Vampire's Shade Discounted Box Set

by Vivienne Neas

  I understood what he was saying to me. I ended off the conversation. If this was going up in the air it had better be worth it, because I was about to lose my job. Without guns, and Phil, I didn’t really know what I would be doing with the rest of my life.

  I took the next turn and followed the road into the business district. I went out of my way to avoid the nightclub that they’d started in the building where I used to work for Ruben. I wasn’t haunted by that place anymore after I’d come to terms with a lot of things, but it still gave me the creeps.

  I parked in front of Tech Solutions and walked into the building. Everyone else was dressed in business suits or dress suits, with shiny black shoes and high heels that clicked on the laminate floor. I wore my workout clothes and I stood out. I rode the elevator up to the third floor and weaved my way through the cubicles until I found Joel.

  “Adele,” he said, surprised. It was quickly replaced by concern. “Is everything okay?”

  “She’s fine, it’s about me,” I answered, because just like me, his first thought went to Aspen.

  “Oh,” he said and looked relieved. I tried not to take offense at the fact that he didn’t ask if everything was okay with me then, considering that Aspen was fine.

  “Are you up for some tech work, like in the good old days?” I asked him. He looked skeptical. I sat down on the free chair.

  “I should be working,” he said when he made himself comfortable.

  “I know, but I could really use your help with something. I’m in trouble and I just need information on the guy that’s after me.”

  His head snapped up when I said that. He narrowed his eyes.

  “You’re not after him?” he asked.

  “You know I don’t do that anymore. A victim’s family member is out there looking for me. I need a heads up on who this guy is so that I know how to stay alive.”

  He shook his head. “Dammit Adele, how do you always get into this mess?”

  I shrugged. He knew exactly how I’d gotten into this mess. And I wished I could get out of it, but it was what it was and now I had to deal with it.

  Joel looked at his wristwatch and stood up, looking over all the cubicles.

  “Okay, give me the name,” he said when he sat down again.

  “Zane Masselli,” I said. He nodded and typed it in. I watched him work and I wondered if he’d gotten even more efficient than he’d been before.

  “Do you ever get bored of this nine-to-five?” I asked. When we used to work together he did a lot of underground work, things that weren’t really legal. It was one of the reasons he didn’t mind helping me out when it was about killing someone. We both had twisted morals back then.

  He shrugged. “I like the security. I like that everything is out in the open and I can’t get locked up for anything.”

  I kept quiet, waiting for him to add onto what he was saying. And after a couple of seconds, he did.

  “Sometimes I wish there was more, but it’s not worth it.”

  I nodded. “I know what you mean.”

  We were both thinking of Aspen again. We’d all gotten in a lot of danger because of what we did, including her. I wasn’t up for a repeat of that at any point in the future.

  Joel hit print and papers rolled slowly out of the black printer in the corner.

  “Here you go,” Joel said and handed them to me. “Now get out of here before I get in trouble.”

  I thanked him and left.

  Chapter 3

  I moved that same day. Connor wasn’t happy at all. But like Carl had said, he would be unhappier if I were dead. The apartment was in a building two blocks over from the one I used to live in, before Connor and I had gotten a home together. It was tiny, with two bedrooms on opposite sides of a lounge, with an open plan kitchen, one bathroom and guest toilet that was so small if I sat down on it my knees almost touched the wall in front of me.

  My new roommate was weird. He had long hair that hung past his shoulder blades, which wore either in a ponytail or a braid. He was tall and lanky, with eyes so dark they looked black. And he was a vampire. Purebred, and he gave the word vampire the kind of definition you found in books. Not only was he scary, he looked deadly.

  I understood now why Carl had said he could help me. When I moved into the room there was already a gun safe, and when I unpacked my hardware the guy looked over them like it was a reunion with old friends.

  There was nothing in his eyes when he looked at other people, but guns brought some life to him.

  His name was Barry. That was how Carl had introduced him to me. But when I’d shaken his hand, he’d said, “Call me Blade.”

  I didn’t know if Blade was a self-imposed nickname, but it suited him a lot better than Barry did. When he introduced himself to me like that, Carl had rolled his eyes.

  It was dark. The night had a rich quality, like the darkness was complete. Monsters loved this kind of night, the kind that held endless possibility for dark deeds. And I felt trapped. In the neighborhood I’d lived in for so long, in a house where the shutters were up at night, I felt trapped like I was in a cage.

  “I’m going to head out,” Blade said to me, standing in my door. He was dressed in all black, and it made his skin seem even paler, setting off his black eyes all the more. His long pale hair was in a braid down his back, but with his soulless eyes and his square jaw he looked everything but feminine.

  “What if they come here?” I asked. I hated that I sounded like I was scared, but the truth was, I was. I was in a place I didn’t know, and I was suddenly running for my life. Everything had been turned upside down in the last two days.

  “They won’t,” he said and disappeared. He’d dematerialized before I’d even had a chance to ask why not.

  I looked at the spot where he’d been standing, and thought about being able to dematerialize. I’d done it twice before. The third time was stopped by metal manacles. But I’d done it, which meant I was a lot more in touch with my vampire side than I’d initially thought. I hadn’t been able to do it without being in a life-threatening situation before, though. That made it harder. I couldn’t count on it when I needed it.

  I closed my eyes, turned my attention inward. I thought about a place and visualized it in my mind. Nothing. The hum that usually accompanied it was absent, and I felt like an idiot. I got up and made sure I had two guns close by, both loaded with silver. If I couldn’t poof myself out of harm’s way I could still shoot it.

  I sat back on my bed. It was a narrow single bed, like Blade never had couples stay over, and the sheets were all a sickening shade of green. But it was better than nothing.

  I picked up my phone and dialed Connor.

  “Are you settled?” he asked. He didn’t sound happy with me. I didn’t blame him.

  “I’m okay,” I said. “I’d rather be home.”

  “You can be.” His voice was clipped.

  “And endanger you instead? I don’t want something to happen to you just because I’ve been stupid before. If this is going to go down the wrong way at least I’ll be the only one.” I didn’t want to keep endangering the people in my life. “If something does happen here, and Carl’s contact is the one that dies, at least it will be him, and not you.”

  The moment I said it I wondered if there were bugs in my room. Carl had said that he had eyes and ears everywhere. A vampire had sharper senses than a human, but I still wasn’t sure what that meant.

  “I miss you,” I said when Connor didn’t really respond to what I said.

  “Yeah,” he answered, and my heart constricted. “I have to go. We’ll talk later.” He hung up on me without anything else. Without an ‘I love you’, or a proper goodbye. I put my phone down on the bed and picked up the pages Joel had printed for me.

  He’d gotten some information on who Zane Masselli was. The name sounded Italian. Apparently the family was Italian, and they’d all come over here years ago. Guido Masselli had two sons, Victor and Zane. When I read Zane’s
name my stomach clenched in a tight knot. How could I feel so much guilt now, but I hadn’t had anything then?

  Joel had also gotten me a list of associates. Apparently they were something parallel to the Italian Mafia, but not as intense. Zane had a group of men that worked with him. That meant that the threat had just gotten that much bigger.

  I took a deep breath and tried not to give into the fear. This was just like it had been before – I had to watch my back. I just had to get back into the mindset. It irritated me how scared I was.

  I got up and walked to the closet where I’d unpacked my bag. I pulled the almost-empty bag from the back and opened it. My leathers lay in the bottom, folded neatly. I’d packed them just in case. The leather close always made me feel invincible somehow. Like a superhero, putting on his cape. I’d had to replace the pants after a motorbike accident a couple of weeks ago. I always had to end up replacing the pants. But the leather jacket was still the original one.

  I got dressed. I pulled the leather over my skin, and it was tight and comfortable. I put on my thigh sheath, and I geared up with guns and a stake, enough to do what I’d always done. To kill.

  When I looked in the mirror, the Adele from before looked back at me. My black hair faded into the black leather so I couldn’t really tell where the hair ended and the material started, and my green eyes stood out like glowing emeralds in the semi-dark of the room. The scar that ran down my neck looked vicious, a reminder of what had once happened. I traced it down to my collarbone with a finger, and felt better about myself.

  I couldn’t stay put like Blade wanted me to. I did my best, but when it was almost sunrise, the idea of the shutters rolling shut around me scared me. No one had told me if I would have to stay put in the day, and the idea suddenly felt like I was in a cage. There was no garage built the way it was at home so that I would be able to leave in the day.

  I took my helmet from the table where I’d stored it, and walked out of the house. If Blade came back and I was gone, oh well. I just couldn’t be in there another minute. And if the daylight came, I was safe.

  I drove down a quiet street that flanked Westham. My motorbike purred underneath me, and the morning air flowed through the vents in my helmet. It was fresh and welcoming. The sun started rising, painting the world with colors and light again, and I felt safe.

  I drove around town until I was calm again. I stopped in a park and pulled off my helmet, shaking out my hair. The grass was bright green and later children would come to play. But for now it was still quiet and empty. It was just me, and birds calling questions into the bright morning light.

  I heard the footsteps before I could see them. Whoever it was moved so softly I could barely hear it, but it was there. I was on guard immediately.

  I got off my bike, trying to play it cool so that I didn’t look like I expected trouble. But I kept an ear out, and when I flicked my hair over my shoulder I caught glimpse of a man creeping up behind me. I couldn’t see much in my peripheral view, but he looked big. I waited until he was close enough for me to do something about. I had my hand in my jacket on my Beretta, and when he was close enough that I could shoot him point-blank, but far enough that he couldn’t take the gun from me, I turned around.

  I pointed the gun at his chest. He froze, blinked at the gun and put his hands up.

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” I said. He was indeed a big man, but it was all muscles. There was no fat. He had a handkerchief on his head the way bikers wore it, and greasy brown hair curled from underneath it. He had a handlebar moustache and he looked like he was in the wrong town.

  “What were you planning on doing to me?” I asked. Sneaking up on me in broad daylight really was an idiot’s move, but judging by his body and the way he held himself, he wasn’t an idiot. At least not when it came down to fighting. I didn’t know about intellect, fighting could make for that if all you needed on your side was muscle.

  He smiled at me and his teeth were yellow enough that I thought ‘smoker’ straight away.

  “Distract you,” he said.

  I barely had time to register his words when something hit me over the head from behind and I tumbled down to the gravel. I heard my gun clatter away. White spots danced in my vision and for a moment my cheek ground into the gravel because my mind couldn’t figure out which way was up. Large hands grabbed me by my shoulders and pinned me down.

  “She’s not going anywhere,” the big man said. I recognized his voice.

  “Better just secure her, just in case. Masselli said she wouldn’t come easy. Disarm her.”

  They frisked me and took my weapons. The other man whistled through his teeth. “She packs a lot of hardware,” he said. I heard him put the weapons on his person. I wanted them back.

  “Looks like he had it all wrong,” the big guy spoke again. “She was easy prey.”

  I let them hoist me up. As long as my hands were still untied I would let them think I was weak. Surprise was the best weapon. Surprise and confidence. The moment I’d been thrown into a battle situation, the fear had dissolved and confidence had taken its place. I did know what I was doing, after all.

  My cheek stung and it felt like it was bleeding. They’d let me go when they’d gotten me on my feet, trusting me to stand, and my legs obeyed. I raised my hand slowly and touched my cheek. My fingers came away slick with blood.

  Two things went through my mind. One, Masselli had sent humans to get to me in daylight. That meant he either knew what I was, or he thought I was human. And two, these men had made me bleed, and I didn’t like it.

  “Come on, let’s get her back. Masselli will be surprised we’d managed to get her, without him telling us what to do.”

  “All this working-at-night bullshit is running me down.”

  The third thing I thought after their little conversation was that Masselli hadn’t sent these guys. Not during daylight. How had they found me, then? Did they have a tracker on me, or did they just get lucky?

  They were relaxed enough now for me to make a move. I didn’t think about it. I just let my body take over, let it remember what I’d learned in training.

  I jabbed a flat hand out to my right and caught the big guy in the throat. He grabbed onto his neck with two hands, choking. Almost immediately afterward I kicked back with my heel into the other guy’s knee. I still hadn’t seen him, but it didn’t matter what size you were, a knee always gave way when it was knocked the wrong way. He screamed and went down. I turned and kicked him in the head twice, and he cowered, covering his head with his arms.

  The big guy I’d hit in the throat was still coughing, but he’d straightened himself up again. He stumbled toward me, hands outstretched and face contorted in an angry mask. I was faster than he was, my vampire side kicking in, and I hit him in the nose, the heel of my hand forcing it up. His hands groped air around me. I hit him in the nose again, and I heard it crack. That was going to hurt.

  When he went down I put my foot on his throat. His nose was gushing blood and he pressed four fingers to each side of it, swearing with a clamped jaw. When your nose is broken even speaking properly hurts.

  “You tell Masselli I’ll be waiting for him,” I said and let him go. He rolled around on the floor, complaining and swearing. I frisked the other guy and took back my weapons. He didn’t have a gun of his own. I didn’t know what they expected of me, but they’d underestimated me by far. If they wanted to have a fair chance, they really should have brought a gun.

  I walked to my bike and got on, leaving the men behind. They would need a hospital but they could get there by themselves. And I’d left them behind for two reason. I didn’t like killing people anymore unless it was kill or be killed, and I wanted them to go back and tell Masselli that I was a force to be reckoned with.

  Of course, they weren’t experienced at all, and I wondered why they were sent at all. But if Masselli was serious about me, there would be more attacks. More people would get hurt before this was over.

 
I went home. Connor was asleep, and it was like the sleep of the dead. Nothing was going to wake him up now. But I crawled into bed next to him anyway. The warmth of his body was soothing, and in his sleep he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer to him.

  “I’m so sorry about this,” I whispered to him. He wouldn’t hear me. My cheek was tender but the wounds had closed. They were shallow grazes. By nightfall they would be gone completely.

  I must have fallen asleep, because when I opened my eyes it felt like time had passed. But the shutters were still closed and I was starting to sweat in my leathers. The heat of the day was still roaring outside. I slid out of bed and made my way back to the kitchen and out the garage.

  If they were tracking me somehow, I was an idiot to come to Connor. I was an idiot for doing it anyway, but I was starting to feel empty without him. Part of me hated that I was growing dependent of someone. But part of me just yearned to go back to bed with him, cuddle up to his body and wait there until he woke up.

  Instead I got on my bike and drove to my old area, parked outside Blade’s apartment and waited. The shutters ground opened less than ten minutes later, and I walked into the building.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Blade asked when I walked into the apartment. He looked me up and down. An expression flickered over his face, admiration or something, before his angry mask slipped back into place.

  “I had to get out of here. I can’t sit inside the apartment all day with the shutters down, I’ll suffocate.”

  “You’ll get yourself killed,” he said. I shrugged.

  “I can handle myself.”

  “Not if you’re not here, you can’t. Carl asked me to watch out for you. That’s what I’m planning on doing.”

  “You always do what Carl says?” I asked, sitting down on a couch. Blade’s face darkened and it was as if his black eyes bled into the white surrounding it. He was angry, and I was almost scared. Almost. The fight had put me back in time to the days when vampires didn’t scare me so much. Blade recognized the lack of fear, and finally shook his head.