by Kat Cotton
“What do you want?” she asked.
I was about to say I didn’t want anything, but we’d both know that was bullshit. I’d never ring her unless I wanted something.
“The Northside Gang?”
“Ah. Are they trying to edge into your territory? It’ll be a turf war. You guys going to rumble?”
“This isn’t a bad ’50s movie. I just want to talk to Lucio. Do you have his number?”
“I might. What’s in it for me?”
I sighed. That was the whole problem with Zarah. She was way too self-obsessed. She’d also never coped with not being the prettiest in the pack. I couldn’t help that. I wasn’t going to dull my own sparkle to help someone else shine.
“There’s nothing in it for you except my thank yous. I’m not negotiating. There are a hundred other people I could ring for this information; you were just the easiest. But if you really want something, I can send you a signed photo and some of my DVDs.”
“I’ll pass on that. I’ll just get the number for you.”
She wanted a signed photo of me, but she’d denied it because she wanted to seem cool.
She gave me Lucio’s number.
“Aren’t you going to ask how I am before you go?” she said.
“I would, but I don’t really care. I’m pretty sure you’re surviving. You’re like a cockroach.”
“Aren’t we all?” she said. “It’s part of the deal, the whole undead thing.”
I hung up before she started getting all maudlin on me. Why anyone would complain about being undead, considering the alternative? I’d much rather stay young and pretty forever.
I messaged Lucio to organize a meeting.
Hell, yeah, he replied. Me and the v-boys will be out drinking tonight. Come along.
I’d forgotten he called vampires v-boys. I wanted to punch that guy so much.
That meant leaving Vlad alone again. At least he’d stopped clinging to me when I left. Sometimes, now, it seemed almost like he didn’t even notice.
When I turned up at the bar, I spotted Lucio straight away. The guy radiated lameness that could be seen from blocks away. The tight leather pants with a bulge so big that you knew he had a pair of socks shoved down there. He’d watched too many bad vampire movies and too many ’80s video clips.
Did I really have to go in there and be seen with him? What if someone I knew saw me?
Wait. No one I knew would be caught dead or undead in a dive bar like this.
“Niiiiiiic, buddy!” Lucio screamed across the room. When I got closer, he threw his arm around my shoulder. The guy really needed to cut back on the aftershave.
“Hey, Nic, old buddy, good to see you.”
I smiled the smile that said I’m smiling, but inside, I want to kill you. It had no effect on him, though.
“What are you doing in town?” I asked.
Lucio laughed. “I thought you were here for the same reason. It’s open season. The mayor of this city is doing nothing to curb the vamps. All these innocent little meals running around, and no hunters. It’s party time.”
He snapped his fingers when he said “party time.”. If I had soul, a piece of it would’ve died at that moment.
His glance swept around the room as though picking out his next feed. This was not my kind of place. The decor reeked of desperate drunks.
“Don’t you wonder why?”
“Nope. Don’t know, don’t care.”
Clashing pool balls punctuated our conversation. The rest of his gang gathered around the tables. They were an ugly bunch with no style. One had on a satin shirt unbuttoned to the waist, another was wearing baggy jeans falling off his hips and a baseball cap. They were like an archive of bad fashion from every era.
“It’s not such a great town. Maybe you should move on,” I said to Lucio.
“What’s not great about it?”
This conversation started to bore me. I needed to get my message across, and I didn’t want to waste time about it. I shook his arm off my shoulder and pushed him back against the bar.
“I said, maybe you should move on.” This time I made the threat in my voice so obvious that even a dimwit like Lucio wouldn’t confuse my meaning. “Remember, you owe me.”
He laughed. That laugh showed scant regard for past debts and obligations. I knew Lucio had little honor, but I’d thought he had at least a shred of decency left in him. I’d been wrong about that. I wanted to punch him so much that my hands formed into fists instinctively, but I didn’t want him to know he’d got under my skin. I uncurled my fist.
“What’s up, dude? You think you can run me out of town? Way I see it, you’re either with me or against me. And since the word on the street is that your gang isn’t around, you’re not coming from a very strong position.”
“They’re a pack, not a gang.”
“Same thing.”
“No, it’s really not.”
Two of his most thug-like friends moved from the pool table and stood beside him, trying to scare me off. The most intimidating thing about them was the loud patterns on their shirts.
“The v-boys like it here,” Lucio said, smiling at them. “We’re having fun. Loosen up, Nickie. We’re vampires. Creatures of the night, striking fear into people. Maybe you should slip into a juicy little blonde like that one across the bar.”
I didn’t even look where he pointed. I didn’t slip into juicy blondes. Ever. And a juicy blonde in this place might have a disease or lice or bad regrowth.
“That’s all well and good until you bring us all under suspicion. I’d rather not have a big target on my back.”
He laughed again. “Well, it’s like this. We’re not stopping, and as far as I can see, there’s no one in this town who can stop us.”
Jerk. The guy could’ve written the book on jerkiness.
I gave his outfit a sweeping glance. “The fashion police just might.”
His two friends both stepped closer and scowled.
“You can tell Crabbe and Goyle, here, to sod off.”
“Not going to happen.”
I could kick his butt in a one-on-one fight, but those thugs beside him didn’t look like one-on-one fights were in their rule book. I could even take on the three of them, but rest of his gang around the pool table were glancing over at me. There were also a lot of innocents in this bar. I mean innocent in the broadest sense, since most of the clientele looked like crack whores and their clients.
I’d hoped I could talk this out with Lucio, but that plan had a fatal flaw. Lucio didn’t have the brains to talk sense.
“This obviously isn’t worth my time,” I told them.
“Check ya later, dude,” Lucio called as I walked out.
He actually said that non-ironically.
I figured I’d go home and spend some more time with Vlad. Even he talked more sense than Lucio. Tonight wasn’t the night I’d fight with Lucio and his friends, but that fight would be coming soon.
Before I got to the door, something crashed on me like a ton of bricks. Pain seared down my arm as I slammed into a table.
I rounded on them before they could get me to the floor.
One of Lucio’s goons. Was he an idiot? He thought he could take me?
Game on. They’d drawn first blood, figuratively speaking. That gave me a free pass to go after them. The gang members, at least. Lucio might be the worst leader in vampiredom, but leaders had a different code. Maybe, after I’d cleaned up his gang, he’d see my point about leaving town.
The lights hit the silver in the goon’s hand. A knife?
I swung a punch, straight to his head.
He might be taller, and he might be bigger, but no one attacked me like that.
“Hey, pretty boy,” Lucio said. “Remember, you’re not the boss of me. You might think you’re the top vamp in this town, but the Northside Boys are here now.”
Before his goon could strike again, I unsheathed a knife from my belt and plunged it into the goon’s side.
It wouldn’t kill him, but the blade had enough silver in it to put him out of action for a while. That would teach these guys to be so fucking uncool.
“Not only am I the top vamp in town, I’m also the prettiest,” I said, brushing off my clothes. “No one outshines me.”
The smile I flashed him left no doubt. I would come after them, and I would win.
Chapter 19 Clem: Apology Cake
I tried to sleep, but that damn heater was so loud. The annoying whirring. If I turned it off, though, I’d freeze to death. Kisho still hadn’t got back, even though I didn’t care one way or the other. I’d given up on that guy. I’d made that decision walking back to the hotel from the station, just before going into the convenience store and blowing about fifty bucks on junk food.
Maybe I had some of those delicious chocolatey treats left. I could get up and check. Since I couldn’t sleep anyway, I might as well be eating. I searched through the bags. I’d eaten all the chocolate. All of it. Even that weird chocolate that tasted a bit like fish.
The trains stopped running at 1:30 a.m. It was 2:00 a.m. already, and Kisho wasn’t back. He’d be out all night. He might not even be back in the morning. He might be gone for days of kitsune fun.
If the hotel gym was still open, I’d go burn off all this sugar and anxiety.
Maybe Nic was online. I could talk to him. Not that I wanted to pour out all my feelings for his mockery, but I could get him talking about Vlad’s gymnastic training. If anything would put me to sleep, that would.
I tried but he wasn’t home. Weird. That vampire didn’t leave the house often. Since I couldn’t talk to Nic, I turned on the TV for company. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had watched TV.
Japanese TV. Weird. There were a bunch of people sitting around talking. One of them was dressed as a fish. I changed the channel. More weird people. They seemed to be sitting around watching videos of dogs doing stupid tricks. Those dogs sure were cute. Oh my god, one of them ran to get a treat and got his head stuck in a boot. No way. Stupid dog. Watching animals do stupid things was exactly what I needed. No language barrier in that.
Someone walked down the hallway outside. Kisho? I straightened myself up. Did I have chocolate on my face? How attractive could you look with about fifteen layers of clothes on?
I swept all the wrappers off the coffee table and put them in the trash. Then I got the plastic shopping bags and put them on top so it didn’t look like I’d been on a sugar bender.
The footsteps kept going past our suite. A door farther down opened and closed.
Surely, there had to be something left to eat. I couldn’t have eaten all that food. Why didn’t this hotel have room service?
The stupid animals went on a commercial break. That gave me time to wonder if that bitch had kissed Kisho yet. It had taken him so long to build up to kissing me. One kiss: that’s all we’d had. I should’ve been more aggressive with the sex thing before our whole relationship turned to shit. But then, every time we got close, Nic totally cock-blocked us. Hana had it easy. She didn’t have to deal with Nic.
Losing my sex aura made things even worse. Was that a permanent thing or just a glitch? Maybe it didn’t work on Japanese demons. I’d never considered that. I’d always figured demons were demons, but maybe there was a cultural thing to it. But surely not with sex. Sex was universal.
Maybe Hana had stolen it like she stole everything else. Could you steal an aura?
Without my aura, how would I fight? It was the only gift I had in life. It might never come back, and I’d have to get an office job and be nice to people all day.
Shit, the bad juju, the stuff the Vampire King had filled me with, that had ruined it for sure. It blocked me sexing up that demon.
I punched the cushion. Of course. It made total sense.
It also kept Kisho from getting too close. I had to get rid of that shit as soon as possible.
A catchy song made me look up at the TV. It was those guys, the ones Mai liked. She’d said they were famous idols, so it made sense that they were on a commercial. I think it was for pet food.
I wondered if Mai had got her ticket back. I sent her a text to check.
The animals doing stupid things came back on. Oh, puppy got his head stuck in a hamster wheel, with the hamster still in it. Crazy little dog.
I got out my notepad. If I had a definite plan, then my mind would be at rest. I could go back to bed and sleep. Of course, booze and tranquilizers would do that much better.
We’d been way too nice to that Hana.
As I watched more animals, I wrote out my plan.
The door opened, and I jumped up.
Kisho.
He was back. I wanted to rush and hug him, but I stopped myself. He’d acted like a jerk. I expected that kind of thing from Nic, but then I could punch Nic. With Kisho, it’d been like a slap in the guts.
“Have fun?” I asked.
“Yeah, Hana’s great.”
That was the exact last thing I needed to hear.
“I got you some cake.”
I sat up, but I didn’t want his apology cake. That cake would choke me.
“I’m not hungry.”
That was the truth, mainly because I’d eaten my body weight in junk. Normally, that wouldn’t stop me, but the rising bile of anger with Kisho didn’t help my appetite.
“I’ll put it in the fridge for later.”
I didn’t even look at him while he did that. I just watched those puppies on TV.
Kisho sat down beside me. He leaned against my side, but I moved away. I didn’t want any of his kitsune cooties.
“I’ve got to be nice to her. You understand that. It’s the best way to recover the treasure. That means getting close to her, even if you don’t like it.”
Surely, he could’ve said that in the first place. He could’ve sent me a text after I’d left the bar, letting me know the reason he’d stayed. Instead, he’d just turned away from me, not even caring how much it hurt. Kisho was never mean, but he could be careless with other people’s feelings.
“You don’t have to be that nice to her.”
He sighed. “It’s business, right? I’m here to help you, and you’re putting your emotions first.”
“When everyone was laughing and I couldn’t understand the jokes, it really hurt my feelings. I was just pushed to the side. Then you wouldn’t even explain things to me.”
He reached for my hand. I pulled away.
“It wasn’t even that funny. Obviously, since I can’t remember what she said.”
“And she stole that money, Kisho. She did it unashamedly, in front of me. A bunch of other people saw it too, but they didn’t see it. She fooled them all, and made me look like a total fool. I wanted to kill her. You weren’t there. You didn’t see what she did.”
“I believe you, Clem. She did something weird. But you should never have accused her in front of everyone. It’s not personal. None of this is personal. It’s a case.”
I’d never have taken on this case if I’d known what an emotional rollercoaster it’d be. I liked things simple and violent. I didn’t know how to treat someone like Hana unless it involved totally annihilating her. Befriending people, making them trust me—those things didn’t come naturally to me. I didn’t even know how to take the first step. Kisho, on the other hand, fit in so well that it worried me. But that didn’t excuse his behavior.
“You could’ve sent me a message.”
“Sorry.”
I wasn’t sure if that was the best response, but it was the only one I’d get from him.
He picked up my notepad. “Is this your plan?” he said.
I nodded.
He held it up. Okay, all I’d written was “kill Hana” with daggers drawn around her name. That wasn’t exactly helpful.
“We don’t have much time,” he said. “There’s a lot going on with Nic, more than he’d ever admit.”
“Yeah, I think so too. I was going to call him toni
ght, but he wasn’t home. Since when does he go out when he’s not working?”
Kisho pulled me to him. I wanted to resist, but it would be childish to hold a grudge. I put my arm around him, my hand running over his stomach.
“Is it just business with Hana?” I asked him.
“Of course. She’s nice enough, but she’s not you.”
If that was the case, then I would forgive him. Not just forgive him, but eat his apology cake.
“So, what did you do tonight? Did you find out anything about the treasure?”
I hopped up to get the cake. I needed sustenance.
“Not about the treasure, but about Yamaguchi.”
Interesting.
“According to Hana, he’s yakuza. That’s like the Japanese mafia. I suspected as much when we visited him. Having a kitsune under your control would be very handy for that.”
“Ah, the plot thickens. We need to find more about him and the treasure.”
“I’ll go back to see him tomorrow. Oh, and later this week, Hana wants us to hang out, go shopping, that kind of thing.”
“Wants you, more like. She hates me.”
“She said you too. Anyway, you need to come along. Business, remember?”
I guessed I could be nice to her for the sake of the money. Money was my best friend. Money never betrayed me.
But I wanted Kisho back too.
“Kisho, I want to do the waterfall thing,” I told him. “Not when the case finishes, but now.”
“The purification?”
I nodded. “I don't want to, but I think I need to. You know how I’ve been so cold? It’s not just the weather. It’s inside me. I want to be myself again. I don’t want anyone else’s energy fucking with me.”
“We can do it. It’s just been the cold?”
I filled him in on the demon attack and the total blackout in my sex aura.
“I’m not sure, but I think the purification will help.”
“You’ll get under the waterfall with me?”
“No way. Do you have any idea how cold that is?”