They did. Turning, running to the edge of the building, launching themselves into space without a single panicked scream. Just because they were able to psychically roll the minds of humans didn’t mean that they were impervious similar magical coercion. I thought this method of clearing the decks for action was quite ironic in a sardonic kinda way.
Now, I just had to wait.
Twenty seconds passed. I had the sense that I was being watched by something invisible other than Grace and Dom. I rotated in place, scanning the connected rooftops. I looked alone, but…
A blob of mist condensed from nothing. A flat man shape appeared at its heart. The mist thinned away and Dracula stood there, regarding me with cold, dead eyes. He lifted an eyebrow. “I can’t have seen what I just saw,” he said. “A rooftop of vampires so afraid of you, they threw themselves off the building rather than face you.”
“What can I say,” I casually strolled closer, “smart bunch of guys.”
“It was nice of you to clear the roof for me, but unnecessary. I was going to materialize inside, strike from nothingness, and
leave before Rasputin could act.”
“Vlad, old buddy, it is because I hold you in such high esteem that I am going to tell you just how stupid your plan is.”
His dark eyes warmed with a crimson flame. “Be very careful what you say next. Your usefulness to me is over. I have little reason to tolerate your prattle.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. My prattle is all that’s saving you from two very serious mistakes. First of all, Dominika has already been snatched from Rasputin’s clutches. I have her, so going inside is a waste of time and energy. And if you had her, you’d only break her like a petulant child, ruining a perfectly good fuck toy.”
“You have her?”
“Yes.” I knew he could hear the steadiness of my heartbeat and would know I was speaking the truth. “If you hurt her, even if you don’t kill her, you will have made Rasputin an eternal enemy. Are you sure you can take him now after what we saw at the auction? And say that you can, what about a few more centuries from now after he’s had time and motivation to develop his mind even more?”
“My honor has been besmirched. How can I let that stand? If I show weakness, others will be emboldened to test me. I cannot relent.”
“Oh, I agree, you must prove your strength, but I think there’s a way to do it without turning Rasputin against you. Besides, there’s the best reason of all for you to show mercy. It can be done in such a way that you prove your strength, and make Rasputin into an alley.”
He pulled his jutting chin back, as if he needed more distance to see me clearly. He blinked. I had his full attention now. “What are you saying, Caine?”
“That a win-win situation is still possible for all of us if you won’t be too pig-headed for your own good.”
“Why do I let you talk to me this way? I should kill you for the affront to my dignity. Everyone cowers to the might that is Dracula, Prince of Darkness, hoping not to attract dragon’s attention. But you…”
I took off the coat and let it drop dramatically to the roof. I fanned the dragon wings sprouting from my back. “I am a real dragon,” I said. “I don’t play poser games—much. I have one more thing you need to hear.”
He eyed my wings. “Impressive. I had doubted that claim of yours, thinking that you were magically controlling your heartbeat to deceive me. Apparently, you’ve been speaking the absolute truth. Few people do that with me. While irritating, it also has a strange refreshing quality.” He drew in a huge breath and let it carry much of his rage away. “Very well, finish what you are saying. I will hear you.”
“If you kill the vampire princess, it will be her victory, not yours. She’s a little screwy, being under Rasputin’s thumb. She never wanted to be a vampire. That was Raspy’s idea. She’s just having a hard time adjusting. She’d actually kill herself but is very religious. Raspy has her convinced that vampires can go to heaven or hell. Suicide is automatic hell. You know what I’m talking about. You’re from that part of the world.”
“Ah, I see. So she wants me to kill her since she can’t kill herself.”
“Yeah, she needs someone strong enough not to be intimidated by Rasputin. Tell me, are you going to do something someone else pushed you into? Isn’t that an admission of weakness?”
“You make a valid point. Odd, from all the rumors and stories I’ve heard of you, you’re not supposed to be this insightful and intelligent. They say you’re a man-slut led around by your cock, that you kill first and reason later, mucking up events abysmally. You have everyone underestimating you with such a fool’s act. I applaud you.”
We were bonding. I didn’t feel like lying to him. That might cost me the momentum I’d made. “I’m just trying to develop a kinder, gentler me, on the way to conquering the known and unknown universe.” I took another step toward him, close enough to stab with my demon sword, if I needed to summon it. “You know, she was trying to use you. Wouldn’t the perfect revenge be to take her under your wing, make her your woman, and get all the use out of her hot, young ass you can? Surely you have what it takes to turn her surface aggression into passion. Show her a life a vampire can cherish, and she’ll be on your side. Rasputin will be grateful that you turned her from her self-destructive behavior, he’ll probably offer her to you as your bride. When the rest of the vampire community finds out you have such a strong alliance, even the true-blood royalty will be wary. Like I said, everybody can win.”
Drac looked thoughtful. “She will have to apologize—and mean it.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” I wheeled about and waved at empty air. Grace and Dom popped into view as if turning an unseen corner. Grace looked half fey with her antennae, dark red hair, and baby moth wings. Dom looked Goth to the bone despite the white blouse that half hid her black denim skirt. Her black hair fanned behind her like raven wings. Her smoky eyes were dark and mysterious. The sexy white leggings were a little school-girl in a provocative, naughty way.
They walked over to me, hesitancy visible in their deliberate approach. We stood forming a square. I pointed at Dom. “Apologize.”
She looked at me and shrugged. “Sorry.”
“Not me,” I pointed at Dracula, “him.”
“Oh, sure.” Dom lowered her head and stared demurely up at Dracula through her lashes. “I really am sorry. Please accept my apology.”
I’m not sure he heard her. Now that the blood was out of his eyes, he was looking at her with fresh appreciation. She stood there, hands behind her back, a pose that drew even more attention to her breasts. Watching those breasts, Vlad said, “Well, I suppose we all make mistakes. The point is to learn from them.”
She threw herself into his arms, giving him a robust hug.
Drac looked surprised, but not displeased. And when she moved to his side, taking his arm, he swelled with self-importance. “Caine, I owe you one.”
“Don’t worry. One day, I will collect.”
The air bent with distortions of light suggesting a disk. A shadow formed in the disk. Rasputin stepped out of the distortion, letting it close behind him. He pointed a bony finger at Dracula. “Unhand her at once!”
Dom moved in front of Vlad as if he needed protection. “Leave him alone. I mean it.”
Rasputin’s furious gaze fizzled out. “What?”
“We’re dating,” she explained, “so don’t wait up.” She turned to Dracula. “Where to first, Vlad?”
“I have a private jet,” he said. “Pick any place in the world.”
Rasputin said, “Nyet! My angel, you must stay with me so I can protect you. The world is a dangerous place.”
“The more you push,” I said, “the more you push her into his arms. What? Don’t you think the Prince of Darkness can protect her?”
I shot him a prompting look.
Vlad’s voice exploded with sincerity. “I will protect her with all my strength. You can trust my word. It has never been
broken.”
Rasputin gave him a long, measuring look. “Fine. I have never heard you were lacking in honor. My little angel is in your keeping.” For a moment, his eyes blazed with a savage red light that hazed his features. “I will expect regular reports on her wellbeing.”
Vlad bowed formally. “I will see what can be managed.”
Rasputin spun on me, the red light kicking up again in his eyes. “You shot me in the back.”
“I needed to get your attention. What’s the big deal? Everything worked out all right.”
Rasputin took a slow, menacing step my way, very theatrical.
Gasping, Grace lunged and grabbed me. The next moment, I was whisked into the ghost realm, leaving Rasputin to stare through me without comprehension as I vanished from his perspective.
TWENTY-EIGHT
“When searching dungeons, one needs disposable
friends to help find the hard-to-find traps.”
—Caine Deathwalker
It was time for a strategy session. So of course we invaded an all-night donut shop near the hotel. I staked out a window table. Grace went up to the displayed pastries and pored over the many trays, trying to limit her choices to a number of donuts her figure could live with. I called up Lysande and let her know Drac was heading out of town, and chances were good she’d escaped notice in recent events as a player. At this point, vampire vengeance because of her father’s machinations was unlikely.
“You’re sure?” she asked.
“Reasonably so.”
“Are you coming over?”
“Can’t. There’s another situation I need to handle, a little mass murder.”
“Oh, who are you killing?”
“Why does everybody think I’m the bad guy? I keep chaos from boiling over and consuming civilization, and that’s the thanks I get,” I ranted.
“It’s just that we know you.”
“Fair enough. How are the cactus demons working out?”
“Pretty well, except the hounds keep trying to pee on them. I’ll keep the guards around a few more days, then send them home.”
“I’d keep them on a small retainer though. You never know when you’re going to have to come up with cannon fodder on short notice.”
“Good idea. I miss you.”
“Missing is bad. Better use a sniper’s scope.” Damn. An endearment. She’s starting to get clingy. “Gotta go. Later.” I ended the call and turned my phone to vibrate. By then, Grace was heading back with a white bag and a cardboard carrier containing two lidded cups. She placed the bounty on the table and slid into the chair opposite me.
“Who’s that?” she asked.
“The lady I was with at the auction.
“She was pretty.”
“Yeah, that’s my type.”
“Gee, shallow much?”
“Hey, it’s an effective way to go through life. If I were the dependable, steadfast type, people would be importuning, me every chance they got.” I pitched my voice high like a girl’s. “Caine, can you kill my ex-boyfriend for me? Caine, will you take care of my Rottweiler while I run off to Vegas? Caine, can you change this light bulb.”
She pulled a cup out of the holder and slid it over. “Here.”
“Not going to argue with me?”
“No, there’s some validity to what you say.” She opened the white bag and looked in. “I got a maple bar, two plain cake, and a devil’s food. Whatcha want?”
“Everything.”
“I’m talking about the donuts. Ask your inner dragon. Maybe he has a preference.”
I felt a fluid stirring in the shadows of my mind. My inner dragon surfaced, touching thoughts with me. It’s about time someone bothered to ask. This is obviously a highly intelligent girl.
I picked up my drink and removed the lid. The steam off the white chocolate mocha was delightful. So, how long until you finish absorbing these wings?
I’m surprised you don’t want to keep them.
I’ve spent a lot of time and wealth on my wardrobe. It wouldn’t be convenient, I said.
Grace said, “Here.” She slid the devil’s food donut over to
me on a white paper napkin. “I think this is appropriate for a demon lord.”
I took a sip and set down the paper cup, glad we had the storefront all to ourselves for this discussion. “All right, that music conservatory seems to be the key to helping the ghost girl haunting me. There are weird things going on there. Onyx and Madison are going in with me tonight to do some snooping.”
“What about me?”
“I’ve got a more important job for you.”
“Good, ‘cause I can definitely handle myself. All I need is a chance.”
“Tomorrow is that special concert they’re putting on to raise money for the school. We know there’s a supernatural threat in that theater. It seems predatory so my guess is that it’s biding its time, waiting at the waterhole, so to speak.”
“I ran into something like that recently in another dimension. Enough ghosts get together, and they fuse into a mindless force that is all hunger. It can be awfully dangerous. A world almost died when the spirit force tried to eat the lifeforce of the planet.”
“You see, I’m not just fobbing off some lame job on you. I think you need to call in your mother and her Preternatural Response Team. Hundreds of lives are at stake.”
It gives me an opportunity to earn some points with the Feds, and takes one job off my plate that I’m not getting paid for.
Grace’s eyes were shining. She leaned over her drink, clutching it in both hands. “It means a lot that you would trust me with something so important. My mom still sees me as a kid who needs protecting.”
“I wouldn’t know about mothers. Never had one.”
She was silent a moment. It even seemed like she was getting misty eyed. “That explains a few things.”
* * *
It was 2:00 in the morning, the day of the impending concert. My wings were finally gone. We were back at the Branden Music Conservatory, parked at the edge of the music hall lot that was closest to the modern school building. A short walk down a path would get us there in a minute or less.
Onyx sat up front with me. He had on a black suit made of his own shadow substance, a garment copied from the cover of a GQ magazine he’d seen somewhere. His shirt, socks, and shoes were equally black, equally illusion.
Madison sat in the back of the Mustang. She wore infrared googles on a strap, the lenses perched on her forehead, ready to slide down over her eyes when needed. She wore a black nylon bodysuit, boots, and leather coat with a Celtic cross design on back. Her flaxen hair was in a ponytail, and she had a leather pouch hanging at her side with various pieces of slayer gear she thought she might need. Her eyes met mine in the rearview mirror. They were piercing blue, determined, the eyes of a warrior.
“So what’s the plan?” she asked.
“Onyx goes ahead to scout the way and keep us clear of guards and any dorm students wandering around where they ought not to be. He’ll go under locked doors and open them for us from the inside.” It would be faster than picking locks. “We go to the President’s office, and check out the secret room I discovered there. If we need to bail, Onyx will blackout the area around us, keeping anyone from getting a good look at us. We need to be able to come back here tomorrow if Grace needs backup, and not have the cops called on us.”
“What exactly is it you hope to find?” Madison asked.
“The answer to a mystery. A serial killer maybe. We’ll see.”
I opened my door and stepped out. The others followed. I locked up and activated the car’s security system. Onyx flattened to the ground, becoming two dimensional. He stretched ahead, a river of black swallowing the flagstone path. We walked across him, our steps raising no sound, all noises consumed as they were made.
There was no sign of anyone as we reached the lobby door. Madison stepped to the side and peered in through a window. She looked back at me and
said, “Clear.”
The darkness shot under the door, all of it, leaving us on a concrete apron. After a moment, one of the doors swung outward. Onyx was back in human form, holding the door open. Madison went in. I went in next, easing the door shut behind me. Every sense strained for some sign a guard was on our floor.
“I’ll take lead,” I said. “I don’t need to see to retrace my earlier path to the President’s office. Onyx, blackout the area around us as we move so the cameras show nothing, and nudge Madison along so she stays with me.”
“And don’t get fresh,” Madison added.
Onyx grinned and puffed out in billowy folds of pitch black that stole all light. Moving through the inky murk, one hand on a wall, I made my way toward the offices, counting steps. This kind of thing was automatic. While other children played on swings and slides, or built forts in the woods, I was being trained by the Old Man in various hell dimensions to survive and thrive through all kinds of adversity. Some of the trials nearly killed me. Some of them left me broken and bleeding. I hated it all. And yet I am the sum of all those experiences—stronger than my human side knew it could be.
It wasn’t long before I reached the office I wanted. My sense of touch told me that the door had been repaired and was locked.
“I got it,” Onyx’s voice was deep as eternity in this form, reminding me that the human was the illusion with him, not this current form. I reached out and pushed the door. It swung easily to my touch. I assumed his black, living substance had soaked into the keyhole and manipulated the mechanism. I went in and moved to the side, waiting. After a moment, the lights came on. I saw Madison inside the office with me, the door closed behind her, and Onyx back in GQ condition.
“You know,” I told him, “you have a hell of a career ahead of you as a cat burglar.”
He looked at me quizzically. “Is there much of a market for stolen cats?”
Demon Lord 4: White Jade Reaper Page 23