Vampires Not Invited: A Night Tracker Novel

by Cheyenne McCray

  Rodán gave orders to the roving Trackers who would take the place of those who were being taken from their territory.

  When he was finished, Rodán said, “Nyx, you and your team will stay here to lay your plans.” He gestured toward the door. “The rest of you, track well.”

  Rodán settled into the chair at the head of the table.

  “We thoroughly interrogated Negel, the Sprite we took into custody,” I said as I got down to business. “We believe it is best to have him attempt to talk his people into releasing the serum.”

  “What’s the plan?” Lawan asked.

  “It’s relatively simple,” I said. “Negel will take our team to the abandoned sewers of Hell’s Kitchen. Once we’re there he’ll lead us to the latest location where the Sprite leader is holding his little get-togethers.”

  “What do we do then?” Nadia’s long red hair gleamed as it lay against her black leather fighting suit.

  “I’ll go in first.” I pushed my chair away from the table and stood so that I could look at each of them more easily. “I plan to observe Negel present his case to his people, and specifically Tobath, that they need to return the serums.”

  “Do you think this can be done without a small war amongst the Sprites?” Nadia asked.

  “Negel believes this can be done peacefully,” I said. “He believes when they consider the ramifications of this serum in the hands of the Vampires, they will turn it over.” I pursed my lips before I continued. “I’m not so sure.”

  “Sprites peaceable?” Ice snorted. “The whole of them aren’t worth our time except to retrieve this serum.”

  I could have defended Negel, but it would have taken time away from the meeting and we needed to get to the Sprite lair.

  “One Sprite in particular, their self-appointed leader, Tobath, set out to make a deal with the Vampires,” I said, “but the bargaining chip was never going to be the destruction of paranorms. As Negel said to me, no Sprite in his right mind will give an instrument of complete destruction to the Vampires. My question, is, is Tobath in his right mind?”

  “Right mind?” Kelly snorted. “What Sprite is ever in his right mind?”

  Their comments about the Sprites made me realize just how poorly we’d treated them throughout the centuries. It wouldn’t be easy to change that feeling amongst many paranorms.

  I went on, “So, we give Negel his chance to talk reason with his people. If he fails, you’ll be called in to take control.”

  “Why don’t we just rush the place and recover the serums without Negel’s sales pitch?” Joshua said.

  Lawan tapped one finger on the table. “These Sprites, even in large numbers, are no match for a small force of us.”

  “Because of time we have had to act quickly,” I responded. “We do not have the advantage of reconnaissance. We simply don’t know if the Sprites have the serum in this location or not.”

  I frowned. “If we rush the place and potentially kill some Sprites, it will escalate the situation and could result in them becoming more vengeful with the serum. Or we might kill the only Sprites who know of the location of the serum.”

  “What do you know of their leader? This Tobath,” Nadia asked.

  “We do not know much about this Tobath.” Other than the fact he was half Drow, but I wasn’t going to share that fact unless it became important. Didn’t see how it could, but being Drow myself I didn’t want to be related to that Sprite in any way. I continued, “However, we do know that he does desire power and respect more than any other Sprite we have seen before.”

  “Respect and Sprites,” Kelly said. “Those are two words I never expected to hear together.”

  “We have had no reason to focus on Sprites other than their mischief. They have been, for the most part, harmless,” I said.

  “Harmless?” Kelly replied. “Are we talking about the same beings here?”

  Kelly was going to drive me nuts. I was thankful when Rodán said, “That is enough interruption.” Kelly shut up.

  “Tobath is simply an unknown to us,” I said. “We will soon find out if he’s even sane in a short while. Our mission is not to destroy and punish the Sprites. It is to recover the serum.”

  “How will we know when the time is right?” Lawan asked.

  I settled my hand on my right dagger out of habit. “Ice will give you a signal. You then rush the place and listen to my orders.”

  “How do you know this Sprite will do what you instructed him to?” Joshua said.

  “I have spent enough time with Negel and I have no reason to believe he will not do so. Again, while Negel tries to negotiate with Tobath, I will observe,” I said. “You and Ice will back me on the inside.” I gave each of them a nod as I spoke.

  Ondrej said, “I’m going in with you.”

  “Ice can shift into mouse form and Joshua slip in as shadow, so they are the best candidates to accompany me,” I said. “We need Trackers and other reinforcement surrounding the area on the outside. You’ll be on that team.”

  Ondrej frowned, but didn’t say anything else.

  I pushed my cobalt-blue hair over my shoulder before I drew one of my dragon-clawed daggers. “As I told you, if the leader won’t turn it over, we as a team will descend on the Sprites and take control.”

  “We should do that from the start,” Ondrej said. “Why waste time?”

  “I’m hoping we can settle this with a simple show of force and negotiation,” I said. “We will do whatever the situation calls for, however. If it becomes a battle, so be it. We will get the serums one way or another.”

  I watched each of my team members who looked serious, considering all that I had told them.

  Rodán gave a nod of approval.

  “As I’m sure you all realize, time is essential.” I leaned forward with my forearms braced on the table. “We have every reason to believe that the Vampires are after this serum, as we are certain they know that it exists.”

  I took a deep breath. “There has never been a more urgent mission than to secure the serum, antiserum, and formula,” I said. “You’re all aware how much the paranorm world could depend on this.”

  THIRTEEN

  In Hell’s Kitchen I made my way from rooftop to rooftop.

  I shivered. Not from the cold, but from a strange, eerie feeling that crept along my spine as we followed Negel. The little Sprite kept his promise and didn’t use a glamour and didn’t try to escape.

  Negel had been told about the plan and we had worked out every detail we could with him.

  The Sprite seemed so sincere about protecting his people as well as his brother, wife, and children. More and more I saw Negel as a person, a being with a life, a being who wasn’t bent on making others miserable. Maybe it was a few that made the whole look bad. That had been the case for many races in virtually every known society.

  While we trailed Negel I felt a little bad—just a little—that I hadn’t exactly kept my promise. Well, I hadn’t kept the one promise at all. Not only did I add Adam to the team, but had the four other Trackers and a Werewolf with me. But this was not only for our safety but for Negel’s as well.

  I doubted the Sprite had any idea of the number of Trackers as Angel bounded behind him as a squirrel, Joshua followed as shadow, and Ice flew overhead in his white falcon form. Kelly was surprisingly quick for a stupid fluffy bunny rabbit and Lawan was graceful and elegant in her Siamese cat form.

  Mandisa, an Abatwa, and Nadia, a Siren, were both Fae and as silent as the Elves. Of course I had taken on a glamour.

  Ondrej stalked the night as a black wolf. Fury radiated from him and I was sure he was thinking about his dead brother. Maybe it hadn’t been so smart to allow the Were on the team when Beketov had brought him to our office. I hoped Ondrej wouldn’t start ripping out Sprite throats the moment we got into the chamber and took control.

  What we planned to do was get in there, get the vials, and get out. No carnage, just the serum and antiserum. We had to make i
t fast because it wasn’t just the Sprites we had to worry about. It was the Vampires.

  Because they were humans, Olivia and Adam were probably the only beings who Negel could sense on our team. But both my partner and my lover were professionals and almost as invisible to the night as the Trackers were.

  Our team would go in and wrap this up. It didn’t take long for us to reach the location. Negel proved to be surprisingly strong when he lifted the heavy sewer manhole cover as if it were a penny he had just noticed and had picked up off the asphalt.

  Negel climbed down into the manhole. My heart thumped as he closed it back over his head and I wondered if he was going to try to escape after all. When I saw the crack of darkness next to the lid that showed he hadn’t closed it entirely, I breathed a little easier.

  My team and I converged near the manhole. “I’ll go in first,” I said as I spoke to my team. “Wait ten minutes, then follow, if you can keep yourself hidden from the Sprites. From what Negel told us, the area they’re using is pretty craggy with plenty of hiding places.

  “Here I go,” I said, more to myself than anyone else, as I grimaced from the thought of going down into the sewer, abandoned or not.

  When I moved the manhole cover aside, I imagine the smell the dank, musty-smelling place must have had. “Ugh.” I thought about clothespins and wished I had one to put on my nose, like in human cartoons when the character didn’t want to smell something.

  I eased down the ladder, so happy that it was abandoned and I didn’t have to work my way through the tunnel otherwise. No clothespins needed.

  All I heard was the sound of a plopping noise in the distance, like large drops of water pinging into a pool. I clung to the ladder, closed my eyes, and used my earth element to search for Negel.

  There. I located Negel with my element as well as sensed at least twenty other presences that I identified as Sprites. I glanced up where the squirrel, Angel, peered down at me. I indicated with my head the direction I was about to go, then her face disappeared.

  I stepped down into the tunnel and started in the direction of the other beings I’d sensed. Because I’m Elvin, the only beings who could possibly hear me coming were other Elves. Other paranorm beings sensing me was another thing altogether. Being Drow and having lived belowground in Otherworld made it easy for me to see ahead in the darkness.

  I’d traveled about seventy-five yards when I finally came to a junction where sewage from other tunnels would have fed into it. It was abandoned but I still grimaced at the thought of what I would have had to walk through if the Sprites were any more disgusting than I’d always thought them to be.

  In one wall at the junction was a crude opening carved out of stone and earth. Dim light came from the hole which was as high as my head and I couldn’t see over it. But I could sense the Sprites. Thank goodness for Elvin stealth—I needed it as I reached with my hands, grasped the edge of the jagged wall, and pulled myself up.

  I rested my forearms on the rough opening as I took in everything below.

  For a Sprite, Tobath wasn’t bad-looking compared to other Sprites. His Drow half made him taller than other Sprites, not so knobby, his eyes not so bulbous, and his face a little more Drow-looking than Sprite-like.

  It was easy to tell he was the leader because he was the biggest, most intimidating Sprite there. Not to mention it was his booming voice that filled the Sprite-made cave below.

  Like Negel had said, Tobath’s coloring was the color of dirty dishwater. Instead of a blond shock of hair like each of the rest of the Sprites, his was black. Leather metal-studded straps crisscrossed his bare chest and he didn’t wear rags. His pants were black and looked new. Two swords were strapped to his back.

  To either side of Tobath stood what I assumed to be his lieutenants. Both were armed with large swords and had weapons belts with sheathed daggers. It was obvious they didn’t have the discipline or bearing of true warriors as they watched with clear interest while Tobath interrogated Negel.

  I took a quick inventory of the room. The chamber was walled by dirt and rock, obviously crudely made. Two other entrances/exits were on other sides of the room. Around the chamber torches burned at the tops of long poles that had been shoved into the dirt.

  It smelled of pitch, dirt, and old sewage as well as the Sprite smell of burnt sugar. Which meant it wasn’t fun to take a breath in that place.

  My attention swung back to Tobath. On the dirt and stone floor in front of him sat a red box that was about the size of a shoebox.

  It was a shoebox. Prada, four-inch heels, size seven.

  I glanced down at Ice in his mouse form and assumed Joshua was one of the shadows. “I’m pretty sure the box is there, between Negel and the Sprite leader.”

  Ice bobbed his little mouse head once and I felt the brush of something against me that I assumed was Joshua.

  I used my earth element to tell me the exact location of the openings in relation to the one I was at. “Ice, let the others know that there are two additional entrances,” I said. “Have them break up into teams and let’s get this place surrounded.”

  The mouse turned, morphed into a white falcon, and flew back into the sewer.

  As Tobath spoke to the Sprites gathered around him, I raised myself further into the opening by my arms. I eased my body into the cavern and moved into a depression in the earth that must have been created by a removed boulder. I studied the leader and Negel while I pressed myself as far into the darkness as I could.

  “Tell me, Negel.” Tobath’s features were set in an angry expression. But then as ugly as he was, maybe that was his permanent expression. “Where have you been? Why are Ecknep and Zith dead while you went missing? We found them in Volod’s penthouse lair. Did the Vampires capture you, torture you to tell our secrets?”

  I thought Negel did an admirable job of holding onto his composure considering he was probably one-third the size of Tobath.

  “I remained hidden while the Vampires killed Zith and tortured Ecknep to his death.” Negel shifted on his feet but otherwise didn’t show how nervous he probably was. “Volod and his minion never saw me.”

  He added with a sad expression, “I could not help our brothers. I had to remain hidden to bring you back information. To have attempted anything on my own with the Vampires would have been suicide.”

  Tobath gave Negel a stare that would have made a New York City cabbie shake, and those guys had seen everything. “What information do you have for me?” Tobath said.

  “As soon as Zith gave Volod both folders of information, the Vampire killed our brother,” Negel said. “Before he did so, he asked if anyone other than Zith and Ecknep had witnessed our taking the file on the virus. Zith lied and said no. Volod said he didn’t want any witnesses and he cut Zith’s throat.”

  Negel hurried on. “Ecknep started to cloak himself in a glamour but the Vampire named Danut grabbed him by the neck.”

  I felt a moment’s brief surprise that Angel’s whip hadn’t beheaded Volod’s brother earlier in the night.

  Negel took a deep breath and continued. “Before Danut could kill Ecknep, our brother told the Vampire what fools they were because we had discovered something far greater than the papers on weaknesses. After being tortured, Ecknep told them that we possessed the serum and they would never get it. They will be after the serum, Tobath. I know it.”

  “He mentioned the serum?” Tobath narrowed his eyes. “What then?”

  “They continued to torture him about where you are located. He lied about this meeting location, but they will figure out where we are at some point.” I was a good thirty feet away, but I saw Negel’s large Adam’s apple bob. “They tried over and over again to make Ecknep talk about your location, but he wouldn’t.” Negel lowered his head. “In this respect he was faithful to our brotherhood from the beginning to the end.”

  “And what of you?” Tobath’s voice was harsh enough that Negel jerked his head up. “Did you turn traitor and tell the Vampires?
”

  “No, oh no.” Negel shook his head and his big ears flopped. “But now they know of it. The Vampires are ruthless. They will find it and take it from us.”

  Tobath laughed. “We have hidden ourselves well here.”

  “They are ruthless,” Negel repeated. “When we copied the papers, I saw in them that Vampires are immune to the virus because they were once human.” Panic edged Negel’s words. “They will destroy us and the paranormal world if they get the serum. We cannot win.”

  “They will never get it.” Tobath scowled at Negel. “The Vampires will honor their promise to us. I will ensure they do.”

  If they killed your emissaries, then why do you think they’ll honor their promises, I thought. This half-Drow, half-Sprite was operating on an empty ore cart for a head.

  “The Trackers know about it.” Negel licked his lips as Tobath’s gray features took on a charcoal hue. “I saw them come after the Vampires left.”

  Tobath clenched and unclenched his fists. “You told Trackers?”

  “No.” The pitch of Negel’s voice rose. “I watched them talk with Ecknep before he died. Then one of the Trackers used a phone. I heard her talk with her leader, then—then—” I could sense Negel was starting to panic. “When she was finished she told the other Trackers that their leader knew about the copied folder, too.”

  Good on-the-spot thinking, Negel.

  Tobath growled. It was not a pleasant sound.

  “But the serum.” Negel was beginning to look as panicked as I sensed him to be. “They know about it. They will come for it.”

  “Then we will be ready for them,” Tobath said. “They will bargain with us.”

  “This is not what we planned.” Negel’s ears flopped as he shook his head again. “We made a deal with evil and that evil double-crossed us.”

  “Are you questioning me, Negel?” Tobath spoke very slowly, his anger sounding more controlled than he looked.

  I sensed Negel’s desire to look to see if I was in the chamber with him, but he managed to not give in and to continue talking with Tobath. “Giving the Vampires information about all of the paranorms was bad for us. Keeping the serum that can destroy almost all paranorms is genocide. Do you understand, genocide?”