Decatur the Vampire

by Amarinda Jones

  Archimedes continued. “Do you want me to tell you your greatness weakness? It’s actually quite funny when you think about it. Fancy a mean-hearted vampire being scared of such a small thing.”

  “Go away and bother someone else. I’m busy.”

  “Oh, but I can’t. I need you for my plan.”

  It was then that Decatur felt the invisible noose around his neck. “I plan for no one but myself.”

  “That has now changed, Decatur, and I believe you know it.”

  And Decatur had. This was not about saving him from a war. It was about Archimedes using him to gain something. But what? Decatur was no better or stronger than any other vampire. So why me? Decatur had cursed inwardly as he watched Archimedes. He looked pleased with himself. He knew Decatur was cornered and for the first time in the three hundred and fifty years he had been alive, someone else knew his weakness. That was unacceptable. Decatur liked his life. He loved being immortal. To have that threatened by this man made him feel pathetic for the first time ever. Of course he would never betray what he felt. Letting your enemies know any more than they had to was asking for even more trouble. It galled Decatur that Archimedes had him over a barrel. And he wasn’t the only one. He soon found out about the other three. They were as screwed as he was. But that was their problem.

  Unlike Amory, Decatur was not there to make friends. Decatur was out to survive and destroy Archimedes. No one used Decatur like this without penalty. He knew it would take a while but he would bring the golden-eyed man down.

  Decatur surveyed the tall, auburn-haired man before him. He looked ordinary and average yet Decatur knew warlocks were anything but. They often pretended otherwise to gain the confidence of their targets. Decatur would never stand still long enough for that to happen. “Did I ask your opinion, warlock?” There was no point baring his fangs as it did little to deter another immortal as it would a human.

  “No, but I don’t need permission from you to speak.”

  They lived, such as it was, in a large warehouse on Brisbane River. It had every comfort but freedom. They could come and go as they pleased, do what their nature decreed but they were never free from the situation they had been forced into. Each knew Archimedes had something on them. None was sure what the others feared and each kept their own counsel. Trust was not a commodity that was bestowed freely.

  “I’m not like you.” Decatur was a vampire and proud of it. They bowed to no one. He would free himself from this and Archimedes would rue the day he ever crossed his path.

  Amory shrugged his shoulders. “Aren’t you? We all have the same symbol on our skin.” He ran one finger down his own neck. “It’s no coincidence we have all been thrown together. We all have secrets that could destroy us.”

  The warlock was right. Decatur had carried the ankh on his neck as long as he could remember. He had assumed it was something he had been born with or his parents had bestowed on him. It was too distinct to be a birthmark—besides, birthmarks were not navy blue or so defined. For years he had dismissed it as just a tattoo, yet Decatur always knew it was more than that. It was something he felt it in every fiber of his being. Seeing the others with the same symbol had sent a chill through his bones. So why us and why now? The ankh meant life. Archimedes was only interested in his own and would use death to get what he wanted.

  “Maybe I’m tired of living,” Decatur told the warlock.

  Amory smiled in disbelief. “Liar. You hate being manipulated as do we all.”

  “Yes.” That was a fact. Decatur had not really contemplated the lot of his fellow captives until now.

  “And the woman?”

  Decatur stiffened. “How do you know there is one?” Even though his sudden rush of words confirmed it. I cannot let Marduk be harmed. Whatever he did now could ruin her if he didn’t think before he acted.

  “You are not the only one dealing with Archimedes.”

  “What does he want from us?” It was the first time Decatur had ever asked one of the others. He preferred to stay wrapped up in his own problems than take on those of others.

  “I’m not sure but this,” Amory tapped his tattoo, “links us all.”

  “Yes.” But it did not make them brothers in arms. It just made them pawns in a game they were behind in points on. I will catch up. I will get out of this.

  Amory slapped him on the shoulder. “Vampire, I plan to survive this any way I can. I don’t like Archimedes. I hate knowing my powers are useless against him. But mark my words I will kill him.”

  I will beat you to it. “Good luck with that. I just want out.” There was no need for any of them to know his thoughts.

  “No plans of revenge? That’s very unlike a vampire.”

  That was true. Vampires demanded vengeance for any slight. “I do what suits me and I follow no one else.”

  “It costs nothing to ask for help but that’s your call.”

  “Yes it is.” Decatur watched as Amory walked off. He ran his hands through his tangled blond hair. The leather tie he had used to contain the shoulder-length hair had disappeared. Decatur knew he shouldn’t have acted as he had with the warlock. They were all trapped and it was making them crazy. And suspicious. Being the sort of beings they were, Decatur was sure he wasn’t the only one who had thoughts about working against the others to get out. He would have been lying to admit otherwise. The tattoo bonded them by skin but not by any loyalty or kinship Decatur recognized.

  The talk with Amory had taken his mind off the other pressing issue. Marduk. Archimedes was dangerous and if he knew how far ahead Decatur was with Marduk then they were both in trouble. Decatur had never planned to touch her. “But to have done anything else would have been impossible.” Being with Marduk was like touching heaven. For the first time in his long existence, Decatur actually felt something other than jaded and ancient. He felt alive. The problem was that not only was he trapped by Archimedes but Marduk was as well. If only she had not been my type. Most women he could love and walk away from but not Marduk. “Impossible.” She was sexy and luscious. Decatur sighed. He was trapped by danger and lust and for the first time in his life he had no idea how to escape the situation he was in.

  That she was part of Archimedes’ plan made Decatur wary. None of his four captives—for that’s what they were—knew what his end goal was. And why Marduk? What was Archimedes’ interest in her? What did the woman know? Was she innocent or was she aware of who Decatur was? Somehow Decatur doubted it. He had seen the hasty blush she had tried to cover when he had caught her staring at his ass. Decatur was pleased he had seen that. It was the only high point in what was a tense time in his life. Yes, he had been through worse but in those cases he had always known how to get out of the mess he was in. This time he didn’t and both he and Archimedes knew it.

  “Marduk,” Decatur murmured her name out loud. He had made an excuse to walk by her desk and he had seen the nameplate. Marduk Howell. It was a unique and strong-sounding name. A lot like the woman herself and maybe that was another reason he was hesitant to act as quickly as he normally did. This woman was different. He could see that. He had watched her carefully in between tinkering with the photocopier. From the tip of her brown wavy hair, to the buxom hourglass curves of her body, to the crazy pointed-toed shoes she wore, she was an original. Not many women chose to look as they pleased. Most women, Decatur found, regardless of century, tried to fit in with the current fashion. Marduk did not. In the last week he had seen her in all sorts of daring outfits that accentuated the lushness of her body. She appeared to be a woman who knew what she wanted and was not going to be pigeonholed into hiding her body. He wondered if she used the in-your-face approach for that reason—that attack was the best form of defense.

  “But what does Archimedes want with her?” Decatur was torn between the need to stay away from her for her own protection and not embroil her in whatever chaos he himself was involved in, and wanting to get to know Marduk. That in itself was odd for Decatur. Archime
des was right. Vampires did normally suck and fuck and go on their way. Never did they stop to question their motives or what was happening. Never did they wonder about a woman and her thoughts. Women were a vice, a need, a craving. Women were not about commitment or romance. That he was analyzing the woman now was most unusual and it made him even more uneasy. And then there was the need to protect a woman he barely knew. “That is so not me.” While he would never hurt a woman, he never stuck around and worried about her welfare after their mutual need was satisfied.

  Decatur rubbed his hands over his face. He had never felt so tired in his life. He had no idea what he was doing and where to go next. Yes, he would have to go back to Marduk’s office tomorrow on some pretext. Though that would not be hard considering the battered photocopier they were using and that fact that he had rigged it so the bottom tray would have a paper jam this time tomorrow.

  “And I will get to see Marduk once more.” Decatur needed to work out her connection to Archimedes and why he, and not one of the other three immortals, had been summoned to deal with Marduk. “Why me? Why her?” Yes, there was mutual attraction there. Decatur had felt her eyes on him in the office but he doubted very much that Archimedes was playing cupid. He wanted the two of them to meet for some reason. But what?

  Regardless what it was, Decatur knew one thing. He had to feed soon to regain his strength. Although his origins were unknown Decatur had been all around the world in his three hundred and fifty years. It seemed odd to him that Archimedes decided to base himself in Brisbane. While it was an international tourist destination and had a parochial charm of its own, it was not somewhere he expected Archimedes to operate from. That was another question that added to those already on Decatur’s mind. Why Brisbane? Did its laid-back atmosphere make it easier for their kind to hang out? People, or women in particular, certainly asked fewer questions. He had not yet found one who would deny him her body or her blood. Not that he needed other women now. I have Marduk.

  “Feed first, think later,” Decatur muttered to himself as he visualized the heart of cosmopolitan Fortitude Valley and willed himself there. In an instant he was gone.

  * * * * *

  Vulcan smiled to himself as he saw the flash of light that was the vampire leaving the building. He was most intrigued by the four immortals Archimedes had under his thumb. All of them were bristling with such barely contained rage. He wondered which one of the four would be the one to crack first. He doubted it would be the vampire. They were always too smart to act until they knew the full story. The same with the warlock. As for the demon, one of his brethren, they were sneaky, sly beings who only acted in their own best interest. Vulcan was slightly surprised that Morphos had not yet tried to screw the other three over by making some sort of deal with Archimedes. And then there was Sumerian, the fallen angel. She had been kicked out of heaven. Few knew why. Vulcan did.

  Sumerian was the wild card of the bunch. She could go either way and she was the most interesting to him. Sumerian was the reason he was there. She was the link to Archimedes. He knew Archimedes was confused by his willingness to assist him in his endeavors. Vulcan never did anything without reason. This time, the reason was very simple. Payback. The target was Archimedes. He had a lesson to learn. Not only would Vulcan screw up his operation but he would do it using the only being Archimedes cared for—Sumerian. Despite her fall from grace, Vulcan knew she would not be able to prevent herself from meddling in the lives of those around her.

  “Once an angel, always an angel.” Maybe it was her perverse nature to always go against the system that attracted Vulcan. If things were different he would be with Sumerian once more. Archimedes was not the only one with a history with this lady.

  * * * * *

  “Decatur has gone,” Sumerian announced to the demon Morphos as he passed by her. “So has Vulcan.”

  “Who cares?” Morphos looked at her as if she was mad.

  Sumerian knew it pointless trying to talk to a dweller of the underworld but she had to talk to someone. She was going crazy in her forced captivity. None of the other inmates shared their thoughts. “Aren’t you curious to know what’s going on?” Sumerian was. Since being forced to come to Brisbane by Archimedes, she had been consumed by the need to find out whatever she could. But Archimedes just fobbed her questions off with a smile. Once, a long time ago, Sumerian had known Archimedes very well. She had hoped to use that relationship to find out more. But Archimedes was a vault when he wanted to keep a secret and maybe what she wanted to believe of their past was just a lie. Sumerian knew whatever Archimedes planned, he never did anything without gain for himself.

  “I care not for others, only for myself.” Morphos stared at her with intense dislike.

  “I know that.” Demons by nature were selfish individuals who could happily step over a dying man to take the last sip of water that could have saved his life.

  “So why ask?”

  Sumerian shook her head. “I have no idea.” Maybe I was in heaven too long. Maybe she had held some vague idea that there was a kinship between them because of circumstance and the ankh tattoo. Surely they were bonded together because of that. If they chose not to see it then they were blind to the possibilities of freeing themselves from Archimedes’ clutches. If they worked together they could do that for surely he knew more about that tattoo than they did. It had to have a power or a meaning for Archimedes to have gathered them together as he had. They should use that bond and save themselves from whatever he planned. Sumerian was not foolish enough to think any tie she may have once had to Archimedes made her immune to whatever he had decided their fate was to be. Sumerian may have fallen from grace but she wasn’t about to go from one structured, rule-bound environment to another where the deck was marked to her detriment.

  “I’m going to talk to Vulcan.” While doing her own thing was the main reason why heaven had dismissed her, she couldn’t sit and do nothing. Unlike the other three, Sumerian did not have plans to use the populace of Brisbane to satisfy her own desires. Her needs were different. She never took.

  “Vulcan? He won’t tell you anything. Why bother?”

  “Talking to you? I have no idea. Might be some throwback to my days in heaven when I used to care.” Sumerian turned her back on him as she had with heaven. She was tired of playing games when results mattered.

  * * * * *

  Two months ago

  “You know we cannot let you stay, Sumerian.”

  “No.” That was only too obvious. She had not only broken the rules but smashed them. Now, as she stood before the intense white light that was Gabriel, she not only had to leave, she wanted to. This was the wrong place for her. They asked everything from her but gave nothing back. Not even heaven had the right to treat people with such disregard.

  “And we cannot forgive your crime.”

  Sumerian smiled a tight smile. She tried to relax her clenched fists but it was difficult. She wanted none of them to see how much she was angered by this situation. Yes, she wanted to go but she would do it on her terms alone. “Is it is a crime to care? I thought that’s what we were supposed to do in heaven.”

  Gabriel’s stare was hard and unflinching. “You are correct, Sumerian. We do care but you had no right to take matters into your own hands.”

  “I could not let innocents suffer.” Sumerian would never allow herself to feel guilty for her actions. To have done nothing would have been a sin in her eyes.

  “But killing someone without the sanction of heaven is not permitted.”

  Sumerian almost smiled. Heaven had no qualms in killing anyone. They just needed it approved in triplicate by Gabriel and, depending what mood he was in, he may allow “his” will to be done. “Not even if the human was evil and deserved it?”

  “You did not have permission.”

  She had heard this so many times over the past week that she was tired of it. “I had to act or risk an innocent suffering.” That they could not see that through their rules m
addened her.

  “You are not God, Sumerian. Your arrogance to think you can change or manipulate circumstances to suit yourself is not the behavior of an angel. This is not the first time you have been warned and this time you shed blood.”

  Like Gabriel himself had never done this. He had been a wild card long before she had come on the scene. “For a good cause.”

  “That was not the decree of God so it was murder.”

  Why do I bother? Yet Sumerian could not help but respond. She was already lost. There was no point trying to save herself. “I see, so God can kill and it’s righteous but when I do it’s murder.” Sumerian regretted nothing. The human had to die so others could live. If she had left it up to the will of heaven, two innocent souls would be standing in heaven wondering why God had let them suffer. At least Sumerian would have. The human world was out of control and God and his cronies like Gabriel seemed to be doing very little to help.

  “Yes. God can do whatever he wants. He is in charge.”

  “So we’re a cult now, Gabriel?”

  “There is no ‘we’ anymore, Sumerian. There is ‘us’ and ‘you’.”

  Just to drive the point home. It was typical of Gabriel. “I stand by what I did.” Not that she suspected he would care. The precious rules had been bent because someone took a stand and thought for themselves.

  “That you have no remorse is not the belief of a true angel.”

  “Maybe I never was one of those. Maybe I was a ring-in.”

  Gabriel shook his head. “You were meant to be here but you chose to leave by your actions.”

  “So the whole ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’ thing is only fine if you are in charge?”

  “When we cast you down you can never come back.”

  “Because it’s a rule, Gabriel?”

  His smile was thin. “You make this harder on yourself than it has to be. You could always ask for forgiveness.”

  “I would rather stick a needle in my eye.”