by Emjay Soren
“You won’t Boo. I guaren-fuckin-tee it!”
She nods and I can see her swagger coming back. She was a confidant strong woman and her moment of weakness had passed, and left her hoping to forget it. Preacher said London had come a long way, but she was still struggling with acceptance and letting herself show weakness.
“Get my mind off of this…tell me something… anything. “
Stupor looked stupefied, but I just blurted it out without thinking. “Preacher asked me to be a vampire.”
*
Preacher
We didn’t talk as we made our way into downtown Seattle. We were headed for a location that an informant of Cash’s told him about. I didn’t know if I believed the informant or not. What I did know was that if Angelo was here, then it all ended tonight.
“So, plan?” Bastian asked.
“Kill.” Said Cash.
“Kill him once and for all.” I said.
Bastian seemed on edge as we made our way through the back of the enormous house sitting at the top of Capitol Hill. I could sense the immortals, both inside and out. My fangs were throbbing with devious intent, desperate for the flesh of the kill. It was this overpowering need of the vampire inside that Tavern didn’t understand.
We are all killers the only difference is who we kill. I and my crew stay away from innocents. We aid the innocents and the humans. We defend them.
Nex kill anything they desire without remorse and with a passion that is terrifying. That’s the difference she doesn’t understand. Before I could ponder more, any questions I had about whether or not we would face Angelo Caprecci tonight went out the window.
Angelo shifted into sight milliseconds before I felt the stake drive into my chest.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Preacher
“Son-of-a-bitch!” I roared and pulled the stake free of my chest. The fucker was close to the heart, but had just missed it. “You wanna play dirty, I’ll fuckin’ kill ya here and now.”
Angelo laughed dark in his throat, his eyes blood red swirling through the whites and hungry for the fight. “Now, now Mac, I don’t know if Jesus would approve.”
I laugh darkly and feel the energy around us shift, as Bastian phased into his wolf and roared into the rainy night. “Jesus would definitely approve, and if he don’t, well I won’t be meetin’ him tonight to find out.” I walk closer until I am just a step from his face. “You’ll be meetin’ him though.”
Cash laughs and spins when one of the many goons we will kill tonight steps up to be the first in line. Cash moved in quick fluid motions, and like a whisper in the night, the Nex turned to ash as his head was removed from his body.
“One down, buddy.” Cash says with a sinister smile and winks at Angelo.
“You got your dirty shot in, but now I see you and I’m ready.”
“What? No discussion in length about the ins and outs of being on the path of Christ? Well, color me stunned I wasn’t expecting this.”
“All I want from you is my wife’s skull before I make you mud just like your buddy.” He said nothing and swung at me, all his men charging us like the old Roman wars. Bastian let his wolf enjoy the Nex as a snack, ripping them apart with his razor like teeth, and spitting out dust as he killed them one by one.
Cash had knives in hand as he swiped one after the other with ruthless digs of his blade. I had my cross, but used my fists too, like any good Irish boy would. I know how to fight, and I know how to win. Blow after blow I fight Angelo, feeling every cut and dig his knives make. I fight through the pain knowing all wounds, but the death blow, will heal.
“You had the ability to be at my side, but you let your guilty conscience ruin your life.” Angelo spat just before I connected my fist to his jaw.
“It wasn’t about guilt and right or wrong. I bleedin’ hated you. You bullied people and fed off their fear.” I got my fist around his throat and my leg cocked behind his feet. He was in my grasp and unable to move. “I am not afraid of you, Angelo. You made me what I am today. This angry and cruel man before you lacks mercy. It will be no different with you. I will kill you with a smile.”
“You kill me, Mac and you will never get her skull back. Let me go and you can have it, covered in my scent from years of skull fucking it.”
I swear to the Almighty at his words, the last bit of humanity inside of me faded like the sunset. I felt my fingers break through flesh and listened for the sadistic pop that came from ligaments breaking. I felt his blood, smelled it on my fingers as I tore through his throat. It wouldn’t kill him, but it was hurting like a bitch. I had him to myself as my boys chewed and ripped his men to pieces leaving them to dust.
Before I could give the killing blow, the hissing sound of wings came from behind me. Keeping my grip tight I looked over my shoulder just as Bastian gave a mighty roar and growled toward the new threat.
The Cado.
*
Tavern
“He asked you to be a vamp?” London squealed with a giant smile and I heard Stupor mumble under his breath. “Lord here we go now, Preacher lost his damn mind.”
“Why?” I ask Stupor, a little perplexed by his attitude. He had been Preacher’s biggest fan when we were fighting our feelings for each other.
He shook his head and stood, his six foot three inch frame a loving but large presence in the room. He was such a devastatingly sexy man. It was a shame to women the world over, that this man’s bat swung for the same team. His chest and arms were tattooed, his head shaved and every single muscle defined shear yumminess.
It was a contradiction when he would wear his jeans low enough to see that defined ‘V’ lurking just below the waistband, and his shirts, tight enough to see every muscle. It was the boa’s, the women’s jewelry and the name brand purses that threw you.
“Ain’t no way, no way in hell, that man is gonna be able to handle turning you, Boo. He ain’t got the patience or the faith to watch your ass die.”
Stupor had literally just walked right through all the bullshit and found the root of the issue. “Why would he ask me if he didn’t think he could do it?” I noticed the tone in my voice and knew I sounded harsh.
“Because he loves you.” London said with a gentle, sincere smile.
“Love doesn’t mean that boy can stomach the organic effect of turning you into a vampire. It ain’t pretty Boo, and it sure the fuck ain’t a guarantee that he’ll see you on the other side. ‘Bout a million things can go wrong, and then he’s left with the reality that the second woman he has loved in his very long, very depressing life, died as well.” He shakes his head, hands on his hips, he looks at the ceiling. “Girl, he would walk that fine ass right on into some sunlight and end it all.”
The thought of him dying makes my stomach knot up. “I wouldn’t die, Stupor.”
He laughed. “Baby girl, you think you have a choice in the matter?”
“I know I do.” I bit my lip, but figured the cat was soooo out of the bag after the blow up earlier in the kitchen. “I’m unable to die. I’m bound to both Bastian and Leushus.”
“Bound?” London asked.
“Oh hell no, Boo! For real?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I know. It’s why Preacher was so mad earlier when he stormed out of the mansion.”
“So Preacher decided that making you a vampire was how he would bind himself to you?” It was a question, but he knew the answer and so did I.
“So his making you a vampire will bind you to him?” London seemed almost desperate for this information.
“Yeah. I thought you were the ‘know all be all’ of vamps, why are you so shocked?”
She shrugged, but that fake smile is back on her face and that tells me something we said has upset her. “I was just curious. I didn’t know vampires could bind themselves to another vampire.”
Stupor nods nonchalantly. “We can bind by Sireing. Preacher and I are both bound to Cash.”
That was it. That right there was why she was u
pset. She was cherished to Leushus, she wasn’t bound to Cash. That was why she feared she would lose him. Maybe she thought marriage was what would bind them, never thinking that it was turning her that would complete the bond.
London was in a serious ego shift. She was losing her confidence and spirit more every day and it was making it hard not to scream at Cash. Preacher said he always learned things the hard way, but this time he might lose her.
“He would turn you if you weren’t cherished, London.” I tried reassuring her but she brushed me off with a scoff.
“And never be tan again…? I don’t think so.”
Bullshit.
I smiled and said nothing more on the subject. Cain and Able, who I had forgotten about, came walking into the room. “Can we watch a movie or something?” Cain asked plopping down on the bed next to London and eyeing her like a prize. “I am bored as fuck.”
I showed them where I kept my movies and how to work the state of the art system that took me a month to learn. Able had it down within minutes making me feel stupid. I was trying to process Preacher’s proposal for a blood promise and what Stupor said about how hard it would be for him. London could die, so perhaps I could as well. If I was susceptible to death, then the proposal for turning me now scared me even more.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Preacher
I could smell the sulfur of their wings behind me before I saw them arrive. All three of them. “Preacher, really?” Darcallion said with fake amusement. He doesn’t like that I hold the upper hand here. I knew that it wouldn’t be this easy, now I just needed to know what it was they had planned.
“In the flesh, you stupid fucks.”
Bastian was growling from behind them and Cash had made his way to my side. His unyielding friendship had warmed me throughout the years. Now I wished he would leave and go back to Cookie. I couldn’t bear his death on my hands knowing how deeply he loves Cookie.
“Call your dog back or I’ll do it, and he’ll never yap again as I will have pulled his jaw from him.” Darcallion spoke calmly, but I wasn’t fool enough to think he wasn’t serious.
“Pull back boys. Seems the Cado want all the attention to themselves.”
Viccini laughs, his throaty dark tone sending chills along my spine. “No, we want you to ourselves.”
“Well like my Dominus told you, I am not up for auction.”
“Even if we bargain?” Darcallion countered with a sneer.
I laugh in his fucking face. “Even then.”
His wings twitch and hiss like a swarm of beetles, every movement sending chills down my spine. “Leucetta, show Father Mac what we have for him.”
Everything inside of me stilled as I waited on pins and needles. Leucetta stepped forward his hand behind his back and I watched anxiously while he made his way to me. “Preacher don’t you listen to them, and don’t you look at what he has in his hands.” Cash demanded, using a tone that Sires use when they need to corral an angry vampire. Whatever was in Leucetta’s hand had Cash very nervous. Bastian was pacing and whining, looking at me. I got the message as he shook his head over and over again. It also fueled my nervous energy because an enormous and terrifying wolf was nervous as well.
“I’m guessing I need to see what’s in his hand, but I can’t deny you’re making me nervous. I tend to forget my own strength when I’m nervous.” To prove my point I tightened my grip on the Cado’s bitch, Angelo and smiled when it made Darcallion pause Leucetta.
“Stop.” He spoke to Leucetta who had been making his way toward me.
Leucetta did as Darcallion commanded, but it didn’t make me lose my grip. Angelo was in pain, I could smell it, but if we didn’t get this little show on the road he would heal before I could finish him off. An injury like this would put him into bloodlust, and at Angelo’s age I wasn’t so dumb enough to think I would beat him if he was in a hunger rage.
“Whatever the bargain is, I decline. Last time we bargained with you, I was the cost an innocent’s life.”
The three of them laughed, and the sound made you want to fall to your knees in fear. “Innocent you say?”
“Innocent.” I nodded. I won’t have them tearing my Bird down in an attempt to gain control over me. “She was as innocent as they get before that little fuck Freebold took her and made her what she is.”
“His love for her has grown since we saw him last.” Viccini was standing on the opposite side of Darcallion with Leucetta in the center. This raised my hackles higher. They were…protecting him. “Do you love her enough to do anything to keep her happy?”
I wasn’t dumb enough to lie to the Cado. “I do.” I spoke, certain of myself and Bastian started whining louder with growls mixed in as he bounced on his hind feet anxious for a fight, desperate to keep me safe. “I won’t let her be a pawn. I fell for that long ago and it cost me everything. I learned my lesson, one I’ll never forget.”
Darcallion lifted two fingers to his mouth and let out an ear piercing whistle that made Bastian howl into the night. It was seconds maybe, before I caught the scent of a human woman, not my Bird or Cookie. The girl was dressed in sloppy shredded clothing, both eyes were black and her lips were split with dried blood on them. Her black hair was a matted mess and she had been drained within an inch of her life.
“Would you mind if we feed Angelo?” Leucetta asks with hoarse laughter making my skin crawl.
“Bleedin’ hell, yes I fuckin’ mind.”
He only laughed harder. “Catch!” he yelled and tossed a white broken ball toward me. My natural instincts took over and I let go of Angelo who used my distraction to crawl from my reach. I caught the ball just as Bastian roared. Snarling he charged Darcallion as Cash is screaming to “Drop it now!”
I didn’t. I looked down to the ball of white in my hands. It wasn’t a ball at all. It was the skull of my beloved. I was distracted by the rush of anger at seeing the skull, and the relief at finally putting her to rest. I didn’t see what happened, but I drew my attention to Angelo behind me going for the girl who was barely alive. Her heartbeat was faint and I knew I had cost another innocent for one I loved.
*
Preacher
Cash was charging the three of them with murderous intent. “Whatever is Cacious Troy going to do to us?”
“I’ll fucking take your heads, I don’t fucking care!” He said with a shrug.
Darcallion looked to me, a knowing glint in his eye. “And cost your precious Leushus another seven feathers?”
“What? Yeah sure, whatever, you riddle talking dooms day preaching freaks. Shut the fuck up already.” Darcallion looked to Cash for an instant before his eyes were back on me. “Is it truly what you wish for your Dominus?”
“Cash don’t. Let them go.” I say calmly, each word like a blade to my tongue. I want them dead, want their blood on my hands. “Let them go and take your chance another time.” I wasn’t about to risk Leushus, knowing what I knew, knowing only Bastian and I knew. Cash looked at me like I had grown three heads.
“What?!!” He yelled incredulously.
“Go!” I roared to them no longer interested in why they even bothered coming here in the first place.
Darcallion smiled looking at Cash and shrugged his shoulder. “Don’t worry Cacious, you will get your chance again. We are far too interested in London and what she is” He said and then the three of them shifted from sight.
“Preacher, what the fuck?!” Cash yelled. “You let them go? And now they want my Princess!”
“He can’t tell you Cash, but believe me, he just saved Leushus a world of hell.” Bastian said as he walked toward us having just shifted back into his form. The guy was naked a lot these days, shifting so much more than normal…around my Bird.
Before I could explain to Cash that this was over his head I heard the slurping sounds of a feeding and the faint heartbeat from behind me. Cash and I both made our way toward the young girl who wasn’t going to make it. “Seal her!” I snapped and
pulled the girl from Angelo’s grasp.
His obvious distress of losing the vein in a frenzy, had him ready to fight. His strength was back enough to fight. I wasn’t giving him the option though. I kicked him in the face and watched him fall back, moving slowly, but moving none the less. I turned for a second and reached for Cash’s silver knives. I made my way to Angelo, a knife in both hands. “I am done with this fight. I am done with the threats and the foulness that is you.” I slammed a knife of pure silver into the meaty flesh between his neck and shoulder.
He yelled out in agony that I knew first hand. I had been hit with silver before and it was painful. “You think that killing me will end it, Mac? I have connections even beyond my true death. Even when I’m gone I can make you disappear!” He hissed as I slammed another knife into the opposite side.
I just laughed as he screamed in agony. “I do too. It’s called the sun. You send your men for me, you get them killed.”
“You don’t have the power or the stamina to fight me, Mac.”
“You don’t want to test me Angelo.” I slam my cross through his throat just above the crease in his collarbone. He can still talk but he is hurting and knows he can’t fight me. It’s a glorious feeling.
“Do you know where your dog is?” He kind of wheezes and I know it’s because of the hole in his throat.
Cash curses and goes looking for Bastian with the girl in his arms. “I don’t know if there is enough blood between you to save them both.” Not understanding what he meant I felt the dread as Cash’s roar was loud and full of heartache from a distance.
Angelo laughed and I can’t take it. The evil has gotten to me, the evil, the fighting, the pain of loss, it all came to a head with every slam of my fist. With every hit I saw my Emme and her perfect eyes. Every hit was my daughters laugh and my son’s calm voice. Every hit was every tear, every cry my Bird made while fighting for me to love her back. I hit him until my knuckles were bleeding and broken, until I needed blood to recover.