Bat Shift Crazy: An Ex-Shifter turned Vampire Hunter Urban Fantasy (The Legend of Nyx Book 2)

by Theophilus Monroe

  I cocked my head. "Did you catch her name?"

  Pauli nodded. "They called her Mina."

  Chapter thirty-two

  Hailey took Debbie back to her room. Cain left-presumably far enough away that he wouldn't be affected when Julie summoned her flambeaux. I cut open Lazarus' chest, and Julie blasted his heart with hellfire.

  I'd never seen anything like it. The flames didn't just burn his heart. They consumed his whole body. When they burned out, all that was left on the gurney was a pile of ash.

  I wasn't at all inclined to plug my ears with condoms. Thankfully, Rutherford managed to find some earplugs in one of the drawers of the nurse's station. A helpful amenity, she said, to help patients sleep since the asylum was rarely quiet. Many of the patients weren't of sound mind. Moaning, screaming, all sorts of odd sounds regularly filled the halls of Vilokan Asylum.

  Cain went to his office and returned a moment later with a wooden stake in his hands. He handed it to me. "This might come in handy. That way, at least, you won't have to ruin another pair of shoes."

  "Thanks!" I said, twirling the stake in my right hand.

  Pauli told Hailey where to go—St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. The burial place of the former Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau. I knew that much. I took a tour of the place after I was released from the asylum before. The place was riddled with weather-worn mausoleums, many of them twice the height of a standing adult. An oddity to New Orleans since you can't bury people underground in a city below sea level—unless you'd like to see your relatives come back to visit sooner rather than later.

  The cemetery was also the resting place of Nicholas Cage. Yeah, he wasn't dead yet. But he had a tomb-in-waiting that resembled a miniature Egyptian pyramid. I suspected he'd buried his career there several years ago. The tomb was now just waiting for his body to catch up.

  It wasn't far, only about a half-mile from the St. Louis Cathedral and, therefore, the entrance to Vilokan. Given the approximate size of Vilokan, which was at least twice as large as the whole French Quarter, I imagined the cemetery was somewhere above the voodoo underworld.

  Pauli could only teleport two of us. Since the nightwalkers, and Mina, wanted Hailey to begin with, and since Cain insisted that he go along to rescue his patient, it made the most sense that Pauli took Cain and me.

  Hailey and Julie would regroup with Annabelle and meet us there. Hopefully, by the time they arrived, we'd have the situation handled. While Cain wasn't nearly so threatening in his human form, he did have a few advantages that the rest of them didn't. First, he was impervious to magic. Second, if anyone tried to kill him, they'd fall under the sevenfold curse.

  I wasn't a hundred percent certain that Cain's curse gave us an advantage, though. Becoming a werewolf wasn't without its advantages. It was a cost, I figured, the likes of Victoria and Mina would be willing to pay. But Cain was adamant that he come along. I could only hope we wouldn't come to regret it.

  With our earplugs firmly in place, Pauli shifted into his serpent form and wrapped himself around Cain and me. A flash of light, representing every color in a pack of Skittles, surrounded us. We found ourselves standing between two concrete mausoleums a half-second later, each with a cross affixed to the top.

  Pauli slithered across my shoulders. He muttered something. I removed my earplugs. "What were you saying?" I asked.

  "Sorry," Pauli said. "Forgot you couldn't hear me. This one here, it's where they had Devin. Malinda is in another one, somewhere. I can't say which one for sure."

  The stone door on the front of the tomb was heavy. Most of them, I imagined, were sealed and locked. I struggled to open it.

  "Let me try," Cain said, having removed his earplugs, too.

  I nodded. Cain and I put our foam earplugs back in our ears. Pauli slithered down my body and curled up at the ground by my feet. Then, Cain grabbed the edge of the door and threw it open, the door cracking in two pieces when it hit the ground. Apparently, werewolves are strong—even in human form.

  The stench of vampire hit me the moment Cain opened it.

  The source of the stink was immediately apparent.

  Victoria was inside. She had Devin in her arms, his body limp. Devin's blood was dripping from her chin.

  "You bitch!" I screamed.

  Victoria snapped her fingers. I don't know what she was trying to make us do. I couldn't hear it. Thank you, ear plugs. Her compulsion didn't work.

  A look of abject horror fell on her face. She raised her hand as if to tell me to stop. I didn't. I charged her and slammed my wooden stake through her chest and into her heart. I dropped Victoria and caught Devin as his body slipped from her hands.

  Kneeling, Devin in my arms, I ran my fingers through his hair. "Devin... wake up! Please wake up! I can't lose you! I love you!"

  Cain put his hand on my shoulder. I removed one of my earplugs. "Take care of him. I'll look for Mina and Malinda."

  I checked Devin's pulse. His heart was racing due to blood loss—but he was alive. I could only hope she hadn't drained him completely. But if she had...

  "Pauli," I said, tears falling from my eyes. "Can you take him back to Annabelle and Hailey? They can heal him."

  "He might change," Pauli said.

  "He might not," I said. "Either way, please. I can't let him die!"

  Pauli slithered around Devin's body, and the two of them disappeared in a flash of colorful light.

  Chapter thirty-three

  I didn't have a way to burn Victoria's heart. But I wasn't about to risk someone unstaking her—we didn't know where Mina was, and there was always the possibility they had other members of the Order working with them. With rage, I jammed my hands into the sound on either side of the stake in Victoria's chest. With a scream, I ripped apart her rib cage, her vampire blood pouring out all over my hands and splashing on my face.

  I dug her heart out of her open chest and ripped it out. Victoria gasped. Even with her heart out of her body, so long as her heart wasn't staked, she could come to.

  I grabbed the stake with my right hand and placed it on her heart as it pumped in my left hand.

  "Tell me where Malinda is!" I screamed.

  Victoria tried to lift her hand.

  "Don't think about it, or I'll stake your heart."

  "You're too late," Victoria said. "You can't save the witch."

  "Why did you follow me here? What do you want with her?"

  Victoria narrowed her eyes. "Shouldn't you be with your man? If he loses any more blood... what comedy that would be, a slayer dating a vampire."

  "Shut up!" I screamed. "Answer my questions!"

  Victoria shook her head. "You'll stake me again, anyway. And I'm not so naive as to think you won't burn my heart after you do. What's in it for me to tell you anything?"

  "You're right," I said. "I will eliminate you. But I can make it quick and painless, or I can draw it out, make sure you feel it as the flames slowly burn you out of existence."

  Victoria laughed. "It doesn't matter if I tell you. You won't be able to stop it."

  "You need a blood witch," I said.

  "And we'll find one," Victoria said. "Whether we sacrifice your friend or not, there are others we can find. And when we do..."

  "What's the point? Why are Malinda's parents so important. Why do you need her so badly?"

  "You really don't know? We shouldn't be on opposite ends of this issue, Nicky."

  "You bit my boyfriend," I said. "I don't care what your reasons are. Why do you need a couple necromancers? What good would they do for the Order?"

  "Your boyfriend went to great lengths to save his mother. Even if only as a vampire. What if I told you we could save his father, too?"

  "Tom?" I asked. "He's dead. I saw him die with my own eyes."

  Victoria smiled. "Hence, why a couple of the most powerful necromancers might come in handy."

  "Why does Mina want Tom back so badly?" I asked.

  "Again, you don't know?" Victoria asked. "Tom is more tha
n just another fallen member of the Order of the Morning Dawn."

  "He had rank, I get that. But these are some extreme measures for one man."

  Victoria laughed. "Do you know why Wolfgang returned to the Order? Why he came back to take it over after he left?"

  "All I know is that he hoped to use me, to make me take the form of his former lover."

  "That was not his original purpose. It's not why he returned to the Order."

  "What are you saying?" I asked. "What is it you aren't telling me?"

  "Wolfgang came back, using his powers of compulsion, to subdue Tom. Because Tom had recently come into possession of a grimoire, one that revealed several celestial secrets not contained in the Grimoire of Pope Honorius."

  "What grimoire are you talking about?"

  "The Grimoire of the Nazarene," Victoria said. "Written by the hand of Christ, himself. With it, one can do far more than wield angelic powers. The spells contained in the grimoire allow one to command the legions of angels."

  "I don't understand. If Tom had that grimoire and Mina wants it so badly, why doesn't Mina just take it and use it herself?"

  "Because Wolfgang commanded him to hide it. He tried to make him destroy it. I wasn't there at the time. I was staked in the catacombs. But the book itself was protected by some kind of protective ward. It couldn't be destroyed."

  "And if Mina resurrects Tom, she believes he'll help her recover the grimoire."

  "And with its power, with the angels at their command, Mina and Tom could eliminate every last vampire and witch in existence. Think of it. You're a slayer, are you not? Isn't that something you'd want?"

  "No!" I shouted. "Why would I want that! Not every vampire, and certainly not every witch, deserves to die. You realize, don't you, that if they did that, you'd die, too?"

  "We nightwalkers have earned our redemption serving the Order of the Morning Dawn. Mina has promised that the angels, under her command, would usher us into celestial glory."

  I grunted. "Not if I send you to vampire hell, first."

  "The angels will storm the gates of hell! They'll redeem us, even those of us who've fallen, who've paid the ultimate price in service to the cause!"

  "They'll betray you," I said. "The Order uses you. They have no loyalty to your kind. Look at how they turned on Alice. There's a reason why Wolfgang wanted to stop Tom. He knew as much!"

  "Consider my faith an exercise of Paschal's wager," Victoria said. "If Mina stays true to her word, I have a chance at redemption. If she doesn't, well, I'd end up in hell anyway."

  "Or you could live as a vampire. You could join Alice, Mercy, and the others who are trying to change things. You don't have to be a blight on the world. You can help them make the world a better place."

  Victoria snorted. "They will fail, Nyx. It's only a matter of time before hypocrites like Alice return to their nature. All of us will. We are killers. It's what we are. Our only path to salvation is through the Order."

  "Where's Mina? Where's Malinda?" I screamed. "Tell me now, or I'll stake your heart!"

  I was so enraged I didn't even see Victoria snap her fingers. When she did, I forced the stake into her heart. It was just as well. She'd told me all she wanted me to know. She was ready to die. When we burned her heart, she'd go to hell in a futile hope that someday the Order would command the angels to take her to heaven.

  But I wouldn't let that happen. I couldn't allow Mina to revive Tom. If they got that grimoire, the Order would do more than eliminate vampires and witches. They'd use the angels to go after everyone they hated. They'd eliminate everyone they deemed sinners unworthy of redemption. That included me. It included Cain. Devin, too. Even Donnie and Geraldo—everyone I cared about.

  Chapter thirty-four

  I didn't know where Cain had gone. Had he found Mina and Malinda? Maybe. But Cain didn't know what Mina was up to. I wasn't sure if that knowledge would change much. We still had to save Malinda. But Cain might allow Mina to walk if he didn't realize what she'd planned. Rescuing Malinda might thwart Mina's plans for now—but the Grimoire of the Nazarene was out there, somewhere. She'd find it, one way or another, if we didn't stop her or find it first.

  I shifted into bat form. With a bats-eye view over the cemetery, I could survey the whole place. With mausoleums towering all around, I didn't have a clear vision otherwise. Also, with my enhanced hearing, I'd find Cain a lot faster.

  And I did. I heard his voice first. Flapping my wings, I turned and dove between two of the tombs where Cain stood, holding Malinda in his arms.

  I returned to human form.

  "You found her!"

  "She's fine, thank God," Cain said.

  "What about Mina?"

  Cain shook his head. "She must be gone."

  I heard a sound—like stones tumbling to the ground.

  I turned as I saw Hailey, her wand in hand, blasting her way through the stone door on the front of Marie Laveau's tomb. Apparently, there was a secret path in and out of Vilokan that opened up inside the former Voodoo Queen's burial place.

  Annabelle, with Pauli in snake form, draped over her shoulders, and Rutherford followed her through the opening. And then, Devin...

  I ran to him and embraced him—not thinking about the fact that I was stark naked, since I'd just shifted in and out of bat form.

  I don't think he cared.

  I kissed him on the lips. He kissed me back.

  "You're yourself," I said. "I was afraid Victoria had drained you... that you'd..."

  "We healed him just in time," Hailey said. "If he'd lost another drop of blood, he probably would have changed."

  "Thank you, Hailey," I said.

  "I'm still weak," Devin said. "I lost a lot of blood. But I'm here."

  "We have a problem," Annabelle said.

  "What's the matter?" Cain said, still holding Malinda in his arms. Malinda was awake but clearly out of sorts.

  "It was Mina," Rutherford said. "The moment you all left, she came. She staked Debbie and took her."

  I sighed. "Of course she did."

  "I don't know how she got in and out of the asylum," Annabelle said. "It was past the witching hour. She couldn't have used magic to get in or out."

  Cain shook his head. "She never left. I suspect she'd been hiding there the whole time. She probably came when the other two nightwalkers did. She was just waiting for us to leave."

  "Why would she want my mom so badly?" Devin asked.

  I sighed. "It's her plan B."

  "What do you mean?" Cain asked.

  "She's looking for the Grimoire of the Nazarene."

  Cain's eyes widened in abject horror. "I thought that was a myth. But if that book really exists, God spare us all."

  "What are you talking about?" Annabelle asked.

  "I interrogated Victoria," I said. "She told me that Tom had come into possession of a book, one written by the hand of Christ himself, that contained magic that would give someone the ability to command angels."

  "If Mina gets it," Cain said, "she'll be unstoppable."

  "She hopes to use it to eliminate every vampire and witch in existence," I said.

  "But why would she want my mom?" Devin asked.

  "Their first plan was to use you, Devin, to awaken their curse, their shapeshifting ability."

  "It's how they shifted into our shape," Pauli said.

  "But those two vampires are gone," I said. "We eliminated Lazarus, and Victoria's heart is staked, next to her body, in a tomb a few rows over. We only need to burn her heart, and she'll be done for, too."

  "I'll do it," Devin said.

  "Has she told you everything she knows?" Cain asked.

  "She's told me everything she will," I said. "I don't think she'll be of any more use to us."

  "We can do it together," Hailey said. "You're in no shape to cast any spells, Devin."

  Devin nodded. "I still want to do it. After all the shit she did to us."

  "We can take care of that later," Cain said
. "She isn't going anywhere. Annabelle, you know where Mina went?"

  "She's still in Vilokan," Annabelle said. "I put the whole city on lockdown. I don't think she can get out, but, the emergency wards have never been tested against celestial magic. Julie is trying to track her down even as we speak."

  "She'll use Debbie as a hostage," Cain said.

  "Devin," I said. "Remember what your mom said about when she was attacked? Lazarus was looking for something. He bit her only after she told him she didn't know what she was talking about."

  "He was looking for the grimoire," Cain said. "When he figured out that your mom didn't have it, they resorted to their other plan. They knew, Nicky, if they could manipulate the bat form that was previously dormant inside you that you'd panic."

  "How would they know I'd lead them here, to the asylum?" I asked.

  "They probably didn't," Cain said. "But if they knew your history, and they surely know about me, they probably hoped you'd come back here for answers."

  "But if my mom couldn't tell Lazarus where this grimoire was, why would Mina think she'd have better luck?"

  "Good cop, bad cop," I said. "Your mom didn't respond to a vampire. Why would she? She might not even know anything about the grimoire. But maybe she knows about where your father might have gone around the time that Wolfgang took over the order. Victoria said that Wolfgang's original purpose when he returned to the Order was to stop Tom from using the grimoire. He commanded Tom to hide it. At the very least, Debbie might offer Mina some clues about where to find it. And if she takes Debbie, promises her a chance at redemption if she helps..."

  "I don't think she ever intended to use Hailey at all to awaken Malinda's powers," Cain said. "Using Malinda, and her parents' abilities, as a ruse was her plan all the while. To lure us out here so she could take Debbie for herself and manipulate her, in her vulnerability, to tell her what she might know. I imagine even if you hadn't come to New Orleans, she would have tried something similar back in Kansas City."