by Izzy Shows
What a glorious night it had been, though.
My cheeks heated at the memory and I pushed myself harder, running until my lungs burned and not a single thought but moving forward could surface in my brain. It was punishment, punishment for my slip in judgment last night. When I couldn’t possibly draw another breath and my legs felt like jelly I allowed myself to stop, bending over to grasp my knees as I forced myself to pull in air. Then I began the walk back to my house.
I didn’t know what I was going to do about this mess, but I did know that now was not the time to be dealing with it. I had to make headway on this case, and now, or there were going to be much bigger problems than who I was fooling around with.
I let myself get lost in my thoughts on the walk back, contemplating what could be done to figure out this case. When I was finally in front of my door again, I hadn’t figured out any of it and was only more frustrated. I dissembled the enchantments to walk in, throwing them back up in what had become a reflexive motion now, and headed down into the basement. I was drenched in sweat, my shorts and t-shirt plastered to my skin, but it didn’t matter because I wasn’t done with my work out. In the basement at the far wall past the ritual circle was my punch bag; that great reliever of all stress.
It occurred to me that it would have been much safer for me to come home and break the damn thing last night…safer but much less fun.
I shook my head to rid myself of the thought and strode over, landing a kick on it to get started and then began to just beat the hell of out of the damn thing. I slammed fist after fist into it, envisioning the vampires who had haunted my steps the night before, the necromancer Deacon who had taken Aidan from me, and every other enemy I had faced down in the past year. It would be nice to have one day where the sky wasn’t falling, and I suppose I’d had something like that with all the little problems that had cropped up instead of them being big problems, but still. Just once I would like to take it easy and not worry about what’s happening out in the world while I’m relaxing.
I hadn’t been worrying about that last night.
I winced and pulled back to slam my leg into the bag again, visualising it as the reminder of last night that needed to get the hell out of my head.
The doorbell rang. I blinked, dazed, confused at the sound of it for several moments before it rang again and I realised that someone was at the door.
My shoulders sagged as I walked away from the bag and up the stairs. I opened the door and saw Finn standing on the other side.
“Fun workout?” he said, smiling. Oh good, he wasn’t in a mood today.
“Fun is one word I suppose could be used for it. Maybe not the word I would use, but it’s a word,” I said, softening the sarcasm with a smile of my own. I took a step back so that he could walk in, and shut the door behind him. A muttered word raised the wards again, locking us inside safe and sound.
Finn had never once complained about it, but I wondered if it made him nervous that he couldn’t leave without me opening the door—but maybe he didn’t say anything because now he knew what the real threat was out there, that could come knocking at the door at any moment.
“Want to join me?” I asked.
“What, your workout?”
“Yeah, you’re taking up valuable time here, the least you could do is provide me with a sparring partner.”
“Well when you put it like that, how can I say no?” He laughed, taking off his jacket. “Downstairs?”
“Yep,” I said, and headed down with him behind me.
We faced off in the open space of the basement, the ritual circle just a few feet behind me. We would likely cross its distance once or twice while sparring, but that didn’t matter so long as it wasn’t activated. The energy would easily be cleared later when it was set up, if it was set up.
I waited for him to attack first, then joined in with a punch aimed immediately for his face, which he blocked with a grunt. He aimed for my gut, and I span out of the way, kicking high for his head. He ducked, sweeping his leg for my feet, a move I had to jump to avoid.
“Any news on the case?” he said, asking between panting breaths and punches.
I smiled. Now wouldn’t be a good time for anyone else to have a conversation, but we had been sparring together for a while now. It was more like a dance then a fight, we watched the other person’s body for the tell-tale sign of a muscle clenching or expanding, that would lead to the next hit, and moved out of the way a split second before it landed. Occasionally one of us managed to land a hit, but it was a rarity. We only kept it up now for the exercise it provided, and the opportunity to keep ourselves ready, to commit the movements to muscle memory. For us, conversation wasn’t a problem while sparring.
“Not yet,” I said. “And it’s driving me bloody insane. I don’t like not knowing things.”
“I don’t either. I know, logically, it makes sense we haven’t got anywhere with the case yet. The vampires haven’t slipped up, haven’t left a single clue at a crime scene as to their identity. You got a good look at the one guy’s face in that woman’s memories, but that won’t do you any good unless you can see him, and how are we supposed to figure out where he might be? It’s fucking difficult is what it is.” He ducked another kick at his head, aiming a punch to my gut soon after which I barely managed to dodge.
“We’ll find them, Finn, I promise.”
“Yeah, if you can stay alive long enough to get anywhere on the case. What the fuck was up with that shot?”
“Honestly, I have no idea who’s taking shots at me. A vampire would just attack, like the one in the alley did. And now that I’m thinking about it, there was another incident that I brushed off as a one off, but it might be connected.” I frowned, thinking about the men who’d attacked me when I’d been heading home from the first scene, weakened from the spell attempt.
“What? What happened?”
I grunted when he landed a blow to my shoulder, rolling it back to dispel the momentum that would have otherwise carried me a few steps. I returned the punch, aiming for his jaw, but he blocked me.
“A few men attacked me after that first crime scene. I thought it was just a random mugging, not that that made any kind of sense. I don’t exactly look the type anyone would want to rob, you know?”
“Yeah, no, that’s weird.”
“Fred thought someone was trying to kidnap me, to rape me. That made more sense, and yeah, it freaked me out. But now I’m thinking it’s related to the shooting. It doesn’t help me get any closer to figuring out who was doing what, but if they’re related than that means someone has it in for me.”
He nodded, silent for a moment while we kept sparring.
“You don’t have any ideas who would want to take you out?”
“Well, yes, I’ve got a few. Dudley, for one, might want to get rid of me. He was awfully nice when I went to see him, and I was wearing my full battle gear. It didn’t make sense that he would be so polite. But I saw him after the first attack…I suppose he could have been trying to throw me off. It just doesn’t seem right, though. Not with Carmen around, I mean, she could have snapped my neck in the car and it would have been taken care of. Why send a sniper after me when he already had her?”
“That’s a good point. No, I may not like the idea of working with vampires, but I don’t think it’s him,” he said.
I took advantage of his momentary distraction, jumping, spinning, and landing a kick to the side of his head. He fell to the floor, catching himself with one arm flat on the concrete and a scowl on his face. “Low blow, Blair.”
“No,” I said with a grin, “it would be a low blow if I’d knocked your groin in two. I went for your pretty face instead.”
Next thing I knew my legs had been knocked out from under me and I was lying on the ground beside him. I rolled onto my back, breathing hard. Sparring and talking at the same time was a killer work out, you used a lot of oxygen and had to ramp up your concentration just to keep moving. Not to men
tion my muscles had already been screaming at me from the run I’d gone on. I was ready to call it a day.
“What are we going to do?” I said, rolling my head to one side so I could look at him.
“I think it’s time we recognised what works and what doesn’t, and play to our strengths.”
“OK,” I said, dragging the word out, my eyebrows knit in confusion. “What does that mean, though?”
“You aren’t comfortable at crime scenes. The crew makes you antsy, and you don’t feel like you belong. It’s obvious.” Harsh, but true. “I don’t know the first thing about hunting vampires. You have no idea how to figure out who’s after you. I happen to be good at figuring out that kind of thing. So, let’s divide duties, you focus on the actual case. Figure out where the vampires are, let me know when you’ve got that and we can take them out.” He levelled a glare at me. “Together. I brought you into this case, don’t make me regret it by going solo on me. In the meantime, I’ll handle anything new that pops up and give you whatever information you need to work the case, and try to figure out who’s after you.”
I pulled myself into a sitting position and nodded. “Yeah, OK, that works. I can do that.”
He grinned at me. “Finally. We have a plan.”
26
Carmen stood awkwardly in the centre of my room, staring down at me as I sat on the couch. After I’d taken a shower I had called her over, set now on figuring out what was going on and getting to the bottom of it.
“I don’t know what you expect to happen,” Carmen said, shaking her head. “There’s no magic you can work that will just tell you who we’re after.”
“No, but there might be some that you can work,” I said, lifting an eyebrow.
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
“It means Dudley sent you with me to help me, not to be the annoying little shadow who doesn’t do anything. You’re a vampire, you’re a part of the community, there must be something you can figure out that will help me out. I’m tired of being the street sweeper, cleaning up after the event, I’m beyond ready to get ahead of this. I want it over, and I want it over yesterday.” I sat forward, bracing my elbows on my knees as I looked her in the eye.
She shook her head. “It’s not that easy. I’ve put out feelers, no one’s heard anything about vampires going rogue. We would know about that, Sheach, we’re not oblivious to the things that our people do. No one that we know is doing this.”
“I never said they were. I said there had to be a way to figure out who was. And of course, no one has reported a vampire going rogue, why the hell would they? That’s asking for trouble. Either they know the person and don’t want anything to happen to them, or they’ve been threatened by the person or people to keep quiet. Either way, anyone who knows anything isn’t going to speak up without an incentive.”
“So then what magic”— she spat the word at me as if it was acid—“do you expect me to work?”
I rolled my eyes. “Calm down, girl. You’re taking this way too personally. Listen, I know it’s a vampire and maybe that hits a little close to home for you, but you should want this handled just as bad as I do. It’s bad PR for you.”
“I do,” she said through gritted teeth. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want it handled.”
“Good, so we’re agreed then.”
“I still don’t understand what you want me to do?” She managed not to snarl at me this time, instead opting to cross her arms over her chest and tap her foot impatiently. I didn’t know what had crawled up her shorts today, but I didn’t care to spend any time on that anyway.
“You know the community better than I do. Hell, you know the other side of things way better than I do. I might know witches, but you know the predators.” She started to interrupt me, but I waved a hand to cut her off. “No, don’t deny that you all don’t get together and plot whatever shitty things you’re going to do. I’m not interested in excuses right now. I know that you all must talk to one another, at least so that you all know how to stay one step ahead of any hunters. It’s basic evolution. What I want to know is when and where these conversations take place, and I want you to bring me to one of them.” I leaned back into the couch, crossing my own arms, and smiled at her.
She stared at me for a moment, not saying anything, and I started to think she might deny it all anyway. There wasn’t anything stopping her from doing that, she had more control in this situation than I did. It seemed like she was about to but she opened her mouth and then shut it, looking pensive for just a second.
“You would stick out like a sore thumb,” she said at last.
A smug smile stretched across my lips. Jackpot.
“Then it’s your job to make sure that I don’t. So, what is it?”
“You’re a fool if you think I’m going to tell you everything, but there is a place where all sorts of creatures meet. Not all predatory, but a fair amount consider it a safe space. It’s a club, exclusively for the supernatural, so that no one need worry about being discovered or having to keep a secret. It’s called Serenity.” It looked as if it pained her to tell me, as if she were being forced, which was honestly a little confusing. I shrugged off the thought and focused on what she was saying. Serenity. That was a clever name for a club of the supernatural. “If I take you there, you have to promise not to accost anyone. We will be going for information only, and I will not stand for you disrupting the peace there. It is a longstanding, unspoken tradition that no one can harm another person on the premises.” She paused, frowning. “Well, not another supernatural anyway.”
“You cannot seriously expect me to keep it to myself if I see people eating humans. You can’t be that thick, Carmen,” I said dryly.
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be daft. The only humans that could possibly be there for feeding would be those that did so willingly.”
“What?”
She quirked her head to the side. “What did I say that was confusing?”
“No, wait, hold on. There are humans that willingly allow creatures to feed on them?”
“Of course. They mostly serve vampires and succubae, but I think there are a few other species that have such companions.”
“Why, though? Why would anyone want to do that?”
She blinked, then laughed. She had a tinkling sort of laughter, the kind that would be enchanting under normal circumstances, but was just annoying to me. “It’s pleasurable for the servant, Blair. There have always been those who willingly serve, but they are a luxury for the upper class of the supernatural world. To keep someone like that is a high honour, and requires a large amount of control on the owner’s end.”
“You know you don’t own anyone, right?” That was all I could find in me to say to that revelation. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the idea that anyone would want to be a part of that kind of thing, but you know, your kink is not my kink. Whatever floats your boat.
She shrugged. “They wouldn’t leave under any circumstances, not once the relationship has been cemented. To consider them owned is just an argument of terminology.”
I ground my teeth. It wasn’t to me. “Fine.” I bit it out. “So, I won’t hurt anyone. I promise.”
“Good.” She smiled at me, and I could see that she was holding back laughter.
“What, what is it?”
“You’re going to need a wardrobe change, that’s all.”
“Oh, hell, no. No, I am not going to let you dress me up like some doll. That is not a part of anything, I swear, I will kill you before I consent to that.”
“You said that it was my job to ensure that you do not stick out like a sore thumb, did you not?”
“Yes…but—“
“Everything about you screams hunter, Sheach. We must change that, and a change of clothes is the best way to accomplish it. Come now, it cannot be so bad to be dressed up? Many women adore it.”
I was not many women. I was me, and I did not enjoy the idea one bit.
“Fine,” I growled. “You can dress me up.”
27
Shopping is hell. It’s absolute hell. Give me a vampire fight, a demon fight, hell, give me a fight with another magic user, any day or night of the week. I would trade it right here and now to get out of shopping. I never thought I would hope that someone would bust in to attack me, but here I was, desperately hoping that a fight would come and save me from this fresh hell I was living in—but there was nothing doing.
I stood in a changing room, looking at myself in a mirror. Carmen had put me in a slinky black dress that hugged my curves, but it just felt so wrong to wear. I could see that, objectively, it fit perfectly. There wasn’t a spot that didn’t cling where it was supposed to, nothing hung off in an unshapely fashion, but it still didn’t fit my soul in the right way. I stared longingly at my jeans, lying in the corner as if abandoned. All I wanted to do was rip the dress off and put them back on.
“Blair? You have to come out so that I can see how it looks.” Carmen’s voice came from the other side of the changing room door.
I sighed and opened it, taking two steps out and then stopping short. My shoulders slumped and I glared at her, so that she could know exactly how much I hated this.
“Oh, you look beautiful! Do spin around. Twirl,” she commanded, whirling her finger about to demonstrate, as if I didn’t know how to humiliate myself.
I turned slowly.
I hate this so much.
She had already put me through several costume changes, always finding something that she wanted to tweak. I wasn’t sure if she was being honest, trying to find something that worked, or if she meant to make a joke of the whole thing by putting me in ever more ridiculous clothes. How was I supposed to even know? She could hand me something and tell me it was the hottest item on the market right now, and I wouldn’t have a clue if it was the truth or not. I didn’t know the first thing about fashion.
