Mortal Sentry (Raina Kirkland Book 2)

by Diana Graves

  Instead of answering Damon, I answered both of them by accepting the call and saying, “Hi Nick.”

  Damon moved beside me and I moved my hand through the darkness until I felt his chest. I didn’t know which of us I was trying to calm, me or him.

  “You still can’t bring yourself to call me Nil, can you little sis?” Nick said.

  “You are Nick. Dying didn’t change that.” He laughed, and he almost sounded like my brother. Almost.

  “Do you really think that’s true?”

  “I do.”

  “Because you loved him?”

  It was such an odd question, but I didn’t hesitate to say, “I love you.”

  He said nothing, but I felt Damon move closer until the line of his body was against mine.

  “I’ve been marked, Raina. People are hunting me for what I’ve done. Did you know that?” he asked.

  “No, but I figured as much.” I took a deep breath. “You killed people, Nil.”

  “Oh, so I’m Nil now, am I? Nick’s your brother, Nil’s the murderer. Is that it?”

  It was a slip. I didn’t mean to call him that, but…“Nick couldn’t kill people, especially innocent people.”

  “He could, he did, I did—do you still love me?”

  “Yes,” I said without hesitation. I did, I couldn’t stop loving him. He was my big brother.

  “Would you help me tonight?” he asked, and his voice held a weakness, a vulnerability that broke my heart. Nick was the most impressive man I’d ever known, self-made and resilient beyond expectation to spite his tragic youth. I couldn’t help the pooling of tears in my eyes.

  “Yes,” I said again.

  “You know where I am?” he asked. He was calling me from his home phone, so yes, I did.

  “You’re at your apartment.”

  The last thing he said before he hung us was, “You’re the only person I can trust. At least, I hope you are.”

  I was left staring at my phone. I felt Damon move and a second later there was light. He’d bent over and turned on the bedside lamp. But still, I stared at my phone.

  “What are you going to do?” Damon asked.

  “I—I want to help him, but,” I shook my head. He was a murderer, but he was Nick. I couldn’t betray my brother, I couldn’t.

  “Will you call your Mato?” Damon asked, and I immediately said no. Mato once told me he would rather be a good friend to me than a good cop. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe his words; I just wasn’t willing to risk Nick’s undead life on them. Nil had killed people Mato knew, maybe even cared about.

  “He’s one of the men hunting him,” I said, and my voice was thick with unshed tears. “I watched Nick die before. I can’t let him die again if I can stop it—I love him.”

  “You can’t go alone,” he said.

  “I can’t ask you to go, either. You need to stay here with Thomas.”

  “Who else could you call upon? Who besides me would help you protect your brother, and not turn him in to be killed for his crimes?” I looked at him and again I was reminded that he was too good for me; wise, caring, dangerous and beyond loyal. I could trust Damon with anything. “Family?” Damon asked. “Seth, perhaps.”

  “I just don’t know for sure.” I closed my eyes, thinking hard. I was going through all the people I knew, which wasn’t many. I was never skilled at making friends. Calling on Alicia or Michael was out of the question, and I didn’t know Charley well enough to ask him for such a large favor…but, there was someone. Someone who owed me big time, and it was the same someone who was partially responsible for Nick’s state of mind.

  “Alistair,” I said.

  “Fight crazy with crazy?” Damon almost laughed.

  When was the last time he spoke to Alistair?

  HELP ME

  I WAS IN Alistair’s throne room for the second time that week, and it had change quite a bit; better lighting, more furniture, more people and a better smell. The throne was empty as I walked through the big doors alone. Damon wanted to come with me, he all but demanded that he come along. But in the end he couldn’t very well leave a small child alone in his apartment, or chain me to the bed to keep me there. I couldn’t fault him for his fear. The last time he saw Alistair was when he killed the vampire, Colbert. In Damon’s mind, I was delivering myself into the hands of a madman.

  Alistair was sitting at a table surrounded by laughing, happy vampires and other creatures. A witch with long grey hair raised her cup in saluted to a blushing Alistair, before she downed the entire drink in one long gulp. The group clapped and shouted encouragements. I just stood there and watched them, not really knowing how to interject or get Alistair’s attention, but I didn’t have to. Eventually he looked up and scanned the room, his eyes falling on me lastly. When our eyes met, his changed from carefree to guarded. I frowned.

  I bowed my head toward the door and walked out. It was an obvious request for a private audience with him. If he followed me, then he accepted my request. If he didn’t…well, I didn’t really know what I was going to do, so it was a good thing he followed me.

  “Raina?” he said as he stepped into the hall and shut the door behind him.

  “Is there somewhere private we can talk?” I asked him. He nodded and took me down the hall and up a flight of stairs. He opened the door to his bedroom. I walked past him and stood awkwardly with my arms crossed over my chest.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt your party,” I said when he shut the door.

  He smiled weakly. “Don’t be. I’m just becoming reacquainted with my people.” His face became very serious. “They’re all so strong and loyal to have stuck around me for the past few years. I don’t know how to repay them for that, or make up for the things I’d done to them.”

  I nodded, but I had no real words of advice.

  “What did you want to talk about?” he asked when it was obvious I had no response to his dilemma.

  I looked at the ground for a moment, trying to think best how to approach the situation. I took a deep breath and let it out before I looked back up at him; tall, strong, yet his grief and regret made him fragile.

  “You want to make up for the things you’ve done to people?” I asked tentatively.

  “Yes, more than anything,” he said without pause for thought.

  Again, I fell into an awkward silence before I shook my head and moved in closer to him. “You know my brother, Nick?”

  “Nil,” he said quietly with a shallow nod. “I know him.”

  “There is something you could do for him and for me, something that would make us even.”

  He stood up straighter, his eyes a little brighter. “There’s nothing I can do that will ever make you and I even, Raina. Whatever this thing is, my answer is yes.”

  “Nick has been marked for death.”

  Shock was clear on his face and he took a step back from me. He shook his head. “I have some strong ties among the community, but I cannot undo a mark. I’m sorry, Raina.”

  I closed my eyes and sighed. “No, I hadn’t even thought of asking you for that. It never even occurred to me.”

  “Then what can I do for him?”

  “He’s at his apartment right now, hiding. If we can get to him before the hunters, we may be able to hide him or send him away or something, anything.”

  “Raina, if we’re caught, you and I will be killed,” he warned.

  “I can’t just do nothing. Alistair…”

  He turned his back on me. “I’d be risking my people. The law is against us. The system takes advantage whenever and wherever is can. If we get caught helping a marked man, your brother or not, it could be more than just you and I facing the firing squad. They could find my entire collective guilty by association.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that. My heart wanted my brother safe and alive, but my brain knew that one life wasn’t worth hundreds of others. I walked over to his bed and sat with my head in my hands. “You’re right,” I said into my pal
ms. I let my hands fall to my sides. I looked very much defeated. “Nick’s been dealt such a hard hand. Rejected by his family, homeless, branded a warlock, murdered in the worst way possible, tortured into madness.” I said the last part so quiet, I could barely hear it…but Alistair could.

  Alistair walked to me and knelt down so our eyes were level. His face was so torn, his eyes so tired. “If we do this, I’ll need to fetch my most loyal men to help us, and we cannot get caught.”

  I smiled and put my hand on his shoulder. “Can I hug you right now?” He gave me a solid nod of his head and I leaned forward and gave him a warm embrace. “Thank you.”

  SAVING NICK

  THE ONLY WAY to save Nick from the bounty on his head was to get him out of the country. Few countries allowed vampires within their borders, and fewer still wouldn’t extradite him the moment he was found out. However, there were still vampires out there that preferred to live in secret. Alistair told me about a large nest of vampires called Nascosto, located deep in the wilderness of Canada’s scarcely inhabited north. That was our best bet. If we could smuggle him across the border and into Canada, Alistair was sure he could bargain with the Nascosto for his sanctuary. But, first things first, we had to fetch him from his apartment. I wasn’t even sure he’d come with us. He didn’t really like Alistair, but would he refuse our help on that basis?

  Alistair and I sat in the back of his armored and sun-proofed SUV. His guards—the lanky Frank and the bulky Kevin, both human—sat up front with Frank behind the wheel. We pulled into the parking lot in front of Nick’s apartment building and the window that separated the front of the SUV from the back came down.

  “What’s the plan, boss?” Kevin asked.

  Alistair looked at me. “Nil won’t come out if I come with you, and we’re too close to sunrise to deal with any issues. Go in and bring him out quickly.”

  I agreed, but Frank spoke up. “This guy, Nil or whoever, he’s killed people, right? Are you sure you want to send this little lady –no offense—in there alone to fetch him?”

  “If other people are there it may set him off, but you’re right. We need a way of knowing what’s going on in there,” Alistair said.

  “How about two phones,” I said after a moment of thought. “Do you have a cell phone?”

  “Yes, here,” he said taking a flat black phone from his pocket.

  “I’ll call it and put my phone in my purse. Sound quality won’t be perfect, but you’ll be able to hear if anything is going wrong.”

  “Code words?” Kevin asked. Alistair gave him a raised brow, and he almost smiled, but not quite.

  “Abracadabra?” I suggested.

  “Isn’t that a curse?”

  “No, it’s used to heal people; usually in written form” I said.

  “It will do,” Alistair said. “Say it if you need help.”

  I gave him a quick nod and called his phone. When he answered it, I put mine in my purse. “Testing, testing,” I said, and I heard my voice faint on the other end. I sounded weird over the phone, more like Katie.

  “Nick’s a vampire with all the talents that that implies, so you’ll have to be very very quiet, or he’ll hear you,” I said to Frank and Kevin, and with that I was out of the door. It wasn’t until I climbed the stairs that led to Nick’s front door that I realized anyone hunting Nick would keep an eye on his old apartment? Somewhere out there someone had eyes on me. I was sure of that.

  “Warn me if you see anyone approaching the building. Bounty hunters no doubt have lookouts here,” I said quietly. Frank and Kevin probably didn’t hear me, but Alistair did.

  Nick owned his apartment, which he called a condo, but really they were just remodeled old apartments in the right part of town. I stood at his door for less than a second before he opened it. He looked better, but not great. At least he wasn’t rotting anymore. He was dressed in his usual black everything, with bright red messy hair and gaudy boots. He almost looked normal, besides the grey complexion, sickly thinness and deep frown.

  “Nick…,”

  “Who came with you?” he interrupted.

  “A friend I could trust to help us get you somewhere safe,” I said. I expected him to question me further, because that was a shit answer, but he didn’t. That should have been my first clue that something was amiss.

  Instead he said, “Okay, just let me get some things.”

  I followed him into his apartment. Nick was a proud wizard. It was his livelihood. Before his infection he ran a successful online magic store, where he sold potions, pranks, and light curses. He worked in the grey arts, not fully black, but not entirely white either. That’s what got him kicked out of our coven, but I still didn’t know why Mom kicked him out of her house at sixteen years old, leaving him to fend for himself on the streets. You can see why I always admired him. He was a homeless teen, but he managed to put himself through school and start a successful business.

  His home reflected his affinity for magic and the craft. He had a full-on witch’s kitchen, with massive book cases, two stoves, plenty of counter space and more plants than I cared to count. The plants had suffered from his absence. His walls were decorated with cultural art from around the world and his furniture was sleek faux black leather, wrought iron and stained woods. He walked back toward his room and I took a stroll down memory lane. I walked around his place, staring at pictures and knickknacks that held fond memories of sibling adventures and tragedies overcome through our strong bonds.

  When Nick came out of his room with nothing but a small wood box I was confused. “That can’t be everything you want to take with you?”

  “No, this is for you,” he said, and he opened the box to reveal a locket. It was the size of a quarter, black obsidian encircled by a bronze snake, made green with age.

  “What is that?”

  “I stole it from Mom’s yesterday,” he said. “She had no clue I was even there”

  “I’ve been through Mom’s jewelry box a hundred times, and I’ve never seen this necklace,” I said. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I didn’t realize what I was doing until my fingers touched the cool stone.

  “She didn’t keep it in her jewelry box. Take it,” he insisted, and I picked it up out of the box ever so carefully. It was heavier than I thought it would be. “When I turned into this…thing, vampire, at first everything was chaos. Hunger, death, hate, regret.” He averted his eyes. “But, then things started clearing up. I started remembering things, things that I forgot a long time ago.”

  “What did you remember?” I asked.

  “Your death. I remembered your death, Raina. When you were a baby…I was there. I remembered Mom screaming.” He took a deep breath. “I remember the Goddess that came. Melpomene, the muse of tragedy. She brought you back from the dead.”

  “Mom told me,” I said in almost a whisper. “But, she didn’t say that you were there.”

  “She has to keep her secrets, Raina. You know that,” he said. “But, yes, I was there.”

  “And Dan and Tristan?”

  “Dad and Tristan were gone on a fishing trip, or did Mom say different? You know, sometimes I don’t understand why she lies about some things and not others. But, I do understand why she lied about me being there.”

  “Why,” I asked, forgetting about the cell phone in my purse, the men on the other end of it and the fast rising sun.

  “Because, Melpomene needed life to create life, and Mom volunteered mine.”

  I was shocked. He obviously didn’t die so, “What happened.”

  “She didn’t need all my life, just a little to get you going, not that Mom knew that when she offered me up. We’ve always wondered why you could read me so well, even now when I’m a vampire and should be locked away from your clever little mind. My life is mingled in yours. A little part of you came from me.”

  I didn’t know what the appropriate thing to say was. Thanks, maybe… A length of time passed before I could talk at all. “W
here does the locket fit in all of this?” I asked.

  “Melpomene left it for you, but Mom hid it in a box under a floorboard in her room. She liked to pretend that night never happened. I thought you should have it. Here, let me put it on you,” he said.

  I gave him my back and lifted my hair so he could fasten it around my neck. I had to ask him, even though I didn’t want to, I had to. “Nick, why did you kill those people and take my blood samples?”

  I turned around to find his face deep in a frown again. He sat back and looked at me. It wasn’t a mean look, but a very serious one.

  “You are a demigoddess, Raina, and a muse to boot. Fully trained your power will be terrible, and your hold on any living mind will be complete. Melpomene said it the night she saved you from death. If people know what you are, you’re as good as dead.”

  Then I remember the phone in my pocket, but it was too late. I wasn’t sure what Frank and Kevin heard with their human ears, but Alistair heard everything.

  “I could smell your blood samples in her office while I sat up in the Darkness VCC healing from my stupidity. I could hear them talking about you. The doctor knew what you are, and she was going to report it to the government. She told a nurse as much, and he told another nurse and I knew it was going to spread. Being a rare living vampire is one of the things that made you famous. Being half God would make you infamous. I had to stop it before it got too far.”

  “For me, you killed them for me?” I looked down and closed my eyes. I didn’t want to be the cause of innocent lives lost. I took a deep breath. It was too much, and we needed to leave. We had wasted enough time. “The sun is coming up, we need to go,” I said.

  He stood and walked to the window. “It’s later than you think.” He peeled back the curtain to reveal black bags over the window.

  “We need to hurry,” I said again, and I got up and made my way to the door, but he didn’t budge from the window. “Nick, come on.”

  “Maybe it’s because of your empathy, your muse, or maybe it’s because a part of me is in you, but you are the only person in the world that loves me, Raina. Did you know that? That’s why I wanted you here. I didn’t want to die alone,” he said the last part with a grunt as he pulled the black bags off the window and the bright morning sun shot through the room.