by Misty Evans
Once I’d hit the interstate heading north, though, I’d had enough of Cole and Rad. JR, on my insistence, had tinkered with the Land Rover’s music system, setting up an internal MP3 player and loading all my music onto it. I hit the button, flipped through the album covers on the touchscreen and selected three of my favorites. Shinedown, Creed, and Alter Bridge. Then I hit shuffle and cranked the volume.
As soon as Brent Smith’s voice filled the interior, singing, “I dare you”, my nerves calmed. Music always had that effect on me. I could lose myself in the lyrics and somehow think more clearly.
Cole let a couple of songs go by and noticed I’d passed the turn for the expressway. “Thought you were going after that witch,” he yelled over the music.
“Later. First, we get Maddy some blood. Then I’m going to show Toel who he’s messing with.”
“You got a plan or you just going balls first into a goatfuck?”
“I’ve got a cherry-wood stake with Toel’s name on it.”
Madison stared out the window, seemingly unconcerned about her fellow vamp, probably because she was jonesing so bad for blood. Rad kept one eye on her, the other on my reflection in the rearview. “You’re going to kill another vamp king?”
“Toel Chase is going to be an example of why no one messes with Kali Sweet.”
Ten minutes later, I parked the Land Rover in front of the strip club above Chloe’s blood bank. Parking downtown in this area was nonexistent unless you were into parking garages and long walks. Madison was jittery to the point of climbing the walls. “Hang on, Maddy, I’m going to get you fixed up.”
Dozens of junkies, hookers and other assorted low-lifes hung around on the sidewalk in front of the club. A line formed at the door. In amongst the humans were vamps and demons, shapeshifters and fairies. A few witches and warlocks. Every one of them could cause us trouble.
Cole watched them through the bulletproof window, caressing his gun. “What’s wrong with the back entrance?”
I touched my fingers and thumbs together, raising my protective magic. “We’re using the front and making a real entrance. Time to show the Undead world I know how to play the game and I’m not backing off because a few of them don’t like me.”
“Why…are you…doing this?” Madison asked. “Getting me blood?”
I glanced over my shoulder at her. “You’re coming to work for me, aren’t you? As my assistant?”
She nodded, lips trembling in a half-smile.
I double checked my weapons, let the handle of my whip slide down into my palm. “Cole, take my six. Rad, drive around the block a few times. We’ll be out in less than five. Anything hanky goes down, contact the Bridge Institute, but do not come in guns blazing on your own. Got it?”
No one but Madison looked happy. Too bad. I wasn’t Santa Claus. “Let’s move.”
We all got out. Rad squeezed my arm, just a brief squeeze, like a lover sending a be careful message. I didn’t like it, that intimacy, but should have thought of that before I fed him my blood and let him bareback me against the bathroom wall.
I shook off his hand, raised my chin and headed for the door. Madison fell into step behind me, Cole bringing up the rear. As I bypassed the line of waiting customers, I heard the Land Rover drive away.
I didn’t need to flash my badge at the bouncer. He knew my face, my red cape and my reputation. I flashed it anyway, even though I wasn’t there on Bridge business. This whole vamp mess was partly Bridge business and partly personal. It was getting harder and harder to draw the line between the two.
Smells hit me at the same time the bass-thumping techno dance music did—neither of which I liked. Stale beer, human sweat, cigarette smoke. The flashing lights, combined with the awful music and even worse scents of the Undead, shapeshifters, and low-level demons, gave me an instant headache. The women on stage moved with the music, but in a distant way, as if they were only going through the motions.
I raised my hood over my head, keeping it far enough back to see from my peripheral vision, but close enough to my face to form a barrier between me and the filth all around me.
People, even those drunk and high, cleared a path when they saw me coming. The few that didn’t found themselves face planted on the disgusting, beer-and who-knew-what-else stained floor. I avoid hurting humans as a general rule, but that night, anyone and everyone who didn’t move out of my way or tried to get close to me or Madison ended up sucking carpet.
The place was run by a Cupiditas demon. The term was misleading. He was no cupid, but a demon who spilled avarice, desire and the urge to party as easily as his customers spilled their beers. His usual hangout was behind a two-way mirror on the second floor where he kept a private room and a harem of women to service him. I made sure he saw me, the weight of his gaze landing on me even through the heavy mirror.
Good. He was a raging gossip. Word would spread I was out and on the hunt before The Mouse tipped up her first bottle of A positive.
By the time I meandered through the club and found the door in the back that led downstairs to Chloe’s, I was sure I’d made the impression I wanted on a whole group of people who would spread the word like wildfire. I was confident, in control, and ready to take on anyone who wanted to mess with me.
And I was only getting started.
Chapter Twenty-five
The moment we entered Chloe’s, Madison’s skittish eyes landed on the refrigerators of bottled blood and she nearly fainted. Whether from hunger or because blood grossed her out, who knew, but I guessed the former was more like it.
Chloe met us personally at the bar, her short dark hair emphasizing her beautiful cheekbones. “Kali. What a nice surprise.” She gave me a lascivious smile and tapped her long, red fingernails on the glass bar top. Her Southern accent deepened. “Come to pay your debt in person?”
JR hadn’t donated blood when he’d picked up the stash for Lilith. He’d had Chloe put it on my tab. The Tempter demon didn’t want my blood and couldn’t have it, but she did want me. In her bed or wherever else she could get me. Not because I was such a catch. Tempter demons prided themselves on seducing and bedding everything supernatural.
I wasn’t into females, so I plied her with weekend spa retreats to pay off the occasional bill. “I need you to set up my friend here with whatever she wants.”
Madison was still staring dumbfounded at the rows of refrigerated blood. Chloe made a sad face at me over my refusal to entertain her flirting. Then she winked at Cole, who was standing by the door, gun hanging loose at his side, and grabbed Madison’s arm to lead her behind the bar. “What’s your poison, sugar?”
“I’m…I’m not sure,” Madison said.
Chloe shot me a worried look. A vamp in this bad of shape who didn’t know what blood type she preferred? I shrugged. Like I could be of any help.
Chloe patted Madison’s arm. “My, my, baby vamp, you are a young one. Let’s try a few samples and see what you prefer.”
“We don’t have time for samples, Chloe.” The rarer the blood type, the more vamps liked it. “Give her a six pack of your best AB neg.”
The Tempter demon frowned but went to a special cooler directly behind the bar with a temp gauge hanging visibly behind the glass. “This blood is rich,” she said, setting the bottles on the bar. “Maybe too rich for her in her current state.”
I unscrewed the lid to one bottle, handed it to Madison. “Drink up.”
She was too far gone to refuse. Her throat constricted and released as she guzzled the blood.
When she was done, she slammed the bottle down on the bar and took several gulping breaths. Her hands, now resting on the bar, were steady.
“You throw up in the Land Rover and you’re cleaning it,” I warned.
When she looked at me, her eyes were no longer red and her cheeks seemed fuller. Almost human. “Deal.”
She reached for a second bottle but I stopped her. “You can have more after we’re sure you’re keeping that down.”
Chloe secured the other five bottles in an insulated pack, handed me a written bill. I had plenty of money but I handed it back. “Charge it to the Bridge Council.”
“No can do.” She shook her head. “That blood is the rarest I’ve got. Cash only, upon delivery.”
Begrudgingly, I drew out my stash and counted ten hundred-dollar bills onto the bar top. “I’ll need that receipt.”
She swept the money off the bar, stuck it in her low-cut cleavage and stamped the paper bill paid before handing it back to me. “What about your tab?”
Grabbing the insulated pack, I nudged Madison toward the door. “The Peninsula still your favorite weekend retreat?”
One side of her luscious mouth curved up. “You know it is.”
“I’ll have a weekend pass waiting for you.”
“Thanks, sugar.”
Cole, Madison and I snaked our way back through the club and out the front entrance. Rad, whose timing had always been excellent, pulled the Land Rover up to the curb a second later.
He didn’t, however, relinquish the driver’s seat. “Where to?”
His clean scent was welcome after the strip club, and causing a scene in downtown Chicago with what appeared to be my personal driver wasn’t the best way to leave the premises. Instead of sliding into the shotgun seat, though, I got in the back with Madison.
“Nudra’s compound,” I told Rad, ignoring Cole’s look of disgust at having nowhere to sit but up front with Guitar Boy. “It’s time to shake the Undead world up a little.”
Chapter Twenty-six
As Rad drove through the dark Chicago night, I made phone calls. First to Damon. “Since I’m Nudra’s replacement and I killed him, do I have any rights to his possessions under Bridge law?”
Madison had already confirmed that under vamp customs, I had a right to claim Nudra’s house and possessions, including his blood slaves, since I’d already been named his successor by the Prince of the Undead. I hoped to have the Bridge Council’s stamp of approval as well.
Damon’s deep voice was pensive. “There’s no precedence in this case. However, you were forced to remove Nudra from his position because he threatened your life. Bridge law indicates the Council then assumes his possessions and distributes them as we see fit.”
“Great. As of this minute, Nudra’s compound is mine. Draw up the papers. I want everything legal.”
“I’ll discuss it with Kirill and Yasmin.”
You do that. “I need to exterminate a few pests running around the compound. Got anyone on call tonight trained in vamp removal?”
“Kali, exercise caution. Killing more vampires will strain our new agreement with the Prince. Stay home and keep your head down until the coronation.”
“I need soldiers, Damon, not a lecture, and in my opinion, the Prince is getting the better deal in your arrangement. Send whoever you’ve got with vamp experience to Nudra’s compound within the hour.”
Damon protested. I ignored it. Highway lights whipped past the SUV as Rad wove in and out of traffic at the pace of a race car driver. When Damon finally stopped bitching at me, I asked, “What’s Lilith up to?”
“She’s keeping a low profile. Unlike you. Why were you at the blood bank?”
He’d already heard about my visit to Chloe’s. Word traveled faster than a speeding vampire. “Paying a bill. Why isn’t she causing more trouble?”
“Perhaps your warning about the Noctifectors did some good.”
More likely she was worried Lucifer would find out she was gunning for his girlfriend. “I only have two options when it comes to sending her back to hell, you know.”
Damon sighed a tired sigh. He didn’t like the idea of me killing Victoria even though he’d used her as a means to manipulate me, but he was even less excited about me trying to exorcise Lilith. Odds were, I’d end up taking a trip to the pit with her. “I’m aware.” There was a rustling sound of papers in the background. “I will not allow you to sacrifice yourself for the human witch.”
Not your call, buddy boy. “We’ll cross that bridge later. Any word on Hone?”
“No.”
“Did you check on him?”
“Today has been extremely busy, Kali, and Hone is not my employee. He’s a hired contractor.”
He was also my friend and had been doing me and the Bridge Council a favor babysitting Vicky. “You suck at interpersonal skills, you know that?”
I hung up on him and dialed my home. JR picked up on the first ring. “Which hospital is Hone at? I need the phone number.”
The clicking of the keyboard echoed between us. “He’s at Mercy. I’m sending you the number now.”
Sure enough, my cell phone beeped with a text message. “Thanks. How about getting me diagrams and blue prints of Nudra’s compound? I need to know the layout.”
“You’ll have a set shortly.”
“Send them to Cole’s phone too. Find anything on Arman yet?”
“Guy’s in the wind. I’ve got nothing.”
Merde. That couldn’t be good. “Keep trying.”
“Right, boss.”
The third call went to the hospital. According to the nurse, the bump on his head wasn’t terrible, but Hone was being held overnight for observation. Hunh. Hone was letting them keep him overnight for a little bump on his noggin?
The nurse patched me through to his room. When he picked up, I razzed him. “You getting soft of me, Hone? Letting a witch get the jump on you?”
“Kali Sweet, what’chu doin’ callin’ me when you got the queen of hell visitin’ Chicago?”
“Vicky told you what she did, huh?”
“Right before she knocked me out.”
Hone was a human with psychic abilities. Witches like Victoria were human but had either traded their soul for dark magic or had been born with a gift for controlling the elements. The gifted ones could use air, water, fire and/or earth elements to manipulate their world. Those who’d sold their souls could raise certain classes of lower demons to do their bidding. A few natural born elemental witches went to the dark side and amassed enough power to match that of many supernaturals.
Evidence suggested Victoria was one of these, but my gut said different. She didn’t ooze dark magic or even elemental power. The only thing my senses got off her was plain ol’ blind human determination.
Maddy was sleeping, head propped against the window. Cole and Rad were listening to nighttime radio talk show. My fingers itched to change the channel as the host tried to work callers into a frenzy over the latest political scandal. “How exactly did she do that? Knock you out?”
“Damn witch was supposed to be sleepin’. So I’m watchin’ Smackdown on cable and wham! There she was, in front o’ me, all misty and…well, she looked like a damn ghost. She said a couple o’ words I didn’t understand, and all of a sudden, I couldn’t move. Like I was paralyzed, y’know? Whacked me over the head with a baseball bat.”
Misty and ghost-like. Hmm. Sounded like astral projection. What other tricks did Vicky have up her sleeve? “You didn’t read her mind?”
“Never heard a mental peep from her before she clobbered me.”
The words Hone hadn’t understood were some kind of spell to immobilize him since she couldn’t have taken him on without handicapping him first. “I’m sorry she put you in the hospital. Clearly, I miscalculated her abilities.”
“You and me both.”
“When is the doctor sending you home?”
“Don’t matter what he says. I’m gettin’ out o’ here tonight.”
“You sure that’s a good idea?”
“Hell, yes. Got me a witch to find.”
Didn’t we all. “Did the head knock dampen your abilities any?”
“Not one bit. Didn’t hurt nothin’ else either. MRI and all that bullshit came back negative.”
Good. “I’ll make you a deal. You help me with a small vamp problem I need to take care of this evening, and I’ll handle your revenge on Vi
ctoria pro bono.”
He hesitated. “No offense, but I wanna put my hands around her neck myself.”
So did I, but she was still human. Hone’s advantage was he was human too. Human-on-human violence wasn’t my territory. “I can’t stop you from going after Vicky on your own, but she’s hanging with Lilith now. You won’t be able to touch her and could end up in the boneyard instead of the hospital.”
Another pause while he thought it through. “I feel ya, Kali. I’ll give it some thought. Meanwhile, where’s this vamp problem?”
I gave him the compound’s address. He agreed to meet us there in an hour. “Gotta take Renee home first. She’s been here with me the whole time.”
“Bet she’s not too happy about me putting her man in danger.”
“She’s cool,” he said. “Knows it goes with the territory.”
“I’m still invited to the wedding?”
“Absolutely.”
We exchanged goodbyes and I hung up. I didn’t want or need Hone for his muscle at the compound. At least I hoped I wouldn’t need him to dust any vamps. What I did need were his mind reading skills. And maybe if he threw a few vamps around, he’d burn off some of his anger at Vicky.
Then again, if Hone took Vicky out, that would sever her connection to Lilith and send Lilith packing, solving several of my problems in one fell swoop. I didn’t condone human-on-human violence but it was a fact of life. Unfortunately, Hone wasn’t a killer. He wanted revenge for Vicky making him look weak and taking advantage of him, but that wasn’t enough to trigger his killing instincts. Besides, if Lilith planned on sticking around, she’d protect her anchor to Earth. Hone would be dust before he could lay a finger on Vicky.
I rubbed my forehead. One problem at a time. First, I’d deal with Toel and make sure he didn’t touch any of my friends ever again. Then I’d deal with Lilith and both her witches.
And then, if I was still standing, I’d deal with the vamp coronation.
I looked up and saw Rad watching me in the rearview.
