by Liz Schulte
The address Dempsey had given me was completely empty. In the distance, sirens and commotion of some sort filled the night; I couldn’t quite make it out, though. I pulled out my phone and called him, but he didn’t answer.
I was still decked out head to toe in weapons. The sound of emergency vehicles drew me down the road out of curiosity mostly, but also because that was where I’d probably find Dempsey. Chaos filled the street: the blue and red flashing lights, crying and scared people, and dozens of people in uniform. I went around the people who were shouting out orders and toward the heart of the disturbance.
It took several moments to understand what I was seeing. Bodies were lying on the sidewalks and the streets, but they weren’t moving. It was a massacre. The dark streets were wet with blood in many places. A groan to my right and a slight movement caught my attention, but no one else noticed as they rushed by to help other people. The man on the ground tried to move even as blood bubbled up from his throat. I looked around, but there was no one even near him.
Unable to stand it anymore, I went to him, kneeling beside him and taking his hand.
“Help me,” he gurgled, falling back to the sidewalk.
“Stay still. I’ll find help.” I took off my jacket and pulled off my shirt, pressing it to his throat to try to curb the blood flow, even though it was already too late. He wasn’t going to survive this wound. I couldn’t see how deep the cut was, but there was a lot of blood—too much.
A dark form moved into the shadows a couple feet away. My eyes locked on it. “Come out,” I said, letting go of the human’s hand to retrieve a knife.
Olivia stepped out. My first thought was that she was here to help, and relief filled me, but then I saw her tear-filled eyes and I knew. My stomach sank. That wasn’t her job anymore. She was here to transition the souls from this world to the next. She was, after all, an Angel of Death. She gave me a watery, understanding smile and nodded. We didn’t talk much about her job. I couldn’t imagine how hard it must be on her to see this kind of stuff daily.
My chin dropped down to my chest as I squeezed the dying human’s hand. A single tear rolled down my cheek at the pain of so many around me. I wanted to help, but there was nothing I could do. There was nothing any of us could do.
Olivia came closer, squatting down across from me. “It won’t be long now.”
I nodded, not able to look at her. Knowing what she did wasn’t the same as seeing her in action.
She took the man’s other hand and he stopped moaning and trying to move. Slowly peace relaxed his face and he closed his eyes for the last time as air rattled out between his lips. Olivia stood up, still holding on to something I couldn’t see. She smiled and nodded, quietly talking as she walked to the shadows. A second later, she came back.
“Do you know what happened?” I asked.
Her sad eyes absorbed the carnage around her. “I’m not sure. None of the spirits seem to know. From what they have told me, everyone started screaming and running but no one knew where to go. Then people started falling.”
I shoved my feelings to the side and pulled my shirt from the man, tossing it over to the side. “They didn’t see anything?”
She shook her head.
Had it been a human, someone would have seen something. I leaned in closer to look at the cut. The wound was wasn’t deep enough across the man’s neck to kill him quickly, which was probably why he held on as long as he did. Whoever did it wanted people to suffer. It had definitely been made with a knife of some sort, and definitely not whatever was doing the other killings. I slipped on my leather jacket and zipped it.
“I’m not supposed to make guesses,” Olivia said. “I just take the souls.”
I hated all of these rules we had to live with now.
She looked directly at me, anger burning in her stare. “Vampires.” She vanished and reappeared at the next victim.
Corbin said Paolo would be mad, but this was too much. Even the council wouldn’t overlook this kind of display, and the humans sure as hell weren’t going to let it go. Regardless of what he wanted, he had signed his death warrant with each body his people had laid open.
“You found me,” Dempsey called out, coming toward me. He shook his head as he got closer, looking exhausted and defeated. “Is this the”—he glanced around to make sure no one was close—“loup-garou?”
“No.” Anger numbed the tragedy surrounding me.
“Do I want to know?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Vampires, probably. How many people died?”
“So far ten; could be more. Various wounds and cuts on more people, though.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “How am I supposed to tell my supervisor, the mayor, the governor, even, that vampires are real and they did this? I’ll lose my job. They will lock me up.”
“It will never happen again,” I said softly, starting back the way I came. I’d had enough of this. If I had to hunt them all down myself, this was going to fucking end. No people deserved to be slaughtered, and I wasn’t going to stand by and do nothing about it because the council felt like the vampires had to have a leader.
“Where are you going?” he called behind me. “Femi, you can’t cut me out of this.”
I didn’t slow down. Enough was enough. All of this was going to end tonight. I left my necklace off and grabbed the hand of glory from the trunk of my car. The hand was a rather contentious point. Technically, I’d withheld it from Baba Yaga. She wanted a selkie who had stolen it caught and brought to her, which I did, but I kept the hand. Baba Yaga was still pissed off about it and would probably come after me someday, but that day wasn’t today—why was I giving the universe ideas about how to further screw me?
Today, I was going to use the hand, but unlike with her, it wasn’t to take children. I was going to use it to kill Paolo, and if the council knew about any of this and did nothing, I was coming for them too.
I went through the lobby, not caring who knew I was there, and straight up to my room holding a dead man’s hand. I opened my room door, knife still in hand. The desk chair turned around as I walked in and I released the knife.
Amos looked up, but it was too late to stop it. The knife stuck soundly into his arm.
“Ow. What the—Femi!” He pulled it out with a thrppt that made me grimace.
“Sorry. Sorry.” I held up my hands. “I thought you might be a vampire. You have no idea what I just came from.” I went over to him, but he avoided me, pushing the chair back. “You need stitches. Take off your shirt.”
“There are easier ways to get my shirt off me,” he grumbled as he put the knife on the desk and practiced moving his fingers. “It’s fine. I’ll live.”
“Seriously, at least let me bandage it.” I took another step toward him as the blood stain on his blue shirt grew. The trail went all the way down to his forearm, running over the tattoo which might have said something at the top, but it was smudged.
“Can you get me a towel,” he asked.
I went into the bathroom and grabbed the hand towel, tossing it to him.
“The council wants a report,” he said, pressing the clean white towel to his arm.
If he wasn’t going to let me help him, then I had other things to do. I started loading all of my crap into the duffle bag, ignoring his question.
“Your report. They want it now,” Amos said. “I can’t keep putting them off.”
I moved into the bathroom, clearing off the counter. It was amazing how much I could spread out in just a day. I jammed everything back into my duffel bag and zipped it.
“This isn’t a game, Femi. If you don’t give them a report they will—”
“What? What will they do? Get off their lazy asses and come down here to see what is actually happening? Will they do that?”
He didn’t say anything though the edge of his mouth curled slightly.
“I didn’t think so. So maybe they will just send another hunter. I don’t care anymore. How about this: you can tell them that as
soon as I solve the case, I will give them a full report in person. And not a moment sooner. Until then, stay out of my way. I will not tolerate a shadow or an assistant or whatever you are supposed to be—not anymore. You’re right: this isn’t a game. These are people’s lives that are being destroyed. Sure, a few Abyss creatures bit the dust, but dozens of humans are dead tonight. How many are killed every year? How is that okay? How is it fair that they can’t even know enough to defend themselves? It isn’t. This, the council, it’s all a bunch of bullshit.”
Amos looked away.
“You know I’m right. That’s why I’m going to figure out everything that has led to this point, and if they don’t want that, then they shouldn’t have sent me. I will not stand by and do nothing. They want a report? Tell them the fucking vampires just massacred people in the street. Tell them they did this because their stupid fucking plan to bring Corbin back to Paolo backfired. I swear if I find out that they knew Paolo would do this, they will wish they had left me alone, because I will bring down everyone.” By the end I was shouting, tears burning in my eyes.
He took a deep breath and kept his voice calm. “That’s not how this works.” He glanced back at the door. “You signed a contract. I can’t just let you leave.”
“You don’t want to try to stop me,” I said.
He stepped in front of me, apology written across his face. “I don’t have a choice.”
I nodded. I understood. This was his job, and he was probably already catching plenty of flak for letting me ditch him as much as I did. Amos seemed nice enough. It wasn’t his fault he worked for the council, but I wasn’t playing their game anymore. The stakes were higher than that now, and I didn’t have time to waste with him.
“I cannot step aside.” His older, deeply lined face was calming and wise-seeming. Perhaps that was why he’d chosen this appearance above others. It inspired confidence. It was hard to be mad at him. However, his face was also resolved. But then he slightly nodded, as if telling me to do what I had to do.
I jammed the heel of my hand into his nose. He crumpled to the ground, clutching the lower half of his face. I left carrying both my bag and Falcon’s.
At least now the council couldn’t blame him. I took the same path as before out of the hotel, pretending not to notice the three vampires who followed me out. I led them a safe distance in the opposite direction of my car, waiting for the attack, but it never came. When I couldn’t wait any longer, I dropped both duffel bags at once and whirled around on them. “What?”
They looked young (less than eighteen), which meant nothing when it came to vampires. However, I didn’t feel a tremendous amount of power from them.
The taller, broader one of the three spoke. “We want to see Corbin.”
“Do I look like Corbin?” I snapped.
“He went with you in the garage,” the shortest one said. “We don’t agree with what’s happening, and…” The kid looked at his friends. “We want him to know we didn’t do this. We didn’t attack the humans.”
I didn’t have time for this.
“We want to help,” the one to the left said.
“Fine,” I said. “Wait. Inside my hotel room. Here’s the key.” I tossed it to them. “If a man named Amos is there, tell him I sent you. If you know other vampires who feel the same way, invite them over. I will tell Corbin where you are. If, and I mean if, he thinks he can use you, he will come to you. Got it?”
They nodded and turned around, walking quickly back to the hotel. Picking up both duffels, I went more slowly after them back to my car. I shifted the bags to one hand and pulled out my phone and called Corbin.
“Yeah,” he answered.
I told him what was happening here. “Anyway, so the baby vamps are in my hotel. I don’t know if we can trust them or not. Tell me you and Holden came up with a plan.”
“Holden went to talk to Sy. There really isn’t room for a discussion. Paolo has to go,” Corbin said.
And for once, I agreed with him. “I’ll be back soon. We can figure out how to orchestrate the attack,” I said. “I want to do this now. Tonight. Do you want the baby vamps?”
“No,” he said. “They’re next to useless.”
“Has Thomas said anything?” I asked. “He could have some insight into all of this. If we can flip him to our side—”
“I don’t care what side he’s on,” he said. “Thomas dies tonight too. Reconcile yourself to that fact.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Personal feelings aside, if we really wanted to take on Paolo and potentially the council, we needed any help we could get. It wasn’t like there were a million people I could call for help. Corbin had a contentious relationship with Selene and Cheney, so that left them out. Olivia was bound by forced neutrality. Holden and Sy would be on our side, but were the four of us enough?
I probably should have updated Sy before Holden went to see him. Part of me felt guilty about having not called him, because I knew he worried, but he hadn’t called me either. And I didn’t want him involved in all of this. It was one thing to take myself down, and possibly Corbin with me, but not Sy. Holden was a survivor and he owed me, so I wasn’t that concerned about him. Sy, on the other hand, hardly ever got me involved in drama—maybe he didn’t have it, or maybe he was protecting me from that. Regardless, he had a future with the council, and if anyone could make it better, it’d be him. I couldn’t take that away from him.
I finally rounded the corner where I’d parked. The streetlight above my car was out now, leaving a dark patch in the road. I waited for Olivia to show herself—maybe she had found something else out—but it wasn’t her presence I felt. I didn’t feel anything at all. I ran my tongue over my lips and all my senses kicked into high gear. No one else was on the street, not even the scurry of a small animal. There was a smell I couldn’t quite identify; the city was filled with them. Moving with purpose, I didn’t linger. I tossed the bags in the back and climbed in. My hand paused before I could start the engine. Something was on the hood of my car.
It was partly under my windshield wiper, but seemed to be thin and oozing. What the hell? I scanned the surrounding area. I could see better than a human in the dark, but not perfectly clear. It looked like any other city street: sidewalks, the occasional tree, and empty cars parked on the edges. There were so many places to hide. I pulled my knife and opened my door, stepping out slowly.
I lifted the windshield wiper and pulled out a piece of what had to be skin. Dropping it on the hood of my car, I grabbed the flashlight. Definitely skin, only it was inside out. Disgusting. Slowly, careful not to damage it, I flipped it. Tattoos again, but this time it was one I recognized even stretched out. A knife with a single ruby in the hilt with a slick black snake coiled around the blade with crimson dripping from its fangs.
Chapter 19