“So what do you need money for?” I asked. “You said some people work. Why?”
“Well, we do need to buy clothes, and gas for the cars, and then there’s the Bloodmobile.”
“Wait, what?” I held up a hand. “You have a Bloodmobile?”
“Oh yeah,” she said. She pointed off to one side of the room, in the general direction of one of the side tunnels. “We have a human staff that runs a donation van, and we get about half the blood we need from donations. That’s where a lot of our money goes, into paying the humans and upkeep on the bus. And marketing. Jerri and Sol are in charge of booking the Bloodmobile, and that’s a full-time gig. Those two are what really keeps the red stuff flowing around here.”
“Impressive,” I said, and I meant it. Whoever this Alexander guy was, he was running a pretty good little gig here, and he was running it right under my nose. Part of me really hated that, but another part of me had to give him props for it.
“Well, that’s high praise coming from you, isn’t it?” A tall vampire who looked to be in his thirties said from a good twenty yards away. Then he blurred into motion and dashed right over to stand in front of me, his right hand extended. “I’m Alexander. Welcome to Sanctuary. May you and yours be safe and hale while under our protection.”
I shook his hand. “Thanks for the hospitality,” I said. “Nice place you have here. I just wish I’d known about it sooner.”
“Why, so you could levy a tax on it?” Alexander asked with a cold smile. “Don’t bother trying to pretend with me. I know who you are, Master Jimmy Black.”
I heard a gasp from beside me and knew without looking that Sandra was glaring daggers at me. “Yeah, but you can call me Jimmy. Unless you’re into the whole Master thing. It’s your call. Now, you want to talk out in the open, or would you like to take our conversation somewhere a little more private?”
“I have no secrets from my people, Master Black.” He was obviously going to run this “Master” thing into the ground and make me look like as big a douche as possible. Little did he know I didn’t need his help for that.
“Okay, then. What do you know about the murder and turning of Julia O’Connell?” Greg asked from my left elbow.
“Nothing,” Alexander said, his eyes never leaving mine. “We don’t make vampires. Ever. It’s one of the very few rules of living here.”
“Bullshit, Alex!” Rabbit said from behind Greg. “You hate me, you hate Jimmy, and you killed that girl to get back at us. She smelled like you, you son of a bitch. I know it was you!”
Alexander looked a little surprised at Rabbit’s outburst, but nothing about him looked guilty. But that wasn’t the biggest problem with Rabbit’s accusation. “No, she didn’t,” I said.
“What?” Rabbit and Greg spoke simultaneously. It was obviously time to separate them before they became any more attached at the hip.
I turned to the little vampire. “She didn’t smell like this place, Rabbit. It’s way too clean. I don’t think Alexander had anything to do with Julia’s death.”
“Well, that’s good to hear,” Alexander said. “Feel free to exit back the way you came.”
I sighed and shook my head, then turned around to Alexander. “Nah, I think we might still have a few things to chat about. Like you running a crew of vampires in my territory without my knowledge or permission.”
“Neither of which I need,” Alexander said, his voice mild but his shoulders tense. He was ready to throw down, but I was trying to keep that from happening. At least for the moment.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Alex.” I intentionally cut off the last bit of his name, just to tweak him a little. It worked, too. I could see a hint of red at the collar of his perfectly starched dress shirt. I’ll admit, part of me wanted to kick his ass because he’d found a way to live without all the BS that came with vampire society. Part of me wanted to kick his ass just because he was better-looking than me. But if I beat up everybody that was prettier than me, I’d never stop punching people. So I shoved that part of me down into a little box and tucked it away.
“You see, I am the Master of the City, whether you want to live by my rules or not. So now that I know you’re here, we’re going to have to deal with each other. Or else.”
“Or else?”
“Ask Gordon Tiram about or else. Oh wait, you can’t, he’s dead.” I smiled, an expression that dropped away with Alexander’s next words.
“In that case, Jimmy Black, I issue this as a formal challenge. I challenge you for the right to be Master of the City.”
Well shit. Didn’t see that one coming.
Chapter 16
“YOU SURE YOU want to do that, Alex?” I asked. “Challenges for Master are usually to the death, and it seems like you have a lot of people here who look to you for leadership. I’d hate to take that away from them.”
“Then step down. We don’t need a Master, Black. And once I kill you, the first thing I’ll do as Master is abolish the position. We don’t need to pay tribute to a group of oldlings just for the right to exist. All we need is to be left alone to rule ourselves.”
“We don’t pay tribute to the Council, Alex. That’s not how it works.” At least, I didn’t think we paid tribute. I made a mental note to ask William about that one. All I knew about the finances was that I had enough money to bribe Bobby for blood every few nights. “Besides, if you kill me, they’ll just send someone stronger than me to run the joint. It’s not like they haven’t already tried that.” My mind flashed back to Clive Paulson, the vampire they sent to “evaluate” me. He was really just here to pick the right time to kill me, but I ripped his head off, then used it as a hand puppet on the Skype call where I told the Council to kiss my ass. Doubtless anyone they sent to replace me would be strong and ruthless. Not that Alexander was bothered by the prospect.
“I’ll just kill whoever they send. Now do you want to run away, or do you want to fight? As the challenged, you have choice of weapons.”
Great, here I was in a duel, and I left my magical sword at home. If I get outta this, I am never leaving home without Excalibur again. What’s the point of having a legendary weapon if you leave it hanging over the TV?
“No weapons,” I said. “If you’re determined to do this, let’s get it on hand-to-hand.” Alex was older than me, probably stronger than me, and certainly more experienced in martial combat than me. The only edge I had on him was that I trained with Sabrina a lot, and with William even more. My little manservant was a legit badass and kicked my ass at Krav Maga a couple times a week. But I was getting better, and I didn’t have to follow any rules with Alexander. I just had to stay alive.
“Very well,” he said. “I am perfectly willing to rip your head from your shoulders and bathe in your blood before I take your mantle.”
Good image. Gross, but good. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Conan,” I said. “Let’s clear a little space before I wreck all your furniture.” I turned and waved at the crowd of picnic tables. “You guys wanna give us some space? I gotta kill your boss right here.” I felt the wind before I heard him move, and spun to my left out of the path of Alex’s first charge. Of course he was going to come at me when my back was turned, that’s why I turned my back on him in the first place, so I could bait him into overextending, slam his head into something hard and immobile, and end this without killing him.
Unfortunately, he didn’t overextend, but pivoted the second he was past me and swung a huge roundhouse punch at my face. Shit, he’s good. I ducked the punch and swung at his knee, but he vaulted over me, landing in a perfect forward roll, then spinning around to create separation and keep me in front of him.
Well, partialfail, because as soon as he went up, I went under him in a roll of my own. I came up in a crouch as he started his roll, and I was back on him with a clothesline the second he spun around. H
e slammed into the concrete tunnel floor with a huge whoomp, but rolled to the side when I stomped at him, so my attempts to squish his head like a grape were fruitless. He sprang up, and I was on top of him to fling him back to the ground. I stomped, he rolled, he came up, I knocked him down. We did this a couple more times, then he mixed things up on me. The fourth time he went down, instead of rolling out of the way of my stomp, he caught my foot and twisted, sending me sprawling.
Now I was the one flat on the floor with a foot rushing down at my head. This was the first time in all my forty-four years that I’ve ever been glad I did crunches. I sat straight up, into his stomp but a little off to the side, and headbutted Alex right in the nuts. Sadly, I was coming at him from straight ahead, rather than underneath, so I didn’t get my full ball-crush on, but his eyes still bugged out like the wolf in a Tex Avery cartoon, and both hands slammed down around his junk.
I disengaged from his crotch and backed away. “You wanna quit?” I asked. “Surrender now and keep a little bit of pride, leadership of your people, and what’s left of your balls.”
He just snarled and dove at me, leaping so far so fast that I understood where those rumors we can fly came from. He looked like a really pissed-off, really pale Superman coming at me, but I guessed his throbbing balls made him a full half step slower than he had been, and that was all I needed.
I’m way stronger than a human, but since this was an official challenge, my ability to draw strength and healing energy from the city itself was turned off, part of the magical bond that tied me to Charlotte as its Master. Even without all that power, I’m fast—faster than even an uninjured Alex—and when he came at me, I was ready. My intent was to grab him by the collar and the belt and spike him headfirst into the floor like a lawn dart.
My intent was not worth a shit. I might have been ready for his spring, but he was just as ready for me to grab him, which made him more ready than I was, and that made my readiness all an illusion. I snatched him out of the air, spun around with him to keep his momentum up, and drove him into the ground with all my strength.
Which accomplished absolutely nothing, because he put his arms up to shield his head and turned it into a roll. He came up facing away from me, took one step backward, wrapped his left arm around my head from front to back, and sat down, driving my knees into the floor and my head into his shoulder. I was jarred a little, but a lot more shocked than hurt. I bounced back up to my feet and looked at Alex clambering to his feet.
“Did you just try to hit me with a Stone Cold Stunner?” I asked, shocked that this idiot was trying to incorporate pro wrestling moves into a real fight.
He at least managed to look a little embarrassed. “It was less effective than I’d hoped,” he admitted.
Now I had another reason to kick his ass. I don’t ever want to lose fights for my life. Usually, you only get to lose one of those. But I certainly didn’t want to die to anyone stupid enough to get all WWF on me in the middle of a real fight. I moved in on him, circling to the right to keep him moving while I looked for an advantage. Alexander darted in, trying to hook my leg with one arm and pull me to the ground. I countered by punching him in the ear. He shook his head as he drew back, then charged in low again.
I met him with a knee to the top of his head, and he stopped cold, dropping to the ground on his face. I threw myself on top of his back, spinning around his body and snaking an arm around his throat. That move is a lot less effective on vampires, what with the whole no breathing thing, but I rose up on my knees beside his hips and pulled back on his neck, exposing his head for me to clobber him in the temple again and again. My plan was to just beat him senseless and call it a day, but he pushed off from the ground with his hands and his legs and flipped himself out of my grip like a salmon swimming upstream against an ass-kicking.
We rolled away from each other again, and I noticed that I had at least managed to give him a big swollen black eye. For a few seconds, until it healed itself. Fighting vampires sucks if you don’t want to kill them, because we heal so quickly from everything but silver. And I definitely didn’t want to kill Alex if I could get away without it. No point in pissing off the people I was trying to lead.
Alex came in high this time, rushing me with his hands up. I expected a feint, so I was a little off guard when the straight bull rush bowled me over and slammed me into the tunnel floor. I recovered fast enough to keep our momentum going and flip him backward off me, and when we got to our feet again, I saw his plan.
When I tossed him over me in a monkey flip, he landed very close to where one of his guards stood. Said guard wasn’t unarmed, like Alex and I were. Said guard had an AR-15 in his hands, which he surrendered to Alex at a glance from his boss. Alex then spun around and started shooting at me, not only breaking the rules of his challenge, but also making me worry about getting out of there in one piece. I dove for cover, sprinting to hide behind the picnic tables.
“You know I’m pretty hard to kill, right?” I shouted from my modest concealment.
“I know these are silver-jacketed bullets that will rip you to pieces,” Alex called back. “And if you don’t show yourself right now, I know I’ll put three rounds in your fat friend’s head.”
“I don’t like being called fat,” Greg said, his voice cold.
“I don’t care what you want, fatass,” Alex replied.
“Hey now, let’s not call names, okay, douchenozzle?” I said, standing up with my hands outstretched.
Alex swung his rifle to me and raised it to his shoulder. Unfortunately for him, that meant he ignored the angry vampire standing next to him with a twelve-gauge and a whole lot of body image issues. Greg blew his head from his shoulders before Alex could even squeeze the trigger, and I was on top of him burying a silver stake in his heart before the body even hit the ground.
I snatched the rifle from Alex’s twitching fingers and stood up. “Anybody else want to be the Master of the City?”
Silence. There were a lot of shocked faces, and more than one of them looked angry. I decided that I was going to win or lose these people right now.
“I’m Jimmy Black, and I’m the Master of the City. Alex challenged me to single combat, then he decided to cheat. That was a bad idea, and it ended poorly for him. Now I’ll take on any other challenges that come, or you can live and work under my rules, and I’ll extend my protection to everyone here.”
“What are those rules?” A woman stepped forward. She was older than most of the vampires gathered, at least judging by when she was turned. She appeared about fifty, with long dark hair shot through with white.
“Don’t kill humans, don’t let the mundanes know about supernatural beings, and don’t do anything illegal unless I approve it ahead of time and get my cut,” I said.
“What if we just have jobs and live our lives?” she asked.
“Then you don’t have to worry about that last part.”
“You aren’t going to charge some kind of tribute or any other bullshit?”
I thought for a moment and decided that their allegiance was worth more than cash. “Nah, I’ve got money. If I need more, it’s on me to get more. You’re my people, not my serfs.”
“If that’s legit, we can live by those rules. What else?”
I looked at Greg, who shrugged, then over at Rabbit, who looked as blank as Greg. “That’s it. Don’t be stupid, don’t get greedy, stay under the radar. Anything else is your business. You want to live in here, that’s fine. You want to live with the Morlocks, that’s fine. You want to get apartments in that stupid pink building on South Boulevard, go for it. As long as nobody finds out there are vampires in Charlotte, I’m good.”
“Okay,” the woman said. She turned around to the rest of the gathered vampires. “Alex is dead. We can try to kill this guy and his two friends, we can try to go it on our own, one of you can try to fi
ght him to be the boss, or we can just keep our heads down and live our lives. Does anybody have a problem with his two rules?”
Nobody raised their hand or said anything. “Does anybody want to try to kill him?” I was pretty happy when nobody volunteered. I didn’t see anybody who looked like much of a threat, but Greg didn’t look like he could bench press a Prius, either, so I was trying to get past judging appearances.
“Does anybody want to leave?” The assembled vampires continued with their silence, and I took their lack of rioting and killing me to be continued agreement.
She turned back to me and looked me up and down. I thought from her impression that I was less awe-inspiring than she expected from somebody who called himself “The Master.” “I’m Jang-Mi. I guess I’m the leader of this little band of vampires now. I only have one more question for you before we sign on.”
“Ask away,” I said. I had no idea what kind of question was coming, but as long as it wasn’t accompanied by a bullet, I figured I could deal.
“Did you come here to kill Alexander, or were you really looking for someone?”
I pulled out my phone and looked at the shattered screen and exposed circuit board. Looks like the OtterBox could only stand up to so much jumping, rolling, and tackling. I held out my hand for Greg’s, and he slapped it into my palm. I swiped through his photos until I came upon the photos Julia’s brother sent us to help our search. “We’re looking for who killed this girl and turned her. She was in high school. I had to give her true-death. That shit will not go unanswered. I don’t care if you live here. I don’t care if you telecommute, or design book covers on Fiverrr, or do medical transcription, or lick stamps for nonprofits, or whatever you do for a job. But this girl was in my city, and that makes her my responsibility. Somebody killed her and turned her. That means she was killed by a vampire, and hunting down vampires that hurt little girls is a part of this job that I take very seriously.
All Knight Long Page 11