by Michael Todd
It was the eyes that made him pause, gripping his blade even more tightly. They gave him the creeps. Either there was something so deeply buried, he wouldn’t find it unless she wanted him to or — or he could see nothing behind the girl’s eyes.
“No. I’m not lost. Are you?” she said. Her voice was flat, emotionless. Like her eyes.
A sickness roiled in the center of his stomach.
She was reaching for him with her eyes. It was like she was holding him back from tumbling over the edge of eternity. And she would catch him before he fell.
The man experienced one shivering moment of silence, frozen into immobility, until a damp gust of icy winter wind bringing stinging rain blew into his eyes, making him blink and squint in shocked reaction as he gazed through wet lashes upon the most horrifying sight he would ever see.
She smiled.
It didn’t reach her eyes.
There was nothing human in her eyes. Only a deadly cold, pure rage. Razor-sharp incisors broke through her gums, snapping down in a matter of seconds into place. They weren’t like any teeth he’d ever seen before. Not on humans nor animals. They were like polished ivory. Protruding slightly from her mouth, wickedly strong and tapered.
She reached across and took the switchblade easily from his nerveless hand, disarming him. He didn’t even try to put up a fight or resist her. He couldn’t.
He wanted to grab it back. He wanted to pull away, even though she wasn’t even touching him. He wanted to run. But, somehow, he couldn’t gain control of his responses. He couldn’t gain control of himself.
Paralyzed, all he could do was watch as she brought the blade up to his neck and placed the sharpened tip against his pulsing throat. It drew blood. He could feel it. Even with the rain splattering him in the face, he felt his heated blood trickling down his skin.
Her thin nostrils flared in response, as if breathing in his scent.
He couldn’t scream. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t even breathe.
Her eyes were obsidian pools that made all the blood drain from his head. His heart fluttered like a trapped bird inside his ribcage. Her look was knowing. She would set it free.
“I know what you were thinking,” she whispered, her voice now sweetly intoxicating and sultry. “You were wondering, what’s a nice girl like me doing in a place like this?”
He released the smallest whimper as she leaned into him and licked his neck, right over the quivering pulse.
“Mmmm—” She licked her lips like the cat with the canary, savoring the moment when he finally realized that all along she had been the predator and he was the prey. She could see it in his darting eyes. The fear. Her power. The beauty of it. “Don’t worry. I’m going to take good care of you.”
It was easy.
Delicious.
*
“Dammit, Aislinn. You’re late.”
“I stopped off for a bite to eat before work.” Aislinn tossed off a sassy reply over her shoulder as she hung her leather coat in the back office, grabbing a tablet from the counter to check the club’s inventory list. “Besides, it’s Friday night. Hump night. It’ll only be the regulars; the rest will be trolling the Street Buffet.”
Caleb grunted. He would have liked nothing more than to reprimand her, but he refrained. Not only would Aislinn not have welcomed it – welcomed it? Vlad’s balls! She would have performed root canal treatment on him without batting an eyelash – but she was already too anaemic as it was, pushing the feeding time often to the third day, almost to the last minute, and the limits of any normal vampire’s endurance.
Watching her organise the Nocturne’s weekly stocktake, she looked as fragile as a will-o’-the-wisp, a dandelion that would blow away in the first strong wind.
But looks could be deceiving.
The burly bartender ran one large hand over his bald head, as if massaging a chronic headache. Muscles bulged from his beefy biceps, the intricate tattoos snaking and rippling along his bronzed skin as if alive. His left arm sported the motto, “Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat”; his right, “Fortes Fortuna Iuvat”, proclaiming his hardcore military background. But even with all his military training and many kills, the slight figure of the girl in front of him made him feel extremely nervous and protective in equal measure.
She was the last of The Twelve turned by Kayne himself; the father of them all. Yet the only female. Why Kayne chose her as his Twelfth Disciple was anybody’s guess. She was the most troublesome, defiant, wilful baggage around. And a pain in the ass to mentor.
Perhaps that was why Kayne had abandoned her to the care of Julius and the London Coven. A mistake, in his opinion. Two of Kayne’s direct descendants under the one roof made for World War V.
“Chillax, old man. Why don’t you have a drink?” Aislinn teased, sensing his discord, as she tossed her platinum locks back over her shoulder and moved to stand behind the bar.
“Maybe I will. What’s our stock like?” was his gruff reply.
Aislinn rolled her eyes. Honestly, in all the time she’d known him, Caleb still couldn’t – or wouldn’t – cast aside his rigidity. He was a stickler for the rules. Must have been his time spent in the army – make that armies; he liked to re-enlist every hundred years or so for the fun of it. But despite sharing ownership of the Nocturne with her, he would never take from his own merchandise. It was always rations and supplies, then surplus.
“All good. Don’t get your fangs in a furrow,” she replied, passing him the tablet for his inspection. “We’re receiving the new delivery from the Blood Bank tomorrow, not tonight. Nikolaus was very apologetic when he called. He’s handling it personally. We’re the first on his route – well, after Styx.”
“Of course, we are. Nikolaus has the hots for you. He wants to make the beast with two backs,” Caleb mocked, hoping to get a rise out of her. Aislinn didn’t even bother to respond; she’d heard it all before.
To be continued…
Slave to many stories,
Laurie Starkey
For Whom the Bell Tolls
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Chapter One
Katie rolled her shoulders as she looked out over the lawn of the old Wyoming hotel. There were bodies strewn across the grass, some friend, some foe. Pandora was quiet, and Katie could tell she was worn out after taking over her body and fighting so many demons.
It had definitely been interesting not being in control of her own body, but now she knew without a doubt at that point that she could trust Pandora to give control back. To not go running off with her body and wreak havoc on humanity.
Or on random donut shops the world over.
Don’t bet on it. Pandora’s soft laugh barely registered in her brain.
“You okay?” Damian stared at her for a moment, looking her over as if he expected Pandora to pop back out and sashay over to him.
She looked up. “I’m fine. Just a little spent, that’s all.” She looked around. “Who are we waiting for?”
“General Brushwood. He’s finishing up his briefing from the colonel about what happened out here. We’ll have to go through it inside.”
“But...”
“Don’t worry, I got it covered, I know you don’t have much of a memory of any of it. But let me ask you something...” Damian turned to face her, lowering his voice and raising an eyebrow. “What did it feel like?”
She matched his lowered voice. “Initially it felt like a rush of heat and a whole lot of power surging through me, then it was calm—like sleep.”
“Interesting. Well, I’m glad she gave you back. Our team wouldn’t be right without you.”
Katie chuckled. “Thanks, but this body is a lot less busty.”
I can fix that, Pandora whispered in a weak voice.
Back off the boobies, sister. I got enough.
“I have no comment.” Damian smiled as General Brushwood returned the colonel’s salute and started across the grass toward them. “Just relax.”
Katie smiled. �
��Loose as a goose.”
Now who’s disgusting?
It’s just a saying, Katie replied.
He nodded to them both. “Thanks for sticking around. These briefings can take a while, especially after a battle like this one.” The general walked them away from the others. “You guys saved a lot of lives today, and I want to thank you for that. One casualty is nothing, compared to what a fight like this would have cost us six months ago.”
Damian frowned and shook his head. “For us, sir, one is one too many, but we are doing the best we can. I think that the military will be able to learn from us—as we will from them—on future missions.” He looked at Katie.
“Absolutely, and the support they gave us was great. It would have been a lot tougher without them.”
The general nodded and stood up a bit straighter. “We have some good men on these teams. I know that when the next battle comes they will be ready for it. So, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty here. Tell me what happened from your side.”
Damian gestured to Katie and she ran through her thoughts, rewinding from before Pandora took over. Everything after was still kind of a blur.
“We landed on that hill up there and moved down and around the perimeter. The troops stayed back until we were at the front. Damian and I crouched at the edge of the woods and saw two demons closing in behind us. They hadn’t seen us yet and I was able to swing back around and come up behind them, and I took them out before they became a problem. One body was found by the troops. After that we snuck over to that woodshed, and...um...regrouped.” Katie looked at Damian.
Damien nodded. “Agreed. We went over strategy once again. Going in through the front door was going to be risky, so we wanted to make sure we were ready. From there we moved in through the front door, finding it somewhat vacant. The demons had spread out through the hotel, so we went room to room until we found demons or infected and took them out.”
“Why didn’t you split up?” The general glanced at Katie, noticing how quiet she had gotten. Since she was usually the primary on takedowns, it seemed slightly odd that Damian was going through the brief.
Damien shrugged. “Seeing as the hotel is so large and we weren’t sure what kind of danger awaited, four hands seemed smarter than two.”
“I see.”
“So Katie and I went through, taking a few demons down in the different rooms and then Katie took down some larger ones in the kitchen and down the hall. When you do a walk-through of the area you will see the piles of dust where the demons fell.”
“Right, and that was when the colonel took over—when the demons fled into the yard.”
“Yes.” Damian nodded, glancing at Katie who gave a tight-lipped smile.
“Right then, so let me ask: what was the portal? Who was behind that?”
“Our suspicion is that it’s a major demon.” Katie glanced at the place the portal had opened. “One of the top Eight, and we also believe he is the leader of this group of mercenaries. We think he is the one teaching them everything, and he is capable of opening and closing portals to Earth.”
The general took off his cover and scratched the top of his head. “That is alarming.”
Katie nodded in agreement. “It’s the same way they got through at our old base, only that demon wasn’t quite as strong. If he had been, I wouldn’t have been able to push him back through.”
With my car. Pandora growled in Katie’s head.
He looked at them. “Do you believe this will continue to be an issue?”
“I do.” Katie nodded. “I believe that until these top demons are taken care of, they will continue to escalate the situation. It seems dire, I know, but we just have to stay vigilant. I think we have put a damn good hurting on their troops, so it will take them a moment to regroup. Which is good, because…” She sighed. “We need one too.”
The general looked over his shoulder at one of his guards, who tapped his watch. He turned back to Katie and Damian and shook their hands. “I have to get going, but good work today. You were an asset beyond measure. I’ll be in touch.”
Katie and Damian nodded and the general was escorted back to his chopper. Two guards rode with him and two remained on the ground to wait for the helo to take off. Katie put her hand on her stomach and let out a deep breath.
Damian chuckled and turned toward her. “You didn’t think I’d out you to the general, did you? He might have had an aneurysm right where he stood.”
Katie snickered. “I could have just flashed him Pandora boob and things would have been all good in the world.”
Damn straight, Pandora grumbled.
Two soldiers walked past Katie and Damian, patting them on the shoulder and somberly nodding in thanks. The military were busy taking care of the dead, including their own. They looked both sad and angry, but that was how it was for them. That a comrade had fallen pissed them off no end, building the desire for revenge.
Katie couldn’t lie; she had felt that urge all too recently as well. Right then, though, she just wanted to get back to base, unwind, and see her family again.
The five Killers presently at the base were sitting around a table in the meeting room.
“The intel I’ve pulled so far has revealed a number of these energy surges over the last few weeks.” Timothy took a sip of his Cherry Coke.
“And you think these larger surges have been portals?” Stephanie looked at Timothy through narrowed eyes. “Portals to hell?”
His slurping was making her teeth vibrate.
“That’s what the intel says, yes.”
Calvin spoke from Timothy’s right. “Do you have the ability to see these portal surges in real time?”
“You bet your tight ass I do,” Timothy replied. “Like the one during the battle today—I saw it clear as day.”
“That’s good.” Stephanie pursed her lips and her eyes moved over the room as she thought. “That means if we are in battle and one of these opens you can call it down to us.”
“Finally they are catching on.” Timothy put his arms in the air and looked at the ceiling with sarcasm in his voice. “We will be able to see all these little pops of energy in real time.”
Stephanie smirked and nodded. “And that will give us time to kick ass before their feet hit the ground.”
“You got that right, sister.” Timothy high-fived her across the table. She laughed and looked at Calvin, who raised an eyebrow and shook his head.
“All right, then let’s conclude this ops meeting until Damian and Katie return. Unless you have something else to add, Korbin?”
Korbin looked like he was in a daze. “No, I’m good.”
Calvin, Stephanie, Korbin, Eric, and Timothy stood up and Timothy gathered his papers. Calvin watched him for a moment; the boy was more relaxed than when he had first gotten to the base. Still annoying as hell, but at least he was working as part of the team.
“Good job today, Timmy.”
Timothy smiled. “Thanks, Calvin.”
Timothy’s shoulders relaxed as they left the room. It had been a while since he’d felt anything like that, and he was starting to think that maybe being a part of the team wouldn’t be so bad. He collected his things and headed down the tunnel to his room.
He sat down on the edge of his bed and fixed his eyes on the floor, thinking about his place on the team. He had never really belonged to anything like it before.
Inside his mind though, Mr. Toss-Cold-Water-on-his-Thoughts spoke again. While you ’re off in Happy Rainbow Land right now, all I can think about are the tits on that Stephanie character. Well, those, mixed with her spicy little tie-me-up, tie-me-down personality. Yes, son, that is exactly the kind of woman this incubus needs. Bring me some of that! She can even bring a whip.
Timothy rolled his eyes and sighed. And to think that for just a minute I had forgotten you were there, festering inside me like an infection.
Get used to it. We are a duo from now on.
Until I learn how to control
you, that is. Besides, I kind of like working with people. It’s not so lonely anymore. And I am not ruining that by sleeping with any of them, and definitely not one of the women.
His demon whined, It’s not like I have much of a choice. I mean, my options are very limited. We have the spicy one, but she’s fucking taken by Mr. Snoreworthy, and Katie, who is hell-no-terrifying on every level. Timothy could just about feel his demon pouting. This sucks.
What is it with you and Katie? I mean, sure, she’s one tough bitch, but she’s not that scary. Who is this demon inside of her? Don’t think I don’t notice how you shrivel up into a ball every time she comes around. It makes me want to tag along with her whenever possible just to get you to shut the hell up.
She’s a scary bitch, that’s all I’m going to say about it. His demon shivered, making the hair on Timothy’s arms stand up straight.
Aw, wittle demon talks such a big game, but some woman comes around and he pisses his demon panties.
Timothy’s demon chuckled. Keep messing with me and you’ll find yourself waking up in some Vegas hotel room surrounded by naked women, and every one of them will have been fucked to exhaustion.
Timothy shuddered and shut up. The last thing he wanted was to change teams. He liked big strong men, even if his demon was throwing him a curve ball in every five seconds. He sighed and leaned back on his bed.
It’s not like you have to worry about dick anyway. All these men bat for the other team. Apparently gay Damned are rare.
Good! his incubus retorted.
His demon settled in, tired of talking about it. He was not going to let Timothy have his way, and he definitely wouldn’t be going anywhere near that crazy bitch-demon in Katie.
Timothy laid there staring up at the ceiling, thinking about the work he had done. This had been the first time he had used his skills for anything other than hacking or stealing. He had done some serious shit that day, and he wasn’t going to let the incubus fuck with him.
