Of Blood and Sorrow

by Christine Rains

I’d just finished dressing when he showed up. Heavy boots thumped on the porch, and I opened the door before he could knock. Thankfully he was wearing a face I didn’t recognize. Handsome and clean cut in a Nathan Fillion sort of way.

  We stared at one another for a moment. It was difficult to guess what he was feeling. Was he annoyed that I called him? Was he eager to kill some vampires? Or me? No, he protected me.

  I made a small sweeping gesture. “Would you like to come in?”

  “No. The Lady’s house is dangerous.” Abdiel stayed where he was on the porch.

  I glanced back at the house. Surely the house held no threat against demons. I had never sensed danger from the house. In fact, I’d felt comfortable there from the first night I had moved in.

  Turning back to the Allu, I narrowed my eyes a little at his black leathers. “I thought Bolona told you to dress appropriately.”

  “I am dressed appropriately for a fight.” His reply was dry.

  Touché.

  “Well, I guess no one will really pay attention to what you’re wearing. It’s mostly what the girls are wearing, right?” I had never been to a club. I only knew what was right to wear from watching that news story. I had nothing at all like it in my wardrobe, so I had to settle for jeans, black knee-high boots, and a black long-sleeve shirt that hugged my curves. Usually I wore a sweater over it, but if I wasn’t dressed a little provocatively, then I would stand out like a black crow in a room of songbirds.

  Abdiel shrugged. It was clear that clothing wasn’t what interested him either.

  “Okay. Here’s my plan. We—”

  “No.” He cut me off with a stern look. “Here’s the plan. We go to the club and find your vampire. I’ll kill everyone who tries to stop him from coming to you. And if he resists or tries to harm you, I’ll kill him too.” He held up one hand with his fingers clawed and twisted it viciously.

  Snap. I got the point.

  It was a lot like my plan, except the killing part. Though, I shouldn’t have expected anything else from an Allu demon. Abdiel was one of them no matter how civil he managed to be.

  “We don’t want to cause too much of a scene. There are going to be humans in the club.”

  “Humans will pass it off as something else. They always do when they see something their little minds can’t comprehend.” Abdiel didn’t say it in a scathing manner. It was matter-of-fact.

  “Okay.” He wasn’t going to budge. I had to work with him or there was no way I was going to live through it. “Just try to avoid killing if you can.”

  He gave me a noncommittal grunt.

  I couldn’t believe I was doing this. Sneaking out again and going right into the lair of my enemy. Crazy was what I would’ve called anyone else doing such a thing. Okay. Crazy is what I’d call myself in the moment.

  But for Nicolas…

  I wrapped my trench coat around myself and stepped outside. I had my hair down, and it blew to the south, almost touching the Allu with its long reach.

  “Where’s your car?”

  Abdiel stepped off the porch and walked over to a big black Harley. I stiffly followed, and he tossed me a helmet, which I barely caught.

  My gut reaction was to walk back inside and call a taxi. It was bad enough I was working with one of the Allu, but to ride with him on a motorcycle? I shuddered, and it wasn’t from the chill of the wind.

  He mounted the bike without a helmet and revved it up. Being next to a bike as it started was louder than I had imagined. He glanced back at me and waited.

  I didn’t want to get any closer to him than I already was. Yet I had to do this. Nicolas needed me. Who knew what sort of horrible things Hessa was doing to him. Worse yet, what extremely pleasurable things were being done.

  Those flames licked at me again. I gritted my teeth as my heart raced, beating so hard I thought it might give out.

  I tossed back my hair and slipped on the helmet. It smelled new, and it muffled some of the noise from the bike. My breath fogged up the visor, and I touched Abdiel one too many times as I was getting on for my liking. My feet found the pegs they could rest upon, but I couldn’t find any handles to hold on to.

  The bike lurched forward, and I grabbed Abdiel’s sides to keep from falling. Bastard. He didn’t wait to see if I had a firm hold. He took off, bike roaring down the street.

  For a few seconds, I forgot whom I was riding with and felt the exhilaration of flying along in the night. Then we hit a pothole, and I squeezed him harder as I nearly toppled off the backside. I decided those few seconds of delight weren’t worth it at all.

  Abdiel parked his bike to the rear of the Basement. When we came around the front, I saw the line was stretched half a block. I cursed under my breath. The last thing I wanted to do was wait an hour in the cold and then get inside to find Nicolas wasn’t even there.

  Abdiel tapped my shoulder, and I looked at him. His new face was the mustached vampire from the night before.

  That was clever. Really clever.

  His cleverness didn’t make me feel any more comfortable when he laid a heavy arm over my shoulders and led me to the entrance. Other people in line glared at us or looked interested in who was getting VIP treatment. Abdiel ignored them all and didn’t say a word as he walked up to the bouncers.

  “Rodrigez, where you’ve been, man?” The guard closest to us asked and smirked as he glanced at me. “Well, maybe I shouldn’t ask.”

  He laughed and Abdiel chuckled along with him. Both of them had fangs.

  “Hey, she’s been tagged.” The bouncer sniffed in my direction and wrinkled his nose. “Hope you ain’t drinking too much. You know we was warned it would fuck us up.”

  “Not a problem.” Abdiel grinned and leaned in a little toward him. “I just like the way she screams.”

  I fought to keep my face blank as he pulled me hard against him. To not betray how those comments affected me, I pressed my face to Abdiel’s arm.

  Without any more conversation, Abdiel led me inside. No ID check or handstamp. It seemed as though Rodrigez had often frequented the club. Creepy as it was, it was handy to be able to take the faces of the dead.

  The music was blaring as we went inside. The thumping of the bass rattled my eardrums. Fog hissed up around the dance floor where bodies were mashed together writhing around. It hardly looked like dancing to me. More like an orgy. Yet I knew little about either activity.

  A blue-haired girl in a coat cubby checked my jacket. Abdiel ignored her when she asked if he wanted to check his.

  “Stay with me.” Abdiel said into my ear. His breath was hot. “Act like you’re my thrall and that you’re high.”

  “What’s it mean when they say I’m tagged?” I clutched one of his arms and let him lead the way through the crowd. Where we had come in, we were on a raised platform above the main floor. He took me down the stairs to the largest part of the club.

  “It means you’ve been given some new drug. Dangerous stuff. It eventually kills humans.” He worked his way to the far end of the bar, which was raised a little higher than the dance floor. There was a strip along the far wall and a section to the back side where it was packed with tables, chairs, and booths.

  The same drug that killed Nicolas. My heart thumped as if dancing to the music.

  “They can tell by smelling me. I don’t take drugs.” I stared at the sea of bodies. How was I supposed to find Nicolas in here? This place could easily hold five or six hundred people.

  “The drugs smell like demon.” His reply tore my gaze away from the crowd. I looked at him and didn’t even have to ask my question. “Word is they’re made from demons.”

  My heart leapt into my throat.

  “What? How?” I shook my head. I couldn’t comprehend how that was even possible, never mind why someone would want to do it.

  His dark eyes scanned the club. He shook his head.

  “Don’t know. Been trying to find out if it’s true. I know most of the demons in the area. They’re al
l fine and living their pretend lives. A lot of demons would have to die to make these drugs.”

  I didn’t know what else to say. I had a hundred questions, but none of them would make me feel any better. I took a deep breath and tried to focus on the task at hand, rather than the pounding music and being pressed to an Allu demon’s side.

  After I swept the club a few times, my eyes popped when I spied Nicolas in a corner booth. On top of the table on his knees, he was dancing and teasingly lifting his shirt. He laughed and threw back a drink before a woman tugged him down for a kiss. Hessa!

  My body tensed and bile rose in my throat. Yet I couldn’t look away even as Hessa ran her fingers under Nicolas’ shirt and over his flat abdomen. They laughed again, seemingly focused only on one another even with a group of club goers sitting with them and cheering them on.

  Abdiel grabbed my chin and turned my head so I was looking at him. His eyes were cold. He had none of Mustache’s charisma.

  “Don’t stare. Keep your attention on me. You’re my thrall.” His thumb skated across my chin in a possessive manner. “Now we know where he is, we can wait for our opportunity. And if the night nears its end without one, we’ll make our own.”

  I didn’t like the latter option, especially the sharp edge with which he said it. It wasn’t too late yet. Surely Nicolas wouldn’t be tied to Hessa’s side all night. I didn’t think I could survive even an hour here at the club knowing what was going on in that booth.

  The bartender came down to talk to Rodrigez at one point. Abdiel laughed, made rude jokes, and seemed to pull off his alter-ego with never having known the guy. We were given free drinks, which were stealthily dumped onto the floor. No one else seemed to notice if it was wet or sticky.

  It was torture every time I peered at Nicolas from the corner of my eyes. He was partying it up without a care in the world. Hessa’s little group was obviously the elite one at the club. Their table was always stocked with drinks, and none of the bouncers stopped them when they climbed on the table and chairs.

  There seemed to be vampires everywhere. Even if I got to Nicolas, how were we going to get out? Abdiel may be an Allu, but he still was only one demon.

  After over an hour, Nicolas grooved on the dance floor, grinding with women and men alike. He wove through the crowd to the bar not far from where Abdiel and I were standing.

  With me still tucked against his side, Abdiel was fast to take the opportunity.

  “Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in. And then ran over it and killed it.” Rodrigez’s laugh was full of mirth, but it didn’t seem to faze Nicolas.

  “Ah, Rodrigez. How I’ve missed our wonderful friendship.” Nicolas snorted and turned to face us. While he didn’t care at all for what he believed to be the other vampire, seeing me seemed to sober him up immediately. He caught himself and leaned back, openly eyeing me. “My, my, you’ve got yourself quite the pretty little thing. She’s tagged, though. Might want to go find yourself one you can actually eat.”

  “I just like to hear her scream.” Abdiel leaned in with a dangerous grin. He spoke just so the three of us could hear. “And if you value her life and yours, you’ll want to leave the club right now with her.”

  Nicolas kept his nonchalant posture, but there was obvious confusion in his eyes.

  “We’re here to save you.” I whispered, knowing he’d be able to hear it even with the loud music and noise of the crowd.

  Nicolas opened his mouth to say something, but it was at that moment Hessa slipped in by his side. The midnight blue dress she wore barely covered her backside. Was she even wearing panties? She nipped at his earlobe and turned to see whom he was talking to.

  “Rodrigez, not messing with my new toy, are you?” Hessa smirked and then recognized me. Her grin widened. “Oh, well now. It’s so lovely to see you again.”

  My heart pounded so hard it almost hurt. Perspiration beaded on my forehead. I couldn’t look away from Hessa. The terror at being found out and the hate I had for her was mirrored in the vampire’s eyes.

  “Hey now.” Abdiel gripped my chin and turned my gaze back to his face. “You’re my girl. Stop gaping at the boss lady and her little plaything.” He was rough with me, but it was enough to snap me out of Hessa’s influence. How he was managing to keep in character so well was beyond me. At least I didn’t have to do much acting other than staring and being afraid. The hardest thing to do was keep my eyes on him and only listen to the conversation.

  “She’s pretty far gone. Hey, what can I say? I have what all the girls want.” Abdiel grinned and tickled me under the chin as if I were a good child.

  “The girl is tagged and near dead with all that shit in her body. What do you want with sour meat like that?” Hessa made a motion to hand me over. “Give her to me. I want to watch her take one last hit.”

  Oh god, no! Everything in me screamed to flee. This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen.

  “Boss,” Abdiel said, his arm tightening almost painfully around me. “This one ain’t like the others. Something different about the way she tastes. Must be some of the new shit you’ve been packing out lately. And it ain’t all about the drink. The way she squeals when I’m fucking her, every time like the first time.”

  I kept my eyes on him. The idea of an Allu demon with a vampire’s face screwing me was like a waking nightmare. Yet I’d gladly choose that over anything Hessa had planned for me.

  “I don’t think you realize what you have here.” Hessa wasn’t sounding pleased. “In fact, I really don’t think you’ve had a taste of her. Have you fed tonight?”

  “Yes,” Abdiel replied with a growl.

  “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Drink of her.” Hessa’s command had influence behind it.

  Abdiel didn’t hesitate. He yanked my head to the side, and I bit my tongue to keep from screaming. With the face he was wearing, he had the right equipment, but I didn’t know if he could drink like a vampire. His fangs dug into my neck. I let out a small cry. My body was too crushed against his to flail about, but I bet my squirming looked like something else entirely.

  Hessa laughed, and then suddenly I was torn out of Abdiel’s grasp. The flesh on my neck ripped, and I stumbled into Nicolas as he pulled me to him. Nicolas threw a punch at Abdiel to knock him backward along the bar.

  Abdiel regained his footing fast and lunged at Nicolas. Except he didn’t go for him, but for Hessa instead. He tackled her into the crowd of gyrating bodies. She screeched, and chaos broke out.

  Vampires raced to help her, but they were intercepted by what looked to be other vampires. Abdiel had back-up. Another clever move on his part, but I didn’t know what good it would do at the moment. There were a lot of vampires in the club.

  “Come on. This will be our only chance!” Nicolas dragged me toward the back of the club. He pushed through the throng of humans, not caring about his overuse of preternatural strength. We went past the bathrooms and a few offices in the rear toward the exit.

  “You shouldn’t have come. I wasn’t in any danger.” Nicolas snapped and then asked through clenched teeth, “And who the fuck was that? That was not Rodrigez.”

  “Rodrigez is dead. That was Abdiel.” I wasn’t going to explain all of it. Blood dribbled down my neck, but the pain was lost under the rush of adreneline. I grunted as we bounced off one of the walls as we pushed around a couple making out in the hall. “Hessa had you under her influence. You were—”

  “I was acting.” Nicolas hissed. “I told you it might take some time. Now everything’s fucked up.”

  “Not as much as it’s about to be.”

  We were at the exit, his hand on the handle. We both turned to see Hessa walking purposefully toward us. Dark blood was splattered over her and the gashes on her chest started to knit back together.

  “Acting, were you? You’re mine. You were mine even before I gave you the gift of eternal life. The little demon whore is nothing. I’ll snap her scrawny neck—”

  “
You’ll not lay a finger on her.” Nicolas opened the door and pushed me hard outside behind him. He held his ground as I landed on my ass.

  “I was going to let you keep her as a toy, but not any more.” Hessa’s growl turned to a purr. “Come to me, Nicolas. I’ll make you forget your demon and give you something you’re really craving.”

  I could feel Hessa’s influence, and I wanted to crawl in there to her. I dug my nails into my palms until I could think clearly again and stood.

  Nicolas still hadn’t moved, but he was trembling with the effort of resisting his sire.

  “Run!” He yelled over his shoulder. “Get the fuck out of here!”

  Nicolas fell to his knees, arms hanging loosely at his sides and his head back so he could stare up at Hessa in adoration.

  “That’s better, my pet.” Hessa chuckled as her gaze lifted to me. She crooked a finger. “Come here, demon whore. I want to see what makes you so special that Nicolas will defy me and the Allu will fight for you.”

  I had taken a few steps forward before I realized it. A gust of wind whipped my hair about. I grabbed at my wild locks and yanked them hard to break Hessa’s enchantment. With my other hand, I dug into my jeans pocket. “I’m not a whore, but I can’t say the same about you.”

  I yanked out the compact and opened it. The beam of sunlight zipped up Nicolas’ back, and he screamed. I raised it higher to shine directly in Hessa’s face.

  Hessa gaped at me unbelieving for half a second and then, as her flesh began to sizzle, shrieked and fled into the club.

  I ran forward, pocketed my compact, and pulled Nicolas up. “Come on, come on!”

  “I’m dying!” He flinched away from me, but I kept a firm grasp on his arm.

  “You’re not, but you probably will get yourself killed if you don’t run!” I moved as fast as he let me down the alley toward the main street. Not that I had a hope anymore that Hessa wouldn’t go through a hundred humans to get me. My blood still trickled down, and my hair stuck to it. At least it kept it hidden.

  “I feel like I’m on fire.” Nicolas groaned, but his feet picked up speed. “What the hell was that? It felt like I stepped out into the daylight.”