Unearthed

by Lauren Stewart

  “No demon would want to go there. Besides, we already know how everything is going to end.”

  “No, you don’t.” No one did. They all made their own choices—nothing was carved in stone.

  “Organic things—like you and everyone you’ve ever cared about—are going to die and biodegrade. Probably sooner rather than later because humans are stupid as fuck and a seriously imbalanced race. Eventually demons, angels, and plastic grocery bags are going to be all that’s left. So yeah, I actually do know how it’s going to end, and now you do too. You’re welcome.”

  “Free will means you don’t know what we’re going to do until then.”

  “Do you know how little free will matters to my kind? How many minds I’ve been inside? How many different temptations I get to choose from inside every one of them? How small a nudge it takes to convince a human to do something they want to do but don’t have the balls for? And it’s usually the same thing that eventually kills them. Seven deadly sins are almost spot on, except for lust. Lust doesn’t kill, at least not directly. Of course, you must know all about that one if you hooked up with a vamp long enough to get that much of his blood.” He tilted his head. Curiosity piqued in a demon. Great. “That vamp must have been pretty powerful too. Not many really old ones in this zone anymore.”

  This wasn’t something she wanted to discuss, now or ever. “Why don’t we call it a draw and just go our separate ways?”

  “Who fed you, puppet? Before you fought your way to freedom, of course.”

  She didn’t think she’d moved, but as his brow furrowed and he looked back the way they’d come, she knew she had.

  “Lamere?” he asked. “And now you want revenge on him for making you better than you were.” He grimaced. “If that’s how you say thanks, remind me not to give you any gifts. Actually, don’t bother. Because I’m never, ever going to give you any gifts.”

  “I’m not better than I was. I’m…not,” she ended weakly. “Look, do you need a minute to rub your hands together and laugh or can we just get on with it?”

  “You’re stronger and heal faster than you did. Tell me why you don’t think that’s better.”

  “I just don’t.”

  “Why?”

  “Because—” She lowered her head and took a breath. “I can’t believe I’m standing here wishing you’d kill me sooner rather than later.”

  “I need to know.”

  “Yeah well, I need a beer and something to eat. Guess both of us are out of luck.”

  He sighed and walked away. “Come on, then.”

  “What?”

  “I’ll chase you down again if I have to, but I’d rather not.”

  “You’re letting me go? Just like that.”

  He turned back towards her. “No. I’m taking you to get food. But not as a gift—I know how you repay those now. And the last thing I need is a pathetic hunter from the Rising following me around, except for now because I told you to.”

  “Are you kidding?”

  “You’re hungry. I’m hungry. If I feed you, you might be more inclined to talk. I think it’s called ‘positive reinforcement.’ Supposedly works really well with dogs. Gotta be the same for humans.”

  She ignored the insult because everything else he’d just said was way more important. “So you’re not going to kill me.”

  “Are all seers this stupid? I don’t take my victims out for a quick snack before I burn them alive.” He put his hand on his abs. “I prefer to do it the other way around—raw food is for hippies. So what’ll it be? Since I’m new to this sort of thing, I don’t know if it’s bad form to kill you if you refuse.”

  “It’s—”

  He silenced her with a hand. “I don’t care if it’s bad form or not. You’ll come or you’ll die.”

  “I’ll come.”

  “See how easy that was? Humans always make things so much harder than they need to be.”

  She stood there stunned for a moment, watching him walk away, stopping in front of a hand sanitizer dispenser on the wall and pumping some into his palm. As he rubbed his hands together to spread it around, he cackled like a cartoon villain and busted up laughing at his own bad joke.

  “Hurry up.”

  There was no way this was going to end well. Instinct told her to run, even knowing she’d never get away. So she fell back on logic—he’d obviously intended to kill her but hadn’t. Why? She didn’t know, but delaying her death seemed like a good thing. If it gave her time to find out what she’d done to stop him from killing her, she could keep on doing it.

  “Oh, and puppet? You can drop the fork. They’ll probably have one at the restaurant that isn’t covered in your blood.”

  Three

  As the hostess led them to a table, Davyn walked behind the rebel hunter. But he didn’t touch her. Not again. Just an accidental brush on the way in—his palm to her lower back—was more than enough. Davyn hated to be uncomfortable, and she made him uncomfortable, even more so when he touched her. So until he ended her life, it wouldn’t happen again.

  “If I’d known you were going to take me somewhere nice,” she whispered, “I would have dressed up a little bit more for the big hunt and chase.”

  “If you hadn’t gotten in my way and then run away from me, you wouldn’t be bleeding. Since we’d never be able to eat in peace if they saw how you really look, I’m using my glamour to hide all your defects. You’re welcome.”

  “Not going to thank you for that either.” She scanned the room casually, but he knew she was looking for exits. “If you’re masking my outfit, then why are they staring at us?”

  “Because we’re beautiful.”

  She snorted. “That’s a heck of an ego you got there.”

  “While I don’t know and don’t care why you’d deny your obvious attractiveness, it has nothing to do with ego. It is what it is.” He leaned closer to her. “And, besides, pride is a sin.”

  “So is murder.” Her shoulder brushed Davyn’s chest as she turned. His laugh stopped abruptly as he contracted backwards, but it was too late. He felt his body react, heat from the contact, and that just wouldn’t do. He couldn’t burn the entire place down just because he got a hard-on. It had been too long if he was turned on by a human—enhanced or not.

  It was time to get laid. By his own kind, or maybe a vamp. He had kind of a thing for vamps—except the teeth. The teeth, he wasn’t a big fan of. Because he had kind of a thing for keeping his cock too.

  Before he sat down, he told the hostess to remove the condiments from the table. She was new and looked at him confusedly, but it was nothing compared to the look she’d give him if he had an accident with the saltshaker.

  He ordered for both of them without looking at a menu.

  “This isn’t a date,” the hunter snapped. “You don’t get to order for me.”

  Rolling his eyes, he looked at the waitress. “The…lady can have whatever she can pay for.” He watched the hunter rub her lips together. “How much you got in your pockets, puppet?”

  “About as much as you have in your head.”

  “Great. Then we’ll have double of everything I just ordered. And some of those twirly breadsticks you guys make so well. But no salt on them. At all.” He could take a little—otherwise he’d never be able to eat anything good—but too much would hurt and make him grumpy. For demons, food was a necessity for more than just calories.

  “Do you feel bloated?” the hunter asked snidely.

  “Salt makes me feel hot. You don’t want me to get too hot, do you?” He winked. “At least not until we’re alone.”

  The waitress cleared her throat. “Anything else?”

  “Water. Lots of ice.” His eyes never left the hunter’s. She stared back, her eyes large with an emotion he didn’t quite understand. It looked like defiance, but she couldn’t possibly be that stupid. It was probably fear. She just held it differently. Human fear excited demons, but this one didn’t need it. Everything about her excited h
im—not a good thing. And the stupid way she spoke to him, as if she had a chance of stopping him from doing or taking whatever he wanted. Hysterical.

  In addition to it being part of their jobs, demons used humans to release their heat and for amusement. Not physically, of course, because that was incredibly self-destructive and hugely illegal. On the rare occasions it had happened, the trysts were far less pleasant for the mortals than a fork in the thigh and breaking bread. Davyn had never even deliberately touched one of them, except to take their lives legally. He’d never even wanted to touch one another way. Until now.

  Not that he would let himself. They were nothing but trouble, and this one was dangerous as well. He wasn’t sure why, but he knew it was true. Maybe it was her energy, the way it bounced off his.

  Davyn had been tempting humans for a century and a half. Three tours of duty, fifty years each, manipulating a person’s hidden desires to quell his heat, burn off some energy so to speak. He was good at it because he paid attention. He’d learned how they think, what they do. So when the hunter said the increased power the vamp blood had given her didn’t make her better than other seers, it shocked the shit out of him.

  Humans wanted power. All of them. Even the good ones. Power meant you could change things, for yourself or for others. Gave you a sense of control in the big, bad, scary world. Total bullshit, of course—no one could control anything, especially not a human.

  The hunter was still staring at him. That he didn’t mind. What he did mind was how long the food was taking. He looked at his watch, figuring out how long he had before he started to heat up. He hadn’t used his glamour for the entire chase, so he had a little more time, but he shouldn’t have brought her here, shouldn’t be doing this. Fucking curiosity didn’t only kill cats. If Davyn couldn’t deal with his heat, his curiosity would kill everyone in the restaurant. And that would just be embarrassing.

  As soon as the food arrived, he dug into it, happy to have something else to focus on. She didn’t move, didn’t pick up another fork, so he growled, “Eat.”

  She lifted a tiny piece of bread to her lips. Lovely lips. Full and—

  Fuck.

  She put it back on her plate. “What do you want from me?” To see something a lot bigger than a piece of bread slip between those lips, something that was currently a lot harder than it should’ve been.

  Damn it. He adjusted himself. “I want an answer to my question from earlier. Why don’t you think you’re better?”

  “You wouldn’t understand.”

  He leaned back in his chair. “Have we ever met before?”

  “No.”

  “Then maybe I look stupid, or I speak your language awkwardly.”

  She tilted her head. “Point?”

  “My point is how the fuck do you know what I will understand and what I won’t?”

  “Fine.” She finally took a bite of food. “I doubt you would understand. But that doesn’t matter because I’m not going to tell you anyway.”

  “Then I have no reason to keep you alive.”

  “You’re not going to kill me.”

  “Really? Again, you seem to know me better than I know myself because I was so sure I knew how this was going to end. Down to the last breath you took.”

  “I’ll tell you if you let me take out Lamere.”

  He sighed. “I should give up now. Kill you and be done with it, curiosity be as damned as the rest of me. You are ornery and stubborn and not eating the food I so generously ordered for you.”

  She stared at him pointedly and tore off a chunk of bread with her teeth. Not nearly as sexy. Teeth in general—not conducive to the well-being of his most prized possession.

  “Nice effort, but the other two things are still true.” Ornery and stubborn. Adorable in a demon, much less so in any other being. Maybe this one just needed a push. “You look just like her, you know. Right down to the eye color.” Blue, like the sky at its best, except this one’s had a spark the other’s didn’t. At least not anymore.

  “Who?”

  “The human Lamere turned and the thing that brought us together.” Turning a human was punishable by death, all in the name of population control. Now the newbie vamp would replace a centuries-old one. New tits for Lamere’s old tat.

  The thing Davyn still couldn’t understand is why Lamere had risked it. He must have known the newbie would be found. Especially after he’d left her sire-less, roaming the street, feeding on every poor human bastard who came along. Normally another executable offense, but she was given a break once the Prime heard her story, and once she gave up the name of the vamp who’d made her.

  “She looks like me?” The hunter probably hadn’t wanted her voice to betray her shock or the sliver of fear that went through her, but it had. She dropped her gaze to her plate and started poking her food with her fork like she probably wanted to do to Davyn.

  “She could be your twin. Your undead twin. Do you think he’ll make a matching set when he gets hold of you?”

  Her eyes were fiery as they met his. “He won’t get hold of me.” She was funny, not that she probably thought she was being funny.

  “Play it like you did today and you can bet your ass he will.”

  She was fairly strong and moderately smart, but a seer would never be quick enough to take down a vamp as old as Lamere was. Not unless she took him by surprise, had help, or Lamere had other plans for her.

  “I can handle him, puppet. You can’t.”

  “Do you know me? Have we ever met before this?”

  He smiled, enjoying the sound of his own words on her tongue. “No, but I’ve watched you fight. And, if you don’t back off, I’ll also watch you die.”

  “Why did you help me tonight?”

  “You’re welcome, and it won’t happen again. Promise. Go hunt something a little tamer—a witch or something.” After what had happened with the dat vitae, witches all over the world were afraid to cough, they were being watched so closely. Not the local coven, of course. All its members were either dead or human with no memory of the Highworld at all.

  “As long as he’s dusted, you get paid, right?” she asked. “So let me do it. I won’t even ask for half your fee.” She took a huge bite of bread. More relaxed now? That had to stop.

  “Let’s clear this up right away. I’m going after Lamere because it’s my job to go after him. If I don’t do my job, my boss will be angry. When my boss gets angry, shit explodes. Volcanoes erupt, fields are decimated, and entire cultures disappear. Is that what you want?”

  After she swallowed, she said, “Then let me come along. Let me stake him.”

  “Why the fuck would I do that? I like killing things, and I don’t get to do it nearly enough.”

  After a moment, she put her napkin on the table and stood. “Forget it.”

  “Sit down.”

  “I’m leaving, and you’re not going to kill me.”

  “Not in the middle of a restaurant. It would be incredibly awkward, and they probably wouldn’t let me come back. But if you leave before I finish eating, I’ll have no one to talk to and will have to find another way to entertain myself.” His gaze swept over the crowd of humans who had no idea what he was or what he was capable of. “Which one should I start with? Pick one before you go.” It was a gamble, one she might not play along with. But he wasn’t bluffing and she knew it. The question was, did she care?

  “What about her?” He nodded towards a teenage girl sitting with her parents, frowning. Humans favored their young, wanted to take care of them, even if they didn’t belong to them. “What do you think she’s tempted to do? From the look she’s giving her parents, I bet I wouldn’t even have to push very hard.”

  The hunter hesitated, swallowed, and then sat back down. Humans were weak. And predictable.

  “Now answer my question.”

  “I heal fast. That’s it,” she said unhappily.

  “I’ve seen you move. I’ve seen you fight. And while you’re still pre
tty damn pathetic, you’re a lot faster and stronger than the average human.”

  “Because I’ve worked on it, trained, not because of the vamp blood. All it gave me was faster healing and a whole bunch of drawbacks.”

  “Like what?”

  “You didn’t get me a drink,” she said, signaling the waitress. After listening to the woman go through a long list of imported beers, the hunter sighed. “I’ll take whichever one is the most expensive.”

  He laughed. “Ooh, you sure know how to punish me, puppet.”

  “Call me ‘Seer’ or ‘Hunter’ or even ‘Keira.’ But stop calling me a puppet.”

  “Take the hand out of your ass and I will.”

  “I’m no one’s puppet. The Rising doesn’t do that.”

  “I wasn’t talking about the Rising. I was talking about your Master.”

  “I told you I don’t have one.”

  “And I’m telling you that you do. Masters aren’t always external, puppet. Whatever’s controlling your mind and causing your damage is your Master and will continue to be until you deal with it or you die—whichever comes first. I’m betting on the latter.”

  “I had no idea demons were so wise.”

  “There’s a lot you don’t know about demons.”

  “Teach me.”

  “A demon teaching a human? Yeah, that’s never, ever going to happen. Even if it wouldn’t piss off every supernatural being in the world.”

  “You don’t have any loyalty to the council, and demons don’t follow rules.”

  “There are a few we follow. But they come from the guy downstairs, not the council.”

  “Then why take the jobs they give you?”

  “Because it gives us a chance to kill things without anyone getting their panties in a bunch. Except for the vic, of course.” They stopped speaking when the waitress delivered the hunter’s beer, but their eyes stayed locked. He’d like to believe it was because they both knew better than to take their eyes off the enemy, but that might not have been all of it.