Vampire Enforcer (Hidden Blood Book 1)

by Al K. Line

  Persimmon is different. She's lived, been places, seen things, returned because of events I won't go into, and there was a lot of resentment on her part when she first came. All that is done and dusted now and she's a friend, a good one, but why she had to be so damn pretty is still an annoyance.

  I got out of the car reluctantly, knowing many eyes were on me and I wasn't particularly welcome. I ignored anyone I didn't know, smiled at those who smiled back, and walked down the narrow pavement that fronted the row of terraced houses and knocked on Persimmon's front door.

  "Hey," she said as she dragged her coat over breasts way too high, buttoning up her short leather jacket over a belly that was so flat I could see the ridges of her abs—who has abs!—and pulled the door closed behind her.

  "Hey. So, what's new?" I asked.

  "Just Dancer being a dick. Damn but he's needy. And he's acting manic. I only got half the story, he said you'd fill me in properly on the way. It's about this loss of fear thing, right?" I nodded. "Yeah, it's been tough here. A few guys went off the rails, got into a spot of bother, but we sorted it."

  I didn't ask, as shifters getting into a "spot of bother" usually involves someone being eviscerated or severely wounded if they're lucky. "Um, good. Let's get going, I'll tell you what I know."

  Persimmon nodded and we got in the car. I drove away to the twitching of net curtains and the cold stares of men and women who'd never even been to the city center let alone another part of the country.

  Bloody Dancer

  Trying to get to the goblin stronghold as fast as possible meant that, obviously, there was a diversion, doubtless because of the funfair and the final and largest vehicles arriving. Traffic was snarled up and as we sat impatiently waiting to move I noticed the fuel gauge was in the red.

  "Damn, that's the last thing I need," I muttered, trying to think where the nearest petrol station was.

  "Relax. After what you told me I'm sure Dancer will have an army there to deal with the stupid bloody goblins."

  "He better." Traffic began to move and we drove in silence for a while until I could pull in for fuel. I filled up the car while Persimmon paid. Back in the car she jumped in with an armful of snacks.

  "You didn't get a bag?"

  "No way! Are you nuts? I'm not paying for a bag, it's daylight robbery."

  "Suit yourself."

  Persimmon opened packs of chocolate and other assorted unhealthy snacks and the temptation was too much to resist. How could she eat like this and stay so trim?

  We made good time after the holdup and soon were out of the city once again and heading toward some kind of resolution, and it couldn't come soon enough. I wondered how Faz and Mithnite were doing with Kim and if they'd got him on side. Faz hadn't called so I could only take that as a good sign. Surely if Mithnite had been taken he'd let me know? He bloody better.

  It was like the whole world was on fast-forward and before I knew it I was driving through the gates to the goblin compound. Open gates, with troll goons just standing there. Doing nothing.

  My heart sank; this wasn't right. I parked next to several identical cars, just three, which was odd. I'd assumed Dancer would have brought an army with him but no, just a few goons. Large men hung around outside the house nodding as we got out of the car.

  "Where is he?" I asked. A goon nodded toward the barn so with confused glances to each other Persimmon and I wandered over.

  Another goon was at the entrance; he moved aside to let us in. We descended the slope and entered the cavern without seeing anyone else, my heart hammering the whole time. What was happening? Where was everyone? Where were the screaming goblins going demented and the fights and the arguments, goblins being hauled off for some terrible punishment?

  All became clear once we got into the cavern.

  It was empty.

  Huh?

  Dancer stood where the machine had been. He scratched at his head and tugged at his tie, kept bending and peering into a massive hole, much larger than when the machine was here, more like a rough tunnel than the neat shaft it once was. Heat rippled the air and every so often the hole belched smoke and spurted small gobbets of yellow-white lava that thudded to the rock floor, sizzling as they cooled.

  We walked over to Dancer and without turning he said, "They've gone, and taken their machine with them."

  "Where could they have gone? And how did they move it so fast? It looked like it had taken an age to build it judging by all this crap."

  Dancer turned, face red and sweating. Maybe from the heat or from stress, it was hard to tell. "This is how they work. They tinker until they reach their own idea of perfection, and aren't very good at being careful, hence the bodies, but once they get to grips with a machine they're very capable, act as a team and can dismantle and put back together anything in a few hours. It's all down to manpower. Or goblin power, I guess."

  "Shit," was all I managed.

  "What now?" asked Persimmon.

  "Now we find out where the hell they are and stop them before the city goes insane."

  "Can't be that hard to find a load of goblins with something this size. They'll need a bloody large vehicle to move it in, it'll stand out like a sore thumb," said Persimmon.

  "No, it won't. The fairground has been arriving for days, there's large vehicles everywhere, with all kinds of weird looking machines on them. It'd be easy for them to slip through the net. I've got people on it, searching, but they could have been missed. I can't very well check every trailer." Dancer shrugged, like he'd already given it up as lost.

  "What if you don't catch them?" I asked.

  "We wait until they activate it again and track them down and destroy it."

  "Sounds like a plan," said Persimmon, arching her back and sticking out her perfect chest. I watched, mesmerized, as a trickle of sweat ran down her cleavage and was lost to sight.

  Dancer was entranced too, and licked his lips.

  "Pervert," said Persimmon with a sweet smile. She poked a finger down her vest, lifted it to her plump lips, then licked it with a moist, pink tongue, never breaking eye contact with Dancer.

  "Hell, get a room," I sighed. How they were an item was still a mystery. They were so different and certainly not a couple you'd expect, but Persimmon had taken to Dancer, who obviously lusted after her same as every other man, and they'd got closer every day since. We'd even double-dated, sort of, had them over for dinner a few times, and it was obvious this was serious.

  "Sorry. Where was I?" asked Dancer, shaking his head to get his thoughts away from such a fine pair of breasts and back on the pending chaos sure to ensue.

  "The machine. Goblins done a runner with it. We have to find them."

  "Exactly," he said. "Now they've got this thing working properly, you can bet the next time it activates it will be a lot more powerful than before. It's gonna wreak havoc if the strength is increased."

  "There was a dial," I said, thinking back to the console. "On the console, there was a dial. I didn't think much of it. It was on three, I think." I was pretty sure it was three, although I hadn't paid it much attention at the time.

  "Hell, three?"

  "Ooh, what if it goes up to eleven?" asked Persimmon, smiling and wiggling her eyebrows.

  "This isn't the time for Spinal Tap jokes," said Dancer with a deep sigh, but we all laughed. What else can you do when any minute you could be trying to tear each other's face off as a dastardly goblin machine makes you lose your mind?

  "You lied to me," said a familiar voice from behind, echoing around the chamber.

  We turned to face a very pissed off Kim with his kids and dog. Faz and Mithnite stood either side of him.

  "No, I didn't. They've gone, but we'll find them. You can help us stop them, help sort out your problem at the same time."

  "I've had enough of this," snarled Kim, and with that he grabbed Mithnite by the collar and marched him over to us. Faz followed, shaking his head at me. Evidently, Kim wasn't in the best of moods an
d things hadn't gone quite according to plan at home.

  "Hey, get your hands off me," shouted Mithnite as he struggled. Kim just lifted him off the ground and walked faster.

  "What are you doing here?" demanded Dancer.

  "It's a long story," said Faz before he nodded to Persimmon.

  "And everyone's out of time." Kim stepped forward, still holding Mithnite, and peered into the hole.

  "It's the way home. You were right, they opened a direct line to the hells. Well, no point wasting this opportunity, it'll make my life much easier."

  "What are you talking about?" I asked.

  "Time to go home."

  Broken Promises

  "You promised," I screamed.

  "I did no such thing." Kim was relaxed and seriously smug, and I hate smug. "I said I'd see what I could do. See if I could let him stay if you delivered what you'd promised."

  "And I will," I protested. "We'll stop the machine, and the problems for you will be resolved. No more tears in your afterlives, no more souls losing control, and you can tell your bosses you did it."

  "Maybe that will happen, maybe it won't. But either way, you're forgetting one thing."

  "What?" I asked, getting manic even as exhaustion took me over."

  "He's not human. He's a demon, an immortal being who doesn't belong here."

  "Mithnite belongs here. He was born here."

  "But he cheated. He has to return home."

  "This is his home," I cried, but it was too late.

  Kim nodded to the twins and they each put a hand through the dog's collar then jumped into the hellish pit as fire and brimstone spurted over the cavern floor. Kim looked at me once, mouthed a silent sorry, and shoved Mithnite in before we even had a chance to say goodbye.

  "No," I shouted, but they were gone.

  "We'll get him back, we have to," said Faz as he put his arm around me.

  "How? How will we get him back?"

  "We'll go and get him. Or, um, we'll find a way for him to return."

  "No, we can't do that, we can't. If we wait then he'll never make it. He'll forget about us, about this life. It will be like it never happened. Maybe it shouldn't have, but it did."

  "Kate, there's nothing we can do. It's done." Tears streamed down Faz's face but I wasn't crying, I was too angry for that. Instead, I moved away and peered into the pit straight to hell. "Don't even think about it," he warned.

  "Why not? It's now or never. This is still our world and our rules apply. They aren't there yet, I know it. I can feel it. This is real, this is our reality, and they can't have him."

  I jumped.

  Burning Up

  Heat hit like I was in one of Intus' lava baths. Through the raging inferno I spied Kim and Mithnite, falling fast, bodies still solid. I knew they'd fade to ash soon and be returned to the afterlife they belonged in.

  I roared as my clothes burned and the leather melted, fusing with my skin, then that was no longer a problem as my skin burst into flames and pain like I never thought possible set every nerve on fire. Agony overwhelmed me and I blacked out, a brief moment of respite.

  Consciousness returned and I pushed out with my arms, sickened by the sight of flesh melting off my bones. Grim, but resolute, I forced the magic inside to the fore, willed the ink to remain intact. With the vampire nature awoken, my skin regenerated even as it was burned away again. But the ink remained. It went deeper than the epidermis, it was part of me now, seared into my very soul. I forced my body to speed up, knowing I had moments for this to work and then all would be lost.

  How was any of this possible? How was there a direct line down to hell like this? Was it symbolic? Symbolic or not it felt bloody real, my shiny white finger bones were proof of that. Magic had forced this route into existence, and at some point would go from being a real thing to jumping the divide into the afterlife, and if I kept falling I'd be going right along with it, passing from life to death. Trapped for eternity in a hell I hoped I wasn't meant to be in.

  But I had to try, had to push beyond my limits to save Mithnite. Life shouldn't be taken in this way. No matter what he'd done wrong or what Kim believed to be right, this wasn't fair.

  I'm coming for you, Mithnite.

  I let magic shunt me forward so fast I almost went tumbling past Mithnite, but I grabbed for him and summoned all my will to halt our progress.

  Mithnite had protected himself with a cocoon of magic that was fading even as I reached him. I focused, pictured us both surrounded by cool protection, and the heat faded a little but not quite enough. Mithnite's clothes began to singe and my powers waned, but I pushed on through, willed us to stop then rise.

  Maybe it was the magic, maybe it was the vampire, maybe it was just the sheer force of my will and the determination not to lose my family, but we sped up like a rocket. The heat lessened as we rose, the magic getting stronger, my body recovering and skin wrapping my flesh and bone like I was fresh from the womb.

  Things felt real again, like we'd come perilously close to the divide between life and death, everything snapping back into painful solidity, snatched from the jaws of death and spat back out as we clung together, refusing to be beaten, defying the circle of life and refuting the always tightening hand of death.

  Not now, not today.

  This wasn't our time. Later, yes, but not now. It felt right, this struggle, this defiance, as if I was proving something to myself, to God. That I wasn't normal any longer, that I was different and the same rules didn't apply.

  Was that it, what this was really all about? That I had to go through this trial by fire to accept what I was now, that I wasn't a human being? I was a freak, spat in the face of death, cackling like a madwoman as I hurtled through a volatile shaft leading to hell, a burning woman. No, not a woman. A vampire, a witch, a magical being born from death and pain and the energy of the universe.

  Something happened as my flesh was repeatedly scoured and regrew. Like I was flicking through the pages of the many different Kates I'd been in my life. Foolish young woman lost and alone in the world, putting a brave face on things. Then confused vampire, until finally knowing I'd found a home and a family with Faz and Grandma. Then something else. Full of magic, a tattooed woman. A mother of sorts, a mother to Mithnite, each rebirth changing me, turning me away from what I had been until I no longer knew what or who I was, only accepting of it, but still struggling to remain the same person inside.

  This was my wake-up call, my soul was seared black and then white again as I emerged new and fresh and unique.

  I'm just Kate. Not a vampire, not a witch or a magic user, although I'm all of those things. But mostly I'm just Kate. And that's good enough for me.

  I smiled at Mithnite and he smiled back, our faces almost touching. I felt his magic, knew he felt mine, and together we managed to keep the protection around us like we were twins waiting for the final push into the world. Our love held us together, our trust in each other. Our grit and resolve. We wanted to live, to run barefoot through wet grass, smile and turn our faces to the sun, drink coffee with Faz in the kitchen, blast magic, and get up to no good.

  We wanted to be alive and we'd damn well stay that way for as long as we could.

  My son, this was who he was. Maybe not by blood, or even long history, but I felt it then more deeply than I ever had before. He was a son to me and I would do anything to protect him, to protect my own, even jump into a pit straight to hell.

  We shot out, screaming as the cool air hit. The magic amniotic fluid burst and we landed hard, me maybe not as hard as Mithnite as I crashed down right onto his stomach.

  Mithnite moaned and I rolled off, and then I screamed as flesh fresh to the world, and as pink as a newborn's, felt sensation for the first time. My skin raged as newly formed nerve endings sprang to life, making a connection to my brain. My head felt like it was being pierced with a million needles as my hair pushed through my scalp and grew so rapidly I lay there watching it as it grew past my eyes. It was
black, like this rebirth had changed me forever, the only bonus being I wouldn't need to dye it any longer. I stared down at my naked body and my bright pink skin.

  The last thing I felt was Mithnite's hand in mine and his words sent me into a dreamless sleep, smiling.

  "Thank you," Mithnite whispered, his voice sounding strange, impossibly grateful.

  "You're my son," I said, or maybe I just thought I did, then all was blackness.

  A Reluctant Awakening

  I emerged from blackness with a world of hurt but at least my heart wasn't aching. My eyes snapped open and I panicked, just in case I'd been delirious and it hadn't happened. But there was Mithnite, looming over me along with Dancer and Persimmon, all smiling.

  I tried to move and winced with pain, or maybe I screamed and everyone covered their ears, and my head shifted from where it was resting in Faz's lap.

  "Hold still," he warned, but I would have none of it.

  Knowing me only too well, Faz helped me stand and his jacket that had been resting over me fell to the floor. He picked it up and slipped it carefully over my naked body as everyone else politely turned the other way. I noticed that my ink was darker than before, as if it had rallied against the fire and come back stronger than ever.

  Faz caught me staring and said, "All ink needs a good burning to settle in properly," and smiled, so much worry behind his eyes. He knew what this felt like as we'd done something similar what felt like a hundred years ago, but it hadn't been like this, not as extreme, not as all-consuming.

  "Why did you come?" I stammered.