My mind turned inward, and I sent a telepathic message to Octurna. I knew she was following the action through one of the magical windows in her fortress.
“Tell me again why these vamps like to play with their food?” I mentally asked Octurna. “The Strigoi could have easily finished this guy off back in the alley. Why have her dogs chase him around in an abandoned factory?”
“Fear tenderizes the meat,” Octurna stated soberly.
I shook my head, struggling with this horrific explanation. Was Octurna kidding? Did these bastards put people through a living hell just because it turned chuck roast into filet mignon?
Fuck, I guess it was as good a reason as any.
It wasn’t like I needed a reminder of why I fought this war against the darkness, but I drew renewed focus from the anger bubbling up my chest.
“Rogue monsters are the worst of the lot,” Octurna continued. “Free from the rules of the Shadow Cabal, they hunt their prey with mad abandon.”
Three months ago, the sorceress’ insight would have baffled me. Not anymore. Now I understood. Normally our main enemy, the Shadow Cabal, controlled and strictly monitored vampires and all other monster activity around the world. According to my new general, the various Covens held a tight rein on their members, dictating where they could hunt and who they could feed on. Many even used secret clubs and blood farms to sustain themselves. The Seven Dark Masters and their followers had found a way to curb the baser instincts of the beasts they had originally created by combining demon blood with animal DNA. The reasons for such restraint were simple. The objective was to maintain a low profile and not let mankind grow wise to their existence. At least not until it was too late.
The Strigoi running this pack of street vampires had broken rank with her Coven and become a rogue among her own kind. This was a liberating yet dangerous place for a vamp to be. Hunted by both monster hunters like myself and creatures of darkness loyal to the secret magical society, she was on the run from pretty much everyone.
“Behind you!”
Octurna’s mental warning came a second too late.
I sensed a rush of movement, but my response was too slow. The blonde babe in the skin-tight dress leapt at me from the darkness. The Strigoi smiled, and I couldn’t help the pulse of heat that went straight to my groin. No wonder the poor chump on the ground had fallen for her charms. What red-blooded male would be able to resist such a creature? She was a knockout with the powers of a dark goddess.
The creature landed on top of me, her weight slamming me to the ground. I instinctively brought up my arm and blocked the first bite. A fist connected with my cheek and snapped my head around, rattling the teeth in my skull.
She straddled me, and her fangs tore into my upturned wrist. I cried out in pain. Dragon blood didn’t give me invulnerability. I was still made of flesh and bone.
The vampire’s teeth clamped down on my wrist, and I could see color flooding her pale face as she drank down my lifeblood. There was something almost erotic about the intimacy of the act, and a wave of ecstatic pleasure rippled through me. Some distant part of my brain recalled that Strigoi released a drug into their victims through their saliva, a chemical capable of inducing a state of absolute bliss. The toxin paralyzed the victims, turning them into willing prey and making them complicit in their own demise. I had hoped the dragon blood might provide me with immunity to this chemical compound, but no such luck.
Pleasure spiked up my spine, and I groaned out loud. The world went brittle, growing soft around the edges. The vampire babe sucked harder on my wrist, grinding her hips against mine as she drank. A line of blood trickled from the corner of her luscious mouth as her eyes soaked me in. Did I detect lust and unbridled passion in that frank gaze?
“Don’t flatter yourself, Romeo. She’s not into your smile, she’s after the red stuff. Dragon blood is a delicacy among these creatures,” Octurna pointed out with a trace of concern.
Great. I had just graduated from tantalizing appetizer to the main course. I tried to move and only managed a dopey grin.
“Snap out of it. You have to fight the effects of the toxin,” Octurna insisted.
Easier said than done. I filled my mind with dark memories to counteract the venom. I thought of my fellow SWAT officers who had died at the hands of a succubus, forced myself to recall each of their names and remember their faces.
This seemed to break the toxin’s effects, at least momentarily. Emotional pain drowned out physical bliss. Twin blades snapped out of the gauntlet on my other hand like a pair of sabretooth-sized vampire teeth of their own, made from gleaming silver instead of enamel. I lashed out to strike.
The vamp reacted with lightning speed. She dropped my wrist to grab my gauntleted hand, stopping the two incoming blades an inch before they would have nicked her ivory skin. Her blood-red lips pouted, clearly frustrated that I’d interrupted her meal.
My bleeding wrist freed from her bite, I reached for the 9mm handgun in my shoulder holster and brought it up at the vampire. She effortlessly knocked the gun away as I fired. The silver bullet went wild and banged against a piece of factory machinery, sparks from the ricocheting ammo lighting up the darkness for a split second.
The Strigoi batted my gauntlet aside and lifted up straight into the air, vanishing in the web of steel beams which ran mazelike along the ceiling. I scanned the intricate network of metal rafters, hoping to spot the fiend above me, but no such luck.
I stumbled back to my feet and tried to reload my submachine gun. The pistol was a gift from Octurna. It looked like the HP5 I used back in SWAT except for the green light emanating from the runes carved over its surface.
“This isn’t over yet,” Octurna warned me.
Tell me something I didn’t know.
The vampire had gotten a taste of my dragon-infused blood. And judging by the sheer joy on her face as she had snacked on my bleeding wrist, she wouldn’t let me go without a fight.
That was fine with me.
Make your move, bitch.
I eyed the puncture marks on my violated wrist, twin rivulets of blood trickling from the vampire bite. I pulled the cuff of my black shirt over the wound hoping to slow down the bleeding. I would need all my strength for the confrontation ahead. The Strigoi operated at a different level than her undead soldiers. She was smarter and faster. Better looking, too. But I wasn’t going to be fooled by a pretty face or a gorgeous pair of breasts. The only interest I had in her assets was driving a stake between them.
And if I kept telling myself that, maybe I’d believe it. Damn vampire venom.
I fed a magazine into my submachine gun, and a renewed burst of unbridled bliss hit me. The drug from the vampires’ saliva was still active in my body. Shivers of delight ran up my back. I shuddered and leaned against a rusting piece of factory equipment. My legs turned to spaghetti as another wave of pleasure roiled through my system. I blinked repeatedly as my sight grew bleary, the lids heavy. A beat later, my knees caved in.
The rational part of my mind wanted to scream, but instead I sighed with pleasure. Even Octurna’s admonishing voice had grown hazy, a distant echo in my whirling thoughts. Evolution had given vampires one hell of a hunting advantage. The venom probably accounted for their romanticized image in the media.
A shadow dropped from the ceiling. Naja, the Strigoi, had returned for seconds. She eagerly licked her lips, her mane of dirty blonde locks framing her porcelain features like a halo. Death had never looked so pretty.
I tried to raise my submachine gun, but it weighed like a thousand pounds, and I barely lifted it a few inches. The toxin in my system sapped my strength, broke down my will to fight, to survive.
Focus, Marine, I told myself in a poor imitation of my drill sergeant voice. I had trained and commanded warriors both in the desert and on the rough streets of LA. But my discipline and self-control failed me now. The toxic compound in my blood was too potent.
“Stop fighting it, monster hunter. Even
with that tasty dragon blood pumping through your veins, this is one battle you can’t win,” Naja said.
I experienced another burst of pure ecstasy. Pleasure crashed and cascaded.
The Strigoi crouched before me like a jungle cat, mesmerizing and dangerous. She crawled in my direction, jutted her long neck defiantly toward me, and planted a kiss on my lips.
And then Naja’s attention shifted downward, and the world turned black. The sound of my trousers being unzipped jolted me back to awareness a few seconds later.
What the fuck?
Naja flashed her fangs at me, an almost coquettish smile painted on her hauntingly beautiful face. “Relax. Enjoy yourself. I know I will.”
And with this promise, she pulled my briefs down and those luscious lips wrapped around my swelling manhood.
I felt a slight sting as her fangs punctured the skin, and then she went to work. My heart hammered against my chest as bliss rippled through my body. Yet a part of me refused to give in. As the vampire worked her lips up and down my shaft, my hand reached out for one of the silver stakes.
This vampire might seem like a seductive goddess, but she was also a cold-blooded killer. I pictured the drained victims laid out on cold steel autopsy tables in silent morgues across the city, lives cut short by a beast who only cared about its own gratification. Maybe my dragon blood made me a delicacy. Maybe that’s what had earned me a less savage exit from this world. But dead was dead, and I liked being alive despite the crazy shit I’d been dealing with as of late.
My fingers tightened around the stake.
“You can do it, Jason! You can break this spell!” The urgency in the sorceresses’ voice was real.
If I didn’t snap out of it soon, this would end badly.
I clenched my jaw, grinded my teeth, lifted the stake…
And dropped my last chance of getting out this predicament.
Fuck, I couldn’t do it. I had survived wars and demons only to be defeated by the skillful lips of a vampire.
Nuts.
A gunshot rang out in the factory. For a moment, I couldn’t make rhyme or reason of what had happened. Slowly, understanding dawned as my gaze found the middle-aged man whose life I’d saved. He had recovered from his ordeal, mustered enough strength and courage to get back to his feet and scooped up the handgun the lovely but oh so deadly Strigoi had unceremoniously knocked out of my fingers.
A hole opened in the vamp’s chest, and she let out an irritated hiss.
As she sprang back to her feet, black blood blooming from the fresh crater in her chest, I recognized my chance and seized it. She turned her attention toward her former victim, and I used the momentary distraction to bring up my right hand and form a circle. The air in front of me shimmered and warped as I hurled an orb of pulsing energy at the vamp.
The magic projectile slammed into Naja just before her extended claws could tear out poor Tom’s throat and catapulted her into one of the hulking machines. Beams of lightning sizzled and forked the air.
Naja was already recovering from the attack, the hole in her chest closing up—silver bullets weren’t quite enough to finish off a Strigoi.
I somehow shook off the worst effects of the toxin. I groggily pulled up my pants and fed a fresh magazine into my machine gun. Fueled by determined anger, pissed at being assaulted and violated like this, I trudged toward the downed Strigoi, my weapon leveled. This time around I wouldn’t let those fangs get near me.
The vampire looked up at me as I closed in.
I pointed the gun at her, about to squeeze the trigger. Naja held up her hand and gave me a pleading look. Suddenly she didn’t look seductive or dangerous but rather sad and pathetic. Gentleman that I am with the fairer sex (even when they are trying to kill me), my resolve wavered for a beat.
The vampire had been counting on the predictability of the male brain and used this moment to launch at me, fangs ready to bury themselves into my exposed throat. I formed a triangle in the air with my right hand, a subtle gesture with not-so-subtle results. An energy shield ignited into existence around me, repelling the incoming vampire in a flash of sparkling energy. The smell of burnt flesh filled my nostrils as Naja bounced off my shield, her beautiful features blackened. The Strigoi wailed with a mixture of pain and rage.
I may be a softie but I sure as hell am no fool.
The protective shield dispersed, and I took a deep breath. I wouldn’t be able to use that trick again for another twenty-four hours. So far I had used up my Shield and Fireball spells, but I felt confident I wouldn’t need to tap into any more magic to destroy the bloodsucking monster cowering at my feet.
The defeated vampire lowered her burned face, knowing what would come next. This time there would be no hesitation, no mercy, only death.
I leveled my gun.
And that’s when Octurna suddenly interfered.
“Stop! Don’t kill her!”
I paused. I couldn’t recall Octurna ever running into a monster she didn’t want me to slay. Every time I took out a beast, she fed on its lifeforce and energy. Monsters were food to her, and I doubted she was going on a diet. Hell, she even insisted on keeping trophies of her enemies as if she was the Predator’s more attractive cousin. So why show hesitation now?
“What are you waiting for?” the vamp hissed.
“I’m wondering about that myself,” I told Octurna. “Why do you want me to spare her?”
“She bears the mark of the Ravanok Coven,” the sorceress explained as if it should mean anything to me.
I took a step closer, my gun up and ready as I scrutinized the woman in front of me. That’s when I spotted the tattoo on her neck, three wavy lines with a triangle at its center. The ink was inconspicuous enough but noticeable to anyone who knew what they were looking for.
“I thought she was a rogue who broke all ties to her Coven.”
“That’s why she is perfect,” Octurna said.
“Perfect for what? Would you stop talking in riddles?”
“I’ve been searching for the Ravanok Coven for decades. As an outcast, she holds no loyalty to her former master. Tell her that if she gives up the location of her former Coven, you will spare her miserable existence.”
“Are you nuts? We’ve been hunting this monster for days now. You’ve seen the trail of bodies she’s left behind…”
“There will be a lot more dead bodies if you don’t get her to give up the information I seek.”
Why was the location of this vampire coven so crucial to the sorceress? I was missing a giant piece of the puzzle, as usual. I reluctantly agreed to play along—for now.
“Just do it already,” Naja said. “I’m not much for foreplay, as you probably noticed.”
Shit, had I noticed and then some. My groin throbbed something fierce now that the vamp’s toxin was wearing off.
“How many of your victims begged for mercy?” I asked. “Tell me, did you plan to finish off your latest victim quickly? Or did you intend to drag out his suffering?”
Naja’s gaze narrowed. “You got me all figured out. So why hesitate to pull the trigger, monster hunter?”
I resisted the temptation to paint the factory with Naja’s ashes and said, “I’m going to offer you a deal, and you would be smart to take it.”
A part of me couldn’t believe I was going through with this, but I trusted Octurna. If the sorceress believed the info she was after warranted a pact with a vampire, who was I stand in her way?
“I will spare your miserable life if you answer one simple question.”
I let my words hang in the air for a moment. I sensed the vampire’s initial surprise giving way to curiosity and possibly hope.
I leaned forward until only the length of my submachine gun separated us. One false move and I would unload my weapon into Naja without even blinking. She was beautiful on the outside but an abomination on the inside. This undead seductress could steal a man’s heart with a simple flicker of her eyes. Or tongue.
&
nbsp; Nope, definitely not going to think about that right now.
“I’m waiting,” the vampiress said.
I eyed her tattoo and said, “Let’s have a little chat about the Ravanok Coven. Know where they’re hiding out these days?”
Naja studied me, surprised and impressed. I could see her mind working behind that seductive gaze. She hesitated at first, but the green glow of my pistol proved persuasive. She had everything to lose and nothing to gain by refusing to cooperate.
“Why do you need to know? You don’t seriously plan on launching a direct attack against the coven, do you?”
I had a funny feeling Octurna intended to do just that, but the vampire didn’t need to know.
I menacingly leaned closer. “I’m losing my patience here. You better give me something before I change my mind.”
After another moment of hesitation, Naja told me what I wanted to know. Even though Octurna remained quiet in my head for a change, I could almost sense her growing excitement. If the Strigoi was to be believed, the Ravanok Coven was based in a medieval monastery off the southern Italian coast.
But was the Strigoi telling the truth? What if she was trying to misdirect or lead us into a trap?
“Good job, Slayer,” Octurna said in my head. “You got the beast to talk. Now put her out of her misery.”
Sure sounded like Octurna believed the information to be accurate. And she had no qualms about breaking her promise of sparing the creature.
I didn’t share her loose moral compass. My word was my bond, monster or not. I’d made a promise to the vampire to let her go. I planned on keeping my promise.
“Get the hell out of this city,” I growled at Naja. “Crawl into a dark hole as far away from here as possible and make sure we don’t run into each other ever again. Next time, there will be no deals.”
Night Slayer 2: Monster Quest Page 2