"Lady Blackwell." The three of them paused to place their hands over their hearts and bow. "You are needed."
My first thought was of Yuki. In a panic, I stood. Chief did, too, and was rewarded with a brief but firm hiss from the three of them. "It's okay. Let me see what's going on." I put my hand over his arm, hopefully in a calming manner. Yuki? I didn't shout, I just wanted to make sure she was okay, even though I would have been the first one to know if she wasn't.
I can feel it. I'm on my way. Master? Don't do anything until I get there.
Nodding at the three vampires, I motioned toward the door.
"Everything okay, Dot?" Tabby called from across the diner.
Sighing, I nodded. It wasn't busy, but I had hoped to escape without being noticed by any of the other customers at all. Never knew which one was working for the paper and which ones weren't. "Yep. Just some friends of mine."
"Our apologies, Lady Blackwell," one of the vamps mumbled as he held the door open for me.
"Not your fault. I'll give you my cell phone number for emergencies," I answered as he shut the door behind me. "So? What's up?" I wanted to get to the root of the situation as quickly as possible while I was still in Chief's line of sight. He might have let me go, but that didn't mean he was happy about it.
"Sorry to bother you." The most powerful feeling one in my head bowed again. "We need your judgement."
"Oh. Well, I don't know if I can give you any advice that would be helpful…" I stopped talking when the ones closest started snickering. "What?"
"We are not seeking…advice. One of ours has committed a digression. We leave him to you to be judged."
"Oh. Oh! Wait a minute. I'm hardly–"
"The lord of our clan?"
Yuki. Hurry.
Almost… "Here," she finished as she suddenly appeared before a blast of wind nearly bowled me over.
"Princess Yukina," they said reverently and bowed to her. I smiled. It kind of made me feel like her mother. Or big sister. I found the latter thought more comforting.
She stared at them for a moment, tilted her head, and frowned. I don't know what she was sensing that I wasn't, but she didn't like it. "What?"
"Can't you feel it?"
My vamp powers weren't…engaged. I couldn't feel, sense, or smell shit. But as I was staring at them, it made more than a few of them more than uncomfortable. It was just enough for that tiny sliver of fear to make my mouth start watering. Then, I felt it. One of them had killed a human.
"Fuck." The paranormal population of Cedar Falls had enough trouble brewing without the vampires turning the residents into Big Gulps. "Why? You guys don't have to pay for blood anymore. Why the fuck would one of you kill a human?"
The fear wafting from the little group was enough to bring out my fangs and an evil sounding hiss at the end of my rant. They dropped to the ground and writhed, afraid for their lives. Yuki put a calming hand on my back.
"Maybe we should question the accused, Master."
"Get up," I told them, trying for a calm soothing voice.
Chief stepped outside. "Everything okay?"
"No. But come with me. This involves you, too."
"You would alert the human authorities?" Alpha vamp sneered, but was looking at Chief, not me.
Yuki tried, but failed, to stop me from grabbing a fistful of his leather jacket and dragging his face to within an inch of mine. "Somebody has to let the human's family know they won't be going home again. Ever. He is also my mine. You will show him respect."
"Yes, Lady Blackwell!" He was all piss and vinegar, the fear coming from him was twice as strong as any of the others. The smell might actually have been piss, though. I could only imagine what my face looked like.
"Dot?"
"Come on. We'll take your Jeep. Where are we going?" I asked the group instead of their self-proclaimed leader.
"The mall," one of them answered meekly.
"The mall is closed. That's trespassing," Chief said firmly.
It was going to be a long night.
∞ ∞ ∞
Vampires made it look easy. I, however, usually tripped going down the stairs. There's no way in hell I was going to drop into the center of the food court and trust in my vampiric abilities. They were sketchy at best. Instead, I pulled Nana's broom from the thong around my neck and whispered, "Ag fás." It cracked in my hand as I hoisted it over my head, and it exploded into full size.
"Okay. That was pretty fucking cool," Chief said in awe.
Show-off, Yuki muttered in my head as I dropped through the open skylight and floated to the floor.
"Hey, Dot? How am I supposed to get down," Chief called from the roof. Then he screamed.
Yuki landed next to me with Chief in a princess carry. Rolling her eyes, she set him on his feet.
"Thanks." He straightened his clothes, coughed, and tried to act cool.
Hiding my mouth behind my hand, I tried to contain the snicker that was threatening to escape.
He pulled out a flashlight from his pocket and flicked it on, finding himself standing in a semi-circle of hissing vampires, shielding their eyes from the bright beam. "Sorry! Sorry." He flipped it off and stuck it back in his pocket.
"What were you doing in the mall?" I pulled the leader, Damian as I found out he was called, back away from the others as the rest of them headed toward the western section of the only indoor mall in Cedar Falls. I'd been there once, found exactly zero stores that piqued my interest, and left. The mall in Amersville was twice the size and didn't have half the mall empty from failed businesses. If I really wanted to go to the mall, I went to Syracuse.
"There's no security or cameras in the entire place. With the open roof access, we can come and go as we please. Just a place for us all to hang out," he answered embarrassedly.
I nodded. "And do you bring humans to the mall often?"
He blushed furiously. "Sometimes."
"Why?" I already knew the answer.
"Snack packs."
A growl tore itself from my lips. Yuki calmed me again with a hand on my back. "Why? It's not like you need the blood anymore!"
The vamps and chief ahead of us, picked up their pace, putting some distance between us.
Damien lowered his head. "I'm sorry, Lady Blackwell. Old habits."
"Habits?" I wanted, needed, to punch something. "Humans are not habits. They're people."
"Master," Yuki said calmingly.
Damien held up his hands defensively. "We don't kill them!" He realized what he said and blushed. "Usually. This time… Franco didn't stop and… We couldn't pull him off her."
"No more humans. Got it?"
"Yes, Lady Blackwell." He bowed and I could feel the truth from him.
We started walking again. The other group had stopped by the fountain and was staring. I guessed that it was the scene of the crime.
"Did the humans know what you were?"
"Yes. It's why they agreed to feed. Our bite, as you know, is quite pleasurable. Some of them swear it is better than sex. We have several that we fe–used to feed from."
"The bagged blood not good enough?" I snarled in anger.
"We couldn't always afford to eat…" He trailed off nervously.
My fears had come to pass. By charging the vampires, they had resorted to feeding off humans. Exactly what I'd been afraid of, happened. Every day, I wanted to kill Abernathy more. More than I already had. Reanimating his body sounded better and better. "Well, you can now. Don't let this happen again, Damien."
"Yes, Lady Blackwell."
"Oh, for fuck's sake. Call me Dot."
Yuki coughed behind me.
"Master or Lady. Something other than dropping the B-word every time you address me."
"Yes, Master." He blushed and dodged ahead to the group surrounding the fountain.
"Do not become friends with them or show them any familiarity," Yuki whispered next to me.
"Why?"
"They become harder to cont
rol."
I nodded, not really agreeing with her, but letting it go. Now was not the time to get into a debate. I wanted to lead the vampires like I wanted to have a barium enema and a CT scan.
As we approached, the group split, and I gasped in horror. The bloody vampire sitting beside the fountain between two burly bouncer-looking vamps stared up at me defiantly, not caring an iota about the girl floating face down in the fountain with half her neck chewed off. I wanted to bash the smirk off his face with the broom still in my hand.
"Franco?"
He ignored me, earning a cuff in the back of his head from one of his guards.
"Yes."
I stepped around the throng of spectators and stopped when I was standing in front of him. Sniffing the air, there wasn't a hint of fear coming from him, which was unusual for someone as fucked as he was. He didn't care. Shaking my head, I left him there and moved back to the others, staring at the floating body in the bloody water, her blonde hair stained red.
I reached for her, just to flip her over, but the power within me had better ideas. Black flames burst from my hand and enveloped her, unimpeded by the water. She convulsed a moment and then stood in the shallow water, staring at me blankly. I'd unintentionally animated her, and almost gagged when the blood from her gaping neck wound started pumping again, landing in the water with a little splash.
"You poor thing. I am sorry," I said to her forlornly.
Her head wobbled a little as she bowed it in greeting, unable to speak. He hadn't refused to stop feeding, he had tried to chew through her neck. He'd wanted to kill her. If the damage had been localized to one spot, I might have thought the other vamps did it pulling him off her. The only question left was why he wanted to kill her.
Leaving her standing there, I walked back to Franco. After seeing his murder victim brough back from death, in a matter of sorts, the fear coming from him was almost tangible. I could see it floating from him in black threads of dread. "How did you do that?"
I squatted down in front of him, balancing myself with the handle of the broom beside me. "That isn't the question you should be worried about right now, Franco. The question is…why," I paused to point at the Nearly Headless Nancy, "you did that."
"I don't know. I couldn't stop."
He was lying. I could feel it in his very bones. He knew damn well why he'd done it, but somebody or something scared him more than I did. If I wanted answers, I needed to change that.
Holding out my hand, I purposely called the black fire to my fingers, holding it in front of him. With my other hand, I lifted the broom, shook it, and tapped the butt of the scythe on the tile before him, shattering the twelve-by-twelve piece of ceramic with a crunch and a puff of dust. "I am going to ask you one more time, Franco. Why did you kill that poor girl?"
His eyes widened and the strands of fear floating from him coalesced into a cascade of mindless panic. "Wha–what are you?"
"Lady Death," one of the other vampires answered and knelt beside me. The others followed suit.
Franco started scrambling away from me, but the mountainous vampires held him still between them as I edged closer.
"Tell me, Franco. Why."
"Because Lord Abernathy told me to!"
"Wrong answer, Franco. He's dead."
"Not that one! His brother!"
There was a collective gasp. Not just from the vampires, but from Yuki and me, too. Turning, I looked at Yuki. She knew I was worried about her cousin George. This was his father we were talking about.
Franco screamed in frustration and started frothing in panic-induced fear. Not only was he facing death, he had just outed the traitor. His life was forfeit even if I let him go. I wasn't going to, not after what he had done, but either way, he was fucked.
Chief moved beside me and squatted down, giving me a sad look. "I'm the chief of police, Dot."
"I know."
"While I want to say I can't let you kill him, my jail probably wouldn't hold him, and we'd be screwed if anybody found out what he was."
"I think that was Abernathy's goal. To out the vampires in Cedar Falls."
"Why?"
"If they get outed, the world's eyes fall on our little town. I'll probably be outed as their leader next. I fall, he gets everything back nice and neat."
"That's pretty slick. Harder on his kind going forward, but not a half-bad plan."
"Glad you approve of his dastardliness."
He shrugged and nodded to the girl. "We can't let anybody find her, either."
"I'm surprised you're being so pragmatic about this."
He nodded and rubbed his chin and jaw with his hand. "The way I look at it, this is kind of like coven business. I would never have sent either one of the Connors to prison for murdering witches. I'll leave this in your more than capable hands." He put his hand on my shoulder, squeezing it gently. My boy scout was growing up. I was so proud.
Turning to the vampire shaking in his proverbial boots, I frowned. "Franco." I paused to sigh. "You are hereby condemned to death for your crimes and a lesson to the other vampires of this clan. No human shall be hurt ever again by one of ours. Does everyone understand?"
The vampires nodded while Franco screamed.
Standing, I eyed the scythe in my hand. "So shall it be." I lifted the butt of the handle off the floor and brought it back down, a little softer than before. A resounding clang resonated through the mall, but the tile didn't shatter.
I wasn't dumb enough to try to kill a vampire with a giant scythe while two innocents were holding him between them. Plus, the punishment wouldn't have fit the crime. Instead, I walked over to the zombie in the fountain. "Have your revenge, child. Feast upon the flesh of your killer. Tear him apart."
There was a flare of black fire in her eyes that made me shudder and step back as she scrambled out of the water and strode slowly toward the pleading, shaking vampire. Once she was upon him, the two guards let him go. All of us watched thoughtfully as she did as she was told, ripping off limbs, tearing through the soft flesh of his belly and neck, and finally tearing his still screaming head from the stump of his torso. As soon as it was free, he turned to ash.
She stood and flashed the barest of smiles at me, and the light faded from her eyes. Whatever spark of intelligence that was her, was gone. She was just an animated corpse once again.
"Rest," I whispered and doused her in black flame.
The tile floor beneath her rippled and popped as the concrete parted. The dirt below rose to swallow her into the earth. When she was gone, everything melded back into place without so much as a broken tile to show for it.
"That was fucking sick," one of the younger vamps whispered.
"He tore out her throat, she tore him a new one," I answered by way of explanation.
"No, Lady Blackwell. I don't mean sick as in disgusting. I meant that was the coolest thing I've ever seen."
"Pray that you never see it again," Damien whispered solemnly.
Chapter 8
It was another sleepless night. Finally, around five in the morning, I lightly dozed off. By six, I was awake again, Chief sleeping on his back beside me, snoring loudly. I reached behind me to smack him in the side, missed, and his impressive cock sprang back and forth like one of those doorstop thingies that go waga-waga-waga when you whack them.
Rolling over, I stared in rapt fascination as it stopped and throbbed. "Jeezus."
Chuckling softly to myself, I reached over and encircled it with my fist, letting my fingers slide up and down its silky smoothness.
Chief's snoring stopped as he opened his eyes and blinked before looking down at my hand slowly jerking him awake. His smile was heart, and other place, warming. "Morning."
"Wood." I grinned.
"You seem to like the model. Would you care to take it for a test drive, Miss?"
"Do you have the keys?"
"I do believe the engine is running."
"I don't know. Looks like it might be a little too b
ig for me to handle."
"I'm sure a pretty little thing like you can get the most out of it."
"Is it automatic?"
"Manual. Be careful shifting gears, it has a tendency to leak oil."
I started laughing.
"What? I thought I was on fleek with my innuendo."
"Just had a tail pipe joke pop into my head. Don't mind me," I said between fits of laughter.
"Oh, please. Stay away from my exhaust."
"No worries there. The fumes are horrible. That a diesel?"
"Now, I'm going to make a Cummings joke." He smiled and rolled me over on top of him, trapping his throbbing rod between us. Crossing my arms over his chest, I rested my chin on my wrists and smiled at him.
"This is nice."
"Waking up next to someone?"
He knew exactly what I was thinking. I nodded.
"Yeah. Sleeping alone sucks."
"Could do without the snoring, but yes. It is nice."
"Don't be silly, Dot. You don't snore that loudly."
I leaned over and bit him on the chest. "Care to take that back," I said with his flesh between my teeth.
He laughed, put his hands under my arms, and pulled me up a little further on his chest. Close enough for him to kiss me. "Sorry about the chainsaws," he said apologetically as he pulled away.
"You weren't that loud. Kind of like thunder. Chief Rumblechest."
"You fart."
"Do not."
"And you drool a little."
"Only when you're sleeping naked," I answered.
"And you're awfully hot."
"Says the ceramic heater in my bed." It was no joke. Even in the summertime, I slept under the comforter most nights. I had a nagging suspicion that Chief was powered by a thermonuclear reactor. When he was in the bed, the temperatures sweltered.
Seventh Seal: A Reverse Harem Tale (Lovin' the Coven Book 7) Page 7