Vampires Not Invited: A Night Tracker Novel

by Cheyenne McCray

  Other shadows rose around Zeke as he spoke, the shadows all forming into large, tall, muscular men. “No being has passed by,” Zeke said. “Nor is it remotely possible.”

  He and now the other Shadow Shifters blocked my way and I wanted to shout at them.

  “Shut up and get to the archives.” By the way Zeke narrowed his eyes, my words didn’t gain me any favor and I wished I could take them back. “No one can see Sprites when they’ve pulled a glamour. Their glamours are too strong.”

  Every word I spoke tumbled out as I continued in one long rush. “We’re wasting time. They could find whatever it is they’re trying to gain to take to the Vampires if they haven’t already.”

  “Vampires?” The scary-looking scarred man studied me. “Vampires have not been a threat for well over a century. Sprites, never.”

  I wanted to jump up and down like a frustrated child. If I could get past the twenty or so males who’d appeared, I would have. They were an impenetrable wall. “Volod, the Master Vampire, is behind it.” I swept my gaze over the male Shadow Shifters and met the eyes of several of the female Dryads in their wooden columns.

  “He has some kind of plan,” I continued, “and is the reason the Sprites are here. The Vampires intentionally had the Sprites create mischief so that they would be captured and brought here. The Vamps have somehow given the Sprites the ability to escape the cells tonight.”

  The scarred Shadow Shifter looked at me one second longer, then looked at the other men and tilted his head in the direction where the archives are kept. “Go,” he said.

  The men dissolved into shadow and a blanket of black flowed over the stone floor toward the archives.

  Scarred man didn’t look like he was going to let me by. I wasn’t about to mess with him anymore. I jumped and grabbed the stone archway above me. My movements were fast, a blur as I swung over his head. I back-flipped, tucking myself into a ball, then landed on my feet behind him.

  I bolted too fast for him to reach, much less stop me. “Get the PTF up here!” I shouted as I ran. “We’re going to need them!”

  The train of words being passed from one Dryad to the next was a strong whisper as the order was sent to the detention center and the Doppler guards.

  In a fraction of a moment I’d caught up with the blanket of shadows. I leapt, stretched myself out as if flying. I sailed over them before flipping forward and landing in a crouch eight feet in front of them—right up to the archive doors.

  The massive doors were closed. They appeared as heavy, thick, and solid as the council chamber doors were. I heard no sounds.

  Shadow Shifters rose behind me as I grabbed an ancient ring on one of the doors. When I pulled on it, the door wasn’t locked like it should have been.

  A blast of noise met my ears and chaos met my eyes the moment I slipped inside.

  No Sprites could be seen, but the glamour-concealed Sprites shouted and yelled in wicked glee and malicious laughter.

  Paper flew everywhere. Old parchments and papyrus littered the floor and desks. All of it was ripped, shredded, crumpled. Ancient yellowed and new white sheets of paper were scattered and torn, too. Small pieces rained from the ceiling like a continuous pour of confetti.

  Balls of paper sailed through the air. I watched a piece of paper crumple into a ball by invisible hands. The ball shot straight toward me. I blocked it with my forearm before it could hit my face.

  “Shit,” said a Shadow Shifter that had risen at my side. I didn’t see any others of his kind. “How are we going to get these creatures if we cannot see them?” he said in a thick English accent.

  “Be creative.” I had to follow my own advice and figure out a way to see the Sprites.

  With my air element, I sent swirls of paper around the area where the crumpled ball came from that had been aimed at me. In the whirlwind of torn paper, I made out the shape of an invisible being and heard him shout in surprise.

  I grasped my buckler and flung it into the middle of the mini paper storm. A shriek and a Sprite appeared, the buckler having cut his leg. He shrieked again, dropped off the desk, and onto the floor. Blood dribbled on the paper around him.

  My shot in the dark had the exact reaction I’d been hoping for. An injured Sprite was a visible Sprite.

  Shouts echoed through the room. Shadow Shifters rose, tracking the sounds the Sprites were making. One by one the Shadow Shifters took the Sprites down. Just like the one I’d taken care of at the Statue of Liberty, these Sprites couldn’t maintain a glamour when another being touched them.

  Torches flared to life on every wall and the room was filled with light. I continued to use my air element to track down more Sprites and attacked each one I found.

  Several Night Trackers arrived and some guarded the door so that any remaining invisible Sprites couldn’t escape.

  Dopplers from the PTF showed up and started counting the Sprites we caught. They weren’t positive, but it looked like all thirty-plus had gotten out of the detention center and we needed to make sure none escaped with whatever information the Vampires had been looking for.

  Elemental-magically-treated cuffs didn’t work on most of the Sprites, but did on some. Apparently the Vampire “gift” wore off after a certain amount of time. The Sprites still able to escape the cuffs had to be physically held onto by Shadow Shifters, Dopplers, and Trackers so that they couldn’t use a glamour again.

  In the meantime, I was prepared to fight any Vampires that might come to finish the job the Sprites had attempted to accomplish. No Vamps so far.

  Joshua and Angel came up beside me. “How’s Olivia?” I asked before either of them could speak. “Where is she? Is she all right?”

  “Spitting angry that we left her behind and wouldn’t tell her where we were going.” Joshua looked amused which told me Olivia was perfectly fine. “Don’t you teach your humans any better than to charge into a Vampire lair?”

  I narrowed my eyes. “What happened?”

  “Ignore him.” Angel rolled her eyes at Joshua. “I got to Olivia before the Vamps could. She never had a chance to go into the penthouse. We were halfway down the stairwell when we met up with Joshua.”

  “Olivia can hold her own,” I said, “but I’m not so sure against a couple of angry Vampires.”

  Angel had a thoughtful expression. “Vamps have not been a threat to the paranorm world for longer than some of us can remember. What do you think is going on?”

  I looked around us as the chaotic scene wound down. “I’m not sure about anything right now.”

  My adrenaline rush was starting to fade. I felt the ache at the back of my head and the cuts on my skin stung. I glanced down at the drying blood streaking my arms and fighting suit and the bits of glass.

  “Avanna.” The magical Elvin word cleansed my clothing and skin when I said it. Even the small bits of glass disappeared. Unfortunately it didn’t repair my skin, but when I shifted back to my human form the transformation would take care of it.

  “Do you think they got what they came for?” Angel pushed a corkscrew curl out of her eyes. “Whatever the Vampires wanted?”

  “I don’t know.” I looked at the contained Sprites and frowned. “Where’s the Sprite I captured at the Statue of Liberty? I think his name is Ordox.”

  “Over there.” Joshua nodded to one corner of the room.

  “Good,” I said.

  Angel looked at two PTF agents wrestling with a couple of Sprites and called out, “Any Sprites left in lockup? Is everyone accounted for?”

  Gary, the Doppler that Joshua and I had met earlier in the day, glanced at us. “All are gone from detention.”

  “That means Negel is out, too,” I said to myself. “Have you seen the one called Negel?” I asked Gary.

  The PTF agent with Gary said, “We’ve counted all of the Sprites once. Four are missing, unless our count is off, Negel is one of them.” He grabbed a chart from another PTF agent and looked at it. “Tock, Zith, and Ecknep are the other three.”


  “I think I remember them.” I fixed my buckler to my belt again. “We’ve got to get those last four. And fast.”

  “Let’s get searching.” Angel glanced up at Joshua who nodded and they both started out to look for the missing Sprites.

  “They’ve been tampered with, the paranorm archives.” A frantic-looking elderly Doppler archive-keeper with half-moon glasses came rushing up to me. “Messed with, all of them.”

  I censored myself and thought, “Just look around us. No kidding they’ve been tampered with,” but I didn’t say it aloud.

  “Some of the most important ones.” The skinny archive-keeper lowered her voice as she hissed the “s” sound in every one of her sentences. She had to be a snake Doppler. Her words were so low that it was obvious she didn’t want anyone else to hear. “They are accounted for, each piece, but they have been disturbed.”

  Her statement and the mess around us made me want to laugh. “Otherworld to archive-keeper,” I thought to myself, “I don’t think each piece could possibly be accounted for.”

  “These.” She dragged my attention back to her by the panic in her high voice. “All of these have been rifled through.” She held up a thick folder filled with yellowing paper, her bony thin knuckles white. “They are not even and neat as we always keep our filed papers. And an inkwell was spilled on the folder.”

  The folder was labeled with thick blood-red runes that I didn’t recognize. I wrinkled my brow. “There’s no ink on it.”

  “It is a special ink that copies and does not leave a residue. Look at the papers inside.” Her face was flushed now, almost as red as the runes on the cover. The archive-keeper shoved the folder into my hands. “See the imprint on each one? The imprints are deep enough to see that someone was copying information from the file using magic ink.”

  My stomach churned as I looked at the first paper. “Oh, no,” I said, my words slow as if my tongue had thickened.

  “The weaknesses of every paranorm being.” Her eyes looked huge as she said what I already knew from my first glance. She added, “I read this when we archived it.”

  Hairs on my arms rose and my skin prickled as if needles jabbed my skin as I flipped through the yellowing pages. “Everything about every paranorm being is in this folder. Every single one.” My head spun as I saw my own name and my own version of kryptonite laid out in detail. “Notes, drawings, pictures.”

  “Yes.” She nodded, the movement and her expression frantic and the hissing sound of every “s” becoming louder and louder. “Even the location of every paranorm’s lair or home. Every secret hideaway and where each paranorm originated from. Those locations the council has found and keeps monitored.”

  “Shush.” My heart pounded hard enough to hurt my chest. “No one can know about this. Including the fact that you know anything about it.”

  “My apologies,” she said with more than a little fear in her voice. “We keep it closely guarded.”

  “Apparently not.” I scowled. “I can’t believe this information is allowed to exist in such an accessible place. None of this should ever have been logged. It’s too dangerous.”

  I shook my head hard enough that my blue hair fell across my face and I shoved it out of the way with my free hand. Then I looked at her. “You weren’t supposed to read this, were you?” I asked, knowing it was the truth before I even said it.

  She swallowed. “N-no.”

  I waved the folder at her. “The fact that you have any knowledge about the contents of this folder means you could be in danger.”

  Her brown eyes widened and she brought her hand to her frail chest. “Danger?”

  She had to know how serious this was so I wasn’t about to spare her any fear. She should be afraid. “You have information that some would kill for,” I said, trying to keep anger out of my voice. “Don’t tell anyone, do you understand? I’ll take care of it with the right people.”

  The archive-keeper nodded so frantically that her half-moon glasses fell from their perch on her thin nose. The glasses dangled at the end of the beaded chain that kept them from dropping on the floor.

  “What is your name?” I said.

  “Dolores,” she said in a shaky voice.

  “Well, Dolores, you’d better keep your mouth shut from this point on.” My gaze shot around the room as I spoke.

  My skin chilled and went hot and chilled again. I looked at the Dopplers, Shadow Shifters, and Trackers who were each holding onto one of the Sprites. The creatures all had to be accounted for with the missing four located. Every one of them. Had to.

  I clutched the thick file in my hands and ran toward the PTF agent from the detention center, Gary. “Were the Sprites recounted?”

  “We found one of the missing Sprites, the one called Tock.” He looked stern, angry, frustrated. “We’re still searching for the last three.”

  Panic seized me and I shouted to the team Olivia and I’d had this past fall in the Catskills for our Werewolf case. The case had been a dangerous one that led to a virus that had the potential to wipe out all paranorms.

  One member of our team was Ice. Almost intimidating in height and build, the white-blond Shifter’s blue eyes sparked like sunlight on snow when he was angry. Or when he was being an ass, which was most of the time. He was such an ass I wondered if he ever changed into a white mule.

  When all three reached me, I kept my voice down, explained the situation—what the archive-keeper had discovered.

  “Every paranorm race’s weaknesses?” Angel looked almost as much in shock as I was. “They collected and retained that information here?”

  I clenched the file folder. “The Sprites were to obtain it for the Vampires.”

  “Vampires.” Joshua fisted his hands at his sides. “I think we have underestimated the bastards these many years since the Rebellion.”

  I had underestimated them. I’d thought of Vampires as nothing but lowlife scum ever since I came from Otherworld and met my first Vampire. Whiny, waxy-faced creeps.

  Volod had shown me a side I didn’t know existed. I’d seen it in his eyes. Hard. Cruel. Cunning.

  Ice growled, his voice a deep rumble like it was when he was in his jaguar form.

  “Volod.” I started to run for the door. “We need to find him, now.”

  EIGHT

  Before heading to the Hudson Hotel, Joshua shifted into a dark shadow that blended into the patches of darkness in the Paranorm Center. He vanished in the night after we left the center through the unbirthday party sculpture.

  Angel shrank, her pert blond cheerleader looks transforming into that of a blond squirrel before she scampered over the grass behind Joshua.

  At the same time, Ice shifted into a pure white falcon. He gave a piercing cry as he darted toward the Hudson.

  I ran.

  We gathered in the darkness of the hotel before slipping inside and going the back way again to the Vampire lair. I used a glamour, Angel the squirrel darted beneath lounge chairs and curtains. Ice shifted into a tiny white mouse and scurried behind Angel.

  Once I’d opened the door to the stairwell, we hurried in an all-out run—or flight considering Ice shifted again to his falcon form. We couldn’t reach the Vampire’s penthouse fast enough as far as I was concerned. We had to get to the Sprites before they gave the information on paranorm weaknesses to the Vampires.

  I came to an abrupt stop when I reached the top of the penthouse Exit landing. Ice settled on a stair railing and ruffled his feathers. Joshua’s shadow became still in front of me. Angel the squirrel crouched by my feet.

  The exit door from the stairwell into the penthouse was already open.

  It was only a crack, but it was open. And I’d bet Joshua hadn’t left it that way. Cold air blew from inside the penthouse, likely from the broken windows.

  That same almost-familiar odor hung in the air that I had noticed the last time I’d stood in this spot. Not just Vampire, but … Bless it. Why couldn’t I identify the smell?
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  It couldn’t be a good thing that the door was open. Maybe the Vampires opened it the last time we were here, searching for us. It could even be a trap.

  Thankfully the hinges didn’t squeak as I pushed it and let Joshua enter as shadow. When he didn’t raise an alarm, Angel passed through as a squirrel. Ice seemed to melt as he landed on the floor and shifted from a white falcon into a small white mouse again before scampering inside.

  I pulled a glamour around myself as well as drawing one of my dragon-clawed daggers. The hilt was firm, familiar in my grip. We spread apart to sweep the area but I already knew we were in the right location as soon as we entered the Vampire’s living room.

  In that moment I knew the Vampires were gone.

  And I knew what that cloying smell was that I hadn’t been able to identify. It had been faint remnants of burnt sugar. The smell was all but overpowering now.

  Lying on the floor was the body of a decapitated Sprite.

  Blood spattered the white carpet. My stomach churned. The Sprite’s head was in one corner, its bulbous eyes staring into infinity.

  Joshua rose to stand beside me. “I’ll check the other rooms.” He stared at the dead Sprite. “My gut tells me no Vampires are here, but I will search. It’s too close to sunrise and this location has been compromised.”

  “The Sprites got the information to the Vampires.” My voice was nearly a whisper as the horror of it hit me. “They must have.” Angel walked across the carpet and I looked at her. “They have it, Angel. I’m sure of it. Every paranorm races’ weakness.”

  “Bloody hell.” Joshua faded into a pool of shadow again and I stared blankly at the shadow as he traveled into the next room and vanished.

  When my gaze met hers again, Angel’s blue eyes seemed almost black as she spoke. “They could blackmail all paranorms if they have what we think they do.”

  “Those bastards will die before they can use the information,” Ice said with his teeth bared.

  I let loose with a string of Drow curse words, worse than anything even Ice could say.