Li chuckles. "The legend becomes bigger than the person, I'm afraid." She gives me a derisive sniff. "Although that ain’t hard compared to you," she says, commenting on my short stature. "How long you been hunting?"
"All my life," I answer. "Professionally…as the Harker…" I feel sick at the distinction, "…five months."
Our eyes meet and she nods sadly. "Five months? Sorry for your loss then, honey. Your mother? Sister?"
"Sister."
She pats my arm, a sympathetic gesture I didn't expect from her. "You'll avenge her, I'm sure."
I'm not so sure about that. But I don't divulge any information. There's something both trustworthy and guarded about Li that I can't quite put my finger on.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Jude whispers next to me as Li takes the lead again.
I look up at him in surprise. "Yeah, I think so."
"I don't like her," he growls.
"I think it's mutual."
He laughs at my comment.
Li glances back wordlessly at our exchange, yet, instead of addressing it, she changes the subject and twirls her finger, indicating the warehouse. "If you've got any clothes with bad stains, you can always bring them here. You wouldn't believe the shit I get out. Zhi's always bad about keeping clean."
Her owning a dry cleaners makes a bit more sense now.
"Ah, here we are."
Li pushes aside a rack of clothing. We're in front of what looks like a supply closet that's on the wall bordering the frozen yogurt shop. It doesn't look like much with a simple lock on the doorknob, which she deftly unlocks with the key she retrieved earlier.
As soon as the door opens though, I see a staircase leading deep into the belly of darkness. A lightbulb on a string hangs above my head and the incandescent light doesn't do much to make it look more inviting. If anything, it looks more sinister.
Li sticks the key into her breast pocket and gives it a reassured pat. "Home sweet home."
I stick my hands into the front of my hoodie pocket, making sure that my stakes are still there. I don't want to go down into the hole with her, however, it feels like I have no choice. Not if I want to find out what they could help me with.
She leads us down into the abyss. When we reach a door at the bottom, I realize that we're in a heavily fortified bunker underneath the strip mall, one that is clad in concrete like a nuclear shelter.
The door in front of us is simple. The only difference between it and the door on the ground floor is a keypad combination lock. Li inputs the code, blocking our view so we can't see. As if we'd want to sneak into this creepy space.
What’s even worse, I can sense vampires beyond the door. I can’t explain how it feels other than hearing a sizzle, a buzz in the air. Yet the area is so thick with concrete and steel, I can’t tell how many there are.
Carl tenses next to me and I know he’s thinking the same thing.
The door beeps, the lock opens, and it swings outward, showing what lay beyond.
From what I can tell, it's a bigger, more elaborate version of the weapons room that we have back home. There’s an array of different weapons on one side with full military-grade battle armor hanging in a glass case on the far wall next to another door, a wall full of security monitors with a leather computer chair in front of it, and a seven tier book shelf on the far side.
My attention is on the man in the middle of the room, practicing a kind of martial arts that I recognize as wushu with a nandao, a Chinese broadsword, on top of a gym mat. Though there's plenty of room here for exercise like this, it surprises me. One look tells me that he's Li's grandson. A man in his early twenties, he's only a few inches taller than me, with a shock of black hair, dark eyes, and porcelain skin. He's wiry, not muscular like Jude is, but that doesn't mean he can't drop a person with a punch. He's efficient in all his moves, and he moves with the confidence of someone who knows exactly what he’s doing.
We pause in the doorway, watching him spin and kick on the mat. I'm not that experienced with wushu, but I can tell that he hits each mark with practiced accuracy. The blade shimmers in the light as he thrusts and parries it like it's an extension of his arm.
He's good. Really good.
After a few minutes, during which, I bet, he does some impressive acrobatics for us gawkers, he stops in a lunge facing away from us. He holds the position, huffing from exertion. It's one of those movie moments, where you meet a badass protagonist. Or antagonist.
It annoys me.
Li decides to ruin the moment, much to my delight. "Zhi, you have friends here," she nags in a bored voice. "And your form was terrible on the aerial."
I stifle a snicker, although Carl can't keep his in.
Zhi stiffly stands to his full height, then turns around. I'm struck by how innocent he looks for a vampire hunter. He doesn't have that haunted look like the rest of us have after seeing death so many times. He's either very sheltered or very good at what he does.
I'm guessing the latter.
He smirks. "Like you can do any better, Nǎinai."
Li says something to him in Mandarin, to which he laughs.
He combs a hand through his sweaty hair and bends down to pick up a towel on the floor. He doesn't take his eyes off me once as he does so. "I'm Zhi, by the way."
"Edie," I say, although I know he'll keep calling me Harker. "And that's Carl and Jude."
"I know."
"Yeah, about that. How do you know who they are? And how do you know I need help?"
He smiles, although it doesn't quite reach his eyes. "I know everything about you. My family has been watching yours for quite some time. And given your recent actions, and your post on the V-boards, we figured it was time to reach out to you." He holds his hands out, indicating the entire space. "Welcome to the Zhang household." He grins at me. “We’re vampire hunters like you. Only…”
My vampy sense tingles and I see the computer chair in front of the monitors spin around. In it is a leggy, dark-haired vampire of Latina descent who flashes her fangs at us. She gets up from the chair, in stilettos no less, and saunters over to Zhi, whom she towers over.
Carl tenses up beside me. “Shit!” he says under his breath. He’s ready to bolt, entering fight or flight mode.
If she wants to attack us, we have no easy way out.
Instead, the vampire wraps Zhi up in a passionate kiss, holding him there. He reaches up and pulls her tighter to him, as if he’s trying to meld their bodies into one.
What the hell am I watching? I hear Li’s huff of disapproval, so I know this isn’t a sanctioned relationship. Still, I’ve never seen anything like this before.
“Maria,” Jude murmurs beside me, recognizing her. So this is the vampire he met last night.
And still, they kiss in a gratuitous display of affection.
My cheeks burn. I guess this is confirmation about hunters having relationships with vampires. I’d just never seen it before.
My fingers brush against Jude’s, sending shivers down my spine. I don’t know which one of us initiated that contact, but now that we have, I don’t want it to stop.
Would Jude…?
I can’t allow myself to think that though. If I truly care about him, I can’t allow him to get hurt in the future. Like Sam, maybe it’s better if I push him away.
I shift to the other side, breaking contact. He doesn’t reach out for my fingers and I wonder if I was the one touched him first.
Finally, it’s Carl that clears his throat to break up Zhi and Maria’s makeout session, and even then, he has to do it three times before they notice. Maria backs away from the vampire hunter, their fingers still linked together.
“Nice to see you again, Jude,” Maria says in a husky voice.
For some odd reason, jealousy flares up in my stomach. It’s silly. After all, she’s clearly in some sort of relationship with Zhi, so I shouldn’t be worried. And it’s not like Jude’s mine anyway so…
Even still, there’s some sort of familiarity
between Maria and Jude that makes me want to tackle her.
“Likewise,” Jude says with a nod.
Maria laughs. I see a tattoo on her neck, a Chinese character, like it’s a brand. “I see you remembered the address. I’d hate to have to share another Bloody Mary with you.”
The jealousy squirms like snakes in my stomach. Li groans and shakes her head, so at least I’m not the only one revolted by this.
“I’m sure you have lots of questions for us,” Zhi says, bringing the conversation back to ground zero.
I refocus my attention back on him. “Yes.” My voice is soft, because I don’t trust it otherwise. "Like, why haven't we heard of you before?" I ask. “Why aren’t you on the V-boards?”
I've met a lot of vampire hunters throughout my life. Many are real-life descendants of vampire hunters from old legends. From Japan to South America to Australia, there are many lines of vampire hunters continuing their ancestors' work, like me, although they aren’t as powerful with magical powers and strength. It's not like we have yearly vampire hunter conferences or anything, but it's always good to know who’s on your side in a fight.
Zhi shrugs. "Because we didn't want to be known. Unlike you guys," he points to me and Carl, "we didn't want to have our identities displayed like a damn Facebook status."
"We don't have this on Facebook," Carl says defensively.
"Might as well," Zhi counters. "As I said, we've been tracking you for quite some time, Harker, especially on those silly message boards of yours. Really, you should up the security on it. A college freshman could hack the system in half an hour."
"Those are extremely secure," my cousin protests.
Zhi shakes his head with a patronizing laugh. "Beg to differ."
Maria grins. “Agreed.”
"Even I could get past the security protocols," Li adds, rolling her eyes. "And I can barely operate the microwave."
I watch them, trying to tell if they're bluffing. Carl collaborated with a few programmers within the vampire hunting community to put up the firewalls for the V-boards, working to get them perfectly right and secure. Is our security really that soft?
I can see Carl has the same thoughts running through his head. Neither of us feel particularly safe at the moment.
I swallow thickly. "You said you could help me?"
“I wouldn’t invite you to come down to San Antonio for pleasantries,” Maria says with a smirk.
I think I don’t like her.
Zhi gestures to my left arm. "You were bitten by a vampire a few months ago, correct?"
I nod, paling. "Christmas Eve."
I feel oddly exposed that he knows about me. I’ve never seen him before in my life, never heard of him, and he knows more than some of my closest allies.
So why am I not surprised that they know? If I have a vampire like Jude following my every move, despite how discreet I am, then it shouldn't surprise me that a fellow vampire hunter knows that I'm cursed.
"Since your sister Meghan died that night too, we know that you're the second-to-last Harker and desperate for some help."
Dammit. That is one of the aspects of it that I have kept secret. I bristle, but I'm not going to mention Amelia. I'm keeping her out of this. He may know, but I’m not discussing her here in front of him.
"We've hit some unfortunate times," I say icily.
"Even more unfortunate now that you're dying," Zhi adds.
I bite my cheek hard enough for it to bleed.
Li says something in Mandarin to Zhi and they start speaking rapidly. Maria either knows the language, or she pretends she does, because she’s watching them with amusement.
"Edie," Jude says under his breath, leaning into me. "We can go if you want to. We don't need to deal with assholes."
I shake my head. "I'm fine," I say. I keep saying it, and I don't think it's really working. My scar twinges in what seems like agreement.
Jude's eyes meet mine, and I find compassion and something else in them. I want to get lost in them, to forget everything that’s happened.
I force my gaze away. "You said you could help us?" I ask, my voice shrill.
The two hunters stop their arguing and turn their attentions towards me.
“Yes,” Zhi says. “Of course.”
"How? And why is everyone talking about the Progenitor?"
"Heh." It's Li who answers and boy does she sound amused. "Suspend your disbelief for this one, honey, but we have information on him. And why Anthony infected you instead of killing you when he could."
“Because of a legend?”
Zhi cocks his head curiously at me. "What makes you say that?"
I comb a hand through my hair and sigh, trying to process all of it. "Because in over five hundred years of my family's history, we've never come across more than circumstantial evidence of him."
Li chuckles mirthlessly. "You don't survive a million years by being easy to find."
"There would have been something though," Carl says, taking my side. "We would have discovered something on the V-boards that points to his existence."
"And you blast your whereabouts online," Maria counters. "What's your point?"
"There would have been something," I insist, feeling the anger coloring my cheeks. "He would have shown up somewhere along the way."
"What if I told you,” Zhi says, “that we have evidence he’s alive?"
"Evidence?"
“Maria,” Zhi commands.
The vampire smirks and slinks over to the command console on the far wall, typing a string of characters into it. The six computer screens flicker to life, already on what looks to be stills from security footage. My eyes follow each of the screens, seeing what looks to be a limousine driving around a ritzy, high-end area in a financial district of a big city at night, although which city, I can't tell. The last photo has an elderly man surrounded by bodyguards entering the vehicle. Like a bad thriller movie, his face is obscured, so I can't see any features except for the fact that he looks to be in his sixties. I can’t tell if the old man is human or not, the quality of the images is too bad to really tell, though the bodyguards are in focus enough for me to see that the bodyguards are vampires.
I find that I’m walking towards it, mesmerized by the images.
"You think that's the Progenitor?" I ask. "An old man surrounded by a lot of other bitey vamps?"
"Assuredly so," Zhi answers.
"He emerged from nowhere six months ago," Li added. She's watching me carefully for my reaction.
"That's right before Edie was bitten," Carl says.
"Exactly," Zhi agrees.
"Correlation does not imply causation," Jude replies.
I shake my head. "This isn't evidence. I need more than that to believe that he's real. And what does this have to with my bite, other than coincidence?"
"Here's the kicker," Zhi says smugly. "And trust me, we have full evidence to support this." He leans in, the glee apparent on his face. "Because the Progenitor is the father of all vampires, if you kill him, then his line ends, and the virus is lifted from his descendants."
It feels like my lungs have collapsed. There's been plenty of speculation throughout history about the Progenitor and his role as the father of all vampires, but I've never heard anything like this. It was always thought that the Progenitor, if he exists, is merely a breeding machine that passes his curse to his children. Much like a queen bee.
"What?" I ask. "Does that include—"
"That means, honey,” Li chimes in, “if you kill the Progenitor before you die from your scar, then you're cured. You'd be free to live your life however you like."
Her words sound like they're far away. My heart pounds in my ears while my mind embraces those words. I wonder if, for the first time in my life, I could have a chance at something that vaguely resembles normal.
Free to live my life…
Carl looks to me, his face as shocked as I feel. "Edie," he says, his voice hoarse, "that means…"
The implications of this revelation impact not only me, but others as well. I think about my cousin and the vampire hunters I know. I think of Amelia and Graeme, who won't have to worry about things that go bump in the night. All of the people who will never have to feel the prick of fangs in their throats.
I think of Jude. How he would have a normal life. How I could see if there’s anything between us. If there’s something there that we could build.
"Edie." Jude says my name in such a soft voice, I'm not even sure I really heard it. Still, it makes me shiver.
I wet my dry lips, which is futile since the rest of my mouth is bone dry. "How?" I ask. "How do you know that would happen?"
Maria laughs, and I can almost hear, “Aww, poor little Harker” in her voice.
“Because of the second bit of evidence we have." Zhi heads towards the closed door on the far side of the room. Maria slinks along with him. "Be ready to have your mind blown."
I think he's opening the door to another armory or more archives or something innocuous, so I follow him. Yet when I stand in the doorway, I recoil, flight taking hold of me. Zhi grips my upper arm, forcing me to stay there.
"What the shit?" are the words that automatically pop out of my mouth.
18
Edie
The room before us is something that resembles interrogation rooms from TV shows. Four concrete walls, a lone lightbulb overhead, a drain in the middle of the bare concrete floor with stains of dark red surrounding it, and a chair bolted to it.
In the chair is a vampire. I am so caught off guard, I’m not prepared to see her there. My vampy sense is all sorts of discombobulated down in this bunker.
She looks to only be a little bit older than me, although that's not saying much with immortal beings. She is thin with papery white skin and hollow, gaunt eyes. Her blonde hair is matted, hanging in clumps around her haggard face. She was beautiful once; not now. She's bound to the hair by her hands, torso, and feet, the silver handcuffs rubbing raw blisters across her bare wrists and ankles.
She tilts her head to look at me, a smile coming to her full, red lips. "Harker," she sneers. "How…unexpected. You smell…tainted. Which means it’s working."
Legends of the Damned: A Collection of Edgy Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels Page 32
