He grumbled something uncomplimentary, managing to prop himself against the back of the sofa. “I can’t be here. It’s not safe for you.”
“I’m a damn sight safer than you are at the moment,” I said. “What the hell attacked you? Your soul was in tatters, Brant.”
He slumped back against the cushions. “Shit. He’s gonna kill me…”
“Who?” I asked.
“The Death King.”
“Oh, for the Elements’ sakes,” I snapped, more irritated than I had the right to be. “He’s the one who helped me to save your life. He doesn’t want either of us dead. Can you tell me who did this to you?”
He closed his eyes. “A phantom. Shit, Liv. You shouldn’t have… come…” His words trailed off, his body going limp as he fell into unconsciousness again.
Ryan stepped in behind me. “I’ll let him stay here for the day, but I can’t watch him all the time. If he causes any fire damage to my property, he’s out.”
“Fair.” I supposed I could ask Ryan to help me carry Brant to his bolt hole in the city, but what if he ended up in a bad way again when he was alone and still recovering? I couldn’t risk it.
Angry tears burned my eyes. I understood his panic; I’d brought him into the home of his enemy, after all. But he could at least be the slightest bit grateful that I’d saved him.
I swallowed down my emotions and turned to Ryan. It was nice to have an ally around, even one who was reluctant at best to have my boyfriend sleeping on their sofa.
“Thanks for letting him stay,” I said.
“No worries,” they responded. “What’re you doing now?”
“Want to come and help me beat up some vampires?”
16
Ryan and I entered the city of Arcadia and walked past the warehouses. I should be at comic con, but I didn’t feel right going home with Brant in such a state. Besides, after the night’s action, I needed to blow off steam, and the idea of heading into a sweaty, packed room was unappealing.
Beating up a bunch of vampires, on the other hand, was right up my alley.
I led the way to Vaughn’s old house with Ryan one step behind me. “There are three of them, but they shouldn’t be a match for both of us together. Trix beat the shit out of them once already.”
I halted in front of the house. To knock or not to knock? Given how polite they’d been beforehand…
Warmth brushed my neck from behind, and Dex popped up at my shoulder. Ryan gave me a questioning look, and I nodded.
The Air Element raised their hands and a blast of air smashed into the door, knocking it open. Dex flew ahead of us into the living room, and the vampires exclaimed when the two of us entered behind the fire sprite.
“What are you doing?” one of them yelped. “You can’t come in here.”
My gaze snagged on the table in front of them. An open bag of cantrips lay gleaming on the surface. They’d replenished their stock, apparently.
A hoarse shout came from elsewhere in the house. I knew that voice. Trix.
“You just made a major mistake, matey,” I said to the nearest vampire. I knew better than to punch him this time around, so I settled for flinging a paralysing cantrip into his face.
A whirling gale swept from Ryan’s hands, sending all three vampires flying into the wall with a crash that caused cracks to splinter across the plaster. The problem with vampires’ skin being so damned hard was that Ryan’s attack had done more damage to the house than to the vampires.
“Get out of my house!” shrieked the leading vampire, landing on his feet.
I jabbed a finger at the bag of cantrips. “Where’d you get this?”
“None of your business.”
Another scream sounded from below our feet. Definitely Trix. What the hell had they done to him?
“Keep them in here,” I said to Ryan and Dex, and followed the direction of the noise. I’d thought Vaughn had collapsed the tunnels under the house, but perhaps they’d remained intact. If I were a vampire fleeing justice, I’d pick a house with a basement to hide in, too. Scumbags.
A trapdoor at the back of the hall led down into a cellar. I descended the ladder quickly, hearing muffled crashes from the living room which I hoped meant Ryan was winning the fight with the vampires. “Trix, are you in here?”
My feet touched down on solid ground. At the back of the cellar, Trix stood against the wall, his ankles and wrists bound with ropes.
“Hello, Liv,” he said, in his usual cheery manner as though he hadn’t been tied up for a day or more.
“Why did you come back here?” I moved over to him, squinting in the dim light filtering through from the open trapdoor.
“I saw some of their stolen goods,” he explained. “I know the Order only told you to confiscate the one cantrip, but they had more bags of illegal spells, so I thought I’d come back to take them off their hands before someone else got hurt.”
“And they didn’t take kindly to that.” I tugged at the bonds on his wrists. Damn, those things were tight. “How’d they manage to tie you up? You beat the shit out of them before.”
“They used a spell,” he said. “Knocked me out.”
The guy was the most casual hostage ever. I dug in my bag for my pocketknife and used it to sever the ropes around his wrists. From the crashing noises upstairs, Ryan was giving the vamps a hard time. “What were you thinking, coming here alone?”
“I thought I saw your boyfriend in here.” Trix’s hands broke free of the ropes, and he stretched his wrists.
“Brant?” That couldn’t be right. “You mean yesterday? He’s been unconscious all night after he was attacked.”
“Ah… yesterday.” He took the knife from me and hacked away at the ropes on his ankles. “I lost track of time in here. How’d you know where to find me?”
“A hunch.” Another resounding crash came from above. “I left Ryan in charge of the vampires. I’d better make sure they haven’t knocked the roof off.”
I climbed the ladder and emerged in time to see Ryan rise to their feet, having collided with the wall.
Ryan rubbed the back of their head. “The bastards hit me with a spell. Turned my powers against me.”
“Oh, hell.” I ran into the living room, only for a vampire to fling a cantrip into my face. I ducked, and the cantrip hit the wall, sending a torrent of smoke billowing out. A solid force slammed into me, and I flew backwards into the hallway. Ryan’s magic steadied me before I hit the wall, and I breathed out a relieved thanks. Then I spotted one of the vampires fleeing through the open door, carrying a bag of cantrips over his shoulder.
“Shit!” All three vampires were on the run, complete with their contraband. Even at my fastest, I’d stand no chance of catching up to them.
Ryan ran out of the door, propelled by their air magic. I sprinted alongside them, but even the added speed wasn’t enough for us to catch up. We reached the nearest node, in time to see the last of the three vampires vanish from sight.
“They escaped onto Earth.” I skidded to a halt, my lungs burning. “The Order will haul them in the instant they see that illegal crap they’re carrying, assuming they catch them in time.”
If anything, it was within the limits of my permit to hunt them down on the Order’s behalf—if you ignored the fact that I wasn’t supposed to be in the Parallel today, that is. One wrong move and I’d be the one arrested.
Ryan crossed the short distance to the node. “I think that fire sprite of yours might have gone with them. I saw him chasing one of them out of the house.”
“He what?” Shit. Dex hadn’t been in the hall when the vampires had escaped, but they’d all moved too damn fast for me to see.
“Did they escape?” Trix caught up to me, his expression thoughtful. “There aren’t many places for them to hide among humans. I think we can catch them.”
Guess I’m outvoted.
Crossing my fingers that the Order wasn’t waiting on the other side, I stepped into the current
of energy after Ryan. Our group landed in the middle of a long corridor lined with posters advertising musicals and theatrical performances, concerts and other events. I looked around in utter confusion, then panic set in, several seconds too late, when it hit me that we were right out in the open in a public setting. And Trix had his elf countenance on full display, Ryan wore a suit of armour, and Dex was… well, Dex.
“What,” said Ryan, “is this supposed to be?”
Only then did I see the people walking around us were dressed in costumes equally as conspicuous as our absurd ensemble. Two Jedi knights walked behind a group of Disney princesses, while an array of characters from anime and video games crossed paths with a group of people dressed as what looked like zombies from the Walking Dead. Not a single one of them gave us a second glance.
“Oh, hell.” I rotated on my heel. “The comic con’s happening right now. That’s the vampires’ escape route?”
“Of course,” said Ryan. “Humans wouldn’t know those coins were illegal spells, would they?”
“No, but I think they’d have questions if the vamps put on their full speed.” I walked down the corridor, following the tide of people heading towards the comic con. The closer we drew, the more notice people took of our group.
“Nice armour,” someone said to Ryan.
“Are those ears real?” a little girl asked Trix.
So much for not drawing attention. At least I was reasonably confident no Order members would be seen dead in here, but Devon was somewhere inside the main hall, not knowing three real-life bloodsuckers were on the loose.
Ryan took the lead and marched ahead, their boots and armoured clothing ensuring the crowd parted to let us through. Everyone assumed it was just the costume, not the subtle breeze and the aura of intimidation that came as part of being one of the Death King’s Elemental Soldiers. Trix and I followed close behind, veering away from the crowd.
Then I spotted the vampires standing in a huddle outside, surrounded by unsuspecting cosplayers. There they are.
The wind began to pick up, and I grabbed Ryan’s arm. “You can’t use your elemental magic here.”
“Like hell I can’t.” They lifted their hands and stalked out of the doors.
Cursing under my breath, I followed. The vampires looked up as a current of air blasted towards them. Cosplayers grabbed hats and props and ducked against the unexpected storm, some of them running indoors. While most people would assume the weather was acting up and not that a pissed-off air mage was among them, the vampires zeroed in on us right away.
Great one, Ryan. The vampires legged it, at speed, and were gone in an instant. I skidded to a halt, out of breath, scanning the groups of dishevelled cosplayers. Where in hell were the vampires planning to run off to? Nobody lived out here. The only possible escape route was the airport…
No way. They weren’t planning to flee the country, were they?
I headed for the door back into the building, where Dex flew down into my path, pointing back down the corridor. “I saw them run that way.”
“Dammit,” I said. “I think they might be on their way to the airport.”
“Why?” said Ryan, a baffled expression on their face.
“It’s that or they have a secret passion for Star Trek.” I walked down the corridor, mentally mapping my way to the exit. “Dex, can you follow them and try to distract their attention? Only if you don’t let any humans see you.”
“What do you take me for?” He zoomed ahead of us and out of sight. I should have known the long corridors would be right up his alley. He’d be having the time of his life in here if not for the crowds.
To get to the airport, the vamps must be getting the monorail. Or running on foot, if they wanted to risk being spotted moving around at vampire speed. They didn’t seem the brightest group of newbie vampires I’d ever met, and if they planned to sneak out of the country carrying a bunch of dangerous artefacts, the Order would surely stop them first.
My phone buzzed, on cue. Devon had messaged me. I can see you.
I looked around, spying her waving at me in her armoured costume. I nodded to the others to go ahead and ran to catch up with her. “You came? What—?”
“Vampires,” I said. “Those three dickheads from the Parallel attacked Trix, they’re working with the enemy, and they’re about to flee the country with a bag of contraband. We’ll try to catch them, but if they get on a plane…”
She swore. “I’ll call the Order and ask them to send in a team.”
“Hope they get here in time.”
Leaving Devon to make the call, I hurried to catch up with the others. Trix moved on elf speed, while Ryan had used their air magic to quicken their pace, until we halted at the monorail leading to the airport.
“They must have gone this way.” I boarded the train, and so did the others, though the Air Element didn’t look happy at having to take mundane transport.
“Now I remember why I left this realm,” they muttered.
“Hey, we can’t all live in a castle.” I looked out the window and my heart dropped. The vampires were visible even from here, running full-tilt across the car park towards the departures entrance to the airport. We’d never catch them.
The instant the train stopped, we climbed off and wove our way through crowds of disgruntled passengers. At least they assumed our odd appearance was due to our being at the comic con.
Ryan’s magic kicked in again and they all but flew ahead of me, into the airport and towards the baggage drop-off.
“Yeah, it’s not like there are human witnesses around or anything,” I muttered. Bloody vampires. They had to slow down once they reached security, surely—and just what cover story had they come up with to explain why they were carrying a sack of weird coins in their hand luggage?
A commotion drew my attention to the exit, which blew wide open as a torrent of air blasted through, carrying two vampires along with it.
Dex flew above the bewildered humans queuing at the baggage drop-off, while I ran through the automatic doors. Trix ran up to the vampires and snagged one of them by the scruff of his neck, while I accosted the other. “What the hell do you think you’re playing at?”
“What else? We’re getting out of here.”
“Oh, no, you don’t.” I blasted a paralysing cantrip into his face, and Trix moved in with a length of rope in his hands. The vampire he’d grabbed was already trussed up in a heap.
“I grabbed the rope from their cellar,” he said in explanation, grabbing the second vampire by the wrists.
“Good thinking.” Even a vampire couldn’t run with their legs tied together. But that was only two vampires accounted for. The third vampire must still be inside the airport.
I retreated through the automatic doors again, halting at a disgruntled look from a security guard. The last thing I needed was to be arrested by airport security for getting into a fight with a vampire, so I forced myself to move at a normal pace as I scanned the crowd. Then I spotted the third vampire, arguing with a woman at the information desk. Hiding a smile, I sauntered up behind him.
“No,” said the woman. “I can’t get you onto this flight. It’s already fully booked.”
“Isn’t that a pity?” I murmured in the vampire’s ear, catching his arm. “C’mon, let’s go outside.”
I tried to drag him by the elbow, but it was like shifting a steel post. I leaned closer to him. “You didn’t even book a flight? Amateur.”
“Get away from me,” he said through gritted teeth.
“The Order is already here.” I gripped the sack of coins hanging from his shoulder. “There’s no use in running.”
He swore and tried to twist out of my grip. I let go when I spotted two security guards staring at the pair of us, and he took the opportunity to slip out of the doors.
Ryan’s attack hit him before he could run any further. He tripped over and landed on his face on the concrete, where Trix was ready with the rope. As for me, I ran to
retrieve the bag of coins, scooping it up in my hand.
“What’re you planning to do with this lot?” I rattled the bag at him.
“Sell them, what else?” said the vampire, his nose bloody. “You’re wasting your time arresting us.”
“Where’d you get them from?” I prodded him with my foot. “You’ll have to answer to the Order soon enough. You might as well give us answers.”
“Fuck you,” he said. “We’d have made a fortune with these.”
“So you’re involved with the people smuggling cantrips out of the COS’s warehouses, aren’t you?” I said. “Who’s turning them into illegal spells, then?”
“Ask that mage of yours.”
The screech of brakes rang out before I could ask what the hell he meant. Devon hurried over, breathless, as a van screamed to a halt beside us, and a dozen Order guards poured out.
I rose to my feet, slowly, as the Order guards surrounded the three vampires and hauled their captives into the van.
As they did so, the Order’s supervisor approached me. “Olivia Cartwright. Would you mind telling me how you ended up here?”
“We were at comic con,” I said.
She cocked a brow. “And you happened to run into three rogue vampires?”
“I recognised their faces from when the Order sent me to confiscate some illegal contraband from them earlier this week,” I lied. “They were carrying a sack of cantrips around in public, so I figured they were up to no good.”
“Do you normally travel with an elf, a practitioner, and one of the Death King’s Elemental Soldiers?” asked the blond supervisor in sceptical tones.
“Yep,” I said, figuring I might as well commit to the cover story. “We’re part of the same D&D group.”
“We’ll take these,” said another Order employee, hauling up the bag of cantrips. “These three will be taken back to the Order for questioning. Olivia…”
“I’m part of an event at comic con,” I said, before they could rope me into coming with them. The last thing I wanted was to wind up stuck in the Order all day with Brant still unconscious in the Death King’s castle. “I’d better head back in before we miss it.”
Touch of Death (Order of the Elements Book 2) Page 16
