Blood and Fire

by Gabriela Fišerová

  He was about to attempt to put the coat on when he noticed a crumpled up piece of paper under the bed. He would have let it be given his current state, but there was writing on it, and curiosity got the better of him. Leaning down carefully to pick it up, there was a minor stab of pain from the wound in his back. He was already straightening out the surprisingly thick piece of paper as he rose up again, immediately realizing it was an address.

  Arkemoz wouldn’t think that too strange, but he knew for a fact that Adley’s handwriting was much more polished and elegant than this. Arkemoz had only seen it a few times, but he was fairly certain he could easily identify it. And he hadn’t seen the vampire interact with anyone aside from members of Aegis, Arkemoz himself, and the staff in the various businesses they’d visited over the last few days.

  Arkemoz was willing to just forget about this, though, since it wasn’t any of his business. Until he turned the paper around and saw the symbol. A black circle made up of feathered wings. Arkemoz’s mouth went dry as he stared at it, attempting to understand.

  Was this what Black had warned him about? Was this what Arkemoz had been supposed to look out for?

  The note fell out of his hand. He stared at it for a moment, before he forced himself to look away. He ran a hand through his hair as he tried to think about this rationally. The note had been on the floor and crumpled up. If Adley had wanted to hide that he was with the Circle, surely he would have made sure to hide it better. This seemed more like he hadn’t cared enough to throw it away properly.

  But the fact that Adley had clearly been contacted by these people was making Arkemoz feel sick. He needed to go tell Black about this.

  He was almost out the door, having very painfully pulled on the coat, and his hand was on the doorknob when it dawned on him—he couldn’t tell Aegis. Adley had been contacted by the Circle, and he’d said nothing. Aegis would no doubt take that as him trying to hide something. And if this really was nothing to be concerned about, Arkemoz didn’t want to get Adley into trouble.

  Shaking his head, he decided to investigate the address first. Maybe the Circle wasn’t even there anymore, if they had even been there in the first place. Once he had some information, he could report back and pretend he’d just come across the building by chance. There was no need to mention Adley was somehow connected to this.

  He knew that the smartest option would be to go find Adley, and ask him about it, but Arkemoz couldn’t make himself do that right now. Just the idea of talking to him made his heart clench painfully. And so he pulled the hood of his coat over his head and stepped outside. Only then he remembered that he probably should have brought the note with him, but he was fairly confident he remembered the address, and he didn’t think he could make himself go back inside the apartment right now.

  It took quite a while to find the right building since Arkemoz’d had no map to find the place, and had had to go to the park to look at the map there, but he didn’t mind too much. At least it distracted him from the conversation with Adley that had been replaying in his head over and over. And the time ‘wasted’ had let him heal his wounds a bit, so that was an upside. Even though he wasn’t planning on fighting, he was going to spy on Aegis’ enemies, so it was entirely possible there would be trouble. He’d made sure to pick up a broken, thick branch he’d found beneath a tree in the local park. It was a little crude, but it would work.

  The house with the corresponding address looked completely ordinary. It was at the edge of town, the roof covered up by snow, standing between two old trees, and surrounded by a fence taller than Arkemoz. Though he was getting used to most things being taller than him, much to his annoyance.

  The demon stared at the windows of the house, trying to spot any movement of shadows inside. Even though the lights were off, he knew very well that vampires could see well in the dark, so there was no reason to assume no one was there just because of that. But there didn’t seem to be anyone moving around inside. All was quiet, aside from the constantly present, distant sounds of traffic. It had even stopped snowing now, Arkemoz realized.

  He scowled at the half-rusted gate in front of him. Either he left now, having learned nothing, or he tried to get at least past the fence, and maybe try to find a way to get inside the house without using the front door.

  He took a hold of the gate’s handle, and to his shock, he found that it wasn’t locked. Frowning in suspicion, he pushed the gate open all the way, wincing at the creak the action had produced. Maybe this wasn’t the right house after all. The more he scrutinized it, the more abandoned it looked. But if that was the case, he should make sure of that, shouldn’t he?

  Sighing, he stepped through the gate, but that was as far as he got. This was definitely a bad idea. He should get some help before blindly walking into danger. And since he didn’t have a convincing enough reason to get Aegis involved without telling them about that piece of paper, Arkemoz would have to ask Adley. And as much as he didn’t want to, this was more important than hurt feelings.

  But as he made a move to turn around and walk away, he found himself frozen in place. He looked down at his feet with wide eyes, noticing a circle of unfamiliar symbols around him, glowing with faint golden light through the layer of snow. What was this? Some kind of demon trap?

  Arkemoz cursed under his breath as he tried to get his legs free with all the strength he had, but his feet remained stubbornly stuck to the ground. Before he could start panicking, a deep voice behind him spoke, making Arkemoz turn around as much as he could with his feet stuck like this.

  “We were wondering when you’d stop by,” a young, blond man, no doubt a vampire, said, walking towards him. Arkemoz gritted his teeth, glaring at the man fiercely and pulling out his makeshift weapon. He doubted he was going to win this, but he would try his hardest.

  But, of course, the vampire wasn’t going to play fair. He walked up right behind Arkemoz, so the only way he could attack was to half-blindly stab the wooden stake behind him, hoping he would hit the vampire. But as soon as Arkemoz tried that, he was easily disarmed. It was frankly embarrassing.

  “Just give up, demon. There’s nothing you can do to free yourself.”

  Arkemoz shot the vampire a furious look over his shoulder, saying nothing. He knew he was right, but he wasn’t going to admit it. That would be admitting defeat.

  “Do it then,” Arkemoz spat at him after a few seconds of silence.

  “What, you think I’m going to kill you?” The vampire laughed. “No, no, we’ve got something much better planned for you.”

  And before Arkemoz could react, the vampire struck him in the back of his head with so much force that Arkemoz lost consciousness.

  8

  James couldn’t believe he’d just done that. He’d been wishing Arkie would express some kind of romantic interest in him, and when he’d actually done it, James had panicked and rejected him. Those hurt and confused eyes would definitely haunt him for a while.

  But he couldn’t even call himself an idiot. There was a good reason for this, he just hadn’t put all the pieces together until then. The simple truth was that, after all the horrible things he’d done, he didn’t deserve anyone like Arkie, and the demon would no doubt find someone better suited for showing him how life around here worked in no time. He just needed to meet another moron who would bug him into conversations.

  James immediately felt a surge of jealousy rise within him and shook his head, exasperated by his own reaction. He was being jealous of a hypothetical person. How ridiculous was that? And besides, Arkie deserved to be happy. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that despite Arkemoz’s species he was a good guy. And adorably confused by everything. And—

  James let out an irritated huff as he ran a hand through his hair. It didn’t matter what his dead heart wanted. He had no right to get it. At least it finally made sense to him why Neriah’s words had bothered him so much. Deep down he wished a little bit that Arkie was like how the angel had describe
d him. Maybe then James would feel like they could be together. Though he doubted he’d like Arkemoz beyond being attracted to him if he were a scumbag.

  James shook his head again, trying to focus. He would just get rid of that bracelet and leave. Possibly the country. Hopefully that would be enough for Arkie to forget about him, and everything could go back to how things were. Except James wouldn’t be present. So most likely, they would go better.

  He heaved a sad sigh as he stopped in front of the house he’d been given the address to. He’d been here twice before. The first time just to check what this place was, and the second, to get the bracelet removed. But he’d backed out at the last minute. He hadn’t thought it worth risking Aegis going to hunt him down if this went wrong, and he certainly didn’t want to cause problems for Arkie because he’d definitely be at the very least interrogated about this.

  But now he had a very different motivation to get this done. And Black seemed to be reasonable. James was sure he wouldn’t do much aside from asking Arkie what he knew. Well, almost sure. Jesus, he would have to talk with Arkie himself before he disappeared. He couldn’t just leave like this. He wasn’t that much of a dick.

  The idea of talking to the demon right now made him feel nauseous, but there was nothing to be done about it. James had promised to come back, and he wouldn’t break that promise. Arkie deserved better than that.

  James glared at the now familiar house he was walking towards. It felt wrong, coming here. But he wasn’t sure why. What he was going to do here wasn’t anything bad. He just wanted to get Aegis’ watchful eye away from him. He didn’t like talking to yet another organization of supernatural creatures, but that was a necessary evil. He would just ignore whatever they said about how their little Circle was a much better choice, get the bracelet removed, and leave. And he was armed in case they decided not to let him do that. The more he thought about this, the more risky it seemed, but what else could he do? Continue working for Aegis against his will for all eternity? Because even if they did remove the bracelet after a year, James doubted they’d let him quit. None of his colleagues seemed all that happy to be there. James suspected they stayed only out of some guilt-induced sense of obligation.

  Before he started overthinking too much, he pushed the gate open and walked in, heading towards the house. Judging by the marks in the new, crisp snow, someone had walked through here recently. The whole abandoned-house facade these people had going on wasn’t all that effective when there were footprints leading to it.

  He heaved a sigh and knocked on the door. He really hoped this wouldn't take too long. Some primal instinct was already telling him to run far away from here. But he couldn’t do that with that thing on his wrist.

  The door swung open, revealing the female vampire who’d given him the address in the first place. Did they not have more people here? Sure, this wasn’t a big town, but this Circle of Whatever really wasn’t putting out a fearsome image.

  She didn’t say anything. Just smiled a knowing smile that made James want to roll his eyes and waved him inside. James resisted the urge to comment on any of this and just walked in, brushing snow out of his hair.

  Inside the house it was dark and practically empty, save for a few pieces of furniture, like a wardrobe or a shelf here and there, usually covered up with plastic. And that, along with the peeling wallpaper and layers of dust on every surface, was really getting across that this house had definitely been abandoned. The Circle probably wouldn’t be staying here long. Or they had no money to get a proper base.

  “Lovely place you’ve got here,” James commented before he could even think to stop himself. The silence was getting to him. And judging by how the woman laughed, she didn’t mind the sarcasm. He was led from the hall to what he assumed was the kitchen, but it was hard to tell with everything that would logically be there either removed or covered up in thick layers of plastic.

  “I’d offer you something, but all we have is blood, so….” she said as she sat down at the completely clean table. It stood out incredibly, even beyond the fact that it was in the middle of a practically empty room. James couldn’t tell if she was mocking him or not, so he narrowed his eyes at her and sat down at the only other available chair opposite her.

  “Are all vampires so uncultured these days that they don’t even drink coffee?” James scoffed. He wasn’t even sure why he was taking this particular attitude, since he had never been a fan of the whole kids today rhetoric. But he wasn’t exactly in the best of moods right now.

  “Why would we waste time on coffee when we have something so much better?” James cringed at the tone. The other vampire was practically drooling now. “But to the matter at hand. First I’ll tell you about the Circle. Then I’ll remove your bracelet.”

  James blinked. “Wait, you’ll do it?”

  “It’s a relatively simple spell,” she replied, shrugging as if she’d done this a hundred times. Maybe she had, James had no way of knowing. “You just need the right words and ingredients.”

  “That’s like all magic in a nutshell.”

  The female vampire raised an eyebrow at him. She sort of looked like she wanted to argue but couldn’t. James didn’t actually know all that much about magic because he prefered to stay away from the thing. It was way too dangerous and unpredictable. And he sure wished he could keep avoiding it, but this couldn’t be done without it, as far as he knew.

  “So, what’s your deal?” James asked, eager to get this conversation over with as soon as possible.

  “Our deal is to make the world right.”

  Well, that was just about the amount of vague James had expected. “Right?”

  “Vampires are apex predators. They shouldn’t be second class citizens.”

  “So, your plan is to subjugate the human race? That’ll never happen.”

  She actually seemed a bit taken aback by that. Did she really think this was an original idea? James had come across countless other supernatural beings that supported this ideology, but their numbers never had been and never would be high enough to make this happen. And besides, none of these morons ever realized how much worse life would be without humans in charge.

  “Until recently I would agree with you,” she said, folding her arms and narrowing her eyes at him. James wondered when her eye would start twitching. “But the angels seem really dead set on making it happen.”

  Right. The angels. Those still scared the hell out of him. He wondered how many of them there were because even one sounded like far too many to him. Especially if they were stronger than demons.

  James’ heart gave a painful twitch. He hoped Arkie would heal those wounds soon. He’d seemed really out of it when James had been leading him to his place. Jesus Christ, the blood…. He could almost still smell it.

  He swallowed thickly as he felt his fangs elongating again. Just the idea of drinking it made him feel disgusted, but apparently some part of him didn’t care at all about that. Yes, leaving was definitely a good idea.

  “And why would the angels want to help vampires?” James asked, clearing his throat. “Last I checked, angels aren’t all that fond of us.”

  “These ones are.”

  James scowled. There had to be more to this than that. And the most obvious theory here was that the angels needed an army for whatever their ultimate goal was. Vampires were everywhere, and they could easily increase their numbers.

  “And their plan is to just, what, help us take over?”

  “Essentially,” she said, smiling, her fangs dangerously sharp. “They want to make a new Heaven on Earth, and we’ll be right below them on the food chain.”

  “Won’t that still make us second class citizens?” James asked, smirking at the annoyed look she gave him. But on the inside, he was very, very concerned, even though he was standing by what he’d said. This wouldn’t end with vampires ruling the world. He didn’t know what these angels’ plans were, but he was sure they wouldn't be good for anyone but those feath
ered bastards.

  “The way you are right now is wrong.”

  James blinked at the sudden change of topic. “No need to make it so personal.”

  “You’re like a lion who’s been forced to eat grass.”

  That was a very stupid metaphor. If only because lions were lazy bastards who let their women do everything for them. Not that James would refuse if someone was into that…. But that wasn’t the point.

  “Pretty sure a lion would die like that.”

  “I meant that this,” she said, gesturing to all of him, “is completely unnatural.”

  James grimaced, staring off at the dark walls instead. He could argue that none of them were natural. They were referred to as supernatural after all. But they had always been here, hadn’t they? Or if not always, for a very, very long time.

  “All right, fine,” James grumbled, rolling his eyes. “I don’t think this is part of your sales pitch, miss…?”

  “I never gave you my name, did I?”

  James waited for her to say it, but she just kept watching him silently, her arms folded in front of her on the table.

  “You still haven’t.”

  She smiled, raising an eyebrow. James huffed. How pretentious were these guys? Playing some secret agent shit.

  “It does relate, though,” she continued, making James frown immediately. He already knew he wasn’t going to like it. “You feel guilty for killing humans only because of humans. Think about it.” She leaned closer to him, and James moved back. “Do you actually feel guilty, or do you just feel guilty because you’ve been conditioned to think you should feel that way?”

  James scoffed as an uncomfortable feeling spread through his stomach. “You’re just messing with my head.”

  “No, I’m not,” she said, shaking her head. “I know I’m not because I know what it's like.”

  Oh. James hadn’t thought of that possibility. But it proved nothing. This vampire was clearly not abstaining anymore. He couldn’t trust a word she said. Except that he was here, trusting that she would free him from Aegis.