Vampz Macabre

by N. R. Larry

  A low, throaty growl, and then, I was on my back, straining to take even breaths. Ryland hoovered over me. Roughly, he tangled his fingers in my hair, jerking my head to the side. “Are you toying with me, Mal.” His tongue flickered over my name slowly, drawing out the vowel in a way that made my nipples harden. I wanted to be annoyed that he still had that effect on me, even after I swore of all undead creatures. My body, however, didn’t seem to mind straying from the pact.

  I gritted my teeth and clenched my legs around him. “Stop being a fang tease.” I almost spat the words. “Just do it.”

  His fangs sliced into my neck. A sharp pain stabbed into me. Ryland breathed deep, gulping me down, as if he hadn’t eaten in days—as if he had no control. Color sparked in my vision. I grabbed at the back of his neck and forced him closer, wanting to feel every chiseled fold of his body. My lips parted as if tugged by an electric current. Blood N’Fangs stuttered in my vision, then, I was dropped down into darkness.

  The smell of salt and shit and warm breath tugged at my nostrils. My stomach lurched, and I had to press my lips together to keep from throwing up. The desire, the need I had just felt for him morphed into terror, into some crippling memory. Then, there was a large field flowering out in every direction. A woman, dark as pitch, stalked over the land, towing something behind her. Something that struggled. With a hiss, she peered back and yanked on the chain she was holding.

  “Hush, now.” Her gaze was the fiery red of dawn. She kept pulling on the chain, as if reeling in something. Slowly, a broken and bloodied body snaked into view. His skin was raised with brutal, spider webbed scars. The woman towered over him, eyeing each inch of his naked body. Thick drops of blood plopped to the ground.

  Blood rain.

  With another hiss, she took Ryland by the neck and bit into him. He let out a scream that jolted me into action. “No!” I hissed, thrashing around, trying to get away from the memory.

  There was a low grunt. Blood N’Fangs flickered back into my vison just in time to make out Ryland flying across the room. He slammed into the bar, destroying the only structure in his club that had, up until that point, survived Dario’s attack. A snarl echoed in my ear, then he was towering over me, peering down with a wild glint in his eyes.

  I shook my head, trying to get my bearings, and placed a hand over my neck. The wound had already closed. Other than being slightly dizzy, I was fine.

  “I take it from your need to throw me across the room, that you saw something.”

  I peered back up, and then slowly, regained my feet, scanning him up and down. There wasn’t a scratch on him. His eyes were slightly widened, and his shoulders rose and fell faster, as if he were out of breath. I inched closer to him. “You’re high.”

  “I’m fine,” he quickly shot back. Too quickly.

  I lifted an eyebrow.

  “What did you see?” he asked, probably in the hopes that I wouldn’t press him.

  I shrugged, trying to appear casual. “Not much.” I took in a breath and held it. “Did you see anything?”

  His expression changed, going from eager to something else, something I rarely saw in him. He appeared to be awed. “I saw you,” he rasped, crossing his arms over his chest. “With wings.” He let out a laugh that didn’t entirely belong to him. It was too enthusiastic, almost that of a young boy rather than the ancient killing machine that he was. Something flickered in his gaze, and for a moment, either I was tripping, or there was actually something inside his eyes... like a picture playing out on a movie screen. “And you were... awful in your destruction.” His words sent a chill through me. As he said them, his gaze almost went through me. Then, he froze, going stiller than a statue.

  At first, I thought he was trying to remember. Then, I realized he wasn’t going to say anything else. It was almost as if he was in a trance. I snapped my fingers in front of his face.

  Nothing.

  “No,” I whispered when I realized it was happening again. With my heart pounding in my ears, I clapped at him, over and over. One of the funniest things about my existence was that he knew what I was, only, anytime he tried to share it with me, he forgot. “Ryland!”

  He blinked, and then went still again, only it was the way he was always still. He stared at me for a few beats, and then his expression turned feral. Something inside of me fell, and I chided myself for getting my hopes up in the first place.

  I swallowed down a tidal wave of emotion. “You good?”

  He glanced around him and smiled a predatory smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Do I look okay?”

  “You know what I mean.” I took in a deep breath and forced myself to focus on the problem right in front of me. I didn’t have time to be disappointed. I was Malcolm Hex, and everything around me was going to shit. “I need a favor from you.”

  He lifted an eyebrow, and it was only because I knew him so well that I could tell he was surprised.

  “I need your permission to go to The Narrows. To talk to Dario. Alone.”

  “No,” he said without even pretending to think about it.

  “Ryland.” I clenched my jaw. “I really want you to stay here.”

  He went to move and snarled. A look of confusion contorted his expression and he looked down at himself as if he were something he didn’t recognize. “What is this?” he asked as his fangs popped out again.

  I frowned, studying him. He did look physically different. There was a new glow to his dark skin, and somehow, his muscles seemed tighter and more defined. But, he always looked slightly different after having my blood. I didn’t see what he was confused about. “Uh—”

  He jerked again, and then shot me a look that I was surprised didn’t kill me on the spot. “I can’t move,” he said through clenched teeth.

  I closed one eye and shook my head. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean—” Something rattled in his throat. “That I can’t fucking move.”

  I simply stared at him, unable to make sense of what he meant. “The hell you mean, you can’t move?”

  He glared. I was about to dismiss him when something occurred to me. There was an echo in my head, and then my knife buzzed where it sat in my wrist holster. Mom’s voice sang between my ears, and my eyes widened.

  “Well, that’s new.”

  “What is?” Ryland hissed.

  I cleared my throat, backing up in case Mom was wrong. “Take three steps toward me.”

  Confusion started to mire his expression, but then his right leg switched. Seconds later, he was three steps closer to me. I covered my mouth with my hands, unable to decide if I should laugh a little or a lot.

  At first, he simply stared, eyes furrowed in confusion. Then, he let out a snarl. “Don’t tell me.”

  I couldn’t help but giggle.

  “You can control me. How?” His demand swept off his lips like rolling thunder. Even though my heart responded to the murderous edge in his tone, I was still trying to wipe the stupid smile off my face. It was the only good thing that happened to me the entire day.

  “Malcolm, you will not—”

  I lifted my hand and forced a serious expression onto my face. “Listen. I know this is vamp business. But before you go slaughter everyone in The Narrows, I just need a little time.”

  He glared at me.

  “Ryland. If you go down there, you know what’s going to happen. You want war?”

  “I already have war.”

  I shook my head. “You don’t know that. I know they were involved somehow, but you don’t know why they did this. Maybe the jiangshi have been hunting in their territory. Maybe this involves Bao somehow.”

  His lips parted slightly. “It doesn’t matter why, Malcolm. You know that.”

  I started to back toward the door. “Stay here.” I made it a command. “Watch over The Heights, make sure no more bodies pile up tonight.”

  His expression was so absolutely murderous that I paused with one foot inside the ruined club, and one foot right
outside the door. I pressed my hands together as if in prayer.

  “Do you know how it would look if you show up without me?” he asked, struggling to keep his voice even.

  I swallowed. Looks were everything in the vamp community. I was about to make him look weak. Him, the father to almost every vampire of color in America.

  I owed him better than that.

  But, I had an obligation to protect Bao.

  “Please,” I whispered, knowing that I wasn’t asking his permission to go to The Narrows. For the time being, he didn’t have a choice. He had to do as I asked. I was asking his permission to betray him. As hard as it was, I forced myself to keep meeting his gaze.

  We stared at each other for several beats of silence. Finally, he gave me the slightest of nods, and I shot off into the air before he could change his mind. As I flew over my city it occurred to me that this might be even more dangerous than Ryland going. That I might be an even bigger danger to Dario than any vamp in The Heights could ever be.

  I darted my gaze down toward the river. The moon made a monster of my shadow on the surface of the water. Narrowing my eyes, I swooped toward the tall iron towers of the bridge that connected The Heights to The Narrows.

  The rusted metal made me think of everything that separated the two communities because from where I was in the sky, I could make out the vast differences between the two towns. In The Heights, all the houses were pressed in on each other. If the person next door to you sneezed, snot might fly out of your own nose. By contrast and ironically enough, the houses were spaced out in The Narrows. Corner stores were marked by thick spray paint, and long bodied muscle cars were parked at damn near every curb.

  The farther I flew into the city, the more something in my gut tightened.

  I hadn’t been to The Narrows in God knows how long, but even I could sense that something was different. It was too quiet. I flew over the high school, which always seemed to be under construction, and started my descent toward the roof.

  I didn’t get far before a dark spark went off in my vision. I froze in the air, and then spiraled toward the brick surface beneath me, stunned and out of control.

  Chapter Nine

  I wasn’t used to pain. Not really. Sure, sometimes I got the shit knocked out of me and my head goes all swimmy, but there was never any actual pain. Not until that moment. A needling, hot sensation tore through my lungs and my mouth gaped in a scream. Somewhere above the pain, I knew that I was falling. With my jaw clenched, I tightened my muscles, trying to find control, but there was none. As I tumbled toward the roof of the school, that black spark flashed in my vision again.

  It reminded me of a storm cloud. A crackle of blue light went off in the middle of it, and then pain tore into my muscles. I screamed again, and then I stopped falling, seconds before I would have crashed through the roof of the school.

  Panting, I tried to look around, but found I couldn’t move. “What the fuck?” I strained until sweat rolled down the back of my neck I shivered from the effort. The more I struggled, the bigger that black orb grew until finally, it surrounded me. I’d never seen anything like it, and I had seen a lot of weird shit in my day. “What the fuck?” I asked again, this time desperate. Frustration exploded out of me and I writhed around in midair like a demonic child having a tantrum.

  Still, I couldn’t move.

  Panting, I forced myself to calm down. I knew this had to be some come kind of magic, and losing my shit clearly wasn’t the key to disrupting it. I sucked in a few deep breaths and then focused all my energy on my arm. The pain was hot needles against my skin, but I managed to shut it out. One by one, I began to curl my fingers into a fist. Ripples of blue lightening, just like the ones left as a magical residue on Ryland’s safe, danced across my knuckles. My entire arm shook. I was coated in sweat, but still, I kept all my focus on that fist.

  When in doubt, I relied on strength. I pulled my arm back and it was like moving through honey infused quicksand. The more I resisted, the more the magic tightened around my skin. “Come on Mal,” I muttered to myself. “Punch the shit out of this thing.” I inhaled and ripped my arm through the air as fast as I could.

  There was a sound like a gunshot, and then every inch of me froze. My body started convulsing. The world in front of me shook like I was a woman atop a fault line. The black orb vibrated and then shattered. I dropped the last few inches to the ground and cracked the roof of the school. I blinked the sting out of my eyes and stared at the bits of magic around me. They shook in the air like star tremors, and then shot out, blazing across the sky like comets. “What the hell was that?” I grunted to myself.

  Still shaking, I clamped my hands in front of me, trying to get my body back under control. I was breathing too fast. My heart was hammering. I licked my lips and then laid back on the hard brick, closing my eyes.

  “Well...” a male voice said a few moments later. “That was impressive.”

  My eyes shot open and I stared up into the blood red gaze of Dario. Finding the last of my strength, I whipped my blade out, shot to my feet, and took a defensive position in front of him. There was a dark chuckle to his right, and I followed it with my gaze. A woman with wild, dark green hair held a wooden staff close to her body. Its branches curled at the top like gnarled fingers, reminding me of the roots of a tree.

  It was obvious she was the one who had taken me out in the air.

  Dario smiled, and the moon glinted off his blood stained teeth. I forced myself not to shudder. “So, that punk bitch sends the Hangman of The Heights down to The Narrows, is that it?”

  I backed away slightly. “I hate being called that.”

  He shrugged. “Well, you’re in my hood. Here, that’s what we call you.” His gaze scanned me up and down. “Pretty bold, bringing ya light skinned ass over here, considering the situation.”

  The green haired woman pounded her staff against the ground and I backed up even farther. “I just came to talk, Dario.”

  “I think the time for talking is done,” he muttered, swiping at the end of his nose and inching toward me.

  I waved my knife in the air. “Be reasonable, Dario.” I smiled. “While we’re all still friends.”

  His eyes blazed in what had to be anger. “Are you threatening me, bitch?”

  My smile widened. “Why don’t you send this wicked witch, or whatever she is, away, and then ask me that again.”

  Dario paused, and then his expression eased into a relaxed smile. For a moment, I thought he was going to continue the banter, but he just nodded his head in Green Hair’s direction.

  I switched my attention to her. She clicked something on the side of her staff, and it shrunk down into the size of a want. Her full lips moved, but I couldn’t make out what she said. As soon as she whipped the wand through the air, my knife vibrated in my hands.

  A blast of black light shot toward me. Unable to think of anything else to do, I swatted at it with my knife. Whatever spell she tried to hit me with bounced off my blade, and shot right back at her. The light absorbed back into the wood.

  “Oo...” Green Hair gave a little shimmy. “Unexpected.” Her emerald gaze dropped to my knife.

  While she was distracted, I rushed at her and clamped a hand over her wand hand, then snapped it back. Something cracked, she let out a pained shriek, and then an explosion of colors blinded me. She hissed foreign words into my ear, and my vision changed.

  Then, everything was way too bright. It was like trying to stare down the sun. I blinked my eyes against it, but nothing helped.

  “Stop,” Green Hair said.

  I dropped my hold on her hand.

  “Give me the knife.”

  I froze as my vision became a scream. Things were too painful to look at. Everything vibrated with noises I didn’t know they could make. I dropped my knife and slammed my hands over my ears.

  “Now,” she hissed. “Come with us.”

  AT SOME POINT, THE green haired bitch must have put me to
sleep, because the next thing I knew, I was waking up. My head throbbed with the simple effort of opening my eyes.

  “Ugh.” My voice trembled out of me. I blinked, trying to focus on my surroundings. Everything was still loud and pulsing, although to a lesser degree. I realized I was on something soft. A bed. Clenching my jaw, I pulled to a sitting position and darted my gaze around. Slowly, the pounding between my temples began to ease off and I started to feel more like myself.

  I focused on the black dresser in front of me and tried to recall my most recent memories when a throat cleared from the corner of the room. I darted my gaze in that direction. Dario sat in a plush, black chair, one leg draped over the other. He was running a hand over the thin stubble on his chin and studying me with laser like focus.

  “Dario.” As soon as his name was out of my mouth, I choked on something thick in my throat and began coughing so hard that my tears spilled from my eyes.

  “Take it easy, Mami.” A breath of air rushed into my face and then he was in front of me, offering up a glass of water.

  I glanced at the water and frowned.

  He laughed. “Come on, drink up. Vanessa put her thing down on you. After that magic ass whoopin’, you got to be thirsty.”

  I narrowed my eyes, and my head began to swim. Gritting my teeth, I pressed my hands to the sides of my head, took in a few deep breaths, and then took the water.

  “That’s it,” Dario purred as I started to drink.

  Normally, I might have been annoyed, or on the defensive, but I was so thirsty that all I could do was drain the water from the glass. Even though it still felt like there was something weighing me down, it helped. I handed the glass back to Dario and said, “Vanessa, huh?” My voice was still thick. “Where is she? I’d like to give her something in return, you know, just to say thank you.”

  He chuckled, stared at the glass like something fascinating might pop out of it, and then pointed at me. “I’ve always liked you, Hangman.”

  I snorted and licked my bottom lip. “Where am I?” I asked, backing away from him slightly. “Where’s my fucking knife?”