Vampires Not Invited: A Night Tracker Novel

by Cheyenne McCray

  Ice made a growling noise as he approached. “They killed the one who could give us more information.”

  A gurgling cough came from behind one of the plants that was in an enormous pot. The other Trackers and I had our weapons out and ready.

  An ugly face with bulbous eyes appeared. The Sprite crept around the pot, then braced his back up against the white pottery.

  Ecknep. One of the missing Sprites and one I’d interviewed at the detention center.

  He had slashes through his blood-soaked rags. Blood seeped from a gash on his chest and his teeth were stained with red as he opened his mouth and gave a sound of ironic laughter before he coughed.

  “They killed Zith. Left me for dead.” Pain crossed Ecknep’s features and I wasn’t sure if it was for the other Sprite or because of his wounds.

  “We had a deal with them,” Ecknep said and seemed to shiver from cold air coming in through the broken window. “But they thought we double-crossed them and set them up for Trackers to find. They said that you, Purple Lady, and others were here, and working with us.”

  What Ecknep didn’t know was that before Volod had known we were in the room, we’d heard him say that he was going to kill the Sprites who knew of the operation. So Ecknep and the others had already been targeted for death by Volod.

  Angel approached Ecknep and examined him. “His wounds look mortal.” She glanced at us before she turned back to the Sprite. “There’s nothing we can do. He doesn’t have long.”

  “Now that they killed my friend and did this to me, I don’t care, I will tell you.” Bitterness was in his voice. “Gave them secrets,” he said with another choke and a cough before laughing again. “Secrets that might give them complete control of the paranorm world. In turn the Sprites were to have freedom and power, too.”

  Ice stepped forward, his face a mask of fury, looking like he was going to beat the nearly dead Sprite.

  “Stop.” I signaled Ice to back off. “You’re talking about the file of paranorm weaknesses.”

  “That was nothing,” Ecknep said in obvious pain. “Tried to bargain with them on what else we had. Look at me … it didn’t work. They were crazed with anger … monsters … ruthless monsters. We could have given them more. So much more.”

  He wheezed in a deep breath before letting it out. “We didn’t give them everything. Tobath wanted to hold back … glad he did.”

  “More than paranorm weaknesses?” I flexed my fingers around the hilt of my dagger. “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know why I am telling you.” Ecknep tipped his head back against the large planter like he was resting and looked at me. “You Trackers treat all Sprites like troll dung. You have no respect for my people.”

  I couldn’t argue with him. That’s how all Trackers felt about Sprites. Malicious troublemakers.

  “You’ll tell me because you hate the Vampires,” I said. “They killed your friend and they tried to kill you. We need to stop them from hurting others. What do you have? Tell me.”

  Ecknep didn’t seem to hear. “Before they could kill me, I said to them, ‘You fools. You don’t believe me. Do you really think I will give you such information now. I will tell you and you will only kill me’?”

  The Sprite wheezed and coughed. “I tried to make a deal to save my life. There is no dealing with them … monsters … they are monsters.” Ecknep’s voice was a wet rasp before he coughed up more blood. “I told him, ‘We Sprites aren’t so stupid to completely trust you Vampires.’ ”

  Ecknep’s eyes were starting to go opaque and I knew he wouldn’t be around much longer. “They tortured me after I told them that we had held something back.” He laughed, a strange sound between a cough and a burp.

  “What did you give him?” I asked slowly. “And what did you keep?”

  “Almost everything went to the Vampires.” The Sprite was speaking at a lower pitch now. “We found something else in the center. Knew this was even better than what we had promised to get them from the files.”

  He coughed and coughed, and I didn’t think he was going to be able to get anything else out but he did. “We knew it would please the Vampires when we gave them the other information that we copied from the archives.” His slack features tightened into anger before relaxing again. “But then they betrayed us.

  “Volod tortured me himself.” More pain flashed across Ecknep’s face and he gritted his teeth. “For spite … told them what we had. Said they would never get it for what they did to us.” The Sprite’s face went whiter with his pain. “He left me to die when he had to travel to another sanctuary because the sun will soon rise.”

  He was right. I could sense it was almost sunrise. I would need privacy to shift.

  “Almost everything includes what? Tell me.” I was losing patience.

  “All of the papers in the file we gave to them.” The Sprite tried to laugh but it came out as a cough. “Something very special. Very, very special. Something we didn’t plan for.”

  “What papers? What file?” I instinctively wanted to grab the Sprite by the throat and make him tell me all he knew now.

  “Yessss.” Ecknep coughed again. There wasn’t much life left in him, his features so white, nearly bloodless.

  He didn’t answer my question. Despite the obvious pain the Sprite was in, he grinned again. “But Volod doesn’t have it, we do. You might be able to get it, Tracker, but you will have to deal with…”

  Ecknep’s voice trailed off and his body went slack. All life left his large cunning eyes.

  “Damn.” Angel crossed the floor to where I stood. “We have to track down that other Sprite in a hurry and find out what was given to the Vampires, and what was hidden from them.”

  I rubbed my forehead with my thumb and forefinger. What had the Sprite been talking about? Joshua returned to the room shaking his head, indicating he hadn’t found anything.

  Prickles ran along my spine and I raised my head very slowly. Another being was in the room. One with a glamour so strong that other paranorms couldn’t see him.

  But I could sense him.

  Without looking in the direction of the being, I sheathed my dragon-clawed dagger, then unholstered my Kahr 9mm. I made subtle signals to the three other Trackers to spread out behind me.

  I grasped the handgun in a two-fisted grip and swung it in the direction of the invisible being. “I know you’re there and I can track any move you make.”

  A small gasp came from the direction I had my barrel pointed at. “These three other Trackers in the room know you’re here now, too. You’d better show yourself.”

  I chambered a round.

  A slight shimmer to the air and then another Sprite appeared. Only this one was very much alive.

  “Negel.” I narrowed my gaze as he raised his head and I got a good look at the puny Sprite. “Sure had me fooled. You’re into this further than you led us to believe.”

  With his boot, Joshua pushed the Sprite onto the white carpet that was scored with blood. Negel landed facefirst. Some of the blood from the carpet now stained his face.

  He got to his knees, his expression pleading. “I came to stop them. I snuck out of the cell after you questioned me. I tried to catch up with Ecknep and Zith to see about stopping them. After confronting them in the detention center, I knew just when they were going to the Vampire apartment and I was going to head them off and try and stop them.”

  Negel looked to the other Trackers, then back to me. “Followed them here. They met with Tobath first. Just as they arrived I tried to convince them not to turn the information over to the Vampires. They said it was too late for that. They would not go against the orders of Tobath.

  “I followed them inside in glamour. Just as Ecknep said, the Vampires were crazed.” Negel’s cheeks seemed more mottled as he spoke, as if it was making him agitated. “I have never seen such anger. They were convinced we double-crossed them. I think when they finished torturing Ecknep they finally believed that the Trackers
were not in with us, but by that time it was too late for him.”

  Negel wrung his hands over and over as if he was washing them. “The Vampires were all too big, too strong, too powerful. I did not know what to do.”

  “What do the Sprites now have that they held back from the Vampires?” I asked.

  “I thought it was a different operation.” Negel looked down and shook his head. “I thought we were just there to create havoc for the fun of it. You know, like we are known for.” He avoided looking at me. “I found out in the archive room it is much more than that. So I tried to stop them at the center, and then just outside, but I failed.”

  He did meet my gaze then. “This is not what my people do. We do not harm people. We made a deal with the Vampires that can harm other beings. I knew nothing of the real operation, I swear to you.”

  His big Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “We were intentionally in the detention center. We thought we were there, as I said, for fun. Apparently, Tobath wanted a number of us to be arrested. Creating the chaos around the city would get us arrested together.”

  He swallowed again before continuing. “We kept the chaos going for a while because Tobath believed as long as we were going to be arrested, we might as well make it memorable, thus the Statue of Liberty painting party and the Nathan’s hot dog deposit among other things.

  “Tonight we escaped from the cuffs and holding cells with the magic the Vampires provided for our release,” Negel said. “Only Ecknep and Zith knew the real mission. They were to copy the pages of paranormal weakness and then escape.

  “The rest of us Sprites,” Negel went on, “were a diversion. Tobath wanted it to look like we were just making mischief.” Negel shook his head. “By copying rather than stealing the documents, Tobath figured no one would ever know what was done.

  “I confronted Ecknep and Zith,” Negel continued, “when I saw them making copies and they told me of the plan. As I told you, I then followed them out. The rest you know.” Negel sighed. “And unfortunately the information was delivered to the Vampires.”

  “This Sprite is full of shit. He didn’t answer your question on what Ecknep was holding back.” Ice scowled and kicked the little Sprite. “He was here to deliver the goods to the Vampires.” Ice leaned down and grasped the tuft of hair on Negel’s head. The Sprite screamed. “Weren’t you?” Ice asked in a cold voice.

  “I knew nothing of the operation until tonight,” Negel said. “I would never have gone along with such a destructive plan. Never.”

  Despite myself I felt sorry for the pitiful creature. I’d always been tough with Sprites. Sprites were malicious creeps. But Negel seemed different than the others I’d roughed up.

  “Stop it.” I glared at Ice before crouching in front of Negel. “You need to tell us everything you know.”

  He wiped his nose with the back of his hand. “It is not much, but I will tell you what I am able to. Just do not send me to the detention center, please.”

  I held my hand out to Negel and helped him to his feet. Joshua raised his eyebrows, Ice scowled deeper, and Angel tilted her head a little as they watched me.

  “So that we can talk, I’m going to take you to my office and keep you there for a while before you go to the detention center.” I pulled out elemental-magic-treated handcuffs. “In the meantime, I want to make sure you don’t escape.”

  “I will not try to get away, I promise you.” Negel shook his head with fervor. “I am worried for our people. I want to help.”

  “Are those going to work?” Angel pointed to the elemental-treated cuffs.

  My skin started to tingle. The sun would be up soon.

  “I’m banking on the Vampires’ power over the Sprites fading because they’ve had to go to ground to prepare for sunrise.” I looked at Negel. “And the Vampires did say the ability was temporary.” The cuffs snapped into place and stayed when I slipped them on the Sprite’s wrists. I made sure they were secure and he didn’t have the ability to slip out of them.

  “Looks like you were right,” Angel said. “The Vampire magic, or whatever you call it, must have worn off.”

  “I have a visit to make,” I said to Negel, “and then I will see you in a couple of hours.”

  Negel looked up at Ice and Joshua with fear as the two big males glared at him.

  “Don’t worry.” Angel frowned at Joshua and Ice. “I’ll get you there in one piece, Negel, if that’s what Nyx wants.”

  “That’s what I want.” I watched as Angel took the Sprite by the arm and left in the direction of the stairwell door.

  My skin was tingling more and more. I needed to call Rodán but I would start shifting soon and I didn’t want an audience.

  “Wait for me,” I said and left Joshua and Ice behind as I jogged to one of the Vampire’s penthouse bathrooms to shift.

  After I closed the bathroom door I stared at myself in the huge floor-to-ceiling mirrored wall across from the black marble vanity and double sinks. My skin started tingling more.

  I shrugged, then rolled my shoulders working on loosening up for the transformation. My cobalt blue hair framed my face. I ran my fingers along my cheek, over the pale amethyst of my skin.

  As the tingling started in earnest, I moved into position. I didn’t normally watch the shift in my body in a mirror, but today I did.

  When I shift I always move as slow and as graceful as a cat as I lean into every stretch. My sapphire eyes stay the same shade but my pale amethyst skin fades into ivory.

  From the roots of my hair down to the ends, black flows like ink over blue silk until my hair is black with blue highlights.

  My small fangs retract and my muscles and bone shift from my enhanced Drow form back into my more delicate-looking human form.

  The back of my head no longer hurt and I watched as cuts in my skin healed.

  When I was fully changed, I cleansed myself again with the word “Avanna.” I pushed my hair over my shoulders and headed out to meet up with Ice and Joshua.

  The two males stopped speaking when I walked out of the bathroom. I knew they’d been talking about what I’d done—had the Sprite taken to my personal office rather than to the detention center—and they didn’t approve. Well, they’d just have to get over it.

  I pulled my cell phone out of my weapons belt and pressed the speed dial number for Rodán. To say we had a lot to talk about was like saying the Statue of Liberty needed a new paint job after yesterday’s fiasco.

  “Get over here.” Rodán’s normally calm, sensual voice was anything but and it startled me when he answered. He sounded urgent in a way I’d never heard him sound before. His tone was almost hard. He never spoke that way to me. Never.

  He needed to know that something big was going down. “I have to tell you—”

  “To my office,” he cut me off. “Now.”

  NINE

  It didn’t take me long to get to the Pit at a dead run across Central Park.

  There wasn’t a line when I walked into the Pit. I greeted Fred, the muscle-bound but sweet Doppler who was a golden retriever in his animal form, and Matthew’s best friend.

  “Hey, Nyx.” Fred stepped back and for once he didn’t smile. Instead his square features were set in a worried expression. “Rodán sounded kinda … different when he said to make sure you get to the back right away. I’ve never heard him sound like that.”

  “I’m sure everything is fine.” So sue me. I lied. I didn’t want Fred to be concerned. He had a tendency to dwell on worst-case scenarios.

  I reached up and kissed his cheek and got a shy smile out of the big blond Doppler.

  Because it was morning, the club was relatively quiet, the band packed up and gone, and most of the patrons had left. I walked past tables around the dance floor, the air still, the fans above motionless. Odors of various paranorms were not as overwhelming as usual.

  My stomach tightened as I neared the fog-shrouded hidden entrance to the passageway that led to Rodán’s dungeon. For
Rodán to sound so urgent to me, and to Fred too, meant that whatever it was had to be bad.

  Scents of rain and moist earth greeted me as I passed through the fog. Torches were bracketed along the hallway, the smell of pitch and smoke only faint in here.

  I made it down the passageway to the black arched doorway straight out of a medieval dungeon. To the right of the doorway was a more modern-looking oblong pad. I placed my hand on the spongy pad and it sifted through various colors until it matched the sapphire blue of my eyes.

  The pad even flashed white for a moment, matching the flash in my eyes. That flash usually meant danger to whoever was on the other side of my dragon-clawed dagger.

  The door swung open without a whisper of sound. My stomach tightened a little more as I walked through.

  Rodán wasn’t in the room. Odd. He always greeted me. The fact that Rodán wasn’t there to meet me caused my heart rate to quicken. Something had to be wrong. Desperately wrong.

  I went to the right and stepped through another fog-shrouded wall and onto a landing. The chill air caused goose bumps to rise on my skin and I rubbed my arms as I started down the winding stone steps to his sanctuary.

  When I reached the den, my eyes widened and my lips parted. Rodán wasn’t here either. The surreal feeling it gave me was unexpected. I sucked in a breath of wisteria-scented air from the plant that crawled across the earthen walls. The rich loam smell of the walls always reminded me of the home I’d grown up in, the underground realm of the Dark Elves.

  Sometimes the scents made me a little homesick. For some reason today was one of those days.

  I looked around at the perfectly arranged den with thick tomes and smaller books arranged so that not a one was the slightest bit out of place. I’d never had the chance to really take in his den. I was always too busy discussing our latest case or traumatic event with him in this room. Fun and lightheartedness was for his chamber above. His den was not the place for any of that.

  Upstairs Rodán had cases filled with unusual collectibles from various races including a Faerie cone as well as a tooled leather Abatwa quiver filled with arrows. The quiver and arrows had been a gift from the queen of the rare beings. An underground Troll club took up one entire wall above short glass cases filled with more trinkets in his chamber above.