E.V.I.E.: 13 Slayers, 13 Missions

by Lexi C. Foss

  So Rich’s it was.

  3

  I stood in the parking lot, staring at the thumping building in front of me. During the day, Rich’s could be mistaken for an enormous, abandoned barn. But during the night…there was no missing the fact that this place was alive, teeming with sweaty, intoxicated young people desperate for a good time. Evidently, it was allegedly also teeming with vampires…but I guess I would find out about that. I was ninety-nine percent positive that James Smith was crazy.

  The bouncers didn’t bother looking at my I.D. I was a hot girl, and that was all they needed to see. It was really a wonder that this place never got raided. There must have been greased palms in the police force.

  The humid air and stench of sweat hit me as I walked through the door. I’d only been here once, and it had been with the guys.

  Agony threatened to drown me, and I forced myself to push all thoughts of them away. I’ll just pretend they’re at home waiting for me, I told myself. Just one step at a time.

  James’ appearance at the bridge had succeeded in getting me out of whatever depressive fog I’d been in when I’d decided to end my life, but I knew I was one bad thought away from it all coming right back.

  Maybe I would always be just one bad thought away. You never got over losing your soulmates. I knew that even at my young age.

  Focus, I reprimanded myself as I looked around the crowded room. Teenagers and college students were writhing against each other. I studied each person, wondering if there was a trick to knowing when someone was a vampire. And then I shook my head, laughing at the ridiculousness of that thought.

  I made my way over to the bar on the far side of the room, keeping my eye out for James. Maybe he wouldn’t show up.

  I kind of hoped that he didn’t. I ordered a shot of vodka, needing something to numb my tangled emotions. The bartender got it to me quick, and I tossed it down, ignoring the guy next to me who was creeping too close.

  “I knew you would show,” came James’s cocky voice from behind me as I almost choked on the vodka in surprise.

  I turned around. He looked good, especially in this dim lighting. Maybe he was a vampire?

  But not as good as my loves.

  “Pull yourself together,” he hissed as he shot a smile at a charming coed a few seats down from mine.

  I huffed in indignation.

  “All right, so where are the vamps?” I asked.

  “Be patient,” he calmly scolded me as the blonde coed made her way over to us. “What’s your name, sweetheart?” he asked.

  “Brittany.” She giggled.

  I almost cried at the irony.

  Of course that was her name. I was going to be haunted by girls named Brittany until my dying day.

  “A beautiful name for a beautiful girl,” James cooed. I looked at him like he’d gone crazy. Had he taken me here to be some sort of weird wingman for him?

  He gripped my arm before I could begin to walk away.

  “This is Daphne, my little sister,” he told the girl. “Will you dance with her for a bit while I buy you a drink?”

  Daphne? I mouthed to him. He just smirked at me.

  “Of course,” she told him, batting her heavily mascaraed eyelashes at him. She grabbed my hand and started to drag me down to the thrashing dance floor. I gave him a pleading look, and he shooed me away.

  Brittany started to dance around me like I was her stripper pole. I numbly tried to keep up with the beat. I wasn’t a bad dancer. In fact, I was pretty good. Wyatt and I would sneak out to dance clubs on our date nights, and I’d made it my mission to be good enough at dancing to seduce the hell out of him.

  But dancing right now just felt wrong. How did I end up from the bridge to here?

  I was about to give up and find a rock to crawl under, or a bottle of alcohol to pour down my throat, when a hand caressed my side from behind me.

  Turning my head, I stutter-stepped because of the freakishly attractive face that was right behind me.

  His hair was so blond, it was practically white. Somehow, it worked perfectly with his pale, smooth skin that looked like it had been carved from marble. Full pouty lips, a straight Grecian nose, and dark brown eyes that flickered beneath the pulsing lights like flames made the overall package drool inducing. I had to mentally slap myself before a bit of drool fell out of my mouth. My reaction took me aback.

  “Care to dance?” he asked in a smooth, buttery accent that I’m sure had men and women alike melting around him.

  As if James had clapped to get my attention, something made my eyes flick in his direction. He was watching me closely as he sipped a tumbler of brown-colored alcohol. He nodded once, seemingly suggesting I take the pretty boy’s offer.

  Deciding that since I was this far down the rabbit hole, I might as well go a bit further, I nodded and began to dance against the guy. It felt wrong. So fucking wrong. Like I was betraying Noah, Wyatt, and Ryan with every brush of the guy’s hand and hips against me. Vomit threatened to come up again, and I had to swallow to keep it down.

  “What’s your name?” he whispered in my ear.

  “Daphne,” I blurted out, not knowing why I was giving him a fake name or why we were using a fake name at all. It was just an instinct I had.

  My shirt rode up from my pants, and his hand touched my skin. I flinched. His hand was like ice. It felt like a sauna in here, so I didn’t know how it was possible that hand could be that cold.

  Beyond gorgeous guy…cold skin.

  Nope. This guy was not a vampire. Because vampires did not exist.

  We danced for a few songs. I didn’t ask for his name, and he didn’t offer it. I just didn’t care.

  “Want to get out of here?” he finally murmured seductively, obviously unaware that his charm wasn’t working on me. I guessed I was a better actress than I’d thought.

  His moves had become increasingly seductive as the songs had gone on. Brittany had disappeared in a huff at some point when Hottie McHotterson had said something to her after she tried to grind on him, and he’d been basically humping me on the dance floor ever since.

  My eyes flicked, unbidden, to James once again, and he nodded as if he knew what the guy had said to me.

  I thought I was losing my mind.

  “Sure,” I responded, my attempt at seductive sounding fumbling and awkward to my ears. He grinned, and I swore his teeth gleamed preternaturally.

  My mind was obviously going crazy.

  He took my hand in his frozen grip and started to make his way through the crowd towards the back entrance, the crowd parting in front of him easily.

  A shiver started to worm its way up my spine. I looked over my shoulder, trying to find James, but he was nowhere to be seen.

  What the fuck was I doing?

  We’d just gotten to the exit when I chickened out. Here I was, trusting a stranger who’d found me on a bridge, and about to walk off with another stranger. I could not be trusted to make good decisions right now obviously.

  I stopped. The guy looked back at me questioningly.

  “I need to go tell my friend that I’m leaving,” I lied to him.

  Something changed in his eyes. It was like all the light left them and there was nothing left but a blank void. A determined look crossed his face. His grip on my arm tightened, and he dragged me through the exit and outside into the balmy air. I struggled, but it was like his grip was made of iron for how much good it did me.

  A stream of curse words flew out of my mouth. Remembering what Noah had taught me once, I went limp. The move surprised him, so when I ripped my arm away suddenly, he wasn’t expecting it.

  I took off as fast I could, not looking back to see where he was… That was how they always got you in the horror movies. It was amazing how all of a sudden, my will to live had come crashing back into me.

  A cold, steely grip caught my arm, and I shrieked as I was hauled against the creep’s chest. I blinked my eyes, and I had been dragged into the forest right
behind Rich’s.

  Holy shit, I was about to die.

  He licked my pulse beating wildly out of my neck. “Mmmm,” he breathed, as if he was savoring the taste of the cold sweat brimming from my skin. I felt a prick against my neck.

  A scream tore from my throat. This was it. He was going to kill me.

  The prick got deeper and I squeezed my eyes shut, even as I continued to thrash against him uselessly, since I was held tight to his side.

  Suddenly, he was torn from me. The suddenness of the movement sent me spiraling to the ground. I looked up and saw James and the…creature locked in a battle.

  Creature was the only word I could come up with. The guy was still beautiful, but he had long fangs protruding out of his mouth and his eyes had turned a soul-searing black color, even darker than when I’d noticed the change inside.

  The creature was snarling as he and James continued to struggle against each other. Both exchanging blows. “Slayer,” the creature hissed, and what looked like a forked tongue peeked out from his lips.

  I was terrified.

  James didn’t seem to be suffering from the same fear I was experiencing. He was smirking as he put the guy in a headlock. The creature struggled for one more minute before James suddenly snapped his neck with a loud crack with the arm he’d slung around the creature’s neck.

  I gasped in shock, small hiccupping cries bursting out of me as James dropped the guy to the ground. He’d just killed someone… Or was it something?

  James was breathing heavily as he straightened up and pushed his hair off his face. Small beads of sweat trailed down his forehead. He looked at me. “Well, that was fun,” James commented. He gestured for me to come over.

  “You just killed someone!” I finally spit out, refusing to move from my perch on the ground. I was still out of breath from my own struggle against the guy lying lifeless at James’ feet.

  James rolled his eyes. “You wanted proof of vampires, and I’ve given it to you,” he said calmly. “So get your pretty little ass over here.”

  Taking a deep breath, I shakily stood up off the ground and warily approached the prone body.

  The guy could have been sleeping for how peaceful he looked lying there.

  Except I could clearly see fangs still extended from his mouth. “He’s a vampire?” I asked, trembling.

  “Yep. Fangs, thrall, cold skin, good looks…check, check, check…check,” James said sarcastically as he reached beneath his jacket for something.

  Looking over, I saw that he’d pulled out the wooden weapon thing I’d seen when we were on the bridge. Up close, I could see now that it was a stake.

  He reared back and lunged forward at the guy lying at our feet. “Wait,” I screamed, grabbing his arm. James shook me off easily like I was a bug who’d landed on him.

  “Now what?” he asked, annoyed.

  “You can’t stake him,” I whispered, looking around. I wasn’t sure why I was whispering. I’d just screamed loud enough to wake the dead… Pun intended.

  “You’re one of those,” he said dryly, folding his arms in front of him. “I guess we’ll just wait until he wakes up, and then I’ll wait to stake him until you beg for mercy.”

  “Wakes up…” I trailed off before I could finish my sentence, because the previously dead guy on the ground…who had definitely had his neck snapped, was now indeed stirring.

  “What the fuck,” I screeched as I took a few steps back as the guy opened his eyes. He stared at me and hissed, his fangs stretching out menacingly towards me. I didn’t think this guy wanted to eat me anymore…I thought he wanted to kill me.

  “Okay, stake him please,” I cried out as the guy leapt to his feet.

  Before I could blink, James shoved the stake into the center of the guy’s back. A loud wail filled the air, and then poof…the guy erupted into a cloud of ash, coating the both of us with the rancid cinders.

  I stood there in a mix of awe and shock. James dusted himself off like the princess I was learning he was. He finally looked over at me with a “told you so” grin on his face. “Believe me now?” he taunted.

  I nodded numbly.

  What just happened?

  James was driving my car. I didn’t know where we were going, and I really didn’t care at the moment. He’d gotten me a hot chocolate, saying that the sugar and heat would help with the shock. It wasn’t quite hitting the spot though. I’d just had my world rocked…again. Two major life-changing events in a week, and my body was barely holding on.

  “Are you calm enough for me to start explaining things without you passing out?” James asked dryly.

  I shot him a dirty look. I still didn’t trust him, but he had saved my life twice in a span of just a few hours, so I was trying to be nice.

  He laughed at the indigent look on my face. “Don’t feel bad, kid. I think I pissed my pants the first time I encountered a vamp,” he said. “At least I’d planted the idea in your head that they existed. My first one came out of nowhere.”

  “How did you know it would be at Rich’s?”

  “A place like that? With a bunch of desperate, drunk kids just looking to get laid? It’s easy picking grounds. You can always find lower level ones in clubs. They don’t have to try very hard.”

  I nodded, thinking that made sense.

  “Are they everywhere?” I asked after taking another fortifying sip of sweetness. “All the disappearing people you read about on the news…are those actually because of vampires?”

  “Many of them are,” he nodded thoughtfully. “They prefer more crowded areas of the world so they can feed easier, but in general, they’re everywhere.”

  “How does E.V.I.E. fit into all of this?”

  “Vampires are bad. E.V.I.E. is good,” he said with a grin.

  I rolled my eyes. “Thank you, Captain Obvious. I kind of got the clue that vamps were bad when that one decided to eat me.”

  He laughed darkly and then sobered suddenly. “E.V.I.E. is just as the name suggests. We’re an organization devoted to the eradication of vampires. We have cells all over the world devoted to our mission. Our main headquarters are in New York City though.”

  “How do I come into this?” I asked, mulling over everything he’d said.

  “It’s my job as a recruiter to identify people of certain talents. This can be greater than average smarts, strength…or even magic.”

  “Magic?” I commented dubiously.

  “You just learned that vampires are real, and you’re doubting magic now?” he responded, raising an eyebrow.

  I pursed my lips. “Which category do I fall in?” I asked after thinking it over for a second. I couldn’t think of anything greater than average about myself.

  That was the guys.

  Tears threatened for the millionth time. My heart ached, and my soul burned. Who cared about vampires or anything else when they didn’t exist anymore?

  “I’m sure you’ve noticed that strange things seem to happen to people who do you wrong,” he commented. “It’s called infortunium…and it’s very rare. I would assume you have some witch in your background somewhere, although we weren’t able to trace your lineage past your parents.”

  There were a lot of things to parcel out of that explanation. “I’m pretty sure anything that’s happened in my past has been random,” I said automatically, years of training telling me to deny, deny, deny.

  “Is that what you called that Masterson woman falling down the stairs and breaking her leg tonight after her altercation with you? Or how about Henry, your first foster dad? Or Tanya, the girl in fifth grade who made fun of you for losing your family? She lost an eye the next day, did she not?” he told me mildly.

  My mouth dropped open, dread burning in my gut. Rachel had said awful things to me tonight, but I never would have wished her harm in a million years. “She broke her leg? How did you even know about that?”

  “I’m sure she’ll recover fine after her surgery this week, but that’s not the poin
t. Nothing that has happened in your life has been random, Olivia, and E.V.I.E. is ready to harness your ability.”

  “How did you know about Rachel? How did you know about any of that?” I pressed, panic swirling through my veins.

  “For a foster kid, you had quite the file. We started tracking you a few years back. We periodically monitor kids in the system for special skills, as they’re easy to bring into the fold since they don’t have many connections with the outside world.”

  “That sounds creepy,” I muttered petulantly, feeling strangely violated that he’d seen everything in my file. Who knew what all was in there?

  “Don’t fret, princess. Everything in your file only made us want you more,” he purred, giving me a wink.

  I leaned back into my seat, exhausted. Everything felt like too much. That line I’d been walking, and momentarily stepped past on the bridge, was fast approaching. I just wanted everything to go away.

  “What exactly are you recruiting me for within E.V.I.E.?” I asked warily.

  He glanced at me with a frown, as if I was being stupid. “A slayer of course.” He said it like he was telling me what color the sky was, instead of suggesting that I start killing vampires.

  I looked at him like he was crazy. “A slayer?” I repeated dumbly. I started to laugh. It was high-pitched and out of control, a reflection of the chaos and torment inside of me.

  He wasn’t amused.

  “Think of what you could do with your ability! A vampire tries to eat you, and you aren’t able to kill them first time around? They’ll probably accidentally eat garlic at the next dinner and suffer excruciating pain. Or if we’re lucky, they’ll get stabbed by a stake on the way home. The possibilities are endless.”

  He was practically frothing at the mouth as he said all of this. It all sounded awful to me honestly. Monsters may exist, but I couldn’t see how it was my responsibility in the least bit to end them.

  “Sorry, but I have no intention of becoming the next Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” I informed him. “Can you just drop me off at the next motel we see, and I’ll get out of your hair? I’m grateful for the whole saving my life thing this evening…twice, but you’ve got the wrong girl.”