The Series that Just Plain Sucks: The Complete Trilogy

by Charissa Dufour

  Josh had already entered the little restaurant. Nik and I left Emma and Thomas in the car to wait for the seller. I walked across the street, using Nik’s arm to keep myself upright in the tall boots. We went to the bar, perched ourselves on stools, and ordered fancy drinks with fruit skewered on the edge of the glasses.

  A few minutes later, a man in a blue suit with a thick mustache entered and glanced around the restaurant. Nik stood and lifted a hand to waive at him. Mr. Rossi nodded at him and crossed the room.

  “Mr. Krasniy, I take it?” the man said with a thick accent.

  “Indeed. May I introduce my wife, Ashley?”

  I forced my angry face into a smile as I reached out my hand and shook Mr. Rossi’s rough fingers, his touch giving me a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach. I called on my one theatrical appearance in high school to keep myself from shivering. Subtly, I lowered my hands and draped them on my lap, under the bar. While Mr. Rossi settled himself next to Nik, I slipped my mom’s wedding ring off my right hand and onto my left.

  Nik was going to pay for this. While the men proceeded through the normal forms of conversations, I glanced around the room and spotted Josh, glaring at the back of Nik’s head. No doubt he had heard Nik’s declaration.

  I turned my head away from their conversation and whispered, “Josh, watch your face.”

  Again, I glanced around the room and noticed that he had turned a little away from us, though his face still said livid in every line. At that moment, Emma and Thomas entered and took a seat at a table near the door.

  “Yes, we had a very nice flight, thank you for asking,” Nik was saying. “Can I buy you a drink?”

  “Of course. The usual,” Rossi said to the bartender who had appeared right on cue; evidently this was a normal watering hole for the antique dealer.

  A moment later the bartender appeared with Rossi’s drink.

  “I know it is late, Mr. Rossi,” continued Nik. “Here is what I’m prepared to offer for Veneno.”

  Nik slipped a piece of paper across the table. Rossi laid his hand across the paper, his fingers grazing Nik’s. From where I sat, I saw Nik stiffen, his hand still holding the paper to the counter. He felt whatever had caused my shiver of unease when I shook Rossi’s hand. Was Rossi more than he appeared to be? Was he supernatural like us?

  Nik suddenly came to life, mumbling an apology, and allowing Rossi to take the piece of paper. I forced my attention on the man, wanting to get a better look. There wasn’t much to see. His suit was outdated, his stomach growing with middle-agement, and his hair thinning. Like most Italians, he had olive skin and dark brown hair, almost black.

  Rossi looked at the number on the paper and allowed a large grin to spread across his soft cheeks. “I think we have a deal,” he said, barely able to contain his excitement.

  “Excellent. And you brought the dagger with you?”

  “Not exactly, but I can have it in your hands in thirty minutes. Enjoy an appetizer and meet me on the lawn of the Parco Del Celio in half an hour and we’ll do the exchange.”

  Nik shook his hand and watched the man walk away. “Stay put, everyone,” he whispered into his drink.

  As ordered, Nik ordered an appetizer and I nibbled on it.

  “What’s wrong?” I whispered.

  “Not now. Everyone listening?”

  I heard the distant sounds of Josh, Emma, and, surprisingly, Thomas’ confirmation.

  “Josh, go to the west side of the lawn. Emma and Thomas, the east side. Try not to be obvious. Ashley and I will be there in a few minutes. This man is not what he seems. Everyone keep their eyes open.”

  Twenty minutes later, Nik paid our bill by leaving a fifty on the counter and we made our way out of the restaurant. Stopping at the car, Nik collected a brief case from among our various suitcases. We crossed the street and made our way onto a wide lawn, just south of the Colosseum. The ridiculous heels of Emma’s boots sunk into the grass and I struggled to keep up with him.

  With our wonderful night vision, we quickly spotted Rossi standing with his own case.

  “I am so glad we could do business together,” Nik began.

  I felt his tension in the arm I held and did my best to look as relaxed as he did.

  “Indeed. I just wish…” Rossi paused dramatically, “you had been honest with me, Mr. Krasniy. I don’t do business with vampires.”

  In that moment, Rossi vanished in a literal cloud of smoke. I glanced around, feeling confident that him running away was the least of our worries. Sure enough, the pristine lawn erupted as arms pushed themselves up through the ground.

  Now, I have watched a number of zombie films—my favorites being “Shawn of the Dead” and “Warm Bodies”—but what was happening around us was nothing like any zombie film I’d ever seen. Those rising from the dead looked relatively normal so long as all we could see was their arms and heads, but the minute their torsos were visible, I realized we were dealing with something very different from your basic Hollywood zombie. The monsters clawing their way out of the ground were gladiators.

  “What is happening?” I demanded.

  “He’s a type of necromancer,” exclaimed Nik as he turned, placing me at his back.

  The moment the gladiators were free of the dirt, they charged us, ignoring Emma, Thomas, and Josh who were racing to the fray. Evidently Rossi hadn’t realized we had back up. I glanced around the writhing lawn, looking for a weapon of some sort. Though Nik still grasped the briefcase filled with money, it wasn’t exactly lethal. Before I could find anything, the nearest gladiator was on me. I dodged to the side just as he brought his sword down toward my shoulder, barely escaping injury.

  I tried my best not to notice how close his leather skirting came to revealing his “wedding vegetables,” but it was so awkward I found my eyes flicking to his crotch. My attacker’s glazed eyes had no life or intelligence in them, but he swung his sword as though it was as easy as breathing. I ducked and dodged, his sword coming so close to my shoulder that the tip sliced through my borrowed shirt. Emma was gonna kill me!

  It took me a few minutes to realize that I needed to get behind him if I hoped to get my own attack in, considering I had no weapon beyond my teeth and my vampire strength. I ducked under his next swing, being faster than him, and sidestepped around to his back, where I grabbed his neck and gave it a swift jerk, effectively snapping it.

  Before the body could hit the ground, I was racing toward the nearest gladiator, who was sneaking up on Nik. Nik was battling two already, easily eluding their swords, though I doubted he could manage a third without taking damage. From a foot away, I jumped onto the gladiator, attaching myself to him like a backpack and sinking my teeth into his neck.

  He tasted like rotting meat, and rather than draining him, I ripped the flesh from his throat. A squirt of black blood burst from the wound for a second before the flow turned into a slow gurgle as the unusually thick liquid oozed from his neck. I spat off to the side, trying to get the taste out of my mouth. The action gave the gladiator a chance to swing his sword over his head in an attempt to slice my back. His dead arms didn’t have the necessary range of motion, though I did feel the sword slice into my protruding buttocks.

  I grunted with the pain as I dropped to the ground, absently noticing Josh’s ghost dog nipping at the gladiator’s ankles, and reached up for his sword in one swift movement. The blade caught me in the palm of the hand, which hurt but was a world better than slicing into my jugular. With my other hand, I grabbed the gladiator’s chin and gave it a jerk. Again, the gladiator collapsed to the ground. I wrenched the sword from my palm and jumped toward one of Nik’s opponents.

  Out of the corner of my eye I spotted the others battling their own dead gladiators while more dead guys began to claw their way out of the ground. At a distance, I saw Rossi reappear, the ground around him shaded in mystical fog. Though I realized the necessity of killing Rossi, I wasn’t about to leave Nik still battling two gladiators.


  I brought my stolen sword down on the nearest gladiator, right where we vampires like to bite people. It collapsed, re-dead. A few beats later Nik dispatched his second opponent. We both turned to survey our troops.

  To my astonishment, Thomas was leading the pack, a sword in each hand. He moved with the skill of a true swordsman. Though I was sure he hadn’t touched a blade in decades, maybe even centuries, he moved as though it had only been since this morning. I guess it is like riding a bike. He ran through the growing crowd, slicing off heads before the bodies could make it free of the dirt. While he took care of those, Emma held her own sword, watching his back and slicing through those who were already free of the dirt’s grasp. Emma was much more versed with the sword than I had expected.

  Before I could figure out what I should be doing, I gasped in agony as a fire erupted in my gut. Looking down, I found a sword poking through my shirt. Before I could figure out how it got there, I dropped to my knees just as a new pain pierced me. I watched as the sword was jerked free before falling to the ground. I lay on my side, watching more movement around me.

  A gladiator stepped over me and ran after Nik. From my position on the ground I saw Josh jumping from the back of one gladiator to the next—looking a great deal like a red-headed frog—ripping their heads clean off. Emma took over killing those working their way out of the ground while Thomas joined Nik in battling the others. The two men worked back to back as the number of gladiators increased to overwhelming numbers, despite Emma’s efforts.

  Slowly, the pain receded and I climbed to my feet, picking up a sword left by one of the dead. Compared to Nik and Thomas, I was like a five year-old with a piece of Hot Wheels racetrack, pretending it was a sword. Despite my wounds and my general lack of skill, I managed to take one more gladiator down before I noticed Rossi standing in a distant corner of the lawn, watching our efforts.

  I staggered toward him, dodging the occasional swing from passing gladiators. They didn’t change their course to follow me, no doubt thinking I was about to collapse from my wounds. Rossi also didn’t seem to consider me much of a threat. I saw his eyes flicker toward me for a second before returning to the battle.

  The insult of it all stiffened my spine. My gut still hurt, but I was able to ignore it. I lifted the sword, no longer using it like a cane, and charged him. Rossi flicked his finger at me and I shot back about fifteen feet, landing in the grass and sliding across the lawn. The movement tore open my half-healed wound and I groaned. I wanted to stay where I was, but the sounds of the battle reminded me that Rossi needed to die before we all did.

  I lurched back to my feet, a fresh wave of blood running down my stomach into the waist of my jeans. I refused to give my wounds another thought and ran as fast as my battered body would allow. Rossi tried the same trick on me but I dove to the ground, slipping across the damp grass as though I was rounding third and heading for home. The movement sent me under his spell. With the sword still clutched in my hand, I slid toward him, leaving a streak of blood on the grass. As I approached, I used my momentum and the swing of my arm to slice at his legs, cutting him across his exposed calves.

  Rossi let out a cry and fell to his knees, just as I skidded to a stop. Staggering, I climbed to my own knees and lifted the sword above my head. Rossi fell forward, face first into the green grass. As I brought it down, a fresh kiss of fire sliced across my back. I screamed as I drove the sword down into my enemy. The motion sent me forward until I fell onto Rossi’s back. Despite the fresh pain, I forced myself to roll over, afraid that my attacker would strike again.

  As I finished the move, I spotted the gladiator that had attacked me. He was frozen in place, a look of shock on his face. Slowly, he became transparent until he faded altogether. I craned my neck to look at the others. Before any of us could move, we heard a loud burst of applause from a group tourists. I strained my neck a little further to see the crowd that had amassed around us. Rossi was a type of necromancer, not a fae. There was no fae magic to hide our fight from the humans.

  They think it’s a show, I realized as Josh staggered to my side, ignoring our audience.

  “You hurt?” he asked softly.

  I nodded, the pain of my injuries coming back now that my adrenaline had begun to subside.

  Josh didn’t wait for an invitation, but scooped me up into his arms. We met the others at the corner and scurried to the car, the audience still showing their appreciation.

  “Is this part of the festival?” one audience member asked.

  “This is so much better than last year,” another stated.

  “How’d they make the gladiators disappear?” asked a third.

  We missed the rest of their praise as we piled back into the car and sped away. They would have quite a surprise when they found Rossi’s dead body.

  “We didn’t get the dagger,” I said, lounging across Emma’s lap as she pressed some cloth against a gash on my back, while at the same time wedging a wad of something else against exit wound on my stomach. Being the youngest of the group, I healed the slowest.

  “Think again,” said Josh as he lifted something onto his lap. I heard the snap-click as he opened a brief case.

  I pushed myself up off Emma’s lap and peered over my shoulder as Josh lifted the infamous dagger. That one stupid little object had gotten us into more trouble than anything else, save me.

  I always got us into trouble.

  Chapter Nine

  “You, little missy, need to learn to duck,” said Emma as I forced my eyes open.

  I was laying on my stomach in a shabby hotel room. The bed was stiff, and I could feel a spring poking me in the hip. From my position I could see the ugly, thick drapes, ready to guard us from daylight. Emma was methodically torturing my back and I tried to roll away, but a firm pair of hands suddenly grasped my shoulders.

  I craned my neck to see who was with us. Thomas looked down at me, concern pulling his brows together.

  “How long has she been a vampire?” he asked, sounding more lucid than normal.

  “About two months, I think,” replied Emma.

  I just groaned and relaxed back onto the bed.

  “Josh and Nik went to find some blood,” Emma offered without me having to ask. “We’re going to have to stay here for the night and let you heal. You took a lot of damage.”

  I groaned again, partly because I didn’t feel up to answering and partly because she was doing something particularly painful to my back. Thomas increased the pressure on my shoulder, even though I hadn’t moved.

  “I’m impressed. Most new vampires can’t fight as wounded as she is.”

  “Ashley’s been through worse,” said Emma, her voice tight and restrained.

  I wondered if she was thinking of the ritual she had been a part of or something else. There was plenty to choose from in my brief history as a vampire. I had been injured more times than I could count.

  Before I could speak, Emma continued. “Thomas, why don’t you go shower before the others get back. There will be a line before too long.”

  Thomas didn’t move.

  “I’m okay,” I responded, knowing he thought I might jerk away from Emma’s ministrations.

  Evidently I sounded coherent enough to reassure him because a second later I felt his hands disappear and heard him cross the room to the bathroom.

  “We got the dagger, right?” I asked, my voice muffled by the pillow half smothering my face. I couldn’t quite tell if what I remembered was a dream or reality.

  “Yes. Josh picked up the briefcase after he found you. Why Rossi brought the dagger with him when he knew what we were is beyond me.”

  I started to shrug but thought better of it. “I’m glad he did,’ I muttered instead.

  “There,” Emma announced as I felt one last painful tug on my back. “I have never had to give a vampire stitches before, but with you bleeding so badly and all our humans across the Atlantic, I didn’t want to risk you actually bleeding out. Now, when Nik
and Josh return, we can get you fed and you’ll feel more like yourself.”

  Emma was rambling, but I chose not to point it out. I didn’t really feel up to teasing her. From the bathroom, we heard the shower flick on and the sound change as Thomas stepped into the spray.

  “Ever figure out what Faunus wants with Thomas?” I finally asked, more to get my mind off the fire in my back; the exit wound on my stomach was the most healed of all my wounds.

  “No. I can’t imagine what she wants with an insane vampire.”

  “He seems better now.”

  “He does,” she said in agreement.

  “You think the battle helped?”

  “Could be. Yeah, I kinda do. He always was a powerful fighter. I just never thought he would retain so much after what I saw in his apartment.”

  “Are we really going to hand him over to Faunus?” I asked, guilt stabbing me in the back, or maybe that was just my wounds complaining.

  “I don’t know. I hope not.”

  “We’ll talk to Nik. See if we can figure out a different option.”

  “There really isn’t one though,” said Emma, her voice sounding depressed even to my tired ears.

  “I’m sorry about all this, Emma.”

  “What do you have to be sorry about?”

  “Well… you know what I mean.”

  Emma nodded. “I just never, in a million years, thought he would be the type to crack.”

  I heard the water switch off. “Want me to distract you?” I asked.

  “Please.”

  “So, remember the whole ‘keep them at arm’s length’ plan?”

  “Yes,” she said, drawing the word out in concern; no doubt she saw where I was going.

  “I kissed Josh.”

  Emma turned on the bed to get a better look at my face, which was fixed in a permanent grimace.

  “Really?” she asked, again drawing the word out; if I had felt better I would have smacked her.