Demigod Down

by Kim Schubert

  I heard her pause before connecting me.

  “Snake charmer!” O’Conner greeted me.

  “I thought that would get your attention,” I answered.

  “It’s certainly not every day that I get my ass saved by a beautiful woman from a hallucination of a beautiful woman.”

  I laughed at that. “Have you heard anything about a missing persons cases in Miami, OK?” I asked as a wet branch slapped the bare skin of my arm.

  “Let me look,” he said and I waited while I heard the typing of keys.

  “Nope, not a single missing persons there,” he answered me. “Why, you got something?”

  I sighed, not liking this. “Yeah something, just not sure what.”

  “Be careful out there,” he warned before we hung up.

  “Blake?” I called out, losing my way. He had taken off and I was having trouble keeping up with his super speed.

  “Blake?” I tried again pushing into a small clearing catching my breath.

  He ghosted up on super speed, growling. “Nothing.”

  “What do you mean nothing?” I asked looking around having not traveled far enough to come to that conclusion.

  “I can’t find a single trace of any vampire here or anyone at all, except the damn animals and rain.” He grunted, turning back the way we came.

  “I think there is more going on here. Didn’t one of the familiars say they reported to the police the vampire was missing?”

  He blasted back on vamp speed, unsettling me as I pushed over a log. He helped me, reigning in his annoyance at being assigned this case and not working on the family pet problems.

  “Yes.” He waited for me to elaborate.

  “I called the officer I worked with for the giant snakes and he said no one was reported missing here.” I informed him.

  “That is odd,” He muttered before looking back down at me. “What do you think is going on?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know, but I’m betting it’s related to the shifter ring I took out along with the snakes. It feels like someone or something is playing with me.” I sighed.

  Blake slowed his pace coming even with me as we walked back.

  “Where to now?”

  “Back to the beginning. Logan and Darren are going to be there in a few hours, let’s head down to meet them in Vinita,” I answered him, watching my feet closely.

  I didn’t hear the attack and didn’t sense anything wrong as a pale vampire face, drawn with hunger emerged into my line of site. His gaunt body was illuminated in my headlamp as I looked up. His eyes frosted over with the madness that can sometimes claim a vampire. His mouth was open and his fangs reached for my jugular. I dropped to the ground, pulling out a gun as I went before firing into him.

  I hit one heart I was sure as the creature, no long rational, was slow to come at me again. I aimed, blowing out a steading breath, and fired twice more. No need to waste ammo, I thought as he went down into a pile of ash.

  Staying low, I searched for the high powered flashlight I had dropped in favor of my gun. While the light would undoubtedly make me a target, I was worse off not being able to see and I was hoping the sudden change from night vision to blinding light would help gain me an advantage over whatever else was hiding in the bushes.

  Finally, my hand gripped the rubber handle pushing on the high-powered light. I focused on keeping my breathing even as I pulled my second gun out taking a moment to survey in a circle around me.

  Nothing moved and nothing stirred the undergrowth, giving away movement. Something was deadly wrong.

  “Blake,” I whispered, knowing his vampire hearing would pick me up if he was close by.

  Not a sound prevailed. Chewing on my bottom lip, I shouldered a gun, exchanging it for the light I was going to need as a terrible joke played in my head. How do you bait a vampire? With a missing vampire.

  Sweeping the gloom with the bright white light, I focused my intent, not allowing the worry creeping in to settle.

  I was going to find Blake.

  To my left, the underbrush was damaged and an aspen tree was sporting a dark liquid spot that was seeping down. Bingo.

  I swept the area again watching for reflective eyes and finding none, picked my way over the fallen tree branches. I touched the blood smattered with what appeared to be brain matter. It wasn’t Blake’s. When vampires haven’t fed, their blood darkens into a black sludge, which was exactly what I was looking at here.

  It just didn’t make any sense. Rouge vampires were usually well fed, eating life stock, wild life, human beings, and supernatural folks until someone put them down. They sure as hell didn’t abduct other vampires.

  What the hell was going on here?

  How long had it been since the vampires had disappeared? It took longer than a few days to starve a vampire to the condition of the one I had just dispatched.

  Blowing out a breath, I set down my flashlight, pulling out my phone and dialed.

  “What?” Tate growled on the other end.

  “We have a problem. I think we just walked into a trap,” I told him softly, not needing to draw attention to myself.

  “Please tell me this is a horrible joke,” Tate stated, exhausted.

  “Not so much. Can you track his phone?” I asked, sweeping the area in front of me holding the phone with my shoulder.

  “How many were there?” he growled.

  “I killed the one that came after me, but I am guessing at least three to take Blake down,” I muttered moving forward into the brush, crunching it under my feet looking if I could find another hint to the trail. The vamps would move faster than me, even with the extra burden of an uncooperative vampire.

  There was silence on the phone and I was hoping Tate was doing as I had asked. Moving forward through the trampled underbrush, I searched the area again moving past the tree to another smatter of darkened blood soaking into the dry twigs.

  Shifting the light up from my crouched position, I scanned the area in front of me. My light was not reaching far enough to see the next patch of blood.

  “Have you found him?” I whispered into my phone, wishing for that hands-free set Tommy was harassing me to get.

  “Almost. Put this call up,” Tate commanded and I could see him in the technology room ordering everyone around in my mind’s eye.

  “Triangulate Blake’s cell phone,” Tate’s voice sounded farther away, yet just as clear.

  I tuned out the other voices talking back and forth as I scanned the area yet again looking for a clue. The ground was trampled in multiple directions as though they had split up at this point. One set had to be different, heavier than the rest, yet in the trampled dry twigs I couldn’t see a difference.

  Blowing out a breath, I sent my beam as far as I could down each path. I didn’t like this. Rouge vampires shouldn’t be this intelligent. They also shouldn’t form an alliance with one another.

  “Have you ever heard of rouge vamps working together?” I asked Tate.

  The noise on the other end of the phone line died down.

  “What did you just say?” Tate asked.

  “Do I really need to repeat myself?” I asked annoyed.

  “No,” Tate said, the shock leaving his voice. “I have never in my long life ever heard of rogues working together.”

  “How about being intelligent or smart enough to split up?” I asked.

  “You need back up,” Tate answered.

  “Probably, but I am not waiting around and risking Blake’s undead life. Can you guide me to him?” I asked, losing patience at not moving as I swung the beam from one path to the next.

  “Yes,” Tate answered me before ordering his people into motion again.

  Another deep breath on the phone and then I had instructions. “Head north Olivia,” Tate informed me.

  Looking down at my watch, I turned until I hit north moving quickly. I debated holstering my gun, eventually deciding to stow my fire power, while it made me feel better having
it out, I would move faster having a free hand. If the rogues hadn’t attacked yet, it wasn’t me they were after.

  That also didn’t make any damn sense, but as the air demigod had said, he was the God of Chaos, if in fact my hunch was correct and both the attack in St Ann and the problems in Oklahoma were related. My gut demanded that they were.

  “What is taking you so long?” Tate demanded through clenched teeth.

  I ignored that comment as I hauled myself over a fallen tree, scampering up to untangle myself from the tree branches that tied around my feet before forging on. The ground was trampled down and it created a path to follow, even as branches slapped against my skin and face.

  My vision and focus narrowed only to the beam ahead of me in the down trodden path as I pushed to a jog, which was dangerous, but Blake’s life was on the line, screw caution.

  “Am I on track?” I asked between ragged breaths.

  “So far,” Tate growled. “We are contacting the Mason House to back you up.”

  “Are you certain that is a good idea?” I asked. “Blake didn’t seem to trust the investigation they performed and given the fact we just walked into a trap I am inclined to agree,” I muttered, stretching my legs to clear the distance.

  “What else am I supposed to do Olivia?” Tate growled.

  I sighed as I hit another fork in the road. “Fuck there are more than I fucking thought.” I groaned, holding the light to each path.

  “Which way, Tate?” I asked hurriedly.

  “West,” a female voice stated clearly.

  Checking my watch, I moved quickly as the underbrush cleared away, shards of moonlight filtering down to light my path. I broke into a full sprint, the flashlight in my hand jarring with my pace as the path curved.

  I missed the downward slope of the path, skidding on my ass down the dirt ravine.

  “Fuck,” I hissed, the flashlight jarring out of my hand along with my cell phone.

  I blew out a breath looking first to my left down the muddy ditch and then to the right where a giant tunnel was nestled into the side of the ditch.

  “What the fuck is that doing way out here?” I muttered.

  My flashlight had fallen across the ditch and I moved to retrieve it, sending the slash of light out in hopes of finding my phone.

  My heart sunk when I did. The screen was destroyed. As I bent to pick it up, I pushed against the buttons, hoping for some sign of life. Nothing but the glare of my headlamp glimmered back at me. I threw it down, annoyed with myself for losing my help.

  Pushing my mind away from the hopelessness that threatened to swarm me and my inability to help Blake, I moved toward the tunnel. The mouth of the gaping black hole was at least four feet off the ground and I stared down at the claw marks on the bottom of the thick black metal. Absently running my fingers over the coarse groves as I lifted the light into the darkness, I found nothing but rats scurrying out of the glare.

  Blowing out a breath, I whispered, “Here goes nothing.”

  Setting the flashlight on the rim, I pulled myself up, leaving a hand against the throwing knives on my thighs. My guns would give me distance, but the ricochet in such a small space was more a danger to me than them. Slowly I made my way forward, shining my light around the circular tunnel leery of missing a turn off.

  Claw marks guided me. Deep ridges gouged the metal and I was certain they were from Blake. The puddles of dark blood were more prevalent here as well. It was only a matter of time before I encountered the nest and I was would be a fool not to be worried how many I would encounter.

  If three or possibly four could incapacitate Blake, they were stronger than the average rogue and I was in trouble. Story of my life.

  Blowing out a breath, I followed the path straight until it bloomed into a large cavern. Moonlight streamed down from above and in its path, I could see scrawny, naked, creamy-skinned vampires bouncing from wall to wall.

  “Holy fuck,” I whispered. I wasn’t going to count, I told myself sternly as I decided that now was a perfect time for my guns.

  The noise of my flashlight dropping into the eerie silence immediately drew the attention of amber eyes that twisted toward me as I pulled both my guns in one swift move. Hissing, spitting, and mad with blood lust, they attacked, all at once.

  The sparks from my guns lit the darkness, temporarily blinding me. I fired two shots, each one in each heart. I had zero ammo left to spare and more deranged vampires than I could easily handle. I took out the two who had been gallivanting in the moonlight coming at me directly.

  I turned to my left, firing before I aimed, at such a close range I felt the spit from the vampire, hissing for my blood before he or she turned to ash.

  “Right, Olivia!” Blake’s voice rang out and I breathed a sigh of relief turning to fire into the oncoming vampire. That was four down and one alive boyfriend. I like those odds.

  Stepping into the nest of the beast, I emptied my guns into the next two vampires, ending one while the second hissed and writhed on the floor. Pulling the dagger from the small of my back, I thrust it into its chest until the noise stopped and ash coated my hands.

  Turning, I plunged the same blade deep into the chest of another rouge landing on my ass from the force of his attack, skidding across the ground I pushed the blade up screaming with the effort as my back slammed against the cavern wall.

  The rouge pushed forward, driving the blade deeper into its hearts until, with a shocked expression and a gurgle, it also turned to ash.

  I rolled, blinking rapidly to clear the ash from my eyes. How many was that six, seven? I guess I should have counted in the beginning.

  “Blake?” I called out.

  “Here!” he responded as I made my way toward his voice.

  “Do you see anymore?” I asked, coughing up ash.

  “Yeah, but they’re in chains,” he said lowly.

  My vision finally cleared. I found him shackled to wall. “Can you break it?” I asked, running my hands over the inscriptions as I bent down to look at it.

  “I think its magic,” he groaned.

  I nodded, standing back up, hands on my hips as the other vampires hissed and spat, trying to get at us.

  “Hey, I think I have a lead on the missing vampires,” I teased him, smiling my heart easing now that I was close to him.

  He laughed, rubbing a hand over his quickly healing face. “Yeah me too.”

  “You should call Tate. He was sending in reinforcements and we will need a mage now to get you out.” I informed him, poking around the rest of the cavern.

  He groaned. “Please tell me you didn’t tell him I got captured.”

  “Sorry, I needed him to track your phone.” I picked up human bones. “These rogues aren’t like anything I have ever seen before, organized and working together.”

  “What is it?”

  “I think this is the exact same thing I destroyed the first time in Oklahoma, only this time someone figured out how to make rogue vampires.” I brought him the human bones.

  He looked down at the teeth marks and back up at me.

  “Yeah I already know. Vampires go crazy if they feast on human flesh,” I informed him, waiving away his concern.

  He nodded slowly, “How did you know that?”

  “Long story,” I answered, not wanting to get into it right now.

  “The question is who else knows that information, aside from vampires?” I asked him.

  He shook his head, twisting the bone in his grasp. “I don’t know.”

  Chapter 14

  I stayed close to Blake and honestly I didn’t want to. The rogue vampires made me uneasy even though they were all secured with the same manacle and chain to the cavern wall. If Blake hadn’t talked me out of ending them, I’d feel a whole lot better now.

  Noises from the tunnel across the cavern had us both watching closely. I no longer had the help of night vision or my head lamp and flashlight that had been ruined in the fight.

  Blake
called something in a foreign language I didn’t understand and was answered in the same language.

  “Vampire secret code?” I asked sarcastically.

  “Something like that,” Blake agreed.

  A white-haired, violet-eyed mage stepped into the room carefully moving around the piles of ash. She was small in stature, but her power vibrated against my skin uncomfortably as she made a direct line toward us.

  Behind her, cloaked in darkness, other vampires arrived, but I couldn’t draw my attention off the older woman. Her violet eyes peered into my soul as she stopped before me with a raised eyebrow.

  “Olivia, you are in the way,” Blake chided me pushing me gently.

  “Oh, sorry,” I said moving quickly out of the way and into the center of the cavern.

  “What happened here?” A short dark-haired vampire asked me, decked out in a complete leather ensemble. I would be lying if I wasn’t mildly jealous.

  “Oh you know, we just took a long romantic stroll in the woods,” I began, dusting the ash off of my jeans.

  The vampire raised an eyebrow as I continued my tale.

  Eventually, Blake came to stand next to me, rubbing dried blood off his face, finally freed of the magic chains.

  “She is telling the truth, Val,” he said, naming the vampire in front of me.

  “Rogues do not think, they do not kidnap, nor do they work together.” Val said, turning pale under her natural creamy vamp skin.

  “These ones do,” Blake said seriously. “Catalog and bring along the contents of the cavern. This isn’t done with.”

  …

  I was thankful we didn’t have to sit around and wait for the process to be completed as we lumbered up the slope back toward the car.

  “A romantic walk?” Blake asked laughing.

  “Yeah, don’t you take all your dates on walks in remote locations, followed by hide and seek?” I teased.

  He laughed, pulling me close brushing the dirt from my face, “Only the special ones.” Before he kissed me gently.

  “Thank you, Olivia,” he said seriously, searching my green eyes, “You have saved me over and over again, always throwing yourself into the fire without thought for yourself.”