The Cardinal Gate

by Amy Cissell

  Isaac pulled me into him and kissed me hard. “I didn’t think I’d ever heard you say that to me. I love you, too, Eleanor. Shit.”

  “Shit?”

  “I have things I meant to tell you before we exchanged these words.”

  “We have time. But now, I should probably try to get Finn here so we can talk through the strategy Florence and I devised.”

  I called out to him, and then while we were waiting, decided it might be prudent to get dressed. There would be no way to hide what we’d been doing, but at least we could present a façade of respectability.

  About fifteen minutes later, I heard a key in the lock. Finn walked through the door. “Finally ready for visitors?”

  “You don’t have to make this difficult,” I said.

  “I really do,” he replied.

  I ordered pizza and brought the guys up to speed on the last two weeks and was getting into an enthusiastic description of flying when there was a knock on the door.

  “It’s about time!” I opened the door.

  Before I could register what was happening, I was pulled outside and felt a sharp pinch in my neck.

  I heard Isaac and Finn behind me give almost identical yelps of surprise. If I hadn’t been more concerned about what was going on with me, it might’ve been funny. I was starting to feel light-headed and couldn’t figure out what was going on. Somebody was holding me in an iron grip. Then they weren’t, and I dropped to the ground. My head was swimming, but I heard someone above me say, “Holy fuck! What is she?” before I passed out.

  I woke, hot and dizzy, and saw smoke rising from my body. I crawled to the edge of the brawl that had erupted in the parking lot, and when I saw the combatants, I realized that I’d been bitten by a motherfucking vampire.

  There were a dozen people in the fight, and I quickly identified Finn and Isaac in the middle of the melee. Finn was twirling his swords around so fast they were almost a blur, but the vampires closing in on him were dodging just as fast. Isaac was having better luck. I saw two bodies disintegrating behind him, and as I watched, I saw him punch the vamp in front of him so hard that the neck snapped audibly. He then grabbed the body with one hand before it could fall and used a long, sliver knife to decapitate the vamp and stab the body through the heart in two smooth motions.

  As I surveyed the scene, I realized that not everyone in the brawl was a vampire. There were humans in the mix. I wanted to avoid killing humans, even if they were trying to kill me. They wouldn’t conveniently hit the “ashes to ashes” stage, and random bodies with lots of bite marks might raise questions with the local police.

  I assessed the situation. The humans were staying on the edges of the fray. They were likely there to finish off any stragglers or report back to whomever sent them. I decided it would be a great idea to invite one of them to spend a little quality time with me. I studied each in turn. I’d decided on a mousy little man who looked ready to wet himself when I saw her—the woman who’d attacked me in my home and later shown up at the gate opening after party.

  I narrowed my eyes and sent out my new and vastly improved weaponized shields to wrap around her like ropes. They worked perfectly, and although it was a bit of effort to hold them there, she wasn’t moving.

  It was time for me to join the fight. In addition to the three remaining humans, there were five vampires. Isaac was bleeding now and not moving as fast. Finn was still as speedy as all get out, but the vamp he was fighting also had a sword and was forcing Finn back step-by-step. I didn’t have my sword, but I did have my silver knives. I palmed a couple and sent them flying towards the vamp closest to me. I hit him with both knives, but apparently they weren’t heart shots, because he turned around and sped towards me faster than I could blink. He grabbed my arms and was going in for a drink—and probably the kill considering how much blood I’d already lost—when all the heat and rage I had surged to the surface. My skin heated up and the vampire let go, gasping. I pulled that heat energy and focused it into a tiny fireball. I reached forward and punched him in the general heart region, letting go of my fire. He did not whoosh up into a pillar of flame, which was a bit disappointing. He was more combustible than a human, though, so I left him to shriek and smolder, confident that he wasn’t going anywhere unless he remembered to stop, drop, and roll.

  I waded into the fray and lit some more vampires on fire. It wasn’t a fast enough method to completely disable them, but the flaming vamps were distracted which allowed Isaac and Finn to dispatch them more quickly. In a few minutes it was over. The vampires who were still around were quickly disintegrating and would be nothing more than dust soon. The humans had scattered, and I heard the sound of sirens.

  “Isaac, can you grab that woman over there?” I gestured towards my hostage who was still struggling against her invisible bonds. He raised an eyebrow at me but did as I asked. I ran into the motel room, grabbed my sword and backpack, and left everything else. Finn was already in the Jeep and Isaac was climbing in the back seat with my hostage. I hopped in the front and Finn drove off.

  “We’ll need to ditch the car sooner rather than later. The license plate will be on record at the motel, and I don’t want to dodge APBs,” Isaac said.

  “They’ll have our descriptions, won’t they?” I asked.

  “Maybe not yours. Finn and I were in and out enough, though.”

  “Perhaps they won’t look too hard. After all, other than us leaving after the fight was called in, there’s nothing to see—no weapons or bodies.”

  “If they look closely, they’ll see blood; I dripped all over the place, and I bet you left some behind, too. Any forensic testing will inspire questions I’d rather not answer. Especially since we have another three weeks left in the area.

  “I’ll ask Rebecca if she has anyone in the police department that can encourage this to be forgotten, but we still need to ditch the vehicle. We don’t want to give anyone a reason to pull us over.”

  “Sounds reasonable,” I said.

  “What do you want to do with our prisoner?” Isaac asked.

  “We have a prisoner?” Finn asked. He adjusted the rear-view mirror to see into the back seat. “Should we stick him with stakes to see what kind of wood is most painful to a vampire?”

  “Torture, Finn? I think not. She’s human, so your idea probably wouldn’t work anyway. When we get to wherever we’re going, we can decide what to do with her. Beyond a non-torturous interrogation, of course.”

  “Let’s go to Rebecca’s,” Isaac said.

  “Doesn’t she live with Greg?” I asked.

  “They have separate homes. Better for everyone.”

  Isaac gave directions to Finn, and soon, we were out of Rapid City and driving on increasingly poorly maintained roads.

  “The vamps didn’t poof as much as I’d hoped,” I said, breaking the silence. “There was definite disintegration, though. I did get to light them on fire with my hands.”

  “Maybe they’ll think it was a weird theatrical flash mob?” Finn suggested. “Vampire wannabes with too much time on their hands and access to small explosives?”

  “That’s as good an explanation as any,” I said. “But I’m going to cross my fingers that the cameras were for show and weren’t actually recording anything.”

  “In a cheap place like that, that’s not actually a vain hope,” Isaac said.

  We turned into a long, narrow driveway and drove another half mile before reaching a large, sprawling, ranch-style house.

  “Nice digs,” I said.

  “It’s where the pack goes when they need a break from the Alpha. Most packs have a haven where members can claim sanctuary.”

  Finn pulled into the garage and the door closed behind us. I opened the door to assist my hostage out. She did not look happy.

  She aimed a kick at my knee, but the shields I was using to hold her made the attempt pretty pathetic. I tried to suppress a laugh—mercy towards your enemies and all that—but I was unsuccessful. />
  She glared at me and said something unintelligible. I loosed the bindings near her face so she could speak. “Bitch.”

  “That hurts. I give you the freedom of speech and that’s how you use it?”

  Finn came around the car, stopped, and stared. “Salem! What are you doing here?”

  “Ha! I knew you recognized her!”

  Finn didn’t respond.

  “That is obviously not your real name. Did you really name yourself after a cat?”

  Everyone looked at me. “What? No one watched Sabrina the Teenaged Witch?”

  More blank stares. “Never mind. I guess none of you were getting quality programming in the nineties.”

  Salem looked at Isaac and purred, “I know what you were doing in the nineties, Isaac. Does the Fairy bitch know?”

  Isaac glared at her and the power behind his gaze was palpable. “You’re at her mercy. Do you think now is the time for threats and name-calling? You never know what could happen to a prisoner of war; accidents happen all the time.”

  Salem snapped her mouth closed. I did my best to keep my eyes off Isaac and present a united front. I looked at Finn instead. He appeared as surprised as I’d ever seen him.

  The door opened and everyone but Isaac started. Since Salem was still bound, her surprised hop caused her to fall over. I laughed and this time, it was Finn who glared at me.

  “Let her go,” he said.

  “Do you mean unbind her? Or do you mean let her run free into the woods?”

  “Unbind her. We need to find out what’s going on, but you don’t need to keep her tied up.”

  “Yes, I do. She was supervising an attempted assassination and she tried to kick me. Oh, and she called me a bitch. Twice.”

  “I’m the only bitch here.” Rebecca walked into the garage. She was nearly six feet tall with dark brown skin and somehow managed to be simultaneously willowy and curvy at the same time. You looked at her and knew she was going to be fantastic at everything she did. If that wasn’t enough, her voice was magnificent. Rich, and low, and full of teasing promise. I managed to stop staring and realized I wasn’t the only one transfixed. Salem and Finn were both still staring, mouths agape. Isaac, however, was looking at me. Heat flared and any jealousy I’d been tempted to feel fled under the weight of his gaze.

  I turned back to Rebecca. “Hey, Rebecca. It’s nice to see you again. Thanks for letting us hide out here. Do you have a place we can stash my prisoner?”

  “Any friend of Isaac’s is a friend of mine. Thank you for lending him to me later this month.”

  “Return him in the same condition, and we’re cool.”

  Her smiled widened. “I can do that. Now come in, all of you.” She led us to a steel cage reinforced with silver for troublesome shifters, and we stowed Salem inside. Finn disappeared and left Isaac and me alone with Rebecca in the kitchen.

  It took two beers for Isaac to get through his run-down of the night’s events. Finn came back midway through the story, requested a bedroom, and disappeared.

  Rebecca showed Isaac and me to a room with an ensuite bathroom on the other side of the house and left.

  “Strip,” I ordered.

  “Again?”

  “I want to see how badly you’re hurt.”

  He obligingly removed his clothes. His wounds were already scabbed and healing.

  “Your turn,” he said, tugging at my shirt.

  “I don’t have anything but the neck bite.”

  “How can I be sure if you don’t take off your clothes?”

  I rolled my eyes but acquiesced. After assuring himself that my wound was healing quickly, he led me to the shower to wash off the blood and grime. My eyes were drooping shut by the time we were finished, and when Isaac tucked me into bed—alone—I could barely muster enough energy to protest.

  “Sleep, Princess. I’ll be back shortly. I want to have a chat with our prisoner.”

  I tried to rouse myself enough to insist on accompanying him, but the adrenaline was finally wearing off, and I fell asleep.

  Chapter Eighteen

  I WOKE UP alone, but the rumpled covers next to me proved that Isaac had slept a little. I sat up, stretched, and headed into the bathroom for my morning ablutions.

  I followed the smell of coffee and frying bacon to the kitchen. Rebecca was flipping pancakes and bacon was frying on the stove. Isaac was sitting at the counter sipping a cup of coffee. When he saw me, he got up and handed me an enormous glass of orange juice. I looked at it, then at his coffee.

  “You should’ve had this last night,” Isaac said. “OJ is good for blood donors.”

  I downed it quickly, grimacing as the juice washed over my freshly brushed teeth. When I emptied it, Isaac traded me for a large coffee. I breathed in the aroma and took a tentative sip.

  Rebecca handed me a giant plate of pancakes drowning in butter and syrup and a slightly smaller plate full of bacon. Isaac immediately snatched one of my bacon strips and shoved the whole thing in his mouth.

  “Hey! That bacon was clearly in my territory!” I threatened him with my fork. He met my eyes and grabbed a second piece. “I’m afraid you’ve left me to other choice. I’m going to have to take you behind the woodshed and teach you a lesson.”

  His eyes lit up, streaks of yellow dancing around the edges of his irises. “What kind of lesson would that be?” His voice was an octave lower than usual and tugged at my hormones.

  “That kind that will have you begging for mercy by the end.”

  “I don’t beg, Princess.”

  “I can remedy that,” I replied. I kissed him, tugging lightly at his lower lip with my teeth. One of his arms snaked around me and pulled me off my stool and against his body.

  “No sex in the kitchen! Eat your breakfast before it gets cold. Isaac, here is an entire plate of bacon for you.”

  Isaac grinned and let me go. I climbed back up onto my stool, grabbed two strips of bacon from his plate, and started in on my food.

  After I swallowed a mouthful of pancake, I asked, “What’s on tap for today? Has anyone seen Finn this morning?”

  “He’s down talking to Salem,” Isaac answered. He gestured towards the corner, and I saw a bank of security monitors. I hopped off the stool and went to catch a glimpse. Finn was standing in front of the cage, gesticulating. Salem was sitting on the floor shaking her head.

  “Did you talk to her last night?” I asked Isaac.

  “I did. I wanted to make sure she didn’t tell you any of my secrets before I had a chance to.”

  “Shouldn’t you be doing that right about now? Because I’d like to talk to her, too.”

  “She won’t talk about me. I promise, I’ll tell you soon.”

  I sighed. I was doing my best to be patient, but all the “soons” were getting a bit old. I almost wished I didn’t even know there was a secret. “Fine.”

  Rebecca pointed at Isaac. “You have found someone amazing. Don’t be a dick about this. Your secrets are not so terrible that she will walk away from you, but if you wait too long, that might be the breaking point.”

  “I know, but it’s not easy, and I don’t want to lose her.”

  “I’m right here.”

  Isaac walked over and kissed the top of my head. “I hope you always are.”

  I tilted my head up for his kiss, but before it could get too heated I pulled back.

  “Any news on what happened at the motel and with the police last night?”

  Rebecca smiled. “Everyone is puzzled. There is no evidence of a fight, even though dozens of witnesses saw it. They found blood in the parking lot and samples were taken to aid in the investigation. I’m assuming the blood belongs to the two of you?”

  We nodded, and she continued. “We have a couple of pack members on the force, but they are loyal to Greg. They will give me reports but won’t take my orders. If I ask for too much information, they’ll get suspicious. I’d rather avoid Greg’s notice until I issue the challenge.”

>   “Understood,” Isaac said. “Since the security cameras were dummies and all they have is non-human blood that will be dismissed as contaminated, I’m hoping they’ll let it go.”

  “Can I go talk to Salem now?” I asked.

  “Lead the way,” Isaac said.

  Finn was standing in the corner of the basement, looking more like a sullen teenager than a centuries-old half-elf. I tried to guard my thoughts so my less-than-charitable impression wouldn’t slip through, but from the look on his face, I wasn’t successful. I sighed and tried to push him out of my thoughts. Things were not going as planned, and although I needed to decide if our friendship was still salvageable, now was not the time.

  I redirected my focus to Salem. She’d moved as far away from Isaac as she could get. Isaac was leaning against a wall, looking like he’d come to make small talk.

  “Hey, Salem,” I said. Some sleep and recovering from blood loss made taking a prisoner seem like a much worse idea than it had the night before.

  “Bitch,” she sneered.

  I sighed and sank cross-legged in front of the door to her cage. “What do we know?” I asked the guys behind me. “I know you’ve both talked to her.”

  “I know her master is Raj Allred. He rules over the Portland vampire clan. Since we saw Salem representing the vampires at the first gate opening, we can deduce that this clan has been following us since we left, and based on the smell, I’d say it was Salem that we spotted in Yellowstone.”

  “She told you all that?” Finn asked.

  “She told me virtually nothing. I know her and her master, and the rest is simple deduction.”

  “How well did you know her before?” Finn asked.

  “Seriously, Finn?” I stood up and walked towards him. “One—she’s right there and is neither an object nor a possession. Two—get over it. Three—since you’ve been down here for a while, and I know you’ve met her before, what did you discuss?”

  “Nothing. She refused to talk to me at all.”