by Rain Oxford
By the time the sun began to set, I knew it was a day wasted.
When Marcus woke, he was shocked that there hadn’t been another attack. “Maybe it’s a holiday for hunters.”
“What if they didn’t attack because they found out I was here?”
“That would mean someone told them you were here,” Marcus said.
I nodded. “It would. I can’t be sure, of course, but the coven has been attacked every day for the past two weeks, right?”
“Yeah. If you’re right, it’s a big deal. How are you going to find out? Mind reading?”
I shook my head. “I’ll tell certain people that I’m going to Drake’s club.”
“But you won’t?”
“Not entirely.”
“Vampires are hyper-aware in their sleep. They’ll know you’re still here.”
“That won’t be a problem.”
* * *
I got a few more hours of sleep since I knew the hunters weren’t stupid enough to attack vampires at night. Two years previous, I would never have been able to sleep in a mansion full of vampires. Unfortunately, I wasn’t alone when I woke. Clara was sitting on the bed next to me in nothing but a red satin negligee.
She grinned when I didn’t immediately tell her to get out. “It’s so rare that we get some fresh meat in here.”
“What do you want?”
She stroked her hand over my chest. “I want you. Well, I want your blood. I’m tired of feeding on the same humans and synthetic day in and day out. I promise you’ll enjoy it.” Clara was gorgeous and very aware of it, but she was an insatiable flirt and far too dangerous to get involved with. She went for women and men, single or not. “Plus, it would make Astrid insanely jealous.”
“I’m not interested in making anyone jealous. Furthermore, Astrid isn’t my girlfriend— Remington is.”
Her eyes widened and she jumped up. “You’ve hooked up with Hunt’s daughter? Sorry, babe, but I’m not stupid enough to get involved in that.”
Apparently, she had some standards. She bolted out the door like a cat.
* * *
I couldn’t lie to a vampire without them smelling it, so I wrote a letter instead. In the letter, I told Stephen that I was going to Drake’s club to check for hunters. I also told him to limit the number of people who saw it.
Then I got in my car and drove off. Instead of going to Drake’s club, however, I stopped at a motel and got a room. Once I had privacy, I summoned Rocky. It was easy and natural to call her to me because her presence was always in the back of my mind. Even if she was on the opposite side of the planet, I could sense her as if she were standing beside me.
It was sometimes a little unnerving.
When a psychotic human with stolen power cursed my heart, my days were numbered. Even the most powerful wizards in the community couldn’t break the blood curse. Fortunately, my familiar was able to help. She was a gargoyle, and because of our bond, she was able to absorb my weakness into her. Since the curse couldn’t damage a heart made of stone, I’d live for as long as she did.
Like most familiars, she could also appear and disappear as needed, and she had even transported me out of danger a couple of times. I appreciated her talents and the fact that I was only alive because of her, but she made no effort to hide her frustration with me. I was a burden to her.
Hunched over, she barely reached my chest, but size wasn’t everything. Her body and wings were made of gray stone. She was short and muscular with long arms, massive bat wings, and a clubbed tail. Her short snout was a cross between a human’s face and a dog’s, with a bat nose, bat ears, horns, and glowing white eyes. She wasn’t a pretty creature by any stretch of the imagination.
“I need you to watch Stephen’s coven for hunters. Can you sit on the roof or something, watch for humans, and let me know if any arrive?”
“Yes.” Not one to chat, she vanished.
I drove to the club. It looked vague and boring from the outside; there was no sign, the windows were blackened, and the parking lot was set back across the street. It had been rebuilt a couple of years ago, yet it still looked old and abandoned.
I felt the vibration of music as I approached the metal door. When I raised my hand to knock, it opened before I could. Pitch (a gorilla shifter) was the normal Friday-night bouncer, so I wasn’t surprised to see him. He smiled and waved me in. “Good to see you again, Devon.” He was strong and fierce, but we were friends.
“You, too.” The club was packed with paranormals and humans, so I couldn’t discuss the reason I was there with him. “Is Drake in his office?” Pitch nodded, because it was difficult to hear anything over the music.
Purple and white lights in the ceiling flashed, and rock music vibrated through the psychedelic-patterned carpet. I didn’t know how the vampires could stand it, but the humans loved it. People crowded every inch of space, either dancing or sitting in the booths that lined the walls of the main room. Centered against the south wall was the bar. I waved to the bartender and she waved back, but I didn’t stop to chat.
On the northern end of the room was a wooden stage with three dance poles. Behind the stage was a staircase leading over the stage and to a loft, which was Drake’s office. I ascended the steps and encountered Kevin at the top. Kevin was a hell of a bodyguard. The Komodo dragon shifter was six-foot-eight and two hundred seventy pounds without an ounce of fat. His hair and eyes were black. He would also gladly kill and eat any of us, and only my powers stopped him from sneaking up on me. The only one safe from him was Drake, who I suspected kept him well-fed.
My intuition reminded me to speak quickly and get out of his face, even though I could overpower him. I had to be aware of Kevin’s position at all times when he was in the same room as me, because he was deceptively fast. Some shifters were more animal than man.
“Drake asked for me,” I said.
“Come in, Devon,” I heard Drake call.
Kevin didn’t move. “That was my intention. There seems to be a wall in the way, though.”
“Kevin, let him in.”
Kevin stepped aside but licked his lips. I wondered if he was tasting the air or imagining me on a dinner plate. I wouldn’t break eye contact with him until I was closer to Drake than him, though. As soon as I was, he moved to take his place beside Drake.
Drake’s office was simple with two black leather couches facing each other, a coffee table between them, and a couple of end tables. Drake was a little heavyset and average height with slick black hair and an over-priced black suit. He was also convinced I was secretly a dirty cop who refused to play by human cop rules.
“Thank you for coming,” he said.
I sat on the couch across from him and pulled out my notepad. “You said Mellow had been attacked.”
“Yeah.”
“Was anyone else involved? Did you see who attacked him?”
“No. I was asleep and he was getting things set up for the evening. It was a slow day, and we didn’t have any meetings or events, so it was just him.”
I wrote down that Mellow was alone. He and Astrid were the only vampires I knew who could withstand sunlight. “Were there any other attacks? Did anyone make any threats to you or your staff other than the incident with Mellow?”
“No. I mean, threats, yeah, but that’s common. Nothing to do with Stephen’s coven or my employees.”
“Has Mellow gone to Stephen’s coven or contacted Stephen?”
“Not that I know of.”
“But he is a member of the coven, right?”
“All my vampires are, yes.”
“Have you seen anyone strange hanging around lately? Anyone aggressive?”
“In a club of vampires and shifters? Of course not.”
“Did you see anyone acting aggressively towards paranormals, or even trying to get humans to leave?”
Drake looked to Kevin, who was glaring at me as usual. I doubted the shifter was even following along with the conversation. More lik
ely, he was wondering how best to cook me for dinner.
Scratch that; he would eat me raw.
“You might want to up his kibble,” I said to Drake. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t get much out of Drake. He wasn’t an observant person and preferred to leave all confrontational matters to Kevin. He saw nothing wrong with his club and anyone who broke the rules should be dealt with by his employees. “I’m going to talk to Mellow. I need his address.”
He gave it to me. I was surprised but glad that he actually knew where Mellow lived. Since Mellow often had to work during the day, he slept at night. Fortunately, he lived in a nearby apartment complex that I was familiar with.
When I got in my car, I wrote down everything about Marcus’s registry and Mellow’s attack. It bothered me that the one day I visited the coven, the humans didn’t attack.
Drake wasn’t discreet and it was pretty easy for humans to figure out what was going on there, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the hunters knew that the club was staffed by paranormals. If that were the case, however, it was strange that they would attack a coven full of vampires and their shifter guards aggressively, but only one vampire in a club.
Then again, they probably didn’t want humans getting hurt. Do they know that Stephen keeps humans at his coven for feeding? Nevertheless, as aggressively as they attacked Stephen’s coven, I was surprised that they only went after Mellow. Mellow was pretty much harmless. Why him? To set a diversion? No, that doesn’t sound right.
Maybe Mellow said too much to the wrong person? That sure as hell sounded like Mellow. There was only one way to find out.
* * *
Saturday, November 19
It was shortly after two in the morning when I knocked on Mellow’s door, and he wasn’t happy when he answered. His thick brown hair stuck up at odd angles and the left side of his face had red lines from sleeping on something hard. “You realize I sleep at night, right?”
Mellow was a five-hundred-year-old Russian vampire, trapped in a seventeen-year-old body. Vampires who were born vampires aged until their body was mature. If a vampire was born human, their body became stuck at the age they were turned at.
Mellow was a throwback. His mother was a wizard and his father was a vampire. His wizard genes were in control throughout his childhood until he reached seventeen, when his vampire genes kicked in. He retained the ability to do minimal magic, didn’t need to drink blood, and he had vampire abilities, including strength, speed, and thralling. Unfortunately, although Mellow could learn things, he never matured past the mindset of a teenager.
“Yeah. I heard you were attacked and wanted to check on you.”
He was usually friendly, but exhaustion weighed him down. He stepped back and gestured for me to enter. When I entered his apartment, he closed the door and led me to his kitchen table.
His apartment was basic, like all of them were at the Gardens, but he had filled it with comic books, sci-fi posters, and cosplay paraphernalia. I cleared some manga off a chair and sat at the table.
“Coffee?” he asked.
“If it’s not too much trouble, I’d love some.” He poured me a cup. “Thanks.”
“I appreciate you checking on me, and it’s good to see you again, but I wasn’t hurt. More embarrassed than anything.”
“I’m hoping you can give me some information to help me stop the hunters. Did you recognize the humans that attacked you?”
“There was only one,” he corrected me.
“What? How were you overpowered by one human?”
He pouted. “I wasn’t overpowered. I was ambushed.”
“You can move faster than a bullet and smell emotions. How were you ambushed?”
He blushed, moved a chair closer to me, and sat in it. “You know about our vision, right?”
I shook my head. “What about your vision?”
“It’s a closely guarded secret, but the human had to have known.” He looked around nervously. “Don’t tell anyone I told you…”
“Of course not. What, do you see infrared or something?”
“Not that, no, but vampire vision isn’t like human vision. We don’t see details clearly. It’s like everything is a little out of focus. However, when something moves, no matter where it is in our field of vision, it becomes crystal clear.”
“The human knew that and was still?”
“He also hid his face. Eyes, blood, teeth, and such are the exceptions because those are signs of predators or prey and our instincts naturally draw those to our attention.” I started to write it down, but Mellow stopped me. “Please don’t! If Stephen finds out I told you that, even you, he would kill me. I shouldn’t have told you.”
Mellow was immature in many ways. He knew a lot of things because he had been alive for a long time, but he would always be a teenager inside. He couldn’t help that he had poor judgment. However, I wouldn’t make him regret trusting me. “I won’t tell him. If anyone finds out that I know, I’ll tell them Darwin told me, because he knows everything.”
He sighed with relief. It never occurred to him that I could be lying. I wasn’t, of course.
“Did you recognize your attacker?” I asked again.
He nodded. “I did, but I didn’t know him personally. I’d seen him around the club a couple of times. He’d drink a bit, but never mingle or dance. It’s weird. A few shifters like to pop in and watch but don’t feel comfortable enough to interact. Humans don’t normally do that here, though.”
“Are you willing to show me?” I asked.
He nodded and closed his eyes, thinking about the human. I reached out with my magic to invade his welcoming mind. Instantly, I saw the human sitting in a booth. It was only because he told me about his vision that I noticed it. The flashing lights hurt his eyes, but they made everything look like it was moving, so he saw perfectly. He saw a man sitting in a booth, watching the bartender closely. Mariah caught the attention of many people, but Mellow didn’t detect any attraction, only anger from the man.
“Do you know the man in booth A-3? Is he an ex-boyfriend?” Mellow asked her on the third night the man sat there, staring at her?”
She looked and frowned. “What man?” Mellow turned and saw that the man was gone. The next night, he was back, but he was glaring at Mellow now. Mellow figured he had given the human the wrong impression and stayed away from Mariah that night. Mariah could protect herself against unwanted attention.
Then, a week later, he was taking out the trash. As he brought two bags to the back door, he was surprised to find it already propped open when he was the only person working. He brushed it off after a moment, deciding that Jorge must have left it open the previous night so that he could sneak out with a woman. He didn’t know how Jorge could stand it; the smell of the garbage burned the vampire’s sensitive nose.
Although he didn’t have the superior night vision that I’d heard about, he also wasn’t blinded by the sunlight like other vampires. However, it was now obvious what he had been talking about; everything was out of focus except for the trash bags in his hand as he flung them into the dumpster. He could see the shape of the green dumpster, it just wasn’t in focus.
Then there was movement beside him, just inside the door, and he felt stabbing pain in his waist. He turned as the dagger was ripped out of him. He saw his attacker wearing a black mask that covered his face, eyes, and mouth. Mellow could barely smell his own blood over the scent of garbage. In shock, he didn’t react before the attacker stabbed him in the stomach. Then he realized why the burning pain was spreading; it was silver.
He stumbled back and tripped on the steps. He hit his head on the pavement of the alleyway, but it was the pain in his stomach that caused him to cry out. The dagger was still buried in him.
The attacker pulled off his mask and followed him out with a nasty grin. He recognized the human from the club. Mellow opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn’t get anything out.
The human sneered. “Why did I do this? Why you?” H
e crouched beside Mellow, careful not to block the sunlight. “Nothing against you, kid. You just happen to be the wrong species at the wrong time.” He pulled a folded note out of his pocket and held it up. He was about to drop it on Mellow’s chest when he hesitated and frowned. “Why aren’t you burning? I know you’re a vampire.”
Unfortunately for the human, he caught on an instant too late. Mellow had gathered his strength while the hunter was talking. He grabbed the human’s outstretched arm, pulled him in, and leaned up far enough to sink his fangs into the human’s neck. The human screamed. Mellow released him short of tearing out his throat because the pain in his stomach was too much to bear. The human bolted, and he used the last of his strength to tear out the dagger. A few seconds later, he passed out.
* * *
“Do you want to watch a movie?” Mellow asked when I retracted my magic.
“I’m working,” I said.
He pouted. “But it’s night.”
“How is your stomach?” Vampires and shifters weren’t usually able to heal from silver burn without magical treatments, but Mellow wasn’t a typical vampire.
He shrugged. “Still stiff, but it’s not bad.”
“I think you were meant to serve as a warning. They knew you were a member of Stephen’s coven and he was going to kill you as a warning to them.” He could also have been trying to prove himself to the other hunters, but taking down a gentle man like Mellow wouldn’t prove much. Besides, the guy didn’t strike me as a rookie.
“That sucks for him; I doubt Stephen would care. I tend to be more of a bother than I’m worth.”
“I suspect Stephen cares about all of his members equally.” Mellow was normally goofy and easygoing, like his namesake, but he was prone to outbursts of anger if people told him what to do. “I should let you get some more sleep.”
