on more pain by flushing my Demon Wings tattoo with raw magic. Paying for activating the stealth spell sent slivers of phantom glass around my body, edges digging in. The sensation faded, leaving no extra damage. The spell was just in time—the door was kicked in and a passel of vamp soldiers almost broke the frame crowding in, muscles tense, fangs bared.

  My spell didn’t make me invisible and didn’t deprive me of scent and sound as I moved. The vamps should have been able to hear my heartbeat. In fact, they did. My magic just tickled their brains so their minds ignored sensory input. Their heads swiveled. They scanned the room, paying special attention the broken window and the claw rips I’d put in the bedspread.

  Once the vamps were deeper in the room and clear of the door, I simply walked out into a hallway. I passed the doors lining the hall, leaving them alone, and headed for where I saw the upper landing of a staircase. The floor was hardwood and fairly new. It didn’t squeak as I walked, not that it would have mattered. I went down the steps and came to another hallway. My nose led me into the restaurant kitchen. The workers were still in place, carrying on like nothing unusual was going on. Wearing white aprons, they tended skillets, and dishes pulled from the large ovens.

  A wave of intense hunger hit. My stomach roared a demand for food. My mouth watered as I was hit with the hot, fragrant aromas circulating in the air. I went to the pass where dishes were put on trays so waiters could haul them to customers. I helped myself to a plate of ruletiki v bekone, pan-fried bell peppers, wrapped in bacon, stuffed with a garlic and cheese paste. The customers waiting for that was going to be disappointed. I carried the plate as I went in search of a door to the wine cellar. I found the door and went in, stomping down the stairs. The basement was air-conditioned, the concrete walls hidden by wooden shelves. The surrounding liquor was cheap.

  A far wall held a steel door almost as strong as a bank vault. Two vamp soldiers guarded it. I wondered who’d take over guard duty when dawn hit. Not my problem. I was here to break in. The high security door probably protected the expensive private stock of wines; the lambs’ blood these blood-suckers preferred, and their coffins.

  As I marched over to them, the guards muttered to each other. “I coulda sworn I heard someone on the stairs. Must just be jumpy.”

  “Better switch to decaf, dude.”

  “Hah, funny.”

  I saw a short-handled crowbar on an opened crate of wine bottles. Perfect. Once I picked up the bar, it vanished into the protective magic of nothingness around me. Had they been watching at that precise moment, they would have seen the crowbar pop into the air and fade away, a game for poltergeists, except most ghosts don’t hang out with vampires. Sloppy vampires who can’t control themselves are a reason for the growth of the ghost population. Too bad I wasn’t a ghost who could walk through walls. It would save me some trouble.

  I walked up to the vamps and used my dragon-born strength to slap one, and then the other. The first one was caught flat-footed. He went down hard. The second vampire moved so that I made a glancing impact. He staggered, slowed down just long enough for another swing to drop him beside his buddy. I noticed they were both wearing headsets for communications. I liberated one of them, snuggling it in place over an ear. Chances were good that Raspy was listening in.

  I tapped the micro mic stem in front of my lips. “Can you hear me now?”

  There was a long pause. I heard his voice in my ear. “Whoever’s playing games out there, knock it off.”

  I said, “Hey, Raspy, you got my people in there with you?”

  “Caine? Why are you outside my vault?”

  “Answer the question.”

  “Yes. I have your girls and the shadow-man in here. Unless you want something to happen to them, you will—”

  “Idiot. I assume that vault is air-tight so no one can use ventilation ducts to get in, right?”

  “Of, course.”

  “Did it not occur to you that, unlike vampires, Grace and Madison need air to breathe? You keep them in there, they’ll die. If they die, you will have unending hell on your hands. Is that what you want?”

  “It did not occur to me—”

  “Send them out. I told you that my contract with Dracula has been completed. I’m not here to hurt anyone. I don’t do that … for free.” I let go of my demon wings spell, letting the tattoo go dormant to conserve my strength.

  “Fine.” The air in front of the vault became a distorted lens, bending light so that the steel door seemed to twist like something from an acid trip. A black fog hung at the center of the distortion. It stretched and flowed, then spilled out of the lens, taking on human form. Forms. It was Onyx, Madison and Grace.

  Madison drew in great gulps of cold air. “Man, it was getting stuffy in there. Too many vamps, not enough room.”

  Grace stepped closer to me, her stare raking me over, lingering on my claw-like feet. “Hi. I guess you’re pretty mad we got involved in all this.”

  “No. Teenagers are idiots. I expect idiots to act as idiots.”

  “That’s a little harsh,” Onyx said. “We were just trying to help Dominika.”

  “Nice tats,” Madison said. “Nice jacket, too. What happened to your shirt?”

  Onyx gave me a closer look. “That jacket hangs funny. Is something wrong with your back?”

  Grace sniffed the air in a very canine fashion. “I smell blood. Are you all right?”

  “I’ll go into it later. Right now, Onyx, I want you and Madison to go back to the motel room. Get some rest. We’re going on a clandestine mission just before dawn.”

  “What about me?” Grace asked.

  I watched her antennae bob from her forehead a moment before answering. “You and I are going into that vault. We’re going to grab Dom, and haul her out. Then we’re going to clear things up with Dracula. A wonderful time will be had by all.”

  “Vault door’s pretty impenetrable,” Madison said.

  “There are many ways to skin a bat,” I told her. “Grace, you’ll take me in through the ghost realm. Once inside the vault, we’ll pull Dom into the ghost realm with us and beat a hasty retreat to the roof.”

  Onyx and Madison were still standing there, listening.

  I let my voice boom at them. “Go!”

  Madison jumped in place. Onyx had no reaction other than to lift an eyebrow in a practiced gesture of surprise. Madison ran for the cellar steps. Onyx flowed along with her, guarding her escape from the vamp lair.

  Reluctantly, I removed my borrowed jacket and lay it on a crate of wine. I unfolded my wings, fanning them. Grace shed the hunter green and pink windbreaker she was wearing. This freed her wings. On the mortal side of things, they wouldn’t support her in the air, but once we crossed over to the ghost realm, with its lighter gravitational force, things would be different—for both of us. I moved us so we faced the steel vault together and held out my hand to Grace. She took it in a touching display of faith I thought dangerously naïve.

  “Do it!”

  She didn’t say a word, but an elec
tric tingle shivered my skin. It felt like a field of force was pulled over me, like I was dropping in an elevator. I lost some of the tug of gravity. My stomach floated inside me. There was enough light in the basement to see colors, but they shifted into gray tones. It was like stepping into an old TV episode that had been filmed before color film took over. The only difference was that I could see auras now: an orange haze shimmering around Grace, and a golden dazzle around myself. The vamps had only a tiny flicker of red energy, so pale it almost wasn’t there. This was the stolen life force they acquired from consuming blood.

  “Follow me,” I said.

  I shoved against the floor where my bleeding aura braced me so I could jump. I sailed into the steel door, and through it. A black mist covered my eyes, and then I was inside. A moment later, Grace followed me in. Her tiny little moth wings poked out the back of two slits cut in her tee shirt. The wings fluttered, providing a decent lift in the reduced gravity. I found that an occasional, lazy beat of my dragon wings kept me hovering toward the ceiling.

  The space was lined with bricks. Though huge, it was made small by numerous coffins on slabs, enough for an army. The coffins were empty. The vamps looked ashen, and were all over the place in little huddles, most of them with expression that said they were bored out of their minds. All of them heavily armed with automatic weapons. The space near the door was clear. There were no air vents. Wires strung under a concrete ceiling periodically dangled light bulbs. The light should have been yellow-white. Seen from the ghost realm, the glow was dove gray.

  Raspy and Dom were a couple yards away, peering into each other’s faces, their lips moving in argument. But there were no sounds. No words. That surprised me. “Why can’t I hear them,” I wondered.

  “They’re not in all of dimensions that we are,” Grace said. “You get used to it.”

  “But because we’re both here, we can see and hear each other. I see.”

  That left just one vital question. Is the awesome mind of Rasputin going to be able to sense our presence, and stop us?

  He broke off from his confrontation and stared our way. His

  unfocused gaze slid through our bodies. Troubled, his forehead crinkled and a little twitch started in his right cheek.

  I held my breath.

  After a long moment, he shook his head as if to dislodge worry, and returned his attention to Dom. The argument recommenced at once, as agitated as before judging from their wild-eyed expressions.

  “Grace, get behind Dom.” I concentrated and one of my Berretta Storm semi-automatics appeared in my right hand, haloed by my golden aura so that it remained in the ghost realm with me. I was pretty sure that I could drain the slugs of my life force as I fired so that I could hit things in the real world without going back just yet. Of course, I still needed to put that to the test. In a worse-case scenario, a slug could carry just enough energy to move intangibly through my first target, losing that charge, only to rematerialize in the human realm, hitting an unintended, second target. Fortunately, that second target would be a vampire as well, so I wasn’t overly concerned.

  But, man, multi-dimensional physics are a pain.

  A hard stare assured me I had Grace’s full attention. “I’m going to distract Raspy and slow him down a little with a couple slugs. When I do, you’ll need to be fast. Pull Dom into the ghost realm with us. Try not to let any other vamp come along for the ride.”

  She nodded enthusiastically. “Gotcha.”

  I flew over to where Raspy was between me and Dom, and I unloaded half a clip into him.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  “I am never disappointed when I appeal to the worst in people.”

  —Caine Deathwalker

  As the slugs left my gun, I concentrated on stripping them of aura. Little bursts of blood—appearing as black ink from my perspective in the ghost realm—appeared across Rasputin’s upper back. He spun too fast for me to see it, crouching low, hands remaking themselves into claws. He snarled, face a tight mask of rage. His eyes were red stars that lost their ferociousness as he looked for the gunman that had attacked him—and failed.

  I was grateful he couldn’t sense me. Had I been depending on my Demon Wings tattoo, I might have been the one to fail. The mirror spell on the auction floor had broken when he used his power to change the weave of reality. To touch me now, he needed to reach through his reality, into the one that held me. Not that I was going to tell him that.

  I saw Dominika over his shoulder. Her concerned eyes widened as Grace gripped her shoulders. The vampire princess’s lips were moving, but the words showed up late. “…The hell is going on?”

  “It’s okay,” Grace slid her arms around Dom from behind. “I’ve just pulled you into a side reality that is mostly used by the dead. You can see the world from here, but not hear it. Caine and I need some time with you without Rasputin getting all Alpha vamp on us.”

  Dom lay her hands over Grace’s, welcoming the comfort of touch. “Yeah, he’s definitely a domination freak.” Her gaze took in the smoking gun in my hand. “You shot him?”

  “He’s a vampire. He’ll heal.”

  Rasputin spun back toward Dom. He reached out, waving his hand. It went right through her body like she was air.

  “That is so weird,” Dom said. “I didn’t feel a thing.”

  “We don’t want to be here if he figures the trick out. Let’s go.” I allowed my gun to magically return to the satchel in my car. Fluttering my wings sent me swooshing into the vault door and through it. I emerged to find the fallen vamp soldiers picking themselves up. One of them staggered slightly on his feet, holding his head. The other studied the area, looking for his attacker. My intangible wings sweeping through them as if they were illusions of light.

  Right here. Too bad you can’t see me.

  As I flew past, I picked up the leather jacket. Pausing at the stairs, I back-winged, waiting for Grace and Dom to catch up. They come through the vault, hand in hand, and crossed the room. I let them zip past and brought up the rear. Diving up the stairs, into the kitchen, I saw the girl’s legs vanish into the ceiling. More of the vampire guards ran into the busy kitchen, inspecting all the workers. Some of the vamps headed directly downstairs to the vault. I wished them all luck in figuring out what had just happened.

  With a strong flutter, I flew into the ceiling. The trick was controlling my aura so that objects I wanted solid were energized, while things I wanted to ghost through weren’t charged.

  This was all pretty cool, but I remembered what—lived?—in this extension of space/time. Besides the stray phantom, there were also demon spirits, the Judeo-Christian kind that had once been fallen angels. That wasn’t the kind I dealt with usually, and I hoped not to gain that kind of experience. I liked the kind of demon that could be killed.

  I went through two more floors, and burst out of the building. More vampire guards were spaced out along the edge of the roof, all of them looking out, up and down, watching for a follow-up attack. I too hoped Dracula would show up. I wanted all the drama resolved here so I could turn attention to a little ghost girl I knew who wanted her killer punished. I really hoped that was in my power, but maybe not.

  Just have to see.

  I joined Grace and Dom in the middle of the roof. The vampire princess was studying the other vamps. “They really don’t know I’m here?” she asked.

  “No,” Grace said. “But if I let go of you …”

  It occurred to me that—the same way the vamp soldiers weren’t seeing me—I couldn’t see Dracula using that incorporeal mist form of his. I needed to leave the ghost realm he’d see me and hopefully come to me. Of course, that meant I had to deal with some really pissed off vamps. Well, I had an answer for them, one elegant in its simplicity.

  “I’m going back to the human side,” I told Grace. “You wait here until I turn and signal you. No heroics. That’s my job.” I stared into Dom’s eyes. “You do know that your problem is the gilded cage you’ve been trapped in,
not being a vampire, right?”

  “That’s what Grace has been telling me. You’re saying I can take back my life and have it worth living.”

  “Right. And Dracula is the key to that. We need someone who can claim your time and make Rasputin put up with it,” I said.

  “But Dracula wants to kill me. Why would he—?”

  “Dom, let me deal with Dracula for you. I think I can make him see the light. Okay, I’m going.”

  My aura had been seeping out since Grace brought me over. That leakage was what kept me in the ghost realm. All I needed to do to go back was to plug the leak. I closed my eyes and imagined myself wearing a suit of armor, a second skin of steel. With this visualization, I drew my lifeforce into to the core of my body, seeing it as a star churning in my guts. An electric tingle swept over me. I opened my eyes and saw the world in full color once more as gravity settled me firmly on my feet. I folded my wings and slipped on the leather jacket I’d carried.

  I raised my hands as if in surrender and yelled out across the rooftop. “Hey, guys, you looking for me?”

  Everyone spun to look at me. My surrender must have looked to them like the stupidest thing they’d ever seen. Instead of rushing me at a super vampire speed, they stood there befuddled. Suspicion will do that to you. My surrender was just too easy, so it had to be some kind of trap. They looked at each other, as if coming to a consensus on who was going to be first to stick their head in the lion’s toothy maw.

  This was the response I’d hoped for. It gave me time to flush some raw magic into one of my more special tattoos: Dragon’s Roar. The pain that flooded my system to pay for the magic spell was potent and bracing, a combination slow burn from the inside out, and a lancet sensation of being stabled with scalpels all over my body. I had to look down at my arms to make sure I hadn’t actually been flayed alive. The phantom sensation dissolved, leaving me undamaged as usual—but with a strong power at my disposal.

  I lifted my head, throwing it back, and shouted a command like God calling for an apocalypse. In this case, I said, “Quickly, all of you, jump off this building and kiss the pavement.”