by Jess Haines
Soo-Jin had joined us and was close at my back. There was something oddly comforting about that—though Arnold didn’t seem to think so, giving us a wide berth once he noticed how close she’d come to him.
We slowed down and took a more cautious approach once we got close to the side door we were planning to enter. This was close enough to where I had escaped that I thought I could figure out how to get around once we were inside.
Angus put his shoulder to the door, the other vampires crowding around us and shoving me and the magi behind them. A vampire whose name I didn’t know gave me a nervous, fang-filled smile. For the first time since my escape, I thought to look—really look—at my allies.
Arnold’s brow had a sheen of nervous sweat, and Kimberly was not only green around the gills, but her gloved hands were visibly shaking. The glint to Soo-Jin’s fox-eyes and cant of her head gave me the idea that the kumiho, or kitsune, or whatever she was, wasn’t bothered in the least by the thought of the battle to come. Most of the vampires, though they didn’t fidget the way the magi did, showed other signs of nervousness. Their quick, unneeded breaths and slight flicks of their fingers, like they were flexing claws they didn’t have, worried me more than the thought of Kimberly’s squeamishness.
If the vampires were afraid, then they weren’t as certain of the outcome as Angus and Soo-Jin appeared to be.
After the doorjamb splintered and cracked, the door popping open under Angus’s weight, we all shuffled inside. It opened into a game room. A series of billiard tables and a wet bar on the far wall took up the bulk of the space. Angus was grinning ear to ear, beard bristling and eyes glinting like rubies, clearly enjoying this. He wielded a sword with a long, broad blade like a baseball bat as he scanned the place for any foes lying in wait.
Aside from the first rush, there was no sign of any defense prepared against us. Still, I was nervous. I knew how many people Max employed for security and we hadn’t seen a fraction of them. There was also Gideon to contend with, not to mention Max himself. Then again, this place was so big, the rest of Max’s security might have been focusing on something on the other side of the building and we’d never know.
“What’s the heading? Which way?”
I started to take the lead, but Angus’s hand on my shoulder stopped me.
“Just tell us the way, lass. Ye nae take point.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled, reddening. I should have known better. I gestured to a set of doors at the far end of the room. “That way, I think. We should go upstairs first. If Arnold can free Iana, she can help us.”
Angus went first, cracking the door open and glancing either way before moving into whatever was beyond it. I recognized the next room. I could figure out where to go from here, thank goodness.
“Hey, I know where we are. The way to Max’s room is that way. The way downstairs is over there.”
Arnold gave Kimberly his familiar, Bob, the tiny black mouse, so that he had a way of keeping tabs on the other half of our little war party. She had no familiar to trade him, but didn’t seem to mind letting the mouse settle himself between her neck and collar, its twitching nose and whiskers barely visible between strands of her long, blond hair. Kimberly and three of the vampires, including Fane, broke away to find and free any captives in the underground rooms after I gave them directions and explained how to find the hidden door. The rest of us hurried to find the stairs.
Arnold and a couple of the vampires boggled at the opulence and glitter, but I knew all the beautiful furniture and art had been bought with blood money, funds raised on the suffering of humans and Others alike. Besides, the stink of rot and formaldehyde was too strong for me to enjoy anything about the view, considering how badly my eyes were watering. No question, Gideon and his zombies were still here, and close.
The others must have been noticing the stench, too. Soo-Jin was the only one who didn’t seem bothered by it. Aside from Angus, all of the vampires had that just-bit-into-a-lemon face that said they had gotten a whiff of something rotten. Arnold had his arm up, his nose pressed into his jacket. His hunched shoulders, little furrows between his brows and narrowed eyes told me he was more determined than ever.
It was a good thing, too, because when Angus threw open the wide double doors leading into Max’s bedroom, there were half a dozen zombies waiting for us. The sting in my eyes wasn’t just for the smell when I saw Tiny was among them.
Angus waded into their midst with a roar, his blade cutting three of the shuffling dead men down before anyone else even made it into the room. His eyes matched the color of his hair, red as blood. He moved with inhuman speed and agility, destroying the walking dead before they could so much as brush a finger bone against him.
The other vampires swept in, though a bit more cautiously. No one could miss their distaste in their curled lips and grimaces. Arnold stayed beside me, gaping at the zombies. Soo-Jin stayed behind, too, but I think it was more because she didn’t want to get zombie bits stuck in her fur and teeth than because she was afraid. Rather than join us, she turned to guard our backs, squaring herself in the center of the hallway.
Arnold sounded a bit strained. “I ... man, I mean, I heard about them but I never thought . . .”
I patted his shoulder, watching from a safe distance as the vampires gingerly attacked the zombies. It was almost funny to see how squeamish they all were, save for Angus, about getting zombie goo on their hands and clothing.
The dead men snapped their teeth and clawed at the ... uh ... well, the undead men who were tearing them apart. Some of them had small blades, but those didn’t do much other than punch holes in decaying skin and set loose an even worse wave of stench on us. The zombies didn’t appear to notice or care about their wounds, stumbling around and clawing at the much faster vampires dodging their groping hands and snapping teeth.
It didn’t take long to dispatch them. Once the vampires figured out that it took breaking limbs and dismemberment to disable the zombies, not piercing them, it sped up their work tremendously.
I had to turn my gaze away as one of the vampires slid an arm around Tiny’s neck, and I couldn’t suppress a flinch at the cracking, tearing sound that followed.
It was necessary, but it still hurt.
No one else would do it for him, so I mouthed a prayer that whatever might have remained of Tiny and the other zombies were at peace now. Arnold and one of the vampires surprised me by joining in, our voices rising and falling in sorrowful whispers.
“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.”
When we were done, I turned a questioning look on the vampire who said the prayer with us. He brushed a piece of zombie gunk off his jacket before tugging the collar aside and showing me the gold cross that hung at his throat, giving me a tight smile.
Huh. A Catholic vampire. How about that.
There wasn’t enough time for us to linger. I picked my way across the carpet, careful not to step in any puddles of dead people parts and chemical-laden blood. Arnold followed in my footsteps, choking back little gagging sounds. Angus busied himself with wiping zombie gunk off his blade onto Max’s bed.
I tugged the painting away from the panel that hid the lock leading to Iana’s prison. Arnold took my place in front of it, studying the buttons and the section that required Max’s handprint to unlock it.
“I know the code, but I don’t know how to handle the other part.”
Arnold shook his head. “Not necessary. Just give me a sec.”
He set his hand against the scanner, tiny arcs of blue-white electricity flickering around his fingertips. Whatever power he was using, it looked like it was seeking a way into the panel, touching all the edges and moving into the cracks and crevices where the buttons and cover plate fit together.
The panel went dark, and the door slid back.
Gideon was waiting on the other side with the most pr
edatory smile I’d ever seen outside of a vampire’s. He raised his hand, his tattooed palm pointed at Arnold. “Lube up and bend over, sweet stuff. You’re about to have a very bad day.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Arnold flinched as a wave of some unseen power shot in his direction. There were no flashing lights or sparkles or glitter like I had come to expect from magic, but I felt the unseen wind of its passage, making all the small hairs on my arms and the back of my neck prickle. I could smell it, too, the scent of ozone briefly overpowering the stink of dead things.
Nothing else happened.
Gideon’s look of puzzlement quickly turned to alarm as Angus tackled him to the ground, a blade pressed to his throat and drawing a slick line of red across it.
“No!”
At my outburst, everyone looked at me like I was deranged. Hell, I would have looked at me like I was deranged, too.
It took a second for me to find the words, but once I did, I got them all out in a rush.
“I bet he knows where Sara is. He can tell us. He tried to help us before. Please, don’t hurt him.”
Angus growled, the blade biting just a smidge deeper. Any more than that, and he would nick something vital. “Have ye lost yer wits? He’s no ally to us.”
“I can be,” Gideon managed, his fingers digging into the carpet.
“Tell us where Sara is,” Arnold demanded.
Gideon’s green eyes narrowed, flickering with suppressed power. “Let me up and I’ll show you the way. I’ll even help you take down Max.”
“Lies,” one of the vampires spat. “He tried to attack us. You saw it.”
“I was trying to save myself! Wouldn’t you have done the same? I wanted a shield since you took the ones I had away, and fuck you all so very much for that.”
Arnold gritted his teeth, glaring down at the prone necromancer. “It’s true. I felt it. He was trying to snare a vampire.”
“Well, you’re so pale. Honest mistake.”
Arnold huffed. “Too many MMOs. What do you expect? This isn’t getting us any closer to Sara or Max. Tell us or I’ll ... I’ll ... I’ll bind you. We’ve got enough magi here, and don’t think we won’t.”
Gideon struggled just a bit under Angus. The vampire growled and gave him a little shake until the necromancer stopped. Whatever “binding” meant, it was enough to put the fear of God into Gideon.
Panting with fear, fingers twitching like he was itching to cast a spell, Gideon nodded, staring up at the ceiling. “Fine. Fine! I can take you to the girl. I’m not sure where Max is, but I can find him if you let me up.”
This was far too easy. I wasn’t sure if we should trust him, but I didn’t know how else to track down Sara in this maze. Apparently Arnold didn’t trust him either.
“Keep an eye on him and don’t let him cast anything. Stuff his mouth and tie his wrists together.”
“Sara didn’t tell me you liked to play those kinds of games.”
A thundercloud of rage passed over the mage’s face, and he lifted a fist. “You show us the way or I will personally burn every last iota of dark fae out of you, consequences be damned.”
Gideon’s eyes flared with power, like green gemstones lit from behind, but he didn’t make any more smart comments. Angus smiled like he was taking great pleasure in shoving the balled up pillowcase someone handed him into the necromancer’s mouth, only stopping once the poor guy was gagging on it. Someone else found a few ties and handed them over. Those were used to hold the gag in place and for tight, efficient knots around his wrists. If he hadn’t been such a deceitful bastard, I might have felt sorry for him.
Once he was trussed up to Angus’s liking, the elder vampire hauled Gideon to his feet. “Lead the way, little uilebheist.”
Gideon shot him a dirty look, but didn’t bother to make a run for it. Not like it would have done him any good considering he was surrounded by vampires fast enough to snap his neck or kneecaps before he took more than two steps.
He paused once in the doorway, his eyes widening at the carnage. It was rather impressive, but Angus had no patience for it, giving him a little shove from behind.
After stumbling, he threw a glare over his shoulder and then resumed his trek forward, leading us to wherever Sara was hidden. He didn’t seem surprised to see a towering fox-demon with nine tails in the hall, merely giving her a wide berth as he led the way. He must have seen her before at some point.
I don’t care how blasé you are about supernatural creatures. Something like Soo-Jin would be cause for comment in my neighborhood, and I’m from New York, fer Chrissakes.
‘You owe me.’
The voice was a whisper in the back of my mind, but I did my best to ignore it. Gideon gave no outwardly visible sign that he was mentally badgering me with demands, much like the spirit in the hunter’s belt used to whenever I wore the enchanted artifact. I didn’t want Angus or Arnold to hurt Gideon, so I tried not to show any signs of how creeped the hell out I was, either.
‘I promised to get you two out. I intend to keep my word. After all, if they hurt me, she’ll feel it, too.’
That made me falter. Arnold’s hand on my shoulder steadied me, but I couldn’t bring myself to move again right away.
‘She’s mine now. If I go down, she goes with me. Keep that in mind.’
Great. Just fucking peachy. Like I had any way of explaining that to Arnold or the vampires that wouldn’t make them more inclined to forcibly separate his head from his shoulders.
On the bright side, by keeping Gideon tied up, Max might not jump to the conclusion he’d turned traitor and kill him first.
Shivering with a combination of nerves and dread, I trailed behind the others. Arnold kept his hand on my shoulder, and I set my hand over his. We’d been through bad times like this before. Maybe not quite this bad, but we’d figure out a way to fix this, just like we always did. Somehow.
The necromancer led the way downstairs, down a corridor I wasn’t familiar with, and then to a recessed oak door with a padlock on the outside. It was deep in the house in a shadowed alcove, easily overlooked. Gideon jerked his jaw at it, then rubbed his cheek against his shoulder, trying to dislodge the gag.
Angus elbowed him aside and reached for the lock. Gideon kicked the back of his knee until the vampire swung around and planted a fist through the wall next to the necromancer’s head. Slowly, deliberately, he then set the knuckles of the hand with the sword on the other side.
Gideon’s back thumped against the wall, and he stared up at the vampire. A new scent wafting from him filled the air, one that made me consider him with new eyes. A predator’s eyes. Hunger cramped my stomach so badly I had to bite my inner cheek hard enough to fill my mouth with my own blood to quiet the building need.
Plaster chips pattered on the floor as Angus yanked his hand free of the wall. His thick fingers hooked under the cherry red tie, pulling it down, then tugging the balled up pillowcase out. Gideon gasped and coughed, then choked out a few words.
“Some ... Ow! There are some vampires in there, too, you ungracious Neanderthal.”
Angus growled, but backed off. I eyed the hole he left in the wall, suitably impressed. Vampires didn’t often make such an obvious show of their strength around me. Knowing they could do it and seeing it were two very different animals.
The necromancer stayed where he was, not protesting as one of the vampires took his arm. Angus wrapped a hand around the lock and wrenched it off, tossing it over his shoulder. So much for going in quietly. He hefted a booted foot and kicked the door in.
I was getting the idea he really enjoyed doing that.
We moved in, the vampires leading again.
There were an awful lot of Max’s vampires inside, and they were well prepared to fend off our assault. Many of them moved like Angus, with the same fluid grace and speed, which meant they were all elders. They had guns, too, which had Angus and Soo-Jin quick to backtrack and yank me out of there. But not before I spotted
Sara, Iana, and several of the other girls by the far wall, trapped behind a set of bars bolted into the wall like some jail in the Old West and backed up as far from the fight as they could get.
They left me in the hall outside with Gideon and the vampire holding him in place, even Soo-Jin slinking back through that door to rejoin the fray.
“Well, this is lovely. I feel so useful like this,” Gideon said.
“Shut up,” the vampire holding him snapped.
The shriek of wrenching metal made me cringe and cover my ears. My hands didn’t drown out the sounds of the battle as they became more of a fever pitch, the snarls and growls and yelps outnumbering the gunshots. There was a flash of light, and a roil of flame rolled out of the room and into the hall, scorching the door frame and the wall opposite. We all scrambled out of the way. A particularly chilling cry rang out, quieting everything else for a moment.
Smoke drifted out of the doorway and filled the hall.
“Jesus, Mary and Joseph.”
Gideon quirked a brow at me. “I don’t think they had anything to do with that, Copper-top. Looks like your little mage friend got pissed.”
“Didn’t I tell you to shut up?”
Gideon turned a flat stare on the vampire. “Why, yes.” He then returned his gaze to me. “So. How about you undo these ropes so I can be of some use, hmm?”
An urge to do just that rose in me. With a growl, I stalked closer—and slapped him, hard. “Don’t you ever fuck with my head again or I will rip yours off. You hear me?”
The vampire stiffened. “What did he do?” Then shook Gideon. “Hey. What did you do?”
Gideon smirked and tilted his head up, slowly licking the blood from his split lip. The scent of it drew me closer, and that was when I realized there was some on my knuckles. Before I knew it, my hand was inches from my mouth, my throat burning for the taste of it. The only thing that stopped me from licking it off was how very interested Gideon appeared to be in my actions.
