by E.J. Stevens
I twirled one of my blades, rolling it over my knuckles as I watched the building.
“Whoa, we’re not going in there with blades flashing, that’s for bloody sure,” he said. “We’ll watch for vamps stalking their prey, and follow any who lead their victims out of the building.”
I nodded and slipped my knife away, still within easy reach. We crossed the street and waited our turn in line. Ash walked past the bouncer without so much as a head nod, but as I tried to follow, the large bearded man held an arm across the entrance.
“ID,” he said. I stiffened, but showed him my passport. He squinted at my picture as if not believing I was old enough to enter, but finally passed it back and held out his hand. “Ten Euros.”
“It’s not like he asked Ash for money, or an ID,” I muttered, stepping into the smoky club.
“It pays to be a trendsetter like myself,” Ash said, a wide smile on his face.
I raised an eyebrow at his ridiculous hat and scarf and shook my head.
“Come on,” I said, walking deeper into the lion’s den. “Let’s find us some fangheads to stake.”
*****
I stepped into a smoky back room and grimaced. The smell of hashish and Mandragora was strong, permeating the fabric of the velvet couches and the walls draped in dark red cloth. Drug users make the perfect victims for vamps. If we were going to catch a bloodsucker in the act, it would be here.
I started to slide into a low booth when my gaze fell on a familiar, scantily clad witch.
“Shit,” I muttered. “Can’t Martens do anything right?”
I changed directions, grabbed Ash by the arm, and stomped over to where Celeste Dubois reclined languidly on a velvet fainting couch.
“Ah, Jen, come join me,” she said. “You’re in luck. I was just about to order something special off the menu. Maybe you can help me make up my mind. They’re both so beautiful, it’s hard to decide.”
She let out a sultry laugh that probably made other people’s toes curl. It just made me queasy. Celeste was a Hunter and yet she was here buying sex and drugs in a vamp owned nightclub.
“The name is Jenna,” I muttered. I gave the half-naked waiter and waitress a hard look and nodded toward the door. “Beat it. Celeste and I have business to discuss.”
They both moved on to the customers waiting at a nearby booth. I swallowed hard, my stomach twisting. I guess I knew now why the booths had curtains.
Celeste pouted.
“If you’re going to be such a spoil sport, then at least introduce me to…” she said. Her eyes widened, and her dilated pupils shrank to normal size as she stared at Ash. She blinked at my hand on his arm then focused again on his face. “You! What…how…?”
“It’s a long story,” he said with a shrug.
“B-b-but…” she stuttered.
“You two know each other?” I asked, looking back and forth between them.
“Yes, we used to hunt together, back before I left the Guild,” Ash said, giving Celeste a significant look. There was obviously more to the story, and I made a mental note to ask him more about their relationship later.
“Sorry, you’ll have to forgive my rudeness,” Celeste said, eyes still a bit wide. “I didn't think I’d see Alistair again, not in this lifetime.”
I grit my teeth, annoyed at myself for a glimmer of anger that sparked when Celeste used Ash’s given name. I didn’t think he let anyone call him that, and the fact that the voluptuous witch did it so casually made me want to strangle her with the nearest hookah. Ash also looked uncomfortable. He’d taken a seat on a chair across from Celeste and his knee bounced up and down like a grasshopper in a frying pan.
“So, you two used to date?” I asked.
“Yes,” Celeste said at the same moment that Ash said, “No.”
“Whatever,” I muttered.
“I suppose we never actually dated,” Celeste purred. “It’s not like we ever left my room.”
She licked her lips and I started scanning the room for vampires. I’d give anything for a bunch of monsters to stake about now.
“Knock it off, Celeste,” Ash said with a sigh. “It was one time and the next day you were already throwing yourself at Chadwick.”
I gasped and turned to see Celeste’s olive skin turn a sickly shade of gray.
“Yes, we all make mistakes,” she said, voice soft.
“You chose Chadwick over Ash?” I asked.
“Not for long, if I remember correctly,” Ash said. “Didn’t you go after Sheila, our supply truck driver, the very next day?”
Celeste gave a “what can you do” shrug and took a sip of her drink. She frowned and set the glass down with a clatter of ice cubes.
“Jen…Jenna, be careful of Chadwick,” she said.
Bile rose in my throat, and Celeste’s drink suddenly looked awfully tempting.
“Bit late for that, love,” Ash said, frowning at Celeste.
“Oh, by the Goddess!” she said. “I should have known from your aura. I am so, so sorry. I should have warned you about Chadwick sooner.”
“It’s not your fault,” I said, though it did chafe a bit that if she hadn’t been so high on drugs when we met, she might have thought to warn me. Which reminded me, why wasn’t she back at the infirmary? “But I have to ask, how did you escape Martens? Didn’t he have you in the infirmary, um, drying out?”
“Benjamin doing an intervention?” she asked. “Now that’s a laugh.”
I frowned, obviously missing something, and for a moment I wished I was back in Harborsmouth. Our Guild, like any family, had a few of our own dysfunctional members, but nothing like this, and at least there I knew what people were talking about. Here in Bruges, I had no frame of reference to go on. These people had a history together, a history that I wasn’t a part of.
“Why is that so funny?” I asked. “Martens is your doctor, and he said he was going to help you kick your addiction.”
I frowned at the hookah at her elbow and turned back to the witch, but I didn’t have a chance to learn more about Martens.
“Jenna,” Ash whispered. “At your three o’clock.”
I turned to the right to see a gorgeous man, with dark hair and pale skin, helping an inebriated woman toward a doorway at the back of the room. He nodded to another pale skinned man with long blonde hair, and the blonde slipped in behind them as they passed out of the room. Shit. The vamps were on the move.
Chapter 27
“Vamp magic is often nullified by crossing moving water.”
-Jenna Lehane, Hunter
Following the two vampires and their intoxicated victim wasn’t easy. It’s hard to be stealthy with a witch, who won’t stop ogling your hunting partner, tagging along. Not only was she running her eyes up and down Ash like he was a damn ice cream cone, she was also muttering incantations under her breath. If she hexed us in the middle of our hunt, I was going to be pissed.
“Cut it out, Celeste,” I growled, keeping my voice low. We were keeping our distance from our target, but vamp hearing was much better than human. “I will not allow you to sabotage our mission because of something that happened between you two in the past. Whatever bullshit is going on between you and Ash, it’s time to bury it.”
“I thought we did that already,” she said with a wink. “Right, Ash?”
For the love of Athena, did everything with the witch have to come back to sex? Ash sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.
“Give it a bloody rest, Celeste,” he said. “Jenna is right. It wouldn’t kill you to at least try to be professional.”
She pouted, but shut up. About time, I thought, shaking my head. I would have insisted that Celeste stay behind, but I didn’t like the idea of leaving her alone at the Van Haecke Maleficium and if these vampires took their prey where I was thinking, her magic may be necessary in order to follow.
I frowned, keeping pace with our target. As much as I hated to admit it, we needed the witch.
The vampires
turned a corner and I smiled. These bloodsuckers were predictable. The vamps were heading toward the place where I’d been ambushed last night, but as they began to walk across the stone bridge, the woman in their arms started to struggle.
“Their control over the woman is slipping,” Ash said.
I nodded. Vamp magic is often nullified by crossing moving water. It’s one of the reasons I was so surprised to find such an infestation of fangheads here in Bruges. A canal city seemed like an unlikely place for them to congregate.
“Let’s do this,” I said. “On my mark. Three…two…”
We wouldn’t get a better chance than this. With the vamp’s magic diluted by the canal below their feet, the woman they’d selected for their dinner had a better chance of survival. I drew two stakes and shifted my weight onto the balls of my feet, a slow smile spreading across my face. When you’re fighting for your unlife, it’s hard to keep your food from running away.
“One.”
With a grunt, I bolted after the vampires. In my peripheral vision, I could see Ash keeping pace with me, his sword raised over his head. He would have looked like an avenging angel if it weren’t for that foolish hat on his head.
I’d lost sight of Celeste, but I could hear her chanting at our backs. My experience working with users of the Craft was limited, but I knew enough to realize that she was only now doing the ritual, Drawing Down the Moon.
If she was calling on the moon for power, that meant she’d left the guildhall without even charging her magic batteries. The Mandragora had muddled that woman’s brain. She’d gone to a vamp owned club without preparing for a fight.
Good thing we didn’t need her help.
I lunged forward, crashing into the vampire on the left, effectively tearing the struggling woman from his grasp. The vampire went down hard, but he was already recovering from the shock of being attacked. Now that they knew we were here, we’d lost the element of surprise, but that was okay. I had more tricks up my sleeve.
I ripped a glass bottle of holy water from my skirt and threw it at the vampire. It hit his head and shattered, splashing holy water all over his face. The vampire’s handsome glamour dropped and he shrieked, wiping frantically at his crumbling flesh.
I ducked, as he blindly slashed out with his claws, and rammed a stake through his heart. The vampire stopped moving, all except for the places where the holy water was eating away at his mummified head.
I turned my back on the incapacitated vamp and scanned the opposite side of the bridge. Ash was circling the other vampire, but the bloodsucker was using the woman as a shield. I glared at the vampire as Ash and I darted in and out, testing his defenses.
We had to find a way to take out the vampire without harming the sobbing woman in his vice-like grip. I drew another bottle of holy water from my battle skirt, but as it turned out, I didn’t need it.
With a satisfied whoop, Celeste got off a spell, and the human woman dropped to the ground like a sack of rocks. If the desired effect was for the vampire to lose his grip, it had worked. I just hoped the woman was still alive.
The vampire spun away from Ash’s sword, the strike missing by less than an inch. As Ash brought his sword back up, the vampire flung himself toward the side of the bridge. If he jumped over, we’d lose him. A smirk twisted his lips and I knew he’d figured that out as well.
In a blur of motion, he sprinted toward the stone wall that lined the sides of the bridge. I lunged, trying to head him off. I wouldn’t have succeeded if it hadn’t been for Ash, cutting the vamp off at the knees.
The vamp shrieked and I bared my teeth in a fierce smile. Gotcha.
But before I could stake the vamp, or draw my sword and take his head, Ash grabbed my arm making me jump.
“Sorry, love,” he said, wincing at the way I flinched. Damn, I was still a bit twitchy after my run-in with Chad last night. Ash nodded toward Celeste and gestured at the other side of the bridge. “You may want to take a step back.”
I frowned, but joined Ash halfway across the bridge. There I dug in my heels, refusing to go any further. Vamps are fast healers, and there was no way in hell I was letting this bastard get away.
“Aesh deamhan fola animus mundi,” Celeste chanted. “Loisg!”
The vampire burst into flame. Within seconds his body was nothing but grimy ash and dust. My fingers itched to sift through the ash for my trophies, but the fangs would have to wait. I ran over to check on the fallen woman, my skin still hot from the blaze.
I dropped the bottle of holy water and felt for a pulse. It was hard to tell over the beating of my own rapid heartbeat, but after a few seconds I breathed a sigh of relief.
“She’s alive,” I said, rocking back on my heels. “But I don’t know what we’re going to tell her when she wakes up.”
“Her?” Celeste asked. “She won’t remember a thing, not after that spell I dropped her with.”
“Not bad, Dubois,” Ash said looking over the fallen woman and the drifting pile of ash across the bridge.
I had to agree. I still didn’t like Celeste, but she’d proven herself useful.
“Next time give me some warning,” I said, flashing a smile and nodding toward the sooty smear where the vampire had burned. “I’ll bring marshmallows.”
“Mmmm, that would be fun,” she said, licking her lips.
I turned my attention to the vamp I’d staked. There wasn’t much left of his face, but I was never one to take chances. I drew my sword, but before I brought it down on the vamp’s neck, I rolled him over with my booted foot. There, on the small of his back, was a familiar mark.
“He’s from one of those sodding vampire factions we faced off against last night,” Ash said, coming up beside me.
I rubbed my temples, pushing away a headache. Ghosts were starting to flow out of the buildings that lined both sides of the canal, edging closer as they were drawn by the vampires’ final deaths.
“What I don’t get is why there are so many predators in Bruges,” I said. “It’s not like it’s a large city. I expect this sort of thing in London, New York City, L.A., or back in Harborsmouth, but not here. Are we sitting on a nexus point?”
That was the reason why Harborsmouth was so infested with supernaturals. They were attracted to the power generated at the point where the lay lines intersected, creating a magical crossroads in the center of Harborsmouth.
“No, but I agree that there’s an evil in Bruges just below the surface,” Celeste said. “My coven has a theory that the good of the Holy Blood must be balanced by the evil of the monsters who dwell here.”
It was an interesting theory, but it didn’t get us any closer to ridding the city of predators.
“Well, let’s go shift the balance,” I said. “We’re practically standing on the vamp’s doorstep. Might as well pay them a visit.”
After calling a cab for the woman who was still dazed from Celeste’s spell, we climbed down the embankment on the other side of the canal and entered the tunnel beneath the bridge. Unfortunately, our visit was cut short.
“I can’t break through that ward,” Celeste said, shaking her silky hair from side to side. “Not without preparing some serious spells.”
“How much time will that take?” I asked, eyeing the exit. More vampires could show up any minute, and with that door closed we’d be boxed in with no means of escape.
“I need more than time,” she said. “I need my grimoire and spell components.”
I sighed. I guess it wouldn’t hurt for us all to stock up on weapons and information.
“Come on,” Ash said, sheathing his sword. “Let’s get you two back to the guildhall.”
After climbing up the embankment, I paused, holding up my phone.
“I’ll be right there,” I said. “I need to make a call.”
Chapter 28
“Never suffer a vamp or his greedy cronies to live.”
-Jenna Lehane, Hunter
Darryl was waiting for me in the archives. A
sh wanted to gather more of his weapons, so we agreed to split up for now. I had a nagging suspicion that he’d asked Celeste to stick with me like glue while he was gone. The witch had insisted on walking me down to the archives door, but when she started to enter the archives itself I raised my arm to block the way.
“I’m in good hands,” I said. “Go get your spell components. I’ll be fine.”
“You sure?” she asked.
“I’m sure,” I said. “And Celeste? If Chadwick shows his face, call me.”
She waggled her fingers and winked.
“Don’t worry about me,” she said. “I still have enough moon energy to give Chad a zap or two where it hurts.”
We shared a conspiratorial smile and she left. My steps were light as I moved farther into the archives. It was nice knowing that where Simon Chadwick was concerned, Celeste and I had each other’s backs.
“Was that our girl Celeste?” Darryl asked, tilting his head to the side. “I haven’t seen her around the past few days. Was startin’ to think she had a new boyfriend or girlfriend takin’ up her time. It’s not you, is it?”
“God no,” I said with a snort. “Celeste is okay, but she’s also a basket full of crazy. Plus, I’m not into girls.”
“Good to know,” he said with a wink.
Darryl might be blind, but he could still flirt up a storm. I blushed and took a seat by his work station, letting the chair scrape the floor so he’d know right where I was and that it was time to put on our thinking caps. I put my boots up on his desk and took a deep breath.
“I have a puzzle for you,” I said.
Darryl’s lips curved in a sly grin.
“You know I loves me a puzzle, darlin’,” he said. “Go on, shoot.”
“Okay, first I’ve been noticing that some of the vampires I’ve staked are marked with a symbol like a lion while others are marked with a fleur-de-lis,” I said. “And all of these kills have been within the city walls, so probably within the same territory.”
