I sighed as the valkyries and Lucy faded from view.
Chapter 24
We arrived back in the garage at Caesar’s Palace. As soon as we appeared, I activated my connector and called back to base while holding up my finger to signal everyone else to be quiet.
“Lydia, have there been any additional reports about crazy stuff going on?”
“Nothing yet, sugar plum,” she replied. “I was a bit worried there because you and the entire team disappeared.”
“Ah…we had to go to the lowest levels here at Caesar’s. Just came back up.” I hesitated but figured I’d use her concern as an opportunity to ask how much she kept tabs on us. “Are you always able to hear what we say, baby?”
“Oh, no,” she replied as if shocked I would ask such a thing. “That would go against privacy protocols. But I can and do keep track of your whereabouts at all times. That’s a requirement, puddin’.”
“And probably a good one,” I admitted, but decided to press the point further. “So when I’m having a discussion with Rachel about personal matters, you don’t listen in on that?”
“Definitely not. Why would I want to do that?”
She sounded miffed. This probably had more to do with the fact that I was in a relationship with Rachel than with Lydia feeling as though I was accusing her of something, though. It was clear that she was jealous of Rachel and me getting back together.
I cracked a smile at that.
“Now, don’t be that way, my little digital delicacy,” I teased as Rachel rolled her eyes. “You know I didn’t mean anything negative.”
“I like that nickname,” Lydia said after a moment.
“It’s fitting, don’t you think?”
She did a little digital giggle. “Yes.”
“Anyway, I have heard things about those systems that can overhear what you say. You know, like that one from Amaz—”
“Ian,” Lydia interrupted hotly, “if you dare compare me to that lowly piece of technology, we’re going to have a serious problem.”
I damn near laughed out loud at that. Only I could manage to piss off an artificial intelligence dispatcher.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I breathed, acting my best to sound dreadful. “I merely meant that those inferior units listen in even when they’re not being actively questioned.” I let that sink in for a moment. “The only way I could compare you to them is if you listened in all the time. But as you’ve clearly pointed out, you’re far superior to those, so you wouldn’t do such a thing.”
There was the slightest hesitation, which meant that Lydia was processing what I’d just said. She was wicked fast, so any delay at all signaled logic relays were working overtime.
“Correct,” she said finally.
And now it was time to do a little damage control. I had to keep her on my side as best as possible. While the Directors may have her in their pocket from a power standpoint, my hope was that she’d stand with me on the side of loyalty. Not likely being that she was A.I., but she did fancy me.
“Besides,” I said in a seductive whisper, “one of these days you’ll be given a physical form. When that day comes, you and I are going to be doing the horizontal dance all night.”
“Ugh,” said Rachel, but she knew I was just playing the game.
“That would be a dream come true,” admitted Lydia, sounding like she may be on the mend.
“For me too, baby.”
Another digital giggle came through.
Chapter 25
I still wasn’t one hundred percent sure about Lydia, but I also couldn’t expect the team to function without using our connectors. There was simply too much coordination that needed to be done. Besides, I had the feeling that just speaking aloud wouldn’t block her from hearing us anyway, assuming she could hear us without our starting an active connection. I know she said she wouldn’t, but something told me the Directors had her hanging on our every word. Hopefully my suggesting there was inferior technology out there that had no choice but to listen in uninvited was messing with her logic pathways, at least.
It all came down to trust.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a great track record with the Directors since the ubers showed up.
As we padded back to our cars, Felicia asked what the plan was.
“We’re going to go and talk to the owners of the Djinn Ink Club,” I said. “It seems to me that we have a vampire who promised a djinn special powers if he put me in a trance. We all know how touchy the djinn get over anything that may put them in a bad light topside, so they might help.”
“Good point,” agreed Rachel.
“The vampire community isn’t exactly fond of the reputation we have either,” Chuck pointed out. “Everyone just assumes that if you’re a vampire, you must be some kind of narcissist.”
To be fair, the majority of vampires were exactly that. There were many who acted mostly normal, but few vampires were like Chuck. He was as laidback a vampire as you’d likely meet. Well, unless he was kicking your ass all over the place because you’d done something nefarious, of course.
“I’m sure the djinn are going to be unhappy with what Sylvester has done,” I said, “but hopefully they won’t blame all vampires for it.”
They would.
Even though there had been a lot of growth over the years in the realm of racial tension, the different factions still harbored distrust and distaste for one another at the more affluent levels. Old money, as they called it. It was definitely better topside, but it still wasn’t perfect. I remember dealing with it during my year as a junior officer in the Netherworld. Within the Netherworld’s hub city people tried to get along, but if a vampire got too close to the djinn’s main area…lights out, brother. Same for a pixie flying into the fae area. Where the city center was a melting pot of turbulence, the edges of town were essentially gangs. Refined gangs, but still quite deadly.
Again, it was better up here because different races couldn’t easily build those same gang areas. A few would pop up now and then, but one call to the Netherworld PPD would put Retrievers on their tails. Getting and staying topside was tough, and people weren’t fond of being forced back for deep reintegration, so most learned to push past their prejudice and try to work in harmony.
I personally had no major issues with any particular class of supernatural. This probably had to do with the fact that I contained all of them in my genetic code. But, I did have issues with people who went after others simply because they were born into a different class.
Ignorance I could deal with; stupidity, not so much.
Now, to be fair, I did hate it when people assumed I was a vampire. But this had nothing to do with my disliking vampires because they were vampires. It had to do with the fact that nobody ever made the assumption I was a fae or a werewolf or a werebear. That meant their determination was based solely on the fact that I dressed nice and combed my hair…and that I appeared arrogant.
Okay, so sue me, but vampires are notorious for being arrogant.
They knew it.
Hell, they’re proud of it!
That’s why it bugged me when people singled me out as being a vampire. I had a healthy ego, but I wasn’t a pompous ass.
Everyone hopped in their cars and headed off to the Djinn Ink Club. It was located in the same strip mall where I’d been attacked while trying to get the Big Ass Burrito I never got. In that little shopping center was a hidden area that ran underneath the Exotic Cars Vegas rental agency.
“Do you think they’ll help?” asked Rachel, referring to the djinn.
“I do, actually.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s in their best interest. They’ve been very particular about doing everything by the book ever since the 2013 Dream Scare at Halloween.”
I saw her nodding out of the corner of my eye.
“That was pretty bad.”
At first, we’d thought it had just been a bunch of people doing a flashmob thing wh
ere they all walked around in various costumes acting crazed. But when folks started falling down in the streets, nearly getting killed by cars and causing all sorts of traffic jams, we started to think there was more to it than an organized prank. It had turned out that a set of djinn had become disgruntled and thus took it upon themselves to wreak havoc on the Strip. They’d picked the perfect time to do it because everyone was dressed up and trick-or-treating. Anyway, that landed those djinn in the slammer for a long time with loads of deep reintegration. It also put the djinn community under the watchful eye of the PPD. They did have the unique ability to fuck with people’s minds, after all. Wizards could do it too, of course, but not with a simple touch.
Vampires had the ability to inject venom and build slaves, which was kind of the same thing, but even those slaves had enough sense not to kill themselves. Give their lives to protect their master? Sure. But they still had most of their wits about them.
“Yeah,” I agreed with Rachel. “It took the djinn community a few years to recover. I don’t think that they’d want to go through something like that again, which means they’ll do whatever they have to in order to exonerate themselves in this incident.”
“Assuming they’re not involved,” she pointed out.
I looked at her.
“You never know,” she said.
Hadn’t thought of that.
Chapter 26
The moment we parked, a crushing force rocked my Aston Martin.
I’d thought for certain that another vehicle had struck us, but when we got knocked around again, I looked out to see that there was a werewolf standing there.
He howled.
“What the shit?” I said.
“Must be another of the vampire’s toys for you,” Rachel said. “What say you just shoot this one and be done with it?”
She was probably right, but with all the pent-up aggression I had floating through my system, using Boomy just seemed trite.
“Nah,” I said, “I think I’ll do it the old-fashioned way.”
I stepped out of the car as my opponent backed away. He was giving me a moment to get set.
That was nice.
“You’re dead,” he growled in a way that only werewolves could. “I’ll rip you to shreds and then I’ll feast on that little slut you have with you.”
“Excuse me?” Rachel stormed. “Did you call me a slut?”
“Yep.”
“Let me tell you something—”
“Technically,” I chimed in, coming to the wolf’s defense, “you do want me to bone a bunch of valkyries while you watch.”
“Which makes you the slut,” she pointed out.
I nodded my agreement. “What does it make you, then?”
“I’d go with awesome,” the wolf answered before Rachel could. Then he turned to her and said, “Sorry about the slut comment. What say after I kill this jerk-off, you and I get together? I don’t have any problem with you watching me bone other chicks.”
“I may take you up on that,” Rachel hissed and then gave me a dark look.
“Nice.”
I took off my jacket and holster, setting them both on the hood of my car. Then I loosened my tie a bit and undid the top buttons on my shirt. Finally, I rolled up my sleeves and prepared to brawl.
To his credit, the wolf allowed me a little time to prepare, though he did howl twice more while waiting.
He wasn’t quite the uber wolf that Rex had been back in London, but this guy was still pretty big. My worry was not knowing the kind of perks Sylvester had given him, assuming this guy was given something by the blasted vampire.
“Quick question before we start,” I said while stretching. “Did Sly enhance you in some way in exchange for killing me?”
The wolf furrowed his brow. “Who’s Sly?”
“Sylvester Melbourne,” I answered. “The vampire?”
“Oh, right. Yeah, gave me really powerful jaws.” He then tilted his head. “By the way, I don’t think he likes being called Sly.”
“How do you know?” I asked. “You weren’t even sure who I was referring to when I called him Sly.”
“Yeah, but one of his minions called him ‘Silly Sylvester’ and he killed the guy.”
“Well, that’s not really the same thing, now is it?”
Clearly, Sly didn’t enhance this guy’s brain because he looked to be genuinely weighing my question.
“I guess not,” he admitted finally.
“One more thing,” I said before the games began. “How’d you know we were going to be here?”
He sighed, clearly wanting to get on with things.
“Sylvester said you’d likely be coming back to the scene of the original encounter. He said I had to wait here for you.” He then looked at his wrist, which did not contain a watch, and added, “Might I say that it took you long enough? I have things to do, you know? The world does not revolve around you.”
“Right.”
The rest of my team started to arrive. They clearly saw my predicament, but they’d known me long enough to realize when it was best not to interfere. Unless, of course, I started to lose very badly. Then they would definitely come to my rescue. You may find that dishonorable, but when it comes to me dying while a bad guy lives, fuck honor.
“I’m quite a good fighter,” I boasted. “Are you ready to die?”
His teeth flared an instant before he launched at me.
Knowing that his jaws were the primary thing to worry about, I ducked under and drove my fist into his gut. He grunted with the impact but landed on all fours and spun back for another attack.
He was damn fast, but I was faster.
I dodged his second attack and brought up my foot to tag the side of his head.
It felt like I’d kicked iron.
Sly obviously did put some special sauce into this doggy’s jaw. Yes, I realize that sounded dirty.
Before I had a chance to bring my foot back down, Snuggles the Wonder Pup had turned his head just enough to lock on to the heel of my shoe. He yanked it free from my foot and tore into it like it was a perfectly seared filet mignon topped with black truffles. I’d gotten used to the fact that my shoes were one of the first things to get destroyed on this job, but this fuck nut just shredded one of my black Testoni Derby Caps. Not only were these shoes expensive, they were incredibly comfortable.
That’s when the pixie came to life.
“Look what you did, you inbred cock-sniffer!”
He paused and looked at me with shock on his face.
I stepped over and ripped the shoe from his mouth and held it up to his face.
“Do you have any idea how much I love this shoe, cum burper?”
“Uh…”
“While I’m sure you are fond of your…” I paused to look down at his feet. His morphed feet had basically ripped his shoes to shreds, signaling he couldn’t afford magically altered ones. “No names, I’m guessing?”
“Uh…”
“Picked them up at a thrift shop, no doubt?”
He swallowed, looking hurt. “No reason to be mean about it.”
“This shoe,” I raged on, shaking the torn Testoni in his face, “could buy a hundred of the ones you’re wearing, you stupid labia muppet.”
That’s when he stood tall and crossed his arms, glaring at me.
“You spent that much on a pair of shoes?” he said with a laugh. “Who is the idiot in this situation again?”
“You are,” I spat, throwing the shoe at his head. “Ass fiddler.”
He roared and grabbed my shoulders quicker than I’d expected. Fortunately, I’d tilted my head away just enough to avoid him decapitating me. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to stop him from chomping into my shoulder.
To say that it hurt would be understating things. Imagine being the guinea pig patient for the very first do-it-yourself-at-home-vasectomy-kit, and you’d get the gist of the anguish that bite caused.
But that just helped to bring the ma
gic out again.
My right hand unleashed a flow of energy daggers in rapid succession. They blew right through Snuggles so quickly that he was literally halved within seconds. But I was so charged up that the electric blades continued flying from my hand and off into the night. They slowly dissipated before falling back to the ground, though, so at least nobody would be injured by them.
Rachel rushed over and grabbed my arm.
“Ian,” she yelled, barely breaking through my angst, “calm down! He’s dead already!”
Felicia and Chuck were on the other side of me, working to dislodge Snuggles’ jaw from my shoulder. Serena was standing by to apply her healing hands.
Slowly, I regained control of myself and the magic stopped.
“Fucker shouldn’t have destroyed my shoes,” I mumbled, feeling incredibly tired as my crew got the wolf dislodged from my shoulder and dropped him to the ground. He turned back into a human. “Fucking cock-juggling snatch cave.”
Serena’s hands went to work on me. Coupled with my own healing ability, my shoulder was back to normal within a few minutes. But I was still exhausted.
Casting magic was a tiring business.
“I’m going to need you guys to funnel some of your power into me,” I said tiredly as I looked toward the building where the Djinn Ink Club was housed. “I can’t go in there feeling this weak.”
The mages all nodded and put their hands on me.
“Oooh,” I said without control. “That feels amazing.”
Chapter 27
I decided that it might be best if my team stayed outside to make sure we weren’t ambushed when we exited. We could still be attacked, obviously, but with the crew outside we’d at least have shields in place. Plus, we’d be entrenched instead of walking out blind.
Thus, after putting my suit jacket back on and grabbing a fresh pair of shoes from the trunk of my Aston Martin, Rachel and I entered the door past the hidden area.
The place was posh, with comfortable carpeting, dark blue walls that were dimly lit via sconces, and furniture that looked very cozy. All of this made sense seeing that the point was to make you feel like you were in a calm place. Most of the people who frequented the joint were normals, after all, so to them this would be the perfect environment for dreaming. The normals who came here were typically wealthy, but not always. Regardless, they couldn’t get in unless they were in-the-know. First off, there was a hidden zone; secondly, there was a null zone. Any normal without the proper training and bypass protocols wouldn’t even know the Djinn Ink Club existed.
Curse of Fangs: An Ian Dex Supernatural Thriller Book 6 (Las Vegas Paranormal Police Department) Page 9