by Jenn Windrow
Eddie played my ribs like a harp with his claws. Guess that was a yes.
Lowering my head, I hid the red glow of my eyes, another tell-tale sign that Eddie was taking over. With one last peek, I searched the park for Reaper and found him playing peeping-partner from behind a large oak tree about ten feet away, waiting for my come-hither-and-kill-vamps gesture. He didn’t like my new keep-Reaper-alive tactic, but a grumpy Reaper was better than a dead Reaper.
Eddie gave my insides a vicious poke. Let’s get this over with.
And he wondered why I refused to call him Vlad.
In order for Eddie to do his Eddie thing, I had to slide into the passenger seat of my own body. Relinquish control to a madman. Control he craved. Control he once used to break my biggest vow. Don’t. Drink. From. Humans.
But a few sips from a live vein wasn’t what woke me up every day, sweat soaking my sheets. Trying to outrun the nightmares that tormented me. Relentless memories of a dead man in my arms. An unwilling sacrifice that saved me from my own death-by-cremation.
A sacrifice that helped save human lives, but almost destroyed me.
I looked at the vampire who had just ordered my kidnapping. He needed to die.
Fists tight. Teeth clenched. I fought the fear that raced through my body like an out of control L-train ready to plunge off the tracks at the next sharp turn.
Eddie and I still had some trust issues to work through.
But…without his strength and speed and superior fighting skills, my picture would end up on the back of a bag-o-blood with the word “missing” over my head.
Eddie’s rage rolled through me like a steel-wheel roller over asphalt.
Ready? Eddie sounded strong and fierce and everything the Father of all Vampires should sound like.
“Let’s kill some blood suckers.”
Using all of Eddie’s I-am-king-of-the-undead power, I wrenched my arm from the vampire’s grip, then smashed my elbow into his nose. Blood gushed. He hit the ground screaming like a little bitch. One gone. One still clinging to my arm like a pathetic parasite. With my newly freed hand, I grabbed him by his severely out of style shirt, and tossed him toward Reaper’s hide-a-tree. The vampire hit with a bone crunching thump. A present to my partner.
“Stop her.” Captain Pirate Pants sounded desperate. “If she gets away, Delano will kill us.”
He didn’t have to worry about Delano’s wrath, in five minutes he’d be a pile of ash.
With Reva, my trusty blade in one hand and a stake in the other, I gave Captain Pirate Pants a wink. “Ready to play?”
He scooted behind what was left of his squad, using them as a vampire shield. “Eight against one, the odds are still in my favor.”
I had always been fast and strong, but with Eddie on board I was supersonic and unstoppable. Eight vampires? Just a warm up.
“Surround her.” There was a butt-load of fear in his voice.
The vampires formed a circle around me. Fangs bared, drool sliding down their chins. Weapons protecting their hearts. Like that could keep them alive.
One got stupid and ran toward me, his war cry echoing through the bare trees. I slashed open a large, blood-red oozing gash in his stomach. It wouldn’t kill him, but it was hard to move when your innards were becoming outards.
The other vampires watched their buddy fall to the ground in a pile of gore. I stalked over and slammed my stake into his chest.
Seven. Eddie liked to count his victims. It was sick and sadistic but what did you expect from the man they called Vlad the Impaler?
Two vampires broke rank and took off in the direction of the playground.
I called out to Reaper. “Two coming your way.” That would keep him busy.
Five.
Easy-peasy.
“You guys going to play ring-around-Evil’s Assassin all night or are you going to attack me?” I wiggled my fingers in a come-and-eat-me gesture. No one moved. WTF? I was bored and hungry and was late for a date with hunky werewolf.
I blew a few strands of my dark waves out of my face and tightened my grip on Reva’s hilt. The remaining vampires took three steps in, closing the gaps.
“I will be the one to capture you and take you to Delano.” Captain Pirate Pants said.
Eddie, let’s end this.
His power unfurled, almost consuming me. I took a steadying breath and ran around the circle, Reva’s blade slicing through flesh and bone, leaving a gaping hole right over their non-beating hearts. Blood sprayed in an arc around me. A macabre fountain.
Four vampires hit to the ground. All except for Captain Pirate Pants. I grabbed my stake and zipped past the incapacitated baddies, slamming a life-ending blow to their exposed hearts. Flames sparked from their bodies, lighting up the area before they burned to ash. A charred vampire bonfire.
One left.
With his army gone, the ring leader fell to his knees, his hands smashed together like he was praying, and started to babble. “Don’t kill me. I can tell you about Delano’s plans.”
“I already know Delano’s plans. Kill me, then take over the world.” But I hesitated before driving the stake through is heart, maybe Captain Pirate Pants knew something I didn’t.
I crouched down next to him. “Talk.”
“You won’t kill me?”
I looked at the night sky and pretended to ponder his dilemma for a second. “Depends on what you tell me.”
“Delano has a big surprise for you. Something you’ll never expect.” Guess he figured that was a yes.
I twirled my stake at him. “Care to elaborate?”
“There have been whispers of a new second in command. An old, ruthless vampire whose only mission is to hunt you down and bring you in.”
“Name?”
“I’m not high enough in the chain of command to know all the details.” He gave me a look so full of hope, I almost felt bad for what was about to come next.
“Then you’ve used up your usefulness.” I raised my stake over my head and slammed it into his heart.
The blood lust receded. My fangs went back to normal, the brand stopped throbbing, my blood cooled, and the world went back to technicolor. I felt like Alexis the good vampire again.
We work well as a team. A finally content Eddie started to fade away to wherever Eddie went when he wasn’t tormenting me.
I didn’t want to agree with him, but being a cooperating part of team psycho was better than fighting him every day of my undead life.
Nathan golf clapped from the swings. “I would have helped, but I’m made of bloody mist.”
I slapped him on the shoulder sending blue and purple sparks shooting into the air. “That’s okay, I just like having you around.”
“Reaper’s staking the last vamp who tried to pull a David Copperfield.” He pointed to a group of evergreens.
With Reva in hand, I went to see if my partner needed back up. When I got there, Reaper was ramming a stake into the last vampire’s heart. He burst into flames and then turned to ash.
“We good?” He wiped the dead vamp off his standard issue black t-shirt.
Eddie?
My inner vampire searched with his own supernatural radar for anything of the non-human variety.
Only thing left with fangs and an attitude is you.
“Eddie says we’re all clear.” I slid my weapons back into their sheaths. “We killed another twelve tonight.”
“At least.” Reaper dusted the vampire’s remains out of his Marine crew cut and side-stepped a pile of dead vamp. “Delano is making them as fast as we can kill them.”
“It’s one way to keep us off his ass.” I wiped a spouge of semi-dried blood off my leather pants. “I think I’m killing more vamps than the VAU these days.”
The mere mention of the Vampire Apprehension Unit, a highly-trained group of ex-military men created shortly after the Eradication sent a chill skittering up my spine. Men’s who only mission was to root out the evil undead scourge and kill them. A
group created after some rogue vamps decided to have an all you can suck buffet and televised the killing spree. I had managed to evaded the VAU my whole undead life until a few months ago. Now, I worked for the one detective who found me useful. Better that than dead.
“At this pace, we’ll never have time to search for Delano.” Reaper headed through the park to his midnight blue 1970 SS Chevelle.
“Pretty sure that’s the point.” I scanned the area for anything with fangs that might pop out and try to attack. But the night seemed vampire free.
The winter wind picked up, leaves swirled on the frozen ground, tree limbs swayed, and a scent from my past smashed into me like a tombstone.
A mixture of Bergamont oil and Cedarwood.
A smell so familiar. So, welcoming. Yet so wrong it sent a belfry of bats flapping through my tummy. I stopped walking, eyes and nose searching the area for the person who owned that sniff down memory lane. Then something caught my eye. Something that hadn’t been there before and didn’t belong there now.
An object in one of the bucket swings inches from where Nathan had sat just moments ago.
I pointed to the still swaying swing. “Was that always there?”
Nathan floated over for a closer inspection. “Nope.”
“What is it?” I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know the answer.
“A doll.” Nathan’s words sounded odd, like he was trying to figure out a puzzle.
I walked over, ready to pull a child’s toy out of the swing, but pulled my hand back and wrapped my arms around my stomach, squeezing tight, hoping to stop the battering in my belly.
The doll was an antique porcelain replica of an eight-year-old little boy. Wavy hair the color of midnight. Freckles dusting the cheeks and nose. Blue eyes one shade darker than mine. The face a more masculine image of my own.
Memories of the last time I saw this doll dragged me down a path of regret and loneliness I fought to escape from every day. With a small shake of my head, I opened my eyes, shutting out the past.
I picked up fragile porcelain and turned it over in shaking hands. Traced my fingers over the cracks caused by age. Pulled at the sage green vest and found a note tucked into the striped pants.
Andre. My twin brother’s calling card. The same one that stopped showing up the day I signed a contract with the Caleb, the Angel-with-an-attitude, to become Evil’s Assassin.
The familiar and fancy “A” on the front almost identical to my own flourished handwriting. I flipped the heavy card over, but the back was blank.
“Not possible.” I said in a whisper that floated away on the wind.
“Alexis?” Reaper’s tone had an Alexis is about to be stupid sound to it.
I didn’t answer him.
His combat boots crunched the gravel and broke through the whistle of the wind through the trees. “What’s that?” Reaper stood next to me.
“A piece of my past.” I turned the doll back over to show him the face. “And something that shouldn’t be here.”
Nathan hovered close, placed his hand on mine, so he could solidify, his only way of communicating with anyone beside vampires. “Thought you said those were left at Xavier’s when you escaped?”
I held the doll up to my nose, inhaled, and closed my eyes. Two different scents clung to the clothes, the hair, to every fiber. The first, I never thought I would smell again. The smell of home. France. The farmhouse I was raised in. The lavender scent of the soap my mother made by hand. The smell of my childhood buried under another stronger odor. Andre’s odor clung to the fabric as if he had hugged the doll before placing it in the swing.
“They were.” I looked up to meet my friend’s eyes, not sure what emotion they would see in mine. Anguish? Confusion? Disbelief? Despair?
Andre was here. In Chicago. In this park. For the first time in fifty-three years my twin brother was near.
Killing Delano had just been bumped from the number one spot on my to-do list.