by S T Branton
“Look, yes, I was selling to the Harbingers, but I want to make something extremely clear. I wasn't doing that because I wanted to or for my benefit. It was purely under duress.”
“Under duress?” I questioned him. “It didn't look like you were being pinned down and threatened.”
“That's because you missed the being pinned down and threatened portion of my interaction with them. The Harbingers found out what I do and butted in. They decided if anyone could give them a leg up in their efforts, it would be me. They found me and told me in no uncertain terms that either I would help them, or they would feed me to a Minotaur. A Minotaur. Have you seen those things? They have cow's teeth! It would have taken forever for one of those to smash me to death.”
“Well, isn't that a lovely image,” Ally muttered sarcastically.
“It wasn't exactly the most delightful concept for me, either,” he snapped back.
“All right, you two. Enough. What did you sell them?” I demanded.
“Weapons,” he admitted. “But I also sold them some runestuff that you can't exactly pick up at the corner market.”
“Runestuff?” Ally asked with a sigh.
“It’s exactly what it sounds like. It’s the materials used in runecrafts.”
“Basically, he sold them the D.I.Y. kit so they can make their own runes when the ones he made for them either no longer fulfilled their purpose, ran out of power, or were confiscated,” I explained to her.
“What kind of stuff would that be?” she prompted.
“It can be many things, really,” he told her. “The most popular items are those that are rarest and hardest to get. They’re also illegal. Bones, hair, teeth, skin. Organic materials from Farsiders and Nearsiders. Those make powerful runes, but it's prohibited to sell them. Which makes it profitable for those willing to risk it.”
“Selling people's skin?” Ally sounded horrified.
“I mean, I don't generally walk around with a knife and skim slices off people for my customers,” he told her.
“Oh, because pre-packaged skin is so much better,” she retorted.
“Do you eat the crispy part of fried chicken? What do you think that is?”
“Am I going to have to put the two of you in time out?” I huffed. They both stared back at me, but their eyes flickered at each other like they were waiting for the other one to make the next snide comment. “If the Harbingers and the Guild have your number, why the hell are you sticking around here? Why did you go back to the warehouse today? Isn't that putting yourself in serious danger?”
He shrugged. “I went back to the warehouse to see if there was anything of value left. I'm a businessman, after all.” He gave a mirthless laugh. “Sorry if that messed up your plans.”
“Well, it seriously did. I'm not here doing business, and I'm certainly not here for fun. You obviously know who I am, which means you know I escaped from The Deep. The Guild's on my ass and I have no idea how long until they roll up and throw me in irons, but in the time I do have, I have to stop the Harbingers from following through with their plan.”
“What plan? I assumed they were up to their old nonsense.”
“Not this time. I don’t know what it is, but it has something to do with Charleston, which happens to be my hometown, and Ally’s. So, yes, you screwed up my plans. But I'll give you an opportunity to make it up to me.”
“How?” He sounded wary.
“By helping me find the Harbingers.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Look,” he protested, “I’ve already pissed these guys off enough. I’m not interested in further poking the bear. And after our little dance with Bentham and Thrasymachus, I’m probably now considered one of your accomplices.”
“Perfect. Since The Guild already thinks you’re with me, there’s no added threat to you helping me. And if you’re afraid of the Harbingers, taking them down is the best way forward. So, tell me what you know.”
It felt strange, lying on this well-maintained park lawn while discussing our plans to stop the end of the world. But I was having a hell of a lot of fun doing it.
Archie sighed, probably realizing that resistance was futile. I didn’t get a nickname like The Heinous Sara Slick by being accommodating.
“I don’t know what they’re planning, but I know what they need. Since you so elegantly blew up their truck last night, all the runestuff I sold them was destroyed.”
“Let me guess. They're not the type to call it a wash and move on.”
“Not exactly. They want their hands on materials for their runes and will get it wherever they can. Since they’ve already tapped me out, they'll probably go see Vincent.”
“Who's Vincent?” Ally asked.
“A shady vampire who owns a seedy club not too far from here,” Archie explained.
“There are vampires running around owning clubs and interacting with humans all the time? And people don't notice?”
“Did you ever notice when you were in a club owned by a Farsider?” Archie challenged.
“I'd notice if I regularly patronized an establishment owned by a non-human entity,” she snapped back.
“That's highly doubtful. You probably wouldn't even recognize that I'm not human if you ran into me. Humans aren’t the brightest creatures.”
“Zip it,” I told them. “What's the name of the club?”
“Reapers.”
I stared back at him with a blank expression for a few seconds, waiting for him to laugh and tell me he was joking. He didn't. Son of a bitch.
“Seriously? The vampire named his club Reapers?”
“I said the dude was shady, not that he was poetic or creative. Besides, having a name like that helps with the ulterior motives of his club. The clientele drawn to that type of theme are much more likely to go along with his side business,” Archie pointed out.
“What side business?”
“You'll find out when you get there. Have a good time.”
He got up to leave, but I jumped to my feet and stood in his way.
“Where do you think you're going?”
“I'm leaving. I gave you all the information you needed to know.”
“Oh, no.” I shook my head. “You're not going anywhere. If I don't get to lie down in the middle of this field, make a grass angel, and spend the rest of the day staring at the sky and making up what I see in the clouds, you don't get to do what you want, either. You're coming with.”
“I don't want to go to Reapers. Vincent and I don't exactly get along.”
“Do you seriously think I care? From the way you described him, old Vinny and I won’t be the best of chums, either. If something strange happens and we hit it off, then you're free to leave.”
Archie rolled his eyes but relented.
“It's still early,” Ally pointed out. “Will the club be open at this time of day?”
“Vincent keeps his place open twenty-four seven,” Archie told her. “Again, helps with the side hustle.”
“I'm really getting tired of you saying that,” I informed him.
He shrugged, and we made our way back to Ally's car. She followed his instructions, and we moved deeper into a part of town I probably wouldn't have ventured into before my time in The Deep. I told her to park, and we collected on the sidewalk in front of a stretch of buildings that looked derelict and abandoned.
“It's down that way.” Archie gestured partway down the block.
“Let me guess. This is all a part of the appeal?”
“You can say that,” he agreed.
We walked until we reached a door that looked about as accessible as the hotel had before I liberated it from the wood. The only thing that set it apart was the relatively fresh-looking etching in the glass that read 'Reapers.' Archie reached around me and pushed the door open. We stepped into a room that made my hotel even more appealing.
The entire place felt like it was crawling. The light was so dim it was hard to see where we were going, and it sm
elled heavily of smoke, spice, and bodies. The word bodies immediately came to mind rather than people because there were hints of odors laced through the air I knew couldn't be attributed to my kind.
“This is disgusting,” Ally choked out.
“What did you expect? Vincent keeps it all in the back.”
“What's 'it all'? What exactly does he move through here?” I asked.
“Pretty much anything you can think of. Runes, Farstuff, Nearstuff, drugs, all types of illicit shit. Essentially, if it's illegal to buy or sell, Vincent most likely has it or has a connection, or he can get it for you,” Archie told us.
“People?” Ally gulped.
“Now you're catching on.” He wove his way through the club to lead us to the back room.
“Vincent sells people here?” I asked.
“Not whole people. Not usually, anyway. The humans who come here are drawn to a type of life they don't realize exists. They come here wanting to give themselves over to the darkness and seem edgy. They like a little danger and crave something far more intense than they can get at other clubs. Vincent is happy to comply. He gives them exactly the experience they want, then propositions them to provide runestuff. Every rune needs something from The Far and something from The Near, but some elements are inherently more powerful than others. Since he can source most of the materials from them without killing them, it produces a sustainable, renewable source he can tap into until the humans decide they've had enough of their sacrifice game.”
I looked at Ally.
“You didn't get into any of that screwed-up shit while I was gone, right? You didn't grieve yourself into a tizzy and fall off the deep end?”
“Are you asking me if I let a vampire draw blood and regularly chop off bits of my hair and skin? No. Didn't do that.”
Archie looked her over. “There would have been good money in it.”
Everyone in the club was so wrapped up in their various forms of debauchery they didn't notice us moving across the space. When we got to the back room, Archie propped the door open. It led into a short, tight hallway that fed into the room itself. We stepped inside, and Archie immediately let out a string of creative profanity. The space was empty.
“They already got to him.”
“Is there anywhere else we could look? Another storage room? A basement? A dungeon of some sort?” I paused. “There isn't a dungeon here, is there? Because that would be seriously not cool. I need a heads-up before we start getting around things that resemble The Deep. Like a three-count or something.”
“It's called a trigger warning,” Ally offered.
“It's called a what?”
“A trigger warning,” she told me.
“That's a thing now?”
“Yep.”
“Perfect,” I told her. I turned back to Archie. “So, anything? Anywhere else like that around here?”
“There's one other room, but if they got everything in here, they got to that, too.”
“Let's look anyway,” I said.
The second room was more cluttered than the first, with nothing interesting in it. Chairs, tables, and various other bits and pieces of discarded bar life were piled in the corners. There was a fireplace along the wall full of ash.
“This is where he keeps some of his rarest items,” Archie told us. “They're harder to find here so he's more likely to skate by if there's a raid.”
We started digging through the room. No luck. Everything in the space had been touched, shifted, flipped over, and otherwise violated, and we found nothing. We were leaving when a golden-skinned man with piercing eyes came into the room. Massive men on either side of him wore plain black suits and dark sunglasses. They’d clasped their hands in front of them, but they twitched like they were ready to go into action at any second.
“Vincent,” Archie said.
It wasn't so much a greeting as an acknowledgement that we weren’t in the best position. Vincent drew in a long, dramatic breath and rolled his neck slightly.
“Having a fun treasure hunt, Archimedes?” His eyes moved over to Ally and me. “Who are your friends?”
“They're none of your concern,” Archie informed him.
“Now, I don't think that's true. After all, this is my club. That means everything that happens inside is of my concern.” His gaze scrolled over Ally. “This one looks particularly tasty. She'd make a nice snack before the stress of the evening rush.”
He took a step toward her, but before he could reach out to touch her, I grabbed a nearby chair and aimed for his neck. My swift movement pinned him to the wall, the chair pressing hard against his throat so he couldn't move.
"Keep your filthy fangs to yourself, slime bag," I growled through gritted teeth.
My body was preparing for a fight. Muscles tensed, and I readied myself for a battle.
But it never came.
Instead, Vincent squeezed his eyes closed and squirmed against the wall.
"Don't," he whimpered. "I'll leave her alone."
Ally’s laugh helped break the tension. “You weren’t kidding. Vampires are nothing like they are on TV.”
I pushed the chair harder and smiled. “Nope, not a badass at all. Only a greasy pimple about to be popped.”
“Please,” he begged. “Please don’t kill me.”
I saw an opportunity. The coward was at my mercy, and I was ready to take full advantage of it.
“Tell me about the people you made a deal with.”
Vincent shook his head.
“I don't know anything about anything.”
I leaned into the chair.
“I'm not playing with you. You know what I'm talking about. Tell me about the people who came here and bought your stuff.”
“Telling you, I don't know anything about it. They paid, and I delivered.”
“What should I do with him, Archie? Ally? Have any ideas? Maybe now is the chance for me to try out a few of the fun things I learned in The Deep.”
“Sara, stop,” Ally called. “I found something.”
I turned to look at Ally, who was pulling a charred piece of paper from the fireplace. But as I did, Vincent’s goons made their move.
Fangs bared, they leapt at Ally. But I was quicker. I smashed the chair over the back of Thing One and with the remaining shard of wood in my hand I rammed Thing Two through the chest. He squirmed, then fell to the ground in a pile of thick blood.
A scream filled the room, and I turned to see Thing One burst into flames before disintegrating. Archie stood behind him with a lighter in hand that I could tell was more than a lighter.
“Nice.”
He shrugged. “I don’t usually enter a vampire’s lair unarmed.”
“Holy shit,” Ally exclaimed. “So vampires really are flammable? And the wooden stake thing is true, too?”
“Everything is flammable with the right rune.” Archie put the lighter back in his pocket. “And it’s the rare creature who can survive a chunk of wood through the chest.”
I checked to make sure Vincent wasn’t a threat, but he simply huddled on the floor while whimpering.
“Get the hell out of here, man,” I growled. “And if I find that you’re taking things from humans without asking, I’ll come back.”
He nodded, then slid out the door.
“Are you okay?” I asked Ally.
Ally nodded. “Fine. But look at this.”
I moved closer to the table she was leaning against.
“What is it?”
“Don’t know. Found them half-burned in the fireplace.”
She handed me a stack of papers. I looked down at the strange writing and shook my head.
“I'm not entirely sure, but we may have found our lead.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“We need to figure out what all this means,” I said. “I don't understand most of it.”
Something small and hard fell on me from the top of a teetering pile of furniture to one side. Impulse ground into
me from my years of training made me swipe back at it. Ally grabbed my arm and yanked me out of the way in time for most of the stack to tumble down. This created a domino effect, and we hurried away from it. It felt like the worst Indiana Jones movie ever.
When we were finally out of the room and harm’s way, Archie looked at the papers again.
“It looks like it’s written in code. I think I can read it, but it will take some figuring out.”
“How about we do that somewhere other than here?”
“Why don't we get something to eat?” Ally suggested. “You look like you could use as many good meals as you can get into you. Besides, you've always thought better on a full stomach. It's part of who you are.”
It was a casual comment for her, but I felt it in my soul. Who you are. She knew me, the real me, and little by little, I was finding me again.
“It is part of who I am, isn't it? Well, I can't deny the basic elements of myself. Let's eat. I vote tacos.”
Ally laughed.
“Is there ever going to be a point in your life when you don't vote tacos?”
We started back toward the main part of the club.
“Thanksgiving,” I promptly replied.
“Try to tell me you wouldn't accept a turkey taco with a shell made out of stuffing, and gravy instead of salsa,” she dared me.
“Okay, I probably would. Because that sounds delicious. You'll have to make me one of those at Thanksgiving.” I gasped and grabbed her arm. “Wait.” I tried to do some calculations in my head. I knew how many days I had spent in The Deep, but had long since lost track of what that meant in terms of the date. “How far away is that?”
Ally shook her head.
“It's going to be a little while.”
“Damn it. The Guild will probably snatch me up before then.”
“No, they won't,” Archie said as we emerged from the darkened club.
I turned to look at him.
“How would you know that?”
“Because the Harbingers are more likely to kill you first.”
“How encouraging. All the more reason to enjoy what meals I can. Ally.” I turned to look at her. “Bring me to the tacos.”
