“Still won’t kill you,” Brucie said. “But she could trap you as steam. Put you in an urn or something.”
I huffed. “Like a genie in a bottle. Sang that song last night. Little did I imagine…”
“We’re getting ahead of ourselves,” Brucie said. “How about you show them that, once again, they’ve underestimated Nyx?”
I nodded, gripped my crossbow with my finger on the trigger, and pulled open one of the white double doors at the funeral home’s entrance.
There just wasn’t another way in. Not for me, since I couldn’t change phases the way Brucie could.
But he was ahead of me—he read my mind, so I didn’t even need to ask him.
The stench of vampire flushed through my nostrils. Usually a vampire had something of a distinct scent, but when this many of them come together, identifying one of them was like trying to identify a single scent at a Yankee Candle store. The whole place just smells like Fruity Pebbles.
The stench of vamp was far less pleasant. They smelled like skunk combined with jock strap, and a little bit of “something dead.” And when their odors combined… I’ll just say I envied a human’s poor sense of smell.
The funeral home had a lot of floral couches. As I entered, there was a makeshift sanctuary on one side where I imagined they conducted funeral services for the bereaved.
On the other side, a hallway with doors.
Two men in black cloaks stared right at me. One of them said something to the other, which prompted him to march in my direction. Not the most graceful, or silent, walk for a guy who was hoping to take Alice by surprise. These hunters were arrogant.
And without reason…
I mean, from what I had learned, every hunter the Order had ever sent after Alice ended up missing. Most of them, I guessed, were amongst the rank whose odors were currently turning my stomach.
Were these the best hunters the Order had to offer?
So far, I wasn’t impressed.
“What are you doing here?” the man whispered as he pulled down his hood.
“Who the hell are you?” I asked.
“Look,” the man said, ignoring my question, “we know what you are. We have from the beginning. I know you have… skills. We could use your help. But we have values, and your lifestyle…”
I shook my head. “You’re seriously going to lecture me on values right now, while your son is in there with one of the world’s most dangerous vampires?”
“You don’t understand. This is an opportunity for Devin.”
I shook my head. “Whatever. I’m not here to help you. I’m just here for Devin.”
A grimace distorted the man’s face, and he poked me repeatedly in the chest as his tone turned firm. “Stay away from my boy. I’ll not have some fairy leading him down the road to perdition.”
I snorted. “Not a fairy. I’m an elemental. But I do know a sprite. They’re sort of like fairies, if you’d like to meet him. And don’t worry, your son wants nothing to do with me. I’m just here because we have a common goal. And I feel a little bit responsible for what’s about to happen to him in there.”
“About to happen?” Devin’s father asked. “We won’t let that happen.”
“He’s not here for the Order’s judgment?”
“When he stakes her, he’ll be redeemed. I’m just here to make sure he doesn’t get turned into one of them. And to keep him from becoming one of your kind.”
I cocked my head. “An elemental? Don’t worry, it’s not contagious.”
“I mean a…”
I raised my hand to stop him. “That’s not contagious, either. And besides, I’m not gay. I’m a woman. So I don’t see what your beef is.”
“My beef is your beef,” Devin’s dad said crassly. “You’re living a fantasy.”
“Honey,” I said, “walk a mile in my shoes and then we’ll talk about fantasies.”
Devin’s father glanced at my boots. “I wouldn’t be caught dead in those…”
“It’s a shame,” I said. “Because you need me if you don’t want to be caught dead today. Did you realize there are at least twelve more vampires here, waiting for you? They’re probably listening to our conversation at this very moment.”
Devin’s dad cocked his head and his eyes widened. “Twelve, you say?”
I nodded. “Nothing I can’t handle, presuming most of them are younglings.”
“You could handle twelve younglings?”
I shrugged and grabbed a pen out of my pocket. “Let me see your hand.”
The man cocked his head. “Why?”
“Just do it,” I said. “Palm up.”
Devin’s dad showed me his hand. I clicked my pen and started to write. Do the opposite of what I’m about to say.
Devin’s dad looked at it and nodded.
“If you all are certain you can handle Alice, focus on her. I’ll take out the younglings.” I winked just to make doubly sure he understood I was wanting him to do the opposite.
“Alright,” Devin’s dad said. “I like that plan. Because I want to be sure that Devin’s the one who strikes the final blow.”
I nodded in understanding. He was willing for me to risk myself against Alice—but Devin had to be the one to stake her. Acceptable, I supposed. Even If I’d need to double-cross them in the end to take her heart.
No redemption rituals for Alice.
Hopefully the vamps had heard us and would be deceived into thinking that I’d be the one coming after them. I didn’t know how skilled these hunters were. Taking on twelve was difficult odds, even for me. But at least there were two Order hunters. They’d have to be good, but their chances weren’t zero.
Better than they’d be if I let them go after Alice. She might be one vampire, but she was more dangerous than all the others combined.
Of course, the ruse depended on my belief that these younglings were listening. New vamps aren’t all that hard to kill, but they are unpredictable. It made some sense that I’d do what I said out loud to Devin’s dad. Younglings crave blood like nothing else; the chance to feed from the Order’s hunters would be irresistible—and they’d likely go into a frenzy. Not an easy “vampire mode” to deal with. But it would also make them more vulnerable if I did manage to stake Alice.
In a frenzy over the humans from whom they’d want to feed, I’d be able to take them out one by one… They wouldn’t be drawn to me, since I don’t have blood. The hunters would consume their focus.
Again, the plan hinged on the presumption that I’d still be alive after confronting Alice.
No guarantees.
Suddenly, Brucie appeared on my shoulder.
Devin’s dad took two steps back.
“Never seen a sprite before?” I asked.
The man’s jaw was dropped halfway to the floor.
“Stop staring,” Brucie said. “I mean, I know I’m cute. But it’s a little creepy.”
“Any intel?” I asked Brucie.
“Yes,” Brucie said. “But I don’t know if I can say…”
“It’s okay,” I said. “You’ve read my mind. Anything you could say that only I’d understand?”
Brucie nodded. “The Frenchman near the Rhine.”
My memories from back then, when I was an elemental, and from before I was brought—courtesy of a coven of witches—to the Americas were sketchy. But when he mentioned it, the whole incident came flooding back.
Flooding… another bad water pun.
I cocked my head. “I’d almost forgotten about that.”
“I’ve got your memories,” Brucie said. “Anything you want to remember, I just have to put the memory back in your mind, which is what I just did.”
I nodded. It wasn’t my most successful hunt during my time as one of the Neck. I’d taken the form of a delicate dame. The Frenchman who’d been wading by the waters was immediately enthralled by my beauty.
The thing I didn’t know was that before he’d come to my waters, he was being hunted alr
eady—by one of the local clans. He was a long way from home. Not sure what his purpose was so far from France, but he clearly wasn’t a welcome presence.
I was so fixated on my whole allure—the process, the seduction—that I didn’t realize a whole band of men was lurking in the bushes and encroaching on our position even as I serenaded my victim.
But once they saw me, once they realized what I was… Well, I became the better prize.
They charged at us while I was distracted. I took a spear to my back. But I couldn’t let the Frenchman go…
I’d forgotten that, too. A truth that was only recently revealed to me again. If I don’t finish my meal, if I don’t succeed in my seduction, I remain in human form until I do.
I knew it back then. I’d forgotten that fact, it seemed, after it actually happened. Brucie had reminded me of it—which was why I absolutely couldn’t allow Alice to get away. Not scot-free, and not even in the hands of the Order. Not until I ate her heart.
But the point Brucie was trying to make was that the twelve vampires, like the Germanic clan that had sprung on me before, was closer than I realized. They were about to pounce. We didn’t have time to spare.
All those thoughts, of course, flooded through my mind the instant Bruce mentioned the Frenchman on the Rhine.
I looked at Devin’s dad intently. At some point, perhaps, I’d learn his name. But I didn’t have any inclination to be better acquainted with this man than was absolutely necessary. “We have to move now,” I said.
Devin’s dad looked back at the second hunter. He waved his hand in a strange combination of moves. A kind of sign language. Smart, since vampires you were hunting could hear you speak out loud.
The second man came forward, a golden crucifix in his hand, and he extended it. The whole thing illuminated with sunlight, casting a beam of it all around.
“Brilliant,” I said, not really sure If I was talking about the light the crucifix had cast or the genius of the move. Both observations would have been accurate. Still, with twelve vamps about to pounce on us from different directions, they’d still be vulnerable from behind.
“Ever see the movie 300?” I asked.
Devin’s dad nodded. “The Spartans won because they lured the army into a small canyon. The target is gathering in the sanctuary, I believe. This hallway, it’s the canyon.”
The vamps might have heard me, but in the moment it was a bit of strategic advice I couldn’t pass up. Otherwise, these two hunters would be vulnerable from behind. But with the sunlight crucifix, if one of them could lure the others into the hall and the other could blast them… they stood a chance.
“It’s time you become the bait,” I said to Devin’s dad.
He nodded. He understood. He needed to lure them into a frenzy, get them chasing him without the ability to resist. Then, get them all caught up in the beam of sunlight which, I hoped, would give Devin’s dad a chance to stake them one by one.
He had one of those shoddy wrist crossbows that Devin had. Little tiny stakes. I guessed that was his plan. The best chance he had.
I tossed him a couple of my stakes for good measure. “Just in case you need them.”
Devin’s dad nodded as he took off down the hall to spring the trap of the ambush and lead the younglings into a trap of our own making.
I shook my head. If I hadn’t shown up, there was no way they’d even have a chance. And this was a risky move, no matter how you calculated it. I mean, if I failed with Alice, she’d be able to take them out from behind without much difficulty.
I had to trust that these hunters weren’t complete imbeciles. And they had to trust that my abilities, my skills, were as refined as they actually were.
I wouldn’t let them down. I couldn’t. This was my first time confronting Alice in five years.
Brucie turned back into steam. He was still around. Looking for ways to help, I hoped.
Even as I heard Devin’s dad shout—calling out the younglings from within the sanctuary—I pressed open the door into Alice’s office.
She was clearly expecting me. She stood there, Devin in her grip. From the look on his face, he was in something of a trance. As if she’d enthralled him with her allure.
But Alice looked different. Not like I’d remembered her. Of course, she had my abilities. She’d targeted someone—and from the looks of her, it wasn’t Devin.
I mean, she was beautiful. Just not Devin’s type. Tall, almost abnormally slender, with long blond hair. She looked like a model.
But what had she done to Devin?
“Let him go,” I said.
“Nice to see you again, Nyx,” Alice said. “I was getting a little thirsty.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I aimed my crossbow at Alice’s heart. It would be a tight shot—hitting her, but missing Devin. But it was a shot I could probably make.
Probably…
Was I willing to risk it all on probably?
“Come on, Nyx. Is that all you have for me after all we’ve been through? Or should I remind you that before I bit you, you’d intended to make a meal out of me?”
I almost pulled the trigger. But for some reason what she said resonated. If I was being honest, I had moved on her first. And I’d taken the form of her ideal.
“Why this form?” I asked. “Why is this your ideal?”
Alice smiled. She wasn’t even in her own natural form anymore, but she was still the same vampire. “You aren’t just my ideal,” Alice said. “Even looking at you now, it’s uncanny.”
“So I look like someone you once loved?”
Alice nodded. “A long time ago.”
“Why don’t you let the boy go?” I said. “This has nothing to do with him.”
“I can’t do that,” Alice said. “If I do, what’s to prevent you from killing me?”
I narrowed my eyes. “For some reason I suspect you’d put up quite a fight regardless.”
Alice grinned. “Do you remember the song you sang the night you tried to lure me?”
I shook my head. “I don’t. My memories…”
“‘Unchained Melody,’” Alice said. “It was our song…”
I cocked my head. “From the sixties?”
“He was a nightwalker,” Alice said. “Like me. Not nearly so old.”
I huffed. “No wonder Mina and the ladies figured out who I was…”
“Of course she did,” Alice said. “Johann and I both took assignments from her, back in the day.”
“So the Order really was setting me up.”
Alice shook her head. “No. They knew when I saw you that I’d pause. I’d hesitate…”
“Like you are now?”
Alice nodded. “The Order had him staked. And they burned his heart.”
“Why did they do that?”
“It had nothing to do with him,” Alice said. “He did nothing wrong. He followed orders. They did it to punish me. To remind me that they were in control. I was getting too… independent.”
“But you didn’t leave the Order,” I said. “Not yet, anyway.”
Alice shook her head. “It was the only thing I ever knew. And since I’d spent my whole existence helping them hunt other vampires, I knew the vampire community would never accept me if I defected. I was stuck.”
“And when you came after Mercy, in New Orleans… When you used my ability to get into the asylum…”
“Eliminating Mercy was supposed to be my redemption. And my freedom. Once I eliminated her, I’d be free. And with her gone, there wouldn’t be a vampire out there who knew everything I’d done.”
“So what the hell are you doing now, Alice?” I asked. “Raising an army of younglings?”
“A new kind of vampire,” Alice said. “A clan that fights against the likes of the Order. Not because of their faith—I still share their beliefs, in many respects—but for the sake of justice. What the Order has become… it’s perverse.”
I nodded. “I agree.”
�
��And you could join us, Nyx. It doesn’t matter that you’re not a vampire. The Order hates everything about what you are, too.”
She wasn’t talking about the fact that I was an elemental. She was talking about the fact that I was trans. That I defied what they thought was “natural.”
I took a deep breath. “Alice, if I don’t finish this… if I don’t eat your heart… I’ll never be able to go back to what I was.”
Alice smiled slightly. Then, with Devin still in something of a trance, she lowered him to her chair. He sat there, his head tilted to the side. I don’t think he’d blinked once since I entered the room.
“I know it must be hard for you,” Alice said. “And if you still insist on killing me, you are free to try. But my offer is only good once. We can be friends or enemies. And my enemies don’t tend to last long.”
I shrugged. “Except for Mercy.”
Alice cringed. “Except for Mercy.”
I took a deep breath. “I’ll drop my weapon. We can talk more, but you have to let him go.”
“This is bigger than whatever there is between you and me, Nyx. What the Order has become… they aren’t what you think. Not anymore.”
I looked at Devin. “Is he… okay?”
“I didn’t do this to him,” Alice said. “They did this. And if I let him go…”
“They?” I asked. “Who, exactly?”
BANG!
I turned, and Devin’s dad and the other cloaked man burst through the door.
I pivoted on my right foot, but before I could respond, one of them shot a bolt toward Alice.
She was faster than their shot. She disappeared in a puff of black smoke, and out of the cloud flew a bat…
Yes, a bat!
That didn’t come from my abilities. Wolfgang had told me Alice could do that; I wasn’t ill-prepared for it. But even with my crossbow skills, shooting a bat out of midair would be a challenge. In this instance, though, shooting wasn’t my intent.
Alice flew around the room as the two men shot more bolts at her.
She was too fast. And these hunters didn’t have the skills I did.
Alice dove toward the ground and reappeared in her former form behind Devin’s dad. It happened so fast that I might have been the only one in the room who could see what was happening. To the rest, it was probably all a blur.
Scared Shiftless: An Ex-Shifter turned Vampire Hunter Urban Fantasy (The Legend of Nyx Book 1) Page 16