by Kat Cotton
“You got these for me?”
Kisho nodded. “You probably shouldn’t go home for a while.”
“Huh?”
“We’ll explain after your shower. Meet us in the living room when you smell better.” Nic stood up.
“Yes, boss.”
“I’ll make you scrambled eggs,” Nic said. He gave me that magic smile. That smile, and the promise of eggs, made me glad I hadn’t agreed to stake him.
“Wow, you can be so nice when you want to be.”
The eggs were ready when I’d finished my shower. With a side of bacon. That bacon smelled so good. That was the nicest thing Nic had ever done for me. It got me worried. Still, having a shower and something in my belly made the world of difference.
“So, how did you know I was at the zoo? How did you find me?”
Nic shrugged.
“Come on, you showed up just in time to save me. That wasn’t just chance.”
“He’s connected to you now,” Kisho said. “That’s why he can sense things about you.”
I really didn’t want Nic connected to me. Well, the saving my life bit of the connection was all fine and dandy, but he sensed way too much. I wondered if I thought about wanting to eat cake if Nic would sense it.
“We have some coffee cake too, if you think you can eat it.”
“Do not share my coffee cake with people,” Nic said. “Especially her.”
“I want the coffee cake. I nearly died. I need to keep my strength up.”
While we ate the cake, I gave them a rundown of what had happened at the zoo. As much as I could remember. I sat on the sofa with my legs tucked up. Kisho sat beside me, rubbing my arm, but in an absentminded kind of way.
Nic sat opposite us in the wingback chair, his fingers locked together so he could crack his knuckles, something that I particularly hated. As always, he looked like he was on a movie set, with the perfect lighting and props to highlight his flawlessness.
“The stake definitely went through his heart?”
“He bled like a stuck pig. There was no way the stake missed. The blood gushed everywhere. And it burned, like acid on my skin. What does that mean? It makes sense now why he’d been put in a sleep spell. He’s unkillable. You know what that means? We can’t kill him.”
“That’s what unkillable generally means.” Nic yawned, as though that revelation meant nothing to him.
“If we can’t kill him, what can we do? We don’t have the means to put him back to sleep. We’re not witches. I don’t even know anyone with magic that powerful. This cake is awesome, by the way. Is there any more?”
Kisho got up to get me more cake.
“Sit down. She’s eaten half of it. I’ve only had one slice myself.”
“I’ve been asleep for two days. I need to get my strength up.”
“That two-day coma thing is wearing thin, unlike your thighs, which are getting fattened up with my cake.”
“Stop trying to body-shame me. Has anyone ever told you that you’re a total dick?”
Nic raised his eyebrows but ignored me.
“We need to do research,” Kisho said, coming back with my cake. “There has to be something about this somewhere.”
I started to get up. “I’ll go to my office.”
It wasn’t like I could hang around the vampire lair all day. I wasn’t exactly comfortable there after last time. And the longer I stayed, the more Nic annoyed me. Also, the longer I stayed, the more I wanted of Kisho. I should just come straight out and ask if they were a couple.
“Okay, you probably missed this because you’ve been lazing around in a coma for two days, but it might not be a good idea for you to leave.” Nic sounded a little bit concerned, and that freaked me the hell out.
I had no idea what he meant. Of course it was a good idea for me to leave.
He looked something up on his phone and tossed it to me. It was a news site. With photos of me. They made me look like some kind of crazed serial killer.
I dropped the phone.
“No. No way.”
“You tried to stab a cute little kid with a wooden stake. The public doesn’t like that,” Nic said. “Look at him. He’s exceptionally cute. Like the little brother everyone wishes they had. He totally sucked you in with his cuteness, and you knew he was evil. The general public loves him.”
“Hell. The mayor. He’s behind this.”
The mayor. Maybe I should just kill him. But he was human and loved by everyone. That would probably just make me more hated. Public opinion just plain sucked.
“Half the city wants you dead or behind bars. If you’d dusted him, you’d be a hero, but you failed. Again. If you walk out that door, you’ll be staked yourself.” Nic’s voice sounded harsh, but he wasn’t telling me to leave.
I flopped back on the sofa. My heart sank. “I’m stuck here. Forever?”
“God, I hope not,” Nic said. “Maybe you could have plastic surgery and take on an assumed name.”
“Yeah, like I have the money for that. I have no money.”
“You know, if you weren’t such a terrible demon hunter, you’d have a lot more money. And, secondly, if you weren’t such a shit business person, you’d have more clients. Thirdly, if you had better money management skills, you wouldn’t be broke all the time. You own about fifty pairs of boots. Do you need all of them?”
“Yes. And how do you know?”
“Kisho told me.”
I punched Kisho’s arm.
“Hey, he asked me. I had to get your clothes,” Kisho said. “By the way, your housemates have thrown all your stuff out. Did you have anything important?”
“Yes, my boots!” I couldn’t think of anything else that I cared about. Most of my important things were in my office. I owned that office, so no one could throw me out of it. At least, I didn’t think they could.
“Kisho rescued them. I mean, other stuff. Oh, and not the colander. I took that.”
I rubbed Kisho’s arm where I’d punched him to apologize.
“So, my housemates dumped me? They should know me well enough to understand that I’m not a serial killer or any of that bullshit.”
“Actually, they said they’d always suspected something like it,” Kisho said. “Also that you owe them for the rent. Even if you’re on the lam, you can’t get out of that.”
I buried my face in my arms. My life sucked. God, if the Demon Child started attacking people publicly, then my name would be cleared, but at what cost? I could see no way out of this mess.
“I rescued something else from your house too,” Kisho said.
As if on cue, my puppy padded into the room.
“Hellhound,” I called, but the puppy ran to Nic instead. Traitor puppy. “Get away from him. He’s evil.”
But Puppy rubbed against Nic’s leg. Nic picked him up and rubbed noses with the puppy, making cute little noises. Like he was a real person instead of a cold-blooded, bitchy vampire.
“He’s my puppy now,” Nic said and rubbed the puppy on the belly.
I’d rescued that dog from the warehouse. I’d fed him and given him a home, then in two short days, he’d forgotten me and had fallen in love with Nic. I thought dogs were supposed to be good judges of character, but that pup had no taste whatsoever. I bet Nic had given it bacon to make it love him. He’d probably rubbed himself with bacon too. The dog didn’t even like him, it just liked bacon.
In two days, my life had gone from awesome to awful. Well, from bearable to awful. I owed my life to these damn vampires.
I had to make a decision, a decision that would change my entire life. That damn fortune-teller had been right. The mayor had also told me I had to pick a side. As far as I could see, one side wanted me to do immoral things and the other side had saved my life. As much as I didn’t trust these vampires, I had to be with them. I couldn’t destroy the Demon Child. That had been proven. No matter how badly this ended for me, I’d join forces with Kisho and Nic. Not just until I recovered, but
until this whole damn thing played out, one way or the other.
Chapter 27: Ray
“I got your books from the office,” Kisho said. “They’re all here.”
“My phone?”
“It’s here.” Kisho got it for me from his room.
There were about a thousand messages. I ignored most of them. It seemed like every person I’d ever known had messaged to tell me what a disgusting human being I was. Well, except for Portia Manchelli.
You got that close and failed?
I didn’t know why people kept saying I’d failed. I’d done what I’d set out to do. I’d staked the kid. Was it my fault that hadn’t worked?
“He’s some kind of werebeast, right? That would explain it.”
“Nope.”
“Hey, you know, people should give me some kudos for there not being a bloodbath at the zoo. I saved all those people and I get no thanks.”
Nic rolled his eyes again. “You saw the photos. What does it look like to you?”
Point. But still, this was grossly unfair.
“Hey, Nic, remember that time you said you’d tell me about the prophecy and Kisho being the son of the Vampire King and all that? Since we’re just sitting on our butts doing research, this would be a very convenient time to explain all that.”
“The prophecy is a legend. There’s no proof of it. But, according to word on the street, the Vampire King can only be destroyed by someone of his own blood.”
“Is that literal? I mean, if he turns someone, are they counted as being of his blood, or does it have to be a biological relationship?”
“Yes, it has be to biological, as far as I know.”
As we talked, Kisho slipped out of the room. He did it quietly, but I noticed him leave.
“So, that pretty much means it has to be Kisho?” I lowered my voice. “Why hasn’t the Vampire King killed him?”
“Wow, that’s a really good question, Clem Starr. Maybe you do have some smarts after all.”
“That’s no answer.”
Nic brushed his hair from his eyes. He looked serious.
“I have no idea. The actual prophecy is lost. I assume the Vampire King knows more about what it said than we do. Because Kisho never feeds, he’s not an immediate danger.”
“Will the King know if he feeds?”
“I assume so.”
I burned with unasked questions, but before I could say any more, Nic leaned in closer.
“If you need to know more, you should ask Kisho. The questions you have are his secrets, not mine. But be careful. You saw what he was like at the warehouse. If you push him too hard, he’s going to have a meltdown. And if you do that to him, I might have to kill you. In time, if he wants to, he’ll tell you himself. Maybe.”
I sighed. Nic wasn’t wrong. I didn’t want to hurt Kisho. Patience was not something I had in abundance, though.
“One last question, then. If the Vampire King knew he could be destroyed by someone of his own blood, why did he have a kid?”
“Bad contraceptive choices.” Nic shrugged.
Then Kisho returned with coffee and cake and I let the conversation drop.
The next two days, we went through every book I owned. I had a permanent case of the sneezes from all that dust and old book smell. These ancient tomes on hunting the paranormal would work so much better as e-books. Or maybe some kind of easily searchable wiki.
“This is useless. There is nothing here. He’s most definitely a vampire. Unless it’s some kind of spell that has never been recorded, I have no idea whatsoever.”
He wore glasses for reading. I’m not sure why. Maybe his human side needed them. No matter why, they looked as hot as hell. If he’d given me the slightest sign, I’d have pushed him into that Barbie-pink bedroom and screwed him like crazy. But he’d given me no sign. Nothing more than a few indeterminable glances and some leg touching.
“What color was his blood?” Kisho asked, looking up from his book.
“That book isn’t even worth reading,” I said, nodding at the book in his hand. “I got it as a joke. It’s like something some freaky Internet kid self-published.”
I could see why Kisho had picked it up, though. Beside us on the floor sat a huge pile of books we’d been through. Hundreds of books. On the other side of us were a few pathetic books we’d set aside as being not relevant. They were the only books left. We’d exhausted our Internet searching and eaten five cakes.
“What color?”
He kept reading the book, his hair flopping down to cover his eyes and his lips pursed in concentration.
“Blood color. Red. Just like normal blood.”
Kisho sighed and put the book aside.
“Damn. If it’d been silver, we’d have a lead. But I guess silver blood would’ve been mentioned in the news report.”
I couldn’t believe he actually put any faith in that stupid book. I picked my book back up.
“I washed the blood off me in the birdhouse.”
“You did. Luckily. If you hadn’t done that, the burns might’ve been a lot worse.”
Kisho stood up. I hoped that meant he was making coffee.
“Although we’d have had blood samples to test,” Nic added.
That was the other reason I hadn’t jumped Kisho. Just when we began to edge closer together, Nic would come into the study, every single time. Like he knew and just wanted to totally cock-block us. I didn’t know if that was jealousy or just cold-blooded evil.
Then something pricked at the edges of my memory. I was in the birdhouse. Those freaky birds flew at me. They squawked and the white feathers fell on me. No. That wasn’t it. The tap.
“When the water hit it, the blood turned silver.”
Kisho stopped and walked back to the table. He picked up the book and showed it to me.
I read the section, then snorted.
“No freakin’ way. This”—I flipped the book over to read the author’s name—“Ravyn Black is obviously on peyote. Unicorn blood? I’ve heard some stupid things in my life, but that takes the cake.”
“Cake? Do we have cake?” Nic said.
“No, you ate it all.”
He had actually eaten the last slice of cake right under my nose, taunting me with it. He wouldn’t even give me a bite.
“You can’t honestly believe that the Demon Child is a vampire/unicorn hybrid?” Nic asked Kisho.
Kisho didn’t answer.
“OMG, his mother was a dirty bitch. She did… that with a unicorn?” I couldn’t even imagine the logistics.
“Not his mother, but someone, back in the family tree.” Kisho seemed to be taking this really seriously.
“Well, someone had sex with a unicorn. That’s gross. It’s just wrong. I mean, ick.”
Nic tapped my cheek. “You really are uptight, aren’t you?” he said.
“Would you do it?”
I had no idea what the limits of Nic’s perversions were. He might be really into a bit of animal sex for all I knew. If he was, I’d make sure I kept Hellhound well away from him.
“No way. That’s gross.” He jumped back in his seat, as though the possibility of unicorn rape had become a real and immediate danger.
“See?”
“Stop bickering and listen to this,” Kisho said in an uncharacteristically stern voice.
That was really hot. I wanted him to touch me, that voice strumming the strings of my libido. Doing research with Kisho was the most difficult way to research. How can you read books with lustful thoughts pumping through your body all day?
“Read the rest of it.”
I took the book from him and read the section he pointed to.
“Super strength. Blood that burns. Childish. Okay, maybe it fits, but unicorn blood? That’s just plain ridiculous.”
Kisho screwed up his face. “It might be, but it’s the only thing we’ve got.”
He flicked through the book.
“Do you think he shifts?”
�
�What do you mean?” Kisho asked.
“He turns into a unicorn? That would be so awesome. I’d love to see that.” The Demon Child as a unicorn would be so freakin’ cute. Like some magical My Little Pony.
“You’re just being stupid now.” The stern voice was less sexy this time. “There’d be nothing awesome about that. It’d just make it harder to capture him.”
“But he’d be a unicorn. A real unicorn!”
“That’s not at all practical.” The way Kisho looked at me made me wonder if he had any imagination.
“I hate to admit it, but she’s right,” Nic said. “It’d be so awesome.” His face lit up with the potential of it.
I grinned at him. “I know, right?”
“Totally.”
“Do you think he’d be rainbow colored? He has black hair, so maybe black with a rainbow mane.”
“And an iridescent rainbow horn.” Nic gave me a sideways glance.
“What the hell is wrong with you two? The only time you stop bickering like little kids is to bond over some stupid unicorn shifter. Which he isn’t.”
Wow, that was the first time I’d ever heard Kisho talk back to Nic. Kisho got up and walked to the door.
“Where are you going?” Nic asked.
“Yeah, we’ll shut up about the unicorn shifter.” I looked at Nic, both of us totally never going to shut up about the unicorn shifter.
“There is no unicorn shifter!” Kisho said. “Now, come on, we have to visit this guy. Ravyn. While you two were getting way too excited about unicorns, I tracked down his address.”
Nic and I exchanged glances again. I bit my lip to stop from giggling, but we both jumped up and followed Kisho.
“I’ll drive,” I yelled.
Nic rolled his eyes. “Kisho’s driving. You’re in the backseat because you’re a wanted criminal.”
“Oh yeah,” Kisho said. “I forgot to mention… about your car.”
The way he frowned didn’t reassure me. I hadn’t thought about my car since I’d been at the lair. I assumed Kisho had picked it up when he’d gotten my stuff. Or it was still at the zoo.
“My baby? What’s wrong?”
“I couldn’t go back for it until after all the fuss had died down, and by the time I got there, the mob had beaten me to it. They must’ve known it was your car. It’s not really in a drivable state.”
