by Cat Devon
Damon rarely paused long enough to think about things like this. He preferred action to introspection. He always had.
Did he miss being human? Not really. Did he miss eating a steak? Yes, but it wasn’t worth the trade-off in his opinion.
Nick’s choices and his relationship with Daniella were none of Damon’s business unless they pertained to the security of Vamptown. Granted, he’d been hired after another outsider vamp named Miles Payne attempted to increase his own powers by kidnapping Daniella. When that plan failed, Miles had gone after Daniella in order to punish Nick, who had feelings for her.
Feelings were a vamp’s downfall. Damon had no intention of following in Nick’s footsteps. He had another path to travel and it didn’t include falling for a female—witch, druid, or human.
“Did you fix the problem at the rental house?” Nick asked, shoving his empty plate aside and indicating Damon should join him.
Damon set his glass on the table with a noticeably irritated thud. “I told you witches were bad. They already messed up the surveillance system.”
“Not the system, just the cameras in their house. And to be fair, I should have warned them about the security measures we take here in Vamptown,” Nick said.
“They have no respect for authority. Allowing them to stay here is asking for trouble.”
“Vamptown can survive two witches.”
“And a talking familiar cat,” Damon muttered.
“Really? I’ve heard of such things but never seen one. I’d like to see that.”
Damon was not about to admit that the feline had threatened to put a spell on his privates. Humiliation fired his anger even more. His fangs emerged.
“She really got to you,” Nick noted.
At first Damon thought Nick was referring to the cat, but then he realized Nick meant Zoe. “I don’t like witches.”
“You’ve made that clear. I assume you have your reasons?”
Damon nodded.
“Care to share them?” Nick asked.
Damon shook his head.
“Does it have something to do with you being a Demon Hunter?” Nick asked.
“It has everything to do with my being a Demon Hunter. A witch betrayed me not long after I was turned.” Damon didn’t like talking about that period of his afterlife, but even so, the memories were always there. The Civil War, or the War for Southern Independence as the southerners called it, was the most devastating war in American history, with nearly seven hundred thousand dead. A war that ripped families apart, including his own. His younger brother, Sam, had taken up the cause of the Confederacy while Damon had fought to preserve the Union. The ensuing bloodshed was something that stayed with him even when he’d left his humanity behind and become a vampire.
Damon could feel the muscles in his jaw clench. The Battle of Gettysburg had replayed in his mind millions of times. He’d had his doubts about the wisdom of the orders given by the men higher up the chain of command, but he’d been in no position to question them. Even so, he had no way of anticipating how bad it would be.
Nick interrupted his dark thoughts. “You were turned in the Civil War, right? The American one, not the English?”
Damon nodded.
“Is that when you became a Demon Hunter?”
Damon didn’t like the attention being on him. “Yes. But you already know all this, don’t you. I’m sure you had me checked out before you gave me the job of head of security.”
“True,” Nick said.
“Then why the inquisition?”
“I want to know how much your bad experience with that witch in your past is coloring your thoughts and decision making now,” Nick said.
Damon didn’t appreciate Nick’s line of questioning. Damon wasn’t the guilty party here. Zoe was … along with her witchy talking cat.
“My concerns are reality-based and specific to the current situation. Speaking of which, Zoe asked about the funeral parlor,” Damon said.
Nick frowned. “What made her do that?”
“I don’t know but I don’t like it. How do we know she’s not some kind of Trojan horse sent here to spy on us and gain access to our source of blood? She didn’t even ask about our ability to tolerate daylight.”
“Maybe she was afraid to ask questions,” Nick said.
“She wasn’t afraid to ask about the funeral home.”
“What possible connection could she have to that place?” Nick demanded.
“To what place?” Daniella asked as she joined them.
“Your family’s funeral home,” Damon said. “What did you tell Zoe about it?”
“I only mentioned it in passing when I talked about growing up in this neighborhood without knowing I was surrounded by vampires.”
“What exactly did you say?” Damon’s voice reflected his impatience.
Daniella shrugged. “I don’t remember exactly. I mentioned that my father and brother didn’t have any druid blood. I didn’t say I was adopted. I certainly didn’t say anything about what’s going on there.”
“Did she ask you?”
“She may have. But not in a nosy kind of way,” Daniella hurriedly added.
Damon rolled his eyes.
“I didn’t tell her anything confidential. I don’t even know all the details of how you process blood from the funeral home, and I really don’t want to. It’s not something I care to dwell on.”
Daniella might not care to dwell on it, but Damon was well aware of Vamptown’s special blood source. Doc Boomer, the vampire dentist/doctor/chemist, had developed a formula to revitalize the human blood they received from the human-run funeral home. When he’d first arrived in Vamptown, Damon hadn’t believed their claims that it was better than fresh, with additional calcium for healthy bones, teeth, and fangs. Doc had filtered out all the impurities. No germs, diseases, or viruses. Not that it mattered, since vamps were immortal. But no one went looking for sickness. Even vamps.
Daniella’s family was unaware of the side business being run by the vamps, thanks to compelling when required.
But Daniella knew. Not the details, as she’d said. She knew enough, which was fine by Damon. Any additional info was on a need-to-know basis only.
Daniella eyed the empty plate in front of Nick. “Weren’t you supposed to save me some?”
“Let me make it up to you.” Nick reached up and pulled Daniella closer to kiss her with unabashed passion. She tumbled onto his lap with a laugh.
Damon had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes at their public display of affection. He refused to imagine tugging Zoe onto his lap and kissing her. Instead he kept his mind on business.
“I know Zoe’s grandmother is a friend of yours,” Damon told Nick. “But there are red flags showing up on their very first day. First they use magic to block the video camera feed, and then Zoe brings up the funeral home. Did she ask you why we could tolerate daylight?” he asked Daniella.
“No. I think your hostility toward her threw her a bit,” Daniella admitted.
“Good.” Damon wanted her thrown. He wanted her thrown right out of Vamptown.
“I liked her,” Daniella stated. “It was nice having someone a little unusual to talk to.”
“You mean not human?” Damon said.
“The fact that she’s a witch doesn’t mean she’s not human,” Daniella said. “Does it?” She turned to Nick for confirmation.
Nick shrugged. “It’s a bit of a gray area. I’m no expert on it.”
“My point exactly,” Damon said.
“And you are an expert on witches?” Daniella asked him.
“I’m an expert on how devious they can be.” A century and a half ago, shortly after he was turned, Damon had ended up in New Orleans after the war. Eve Delacroix had been a dark-eyed beauty with a reputation for driving men beyond the edge of reason. But Damon wasn’t a man any longer. He was an immortal vampire and a Demon Hunter, turned by powerful vampire Demon Hunter Simon Howell himself.
Simon had told Damon that he’d chosen him from the bloodied battlefield in rural Pennsylvania because of his courage in battle. Despite having been shot several times in the arm and shoulders, Damon had kept moving forward until his leg was nearly blown off and he’d collapsed. He was stubborn that way. He wasn’t one to give up easily.
Damon had done the same thing with Eve. He’d been sure that he was the one who could win her. He hadn’t known she was a witch at first, but even when he discovered that fact he hadn’t been in any way unsure of his ultimate success.
She had been a hot seductress, well versed in the erotic arts and acts. But she ended up betraying him in the worst possible way.
So, no, Damon didn’t like witches. Didn’t trust them. Didn’t want them around.
Daniella reluctantly hopped up from Nick’s lap. “I’ve got to get back to work. I really didn’t get the feeling that Zoe is devious.”
Before Damon could make a scathing reply, they were joined by Neville Rickerbacher, Vamptown’s resident vamp super-nerd. He was a computer genius and a stock market whiz. Damon knew that Neville and his elite team made most of the money that kept Vamptown going using shrewd investments. Neville was also in charge of the neighborhood’s surveillance system.
“The cameras are back online,” Neville told them. “But they are now broadcasting Animal Planet. Here, look.” He showed them his tablet.
Damon’s growl made Neville shiver nervously. “Wait, now it’s back to normal. Nope, back to Animal Planet.”
“Still think she’s not going to be any trouble?” Damon asked Nick. “I gave her half an hour to get the cameras going again, and this is her response.”
“Zoe admitted she spelled the cameras?” Nick said.
“Her grandmother did it,” Damon said.
“Well, that’s another matter entirely,” Nick said.
“Why?” Damon said. “What difference does it make which witch made trouble?”
“Come on, Damon. In the big picture, how bad is this minor thing? After all, Irma didn’t know that the cameras were ours. Give her and Zoe a chance.”
“How many chances do you plan on giving her?” Damon demanded.
“As many as it takes,” Nick said.
Damon had no intention of being that generous.
* * *
“You couldn’t have put up the protective spell sooner?” Zoe asked Bella. “As in when Damon pushed us against the wall?”
“No, I couldn’t, because it’s been decades since I’d been in such close contact with a man. You have no idea what that’s like. I couldn’t resist having that hot vampire body pressed against me. It felt sooo good,” Bella purred.
“You’ve been a familiar long enough to know what your job is.” Zoe shoved her dark hair away from her face in exasperation. “You’re supposed to help me, protect and guide me.”
Bella yawned daintily before replying, “He didn’t kill you so what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that you didn’t have my back.”
“The wall was at your back. He was against your front. And I threatened him later in the conversation. Vampires value their private parts,” Bella said.
“How do you even know a spell like that? Most familiars—”
“We’ve already established that I am not like most familiars,” Bella interrupted her to say. “As for the spell, we had Russian vampires at court who could get nasty and I had to use it once or twice.”
“I need your help,” Gram called from the back bedroom.
Zoe entered the room to find several spell books spread out on the bed.
“I can’t remember how to undo the spell I did on the cameras.” Gram sounded flustered.
“It’s not in the family Book of Spells?”
Gram shook her head. “Just the standard one, which I tried.” She opened the well-worn old book and recited the spell again.
What was done before,
Be done no more.
“Are you sure that didn’t work?” Zoe said.
Gram nodded. “It’s not specific enough. Maybe it’s in here.” She reached for a thin calfskin volume with gilded edges. “I don’t remember seeing this one before.”
“Gram, wait!”
But she’d already opened the book. A rush of cold dank air hit them along with a howl.
Zoe helped Gram immediately snap the book shut.
“That didn’t sound good,” Gram said.
“That definitely didn’t sound good,” Zoe agreed. The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she inhaled the smell of must and magic. Dark magic. Dangerous magic. “What just happened?”
“I have no idea.” Gram reached for the book again.
Zoe stopped her. “Don’t touch it.” Even closed, the volume glowed with an unholy fiery light. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
She’d no sooner said the words than there came a fierce pounding on the front door. She opened it a moment later to find a furious Damon, who looked ready to kill as he growled, “What did you do?”
Chapter Five
“You gave us half an hour to get the cameras back up,” Zoe reminded him even as she backed away from his obvious fury. “According to my watch we still have five minutes left.”
“I’m not talking about the freaking cameras.” Damon’s voice was dangerously grim. “I’m talking about the demons.”
“Demons? What demons?”
“The ones that just appeared out of the blue in the tunnels.”
“I don’t know anything about any tunnels or demons.” Which was true, although her witch’s sixth sense was warning her that this could be a result of the dark magic they’d inadvertently experienced a few minutes ago by opening that mysterious book.
“Oh my stars,” Gram said as she joined them. “I sure hope it wasn’t something I did.”
Damon turned his attention to Gram. “What did you do?”
“Don’t yell at her,” Zoe said, rushing to her grandmother’s side and putting a protective arm around her.
“Maybe it was the book,” Gram whispered.
“What book? Show it to me,” Damon demanded. “Before I break my promise to Nick about killing witches.”
“It’s on my bed,” Gram said, heading down the hallway past the stairs to her bedroom.
Zoe bumped into Gram as she abruptly stopped, which made Damon bump into Zoe. He set her aside like a nuisance in his way. “Where is it?” He reached for their family Book of Spells but Zoe got there first and snatched it up to press it protectively against her chest—no easy feat, as the book was heavy and nearly a foot thick.
“No outsider is allowed to touch our family’s Book of Spells,” Zoe said. “It will burn your fingers off.”
Damon didn’t appear at all intimidated. “They’ll grow right back.”
“No, they won’t. Besides, this wasn’t the book Gram was talking about.”
“That’s right,” Gram said. “It was a spell book I didn’t recognize. But it’s not here where I left it. Maybe it fell off the bed.”
Zoe knelt down and looked under the bed. To her surprise, Damon instantly joined her on the floor. Both Morticia and Bella were under the bed, their fur standing on end.
“Demons,” Bella growled.
Damon reached for the cat, but the protection spell prevented him from touching her.
“What did your damn cat do?” he demanded.
“Not me. The book,” Bella said.
“Did someone come in here while we were in the other room and take the book?” Zoe asked Bella.
“It disappeared in a puff of smoke,” Bella said.
“Bring it back,” Damon ordered the cat.
“I didn’t take it.” Bella moved farther under the bed. “Demons.”
Damon hauled Zoe to her feet. “I don’t care if it was your possessed cat or you or your zany granny, but I want to see that book right now.”
“Trust me, I want to see it, too,” Zoe said.
“Trust
you?” he scoffed. “Not in my immortal lifetime.”
“Listen, the feeling is mutual.”
“The difference is that I’m not the one who called forth a pack of demons.”
“All my grandmother did was open the book. She didn’t do anything else.” Zoe tried to wiggle free. “And neither did I.”
“Me neither,” Bella called out from under the bed.
Damon held Zoe in place, his hands sliding down from her shoulders to her arms, thereby shackling her. “We could have seen what happened here if you hadn’t messed with the surveillance cameras. But now there is no proof of what you did or did not do. How convenient for you.”
“This is not convenient at all,” she retorted.
“Damn right. Demons are not convenient. Do you know what they do? They possess humans and kill. They suck the brains out of witches.” He tapped his index finger against her temple.
“Actually I think sucking brains is a zombie thing, not a demon thing, but I could be wrong,” Gram said.
Seeing the look of fury growing in Damon’s eyes, Zoe said, “Gram, why don’t you wait for us in the hallway.”
“Stay where you are. Both of you,” Damon growled.
He made Zoe so nervous, her legs were shaking. She found the strength to pull away from him, but it took such effort that she ended up bouncing on the edge of the bed.
Damon towered over her but she didn’t have the strength yet to stand and confront him again.
Placing a hand on either side of her, he bent over until his mouth was mere centimeters from hers. “You have no idea what you are dealing with here, little witch.”
Staring him in the eye, she said, “I’m dealing with a pissed-off vampire falsely accusing me of calling forth demons.” She tried to shove him away. It was like trying to move a tank. She ducked under his arm and stomped to the other side of the room.
Okay, it was more like a scurry than a stomp, but at least she’d put some much-needed distance between them.
“Whatever happened, it was an accident,” she said.
“Fix it,” he ordered, stalking her as she moved around the room.
“We need the book to do that,” she told him.
“Find it.”
“I don’t even know who took it.”
