by C. T. Phipps
“Love makes us do strange things,” Arthur muttered.
“Yes, love,” Ashura said. “It has been so long since I felt that emotion that I almost forgot what it felt like.”
“You were locked up by the Council of Ancients?” I asked, recognizing she meant the leaders of the Vampire Nation.
“Yes,” Ashura said, her voice lowering an octave. “They feel the experiment of peaceful coexistence with humans has run its course. That genie is not so easily put back in its bottle, however.”
“Ashley killed a Jinn earlier today,” Tracy interjected.
“Fascinating,” Ashura said, cheerfully. “I was told to massacre as many humans as it took to get the undead outlawed and refused. They left buried me alive. It is a fate I intend to inflict on them in return.”
Alex barely resisted shouting ‘Khan!’ like Captain Kirk, I just knew it. Instead, he cleared his throat. “New Detroit is now run by a new voivode and an alliance of supernaturals. Vampires may be used to being in control—”
“Being superior beings to all others on Earth,” Ashura said, cheerfully.
I rolled my eyes. At least your ego is superior.
“I heard that,” Ashura said.
I blinked.
Alex continued. “—but those supernaturals who want to live peacefully among humans are joined together against those who don’t.”
“Well, I don’t know about peacefully,” Ashura said, dryly. “Humans are a violent grubby little race of yummy tidbits. Like cows you have sex with.”
“Thanks for that image,” Arthur muttered, rolling his eyes.
“I’m just saying if you care about a human,” Ashura said. “Turn them. Otherwise, it’s like caring about a firework or week-old banana. It’s why I turned you.”
“You turned my brother into a vampire!?” I shouted it like an accusation.
Arthur’s gaze became dangerous. “Ashley.”
“Why?” I shouted. “Why did you do it?”
I was hoping Ashura was going to give me some tragic but ultimately necessary story like she saved him after he was killed in a car wreck or something. Something to help me make sense of the idea he’d allow himself to become a blood sucking monster.
“Because he asked me to,” Ashura said, simply.
Ugh.
“You know that I can read your mind as long as you have my blood in you,” Arthur said.
My eyes widened.
“So can I,” Ashura said. “It’s just harder.”
“I can do it naturally,” Tracy said. “It’s why I think brights are all bloodlines descended from vampires way back when.”
Everyone in the room probably felt how much that offended me and I was embarrassed by it. “I’m sorry. I really am. I’m still trying to adjust to this. Could you please just tell me your reasons, Arthur? The Nakoso, which sounds like a nasal spray, is not high on my list of priorities right now.”
He’s an existential threat to humanity, Zadkiel said.
So is global warming, I replied. I think vampires and hippies are the only people who care.
Arthur shook his head. “You’re never going to understand, Ashley.”
“I think you underestimate her,” Tracy said, coming to my defense. “I mean, she was way more bigoted when I first came to spy on her for you.”
“Wait, what?” I said, spinning my head around.
“Arthur helped me escape the Baron family,” Tracy said, blinking. “When I told him that you and Sophia were involved, he became concerned.”
I looked down, guilty. Dating Sophia Baron had been against all my moral objections to vampires and yet I’d done it. Something about her had just called to me and I’d abandoned all my normal reservations about vamps and jumped right in. Only later had the fog lifted and I’d broken off all contact with her—I sometimes wondered about that but refused to think through the implications. It had been at a bad time in my life anyway when I’d broken up with Mac and driven away all my other girlfriends.
Ashura looked disgusted. “The Baron Family is one of the alliances that protects this city, albeit one of the weaker groups. Just because they want to keep their public positions doesn’t mean they’re not a grubby little family of syphilitic Roman mercers that smell of garlic.”
Tracy looked up. “Wow, that is really racist.”
Ashura blinked. “Oh, right, that’s a bad thing this century. Sorry.”
Arthur felt his face.
“I mean, I like most vampire minorities. One of my husbands is black and he—” Ashura started to say.
“Stop,” Arthur said, interrupting her. “Sophia was trying to turn you into her slave, Ashley.”
I thought back to our early relationship. I’d been broken after Mac’s death, my fault, and had given up being the Red Widow for being an alcoholic. Sophia had found me and it seemed every time that we met, life just got better. I stopped drinking and found myself happy every time I was in her presence.
I didn’t really enjoy any of the things Sophia and I did together. She was a vampire whose interests consisted of shopping, feeding, sex (okay, the sex was fine), and fast cars. However, she’d seemed like the most beautiful and wonderful creature in the world for about three months. I’d finally chased her out of my apartment with a bunch of sesame seeds. Yeah, vampires hate those. She was counting outside my door until an hour before sunrise.
“Oh my God, I was mind-controlled,” I said, horrified. “Did she force me to—”
“She claimed that she only forced you to quit drinking,” Arthur replied. “Everything else was just old-fashioned manipulation. I think it’s true because brights are hard to control, at least until the full Blood Slave bond is established. You were about two-thirds the way there when I broke it between you.”
“You broke it,” I said. “How?”
“Magic,” Arthur said.
Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer. “How much magic do you know now?”
“A little,” Arthur said. “Mostly Marduk rituals. Blessings, curses, breaking curses, turning blood into stronger blood.”
“Do you get a funny hat and collar?” I asked. “No offense, Zadkiel.”
Not Catholic, Zadkiel said. I am sorry you had your feelings played with.
Yeah, that’s what you get for dating vampires. Nice girls don’t date dead men, or women. Not that I was a particularly nice girl being a recovering alcoholic, private eye, bounty hunter, and trained spy. Oh, and add semi-turned vampire to the list. I wonder how I’d fit all of that on a business card.
The living and the dead are much the same to an angel, Zadkiel tried to reassure me.
That’s horrifying, I replied.
This is why we don’t talk to mortals very often, Zadkiel said. That and it gets tiresome saying ‘Do not be afraid’ all the time.
Arthur nodded. “I sent Tracy there to check up on you to make sure there were no lingering effects. It was humiliating to have one of her toys taken away. Sophia has never forgiven me for that.”
“I guess I owe you,” I said, appalled I’d let myself become a vampire’s victim. “She was going to make me undead?”
“Or a slave,” Ashura said. “Everyone should have at least a few but it’s impolite to take them unwillingly. It should be a voluntary contract.”
Everyone stared at her.
Ashura pointed at each of us. “I’m a former slave, I can say that.”
“The Barons are involved in this,” Alex said. “I’m almost certain they’re the crime family paying for the Terrible Trio to steal the Nakoso’s artifacts. I think they’re also the ones who killed their glamour maker in order to make them more desperate.”
“Cool Batman reference,” Tracy said.
“Thank you,” Alex said.
“Batman reference?” I asked.
“The Terrible Trio were three lame animal-themed thieves,” Arthur said. “They only got one animated series episode about them.”
“I’ll pretend I care
about that,” I said. “Wait, no I won’t.”
“Wise decision,” Ashura said.
Was I being hypocritical putting down Arthur and Alex’s geeky obsessions, when I was an actual ex-superhero? Yes, yes, I was. Did I care? No, I didn’t.
“So, who is this Nakoso and why does he have a wand that can cure vampirism?” I asked, wondering if I needed that wand and how badly. I didn’t care about Nostril-Ozone but if his wand could cure vampirism that could be a, well, cure for my family’s problems.
How selfless of you, Zadkiel said.
Thank you! I said, ignoring his sarcasm.
Thankfully, someone had answers. “The Nakoso is a member of the Council of Ancients. There has only ever been a thousand of them and several dozen have been killed in recent years. A small number in the grand scheme of things but horrifying beyond belief to people who have known each other since the Pyramids. He was a Tuatha De Daanan Fairy Lord as well as mighty wizard before becoming a vampire—”
“What a Gary Stu,” Tracy muttered. “Can Tinks even become vampires?”
“Apparently,” Arthur replied. “Anyway, the guy was one of the most powerful wizards to ever live and a real asshole even by vampire standards. Some even say he was a god.”
“The difference between gods, demons, and spirits is the same as between terrorists and freedom fighters,” Ashura said, bored. “It’s really a matter of perspective.”
“You just quoted Terry Pratchett,” Arthur said.
“Who?” Ashura asked.
“How bad was this guy?” I asked, wanting to know what kind of enemy I was going to make when I stole his wand.
“Aside from randomly turning people into animal human hybrids dependent on him and killing a human every night despite the fact Ancients can feed once a month and not starve?” Arthur asked. “He helped found the U.S. plantation system. He also created hundreds of vampires who thought it’d be awesome to rule directly over humans.”
“And yet strangely only a small percentage of slave owners were supernaturals,” Ashura said. “Such a tacky awful group. I should never have associated with them.”
Yeah, my brother had gotten himself a real charmer.
“I freed over a thousand slaves with the Underground Railroad,” Ashura pointed out. “Like I said, one must enter a contract of one’s own free will. Immortality and security for complete subservience. That is the offer I have given all my Blood Slaves.”
“Wow,” I said, stunned by that statement.
“Thank you,” Ashura said, misinterpreting my impression of her.
I chose not to argue with her. “How did Nakoso’s stuff end up in the New Detroit bank?”
Arthur shrugged. “I have no idea. We got in touch with Alex in hopes he would be able to help once we found out the Barons were investigating him. All is known among vampires is that he disappeared during the 1940s at the hands of the House.”
“Disappeared?” I asked. “Or killed?”
“Again, I do not know,” Arthur said. “The House and Vampire Nation kept treaties with Ancients like the Nakoso in exchange for keeping a low profile as well as the occasional favor. As stated, he was one of the few individuals who could reverse the blessing of vampirism.”
I practically gagged at her use of the word blessing.
“He could also perform other miracles like resurrection and making weak vampires powerful,” Arthur finished. “Detroit was already being scouted by the Vampire Nation for a potential future capital when he vanished. We don’t even know if he was taken down by the House. They’re just the most likely suspects. It almost resulted in war.”
“He’s not dead, at least,” Alex replied.
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“If he was dead then Clara, Jessica, and Bella would all have been restored to their normal human forms,” Alex replied. “Curses like theirs only last as long as the person who enchanted them. Mind you, unless he directly cured them, they’d crumble to dust afterwards but no one said fairy magic was fair.”
“Maybe they’re still working for him,” Tracy suggested.
“No,” Alex said. “The Terrible Trio’s record is consistent over the past decades. They were living on the run, together, this entire time. Bloodlessly, as far as we know. Grand Theft was the biggest crime they pulled off and that was a jewelry store robbery in 87’. If they were still working for Nakoso then the body count would have been much higher.”
“They were pretty willing to kill back at the bank,” Tracy said, frowning.
“Maybe they are desperate,” Ashura replied. “Perhaps they sensed the possibility of being liberated and had the will do anything to make that happen.”
She sounded almost admiring.
“The Hagfish, Jessica, was using black magic,” I said. “They’ve clearly crossed a line somewhere.”
I didn’t know much about magic. Not much more than I knew about vampires, really, but some of it destroyed your mind when it was used. You might be the nicest, kindest, and most decent person in the world but some sorcery was just plain evil. That was because to do magic, you had to really believe in it and make it a part of yourself. If Jessica was dabbling in diabolism then she was probably already sold to some monster after death (or was selling someone else, possibly many someones).
“So, the Barons are after an undead fae lord’s power and are manipulating three of his former victims,” Alex said, as if putting the pieces together. “That tracks. Why didn’t you tell me any of this earlier?”
“We didn’t trust you,” Ashura said. “But if you’re lovers with my sister-in-law then that is different. Have you consummated recently?”
Alex blinked.
My eyes widened.
“We can leave you alone,” Ashura said, cheerfully. “I mean, since Arthur is your brother, I assume you don’t want us to—”
“Do not finish that sentence for the love of all that is unholy,” Arthur said, simply.
Ashura frowned.
Tracy giggled.
“Spoilsports,” Ashura said. “The Barons having the Nakoso’s power would be an unmitigated disaster. Even just having his wand would turn a mid-tier necromancer like Saul Baron into an archmage. If they were able to resurrect the Nakoso, then, well, this experiment in supernatural egalitarianism would end. We can hold off the Council of Ancients because none of them wants to risk his or her own life and their pawns are too weak to take the city back. The Nakoso could simply strip us of our immortality and make us food for his followers.”
“How terrible,” I said, dryly. “You’d be human again.”
“Yes, truly a fate worse than death,” Ashura said, with all sincerity.
“Would the Barons really betray the New Detroit alliance like that?” Alex asked.
I really wish I knew more about the power players in the city. It would have made my job as a bounty hunter and P.I. much easier. The problem was, that would mean associating more with supernaturals and I was having to take that in baby steps. A lifetime of indoctrination wasn’t something you got over overnight. I was going to have to double my efforts, though, if I was to reconnect with Arthur.
“Yes,” Tracy said. “The Barons would. They only sided with it because it was the clear winner. My father wants nothing more than to live long enough to become an Ancient himself. My sister is a social parasite. She helped lead the Kennedy brothers to ruin and loves nothing more than destroying those more powerful than herself.”
“So, short version, Barons bad. Them getting old as hell vampire-fairy magic bad. Animal women bad but probably not doing this crap willingly,” I said, rubbing my temples.
“Uh, yes,” Arthur said. “That is the two-year-old’s version of things.”
I stuck up two thumbs. “Also, I’m becoming a vampire and will soon be throwing up all my interior fluids.”
“Not just throwing up,” Tracy said. “Anne Rice doesn’t mention that part.”
“I already made that joke,” Arthur sa
id.
“Joke?” Tracy asked.
“Can’t you just arrest these guys? I mean the Barons are criminals,” I said, knowing the answer was probably obvious to everyone here.
That was another thing that bothered me about the supernatural in the city. Those few supernaturals subject to mortal law were treated like animals but the vast majority never saw the inside of a courtroom. The Vampire Nation had its own law and preferred to keep their own from ever suffering the consequences of their actions. They’d legalized drugs, prostitutions, bloodletting, and gambling in the city but covered for each other with things like murder or kidnapping. Maybe I broke the law just as often, but I liked to think I did it in the name of a good cause. Or maybe, like with superheroes, I was just a massive hypocrite.
“I’m not the voivode anymore,” Ashura said, hissing. “That’s my other husband’s job now. My mind is not what it used to be post-year-of-torture and it’s only my connection to Arthur that keeps the mind-bats away.”
“Mind-bats?” I asked. “Are we speaking literal—”
Ashura’s eyes bored into my soul. “Believe me, if I was still voivode, they would all be impaled like my brother Vlad used to do. A pole up the ass and through the mouth until the sun or gasoline made them sparkling torches. That’s when vampires sparkle, by the way, when we’re on fire.”
“Vivid image,” Arthur said.
“Thank you,” Ashura said.
“We can’t bring down the Barons without severely weakening the city,” Arthur said, simply. “It’s not something to do lightly even if we could get the rest of the alliance to sign off on it.”
“Which is why we need the wand to turn all our enemies into humans and then rule the humans like gods!” Ashura shouted, slamming her stiletto-heeled left foot through the glass table. The table promptly shattered at the force of the blow and her foot landed on the floor below for emphasis.
I blinked.
So did Tracy.
