Books 1–4

by Nancy A. Collins

  He grunted as he removed his shirt. Was she mad at him? Had he said or done something the last time they were together that ticked her off? It was damn hard to figure out her moods since she refused to take off those damn mirrored sunglasses. He wondered how she could navigate in the dark so well while wearing those fuckers.

  Something moved at the corner of his eye, flickering white and pale like a ghost. It was the lace curtain that hung over the window that faced the alley. Funny, he didn’t remember leaving the window open...

  A figure stepped out of the shadows, greeting him with a smile that displayed teeth that were disturbingly sharp. Judd felt his heart jerk into overdrive as the adrenaline surged into his system. He almost yelped in alarm before he recognized her.

  “Sonja?”

  “Did I scare you?” Her voice was hoarse and ragged, like something out of The Exorcist. She sniffed the air and her smile grew even sharper. “Yes, I did scare you. I can smell it.” She moved toward him, her hands making slow, hypnotic passes as she spoke. “I love the scent of fear in the morning.”

  “Sonja, what’s wrong? What happened to your voice?”

  “Wrong?” The Other chuckled. “I always sound like this!”

  She was on him so fast he didn’t even see her move, lifting him by his belt buckle and flinging him onto the bed. She grabbed his jaw in one hand, angling it back to expose the jugular. Judd heard the snikt! of a switchblade and felt a cold, sharp pressure against his throat.

  “What are you doing—?” he gasped.

  “Do not struggle. Do not cry out. Do as I command, and I’ll let you live. Maybe.”

  “What do you want?”

  “Why, my dear, I just want to get to know you.” The Other replied, removing the sunglasses protecting her eyes.

  Judd often wondered what Sonja’s eyes looked like. Were they almond-shaped or round? Blue? Brown? Green? Whatever their color, he had always imagined them as being human. He never once pictured them as blood-red with dilated pupils the size of buttons.

  The Other smirked, savoring the look of shocked disgust on Judd’s face. She pressed her lips against his, thrusting his teeth apart with her tongue, and penetrated his will with one quick shove of her mind.

  Judd’s limbs twitched convulsively as she took control of his nervous system. He couldn’t move as his body was locked into paralysis. The Other reached out and pinched one of his exposed nipples. Judd didn’t flinch. Satisfied her mastery over him was secure; the Other moved the switchblade from his throat.

  “I can see why she finds you attractive. You’re a pretty thing...very pretty. But she’s much too old-fashioned when it comes to sex, don’t you agree? She’s afraid to let herself go and walk the wild side. She’s so repressed.” The Other shrugged out of her leather jacket, allowing it to fall to the floor. “I will explain this to you once, and once only. I own you. If you do as I tell you, and you please me, then you shall be rewarded: like this.”

  She reached into his mind and tweaked its pleasure center. Judd shuddered as the wave of ecstasy swept over him, his hips involuntarily humping empty air.

  “But if you fight me, or displease me in anyway—then I will punish you: like so.”

  Judd emitted a strangled cry of pain as he was speared through the pain receptor in his head. His back arched like an electro-shock patient’s. It felt as if the top of his skull had been removed, and someone had dumped the contents of an ant farm on his exposed brain. Then the pain stopped as quickly as it had begun.

  “Hold me,” The Other commanded.

  Judd did as he was told, dragging himself upright and wrapping his arms around her waist. The Other knotted her fingers in his hair, pulling his head back so she could look into his eyes.

  “Am I hurting you? Say yes.”

  “Yes,” he replied obediently.

  “Good.”

  The Other smiled then, exposing her fangs. That’s when Judd realized that it was just beginning.

  They fucked for three hours, the Other skillfully manipulating Judd’s pleasure centers so that he remained perpetually erect, despite his exhaustion. She randomly rewarded him with psychic orgasms. He stopped counting after five. She seemed to enjoy his wails each time he underwent a spasm.

  She finally severed her control of Judd’s body just as the sun began to rise. He fell away from her in mid-thrust, his eyes rolled back behind flickering lids. The Other dressed quickly, staring at Judd as he lay curled in a fetal position amongst the soiled and tangled bedclothes, his naked body shuddering and jerking as his nervous system reasserted its control.

  “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” she purred, caressing his shivering flank.

  Judd gasped at her touch but did not pull away from her touch.

  “You pleased me. This time. So I will let you live. This time.” The Other lowered her mouth to his throat, brushing his jugular lightly with her lips. Judd squeezed his eyes shut in anticipation of the bite. But instead she whispered: “Get used to it.”

  When he opened his eyes again, she was gone.

  The Other took a great deal of pleasure in revealing to Sonja what it had been done to Judd, making sure not to leave out a single, tasty detail as it re-ran that morning’s exploits inside their shared skull.

  Sonja’s response was to scream and run head-first into the nearest wall. She then continued pounding her head against the floorboards until her sunglasses shattered and blood streamed down her face. She succeeded in breaking her nose and shattering both cheekbones before finally collapsing.

  Chapter Six

  “Girly-girl! Long time no see! What brings you into my little den of iniquity?”

  This time the demon Malfeis was dressed in the body of a flabby white male in late middle-age, wearing a loud plaid polyester leisure suit with white buck loafers. A collection of gold medallions dangled under his chins, and he held a racing form in one hand.

  Sonja slid into the booth opposite the demon. “I need magic, Mal.”

  “Don’t we all? Say, what’s that with the face? You can reconstruct better than that...!”

  She shrugged, one hand straying to her swollen left cheek. The bone squelched under her fingertips and slid slightly askew. Heavy-duty facial reconstruction required feeding in order for it to be done right, and she’d deliberately skipped her waking meal.

  “You tangle with an ogre? Or was it one of those vargr punks passing through town?”

  “Leave it be, Mal.”

  Malfeis shrugged. “Just trying to be friendly, that’s all. Now, what kind of magic are you in the market for?”

  “Binding and containment.”

  The demon grunted and fished out a pocket calculator, his exterior flickering for a moment to reveal a hulking creature that resembled an orangutan with a boar’s snout. “What kind of demon are you looking to put in lock down?”

  “I wish to have myself bound and contained.”

  Malfeis looked up from his estimate, for once genuinely surprised by a client’s request. “That’s highly...unorthodox.”

  “Name your price, damn you.”

  “Don’t be redundant, girlchick,” the demon snorted.

  Sonja sighed and hefted a knapsack onto the tabletop. “I’ve got hair shaved from Bundy’s head just before he went to the chair, dried blood scraped from the walls of Dahmer’s apartment, a spent rifle casing from the grassy knoll, and John Wayne Gacey’s handcuffs. Quality shit. And all yours, if you do this for me.”

  Malfeis fidgeted, drumming his talons against the table. Such proximity to so much human evil was giving him a hell of a jones.

  “Okay, I’ll do it. But I’m not going to take responsibility for anything that happens.”

  “Did I ask you to?”

  “Are you sure you want to go through with this, Sonja?”

  “Your concern touches me, Mal.”

  The demon shook his head in disbelief. “You really mean to go through with this, don’t you?”

  “I’ve alrea
dy said as much, haven’t I?”

  “Sonja, you understand once you’re in there, there’s no way you’ll be able to get out, unless someone breaks the seal.”

  “Perhaps.”

  “There’s no ‘perhaps’ to it!” he snapped. “I know my shit.”

  “The spell you’re using is for the binding and containment of vampires, right?”

  “Of course,” he replied. “You’re a vampire.”

  “Only part of me,” she reminded him. “And I’m not going to let it hurt anyone ever again. I’m going to destroy it or die trying.”

  “You’re going to starve in there!”

  “That’s the whole point.”

  “Whatever you say, girly-girl,” Malfeis sighed.

  Sonja nodded as she stared into the open doorway of the meat locker. It was cold and dark inside, just like her heart. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

  Malfeis produced a number of candles, bottles of oil, pieces of black chalk and bags of white powder from the bag he carried with him. Sonja swallowed and stepped inside the freezer, pulling the heavy door closed behind her with a muffled thump.

  The demon lit the candles and began to chant in a deep, sonorous voice, scrawling elaborate designs on the outer walls of the meat locker with the black chalk. As the chanting grew faster and more impassioned, he smeared oil on the door. There was an electric crackle as the hinges and handle suddenly glowed with blue fire.

  Malfeis’ incantation lost all semblance of human speech as he carefully poured a line of white powder, made from equal parts salt, sand, and the crushed bones of infants, across the threshold. Then he stepped back to assess his handiwork.

  To human eyes, it simply looked like someone had scrawled graffiti all over the stainless steel locker, nothing more. But to Pretender eyes, the door to the locker was barred by a tangle of darkly pulsing vévé, the semi-sentient protective symbols of the voodoo powers. As long as the tableau remained undisturbed, the entity known as Sonja Blue would remain trapped within.

  Malfeis neatly replaced the tools of his trade in the bag. He then paused as he left the warehouse, glancing over his shoulder one last time.

  “Goodbye, girly-girl. It was nice knowing you.”

  “I’m looking for Mal.”

  The bartender looked up from drying a beer mug with a dirty rag. After taking in the young man’s unwashed hair and four days’ growth of beard, he nodded in the direction of the back booth.

  Judd had never been inside the Monastery before. It had a reputation as being one of the sleazier French Quarter dives, which was actually saying something. The booths lining the walls had once been church pews, and plaster saints in various stages of decay were scattered about the room. A Virgin Mary with peeling skin regarded him from above the bar with flat, faded blue eyes. In her arms was an equally scabrous Baby Jesus, its uplifted chubby arms ending in misshapen stumps. The whole place smelled distinctly of old beer, new piss, and decay.

  He walked to the back of the bar and looked into the last booth and saw a paunchy middle-aged man dressed in a bad suit smoking a cigar and reading a racing form.

  “Excuse me...?”

  The man in the bad suit glanced up at him, arching a bushy eyebrow. “Yeah?”

  “I’m looking for Mal—?”

  “You found him.”

  Judd blinked in confusion. “I’m afraid there’s been some sort of mistake. The guy I’m looking for is black, with dreadlocks...”

  The man in the bad suit smiled. It was not a pleasant sight. “Sit down, kid. He’ll be with you in just a bit.”

  Still uncertain, Judd went ahead and slid into the opposite side of the booth.

  The older man lowered his head, exposing male pattern baldness, and hunched his shoulders. His fingers and arms began to vibrate, the skin growing darker as if his entire body had suddenly become bruised. There was a sound of dry grass rustling under a high wind and thick, black dreadlocks emerged from his scalp, whipping about like a nest of snakes. Judd was too shocked by the transformation to do anything but stare.

  Mal lifted his head and grinned at Judd, tugging at the collar of his turtleneck. “Ah, yes. I remember you now. You're Sonja’s Renfield.”

  “M-my name’s not Renfield,” he stammered.

  Mal shrugged his indifference. “So, what brings you here, boychik?”

  “I’m looking for Sonja. I can’t find her.”

  “That’s because she doesn’t want to be found.”

  “I have to find her! I have to! Before she does something stupid. Maybe even kills herself.”

  Mal regarded the young human with interest. “Tell me more.”

  “Something—happened between us. She feels responsible for hurting me. She sent me this letter a few days ago.” Judd fished a folded piece of paper out of his back pocket. “Here, you read it.”

  The demon unfolded the paper, noting that it was a printout of an email message.

  I can never be forgiven for what was done to you. I was not the one who did those things. Please believe that. It was her. She is the one that makes me hurt people. I promise I’ll never let her hurt anyone, ever again. Especially you. I‘'m going to try something I should have done years ago before she became so strong. She’s sated right now. She’ll stay asleep in my head for awhile. By the time she becomes aware of what I’m planning to do, it’ll be too late. I’m going to kill her. I might end up killing myself in the bargain, but that’s a chance I’m willing to take. I’m not going to let her hurt anyone again, damn her. I love you, Judd. Please understand that. Don’t try to find me. Escape while you can.

  “She doesn’t understand.” Judd was close to tears as he spoke. “I do forgive her! I love her, damn it!”

  “You know what she is,” Malfeis said flatly.

  Judd nodded. “Yes, and I don’t care.”

  “And why have you come to me?”

  “You know where I can find her, don’t you?”

  Malfeis shifted in his seat, his eyes abruptly developing reptilian slits. “Are you asking me where she is?”

  Judd hesitated as he recalled Sonja’s warning that he should never, under any circumstance, ask Mal a question. “Uh, yeah.”

  Mal smiled, displaying shark’s teeth. “Before I reply, you must pay the price of the answer. Is that understood, boychik?”

  Judd swallowed and nodded.

  “Very well. Tell me your name. All of it.”

  “Michael Judd Rieser. Is that it? That’s all you want? My name?”

  “To know a thing’s name gives one power over that thing, my sweet. Didn’t they teach you that in school?”

  “What about my question? Do you know where Sonja is?”

  “Yes, I do know.” The demon scrawled an address on the back of the letter Judd had given him. “You’ll find her here. She’s inside the meat locker on the ground floor.”

  “Meat locker?”

  “I wouldn’t open it if I were you.”

  Judd snatched up the address and slid out of the booth. “But I’m not you, buddy!”

  Malfeis watched the young man hurry out of the bar with an amused grin. “That’s what you think, boychik.” He leaned back and closed his eyes. When he reopened them, he had shoulder-length hair pulled back in a ponytail, an acrylic plug in his ear lobe, and four days’ growth of beard on his jaw.

  Chapter Seven

  It was cold. So very, very cold.

  Sonja sat huddled in the far corner of the meat locker, her knees drawn up to her chest. Her breath drifted from her mouth and nostrils in wispy plumes before condensing and turning to frost on her face.

  How long? How many days had she been here? Three? Four? Twenty? A hundred? There was no way of telling. She no longer slept. The Other’s screams and curses kept her awake.

  Let me out! Let me out of this hell-hole! I’ve got to feed! I’m starving!

  “Good.”

  You stupid cunt! If I starve to death, you go with me! I’m not a damned tap
eworm!

  “Couldn’t prove it by me.”

  I’m getting out of here! I don’t care what you say!

  Sonja did not fight The Other as it asserted its ascendancy over her body, forcing her stiffened limbs to bend, levering her onto her feet. Her joints cracked like rotten timber as she moved. She staggered in the direction of the door. In her weakened condition, she had difficulty seeing in the pitch black of the meat locker. She had abandoned the sunglasses some time ago, but as her condition worsened, so did her night-vision.

  Her groping hands closed on the door’s inside handle. There was a sharp crackle and a flash of blue light as The Other was thrown halfway across the locker. She screamed and writhed like a cat hit by a car, holding her blistered and smoking hands away from her body. This was the twentieth time she’d tried to open the door, and most of her fingers were on the verge of gangrene.

  “You’re not going anywhere. Not now. Not ever!” She shouted at The Other.

  Fuck you! Fuck you! I’ll get you for this, you human-loving cow!

  “What? Are you going to kill me?”

  Sonja crawled back to her place in the corner. The effort started her coughing again, bringing up black, clotted blood. She wiped at her mouth with the sleeve of her jacket, nearly dislocating her jaw in the process.

  You’re falling apart. You’re too weak to regenerate properly...

  “You’re the one who pounded your head against the fuckin’ wall trying to get out in the first place,” she reminded her unseen passenger.

  Yeah, but you’re the one that got us locked up in here! Don’t blame me!

  “I am blaming you. But not for that.”

  It’s that stupid fucking human again! You think you can punish me for that? I didn’t do anything that you hadn’t already fantasized about!

  “You raped him, damn you! You almost killed him!”

  I didn’t, though. I could have. But I didn’t.

  I love him!” Sonja’s voice cracked and became a sob.

  You don’t love him. You love being mistaken for human. That’s what you’re angry about; not that I molested your precious lover boy, but that I ruined your little game of Let’s Pretend!