Blood and Fire

by Gabriela Fišerová

  If anything, Arkemoz tensed up more. He wasn’t used to letting his guard down in any situation. If there really wasn’t any work right now, what was he supposed to do? Just talk to this vampire? He supposed it could be worse, but he wasn’t exactly a good conversationalist.

  Adley let out a long sigh. “Look, it’s all right if you don’t like me—”

  “No,” Arkemoz said immediately. His cheeks immediately got warmer. “I mean, it’s not that….”

  Adley watched him with an amused grin. The damned vampire was probably enjoying this.

  “I’m not good at this.” Arkemoz’s shoulders slumped. He felt like he was admitting something major, even though it was definitely more than obvious.

  “Yeah, and that’s why I’m here,” Adley said, stirring his drink with the straw he’d gotten with it. “You can practice on me before we tackle the real world.”

  “But why do I have to learn this?” It felt like a complete waste of time, which was saying something because Arkemoz was immortal.

  “You wanna live on Earth?” Arkemoz wasn’t decided on that, but this planet was much nicer than the hot, dark emptiness that was his home dimension. So he decided to just shrug and nod. “Well, then you gotta learn how to live among humans, handsome.”

  Arkemoz couldn’t take it anymore then. He had to ask. “Why do you keep calling me those things?”

  “Have you looked in a mirror lately?” Adley raised an eyebrow as he smirked. “Assuming mirrors still work. I haven’t exactly checked.” He proceeded to chuckle and then down half his drink. Right, vampires had no reflection. That had been surprising to Arkemoz when he’d been told that. He’d never come across anything like that.

  “Are you saying, like this, I’m attractive by human standards?” Arkemoz summed up to make sure he fully understood what Adley was talking about. He felt a sudden urge to check how he looked, but there was nothing reflective around.

  “I’m saying I find you attractive, Arkie.” Arkemoz scowled as Adley chuckled quietly. There was no need to mock him like that. Though that was kind of interesting. And very daunting because Arkemoz had no idea what it implied, aside from Adley liking him. He really didn’t know much about humans, did he? “Not that we have to take that anywhere if you don’t want to.”

  Arkemoz was just going to have to accept that he would be confused for the majority of the foreseeable future, apparently. He didn’t have to like it, but he would have to put up with it.

  Adley coughed into his hand, finishing his drink weirdly quickly. “How do you fit those horns under that hat, anyway?”

  Arkemoz frowned at him. Was he uncomfortable? “It’s magic.”

  “What? Really?”

  “Yes, I put a weak enchantment on it,” Arkemoz replied, shrugging. This kind of magic was fairly mundane.

  Whatever Adley had wanted to say was interrupted by a distant scream, definitely not audible to the humans around.

  “Was that…?”

  Arkemoz nodded, already getting up from his chair. He was more than ready to leave this situation, especially if it was to save someone. Adley didn’t seem to have anything against this, and in fact took the lead, quickly making his way out of the bar and following after where the screams had come from. Arkemoz wasn’t sure how he was doing that given that there was only the street noise of traffic and people talking now, but he just went after him, noting how much darker it was than when they’d arrived.

  Turning into an even darker, damp alley, Adley slowed down, and Arkemoz did as well, frowning at their surroundings. There wasn’t much around aside from half-melted snow and a couple of soaked newspapers, but Arkemoz could tell there was something supernatural going on. Demons had a sort of a sixth sense about it. Was that the phrase? He wasn’t sure.

  He watched Adley crouch down in front of a wall and put his hand on the ground before getting up again. He showed his palm to Arkemoz, now stained dark red.

  “Blood,” Adley said, grimacing and visibly swallowing. “Human.”

  Arkemoz wondered if Adley was uncomfortable due to this implication that someone was either hurt or had been killed, or because he was tempted to drink it. The demon really didn’t know much about vampires, did he? He should probably ask Adley about these things at some point. He was kind of curious.

  “Come on, there’s a trail.”

  Arkemoz nodded, cautiously following Adley into yet another alley. He only then really realized how cold he was, but he did his best to ignore that for now. He could push through his inability to tolerate this weather a bit longer.

  Finally, right behind the corner, they found the body of a young man. They didn’t need to check if he was dead. His glassy, lifeless eyes were more than enough evidence. But the body held Arkemoz’s attention only for a moment.

  There was a woman standing about twenty feet away from them, grinning, two elongated fangs sticking out of her mouth. So clearly the vampire who’d killed this man. But the weird thing was, Arkemoz couldn’t tell what she was if she hadn’t had the fangs and blood on her lips. He’d think she was just another human. How was this possible?

  “If you showed up a minute earlier, you might’ve saved him,” she said as her fangs turned back into regular-looking human teeth. Arkemoz immediately ran towards her, slamming her into a wall and holding her pinned against it by her neck. As he did that, he reached into his pocket for the wooden stake he always carried with him and aimed it at her heart. Unfortunately he didn’t have the special handcuffs Aegis used, and somehow he doubted Adley had them either, so they would have to improvise.

  The vampire was grinning at him, blood staining her teeth and lips, but she wasn’t saying anything. Arkemoz decided to do the same, opting for glaring at her instead.

  “There’s something off about her,” Adley said as he made his way to Arkemoz, keeping his eyes on the female vampire. “I mean, I know she’s a vamp, but it’s like she’s….”

  “Human,” Arkemoz finished for him. The vampire he was still holding against the wall snickered.

  “I bet you’d love to know why,” she said, and Arkemoz glared harder. Generally after breaking through their bloodlust, vampires tended to be very cooperative from what he’d heard, so they’d find out how she’d managed to mask herself soon.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Arkemoz could tell Adley was rolling his eyes. “Yeah, sure.” Then he turned to Arkmoz. “C’mon, let’s get her out of here.” They both froze as they heard the distant sound of police sirens blaring. “Preferably before the police get here.”

  “As if I would ever let you turn me into an abomination like you,” she laughed, but it was quickly cut off by Arkemoz squeezing her neck harder. He wasn’t sure if that insult had been meant for both of them, but he chose to take it personally anyway.

  “Interesting perspective, darlin’,” Adley mocked her. “Because from where I’m standing, you’re the abomination here.”

  She smirked at him and croaked: “The Circle will never be broken.”

  And before Arkemoz could ask what the hell she was talking about, her hands shot out to grab the stake he was holding and shoved it into her heart before he could react. The demon was left staring at the now empty space between the brick wall and him as ash slowly descended onto the wet ground.

  “Did she just…?” Adley looked just as shocked as Arkemoz felt. The sirens blared louder, making both of them face the direction they were coming from. “We need to run.”

  And Arkemoz did, still clutching the stake in his hand. There were dozens of questions forming in his head already, and didn’t have answers to any of them. But he knew one thing—he was going to find them.

  2

  “A vampire you couldn’t detect?” Black repeated after Adley, frowning in thought where he was sitting behind his black, modern desk. At least Arkemoz thought it was modern. It was very sleek.

  “Yeah, neither could demon boy over here,” Adley replied, making Arkemoz shake his head. This of course mad
e Black focus on him instead.

  “Really?” Arkemoz wasn’t sure why he felt like his abilities were being reevaluated because Black hadn’t used that kind of tone. Whatever the reason, the demon didn’t like it one bit. “Any ideas of what this might be?”

  Arkemoz sighed and sat up straighter. He had ideas, but he had no idea how a simple vampire could get the resources for any of them. But he supposed he should say them anyway. There was no harm in it. “There are some spells that could hide the true nature of someone. But all of the ones I know about are...difficult.”

  Arkemoz frowned as he tried to remember any kind of detail. He hadn’t exactly studied any of this because he hadn’t thought he might want to use it some day. “I think one requires an angel feather.”

  “So what you’re saying is there’s no way for some vamp to just do these spells,” Adley summed up, brushing a hand through his hair. He actually looked worried, which was really weird to see, even though they barely knew each other for more than an hour. He just hadn’t seemed like the type to worry at all.

  “Yes. Or even know about them.” Arkemoz narrowed his eyes, looking back at Black. “She said something about ‘the Circle’. I don’t know what that is, but it might be connected.”

  Black hummed, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Could be a vampire sect. We haven’t had one of those here in a very long time, if ever, but it’s possible.” He paused, letting out a sigh. “But figuring out what it is is a secondary concern right now. First we need to find out if there are more of these vampires and fast, before they eat this whole town.”

  “Right on it, Chief,” Adley said with a firm nod, his voice even more serious than before. Arkemoz frowned at Black. Had he missed something? Adley seemed like he was about to leave seeing as he was standing now, but they hadn’t discussed how they would find these vampires. The chief just gave Arkemoz a look that he couldn’t figure out the meaning of. He was assuming it meant that Adley knew what they needed to do, though, so Arkemoz just followed behind him, leaving the office.

  “Are we going to try to find a spell to locate vampires?” Arkemoz asked as they made their way out. “And shouldn’t we tell the others something about this?”

  “Black will tell ‘em,” Adley replied, looking over his shoulder. He still seemed really determined but also a bit more easygoing. Maybe he just acted more professional in the presence of their boss. “And about the other thing—do you know a spell like that?”

  “No, but I’m sure there is something like that.” Arkemoz looked around the half-empty street, shivering. Being in this form considerably dampened his powers, so his eyesight wasn’t much better than a human’s. The glare from the streetlights made anyone not directly under them very hard to identify. And any of the people around could be a vampire in disguise. Or any other supernatural creature, actually, even though vampires were definitely the biggest group here.

  “We can try finding a spell later, then,” Adley said, his voice bringing Arkemoz out of his thoughts. “But there’s a way easier method.”

  “Which is?”

  Adley pulled his phone out of his pocket and stopped, turning around to face Arkemoz. He raised up the phone, dramatically gesturing to it. “This is a phone.”

  Arkemoz gave him an irritated look. “I know what it is. It can call people without the need for blood magic.”

  “Blood magic?” Adley’s eyes were wide and definitely disturbed. Either blood magic wasn’t commonplace here, or he was just uncomfortable with blood in general. Arkemoz had no idea if that made sense or if it was really ironic. “Isn’t there a better way of contacting someone?”

  “Different, maybe. Not better.” Arkemoz let his gaze wander from one person passing by to the other. Any of these people could be a murderous vampire, but if they were, they were doing a great job of pretending to be human. Not that Arkemoz was confident he knew how humans acted, but he wasn’t seeing anything that seemed suspicious to him. Just people heading wherever they deemed was important right now.

  “Well, we’re not doing any blood magic just yet,” Adley said, keeping his voice low and shaking his head. Then he gestured to the phone again, this time practically stabbing a finger at it. “This does more things than just call people. It has a camera, see?”

  He turned the phone over, showing him the lens. So that was what that was for. Arkemoz found himself stepping forward, to peer more closely at the phone even though he knew he should be annoyed that Adley still hadn’t told him how any of this was relevant.

  “Vampires can’t be captured on camera, so we’ll just walk around looking into this and if someone doesn’t show up on the phone, we’ll know.”

  That was interesting, but Arkemoz supposed it made sense if vampires didn’t have a reflection. Though now he wished he had a phone of his own so he could help with this. He was going to be pretty useless here, unless there would be a fight. He just hadn’t assumed he would have a need for a phone, especially since he hadn’t known they could do more than just distance communication.

  “Ready?” Adley askey, to which Arkemoz nodded. “Just one more thing.”

  The demon almost gasped as Adley snatched his sunglasses off his nose before he could react. “Give them back! Someone will—”

  “It’s night. No one will see your eyes are sort of orange unless you make direct eye contact while also under a light.” Adley proceeded to put the sunglasses in one of the pockets of his jacket.

  Arkemoz folded his arms, huffing. His eyes weren’t as aggressively orange right now as they were in his true form, but they were still pretty out of the ordinary.

  “Just trust me, all right?” Strangely enough, Arkemoz did trust him, despite only knowing him for such a short time. But that changed nothing about him not wanting to agree to this. “Those sunglasses are way more inconspicuous than your eye color.” Arkemoz still had his doubts, but he didn’t voice any of them. “Besides, your eyes are too pretty to be covered up all the time.”

  The demon blushed, immediately ducking his gaze to stare at the thin layer of snow covering up the edge of the sidewalk. Adley couldn’t mean that. Arkemoz’s eyes were incredibly...demonic. Though while they were on the subject, the vampire’s soothing dark blue ones were really nice to look into.

  “I mean that, y’know?” Adley said, suddenly sounding very serious again. Arkemoz’s eyes shot up to meet the vampire’s. He found himself unable to look away for a moment, not until Adley looked away first and cleared his throat.

  “Right, let’s go.” He waved the phone around and began walking up the street, staring into the screen. Arkemoz hugged his coat around himself more tightly and sighed. He was pretty sure he couldn’t get sick or hurt from the cold, but it was still irritating and uncomfortable. A warmer coat, that was what he needed—not extra layers. Humans manufactured warmer ones than the one he had, right? They had to.

  They walked in silence for a bit as Adley kept checking everyone around them with his phone while Arkemoz tried to stretch out his senses as far as he could to see if that would help see him through the disguises. They’d earned a few odd looks, but Arkemoz was too cold and invested in what they were doing to pay it any mind beyond noticing.

  After for about another thirty minutes—at least Arkemoz was guessing—Adley stopped at the corner, leaning on the wall of an Asian restaurant.

  They were now in a part of town Arkemoz had never visited, or at least he’d never spent enough time here to take any of it in. Not that he’d wanted to until now. He was still apprehensive about it, but he did sort of want to explore how life on Earth worked a bit, now that Adley had put the idea of fun in his head. But only after they were done with the current crisis though, of course.

  “Well, I don’t think we’ve come across a single vamp,” Adley said, folding his arms. He stared at the dark concrete of the sidewalk for a moment, sighing. “I mean, that’s a good thing, I guess….”

  Arkemoz nodded, trying to stop his shivering. He was a demon
from one of the more well-known hell dimensions, goddammit. He wouldn’t be defeated by something as basic as the cold.

  “This is really putting me on edge,” Adley continued in the meantime, glaring as his eyes scanned the buildings on the opposite side of the street. “But I dunno, maybe she was the only one. We technically don’t even really have a reason to think otherwise. So maybe this means everything is fine, right?” He groaned. “I don’t know, what do you think?”

  Arkemoz opened his mouth to reply, but Adley spoke first.

  “Are you cold?” he asked, his eyebrows flying up.

  Arkemoz sighed, looking away. “Maybe.” He hoped Adley wouldn’t think he was weak because of it.

  “Jesus, why didn’t you say anything?” Adley exclaimed, his eyes wide with concern as he started to take off his jacket. Arkemoz stared at him in surprise as his heart fluttered. Was this a side effect of being cold? He got even more shocked as Adley draped the jacket over Arkemoz’s shoulders. “I didn’t even know demons could get cold.”

  Arkemoz was still freezing, but now there was a feeling of warmth spreading through his chest. It felt kind of...nice. And really confusing, but since Arkemoz had been confused by almost everything today he wasn’t too fazed by it anymore.

  “Me neither. Not before I came here.” Arkemoz hugged the jacket around him tighter.

  “Used to hellfire, huh?” Adley grinned at him. “You look good in my jacket.”

  Arkemoz’s face flushed as he immediately ducked his head, his heart fluttering again. “Thanks.” He swallowed, forcing himself to focus on their mission again. “And no, I don’t have any ideas. Sorry.”

  Adley’s smile softened. “That’s all right. We’ll just keep this up for now, huh?” Then he frowned in worry again. “Um, you are up to doing this, right? ‘Cause if not—”

  “No, I’m fine,” Arkemoz said immediately. He did feel a bit warmer with the jacket. His hands were still freezing, though. He shoved them back in the pockets of his coat, hoping that was going to relieve the stinging in his fingers a little.