by brett hicks
I heard Liam sigh in exasperation as I turned the corner and entered the back staircase; the walls were painted blood red and the metal all in black, same as the bathroom. This place felt like a giant used tampon! I could hear several TV’s blaring through a few doors I passed once I rounded the steps and followed the path to the right. The door wasn’t just unlocked, it was cracked open for me.
Inside the subtle scent of sandalwood and male musk tickled my nose. The straight women would have loved this place. Liam’s humble apartment was spacious and neatly kept, and much more tastefully decorated than the rest of the building. He had photos hanging on the wall, all of him posing with various bands, including some of him with bands that I recognized as Classic Rock bands. Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Rolling Stones, and even Jimi Hendrix all posed with an ageless twenty-something Liam.
My brain was about to go back on hiatus. He had said vampire even though I had refused to listen. Slowly, the logic and logistics of my situation were catching up to me. A dark fairy, five of them, attacked me and I had been turned into a blood-sucking vampire! Now, what the hell did that make me?
Sticky and dirty for one thing Thea…
I chided myself and I resolved to ask Liam every question that I could possibly throw at him, after a nice long shower. I wasn’t overly concerned with him walking in on me. Liam gave off a brotherly vibe, then sexual deviant. Besides, if his digital calendar on his wall mounted flat-screen TV was any indication, I really had been out three days. Liam could have hurt me at any point, but my clothes were still on, which spoke of control and respect on his part. A man not removing a woman’s clothes, even to change them, showed that he was very respectful.
Hot precious steamy water rolled down my lightly browned skin. I was about one shade darker than a white chick now, but I could just deal, considering I was breathing, and my heart was pumping. Both things that most vampire myths seemed to have gotten wrong or had been omitted intentionally.
I found the Irish Spring bar soap particularly ironic, and slightly ridiculous, considering I was sure Liam was from the other Island. I am very good with accents and placing people’s regions. It is a skill that I hoped to use in my law-enforcement career; however, that path seemed a lot less likely now.
The night flowed through my mind as I thoroughly scrubbed my body until I was sure my skin was squeaking. Liam would need more Irish Spring, after I was done in here! I sobbed and nearly wretched in the shower as I replayed murdering four dwarves. They were inhuman cruel and totally vial beings, but I had ended their lives with such little thought at the time.
I leaned against the wall and just breathed in slowly, letting my body calm down. Everything seemed to send me into sensory overload easily right now. I felt particularly sensitive to everything around me, and even my own memories.
I cried to myself and hopefully no one else in this building full of monsters could hear my sobs. I hated to have an audience to any perceived weakness on my part. Where I grew up, vulnerability would get your hurt, raped, or killed. I was not lucky, but I had fought like hell to ensure that none of those three happened to me. My body still bore some of the scars from fighting against stronger, older opponents at the time.
Now I was a monster and besides the sausage and eggs, I could smell, even from the front of Liam’s apartment, I knew that I would also have to drink human blood. I stepped down the stairs and left the towel wrapped around my head, so my hair could dry properly.
Five:
Real, I shouldn’t have been so surprised to see the pale princess with her flowing red hair perched on the edge of her tall barstool like it was her own personal throne. Her beauty was even more breathtaking in the light of day. Her skin flawless and perfect, never having seen a single blemish. Her crystal-blue eyes apprising me silently, until Liam sat a stack of pancakes in front of her.
I might have imagined it, but the ice-queen seemed to thaw just a little at the sight of the hotcakes. No, she had, every girl had something that could mollify her mood, unless someone was actively trying to piss her off. Seri ate in silence, and I could practically see her attempting to shelter her obvious pleasure in the sweet morning treat from the rest of us.
Endearing as that little fact might be, I was still confused, hungry, and angry, not necessarily in that order either! Liam gave me a winning smile and he sat down two massive breakfast burritos over-stuffed with sausages, four kinds of cheese melted in and perfectly scrambled eggs.
This man’s super power must be knowing how to pacify pissy girls! Because Liam was two-for-two this morning, so I forgot my anger for the time being, and I sat down a few stools away from the very hot ice-princess.
If the food looked good, it tasted even better! He had just the right amount of homemade salsa woven in with the eggs and cheese. I was not much of a real Latin girl, but I did love Tex-Mex food.
Liam sat down with a similar platter of three burritos for himself. I ate in silence enjoying the richly flavored meal. Being raised on the streets taught a girl to take a hot meal where she could get one, even if that meant holding back your other emotions and sucking up a bit to get fed.
I knew that these two didn’t really do me wrong, but I was still mad and everyone who had actually nearly killed me, were all dead. Moreover, I was stuck in a new world where blood sucking was real!
You could see where this would bother me, right?
“So, those were redcaps, as in dark fairies, or did I get that part wrong?”
I flicked my gaze from Liam to the hot little redhead. She was all cool and proper; also, she looked practically poised to strike at a moment’s notice. You would find her picture in the dictionary next to the word “deadly.” She didn’t seem to do subtle very well either, because her body language projected her feelings. Something about me seemed to set this girl off and badly so.
“Aye, may they all rot in that shite-hole they call home!”
Liam said with some real heat in his tone. I blinked a few times and took another bite.
“You, me, and her are all vampires?”
Seri’s brow scrunched down at my mention of her. Her eyes seemed to be daring me to challenge her, or something. I don’t speak vampire, so I’m not sure what her problem is right now.
“Aye lass, we are vampires.”
Liam spoke evenly and said only what was asked of him, nothing more, and nothing less.
“Why did they attack me? I’m not, I wasn’t, one of you at the time.”
Her highness sniffed and then huffed out a long-labored breath.
“You were in our domain, and you were exuding your own magic. You are—were—Bruja.”
I blinked a few times. I had heard that word before, but never seen or heard a definition to it. My mind couldn’t connect the word to a meaning, or a picture.
“What does that mean? I feel like you’re calling me a bitch the way you say Bruja.”
My tone was crisp, and Liam looked positively uncomfortable now. He was stuck eating his meal between two temperamental vampires.
Seri dropped her fork onto her plate with an audible clanking sound. Liam groaned, but must not have meant to, because he flushed a bit as he saw me watching him for a moment.
“Bruja is a type of Mexican-Native-American witch, or shaman. You are a Bruja, through birth, and a necromancer on top of that. Since you are asking, tell me why a powerful Bruja doesn’t even know she is a witch, or that she can raise the dead?”
I blanched at that, I knew what a necromancer was. I’m twenty-one and I have a healthy imagination, so of course I have read some Paranormal Fantasy books!
I gave her a dry look, and the tone to match.
“I’m a fucking orphan. I grew up in group-homes. I was too busy learning how not to be hit, and later raped. Then, I was scrounging for food when I was not fighting or hiding from the only adults in my life.”
She cracked open for a split second and I saw her compassion, but she carefully flash-frozen her mood again.
“I see, that would explain why you wandered into my bar without a fucking clue. I had just thought you were insane, not ignorant.”
Her frosty tone made me bristle as much as the implication of me being stupid, or unlearned. I was not unlearned in any way—except for the whole fangs and fairies’ bit!
“So sorry princess! Maybe you should send out a fucking press statement if you expect human people to know what you are!”
Her nostrils flared, and her eyes widened a fraction.
“Don’t call me princess.”
Her tone sent a shiver down my neck, and if I were being an honest girl, I would admit that part of me liked her violent tone. She was powerful, deadly, and my personal brand of gay girl catnip. I had an unhealthy affinity for redheads.
I shook my head slightly, trying to jar the thought form my mind.
You just broke up with one brand of crazy, stop looking for a replacement!
“So, you were raised in foster care then lass?”
I nodded slightly, returning my gaze to Liam, who was trying to keep us from clawing into each other, or possibly biting, and not in a playful way!
“Yep, my mom was so cliché she dropped me off in front of a damn church. So, I grew up in the system in Boston. So, I never heard of being a witch, or anything about raising the dead. Not until I came here.”
Liam took a sip of his coffee and he caught me eyeing his mug with unveiled lust in my eyes. Yes, I am a coffee fiend, you try getting through college midterms without a steady ivy drip of the black heavenly fluid in your veins!
“How rude of me, I forgot to pour you ladies a mug of joe.”
Liam looked positively abashed, a bartender forgetting to serve the coffee with breakfast! That was a crime against god and nature!
He fumbled about, found two tall mugs, brought them, a pot of coffee, and then turned back, grabbing real creamer. I took his peace offering and decided that his life was spared for the moment. Seri seemed to have reached a similar conclusion. A pair of girls was putting the poor bastard through his paces!
The strange dynamic between Liam and Seri seemed to somehow be extended to me. I didn’t exactly feel comfortable with that, because it had some deeper meaning I had yet to learn. Seri on the other hand, had no trouble shooting me withering glares. She had perfected the art of the glare, but I was used to much worse than even a vampire could shoot me. Seri lacked the unscrupulousness, to truly scare me. I did not scare easily, even in this insane situation. A street-girl deals and she figures out how to keep moving before someone takes a shot at her ass!
“Thanks Liam, you’re a god among men. If I had a straight sister, I would totally throw her at you with a ribbon.”
I winked and began to fix my coffee. Seri eyed me curiously and said nothing. Coffee was more important to each of us, than taunting. Liam chuckled, a deep and rich sound.
“Oh, you paint a colorful picture with that one lass. I shall just have to manage for myself then, yeah.”
I looked up and rolled my eyes.
“Please, you probably have a date book to keep from confusing which date you have which night.”
Liam smiled, the picture of innocence, but I saw the flicker in his eyes. Guilty! I’ve seen playboys like him so many times, I can spot them at fifty-paces off. He seemed very surprised by my observation.
“So, are you going to tell me more about yourself, and why it was a good idea for me to spare you a miserable back-alley death?”
My gaze switched to Seri, who had a red brown quirked in silent question. There was no real murder in her eyes, but she did seem concerned with me, like I was dangerous.
“I’m criminology senior at NYU, and I work part-time as a security guard in the mall near my house. Besides that, I’m just a girl with a lot of bad luck and even worse taste in women.”
My eyes lingered on Seri for a moment too long after that statement.
“Anyway, I had a nasty break up last night, and my only friend in this city told me to meet him here for drinks. I must have left before he arrived, or I would have seen him.”
Liam looked at me with real sympathy.
“Cheat on you, did she?”
I waggled my hand from side to side.
“More like she lied and told me she came out to her parents and dumped her boyfriend to be with me. In the end, I was just her peace of ass on the side, go figure.”
Liam huffed in righteous indignation on my behalf.
“Want me to bite her lass? I can make it very bloody painful.”
I chuckled and shook my head.
“No, no, let her get four kids and a cheating abusive ass-hat. That is a much crueler fate, if you ask me.”
Seri nodded slightly, seeming to come off her high horse long enough to agree on that point. I guess even the vampire princess doesn’t think much of cheaters. She looks like a girl who takes the entire world serious. She probably plans her outfits’ weeks in advance, just so she has everything just so.
Some girls are like that. I’m just a tomboy and proud of it.
“Shit, my classes, my job…”
I sunk my head onto the wooden counter.
“Don’t worry about your classes, because we called you out. You were hospitalized due to case of strep throat. You had to have your tonsils removed, and you are still going to be horse for a few weeks.”
I blinked several times and Seri looked back at me unblinking.
“How did you manage all that?”
She rolled her eyes, looking more the twenty-two, or twenty-three she most certainly was not. Seri’s age was very hard to gauge, because she seemed to be so flawless that even an age bracket didn’t fit her ethereal beauty. Not that it mattered, she was smoldering.
“Thanks, that was very sweet of you. I hope it didn’t put you out or anything.”
I rambled like an idiot and I wanted to smack myself in the head. I caught the twinkle of knowing mischief in Liam’s gaze, great the bugger had realized I liked the psychotic and hot vampiress!
Being attracted to crazy redheads never ended well for me, so I was determined to walk away from this one!
“You will need to stay here for a few weeks, because I must ensure you are safe to allow out in the public again.”
My eyes widened.
“What?!”
Liam raised a hand, as if pleading for me to listen to her.
“What do you mean I must stay here?!”
Yep, my switch was flipped and there was no turning back.
Seri stood up to her imposing powerful and graceful five-four. How she could make tiny look both hot and scary, was beyond me.
“You are a newly turned vampire with necromantic magic. I shall not have you exposing my kind—our kind—to the humans. The last time they learned of us, we had the fucking Inquisition!”
“You’re from Boston, don’t you know about the Salem Witch Trials? They burned a lot of necromancers and Wiccan practitioners at the stake then. They also lopped off vampire and shifter heads, but that little bit is left out of history!”
Liam spoke passionately, and I settled down, the grim reality crashing into me. I was not human. I studied human behavior. Humans do not respond well to being or feeling threatened. I might not want to be here, but I really didn’t want to end up in a lab or burned alive!
I growled slightly, and it turned into a sigh.
“Fine, but I don’t have to like this.”
Liam’s laughing eyes transfixed me.
“I rather thought you loved my cooking, lass. You’re a real heart breaker, you know, that don’t you?”
With that, I finished my breakfast and exchanged cross looks with the angry redhead beside me. I was sure of one thing, Seri or I would end up dead if this continued for too long. Neither of us is used to backing down, and both of us clearly had the backbone to use violence when needed.
Poor Liam had his work cut out for him.
Six:
Liam had me working with the inventory i
n his bar to give me a little space from the still fuming vampire princess. That girl seemed to have one factory default setting, grumpy. I was nervous by the time I heard the other creatures who called this large industrial building home, awoke.
Liam and Seri explained to me that supernatural beings didn’t cluster to one species. Apparently, all the species had some similar origin point, so they just followed the biggest and toughest creature, regardless of race. In this, case the toughest and one of the tiniest beings, because Seri was hardly ever going to be “big.”
Seri was some kind of royalty amongst vampires. My smug smile and my rich satisfaction at being vindicated for calling her princess had nearly made her punch me. Liam had begged her to give me some space.
“You don’t want to kill your first and only kin!”
Liam had said with a deadly serious tone. I didn’t know what this “kin” business was about, but I figured it had something to do with Seri turning me. Like I said before, I have read the paranormal fantasies and vampires always have some sort of connection to the one who makes them. Thankfully, that didn’t seem to extend to my mind, or Seri would have known every time I was checking out her ass or those perky little breasts of hers! She might be seven kinds of crazy, but she was gorgeous and likely dynamite in the bedroom.
Lifting crates of alcohol, yes, let me focus on doing that!
More of the various inhumans piled into the bar, they seemed to use the large grill and industrial stove as their kitchen. All eyes lingered on me, and many curious looks were stolen when they thought I was turned away. It’s hard to keep yourself out of a street-rat’s sight. Keeping your eyes open, scanning the periphery was necessary, lest you have someone bigger and meaner sneak up on you!
With my deeply sorted past, I often wondered what type of cop I would make, or if the NYPD would even allow me to join up. Besides, now I would have to worry about what they might find in my DNA. I still didn’t understand how I had supposedly been a necromancer all my life, and never raised so much as a mouse. Not that Seri was loose lipped about what my “people” could do. Yet another reason I was frustrated with the ginger vamp!