Realm Walker rw-1

by Kathleen Collins

  She walked over and placed one hand on the glass. The case was empty. “What was in here?”

  Michael looked over, distracted. She let the topic drop as he pulled a bookcase away from the wall and slid it to the side to reveal a hidden door. Blood coated the keypad beside it.

  “Guess that answers the question of where he went,” she said. Blood on the bookcase caught her eye now that she knew where to look. She’d glanced right past it the first time through. She moved to Michael’s side. “I didn’t know this was here.”

  “You weren’t supposed to. This is the one place your code won’t work.” He punched in his and pulled the door open to reveal stairs descending into darkness.

  “What’s down there?”

  “The part of himself Thomas doesn’t want you to see.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Someone pounding on the front door stopped them before they could step through into the darkness. Michael and Juliana frowned and stepped back into the foyer. He held a finger to her lips. As if she didn’t know the folly of revealing themselves before they knew who was there. She tilted her head trying to hear what was happening on the other side of the door.

  “This is the Agency. We are in possession of a kill order for one Thomas Kendrick. Open the door.”

  Michael’s eyebrows flew up to his hairline and a heavy weight settled in her stomach. This was what she’d been dreading. What she tried to avoid thinking about since she discovered the demon was in her mate. She doubted the Agency was aware Thomas was playing host. There was nothing to connect him to Nathaniel’s death though that was surely the work of the demon and it had been in Thomas at the time. What had the demon done to get the kill order issued?

  Her phone vibrated. She stepped away from the door before answering so the noise wouldn’t carry over the line. “Norris.”

  “Where are you?” A whisper, it was impossible to place the speaker.

  She glanced at the phone. “Jeremiah?”

  “No, it’s Anna.”

  “What’s wrong?” Anna hardly ever called her and the whispering worried her.

  “They’re going after your vampire.”

  Yeah, no crap.

  The background noise died away and her voice was at a more normal volume when she said, “They don’t want you to know. They’re afraid you’ll interfere.”

  “Who’s they?”

  “The Agency. Ben. I don’t know exactly.”

  She smiled. They certainly knew her well. “What happened?”

  She heard nothing but Anna breathing.

  “Tell me, Anna. I need to know.” She needed the information, but she didn’t want it. Didn’t want to know whatever horrific thing the demon had done in the guise of her mate. An image of Nathaniel pinned to the wall flashed through her brain. It couldn’t be any worse than that.

  Finally, she sighed. “He crucified someone in front of St. Gabriel’s on Fourth.” She said the words quickly as if that would lessen the blow. “He’s turned. I’m sorry.”

  Juliana ran a hand through her hair. Of all the horrible things she’d been imagining, crucifixion hadn’t even made the list. “I need to talk to Jeremiah.”

  “He’ll be furious if he knows I called. They’re looking for you.”

  “It’s important.” Silence answered her. “Please.”

  She sighed again. “This better be worth it.”

  The pounding continued on the front door, but she ignored it. Without a code, they weren’t getting in without a ward breaker. A couple of them probably. Thomas rarely used only one type of magic to protect his property.

  Noise blossomed in the background on the phone again. After a moment, Jeremiah got on. “Hello?”

  “It’s me,” she told him. “Do not yell at Anna. It’s good she called. There’s something you need to know.” She didn’t add that he should have been the one to call her. That he was her friend. That she was more important than a job he didn’t much like anyway. She wanted to say all of those things but she didn’t. They could argue about it later. Now she just needed him to listen.

  He said nothing for a beat and the noise dropped away again. “She told me she was calling the boys. I should have known.”

  “Listen to me. Thomas hasn’t turned.”

  He interrupted before she could explain further. “I know you have some misplaced—”

  “He’s demon-ridden,” she said over the top of him.

  “What?”

  “He’s the host.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Would I say it if I wasn’t?” she asked.

  “Maybe you’re just trying to buy him some time.”

  The insinuation stung. Not so much that she’d lie but that she’d lie to him. “Is that really what you think?”

  “No. But Ben will.” His voice had an edge to it. She wondered what conversations he’d had with their boss about her and Thomas.

  “I don’t give a crap if he believes me or not. You’ve got to try. If those agents are going up against him armed only for vamps, people are going to get killed.” They would anyway, but at least this way maybe a few more would live. And he was right. She was hoping this would give Thomas some time. That the agents would be too scared to face him. That they’d do their best to avoid him.

  “It may already be too late for that,” he said and hung up without explaining what he meant. She could only assume he referred to the agents on the doorstep. She put her phone away and looked for Michael. He was gone.

  The pounding ceased, but there were still voices on the other side of the door. She headed to the library, drawn back to that mysterious door and whatever it was Thomas didn’t want her to see. A light shone from the opening. She stood at the top of the stairs and looked into the basement. Her mouth went dry as moans drifted up from somewhere below. Moans from more than one person. She could see nothing past the stairs, as they were enclosed and veered off to the right at the bottom.

  She shifted her grip on her gun and kept her back to the wall as she edged down the stairs. She said a silent prayer that Michael wasn’t one of the moaners. Her heart pounded in her chest and blood rushed through her ears making it harder to hear. At the bottom she peered around the corner. She sucked in a deep breath. So much blood. So many bodies. No demon-ridden vampire.

  Michael stood in the middle of the floor, surrounded by carnage. She didn’t come any farther into the room. The bodies scattered about were vampires. Mostly. Several were still alive and she didn’t relish the idea of becoming a meal. Mixed in with the blood were bursts of ash and clumps of flesh. Dead vampires. It was impossible to tell how many.

  Her eyes swept the room. She forced herself to look past the devastation. Breath vacated her lungs as she realized where she was. “Is this a dungeon?”

  Michael turned to face her, his mouth tight. He nodded once.

  “Like a real dungeon?”

  He nodded again, his face pale, sweat beading his brow.

  Her mate had a real, working dungeon beneath his house. And from the looks of the victims scattered throughout the room, he knew how to use every instrument of torture in his possession. Somehow, this didn’t surprise her as much as it probably should.

  She took in the extent of the damage. One vampire lay strapped to a surgical table in the middle of the room. Her lip curled as she realized pieces of him were missing. Her eyes searched them out of their own accord. There. A finger. Below the table, another. An ear lay by itself against the wall.

  She pulled her gaze away, moved on to the next tableau. Two vampires hung from shackles along the wall. They appeared unhurt but they weren’t moving. Another one was on what she thought was a rack. There was also one in the iron maiden if the pool of blood below it was any indication. Three or four more lay in heaps on the floor, too bloody to immediately see what was wrong with them. And she wasn’t getting any closer to investigate.

  Michael looked worse for every second he spent in the room.

  “Are y
ou okay?”

  “Fine.” He closed his eyes, then hurried past her up the stairs. She took one last look over her shoulder before following him up. So much devastation and it all came back to her. One way or another that demon was focused on her and all those poor fools had just gotten caught in the middle.

  Michael slumped in a chair beside the fireplace, his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands. He looked up when she stepped into the room. “I called the Council. They’re sending a delegation to clean up.”

  “How are they going to get past the agents out front?” she asked. The Council had a lot of pull but there was no way the Agency would let them in while its own representatives stayed outside.

  He smiled. “The same way we are.”

  A blue glow lit the room as a portal opened beside her.

  Her surprise must have shown on her face because Michael laughed. “Did you think the Agency were the only ones to employ portal mages?”

  She’d never really given it much thought. Portal mages were prohibitively expensive for most people to hire, particularly on a permanent basis. That would be no obstacle for the vampires.

  The Agency wouldn’t be able to come in the same way. The wards protected the whole house and prohibited unauthorized entry by any means. The Council was apparently authorized. Of course, it was probably against Council edict to ban them from any coven property. The fact that she didn’t want the Council involved in this had nothing to do with anything but her personal prejudice. They had yet to do her any favors. And when they acted like they were, it usually came back around to screw her in some way.

  Several vampires came through the portal and, at Michael’s indication, they headed down the stairs to the dungeon. The last figure through was a tall, thin woman of Spanish descent. Her dark hair fell in waves down her back framing her heart-shaped face. The sharpness of her features was the only thing that kept her from being stunning.

  “Michael,” she said with a nod before turning her attention to Juliana. She arched one thin black brow. “You are what all the fuss is about?”

  Juliana frowned. “Excuse me?”

  “You are Juliana Norris, are you not?” The woman’s opinion of Juliana’s intelligence, or lack of it, was evident in her tone. Juliana knew that tone well. It was the same one that had answered call after call when Thomas left. It was the same voice that said Thomas was being well taken care of and Juliana didn’t need to bother checking on him anymore. And Juliana was suddenly sure that every word this woman said had been a lie.

  She crossed her arms over her chest and wished she was wearing heels so she didn’t have to look up to meet the vampire’s eyes. “Yes, I am her, but I fail to see what that has to do with anything.”

  “It was his fascination with you that began this mess. If not for you, he’d still be far away from here,” she spat. “And looking at you, I certainly don’t understand why. We have lost one of the greatest of our kind over a lover’s spat. Disgusting.”

  The shrew certainly didn’t wear her jealousy well. “I’m sorry but I was under the impression Thomas being demon-ridden started all this,” Juliana said.

  Her brow furrowed as she turned to Michael. “Our Thomas is demon-ridden?”

  Thomas wasn’t her anything but Juliana didn’t think it would be beneficial to point that out. “What? You thought he just went crazy and decided to chop up a few vamps and cap it all off by crucifying someone?”

  Michael shot her a look. She forgot that he hadn’t heard that last bit of information yet.

  The vampire pursed her lips and scowled at Juliana. “It is not unheard of for vampires of his age to turn.”

  Actually it wasn’t unheard of for vampires of any age to turn, but the Council didn’t like the general populace to know that. “And it’s normal for vampires to turn without showing any signs or indication of mental deterioration?”

  She looked down her nose at Juliana, but didn’t answer the question. Her attitude was becoming tiresome.

  “Who are you exactly?” Juliana asked.

  “I am Catalina,” she said, a purr in her voice. “I am sure our Thomas has mentioned me.”

  “Nope. Never heard of you.” It wasn’t even a lie.

  Michael choked on a laugh. It died completely when the vampire turned her glare on him.

  After a moment, she tore her eyes from him and looked at Juliana. “You will treat me with more respect, Walker.” Compulsion laced her voice. Vampire magic wouldn’t work on Juliana thanks to her union with Thomas, but let the woman try. It didn’t hurt Juliana any.

  “You are not vampire, Walker, but Thomas trusts you so I shall as well.” She paused. If she was looking for a thank you, she was talking to the wrong girl. Juliana didn’t care if the Council or anyone on it trusted her or not. She was only tolerating this particular member because she might be useful. Apparently realizing Juliana wasn’t going to say anything, the woman continued. “If you find him, can you save him?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m going to try.”

  She thought about this for minute then nodded. “I will put out word that I am looking for Thomas. If I find out where he is, I will alert you.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me yet, child. If our Thomas is lost to us, I will hold you responsible.” With that she headed into the basement. Super. Now Juliana’s life depended on Thomas’s survival. Not that it didn’t already in a way, but the Council would have no qualms bringing about her final death if she displeased them.

  Michael rocked back on his heels with his hands in his pockets. “What now?”

  She ran a hand through her hair and shrugged. “I guess we’re off to see a crucifixion.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The vampires provided the portal that Michael and Juliana used to travel to Fourth Street. People hovered about in a large crowd, barely room for air between them. She was surprised there were so many. Normally, the Agency kept their scenes quiet and if they couldn’t, they tried to dissipate the observers as quickly as possible. Their arrival went largely unnoticed as everyone stood gawking at the church across the street.

  She assumed it was the church anyway. She couldn’t see through the press of people in front of her but the steeple towered over them. There was no way she could get through the crowd without drawing attention to herself so she might as well use her position to her advantage. Making sure her badge was visible, she stepped forward and tapped the man directly in front of her on the shoulder. He turned, frowning down at her.

  “Excuse me.”

  He started to say something and then her badge caught his eye. He nodded his head once before stepping to the side. His large hand landed on the shoulder of the lady in front of him. Again and again, the motion repeated until they finally stepped clear of the crowd.

  Juliana put her hand over her mouth as she took in the scene before her. Oh, Thomas. What have you done? Even as she thought the words, she knew they weren’t fair. The demon did this, not Thomas. Not really.

  Usually when someone reported a crucifixion, they meant someone had been killed and strapped to a cross. Not this time. A vampire she didn’t recognize hung suspended on the life-sized cross. Metal spikes impaled both wrists and one ran through both feet. An extra nail ran straight through his heart and into the wood beneath. She wondered how long it had taken him to bleed out and die.

  “Eric,” Michael breathed from beside her, his eyes locked on the cross. She’d almost forgotten he was there.

  “Who?”

  His eyes shifted to her only briefly before finding their way back to the victim. “He’s a lackey. An errand boy Thomas put here years ago to keep an eye on you.”

  He’d done a good job because she couldn’t recall ever seeing him before. She’d talk to Thomas about siccing a stalker on her later. She ran her gaze over the body again. “How old is he?”

  Michael frowned. “Two hundred, give or take. Why?”

  “He’s still here.” Vampi
res converted to their real age when they died. When their blood drained away, it took the power of the blood magic with it. At two hundred, there should have been nothing but dust and bones left. That meant magic. Probably a stasis spell keeping the body on display and from deteriorating in death. She looked around the area, noting the location of the agents before sliding her glasses on. Relief coursed through her when her gift fired up without any difficulty. Sometimes it could be days before she got full usage back when she overtaxed herself. She took another look at the corpse.

  The black of the demon’s magic mixed with Thomas’s lavender in a spell that coated the victim. She crossed the street. Several agents noted her approach but none of them came near. She stopped at the foot of the cross, took a deep breath and ran her eyes up the length of him.

  It wasn’t as bad like this, with the wounds hidden beneath the sheen of the spell. Made it easy to ignore the very dead vampire beneath. She reached out a hand to touch the spell, sometimes contact helped her figure out the magic. Nothing.

  As she pulled her hand away, she watched the colors stretch from the vampire to her. The spell clung to her. She jerked backward and the magic followed, stuck to her skin. As soon as Eric was free of it, he exploded in a shower of dust like he should have done the moment he died.

  She barely noticed, her attention fixated on the spell that still coated her skin. She held her hand away from her body, staring at it with wide eyes. Her lungs ached reminding her to breathe. Panicked gasps provided much needed air, but did nothing to calm her down. The color began to fade from her vision. She hoped the magic was dissipating as opposed to being absorbed by her body.

  Someone cleared their throat beside her. She kept her eyes locked on her hand, waiting for the last of the signature to disappear.