by K. A. M'Lady
“Ms. Tennai.” A rich Irish accent clung to my name as he said it. The bass of his voice rolled around in my chest as I listened to it echo in my head. I think I liked the way it sounded, but it was too early to tell.
His hand hung suspended between us, waiting for me to return the civility. He waited, arching his brow when I didn’t return the handshake.
I stared at his hand until he dropped it.
“As you wish,” he said with a slight nod of his head. There was a gleam in his eye that worried me a bit. I wasn’t sure what it meant.
As you wish, I mocked, that thick brogue clinging to the words. It was enough to make mere mortal women everywhere melt.
Damned good thing I wasn’t a mere mortal. I think he thought that I’d just challenged him. Call it woman’s intuition. “Lovely,” I said under my breath as I rolled my eyes. I was so not in the mood for games.
“Yes, you are,” he replied, leaning in towards me as he breathed in my scent.
“If you two are done…” Adam snapped. There was a lovely little crease forming between Adam’s eyes as he tried to glare at me.
Kieran smiled smugly, and I couldn’t help but return a bit of a grin. It really was quite fun pissing Cage off.
“Rihker, if you’ll stop drooling over your new toy, I’ll show you the scene.”
I opened my mouth to make some comment. Something scathing. Like the asshole owned me or something!
But Kieran beat me to it. “If Ms. Tennai wishes to play with toys, I assure you, Inspector, it is of no consequence.” He then turned those piercing eyes towards him, saying, “But make no mistake in the future, Inspector Cage, this toy, as you put it, has very sharp teeth.”
The words were hushed in the small confines of the hall, but the menace that enveloped them swarmed around us. It felt as though a thousand bees stung the flesh, each word precise and piercing so that you just felt the pinprick of pain lacerate your skin. And I was partially immune; I could only imagine what the full-fledged humans were feeling.
“Can we get on with this?” I said on a sigh. “Morning draws near, and if I’m going to have my guest tucked away before the sun rises, we need to get a move on.”
“And would that be your place or mine?” Kieran asked softly, a glint of devilry in his dark eyes.
“You’re fast becoming a pain in the ass. You know that, don’t you?” I asked as I sidled past him, shaking my head.
His hand on the small of my back as he stopped me sent chills up my spine. As I looked up into the darkness of the endless pools of his amethyst eyes and breathed in the deep earthy scent that was all him, he leaned in to me and whispered, “But the pain can be such a sweet release. Don’t you think?”
For the first time in my life, I didn’t have anything to say.
Forsaking hominus lupis, man would no longer call
On limb-shredding bombs to render his victims harmless…
From Song of the Era’s View of the Future, Otto’ Orban
Translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes
Chapter Four
The night was filled with dripping walls of blood. At least that’s what I saw every time I closed my eyes to try to block out the horror before me. It didn’t help. Reality--well, my reality, anyway--has a tendency to bleed and ooze into all those safe, quiet zones most like to think of as a normal life. So what was once your typical nightclub bathroom was now a crimson, glistening holocaust of violence.
The remains had been removed, but the chalk lines and the remnants of blood and gore were left behind. Chunks of flesh clung to the mirror where the arm had been bashed repeatedly against it. Bits of intestine and what looked like possibly a spleen were slopped on the rubble; dust and dirt in gritty flakes sticking to it, and all of it was still strewn about the floor.
And the stench. I was trying vigorously not to breathe, but since I needed oxygen to survive, it was a bit difficult. I thought about covering my face with my sleeve, but that would sort of defeat the whole purpose of my being here.
Unfortunately, part of tracking is scent. If I couldn’t smell, I wouldn’t be able to find the creature we were looking for.
All the cops were lucky enough to stand around with either a mask on or a hankie covering their face. Only Kieran and I stood in the center of gore and breathed it all in. It made me wonder if Vampires had the same sense of smell as the rest of us. I didn’t ask. I didn’t really want to know.
“So what do you think?” Cage asked, standing a few feet away from me. We’d done this job before: me, hired as tracker; him, inspector on scene. He never got close, knowing it would screw up my sense of smell, and the scene’s aura.
Of course, he wasn’t standing around with his face covered either. Cage had been there, seen it mutilated and didn’t sweat the nightmares. He grew up on Chicago’s city streets. Seen gangbangers murdered outside his front yard; their brains splattered on the sidewalks or the car’s front windshields. He’d gone to Iraq. Twice. The gore had no effect.
I closed my eyes and breathed it all in. Every bloody splatter, bowel movement, stomach rupture and lung burst. It was almost like a slow motion camera playing in my mind. But it had the lingering effect of aroma overload.
My tracking abilities were a bit on the strange side. With every inhaled breath, I could see the images of what happened. It was as if I became the being and looked out through its eyes while the scene unfolded; a sort of instant rewind with scent. It helped me with the tracking. But the lingering stench I could live without.
Don’t ask me why I got the scented rewind. I wasn’t the one in charge of passing out Tells, just the lucky recipient.
I began to speak. “From the Darkness, it was called from a deep and peaceful slumber. It felt two heartbeats and smelled the flesh above. His master’s chant whispered to him in his long, silent slumber from deep beneath the earth. A long-forgotten psalm to stir a memory. And the flesh called to it.”
I opened my eyes, but the room was empty. There was no hole in the floor. No shattered mirror with which to see a million macabre memories. It was empty of blood, and the police. Empty of everyone.
“They came in through the window, the smell of the wind, fur, and sex heavy in the air. They had sex on the sink; the girl up against the mirror.” My voice grew distant, disconnected as I described the vision I became entrenched in.
I felt as though I had become the creature: I could feel his pulse hammering in my ears; feel his hunger thrumming beneath my skin; his need a hard fist in the pit of my stomach.
“Her scent so strong. Cloying the air. Driving me to madness. My master called to me and I had to break free. The screaming…piercing my ears. Her screaming. Had to stop it,” I said as I clutched my hands to my ears in agony. I could feel the pain like a hot poker piercing through my skull, and I screamed.
“Don’t touch her!” Adam shouted as Kieran took a step towards me. “She’s just channeling. It’s not like she’s actually being hurt. So don’t touch her.”
Kieran glared at Adam.
There was a rough darkness to my voice as I turned back to the mirror and stated, “He, the man, was in my way. Had to reach her. Her flesh. Her blood. Had to taste her. Dug into her. The soft center, shredding beneath my claws. And the blood. The sweet ambrosia of her flesh as I tasted her...”
My hands extended to the ceiling and my body convulsed as though the creature were trying to rip its way from my flesh. The bile in the back of my throat is what brought me back. I whirled and ran for a stall, then puked my guts out until I felt weak.
Someone was holding my hair so I wouldn’t get it on me. Reaching for some toilet paper to wipe my mouth, I looked up to find Kieran.
“Sorry,” I said, completely mortified that I had just lost it in front of him.
“It is quite understandable,” he said brushing a stray lock of hair out of my eyes. “You were channeling an awful lot of Darkness. I had no idea it was such a…physical force.” There was a dark quality to the way he said
it, interest and desire somehow lacing each word.
I looked at him then. Really looked at him, and wondered what he knew and didn’t know. We were standing in the stall staring at each other: me, embarrassed as hell, but also suspicious now. Untrusting. And him, he was just too damned reasonable and good-looking for words. These were not good signs. This night really needed to end.
“So, can you find this thing or not?” Cage was getting pissy. Again.
Kieran only smiled at me. “Do you always do that when you channel?”
“Do what?
“Glow.” He whispered the word like a seductive offering, and something in me thrilled at the prospect of what he meant.
“Yeah, she glows when she’s tranced,” Cage said from the door of the stall. “Or when she’s excited.” The smug look he shot Kieran made me want to kick him.
“And you’ve caused this glowing, Inspector?” Kieran asked, brow raised, eyes cold and steady as he looked at Adam.
“Oh, I’ve caused it,” he replied, puffing out his chest, maybe thinking some sort of male bonding thing was going on. Or he was just attempting to one-up the Vamp, which just pissed me off.
“Yeah, too bad you couldn’t handle it,” I said as I shoved past both of them and walked out of the bathroom and into the hall. Kieran stared at Adam, waiting for another remark. Adam said nothing.
“Even the monsters are pretty on the outside, eh, Inspector?” Kieran said with a tilt to his head as he strolled past him and followed me out the door.
Would this night never end?
I kept on walking, out the door and back down the hall. I wanted out of there. Revisiting mutilated Werewolves was enough to drive me to drink, and so was Adam and his I don’t want her but you can’t have her either bullshit attitude. I was not in the mood for this shit.
“Do you always do that?” His voice trailed behind me as I reached the outer door. The question stopped me just before I walked through it. I turned, annoyed and perplexed as to why he even cared and he was right behind me, closer than a breath.
“What the hell are you blathering about?” I glared up at him, one hand on the doorknob behind me as I attempted to stare down the Vampire. Probably not the smartest thing to do with a thousand-year-old Vamp, but it was now after five, and I was beyond giving a shit.
“Walk away.”
“What exactly is it you’re asking me, Kieran? Do I walk away from my exes who are grating on my nerves? Do I walk away when I’m done trudging through the memories of too much death for one night? Yes, on both accounts. So what?” I said as I continued to glare at him. “What is it you want to know?” I was getting snappy. He was treading some personal shit right now that was really none of his business, and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with it.
“There are fast becoming many things I wish to know about you, lass,” he said as he reached up and brushed his thumb along my bottom lip.
Well, there you go. A response I wasn’t expecting. And what the hell did that mean? One more cryptic conversation that I was not in the mood to decipher. I think I was setting a record. Even for me.
“So what the hell is it we’re looking for, Rihker?” Cage snarled as he stomped down the hall.
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and counted to ten. I needed to go home and get some sleep.
“Ogre,” I said. “Death-walking, flesh-exposed Ogre called from the Shadow Land. Find the sorcerer who called it, and you’ll find him.” My voice was mechanical, like I was trying to explain Physics to an English major.
“How the hell are we supposed to do that?” he whined. Cage was an excellent cop when he wasn’t being an ass, but he sucked with the monsters.
“Head to the north country. Master or no, he’ll be returning to Gray Caverns. It’s where all the Ogres call home. Route all your tracks there. Just be careful. He’ll be hungry.”
Adam grumbled some nonsensical words as he wandered back down the hall towards his men, bellowing orders as he went. And no, he didn’t thank me.
“Now, shall we?” I asked Kieran, nodding towards the door. We had forty minutes until dawn. Just enough time to get home and tuck away one Vamp in a box in my basement.
He simply stared at me, a cool aloofness settling on the contours of his chiseled face as he stated, “I believe, lass, that you might wish to check your time again.”
“What? Why? We’ve plenty of time to get you to my house safely,” I said as I brought my arm to my tired eyes. My watch still said five-fourteen. But none of the hands were moving. Son of a bitch!
“Aye, the timepiece says one thing, but can you not feel the dawn racing against your flesh? Beating almost as one with your heart?” Kieran laid his palm directly over my heart and like a traitor, it began to thunder at the gentleness of his touch.
“I believe tonight’s rest will be my bed, not yours,” he softly advised as he leaned forward, breathing the last words against the side of my neck before gently laying a kiss against the throbbing vein in my throat.
I couldn’t help it--I shivered.
Just fucking marvelous.
Heartdeath and Braindeath wink across frozen sheets, the foxy dames:
Black-clad nurses both, from the death department
From Song of False Hope, Otto’ Orban
Translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes
Chapter Five
We took an elevator from the basement of the club to a sub-basement, where the wine cellar was. From there, we traveled a long corridor to a second elevator. I didn’t recall this much electrical or sub-levels being built in a building this old, but I guess if you had the money, you could add whatever you wanted.
There was a passkey needed, and a secret code as well as biometric scanning for the elevator to submerge you into its deep, dark depths. Call it the lower rungs of Hell. Maybe. I really didn’t like where this was going.
I had to phone Gimlit before we entered the basement, due to reception issues. Had to let him know what was up, and that I wouldn’t be returning until later.
And no, he was not thrilled with the arrangements. In fact, he had several choice words to say when I told him I would be staying in the crypt of a Blood Stalker. He insisted on speaking with Kieran. Immediately.
I have no idea what they discussed, but some ten minutes later, Kieran had made a vow to Gimlit. One that Gimlit swore to me he’d take out of Kieran in pints if he went back on his word.
A blood oath is a pretty steep vow to swear to an Ogre. I sure hoped Kieran understood the seriousness of the bargain he’d made. I certainly wouldn’t want a pissed-off Gimlit tracking me down. For one thing, his hand was bigger than my head. I mean, you should see the size of the freaking sword he carries.
When the metal cage finally came to a shushing halt and the doors opened, the sight before kept me frozen in place. For one thing, a medieval great hall several hundred feet below the earth was not what I expected to find myself in.
Add the man strapped naked to a spinning round wheel while being beaten with a whip, and it was definitely not the carnival of pain I expected to roll up on.
Kieran offered me his hand. “Do you wish to stay on the elevator all day, lass? Or are we going to get some rest?” Once again, the civility and calm demeanor was just astounding. Frankly, it was beginning to bug me. I stepped off the elevator unaided.
“Mercy,” he said, his voice echoing around the hall.
“Don’t stop on my account,” I told him as I strolled beside him down the length of the great hall towards the master punisher, dressed in a green leather catsuit and black stiletto thigh-high boots.
The woman with the whip had her back turned towards us and I couldn’t really get a good view of her face, so I wasn’t sure what flavor of monster I’d be dealing with now.
She was tiny, for one thing. Maybe five feet two if she was an inch. She was thin, yet shapely, as the curves of her slick green leather bodysuit showed to perfection.
“Have ye brought me a pr
esent to punish, then, Kieran?” The thick Irish brogue rolled off the walls before settling into something I could understand. She had turned towards us, and the creature that met my eyes was a contradiction of someone who should have been beating a naked anything.
The man yelled and started cursing as soon as her back turned, and the little mini-wheat of a crumpet turned towards him and roared like a hound of hell, her lovely pale skin mottled into a crimson fury. Dark veins protruded all over her flesh and her perfect white teeth exploded from a jaw that now stretched the length of her face. What were only seconds ago beautiful dark cocoa eyes immediately filled with midnight and unchecked rage as she turned them towards him. Her body hunched forward, limbs deforming as claws exploded from her fingers. Like the stillness of a shadow, she turned all that horrid anger on the man strapped to the wheel.
She cleared the distance between them before I could even blink and like the flash of an image--there and gone--she was feasting on the still-beating heart that she ripped from his chest.
Without even realizing it, I had pulled my axes and stood in a battle position. Kieran looked at me as soon as he realized I had moved. I could see the interest and wonder in his eyes before it was quickly replaced by amusement.
“Those won’t be necessary, lass,” he said as he touched my arm, urging me to lower my weapons.
I looked from his hand to the axes that I was now clutching, my knuckles white from the death grip I had on them. What the fuck was going on?
“Is this how you always bring guests home?” I asked sarcastically as I slowly loosened my grip and lowered the blades. I wasn’t quite ready to put them away. At least not until Miss Munch-a-lot returned to normal.
“I am sorry for this little display,” he said waving his palm out before him. “It is not often we have guests in our realm.”
“Really. So, what, your normal guests are just brought round for torture and bedtime snacks?” I asked my brow arched in disbelief.
“Mmm. A bedtime snack…” He intently considered the pulse of my neck. “Are you offering?”