by Jasmine Walt
Marcus looked at me with question marks for eyes. I smiled wickedly.
JoAnn leaned in front of Dorius, placed the cell phone on the table and started giving directions. "Here, you see this little black button? You just push it right there, and-" She slapped his hand away as he reached for it. The phone spun in a circle. "Wait, I'm still-"
Dorius curled his lips back and jerked the phone off the table.
"I was just trying to turn it around so you can see the screen better. You don't have to be-"
Dorius narrowed his eyes and showed an awful lot of teeth.
"Well, just push the black button then," JoAnn said all huffy-like, pointing at the phone.
Marcus tilted his head in curiosity.
I smiled at Christopher.
Christopher took a long drag off the cigar, sat back and grinned, cool as a cucumber.
Dorius looked down at the phone in his hands and pushed the black button. Everyone in the room turned to look at Christopher as his voice wafted from the cell, mingling with mine, JoAnn's, and Angelina's.
Christopher blew smoke rings into the air, tapping the ash off the cigar.
Dorius sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes glued to the cell sitting on the table. The buildup of rage on his face told us he had a clear picture of exactly what happened in the restroom. Dorius threw back his head, his fangs fell from his mouth and he literally flew across the room.
Marcus leapt, catching him around the waist, and both of them crashed into a wall, and landing on the floor beside the old immortal trapped in the child's body. Every single council member flew over the table, pulling them apart before any of us could blink, proving they were not just alabaster adornments. The brothers, each held back by four immortals, glared at each other.
Christopher took a sip from the crystal glass, put it down, got up from his chair and strutted up to me. He grabbed my head, kissed both of my cheeks, and before I could slap him, he was back in his chair smiling at me. "Someday, and that day will come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But, uh, until that day, accept this justice as a gift on… your day of, uh, judgment."
"Jesus, that kid's crazier than hell," Mom said.
"He's not a kid, Nan," Jeni said, smiling at Christopher.
33
Marcus leaned over the table in a heated conversation with Dorius. The alabaster forum listened with animated interest, shooting us an occasional questioning glance.
I heard bits and pieces of the conversation. The word demon, closely followed by witch, came up several times, also something about testing our skills. I was going to have a serious talk with Marcus later about his choices of descriptive adjectives.
Marcus turned to us, his hands still firmly planted on the table in front of Dorius. "Ladies, we have a couple of questions about-"
"What about him?" Resi growled, pointing at Christopher.
Christopher snickered, patted Buster's head and sipped his drink, ice clinking in the silence.
Dorius glared at him and then addressed us. "I assure you, he will be dealt with, but first-"
"Just so you know," Zaire snapped, her eyes flickering with gray sparkles, "I'm not leavin' this frickin' room until I hear what he gets."
"And it better not be less than what we get," Resi added.
"Yeah, the little shit's the reason we got fangs," Mom sported off one of her shrewd Italian scowls.
I was thinking none of them mentioned the fact that the true culprit was vanity.
Marcus gave me a heart stopping grin. I kept forgetting he could read my thoughts. Damn, that sucked.
Jeni just had to lay it out there. "And I'm sure none of this had to do with younger, firmer bodies, did it ladies?"
Dorius opened his mouth before I could. "Ladies, we're dropping all charges… for any idiotic behavior you've all deemed suitable out of your dime-store literature. However, there will be consequences regarding the immortal wildlife on your property."
JoAnn wiggled in her chair.
"That wasn't me!" Mom blurted. "I killed every frigging deer I sucked."
"And the mortals you killed, Concetta?" Dorius asked.
Mom waved her arms around like an idiot. "Avere un chiodo fisso in testa! I was fixated, I tell you. The bags of blood didn't help, the animals didn't help. I got heart palpitations, shortness of breath, and I heard singing in my head unless I drank human blood, and the only way to stop from killing them was to hump like a frigging rabbit while I drank."
Everyone at the table acted like Mom's outburst was a confirmation of whatever the hell they were discussing. I couldn't believe it.
"The council has been researching your family tree, Concetta," Marcus told her. "It seems Paul was right. They've found some extraordinary facts about your heritage that should explain all of those symptoms. There's demon blood in your family. There's also a long line of female witches. If one of you has indeed turned an animal into an immortal, all of you may be Seraphs."
"We'll need to do blood testing to be sure," Dorius said with a spiteful grin. "And I want to put all of you through some physical tests as well."
I didn't like the sound of that. I wasn't going to be stuck here with a needle up my arm, while running on a treadmill.
"Wow! That's kind of neat." JoAnn perked up with a big grin.
I wanted to slap her.
All of a sudden my mother was Miss-Immortal-Sunshine. "The demon would be my father and everyone says I take after him."
I wanted to slap her, too.
Gibbie started giggling.
"Actually, Concetta," Marcus said, "it's your father and your husband's father who are half demon. Your mother carried the witch gene as did your husband's mother."
"Are you telling me my grandfathers could still be alive?" Jeni asked, concern written across her face. "Do half-demons die? Because everything I read on the Internet said demons don't die."
Didn't any of them get it? I pictured small cages, us locked inside.
Mom acted like she was sitting around a table with a bunch of her Italian relatives shooting anisette. "My husband was probably part demon too. He was a real asshole!"
"What part about us being lab rats did you not understand, Mom!" I yelled, and immediately smelled pheromones flying all over the place.
"That's not happening," Zaire growled, eyes shooting daggers at the immortals around the table. "I'm hittin' the road, and my mate's coming with me." She wrapped her arm protectively around Resi.
Resi spat, "We're not sitting around with needles in our arms, waiting for you to figure out what we are capable of!"
Dorius paced back and forth with a forced smile on his face. "We don't intend to turn you into lab rats. We only need a few vials of blood from each of you, and we will also do a few practice demonstrations in our gym… to bring out... Never mind, that's not the issue."
He paused and I wondered what he had up his sleeve. He looked smug.
Dorius put his hands in the pockets of his jeans and rocked back on his heels. "However, a bunch of immortal animals wandering around multiplying is the issue. They can destroy our anonymity, never mind the fact that they may be able to turn mortals and we need mortal balance to exist. Surely you can see the dilemma we find ourselves in. One of these animals will need to be captured alive for testing, the rest will need to be destroyed…" Dorius smiled at Christopher. "…and Christopher... you will also be held accountable for every one of them. That is, unless you prefer death. Those are your only two options."
Christopher sipped his drink quietly.
"What a frickin' nightmare!" Zaire just couldn't let it alone. "I'm not working with that little shit!"
"I wasn't made for killing anything!" JoAnn screamed, skipping along the yellow brick road of delusion. "The raccoon attacked me and I just defended myself. It's not my fault!"
Dorius' head jerked in JoAnn's direction "You? You're the one that did this?"
"Well, you don't have to look at me like that. None of the books said any
thing about animal vampires. How was I supposed to know?" JoAnn stammered, evidently tripping around the poppy fields at the moment.
Jeni started laughing. "Oh God…Oh God, I'm sorry, but just the thought of Aunt JoAnn screwing up the whole eco-system all by herself is just too damn funny." She covered her mouth with her hand.
"There's nothing funny about any of this!" Warren yelled. "How the hell are we ever going to stop it? Single-handedly, your Aunt has jeopardized our livelihood! God only knows what the rest of you women can screw up!" He glared at Zaire.
"Oh, bite me, you homophobe!" Zaire shouted.
"I don't eat dark meat," Warren belted out.
"Oh that's it? I'm the wrong color? Step outside, Bubba." Zaire stood.
Warren got up. "Let's take it to the gym right now. The hell with waiting for this practice shit!"
Marcus growled.
"Warren, tomorrow we go to the gym - and not before." Dorius warned.
"Everyone sit the hell down!" I leered at Dorius. "I'm not going to be some glorified Animal Control Officer. Do I look like Ranger Rick?"
"I'm gonna kick some redneck ass tomorrow!" Zaire snapped, her eyes on Warren.
Jeni was still giggling.
"Ahh, fare impazzire qualcuno—all of you!—crazy!" Mom spat.
Gibbie buzzed in front of Zaire. "I'm getting a front row seat."
JoAnn clicked her sparkly red shoes together, praying for a reprieve. "I think once we're tested, we'll find that some of us are better suited for death and destruction than others."
Jeni stared at JoAnn with mild amusement and then turned to Dorius. "I assume you have some kind of training program?"
Paul leaned back with a sigh.
Dorius had a smile plastered across his smart ass face. "As a matter of fact we do, and I'm in charge of all new recruits. I educate, field train, and decide team formation and placement."
Jeni's face turned red, holding back her laughter. "Everyone feeling pretty?"
Resi glared at her, flinging her hair off her shoulder, adjusting her shirt around her chest. "I don't do critter control, thank-you-very-much."
Marcus' laughter barreled in my head. I turned to him, one eyebrow raised in warning. He smiled at Jeni and they both started laughing. I was seething with anger.
"Junior over there should do the animal control! Alone!" I spat. "He's the root cause of this shit. Not us!"
"A pretty girl…is like a melody," Jeni sang.
Christopher grinned.
"Hey, piazzaiolo, you know what il cacio sui maccheroni, means?" Mom asked, giving Christopher a nasty smile. "It means just what the doctor ordered. I'm gonna be all over you."
Christopher turned his smile from Mom to Dorius, his voice deep and dry. "No, no, no, not this time, Consigliary. No more meetin's, no more discussions, and no vamp-deer-dung for me. You give them the job…uh, I want an all-out war. They go to the mattresses on this one." Tipping his glass, he finished off his drink.
Dorius let out a long arrogant sigh. "Like you said Christopher, it's just family business. And you've always wanted to be part of a team. Now you are. Their team, along with Paul, Gibbie, the troll, and anyone else I deem necessary after the training sessions."
We all exchanged looks. No one said a word.
Christopher nodded toward a bottle of anisette sitting in the middle of a bar at the end of the room. "Give me a drop," he ordered Dennis, who was placing blood bags on the long table in front of all the council members.
"Last meal before you hit the zoo?" Dennis asked, shaking a bag of blood and shot glass full anisette in front of Christopher.
Christopher grabbed the drink, gulped it down in one swallow and turned to Dorius. "What are you gonna do, uh? You want to gun me down, captain? Why? Because I slapped you in the face a little? What do you think, huh? This is like the army where you can shoot 'em from a mile away? No, you gotta get up like this…" Christopher popped off the chair and strutted over to JoAnn, grabbing her hair and pointing a finger to her temple. "…and, badda-bing, you blow their brains all over your nice leather suit."
JoAnn wiggled free, climbed the back of the chair and plastered herself against the wall.
Christopher ignored her. "C'mere," he said to Dorius. "You want a piece of me? You c'mere and take it. Nobody gives me orders anymore! Yes, I killed your mate. Quite efficiently, I might add. I fuckin' turned Susan, too. Because you wanted a kid. A kid doesn't think. A kid gets pissed. A kid does stupid shit. I played the stupid little surfer dude with big angry fangs because my daddy tossed me aside for his new mate. Fuck you Dorius. I'm not a kid. This is who I am!" He hammered his fist against his chest.
Dorius' fangs slipped from his gums. He took three quick steps and had Christopher against the wall, his lips on his ear. "You had to fuck with me, didn't you? I saved your ass. I took care of you, damn it."
All eyes were riveted on the two immortals.
Christopher turned his face and spit two large pieces of wet cotton in Dorius' face, sending the smell of anisette around the room.
Dorius slammed him against the wall and dug his fangs into Christopher's neck.
The council sat riveted to the table. Marcus didn't move.
Christopher hissed, "You treated me like a joke and I mentally got older - and a whole hell of a lot angrier. Then you found a mate, something I will never have, and you just had to rub it in my face. Insult after insult until finally I lost it. Hell, you can't blame a woman for wanting a normal sized man. I sure as hell wouldn't hook up with someone that looked like a six-year-old. But you gave me no outlet for my frustration. Actions create reactions, Dorius. You got what you deserved."
Damn, even I could see the kid's point.
Dorius pulled his teeth from Christopher's throat. He swiped his lips with the back of his hand.
No one in the room breathed.
Christopher looked up at him. "I fucked with you, man. So go ahead and kill me…." He grinned at Dorius. "…or let me be all that I can be."
34
Marcus opened the doors of the training room and my lungs sucked in way too much air when the noise of a loud boisterous party flooded into the hallway.
Gibbie flew up in a sparkle of fluttering wings. "You ready to show your stuff?"
My eyebrows slammed together. "I thought this was just a training session, Marcus!"
"Every frickin' vamp in a fifteen-hundred mile radius, and God knows what else, has showed up for this. You guys are big news," Gibbie giggled.
"I am not getting in front of all these people to fight anyone!" I yelled.
Marcus moved forward, pulling me with him. "Alright fairy, enough! Let's not get her all cranked up before she even gets out there." He put his hand at the small of my back and guided me in the direction of a long table against the far wall of the gym where the girls were pulling out chairs.
I followed him, a mass of disconnected muscle from nerves.
My mother was out in the middle of the large room, dressed in tight, black leather chaps over a pair of lime green tights. A purple halter top exposed most of her upper body and clashed mindlessly with the green leggings. She had a black studded collar around her neck with long silver daggers for earrings and black, ankle-strapped, three-inch heels on her feet. I wondered how in the hell she was going to fight in those babies.
I felt the strings of my sanity snapping as I sat down between Marcus and my grinning sister.
Christopher was sitting against the wall in a folding chair at our far left. He winked at me. I hooded my eyes and dropped my fangs with a snarl.
Gibbie strutted across the table and up to Resi, colorful wings falling behind his shoulders as he jumped on her arm.
Zaire placed herself on the opposite side of him with eyes shooting those daggers they were famous for. Jeni and Paul were at the far end, leaning toward each other, both with smiles on their faces. I made a mental note to find out what was going on with those two…
Dorius walked into the middle
of the gym to stand next to Mom. "Alright, everyone quiet down." Dorius shouted, the room becoming a whisper as he went on. "I assure you, none of you have witnessed anything like what Chick is about to demonstrate." The crowd hushed, giving him their full attention.
I looked around at the anticipation on everyone's faces. The spectators were lined up on benches, shoulder to shoulder on both sides of the long room. There was no freaking way I was getting out there.
Dorius shot me a glance. "We'll go through a short demonstration of Chick's gift, then some attack patterns with Susan, Resi, and Zaire. I've worked with our new immortals independently over the last few days and I have elected to put JoAnn and Jeni in charge of communications for this new team. They will not be in the field with the rest of the family."
My body began to vibrate. He hadn't done shit with me.
JoAnn wiggled her fingers at the crowd and then pointed at Jeni. Soft sounds of amusement filtered around the room when she sucked loudly on her bendy straw stuffed into a bag of blood.
Dorius pointed at a group of men against the wall. "Ladies, the immortals you see on the left side of the room are trained to take punishment and they heal fast. They work with new recruits on a regular basis, much like our mortal police department does with the training of attack dogs. They can withstand whatever you can dish out, so don't worry about being forceful. I'm interested in seeing what you can do."
"You mean we're fighting real immortals? What the hell?" I leered at Marcus.
"Shush, Susan. Just listen," Marcus smiled. I wanted to slap him.
Dorius bowed to a handsome Latin man, who returned the bow. "The immortal on the right, Jake Blu Lopez, is a Draco Americanus Lat, born of the Blu Lpozane Clan. Dragons, known for their ability to heal with lightning speed, are a valued part of our team. If the immortals are stabbed or bled, Jake will heal them quickly. He uses his saliva to…" I turned away from Dorius as he prattled on.
"Marcus, tell me my mother isn't going to try to kill one of those men? I thought this was about animals not humans."
Marcus chuckled, watching me with twinkling eyes. "Watch, Susan. Your mother is about to show you something extraordinary."