Sunset Strip: from the Tome of Bill Series

by Rick Gualtieri

  “What did you...”

  “I didn’t have a choice. She would have drowned otherwise.”

  She turned to face me and for a moment, an angry red glow appeared in her eyes. I couldn’t blame her. Since becoming involved with vampires, she’d lost a lot: her master and entire coven. Hell, she’d nearly lost her boyfriend not long ago, too. It seemed all we brought her was bad luck. Thus, I didn’t take any offense when she said, “Tell me what happened and pray that I believe you.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  I relayed everything that occurred: from finding Kara, to Mark nearly gutting me, to our escape from the rock monsters. It was perhaps the longest I’d spoken in years without feeling the need to elaborate upon the facts.

  When I was finished, Steve again surprised me by backing up parts of my tale, telling of how Mark had sent him and the others on a wild goose chase meant to draw the creatures away.

  “Did you realize he was using you as bait?” I asked.

  “In my line of work, it pays to not be stupid.”

  “So what did you do?”

  “What do you think? We made a bit of a racket to make it sound good, then I led my group right back toward the entrance as fast as we could.”

  “That was risky, from more than one point of view.”

  “Including one that they hadn’t been expecting,” Christy added.

  Turns out she’d been holding a little magic in reserve, just as I’d guessed. Even so, she explained, it’d been close. The rushing water had disoriented her as well as acted like a sort of natural buffer against her magic - something I made a mental note of for future reference. She’d nearly drowned before she got lucky and the spell held.

  Somehow, she used the residual magic from the glamour that aided our escape as a sort of homing beacon. Doing so, she was able to send herself back to the tunnel entrance - not the safest place in the world to pick, but better than ending up in Davy Jones’s sewage-filled locker.

  Her timing had apparently been impeccable.

  I could only imagine Steve and his group’s surprise when she appeared from out of nowhere - dropping to the floor gasping for air, but still with some fight left in her.

  Sadly for them...depending on your point of view, of course...the man who’d been closest to her when she appeared also turned out to be the one with a talent for slugging pregnant women in the gut. He and the two people nearest, a human and a vampire, had gotten flash fried before they knew what hit them.

  “That really was everything I had. I just didn’t let Steve here know it.”

  “Was a good bluff,” he replied, admiration in his voice.

  “What did you do?” I asked him.

  “Hedged my bets and surrendered. With Marlene dead, I didn’t have a quarrel with the witch.”

  “What about Mark?”

  “To tell the truth, I wasn’t too fond of him fucking me over.”

  I smiled. As I’d said, a survivor can always tell another. “What if he’d won?”

  “I’d have thought of something,” he replied with a similar smile.

  “How’d you both find me?”

  “When I was holding onto you back in the sewers, I might have plucked a few hairs from your head,” Christy admitted. “That makes scrying so much easier.” I raised an eyebrow. “In my line of work it also pays to not be stupid,” she explained.

  I let out a weak laugh. What a team we made. “So what now?”

  “Even if I didn’t believe you, I’m too tired to do much about it.”

  “You still could. I don’t have a lot of fight left in me.”

  “Then it’s a good thing I do believe you.” She reached over and grasped my shoulder. “You could have let Mark kill her. Hell, you could have just left her there. I’m not happy about what you had to do, but I can understand it. Under those circumstances, I’d have done the same thing. Thank you, Sally.”

  Amazingly enough, nothing particularly pithy came to mind. So I simply replied, “You’re welcome.” I really needed to get my head examined after this one.

  “When is she going to...”

  “A couple of hours.”

  “I can’t take her back like this.”

  “I know.”

  The threat finally over, Christy’s presence seemed to deflate. One moment I wasn’t sure if she was going to blast me, and the next she was just a tired expectant mother, barely able to hold herself upright.

  She sighed and rubbed her face with her hands. She might have been crying, but I couldn’t tell with the rain. “It’s too late to stop, isn’t it?”

  I nodded. “She’s too far into the change.”

  “What am I going to tell Tom and his parents?”

  “Tell them the truth. That she’s okay.”

  “But...”

  “She will be. I promise you that,” I replied, almost shocked to hear the sincerity in my voice. “I have some experience in these things. I’ll keep an eye on her, teach her to control herself. Once she’s ready, then maybe we can have a happy reunion.”

  “You’d do that?”

  “Village Coven has the openings, and I could use a protégé.”

  “Pardon my interruption, ma’am,” Steve said, surprising me with his use of the phrase, “but don’t you mean Pandora Coven?”

  “Why would I?”

  “You defeated our coven master...twice, actually...in fair combat. The leadership is rightfully yours.”

  “But I’m not a member.”

  “Doesn’t matter. There aren’t many others left, and those that are I wouldn’t trust to lead us out of a paper bag.”

  “What about you?”

  He chuckled. “I’m more of a behind-the-scenes type of guy. I don’t like the spotlight...too hazardous.”

  I stretched, feeling some strength return to my body. The rain was cold, but it felt good against my skin after so much time in the muck. More lightning flashed in the sky, but I wasn’t bothered by it. After what I’d been through, it wasn’t all that frightening anymore.

  I laughed, prepared to tell Steve that regardless of how rudderless his ship was, it still wasn’t my problem. The whole world was on the brink, and the only one who stood a chance of stopping it was a frumpy dork who was currently missing. It didn’t matter if the threat that the Jahabich represented was something that needed to be...

  Wait. Jahabich? That’s what the monsters below were called.

  How the fuck did I know that?

  “Sally, are you all right?” Christy asked. “You look funny.”

  “I’m fine,” I replied distractedly. “It’s just that I can’t...”

  I trailed off as the situation unfolded before my eyes. This town was on the verge of collapse. Marlene had done nothing to stem the tide. All she’d been concerned with was sticking her head in the sand and making sure her precious club opened on time. Thanks to her inaction, the creatures had gotten their current foothold.

  I thought of all the girls the club employed, the empty shelter we’d found underground, the countless others who were helpless in the face of everyday life in this city - much less the growing darkness beneath it. I was once one of them. Fate had failed me, but now I had a chance to repay it and make good.

  I couldn’t leave.

  “Sally?” Steve and Christy exchanged glances in the downpour, but I paid them no mind.

  You won’t remember this part until you need to.

  My eyes momentarily lost focus as the force of the memory...of the compulsion...came pouring into my consciousness.

  Goddamnit...James!

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  “There, that should do it. You’ll be able to resist Marlene’s orders for a time. Be warned, though - a remote compulsion over the phone isn’t as strong. I’d suggest you make haste.”

  “Thank you...”

  “Don’t thank me. I’m most likely sending you to your death, regardless.” Something about the tone of his voice, though, told me he didn’t believe that. It was tha
t wry humor of his, almost undetectable at times, but we’d done this dance before.

  “You wouldn’t be doing this if you thought I was walking into my death.”

  “Wouldn’t I?”

  “No.”

  “Well then, let’s just say I have faith in your skills. You are a survivor, my dear. I’ve known that about you since the day we met.”

  “So you’re condoning revenge.”

  “Not in the least.”

  “Then why?”

  He sighed and the base of my skull tingled a moment before I heard his voice.

  “YOU WON’T REMEMBER THIS PART UNTIL YOU NEED TO!! BUT WHEN YOU DO, KNOW THAT I DO THIS BECAUSE I BELIEVE IN YOU!!”

  My eyes lost focus on the room around me. I couldn’t have put down the phone, spoken, or done much of anything had I tried. I’d nearly forgotten just how powerful he was.

  “Marlene is a liability,” James explained. “She refuses to acknowledge the threat to her city, and at the same time is fiercely resistant to any and all who try to stake a claim of authority within her realm. I do not wish her removal, but it has become a necessity. She must be replaced, but it must be done delicately. It can’t be someone with the power to simply waltz in and destroy her. That would anger the neighboring covens and force the prefect of the West Coast to investigate. At the same time, it must be done by someone with the competence to hold the line.”

  He went on, telling me of the Jahabich, an ancient threat that had been driven below the earth ages ago. They were neither aligned with us nor our enemies, the Feet. They were beings of pure chaos - destroying for nothing more than their own amusement. Though Las Vegas was not strategically important in our war, if allowed to gain a foothold, these creatures would spread like a cancer from city to city...our domains, thus undermining us at a time when we needed it least.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  The memory slammed into me, tearing through the door in which it had been locked. I had left New York thinking it was possible this was a one-way trip.

  Now it seemed that it had been pre-ordained from the very start.

  Was that all I was to him, just another puppet to be used? Another pawn in this war? I opened my mouth to scream out my frustration. Was there nobody in the world who wasn’t trying to use me for their own purpose?

  The cry wouldn’t come, though. My thoughts scattered again...the memories weren’t quite finished.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  James continued, telling me of the need for someone to take over and fight back. The City of Sin had a backbone of the supernatural. There were resources that could be marshaled against the threat, but diluted - leaderless - they would fall.

  “Know that I serve the greater good and am willing to do things, dark things, to preserve it,” he said. “I know under normal circumstances you would never even consider accepting this great responsibility. Dr. Death’s return weighs heavily on you. Despite whatever you might say to the contrary, I am well aware of it. But the truth is, we simply don’t know when or if he will be back.”

  I waited silently for it...for the compulsion to come that would steal my choice away from me and make me just another cog in the wheels of fate.

  But it never came.

  “Even knowing that, though, I cannot bring myself to do it. You’ve been a friend, Sally, a confidant. I see some of myself in you...and not in the way Dr. Death might mention.”

  Despite the initial compulsion, a smirk rose to my face. Yeah, if Bill ever knew of our past, he’d never shut the fuck up about it.

  “Despite everything, every dark decision you’ve ever made or will make going forward, I believe you are stepping toward the light again. I told you once that the day might come when you’d be reminded of your humanity. I sense that time has come to pass. The old you has woken from her slumber and joined hands with the new. I won’t compel you, but I’m hiding this memory for now because I think it might taint your decision...raise your defense mechanisms, so to speak.”

  James was many things to me: friend, former lover, mentor...and with his next words, I realized a father figure, too - one I’d been sorely lacking my entire life.

  “The choice is yours to make, but I believe you will make the right one.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  I’d been manipulated by so many people in my life: Colin, Marlene, Jeff, Mark. The list went on and on, but it seemed that perhaps it was finally over.

  I looked Christy in the eye and smiled to let her know it was all right, I was all right. There was a lot of work to be done, but despite everything, I felt up to the challenge.

  It was time to finally take ownership of my life.

  Epilogue

  I cupped my hand over the receiver. “Quit whining, Kara, and get back to work.” She stuck her tongue out at me - real mature - and stormed out.

  “I take it your newest recruit is a little rough around the edges.”

  “You heard that, James?”

  “I wasn’t trying to, of course.”

  “Sure you weren’t. My God, what a little bitch she can be. Still, she is showing promise. Only a month in and she’s proven herself capable. Once you dig past the self-absorbed seventeen-year-old exterior, there’s actually a functional brain there. She’s proven to have a knack for sniffing out particularly adept recruits.”

  “No doubt handy during these dark times.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, she still has a long way to go.” Her only partially mature hormones, combined with the hunger, were proving difficult for her to overcome. She’d had a few episodes...ones that I’d neglected to fill Christy in on during her daily phone calls to check on us.

  “Of course. But good things with time. She has an excellent teacher.”

  “Flattery will get you everywhere.”

  “I’m glad to hear it. How goes the defense?”

  “We’re getting there. I’ve been making good on Marlene’s contacts with the mages in town. They’re still going to maintain their neutrality if any shit breaks out with the Feet, but against those fucking rock things, they’re willing to help. Good thing, too; the goddamn things are tough, nearly impervious to blunt force trauma. Add enough heat, though, and they become statues. It’s a good partnership. We provide the muscle, and they bring the firepower. These things are smart, though. They’re not going to go down easily.”

  “Well then it’s a good thing they’re up against a force they have no chance of outwitting.”

  “You knew I’d choose to stay,” I said, changing topics.

  “I knew no such thing.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Seriously. I gave it a fifty-fifty chance at best.”

  “Thanks for not compelling me.”

  “The right choice can’t be compelled. It can only be freely chosen.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  For the hundredth time since Bill had disappeared, I asked James if he’d heard anything as we wrapped up our call, and for the equal amount of times, he told me no. Had this crap all gone down immediately after the ordeal with the Icon, James would have been sorely disappointed in my final decision. Now, though...

  The truth was, four months in, the sting was starting to wear off a bit. I still held out hope, but my refusal to just stand idly by and wait tempered it.

  That didn’t mean there weren’t still some worries back east. With me out here, I’d been forced to cede coven leadership in New York. It’s rare to change management of a coven without bloodshed. I sure as hell couldn’t recall another example of it ever happening. Thankfully, as even Colin - the little shit - had to grudgingly admit when I called to inquire, there was a seldom used rule on the books granting right to choose a successor to the outgoing master.

  Starlight was now in charge. She wasn’t the most senior in the coven, and I had little doubt those politics would come into play. Fortunately, my final orders as leader to Monkhbat had included that he watch out for such shenanigans and deal with them accordingly.

  That still lef
t Firebird. She’d thoroughly fucked me over and no doubt was thinking she’d gotten away with it. Let her. She could go about her nights, offering her wares up to whomever she pleased. Her main sources of favor, Jeff and Marlene, were gone. She was just an undead whore now - toothless in a sense of the word. Besides, much like the vulture, I’m a patient bird. She’d get hers, and when that happened, I planned on being there. At the very least, it gave me something to look forward to.

  I stood up from my desk and stretched. The club would be opening soon. Dusk was approaching, and thankfully there were clear skies ahead. Those fucking monsters tended to only come out right before and during a storm. Not sure why, but I hadn’t had much time to research it yet. I’d eventually figure it out and when I did, I’d take that knowledge and ram it down their throats.

  Steve and his hunting party would be returning soon, hopefully with a few more kills. The Jahabich were tough, but they tended to be solitary; never in groups of more than three or so. By systematically searching for them rather than waiting for the fuckers to come to us, we maintained the status quo.

  Interestingly enough, life had begun to return to the tunnels. The downtrodden were starting to set up shop close to the club’s underground entrance. They didn’t ask questions, but seemed to know we were doing what we could.

  The irony of it all made me laugh. Humans - our prey - were now flocking to us for protection. What had the world come to?

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  I walked to the one-way mirror of Marlene’s former office, now my executive suite, and surveyed the club below. Fate had quite the sense of irony putting me in charge here. Even so, despite the oddness of the situation, it felt somehow natural.

  James had been more right than I cared to admit. Watching the bartenders and DJ set up below, I smiled. Hopefully theirs, as well as the girls who were even now prepping for the night ahead, were lives that would be allowed to continue. While some had been, or would be, recruited to our side, many more would be able to go about their days ignorant that anything was amiss.

  For a while, anyway.

  I wasn’t about to fool myself. There was still the upcoming war. The very Earth would potentially be torn asunder as our forces clashed with those of our enemies. The end times were very much nigh.