Dark Bargain (Kayla McQueen Book 2)

by brett hicks

  I lingered for a moment longer, then I turned and I shot out the door, as if I was on fire, I power-walked to the elevator. I wanted to clear the building before the gossip mill could travel to Jon. Right now, I could not stand to see the look of disappointment in his eyes.

  Fourteen:

  Sally could not drag me out of our apartment in the past two weeks. My naïve, rose colored, view of the world decayed. I had begun to see the harshness of adulthood. Mike had at least honored the promise of dropping his charges against my mother. Jon had continued to call me, so I had pulled the battery from my phone.

  I watched more TV in these two weeks, than I had in my whole life. My mom had given up on trying to come visit. I had even turned my wards up, so that only Sally and I could enter the apartment.

  I was watching Quantico, it was fascinating, considering Alex was a hot young witch working for the FBI. I felt like I could have been her, maybe in another lifetime. I often pondered why humans were so much more integrated with witches, than with any other sect. They were the only sect that had any clear-cut place in the human world. No one seemed to want that fact to change either.

  My mysterious departure from the police force had made the front page of the paper. I had never realized how many mundanes had bothered to notice what the silly little dyamphyr girl was doing. The headline read, “Dyamphyr Discrimination in the 8th.”

  I had been staying indoors as much to sulk, as to hide from the press. They had been practically beating down my warded door, trying to get an exclusive. The only thing they could get was a lot of photos of the many men coming and going with Sally. That was hardly front page material, everyone knew how werewolves were.

  Two more witches were killed and the police were having a lot of trouble picking the pieces of the case back up. My grandmother had not called, nor had she come by to see me. I was not sure if she would have, but it seemed to be her normal behavior. From what I had observed of Joan, she was a very private person and her concept of time was very different than a short-lived individual. Joan probably did not feel the need to come hover over me, she probably knew, rightly, that I would come around when I felt like it.

  If I was being completely honest with myself, I felt humiliated. I felt foolish and completely naïve. My hunger seemed to surge within me, the loss of balance had greatly shifted my nature. I felt much less than human, even for one who was barely human to begin with.

  Was it beyond my ability to ever expect any sibilance of normalcy? Was true co-existence truly impossible?

  Strike them all down!

  No!

  Yes, kill them!

  Never!

  Then you shall never be free.

  Fuck you!

  The door opened with a thud and Sally came prancing in. Her eyes were on me immediately. I was climbing to my feet, I did not remember falling to the living room floor. Cold sweat ran down my neck and my forehead. My hunger seemed to be at its apex again. Sally must have sensed it, she went to the fridge and sat a bottle of my Type A down next to me.

  “Kay, what the hell is going on?”

  I snatched it and I gulped greedily, the sounds were nothing human now. Sally’s scent assaulted my vampiric senses, I felt like it was a completely different scent. It made me feel both threatened and angry at the same time. It was like what would happen when I smelt the grave musk of a vampire.

  Enemy, enemy, enemy.

  My senses screamed it, my blood boiled with it. The sensation was overwhelming. I knew that I needed help, the kind of help that no one I knew could provide.

  The pain hit my chest again, like another sword, piercing my defenses and lodging itself deep within me.

  I pointed to my phone lying on the table dead and I gasped out the words, “Bella…call… please…”

  My world went black and I felt myself collide face first with the floor.

  ****

  I was in my bed, I could feel Sally near me, and I could feel the cold presence of the master vampire Bella. I opened my eyes and turned my head, I began to cough and hack, my body was aflame, most likely a fever. My limbs felt heavy and my body ached, my fangs were fully descended and my throat burned with thirst.

  “What the hell is happening to her!?”

  “This is the dyamphyr transition to adulthood. It seems to have come a little later in Kayla, since she was so thoroughly suppressing her vampire side.”

  “Can’t she just re-suppress it?”

  Bella gave Sally a tolerant look and shook her head.

  “It does not work that way little apex, she is becoming.”

  “Becoming… what?” I managed to mumble the question in a raspy, gravelly voice.

  “Becoming a true dyamphyr, Kayla, you will become much closer to the nature of your undead brethren, but take heart, you can master your thirst.”

  I began to hack and cough again. My eyes seemed to throb with a form of sinus headache, though this was my first time experiencing such a thing, I was sure that was an accurate description of my condition.

  Bella tied back her long red hair and then she pulled a large bag of blood from my mini-fridge unit. She sat down on the side of my bed and her eyes showed something I had never expected in a vampire, compassion.

  “Drink child, you are going to need a lot of sustenance, if you are going to come through this sane.”

  I took the blood without a second thought, I generally did not like to eat, I had forced myself to drink more this past year, but I had always hated my dietary needs. Now, I did not hesitate, I just ripped the bag open and began to gulp greedily and I felt drops rolling down my chin. I licked the blood around my mouth, savoring it like I never had before. My thirst was in overdrive now, I needed it, I wanted it, but some part of me feared it.

  I’m no longer me! This is what my grandma feared would happen! I will become just like they did!

  No, no, no, no!

  I felt my icy magic surround me, like a protective casing. I saw both other girls in the room take a step back, quickly. Neither wanted to be caught up in my deep-freeze cocoon.

  “What’s she doing to herself?”

  Sally’s voice was full of anxiety and dismay.

  “She is purging herself, she did exactly what I expected her to do, Kayla is a fighter. She will be fine, her witch and her vampire halves are re-merging now. She has won the war of wills with her hunger.”

  “Will this keep happening?”

  “Hard to say, since she is only the second observation I have ever encountered of a witch and a vampire mixing genes.”

  “You mean those twins, the ones that kidnapped Kayla’s granny?”

  “Yes, I tried to help them…”

  “Well, I would have to say you failed the whole damn world!”

  “You’re not wrong little apex, I failed all of the sects, and all of the innocent mundanes, whom they drank dry.”

  “What happened with them?”

  “Unlike Kayla, they never hated their vampiric nature, so they never felt any need to hold it in such strong check. Despite my differences of opinions with Joan McQueen, she was not wrong to force Kayla into confrontation with her vampiric side, before adding magic to the mix. Now, thanks to that, Kayla’s witch side is working as a counterbalance to the blood frenzy. All dyamphyr’s must fight surges of blood frenzy, but the rest does not have a duel supernatural nature to contend with, so it is much easier for them, much less intense. It is a testament to how deep your bond runs with her, any lesser love would have been shattered and you would have been one dead little apex puppy.”

  “I’m going to try, very hard, to forget that you just called me a fucking puppy!”

  “Easy, to me, your father is nothing but a lad, you should realize how different us ancients measure time.”

  Sally’s voice was tense, but calm, “Sorry, old habits and all that. Never actually had an amiable, conversation with a vampire before.”

  Bella nodded, conceding the point and said, “I have met your fa
ther more than once Sally Early. He is a very reasonable man, he has never let divisions of sects cloud his judgements. He is old enough to remember the wolf hunts, so he knows that your werewolf community has been on the wrong end of senseless aggression. We share that in common, it is a point to which I would like to remedy.”

  Sally nodded, blinking and flipped some loose red locks from her eyes. She was relaxing, slowly, but she was letting her guard down a bit. She was doing it to try to give Bella a chance. Bella did not miss the olive branch, her eyes widened a fraction, but she did not verbally announce her comprehension.

  “Kayla, how are you feeling now?” Sally’s voice was laced with concern again, she had decided that all threats had passed now.

  I shrugged weakly and said, “Feel a little crappy, but better than before.” I looked at Bella and said, “Is that going to happen again?”

  Bella shrugged and said, “It depends on you, little one. You cannot suppress your dyamphyr nature, nor can you kill, therefore, you must find a balance. Your witch side should help you hold yourself in check. While the combination of vampire and witch in one being can be very volatile, it can also harmonize, this depends on the will and sanity of the individual.”

  “So, common decency is the secret to all sects being good little critters of the night then?” I said sarcastically, but Bella nodded solemnly.

  “It is as complicated, and as simple as that. Your grandmother figured this out, though it took her longer than one might expect.”

  Sally waved her off and said, “Hey, I am all about getting as much action as I can, but if anyone ever forced themselves on me, then I would probably be as pissy with their whole species.”

  “The whole species Sally? In what universe does that level of vendetta make sense?” I exclaimed louder than I meant to. Both redheads were smirking at me, each sharing an amused expression. I shot Bella a look and a lopsided grin.

  “I will be totally pissed if you turn out to be evil after all of this,” I motioned between us with my hands and Bella seemed to get the gist. She shook her head and said, “No evil plans, or machinations. Well, maybe some for The King, but that is about it.”

  “Why haven’t you ever tried to unite a peaceful sect before now? You clearly have the power.” I must have sounded as baffled as I felt, Bella nodded curtly and cleared her throat.

  “The other ancients for one, many of them are bloody warmongers. They rule their fiefdoms with blood, violence and unite under the ‘common enemy’ line. It has also been very hard, if not impossible, to find other sect leaders willing to come to the table with me. To even talk about peace and then have it blow up in my face, would cause much trouble. Many could have come to try to carve out pieces of the people already under my control.”

  It suddenly clicked now, she was sitting in the room with the McQueen heir and the Early heir. We are like the dark horses of the community, just the kind of young future leaders another sect leader would need, so they could bridge the gaps.

  “You seem to have figured it out now it seems, so now you know why I wanted you alive little one. Why I entertained your perception of power over me when we first met. I always wanted to arrange a way to meet you, but well, your antics accelerated my time table a bite.”

  I felt some warmth and color enter my cheeks now, thinking back to my dagger clad hand in Bella’s chest in September. When I recall the details of the encounter, she never really looked worried about her position, but I could have killed her.

  “Wait, I could have ended you, despite all your power.”

  Bella’s eyes glinted with amusement and she nodded. She looked like she was very reluctant to let me know that I did indeed truly have her life in my hands at one point.

  “Yes, but you were talking, so I was sure that you wanted information much more than you wanted to end one vampire. In the physical sense, yes, you had me at death’s door, but the physical and the mental are very different. Where reason exists, there is always a sliver of hope.”

  Sally chimed in sassily, “You should put that in a fortune cookie!”

  Bella and I rolled our eyes, almost as if it was scripted. She was hiding the ghost of a smile, she was clearly amused by our teenage antics.

  “Speaking of food, Kayla, do you mind if I help myself to some of your type A?”

  I shrugged and said, “Might as well open the bar, considering we invited you here.”

  “Thank you, your body seems to be rebounding quickly now.”

  “I’ll show you to the, erm, blood then,” Sally said, she was still struggling with her inbreed sense of danger around a vampire.

  I passed out a few more times, only to awaken to the wolf and the vampire having a chick flick fest in my room. Sally had some salty and super buttery popcorn and Bella had one my juice boxes of blood. I did not have time to contemplate anything profound, since I was effectively watching a werewolf and a vampire gush over mundane actors in romance movies. I personally welcomed the fever back, since I was no longer too delirious to tune out the gushy movies.

  “Play The Matrix!”

  Both looked at each other and then at me and shook their heads.

  “You’re sure that Kayla is indeed a girl?” Bella asked Sally, the trader leaned in and sarcastically said, “If I hadn’t taken baths with her, I wouldn’t believe it either. Believe it or not, she is one-hundred-percent straight too!”

  I passed out for the last time to the snorting laugh of a two-thousand-year-old vampire.

  Fifteen:

  That night, I awoke at two-thirty in the morning. I was restless, my witch blood seemed to be humming with desire to see my kin. It was as if my skin was threatening to vibrate off my body. I knew it was not another vampiric antic. Something primal within me just knew the difference.

  I dressed in dark clothes and I stuffed a pair of cold iron daggers up my long sleeve tee shirt. I quickly slipped my steel-toed work boots on and then I crept out the door. Sally was asleep on the couch, there were a pile of DVD cases on the table. Bella was silently watching The Notebook.

  Bella looked at me and gave me a smile.

  So, this is the solution to the werewolf-vampire feud? Stick them in a room with all the girly movies they can handle?

  “Something is troubling you little one?”

  It was not exactly a question, Bella could tell. I opted for the truth, she had been around my coven before.

  “My witch side is literally humming in my blood, I just need to go see my grandma.”

  Bella’s eyes widened a fraction, that was her version of extreme shock—or so it had come to seem.

  “You must hurry child, blood is calling for blood. This is ancient magic. Your grandmother’s life is in danger.”

  “Don’t wait up! I’ll be back when I can.”

  “Should I wake your friend?”

  Something in Bella’s eyes told me that she was trying to send a message. I thought about it, my first instinct was to keep Sally out of it. She was still a part of another sect, so crashing the gates of the Witchy compound with a wolf in toe might cause her people a lot of trouble. Bella was trying to hint to me, trying to tell me something. The look on her face now was like that of a teacher waiting for her pupil’s answer.

  My grandma would never wish me to risk the wolves on her account, in fact, she would never wish me to risk myself either. Bella said that this was ancient magic. If my grandma is sending up a flare, then something is wrong, something she is asking for my help on.

  “Sally,” I yelled it, the she-wolf popped up gingerly and looked around.

  “The hell Kay, some of us did not snooze all day!”

  “No time, Joan, my grandma, is in trouble. Will you come with me in case I need some furry back up?”

  Sally’s eyes glowed with feral power, she nodded and looked happier about this than any sane person should have.

  ****

  I cut my headlights across the street from the main entrance to the massive gated community. Ther
e was a vague sound, something like metal clanging on metal. It was not the higher pitch rings of melee combat, this was much deeper and it reverberated for miles. My keen vampire ears homed in on the source of the sound, I heard a crashing sound of some kind. I still could not place the noise, not exactly. I looked at Sally.

  “You still have that burner phone, the one you think no one knows about?”

  Sally gave me a shocked look and said, “You been raiding my purse Ms. McQueen?”

  I shot her a flustered look and my eyes must have bled to silver, she threw up her hands in surrender, and then reach into her small bag and pulled a tiny burner cell from a hidden pocket.

  “Thanks, and no, I just happen to be the most observant roommate you are going to ever have to deal with. I always knew you would keep in touch with your pack females, this is not surprising to me—nor would it be with your father.”

  I quickly dialed Ben’s number from the untraceable cell and he picked up after two rings.

  “Hello, who is this?”

  “Just a concerned citizen reporting a possible disturbance at the main coven district. You might want to dispatch a few units to check this out, it sounds like a damn war zone inside.”

  “Kayla, this is Kayla, right? Shit, let me get Jon…”

  “No! Just get some damn units down to the coven, I am going to check it out.”