by Kat Cotton
When we finally got home, we loaded the boxes out of the van and into the house.
“About time you got back,” Nic said.
“Yes, Nic, how about ‘thanks for risking your lives’? How about ‘thank you’? You could stop treating everyone like they’re your minions.”
But Nic wasn’t listening. He was too busy opening the first box and checking the contents. “Not the best quality, but this will have to do.”
I moved behind him, resting my chin on his shoulder. I had to agree with him. It was that long-life packaged cake. Not freshly baked, but at least not stale.
“Get your eyes off my supply, Clem Starr.”
“Hey, I went for the delivery. You can share!”
He gave a little cough. I took that as agreement.
“We went through all that just for cake?” Andre asked.
“There’s no ‘just for cake’,” Nic said. “Cake is important. We can’t plan without cake. This is the only cake available in this city at the moment. Without it, we’d starve.”
Nic glared at Andre until he backed down.
“We’re vampires. Cake provides none of our nutritional needs.”
“Well, the groupies need food, and without them we starve.”
Nic had a couple of his groupies living in the basement. I’d protested at first, because it seemed to me that they were being treated like livestock, but the groupies seemed content enough. I figured they had a safe place to live and food provided. They didn’t seem to worry too much about coming out of the basement so long as they got to stare, starry-eyed, at Nic once a day.
“That reminds me, Nic,” Andre said. “Can I move those gymnastics bars out of the basement? I need to work out, and they might come in handy.”
Andre had been setting up a home gym in the garage.
“No! Those bars stay there. When this is all over and the groupies have moved out, Vlad will need his room back.”
Even though Nic’s bond with the Demon Child had ended, he hadn’t quite gotten over his obsession. No one dared to tell him that Vlad probably wasn’t coming back.
Chapter 2: The Mayor's Meeting
“Why do we have to go to this meeting in the first place? Explain that to me.” Jeb folded his arms.
“Because the mayor asked us, that’s why,” Nic replied.
“I don’t trust that guy.”
“No one does,” I replied. “He stole my car, and I’ve still not gotten it back.”
I stared pointedly at Nic. So pointedly that if my gaze had been made of wood, he’d be staked into a dusty pile of nothing now. He’d promised my car back. That was one of the conditions for sleeping with him. So far, I’d not seen any attempt to return my car. I’d pretty much slept with him for nothing. Well, except having the pack stay around to protect me and thirty-eight orgasms.
“It wasn’t stolen, it was impounded.”
“Same thing. And you said you’d get it back.”
“Yeah, that was before I found out what you owed in parking fines. You could buy a small home for that.”
“You sure could in this city. They can’t give places away,” I replied.
Which reminded me: my old schoolmate, Portia Manchelli, would be at the meeting. Her family owned a property development company. They used to be hot shit, but I bet that company was worthless now. Although, knowing the Manchellis, they’d have money socked away all over the place. Anyway, Portia had started a paranormal investigation organization, staffed with crusty old academics.
And, oh fuck, I’d forgotten someone else.
“Is Harry McConchie going to be there?”
Harry McConchie was my long-standing demon fighting rival. Every year, I won the Demon Fighters Award, and McConchie got diddly squat. Except now, I wasn’t even sure I was still a registered Demon Fighter. Working with vampires was totally and utterly out of bounds. And I’d not only worked with them, now I was living with a whole pack. The Council had sent me a letter, but I’d put it under the computer keyboard in my office for safekeeping. It was still there, unopened.
“I hope he’s not,” said Nic. “He tried to kill me.”
“He’ll be there,” said Kisho. “But we have to put the past behind us. After all, you’ve forgiven the mayor for that, so you can forgive McConchie.”
“Phtt. Don’t forgive him,” I said. “He’d make a tasty dinner. Go for it, Nic. The guy’s a tool.”
Nic grinned at me. Then he frowned. “You’re wearing that to the meeting?”
“Yes. It’s how I always dress.”
Sure, my t-shirt was a bit tight and faded, but it had been washed to the level of optimal softness. I saw nothing wrong with wearing it.
“But you’ll be with us, and that outfit reflects badly on me.”
I shrugged.
“And your skirt is way too short.”
Again, I shrugged.
“I have the cake, remember.”
I stood up. “Okay, I’ll change.”
Nic held up some clothes he’d taken out of my wardrobe and threw them at me.
“You went through my wardrobe? That’s just creepy and wrong!”
“I knew you’d be inappropriately dressed. I planned ahead.”
I went to my room to get dressed and then came back downstairs and got in the van with the others. If I let him, Nic would dress me up like a life-sized Barbie doll every day, but I usually stopped him. For cake, I’d do just about anything, though.
“You’d think the mayor could’ve sent one of his armored trucks,” I said. “It’d be safer.”
“He offered. I said no. I don’t want to be too much in the mayor’s control,” Nic said. “It’s not like it’s far to go, anyway. We’ll be safe.”
“You should be. I’m not so sure about me. During daylight, it’s bad enough, but driving around the city at night puts me in peril.” Also, this meeting sounded as boring as hell. If I could get out of going, I would.
“Just duck down so no one can see you. Well, they might still smell you, but we can’t help that.”
We arrived at the secret meeting place and all filed in. The mayor greeted us at the door. This might be a secret meeting place, but it looked like any boring old meeting room to me. Rows of crappy, uncomfortable chairs, a podium at the front with a white board behind it, and the general meh-ness of a corporate environment.
“Hey, Mayor, where’s my car?” I asked him as he shook my hand.
“Clementine, the city is in a state of emergency. People have better things to worry about than your car.”
He grabbed my hand in both of his and gave me that reassuring smile. Except it didn’t reassure me.
“State of disaster or not, I want my car back.”
“There’s a buffet table over in the corner. Get yourself something to eat before we start.”
Okay, I could find out about my car later.
Wow, even in a state of emergency, the mayor put on a good spread. As I loaded my plate, Portia came over to talk to me.
“Clem, I’m sure you’re behind this in some way, but I’m willing to put bygones behind us. After all, the few of us who are human here need to stick together.”
I looked over at Professor Henty and the other old geezer who come with her, then at Harry McConchie. I’d be better off sticking with my vamp pack. Portia at least didn’t annoy me too much, but those old professors seemed like a waste of space.
There were a few people I didn’t know at this meeting. I’d thought I knew every single member of the demon-fighting community.
“Who are those guys?” I asked Portia. I pointed out a pair of buff blond guys already seated.
“No idea. Some kind of super demon-fighting team that the mayor hired from Germany.”
What the hell? Didn’t the mayor know I was the best demon fighter in the world? Maybe he should be spending that mayoral budget on giving me my car back instead of getting in dodgy German demon fighters.
“The one on the right is hot,”
Portia said. “Actually, the one on the left is hot too. Maybe we could double-date. I think they’re brothers.”
Double-dating with Portia wasn’t on my top zillion list of things I wanted to do. And also, dating? I had no idea where she thought we’d go. A romantic dinner in the middle of a bombed-out building?
“Are you hogging all that cake?” Nic appeared beside me.
Suddenly, Portia began preening herself. Gross. Argghh, and she was all dressed and groomed in a total Nic-approving way.
She nudged me. “Aren’t you going to introduce me?” she asked.
I did the introductions, and Nic did that charming smile thing on Portia. Now she’d be all in love with him and annoying. If she thought she’d get anywhere with him, though, she was totally deluded.
I wandered off with my cakes. Portia could gush over Nic without me being there.
“I’m surprised you were invited along.”
Harry McConchie. Surprising me when I was about to pop a mini cupcake in my mouth.
“I’m surprised you were,” I said, “since the last job you had, you screwed up royally.”
He glared at me. Maybe because I’d foiled him in that job. But he shouldn’t have tried to kill Nic.
“The mayor relies on me,” he said.
I wondered what for. McConchie only had one thing going for him: a rich dad. Maybe his dad had contributed to the mayor’s election campaign. That had to be what he meant. Otherwise, he could only be relied on for being totally annoying.
“Sorry, I can’t talk. I have to eat cake.”
Nic was still standing by the buffet table, chatting to Portia Manchelli. Kisho and the rest of the pack had taken the row of chairs near the back of the room. I went over and sat in the chair in front of Kisho.
“Did you get any cake?” I asked him. “Maybe we need to find a new supplier now. We could capture the mayor and torture him for intel.”
“Yeah, we could tie him up, and you could nag him about your car.” Andre reached over and stole one of my cupcakes.
“Hey, get your own free cake.” I moved my plate so he couldn’t reach it.
Nic came back and sat beside me. “The strawberry ones are best,” he said.
“Are you crazy? See these little guys? They’re salted caramel. So much better. Wow, it’s been forever since I’ve had decent cake.”
“I’ll remember you said that next time you come sniffing around my cake supply.”
“You guys are both wrong,” Luis said. “The bacon and asparagus mini quiches are the best.”
I looked at Nic, and we both rolled our eyes. Before we could prove how wrong Luis was, the mayor called the meeting to order. He moved to the podium, flashing his swellness all over the room.
“Before we start, I have a handout,” he said.
A woman in a pinstriped suit moved around the room, passing out the papers. Yawn. You didn’t defeat evil with handouts. I mean, maybe you could paper-cut a demon to death, but I wasn’t about to try it.
The mayor set up a laptop and projected it to the board behind him.
We were going to have a PowerPoint presentation. No freakin’ way. Just no way.
The first slide came up.
“Defeating the Vampire King.”
It had some kind of checkerboard background. I groaned. He could’ve at least put a cutesy clip art picture of a vampire on it. A little cartoon vampire. That’s what I would’ve done.
Nic patted my arm. “It’ll be okay.” “Really?”
“Of course, not really. We’re in a state of emergency, and the mayor is showing us PowerPoint slides. What’s okay about that? Sneak off and get me some more of those cupcakes.”
“Do it yourself.”
He rolled his eyes. “People expect that kind of behavior from you, not me.”
“Clem, Nic, is there something you’d like to share with us?” the mayor said.
I folded my arms. This did not bode well.
The PowerPoint slide now had some bullet points added. Still nothing useful.
“Actually, Mayor, I do,” I said. “I’d like to raise the agenda item of what the fuck does this have to do with anything? PowerPoint slides do not slay demons.”
“Thank you, Clementine, for your input. I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page.”
What page was that? The boring page?
“Remember, Clementine, there’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’.”
Harry McConchie flashed me a smug smile, like we were back in high school and I’d just gotten in trouble with the teacher. But it wasn’t like the mayor could send me to detention. In fact, the mayor should’ve been damn grateful that I’d come to his meeting at all.
“Yeah, Mayor, there’s no ‘Clementine’ in ‘team’. And there’s no ‘entine’ in ‘Clem,’ either.”
I picked up my plate and went back to the buffet. Nic wasn’t wrong. People did expect that kind of behavior from me, because that kind of behavior was the non-bored-out-of-my-skull kind.
I loaded my plate up and sat back down. Nic reached for a cake. Ha, I’d gotten all salted caramel and no strawberry. If he wanted strawberry, he could get it himself.
I zoned out as the slides transitioned with a weird twirling effect. The Mayor had way too much time on his hands. Which was kind of surprising during a state of emergency.
“Kisho, get me some strawberry cupcakes,” Nic hissed.
Just once, I’d love for Kisho to tell him to shove it, but nope. Kisho got up and walked to the buffet.
“Excuse me, Mayor, but that slide still has ‘Add Title Here’ at the top. That’s a bit sloppy, isn’t it? How can you survive an apocalypse when you can’t even use PowerPoint?”
Nic grinned as the mayor frowned at his secretary.
“I guess thousands of academics survive without knowing how to make a proper PowerPoint slide,” Andre said.
“Yeah, but they won’t survive an apocalypse. Look at those guys.” I pointed to the guys with Portia. “What are they going to use to protect themselves? Their leather elbow patches?”
Those old guys visibly shrank.
Then one of the Germans spoke. “Do I understand right? The Vampire King has someone of his own blood? Someone who can kill him?”
I couldn’t help myself. I had to spin around to see how Kisho reacted. Except he had no reaction. He just kept piling cupcakes on the plate for Nic. They could’ve been talking about the latest reality TV show or their favorite brand of laundry detergent for all he cared. Hell, he’d probably show more interest in the detergent. I guessed that was a good thing. No one wanted the mayor or any of these other fools to work out that he was the one.
“How do we find the Vampire Prince?” Portia asked. “I think that should be our first order of business.”
“Vampire Prince,” Nic muttered under his breath. “Ha, good one.”
He ducked his head so no one could see his grin, but he nudged me. I didn’t want to look at him in case I laughed too.
“Nic? Maybe you can help. You have connections.”
Nic stood up. “I can honestly say that I’ve never heard of anyone called the Vampire Prince in all my years.”
Well, he wasn’t lying. One of the fusty old academics lowered his glasses and stared at Nic. Probably because, despite all his theses and papers on the paranormal, he’d never seen a real vampire before in his life. And, to be honest, if Nic was the first vampire you’d ever seen, it’d be overwhelming. His personality might be totally irritating, but when it came to looks, Nic was totally on point. His perfect pale skin shimmered and his blue eyes sparkled.
Nic smiled at the academic, and that pushed it over the edge. Nic’s smile had a preternatural charm. The academic reddened as his hands fluttered around.
“Maybe we need to post a reward to the vampire community for information on the Vampire Prince,” the mayor said.
I stood up, hands on my hips. This meeting was bullshit.
“Well, Mayor, what exactly a
re you going to offer as a reward? It seems to me that this entire city is open slather for the vamps and demons. You don’t really have much to add to that. Do you want to know what I think?”
The mayor’s expression, all crumbled and red-faced, pretty much said he didn’t want to know. That he’d rather anything else but that.
“I think you need to get proactive about all this shit. You wait for the demons to attack, then send in your ‘forces’ to do clean-up. Anyone left in the city is under lockdown, quivering in their homes. Soon, they’ll all move out. Maybe you should get everyone out of town and then wall up the city and let the demons have the place. No humans in town means no vamp food. When they stop eating, they’ll want out. But there’ll be this massive great wall keeping them in.”
Jeez, hadn’t the mayor ever watched Game of Thrones?
That started a rumble of voices.
“That will ruin property values in the city altogether. The whole city will be destroyed,” said Portia.
“Yeah, but think about it. Once the vamps are gone, you can come in, snap up land real cheap, then put up new buildings. Cha-ching.”
Portia grinned. And then she frowned.
“Won’t they be able to get out by the bay?” she said.
“Vampires can’t cross water,” I told her. Didn’t she even know the basics?
“Well, actually, we can,” Andre said. “But in limited circumstances. Planes are fine. Boats are okay, so long as they aren’t those tiny little dinghies.”
Then he did a whole flirty sex-eyes thing at Portia. That guy was always on the make.
“So, we get all the boats away, we build a wall, and we leave them to their own devices. Too easy.”
“Way too easy, Clementine. I like the way you think. Very creative, very innovative. But we can’t just slap up a vampire-proof wall. We don’t have the manpower or resources.”
I rolled my eyes. Why hadn’t the Mayor thought of that before he got on the “bringing the vampires into the light” bandwagon?
“You know what else would help, Mayor?”
