Soulless at Sunset

by Deanna Chase

  Dante let out a piercing cry as his flesh tore open once again from the lawn stakes that had been holding him up. Allcot threw him back against the shed, causing the entire thing to collapse around the other vampire.

  “Shit,” I muttered, taking a step back to stay out of the fray. I didn’t personally care if Allcot beat him to a pulp. Clearly Dante was a worthless member of vampire society. But I did care if Allcot killed him before we got more answers.

  Allcot reached into the rubble and grabbed Dante with one hand, his other fist already sailing toward Dante’s face. But Dante came out of the rubble with a broken two-by-four in his grasp, and before Allcot’s fist connected, Dante rammed the jagged piece into Allcot’s shoulder, tearing the flesh open and knocking Allcot off-balance.

  Dante took his opening and flew at Allcot, his fangs bared.

  Allcot spun, but he wasn’t fast enough and Dante’s fangs sank right into Allcot’s neck. Still on their feet, they were a tangle of limbs and fangs and grunts.

  Calmly, I walked right up to the grappling vampires and said, “Enough! Eadric, control yourself. We have work to do—Pandora, Willow, and Talisen are still missing, remember?”

  Neither acknowledged my reasoning, not that I’d expected them to, but it’d been worth a shot.

  “You realize you leave me no choice, right?” Again, nothing. “Okay then.”

  I reached for my other blade and waited for my opening, then lunged. The weapon slid easily into Dante’s back and he froze.

  Startled, Allcot froze too. Then his eyes found my blade and he started to laugh. He stepped away from the incapacitated vampire and nodded at me. “Well played, Kilsen.”

  “Bitch,” Dante said, not daring to move a muscle.

  “Call me that again, vampire, and I’ll twist this knife.” I pushed it in deeper, just to make my point. “It won’t likely kill you since I didn’t use the cursed one… this time, but it’s hard to say. Depends on how close it is to your heart.”

  He let out a snarl. “What do you want from me?”

  I leaned in and in a harsh whisper, I said, “I want to know everything. Who has Pandora, why they’re toying with Allcot, and where the hell are Willow Rhoswen and Talisen Kavanagh?”

  14

  “I don’t fucking know,” Dante said through clenched teeth.

  “He knows,” Allcot said, sounding bored. “He’s just run out of bargaining chips.”

  I glanced back at Allcot, who’d untangled himself from the other vampire. He and Link were flanking me on either side, both of them ready to spring into action if Dante tried to get the best of me. I smiled, acknowledging their presence.

  Then I held my cursed blade up to the vampire’s neck. “Answer me, or I’ll shove this down your throat. And trust me when I say it will hurt worse than the fires of hell.”

  He grunted, clearly not believing me. I sliced the blade along his cheek. A scream tore from him as he jerked forward, taking me with him. My blade sank deeper and he froze again.

  “Told you to trust me that this shit would hurt. Now, answers.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Maybe another time,” I said sweetly and lifted my blade to his face again.

  The vampire sucked in a sharp breath. “All right! I’ll tell you what I know.”

  “This better be good or else I think you’ll find yourself roasting in the fire still smoldering behind us.”

  “Dammit. I don’t know everything. But unless I get some assurance you’re not going to waste me, I’m not going to tell you anything.”

  The fear in his voice was enough to convince me he’d spill whatever he’d learned. Or at least enough that it’d give us another path to follow. “All right. If you tell us everything you know, I promise to let you walk away.”

  “And what about your henchmen back there? Will you control the wolf and the vampire?”

  “The wolf yes. Allcot? No one controls him.”

  “Allcot?” Dante said. “Deal?”

  “Deal. But if I find out Pandora’s already dead, I’ll tear your head right off.”

  The vampire in front of me shuddered, and I suddenly knew what it meant to put the fear of God into someone. Or at least the fear of Eadric Allcot. Curiously, I’d never been all that afraid of the Cryrique leader, but then I’d never double-crossed him or harmed his consort either.

  “Allcot is right. I was going to sell Pandora,” Dante said. Allcot hissed again and Dante rushed to add, “Sell to the Cryrique. I released her and was going to offer her up in return for a wad of cash. You’d pay a lot to have your woman back, wouldn’t you, Allcot?”

  “I don’t respond well to extortion,” Allcot said, circling us as he glared at Dante. “And don’t lie to me. I know your brother would’ve never forgiven such a betrayal.”

  “I swear on my tortured soul!” he cried, holding his hands partially up in surrender. “I only took this job because my brother said they’d pay off my debts.”

  “Debts?” I asked.

  “Gambling. Women. Bad business deals. The usual,” he said. “Nothing like this shit. I didn’t sign up for this. And I certainly didn’t know they were going to abduct Pandora. For fuck’s sake. If anyone knows how crazy that bitch is, it’s me.”

  “She does have a certain flair for the dramatic,” Allcot said, puffing his chest out, a look of pride flashing over his face.

  “Yes, we all know Pandora is your perfect match in every way,” I said, rolling my eyes at Allcot. “Can we move on?”

  “You know, Kilsen,” Allcot said, his gaze sweeping over me. “If anyone ever turned you vampire, you’d be just like her.”

  I ignored his remark, refusing to even entertain the idea of becoming a vamp. “So you freed Pandora,” I said to Dante. “What happened after that?”

  “I got her outside, but the shifters were waiting for me and—”

  “Shifters?” I asked. “Which shifters? Which pack?”

  “No idea. Rogue shifters, I think. If they were with a pack, I don’t know which one. They never talked about it.”

  “Fuck.” My gaze met Allcot’s, and his superior expression had “I told you so” written all over it. “Okay, so the shifters were there. Then what?”

  “Pandora went insane. She accused me of lying to her, that I only told her I’d take her back to Allcot to get her to cooperate. That’s when she attacked half the shifters. She took out two of them before I grabbed her, trying to get her away from them. There were too many to fight off. I figured we’d make a break for it. Fly away from here, but she tried to take off without me. If I’d let that happen, those shifters would’ve killed me on the spot for betraying them.”

  “So you stopped her from leaving?” I asked. “Because if she got away, there’d be no reason for Allcot to pay your ransom money, right?”

  “That too,” he said, hanging his head. “And when I grabbed her, demanding she take me with her, she went into a rage, grabbed the garden stakes that were on the porch, and nailed me to the shed. Told me I could rot there forever as far as she was concerned.”

  “So why didn’t she leave after that?” I asked, knowing damned well she possessed the same ability to fly that Allcot did.

  “They tranq’d her.”

  Shocked rattled me. “Vampire tranquilizer? How did they get their hands on it? It’s highly controlled.”

  “Don’t be naïve, Kilsen,” Allcot hissed. “Everyone has a price.”

  I stared at him. “You’re not implying the director—”

  “No, not necessarily. But it’s not out of the realm of possibility. Besides, she’s not the only one who has access to the drug, now is she?” He lowered his gaze to my feet where I did indeed have a tranq gun strapped to my ankle.

  “No tracker would sell that. It’s too dangerous.” But even as I said the words, I knew my statement was a lie. Power and money ruled New Orleans, and no one was above corruption. In fact, there was a reason there was only a handful of people I trusted. Willow,
Tal, and Dax. The others, like Allcot—we had a mutual understanding, but neither of us fully trusted the other. I shook my head and frowned. “Point taken,” I said to Allcot, and then turned my attention back to Dante. “Where did they get it?”

  “Fuck if I know. That’s above my pay grade.”

  “Fine. Where did they tell you they were going next?” I asked.

  “They said they were taking up residence on the ghost ship at Poland Wharf. Tomorrow night.”

  “Tomorrow night?” I asked, my mind reeling. It was a setup. The perfect con. If Allcot and I were off “saving” Pandora, we’d be out of the way for Asier.

  “Yes. I don’t know where they’ll be before then.”

  “I don’t believe you for one second, Dante,” I said, pressing the dagger to his throat. “I know exactly what’s supposed to happen tomorrow night, and it has nothing to do with Pandora.”

  He flinched, and I knew I’d hit a nerve.

  “Tell me where they’re taking Pandora. Is it the same place where Willow and Talisen are?”

  “I don’t know! I don’t know, I swear!” he cried.

  Allcot strolled around to face Dante. “You have five seconds to tell me where we can find Pandora, or I’m going to end you. Got it?”

  Dante let out a whimper. “They’ll kill me.”

  “They won’t have a chance,” I said. “Because at this point, I’m ready to let Allcot have his way.”

  “Jesus,” he said, hanging his head. “I honestly don’t know. And I do think they’re planning on taking Pandora to that ghost ship.”

  “Dante,” I said, “this blade is gonna do some real damage here in a second.”

  “I-I have a couple of guesses. Solid ones.”

  “Spit them out,” Allcot said.

  “They have a compound in English Turn. It used to belong to Bazil Baker, that famous singer turned vampire. He disappeared a few years ago and left it to his nephew. I heard the crew talking about crashing there.”

  “I know it,” Allcot said.

  Of course he did. He knew just about every rich, powerful, or famous person who ever set foot in the city.

  “Where else? And just give it to us straight, I’m tired of this game,” I said.

  “Oak Street. The peacock-blue house just before River Road.”

  “And Willow and Tal? Where are they?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know anything about where they are. I was only hired to keep Pandora in line.”

  “Will your brother Carter know?” I asked, my gut telling me Carter Voelkel was one of the main orchestrators of this entire ordeal.

  “Yes, but you won’t find him,” Dante said as he glanced back at me. “He only shows his face when he’s putting a plan in action. Now that the wheels are in motion, he’ll be back in hiding.”

  Dante’s words confirmed my suspicions. The vampire and shifters had been working together. Carter had distracted me while the shifters took Pandora. But what exactly had they wanted her for? Realization dawned on me.

  Pandora was the distraction.

  They needed to take her to distract Allcot while they completed the ritual, using a fae under his protection—the one and only accessible fairy with any notable power in the city.

  “How do you get in touch with your brother?” I asked.

  “I don’t. He gets in touch with me.”

  “How?”

  “He calls me or comes by my house. Why? You want me to give him a message?”

  “No.” Keeping my cursed blade against his throat, I used my other hand to reach into his pocket and pull out his phone. “I’m going to keep this. And if you turn it off between now and tomorrow night, I’ll hunt you down and end you, got it?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. Got it.”

  I glanced at Allcot. “Anything else?”

  Allcot took two steps, standing only inches from the other vampire. His eyes blazed with pure hatred. “If I ever catch you near Pandora again, you’ll wish I’d let Kilsen here stick that cursed dagger down your throat. Understand?”

  “Yeah, man. I get it. But Allcot, about that money—”

  “Shut him up,” Allcot ordered as he turned and headed back by the smoldering house.

  “You’re really fucking stupid,” I said.

  The vampire didn’t say a word. He just hung his head, dejected.

  “I do have two more questions before I take this knife out of your back.”

  “I don’t know anything else,” he said defiantly.

  “I doubt that. First, what is Pandora wearing now that they stripped her of her gala outfit?”

  His head popped up and he glanced back at me, incredulous. “That’s what you want to know?”

  “Yes. Is she dressed, or did you bastards make her run around in her lace underwear?”

  His eyes glazed over as he took in my words, but he shook his head. “She was wearing an oversized T-shirt. No shoes.”

  I shook my head, annoyed. At least she wasn’t naked. “Do you know or have you ever heard of anyone by the name of Blazer or Seth?”

  “Blazer? Yeah, I know a Blazer. Cool guy. Good with computers.”

  “You’ve seen Blazer?” I asked, my voice rising in excitement. “When? Where?”

  “Whoa. Clam down, witch. It’s been a few years. He helped Carter hack into some corporation’s system. Then he disappeared. Too bad, ’cause I could use some of his help right about now. Just a little transfer of money and I’d be in the clear.”

  “Two years ago? You’re completely sure about that?” How was that possible? My brother had been missing for eight.

  “Positive.”

  “If you’re lying, I’ll end you.”

  “I’m not lying! Jesus, lady. What do you want with him anyway?”

  “Never mind.” I wasn’t going to trust my secrets to the enemy, and he’d already indicated Seth had disappeared. There was nothing left to discuss. I dropped the cursed dagger from his neck, yanked the blade out of his back, and shoved him forward with a knee. “Go on. Get out of here before Allcot changes his mind.”

  The vampire swore as he stumbled, but when he found his balance, he pressed his hand to the marks on his neck and eyed me. “If you find him, tell him I have work for him.”

  “Huh?” I asked, distracted, running through all the places Seth might stay when he was in the city. A safe house made the most sense. But why wouldn’t he contact me? Had he been deep undercover at the Void all this time? Was that why they’d pretended he’d gone missing? If so, they’d even gone through the trouble to doctor his Void records. I gritted my teeth in frustration, knowing for certain that anything was possible. If there was any truth at all to the vampire’s claim, as soon as Willow and Tal were safe, I’d make it my sole mission to find him.

  “Christ, Kilsen,” Allcot said from out of nowhere. “You looking to get yourself killed?”

  I jumped, startled out of my thoughts. “What?”

  “You’re just standing there, staring off at nothing. If you hadn’t done such a good job scaring the shit out of that jackass Dante, he could’ve taken you without even breaking a sweat. What are you doing?”

  “Thinking,” I said, realizing Dante had fled while I was lost in thought. “Need to plan our next move.”

  “I’m already on it. Time to take a trip to English Turn.”

  15

  Dax sat, drumming his fingers on his leg as he impatiently waited outside Bandu’s private office. The leader of the pack had been holed up on the phone for over an hour, and Dax had just about lost patience. He stood and started to pace, his inner wolf antsy.

  “You should go for a run, man.”

  Dax jerked his head up and nodded to Leo. The young shifter had just appeared from the adjoining kitchen and was leaning against the doorframe. He had an apple in one hand and a hunk of jerky in the other.

  “Maybe later,” Dax said. “How was the rest of the search? Any leads?”

  Leo shook his head. “Nope. It
’s strange too. I don’t think we’ve ever been out canvassing before when we didn’t run into some bullshit revolving around the vampires. Even in the daylight, there’s always chatter about the night before or a daywalker causing trouble. It’s like we’re in the eye of the storm.”

  “Or the calm before the storm,” Dax said, his fingers itching to text Phoebe. He hated the way they’d left things back at the safe house. He wanted to discuss his sudden promotion within the pack, wanted to ask her about the notebook and Seth Kilsen. It hadn’t escaped his notice that the man shared her last name. What was he to her? A brother? Cousin? Husband?

  He shook his head. No. Not husband. She would’ve told him, right?

  “Dude, relax. You look like you’re going to come right out of your skin.” The young shifter gave Dax a lopsided grin. “What is it? Woman problems?”

  Dax stretched his neck but didn’t answer.

  Leo laughed. “It is woman problems. Well, in that case, a run is definitely in order. Your head will be clearer after you blow off some steam.”

  “I can’t. I need to talk to Bandu.” He needed to find out what the leader knew about Carter Voelkel and Asier. As far as Dax was concerned, the redheaded vampire was at the center of the abductions. If he could find him, he’d have a lead.

  Leo brushed his shaggy hair out of his eyes and frowned. “Is that what you’re doing in here?”

  Dax nodded. “It’s important. So thanks, but—”

  “Dax, Bandu left twenty minutes ago. He said you were in charge until he gets back.”

  “You’re kidding me.” Dax turned abruptly and knocked on Bandu’s office door. When no one answered, he cracked the door open and peeked in. Sure enough, the office was empty. He strode in and glanced around. “What the fuck? I was sitting here the entire time waiting for him.”

  Leo, who’d followed him into the office, shrugged. “Maybe he was just messing with you?”

  Or maybe he didn’t want Dax to know he’d left. An uneasy feeling coiled in Dax’s gut. Something wasn’t right. Ever since Bandu had made Dax his second, he’d been holed up and unavailable, almost as if he was avoiding his new beta.