Awakened Abyss (Firebird Uncaged Book 2)

by Erin Embly

  Soma waved a hand as if to wave away my concern. “We’ll be taking them in for interrogation, of course. I’ll keep you out of any more legal trouble.” He raised his hand beside his face, fingers up and palm flat. “You have my word.” His subtle reference to the legal trouble I’d already been mired in did not go unnoticed.

  Well, then. I shifted in my seat, the handle of my axe prodding my lower back uncomfortably. I doubted anyone in this car was being entirely honest about anything tonight, but I didn’t mind nabbing smugglers for Soma as long as he didn’t want me to execute them on the spot.

  “Okay,” I said. “But where—”

  A knock from the front of the car stopped me, and the driver rolled down the barrier to peer back at us. “We’re here.”

  “Excellent. Thank you, Ellis,” Soma said, then turned to me. “Come.” He beckoned me towards the backseat, where he pressed a button to lighten the rear-view window.

  We were parallel parked in front of a gray van on what looked like a typical residential street in DC. No street signs in sight, and I couldn’t see much with the limited peripheral view.

  “That’s the vehicle they’re expecting at the blood exchange tonight. Its driver will be here soon, and you’ll be taking his place.”

  Great, I thought, heart sinking. It was going to be more difficult than I’d thought to dig up dirt on Soma if we weren’t going to his “crypt.”

  That and I was starting to feel like an undercover Turducken. A Guardian agent inside a strip-club manager, now all stuffed inside a dumbass blood smuggler.

  And the really fun part was that this last one might be the most likely to get me killed. With no preparation and probably little information about what the vampires would be expecting of me at this exchange, it would be a miracle if they didn’t make me as a plant and kill me on the spot. Either Soma had an extraordinary amount of faith in my ability to think on my feet, or he really did want me dead. Without my memories of him from before Simeon’s death, I had no way of knowing which it was.

  But I’d have to see some street signs if I was driving, which meant Miriam and Adrian might be able to make it just in time to see a group of young rogue vampires bleed me dry.

  At least I’ll die with some friends by my side, I thought with a sigh, then slid open the side door and stepped out into the fresh evening air.

  Sharp wood dug into my back in more than one place as I leaned against a tree beside the blood smuggler’s van. I was trying to keep a relaxed posture while tilting my head down at my phone, but with the axe underneath my jacket, I might as well have been wearing a corset.

  It didn’t help that I’d put on a shoulder holster for one of my handguns before I’d gotten out of Soma’s car. I’d always prefer my blades for self-defense, but in the event that I needed to intimidate someone without actually hurting them, a gun would always be best.

  Most people aren’t nearly as afraid of a five-foot-two lady with a knife as they should be, but everyone shits their pants when you pull out a gun.

  The images on my phone screen blurred as I focused on my other senses, trying to place every sound in my immediate vicinity.

  The clicking gait of a small dog followed by a slight squeak in the boots of its owner, passing me on the sidewalk. The slow plops of raindrops on the leaves and branches above me as a light drizzle began to make the asphalt glisten at my feet. Windshield wipers turning on over the wet rumble of tires rolling slowly out of a parking space.

  And finally, the soft chirp of the latches unlocking in the gray van beside me.

  I tensed, ready to move. A man walked past me and around the car to the driver’s side, his bright yellow sneakers all I could see as I kept my head down.

  As soon as I heard his car door shut, I made my way to the passenger side and opened it, sliding in with a big smile and immediately pulling the seatbelt across my torso as an excuse to get my hand close to my weapon.

  “Hey, cutie! How’s it going?” I asked, voice dripping with honey as I looked him squarely in the eyes. I figured it was worth a shot after seeing how many men had melted in the palm of my hand at this line last night.

  He stared at me in shock for a moment, and I had a feeling the friendly technique wasn’t going to work when I realized he was wearing more makeup than I was. Pristinely darkened eyebrows arched up at me in disbelief as his forehead creased, and eyes ringed in black liner visibly rolled at me when he came to his senses.

  “Uh uh, bitch,” he said. “That shit don’t work on me.” He cocked his head and smirked. “Shit, even if it did . . . you gotta up your game.”

  Lucky for him, I was always willing to up my game. “Like this?” I pulled out my gun and held it low, aimed up at him, hoping he wouldn’t look closely enough to realize my finger wasn’t on the trigger.

  He gulped, and his eyes flashed yellow for a moment. I could almost feel his skin crawling in the confined space. He must be some kind of shifter, and his instincts were trying to get him to fight me.

  But if he shifted, I might really have to kill him. “Hey,” I said, “I promise I won’t hurt you.”

  He gave me a look that said “Bitch, please,” and I couldn’t blame him.

  “I’m working with the cops,” I half-lied. “We’re not after you, just need your help.”

  “Ah, fuck,” he whined, shoulders relaxing at the realization that this wasn’t going to be a fight to the death. “Man, I’m just trying to pay my bills—I’m just a driver. I don’t know what’s back there and I don’t ask.” He shrugged his arm at the back of the van, which was blocked off and not accessible from the front seats. “You gonna arrest me?”

  “Not if you answer all of the nice man’s questions.”

  “What nice ma—”

  Ellis knocked on the driver’s side window, and the driver snapped his head around in fear.

  When he looked back at me, I smiled again as I nudged the gun forward to remind him it was there. Reluctantly, he rolled down his window.

  “Please come with me, sir,” Ellis said, offering the driver his elbow like he was about to escort a lady to a ball.

  The driver slipped out of his seat without another glance at me, grumbling something about how this wasn’t the kind of nice man he wanted to meet.

  I climbed over the center console and let myself sink into the warm leather of the driver’s seat, a smile creeping onto my face. It had been a long time since I’d been behind the wheel of any vehicle, and this ride wasn’t infested with volcano bunnies.

  I didn’t even care that I was on a crowded, narrow street in the heart of DC. It was nice to feel in control again, like I could go wherever I wanted whenever I wanted.

  Except for right now, I remembered as a burst of static rang in my left ear.

  “Can you hear me, Miss Pierce?”

  Damn, that was fast. They’d barely had the driver in their custody for two minutes, but I supposed vampires were uniquely skilled in getting people to spill their secrets quickly. I flashed the lights on the van once to indicate that yes, I could hear Soma in my ear just fine.

  “Good. Head to Wave and pull around to the loading dock behind the building. When you get there, ask for Mia.” He paused for a moment, then added, “It’s one of my establishments, but I don’t know any employee by that name. So keep your eyes open. We’ll be a few minutes behind.”

  Got it, I thought to myself as I turned the key in the ignition. I went over his instructions again in my mind while I drove, more for Miriam’s benefit than my own. If I was going to be caught in the middle of a fight between vampires, I wanted to make sure my own backup was on its way.

  It had started raining harder by the time I got to Wave, which was a trendy upscale bar and restaurant packed to the brim with beautiful people. Floor-to-ceiling windows on both the upper and lower levels made it easy to see inside, with bright lights and colorful decor downstairs and a dimmer, sparklier ambiance up top.

  It looked like a fun place to be on a stormy
Saturday night. As I drove by, I was struck by the thought that I’d never really been the type of person to indulge in such a thing. I’d gone out to places like this when I’d been in Simeon’s employ, but I was always armed and in uniform then; with him, I could never fully relax until we were alone.

  What a nice life it would be, to have enough friends and few enough responsibilities to be able to go out like these people from time to time . . . just for fun.

  I shook my head, not sure I’d ever done anything in my life just for fun. Or certainly not for a very long time.

  The windshield wipers on my stolen van were working extra hard by the time I pulled into the dark narrow road behind the restaurant. I took them down a notch as I slowed to a roll, trying to pick out which building it was without any of the signage or distinctive decor setting it off from its neighbors in the front.

  Bright light spilled out from an open door for an instant, casting warped neon highlights on the rippling puddles in the road in front of me. A woman came out, letting the door shut behind her as she opened an umbrella and then leaned against the wall, looking out in my direction.

  That might be my cue.

  I rolled past her and then backed into the driveway in front of her, taking the keys out of the ignition and finding the silver one on the ring Soma had told me to look for on the ride over.

  I popped out into the rain, boots splashing on the pavement as thick droplets began to soak through my hair. It wasn’t too cold tonight, so it felt kind of nice.

  “Are you Mia?” I asked as I approached the woman under the umbrella.

  She might have nodded, but I couldn’t quite tell without a clear view of her face. In any case, she sprang into action at my words, pushing herself off the wall with the heel of her shoe. With a small fist, she rapped on the door she’d just come out of, two brief but strong knocks.

  Wanting to make this quick, I turned away from her with my key to open the back of the van. Hopefully I wouldn’t find any dead bodies inside. I breathed a sigh when the doors creaked open to reveal two large coolers, empty except for the insulated ice packs lining the bottoms and sides.

  When I turned back around, the door opened again to reveal a couple of strong men carrying a cooler of their own, which they planted on the ground before standing to stare at me ominously.

  “Ah,” I said, reaching into my jacket for the pouch of cash I’d found in the glove compartment of the van. I handed it to Mia, who made a gesture at one of the men after checking it.

  He opened the door again to go back inside, leaving me with only two vampires—which would have been good if the light hadn’t allowed me to see under the shadow of Mia’s umbrella.

  She might not be one of Soma’s employees, but she was certainly one of mine.

  Kat. I kept myself from blurting out her name, just barely, but the look on her face told me she’d recognized me as soon as I’d recognized her.

  The hazards of doing business in a dark rainy alley.

  Bats, bats, bats. I turned away from her quickly, bending over to open the cooler they’d left at my feet. The faster I could get the blood in the van, the faster I could get out of here and wait for Soma to take care of the rest.

  Except . . . Soma was not planning anything pretty for any of these vamps, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave Kat to that fate. At least not without having an opportunity to deal with her myself first.

  Kat wasn’t my favorite person—especially not now that she had agreed to cover my shift tonight and was apparently out here instead—but I didn’t think she was the type of evil to be selling her blood to unsuspecting humans just to make a quick buck. She was one of the most popular dancers at the club, so she wasn’t hard up for cash.

  “Wait,” she said from behind me just as I dumped the last armload of blood bags into the coolers in the van.

  I froze, afraid to turn around. Kat might not be as trusting of me as I was of her.

  “Is that you, Darcy? What the hell?”

  I sighed, turning around with a half-smile and a brief wave. Kat just looked stunned, staring at me with an open mouth and not even any fangs showing. The burly vampire beside her cracked his knuckles and showed me a grin with more than enough fang to make up for Kat’s.

  “This not the driver you were expecting?” he said.

  Kat turned her head to him with a little shake. “Well, no. But—”

  It was too late for any buts.

  The vampire charged at me, torso lowered to my height. I barely had time to move out of the way, and I stumbled in my haste. It left an opening for him to turn and swipe his arm around my chest, slamming me into the side of the van.

  Pain coursed through my upper back as my head spun from the impact. But pain was familiar territory for me. The adrenaline had hit me now.

  I smiled through my blurred vision, then leaned forward and pulled the axe out from underneath my jacket.

  The vampire backed away slightly as I found my footing, but he didn’t look scared.

  Good.

  I knew what I was doing with this thing, but I didn’t want him to know that right away.

  Stepping forward, I took a swing that I knew would miss, using the momentum to take me to the other side of him without giving him an opening for a counterattack.

  From here, I chanced a look at Kat’s face. I needed to know if I’d have to fight her too, once this guy was taken care of.

  But she seemed bored almost, one hand on her hip while the other still held the umbrella over her head. If she cared more about keeping her hair dry than the outcome of this fight, I’d count it as a blessing.

  I adjusted my grip on the handle of the axe in front of me while gearing up for my next move. The vampire rushed at me again before I could do anything, expertly dodging my defensive swing and bending over to grab the handle of the axe, his hands right above my own.

  Well, hell. That wasn’t good.

  He was stronger than me without question, so he would win the battle of “grapple the weapon out of Darcy’s hands” if I fought it. I didn’t fight it.

  I let go instead, slipping a knife out of my sleeve as I dropped to the ground and swung my body around his legs. My knife was in his thigh before he could turn around, causing him to yell and drop the axe.

  I rocked my back to the ground, lifting my hips in preparation to kick out his knee from behind, but he turned around to get to me instead of leaning over to pick up the axe or remove my knife like I’d predicted. He caught my leg in his hands and twisted.

  Sharp pain ran through the leg straight to my gut, making me queasy as I bit down on my lip to keep from screaming. I did my best to open my lungs and relax my muscles. It would be harder for him to injure me seriously if I wasn’t so tense.

  But it didn’t matter. He dropped down on top of me, releasing my leg only to kneel on it, and he grabbed my wrist when I tried to push myself up, bringing it to his lips as he pinned my other arm down with his left hand.

  His fangs sliced through the delicate skin on my inner forearm, paralyzing me more fully as his saliva entered my bloodstream. I gasped, not in pain but in shock.

  Even after all my history with vampires, this was the first time one had managed to sink his fangs into me. Simeon had never dared, knowing it would be impossible to keep our relationship a secret if other vampires could smell a blood bond between us. I’d given him a few tastes, of course, just as I had for a lucky few customers at the club last night, but never directly. Never with his fangs piercing my flesh and his saliva numbing my nerves.

  Now, with the full realization of what I’d been missing, I didn’t regret it. It wasn’t euphoric, like so many people had said. The wound itself didn’t hurt, but I could feel the suction he was exerting on my insides. My blood might as well have had tiny knives in it as it was dragged through my veins in the wrong direction. My heart wasn’t strong enough to keep the blood where it was meant to be, and it was getting weaker by the second.

  Cold crept
into my skull through my hair, which had landed in a puddle, while droplets of freezing rain splashed onto us both to wash away the excess blood that was leaking from the corner of his mouth.

  It wasn’t a good sign that the rain felt like ice to me when only moments ago it had been comfortable. The longer I let this go on, the harder it would be to do anything. But what could I do? This was the second time in so many days that I’d been pinned on the ground underneath a vampire, but this time I truly couldn’t move at all. Not even to open my lips and plead with Kat to step in.

  And there was only one thing I could do without moving. Ray wasn’t here, but everything else was working in my favor when it came to magic. I knew from experience that the bird inside me wanted me to die even less than I did—after all, I couldn’t pledge myself to a god and fuel its desires if I let a vampire suck the life out of me in this rainy backstreet.

  Plus, if I focused my senses on my surroundings, the energy coming off all the blinking lights was immense—reflecting in the water, fragmenting and bouncing around as the droplets rained down and jumped in the puddles. Moonlight shone down through small breaks in the clouds on top of it, creating an image in my mind that reminded me of the tattoo Carina had torn off my ankle.

  For some twenty odd years, that image of the moon had given me control. My body was a tool, a conduit for magic, and the mage mark had ensured I would have no competition or distractions when it came to wielding that tool. I’d lost control without it, overwhelmed by the god and the phoenix battling to take over the reins inside me. But could I get it back?

  I let my eyes blur a little to focus on the shape of the light behind the clouds, allowing my imagination to take over until I could see the full moon in my mind. I pictured the image on my skin, where it had belonged for so long, and connected the soft glow to all the other lights around me until I could not only feel the magic but pull it into my scrye.

  Eyes wide, I shifted my focus to the vampire. I had never used magic as a weapon before—not while I was in control. I tried to remember what the phoenix had done to keep me from becoming a sea monster’s dinner, knowing it would be easier to emulate something I’d already experienced than to come up with a new technique from scratch.