Moonlight and Diamonds & The Vampire's Fall

by Michele Hauf

  “A bite would feel so good,” she pleaded. “I want to give it a try. Please?”

  “Are you crazy?” He pulled his hair behind his head and then dropped it, fisting the air forcefully. “I can’t believe I let this go so far.”

  “Blade, it’s okay. I’m not afraid of your bite.”

  “Really? Well, that’s great for you. Not so great for me. Do you remember what I told you happens when a vampire bites an angel? Shit.” He picked up his shirt and then tossed hers onto her chest. “Put that on. Please.”

  “What happens— Ooh.” She winced. “I’m sorry. I forgot. Angel blood makes vampires explode. That’s what you said, right? But we don’t actually know what I am.”

  “Exactly. And you were cool with me taking that chance? Nice.”

  He strode into the kitchen and opened the fridge. Tilting back a bottle of water, his anger vibes were tangible from the couch where Zen pulled on her shirt.

  “Way to end a perfectly good make-out session, Zen,” she muttered. But stupid of her to have expected the bite when it could have harmed him. Wrong decision. Made in the heat of the moment. Because she was all about new experiences. Especially the ones that made her feel good. She’d have to watch herself. “I should probably leave.”

  “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

  Zen cast Blade a pleading gaze as she passed him, but he didn’t meet her eyes. What a cruel thing to say. Was he so mad that he couldn’t understand she was new at this? That she had been following her instincts and emotions instead of logic?

  Apparently. He didn’t look at her, even though she waited before the stairs, just out of his eyesight.

  “The invite to accompany me to the club is rescinded,” she said. “If you don’t like me, just say so. I can do the memory search myself. Thanks for all your help. I’ll find some way to repay you and get the car back to you as soon as possible.”

  Grabbing her backpack, she marched down the stairs and realized, as she charged outside toward the Mini Cooper, that she had let anger get the better of her. She had no reason to not appreciate the man for all the wonderful things he had done for her. He’d given her a freakin’ car.

  And he had been right. She shouldn’t have expected him to bite her. Not when neither of them knew what she was. He could have risked death if she really was an angel.

  “I’m certainly no angel,” she muttered as she slid into the car and fired up the ignition. “Angels aren’t so cruel to kind souls.”

  * * *

  Three hours later, after the sun had set and Zen had found the road leading to the club, she couldn’t lament the car’s sudden decision to sputter to a halt halfway there, stranding her in the middle of nowhere. The road was paralleled by tall birch trees and the night was dark thanks to the shimmer of moon she couldn’t see beyond the tree line.

  “Out of gas. Figures. Thanks, karma. I’ll try harder next time. I won’t be so selfish when it comes to making out with a man.”

  And she’d never again ask a vampire for a bite. At least, not until she knew what she was. Did she have deadly blue angel blood coursing through her veins? If so, seemed as if she should also have some kind of superpowers. What could angels do? She felt like a normal woman.

  A normal woman who didn’t know who she was.

  A normal woman who just wanted some touch time with one very sexy man. A man who needed time to take things slowly. To gradually work up to closer. He was sexually skittish, which was an odd thing considering his incredible physicality and heart-racing allure.

  “Guess I haven’t a clue about men,” she muttered.

  Getting out of the tiny car and gazing up and down the dark road, she wondered which was a shorter walk: toward the club or back to town. Sitting on the hood of the car, she leaned back against the windshield and stared up at the row of stars framed by the treetops.

  “Is there a reason I’m not supposed to know?” she asked the heavens. “Am I supposed to go on with life and take what comes to me? If so, I don’t get the attacks. Do they want me dead or do they just want to mess with me? And what about the halo?”

  She turned and spied the halo hanging on the rearview mirror. “Am I some kind of warrior? But for what reason? Shouldn’t a warrior know what she’s to fight? Or defend?”

  The sudden spatter of raindrops on the hood and her head was not the answer she’d hoped for.

  “Terrific. Guess karma wasn’t quite finished with me, eh?”

  Headlights appeared down the road and Zen hopped off the hood. Maybe she could hitch a ride to the club. Because tonight was for setting her worries aside. She didn’t want to think about what she didn’t know. And she figured a distraction from the things she did know about, like Blade and his amazing kisses, was necessary.

  So when she recognized the big black truck as Blade’s, Zen could but shake her head. “Oh, karma, you sneak.”

  The passenger window rolled down and a man she did not know popped his head out. He had thick short black hair, and a rugged facial structure. He winked at her. “Hey, sweetie, it’s raining.”

  No kidding.

  Zen gave him a curious lift of her brow. Hands on her hips, she peered past him to Blade who sat behind the steering wheel. “You don’t have anything better to do than follow me around?”

  The vampire shrugged. “What makes you think I was following you? My brother and I are headed to the club. You having problems with the Mini? Beck promised me the car was in fine condition.”

  “Oh, it is. Apparently the ability to remember to put gas in the tank was also wiped from my memory. Maybe I could hitch a ride with you to the club?”

  “This the one you told me about?” the man in the passenger seat asked Blade.

  Blade nodded.

  The passenger door opened and the man hopped out. Clad in black leather pants and a leather vest, but no shirt underneath, he had a remarkable physique. “I’m Trouble,” he offered and took her hand to help her up into the truck.

  “I bet you are,” Zen said as his dark eyes took her in. He hopped in beside her and closed the door. “Brothers?”

  “I’m the eldest,” Trouble offered as Blade silently drove onward. “Did you lock up your car?”

  “Yes, and I have all my valuables here in my backpack. It’s not really my car. Blade bought it.”

  “Yeah, I know he did. Beck told me,” Trouble said to Blade, who apparently had not filled his brother in on his recent charity work. “I hear you’re a fine bit of interesting,” he said to her. “Lost your mind?”

  “I have possession of my mind. It’s just my memories that are playing hard to get at the moment.”

  “Sounds as though you like to play easy, actually.”

  “Trouble,” Blade cautioned.

  “Sorry, Zen. Just stupid guy talk. You know. Or do you know? Probably you don’t. So you were planning to go clubbing all by your lonesome? Looking to hook up?”

  “Why is everyone so concerned about me hooking up? I just wanted to dance and forget about things.”

  “Forget even more?”

  “No, I—”

  “Trouble, give it a rest,” Blade insisted. “She’s looking for a night out by herself. Leave it at that.”

  A bump in the road settled Zen’s thigh against Blade’s. He didn’t move away and the connection felt like the most amazing kind of fire. Burn me, she wanted to plead of him. She sensed he had driven this way in search of her. And the fact he’d brought along his brother indicated that, if found, he didn’t want to be alone with her.

  “So are you a mix of breeds, as well?” she asked Trouble. “Like your brother?”

  “Hell no. I am one hundred percent werewolf.”

  “And damned cocky about it, too,” Blade muttered.

  “So Blade says you could be an angel or maybe a demon,” Trouble stated.

  “Or who knows,” Zen added. “Maybe even faery.” Though, at the moment, she was doubtful for all of the above. She felt so norma
l. On the other hand, what was normal?

  “Really? Our brother Kelyn is faery,” Trouble offered. “Stryke is full wolf like me. And our sister, Daisy Blu—ah, you don’t need the family history. Blade tells me a bus hit you. And you walked away from it?”

  “I guess so.”

  “That makes you one hell of a woman. Good catch, Blade. Whoa.”

  The truck’s headlights beamed onto a grassy parking lot that was lined with a few dozen cars that were getting pummeled by the summer rain. But they wouldn’t have noticed without the headlights. There was no outside lighting in the lot. And a huge mansion that looked like something out of a gothic horror show lurked on the horizon. In the darkness, Zen could only make out a scatter of people-shaped shadows walking toward it.

  “This is a nightclub?” she asked. “I thought clubs were all flashy and uh...not haunted. Does it look haunted to you? It does to me.”

  “Ah, ghosts won’t hurt you,” Trouble joked and nudged her elbow with his. “I don’t recall hearing about an old mansion out this way. You, Blade?”

  “Nope.” He rolled down the window but didn’t open the door. “You smell anything off?”

  The eldest brother opened his door and leaned out. Crickets chirped and the wind bristled through the leaves. Zen picked up the scent of dirt and the usual fresh ozone tang from the rain.

  “Nothing,” Trouble offered. “Kind of odd, but maybe it’s supposed to have the creepy vibe. Like one of those goth clubs. You sure you want to go dancing that badly, Miss Zen of the Missing Memories?”

  “Oh, come on, you guys, it’s just atmosphere. I’m going up. You don’t have to stay.” She slid out on Trouble’s side behind him and walked around on the squishy grass to the front of the truck. “Thanks for the ride, Blade. Sorry to bother you again.”

  He remained behind the driver’s wheel, but nodded once.

  Sensing he wasn’t going to link arms with her and escort her inside, she turned and wandered through the parked cars until she landed on a cobbled sidewalk. Sort of Dorothy’s brick road, but all in black. She didn’t want to turn around to check if the brothers were watching her. She hoped they were. Because she suddenly felt very alone. And wet.

  And maybe a little unsafe. But no fear.

  “Not yet,” she muttered as she gained a group of people who nodded and chattered.

  The air was noticeably cooler, and she rubbed her hands up and down her arms as, at the back of the group, she followed them up a fieldstone stairway littered with red rose petals.

  They were really working the goth atmosphere. But she did like the rose petals. As they neared the front of the mansion the doors swung inward. Myriad candelabras lit the interior and loud thumping music tunneled out. One of the women in the group giggled and grabbed another woman’s hand. They skipped through the doors and starting dancing before they even hit the dance floor.

  Zen wandered in slowly, shook off the wet from her arms and noticed the tall dark man who stood to her left, his arms crossed high over his chest. He nodded and bowed toward her, but didn’t speak.

  “Hey.” She gave him a little wave. “Just here to dance. No hookups for this girl.”

  No response.

  “Good to meet you, too.”

  The music had a lively beat. It coaxed her inward, and she didn’t resist.

  Time to get her wild on.

  * * *

  “She’s got an exotic look to her,” Trouble said as the brothers strode up the black-bricked walk. The rain had settled to a light sprinkle. “I can see why you like her.”

  “I don’t like her. I’m just keeping an eye on her.”

  “Right. Because getting all up in that sexy hair and body would just be wrong. I know how you are about falling in love, bro. That’s cool. But I also know you can get a woman in your bed if you want one.”

  “Maybe I don’t want this one.”

  “Why? Because you don’t know what she is? What if she’s an angel? That’d be cool.”

  “Trouble, shut up. We’re going to keep an eye on her, and then give her a ride home. That’s it.”

  “Fine. But my eyes will be straying to all the ladies in the house.”

  “Go ahead and hook up. Zen doesn’t need two babysitters.”

  “Then why’d you ask me along?”

  “I have a funny feeling about this club.”

  Blade stopped before the stone stairway. The night hung heavy and wet, not a breeze in the air. The black mansion loomed amidst the gray shadowed surroundings. It was as if he’d walked onto a Tim Burton set. Head tilted, he sniffed the air. Trouble sniffed, as well. When the brothers met gazes, they shook their heads.

  “Demons,” Blade said.

  “Shit.”

  Chapter 13

  Blade charged up the stairs before the mansion. With every step he took the demon scent grew stronger. At his side, Trouble growled, and he sensed his brother’s need to shift. Trouble was a smash-and-bang kind of guy. He reacted before looking. And that reaction was always accompanied by fists.

  Blade preferred the stealthier approach. But he already sensed that what lay behind the tall black doors was not going to be the party either of them had expected.

  “You said that some stranger invited her here?” Trouble asked.

  “Yeah. Stopped her in the parking lot and told her about the club.”

  “Think the invite came from a demon?”

  “I’m betting on it. Zen has no sense of the paranormal. She couldn’t have known.” He clamped a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “We go in and look around. Don’t start beating in skulls until we’re sure there’s clear danger. Got that?”

  Trouble strode up to the door, clenching his fists at his sides.

  “Trouble.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” He bounced from foot to foot, a boxer move he employed whenever he was pumped for a fight. “Wait for danger. Do we need some kind of bat signal, too, boss?”

  His brother’s cocky attitude could never annoy him. Trouble was what he was. All wolf, and itching for a fight. Always.

  Blade pushed the doors open and strode in, but was stopped by a wall of a man with arms crossed high over his chest. Leather and silver studs wrapped his biceps and his block of a body.

  “No admittance,” the wall said in a gravelly voice.

  “We’re looking for a friend,” Trouble said. “She just walked in. Tall, copper hair, flowers on her skirt?”

  The wall’s eyes glowed red.

  “She doesn’t belong here,” Blade tried. He sniffed, but the air was tainted with incense or some odd, sweet scent. “We’ll just find her and leave. No trouble, eh?”

  “She’s exactly where she needs to be,” the wall said.

  “So you have seen her. And you’re stopping us from going in to find her?”

  The wall nodded.

  “She’s in danger,” Blade said.

  The wall shook its head. Neon club lights glinted in the curl of silver spikes that stuck out along his earlobes.

  “Yeah, I think she is.”

  Swinging the angel halo before him, Blade caught the wall across the chest, cutting through leather, chains and skin and bone. The beast let out a yowl before disintegrating into obsidian ash indicative of the demonic nature.

  “Wait for danger?” Trouble said. “Right. You just wanted to be the first one to draw demon blood. I’ll give you that, bro. You’re owed, that’s for sure. Now can I bash in some heads?”

  “Whatever gets your rocks off, Trouble. What’s that?”

  Blade pushed toward the edge of the dance floor, where, peopled with hundreds, the flashing glass floor opened in the center. A bright red oval or some kind of portal loomed amidst the dancers. They danced around it but not closer than twenty feet in all directions.

  And standing before the weird portal was Zen, looking upon it as if it were a marvel. She reached out to touch...

  “Zen, no!”

  Blade charged through the crowd, but as he did, ev
ery head turned to growl and gnash at him. Human faces shifted to demon. Scales, horns and red eyes replaced the human glamour. Talons clawed at his arms and hair. Sulfur formed a sickening miasma in the air.

  Slashing the halo took out two who stood between Blade and Zen. He leaped over the demon ash and managed to grab her before she could step into the glowing portal.

  Stumbling against his body, she shook her head and blinked, as if coming out of a trance. “Blade? What are you— Watch out!”

  Struck from behind, a demonic talon cut through his shirt and opened his skin in searing pain. Wincing, and swinging around, Blade cut the halo through two demon heads—both attached to the same body. A cloud of demon ash formed and he dodged to avoid inhaling the noxious dust.

  Grabbing Zen, he shoved her through the crowd and she landed in Trouble’s arms. “Get her out of here!”

  Trouble took Zen by the arm.

  Blade hadn’t time to follow their retreat. A diminutive demon missing a lower jaw jumped onto his chest and when it snarled at him, hot spit spattered across his face. Elbowing the clinging miscreant, he couldn’t quite get him off.

  “If you’re not going to kill me,” he muttered to any who would listen, “then I suggest you run.”

  With that warning, Blade shifted to faery. The demon shrieked and sprang away from him. Faery ichor was poisonous to demons. Blade’s bones stretched and muscles pulled to reshape into the powerful winged creature. Wings unfurling, he snapped a flying demon out from above and flung it toward the red glowing portal.

  The music thumped hard, pounding in his eardrums. Demons screeched, fleeing the entity that could prove their death.

  Trouble appeared before Blade. Black demon blood dripped from his cheek. “Good call, man. Bringing out the big guns. She’s safe in the truck. No demons out in the parking lot. Weird. Anyway. Time to party!”

  Trouble shifted into a big black werewolf. Two heads taller than his human form, he was half-furred with a head like a wolf and a long toothy maw.

  The brothers stood at the center of the dance floor, werewolf shouldered next to vamp-faery, and welcomed the melee that aimed for them. Fangs descending, Blade opened his mouth. He had craved demon blood for months.