The Doppler led us down two levels. The stench was overpowering as we went down another level and I coughed. Being around that many Sprites at one time was not going to be easy.
Cells containing Sprites took up the entire bottom level, which was bizarre. Normally five Sprites at most were housed at one time in the detention center. The thirty or so Sprites that were there now were loud and obnoxious, shouting obscenities as we passed.
“Sprites in New York City have always been scum.” While I spoke, I glanced at Joshua as we walked past several of the cells. “They’re almost as bad as Metamorphs. Almost.” I shook my head as I remembered the whole Metamorph incident that was the reason security was so much higher at the Paranorm Center.
Joshua nodded as he studied the closest cells with his intense gaze.
“Even though they tend to get in trouble,” I said, “we’ve never had this many Sprites locked up at one time before.”
The first cell the PTF agent, Greg, took us to was the one that contained the extra-ugly Sprite that I’d taken down last night. The Sprite hissed as he glared at me with his huge protruding eyes that made Greg’s buggy eyes seem tiny in comparison.
I walked up to the cell and handed Joshua my purse containing my weapons.
His eyes narrowed. “I’m going in with you.”
I ignored him as the PTF agent unlocked the cell and opened it just long enough for me to slip in and keep the Sprite from slipping out. Joshua looked at me with narrowed eyes.
As I stared at the Sprite, I said to Joshua, “You can have your fun next. My turn first.”
“This one’s name is Ordox, according to the register,” Greg said.
My focus shifted entirely to the Sprite whose nose I had broken, his ugly face scraped from meeting a minuscule portion of the copper-plated statue. His ragged, dirty clothing hung on him like sails that had lost their wind.
Ordox had a wicked expression now, an evil smile, as if he’d just been handed a birthday present as I walked about ten feet from him.
Likely he was so delighted because he thought I was a mere human. That was no doubt what he sensed—my human side. He probably figured he could overpower me and make me his hostage.
He rushed me.
Enough room was between us that I was able to take one step, then forward-flip, using my air element to propel me faster.
I landed behind him on my running shoes, then I grasped his neck in one hand and slammed him up against the wall.
His head made a hard thunk and he howled in pain. It was a muffled sound considering how tight a grip I had on his throat. My Drow strength made it impossible for him to move.
He tried clawing at my hand but I raised my other and aimed two fingers at his eyes. I felt the dangerous white flash in my own eyes as I moved my fingers closer to his face.
“You are going to give me the information I want, Ordox.” My fingers were almost to his eyes and he went limp in my grasp. “I’m going to let go. You won’t try anything.” I couldn’t let him know that I was one and the same Tracker who’d taken him down at the statue. So I gestured toward Joshua who folded his arms across his chest. “You know better than to mess with a Tracker, don’t you?”
At the word “Tracker,” the Sprite’s face went red and he started cursing in a seldom-used Fae language that is guttural and almost as ugly as he was. I didn’t understand but I had a pretty good idea what he was saying.
“You’re also going to learn to not mess with me,” I said in English before following that with a few Drow curse words. Drow is similar to but not pretty like the language of the Light Elves. It’s harsh and was clearly not complimentary to him in return. He looked surprised as I spoke in my native language before his expression went arrogant and evil again.
One more time I squeezed his neck, letting him know that I was no idle threat. When I released him he dropped to the hard stone floor of his cell in a ragged heap.
“Bitch,” Ordox growled but didn’t bother to stand.
“You are going to tell me,” I said, “what is behind all of this chaos you and the other Sprites have been causing in the city.”
The Sprite grinned, which surprised me. I’d never even seen a Sprite smile, much less grin. He laughed, which was even more startling and the sound grated down my spine.
I had Ordox’s dirty collar clenched in my fists before he finished laughing. The Sprite glared at me and pressed his thick lips tightly together. I used everything I could to get Ordox to talk short of any kind of violence. To get a name, anything. Unfortunately this Sprite wouldn’t give an inch. I couldn’t get a word out of him, except his comments that the Sprites just enjoy mischief and like to cause chaos. All of this was true, but I sensed there was more to it this time. This was different.
Ordox actually laughed as I walked out of the cell. I glanced over my shoulder.
“No one knows anything,” he said. “And no Sprite is stupid enough to tell you even if he does know.”
“I doubt that.” I turned back away from him and closed the cell door behind me with a hard clang. “Sprites aren’t known for their intelligence. Someone will talk.”
He laughed again, a sound that grated up and down my spine. “Go home, bitch.”
I almost went back in that cell. Instead I turned away with Joshua and the Doppler and we walked to the next jailed Sprite.
This time Joshua dissolved into shadow and moved under the elemental-magic-treated bars. Trackers could pass through because we had each been given the power that made elemental-magic-treated confinements useless against us.
Although I had learned the hard way that when I’m human they do work on me. When I’m Drow it’s not a problem.
The Sprite shrank back when Joshua rose to his imposing height and towered over the creature.
During the time Joshua interrogated the Sprite, the creature wouldn’t say a word that would help us at all.
Twelve more rounds of interviewing Sprites, and what little patience I’d had was shot.
Lucky number thirteen, I thought as I entered Sprite’s cell.
He was small for a Sprite. Looked younger than the rest and he sat in the corner with his arms wrapped around his knees. He wouldn’t make eye contact with me. All of the other Sprites had been so defiant, most with an in-your-face attitude.
Hmmm. This Sprite might have possibilities.
I walked up to him. “What’s your name?” I hadn’t asked any of the other Sprites for their names but this one seemed different.
“Negel,” he said quietly.
I crouched down so that we were nearly eye level. “Negel, we have some important questions to ask.”
The Sprites were hiding something big and we had to find out. Somehow. Someway.
“What?” the Sprite asked.
“All I want is to know why Sprites are creating all of this chaos in the city,” I said. “A reason and some names.”
Negel looked past my shoulder and I followed his gaze to see the Sprite in the adjacent cell glaring at Negel.
“Do not say anything!” the Sprite shouted. “Or you will die, you stupid hundoff.”
“See what you can get out of that slimy creep,” I said to Joshua. “I’ll take care of this one.”
After Joshua dissolved into shadow and reappeared in the other Sprite’s cell, I gave my full attention to Negel.
“Start talking.” I made my voice sound deadly soft.
“They’ll kill me.” The Sprite’s thick lips trembled. “I have a wife and children to take care of. And a brother, too.”
For a moment I just stared at him. I’d never thought of Sprites having families and siblings.
“We won’t let them know you talked.” I glanced at the Sprite screaming from the other cage for Negel to shut up. “I have an idea that will keep them from knowing you said anything.”
His voice dropped so low I could barely hear him. “The—the one responsible can’t know I told you. He’ll kill me.”
I s
hifted from my crouch onto one knee on the filthy floor. “You have my word that no one will find out you said anything.”
Negel looked both scared and skeptical.
I called to my air elemental powers, and almost instantly all noise was cut off from around us. All that could be heard was the sound of Negel’s quick breaths.
“I’ve just put an invisible shield around us.” I focused on the Sprite and didn’t look around at the others in lock-up. “No one can hear a word you say. I’ll also make sure we let nothing slip that could endanger you.”
Negel’s huge eyes were wide as he stared at me. His throat worked as he swallowed. His lips barely moved as he said, “If this you promise, then I will tell you what I know.”
“Why are the Sprites wreaking havoc in the city?” I asked.
His huge Adam’s apple bobbed. “A distraction, a diversion.”
I frowned and my mind raced. “From what?”
He shook his head. His dirty blond tuft of hair flopped as he moved and his ears wiggled. “That’s all I know.”
“Give me more,” I said.
For a moment, Negel didn’t say anything. “I will tell you this because I think it is wrong what is being done.” Negel gave another nervous look over my shoulder. “We are not that kind of being.”
Yeah, right.
The Sprite ran his tongue over his thick lips. “I did overhear a little. Just a little.”
“What?” I said.
He grunted, then pushed a sentence out in a rush. “The night before I was captured, I was walking by our leader, Tobath—”
“Sprites don’t have leadership.” My gaze narrowed and I felt the ache in my eyes signifying the white flash that he would see, a flash that would tell him my patience with him wasn’t as good as I had thought. “Sprites despise leadership and organization.”
“It is true,” Negel said. “Tobath gathered us together and has others who enforce his commands.” The Sprite ran his tongue over his lips again. “My brother, Penrod, has been trying to find a way to stop Tobath, who is nothing but a dictator.”
Negel’s chest expanded beneath his rags as he took a deep breath. “Penrod said the only way we can do this is to join with Tobath and pretend to go along with him, and wait to find an opportunity to take him down.” Negel looked down on his long, nubbly fingers. “After what I have seen, I am not sure it is possible.”
“You know more than what you led me to believe at the start,” I said.
Negel scooted up higher against the wall. I was too afraid. I fear that something might happen to my family.”
That I could believe, that he was too scared. This Sprite was not bad guy material. I had a hard time imagining him doing much of anything when he was supposed to be creating chaos in the city.
“What did you overhear?” I said. “I want to know everything.”
“I didn’t see who Tobath was talking to.” Negel wiped his hand across his forehead. “But he said the master is pleased with what my people had done so far and he said that the plan is proceeding nicely. That is all I heard. I swear, that is all I heard or know.”
My skin started to chill and goose bumps prickled my skin. Master. There was only one being I had ever heard referred to as Master. “Who?” I asked.
The name tore from Negel like a curse. “Volod.”
SIX
A Master Vampire living in the penthouse of the unique Hudson Hotel by Central Park. A hotel so unique that it was referred to merely as “The Hudson.”
Hello? If someone says they’re staying at the Hudson, they could just as well be on a houseboat on the river.
As we headed up toward Volod’s city lair, I wondered if things could get any stranger than a Vampire in a penthouse.
Of course they could. This was New York City.
Arriving in Volod’s personal elevator wasn’t an option. Olivia, Angel, and Joshua were with me in the stairwell, taking the long way to get to Volod’s lair. The three teamed up with me on this mission like they had throughout the Sprite fiasco and back during the Werewolf op.
Earlier today Joshua and I had continued interviewing other Sprites. Even using bits of the information from Negel, we hadn’t been able to get any Sprite to talk.
A couple of the creepy beings had looked shocked, if not scared when they heard the Vampire’s name, but still no one said anything. We’d been lucky with Negel.
Joshua’s flail rocked at his side as we jogged the twenty-four flights of stairs to the penthouse of the Hudson. Shadow Shifters are as silent as Elves and Fae when they move, even when they’re in human form.
I pushed long strands of my blue hair over my shoulder as I glanced behind me at Angel. She was incredibly quiet as she followed. Like me, she wore a form-fitting black leather fighting suit—only hers showed even more skin than mine did, which meant hers showed a lot of flesh.
The barbs on the whip at Angel’s side had a dull look to them that didn’t begin to betray their deadly knife-edged sharpness. Her beautiful features were set, a determined spark to her diamond-bright blue eyes, her blond corkscrew curls spilling over her shoulders like pale serpents.
Angel was a squirrel in Doppler form and as a human looked like a cover girl for a cheerleader magazine. A former Harvard graduate and NASA intern, Angel was one of the toughest Trackers I knew. She’d saved my butt more than once during the Werewolf op. Just goes to show you can’t judge a Doppler by her human appearance or her animal form.
Olivia took up the rear. I winced every time I heard one of her shoes make a whisper of a sound. A former NYPD cop, she was pretty quiet for a human. But some beings have super-incredible hearing and I just hoped the Vampire’s hearing wasn’t that good that they’d hear the slight sounds of Olivia’s running shoes.
“Fourteenth floor and ten to go.” I looked at the number on the door as we made it from twelve to the next landing. “The fact that many hotels don’t have a thirteenth floor has got to be one of the silliest superstitions humans have.”
“Humans have lots of silly superstitions.” Angel’s voice was deceptively innocent and sweet and I glanced at her again. “And Brownies looooove to play up to them.”
I grinned as we hit another landing. “If humans knew that Brownies are behind just about every superstition or haunting, then they would really flip.”
Brownies are Fae and some of the most devious creatures known to paranorm kind. I dislike them as much as I dislike Sprites. But they can be amusing at times—when they aren’t being malicious. Like Sprites, they too often take up valuable investigative time with mindless pranks and stunts.
“Not all humans believe in that crap.” Olivia might not be what anyone would consider slender, but she was in such great shape she wasn’t breathing hard. “Don’t even go there.”
“Keep your traps shut,” Joshua grumbled. Angel flipped him off. I grinned. “The bastards may have lookouts.”
Joshua stopped on landing twenty and I came just short of running into him. I took his flail automatically as he handed it to me. The full weight of it caught me by surprise and I almost dropped it. Thank goodness I’m Drow and not simply human because the thing was so heavy that I wouldn’t have had the strength to hold it otherwise.
“Going ahead to scout.” Joshua shifted—sort of melted away—and then I watched as a large shadow drifted up the stairs. Sometimes he blended with the stairwell shadows, sometimes not. And then he was gone.
Angel reached my side and gave me her whip. “Ouch,” I said as one of its barbs dug into my palm and blood formed where the small cut was.
“Sorry, Nyx,” she said just before she transformed into a blond squirrel, jumped onto the railing and darted along it to cover the last few flights.
“What am I?” I muttered as I hurried up the stairs. “A coatrack?” As I moved I hooked Angel’s whip on my weapons belt next to my right dragon-clawed dagger and gripped Joshua’s flail in my left hand. The blackness of the metal was dark against my pale amethyst
skin.
Within seconds I was up the last four flights and reached the penthouse, Olivia right behind me. A strange yet familiar odor that I couldn’t identify cloyed the air. I frowned. Why couldn’t I place the odor? So familiar…
Joshua and Angel were nowhere to be seen. As a Shadow Shifter, it was a given that Joshua had slipped beneath the door and into the Vampire’s lair. But squirrels … I looked up at the low ceiling. Dust was slightly disturbed on an air vent. That explained Angel’s disappearance.
“Like we talked about, wait here,” I said to Olivia. “I know you don’t think Vampires are dangerous because of the pukes at the Pit, but I think we have more to worry about than anyone realizes.”
She scowled and I cut her off before she could say a word. “Don’t come in, no matter what.” I grasped the handle. “Your job is to shoot anything that exits this door. And make sure it’s through the heart.”
“Just get your purple ass in there,” she muttered as she positioned herself to the side of the stairwell door, her Sig held in a two-fisted grip and pointed upward.
I called to my air element and felt its reassuring embrace as it cloaked me and my weapons so that I was invisible. Most paranorms can still see me when I use a glamour too, but Vampires are different.
Vampires aren’t born paranorms, they were once human and in some ways they have human weaknesses. So to them I’m invisible when I draw a glamour. Thank goodness for that favor.
When in a glamour, it’s almost like I’m a chameleon. I blend with whatever I’m around, no matter what it is. It’s a better analogy than comparing me to the Invisible Woman.
With my free hand I tested the doorknob to the penthouse’s emergency exit. Locked. Joshua must not have been able to unlock it for me. I needed to be cautious because someone could be on the other side and see the door open. I might be invisible to them, but they’d know something was up. A door being opened invisibly was bound to draw attention.
First I reached out with my senses, using my air element to search the area close to the door. It was clear.
Vampires Not Invited: A Night Tracker Novel Page 5
