by Susan Stec
I spit a laugh. "You sure as hell didn't look scared. You had a smile plastered across your face. I thought you were just pulling my chain."
"No, I wasn't in control of my body. She didn't smell like witch or any singular species, exactly. It's weird. I've never smelled anything like it. It has to be the reason Dorius is so intrigued by her. She's getting her powers from somewhere. You don't control a vampire with God, Susan. Maybe she's made a pact with a demon, a dangerous thing because she'd have to bargain for those gifts. I wonder if she has something to do with the death of the two humans in the hotel room. She could be offering the demon souls in exchange for the power she has over humans. A woman of the cloth would buy a lot of demon power."
"Come on! I'm not fighting a demon. Are you sure you want to get mixed up in this? Maybe we should just talk to Dorius."
"The fuck, you say? I'm on this with or without you." Christopher stared at me.
I studied his eyes. He was hell bent on doing this and for some reason I couldn't take it away from him. "Okay damnit, I'm in, but I'm not fighting a damn demon alone. I think we should tell the others."
"Hell, no!"
"Christ, this better not be one of your games. My ass is on the line. I won't take another fall for you. Got it? Now, what else do you know?"
He shook his head, a big smile on his face. "Her mother was a pastor, too. A great one. The family was in an automobile accident. Julie and her sister survived. Her mother's name was Pastor Sara Powers, and for twenty years in the seventies she ministered to a faithful crowd, pretty much the same way Julie does. Dorius had a thing for the mother, too, and in 1988, Julie's mother disappeared after the car crash. It was weird, because they only found her husband's body. Julie took over in 1990. Kim, her other daughter, is said to be full of the Holy Spirit too, but she doesn't minister. It's weird, I tell you. There's something wrong with all of this. Dorius just can't figure out what."
"Okay, so if we figure it out, maybe it will buy us some work hunting real rogues. But just the thought of getting anywhere near a demon really scares the hell out of me," I said, watching the Vamp-brigade march in single file toward a group of buildings about a hundred yards in front of us.
"No shit."
Susan, my love, this is not your battle, Marcus pushed.
Marcus, don't start with me. I make my own decisions. I can't stop you from watching, but you better not tell your brother if you ever want my respect. Understand? I pushed back, getting a rumble but nothing else.
Christopher prattled on unaware of Marcus sharing in our conversation. I'd have to level with him as soon as he shut his mouth.
"She has a large following—makes boo-scoo money—and heals people; they just keep shoving big bucks at her. Dorius has followed this family's every move for some reason and I want to find out why. That's why I was excited when I saw the gator. I was praying I could get closer to the church without Dorius getting suspicious. Julie's one smart cookie, just like her mother was. She even pays taxes, donates large amounts of money to charities, and really seems to be helping the community, so tell me, what does Dorius find so intriguing about her?"
Darling, I'm coming to Leesburg. I'll obey your wishes as far as Dorius is concerned, but I will not let you put yourself in danger, Marcus pushed.
Danger? What danger? Do you know who this woman is? I pushed back.
I'll see you later today, Susan. Stay away from the church until I get there.
"Swell," I mumbled.
Christopher turned to me with a questioning look.
"Marcus is headed for Leesburg. He wants to help."
"Shit, why do you have to be a friggin' hot-line straight back to the compound?" Christopher shouted.
"You're preaching to the choir. But he did promise not to say anything to Dorius," I answered, eyebrows wiggling.
"Damnit, I wanted to do this my way." Christopher kicked up dirt, fitting the persona of the six-year-old body that carried his one-hundred-year-old soul.
I felt like dog doo taking this away from him. "When we get home, we'll hit the computer and find out if there are any other pastors who've shown up dead. And it wouldn't hurt to do a search on her mother. Let's see if anyone turned up dead during her ministry."
"Shit, I need to get laid. It'll ease the tension," Christopher said.
"You need to stop discussing your penis in public. And where the hell are the animals we're supposed to be following?"
~~~
Chapter 4
That's where you'll find me
Along with demons, suckers and pet-peeves
~~~
We had the immortal animals cornered by a dumpster in Kissimmee. We'd been chasing them for an hour. They seemed to be communicating with each other, using paws and chattering.
"You head up the alley and wait. I'll push them in your direction," I said, heading for the dumpster in front of us.
Christopher sidled around me, his back to the cement wall, heading for the gate at the end of the alley. Getting them to run towards him was going to be a bit dicey.
I slowly walked toward the dumpster, eyeballing the street to make sure there were no humans around. Two squirrels and a raccoon were hiding inside. The porcupine was flattened under the dumpster. It peered out at me and hissed, eyes glowing. I could hear the others scratching as they moved about inside. I needed to get the porcupine first.
Christopher and I had cornered one in my backyard on our first mission, and while my family found it amusing to watch me dig quills out of my ass, I was damn sure not in the mood for a repeat of that night. Maybe being stuck under the dumpster would deflect some of the damage it could wreak.
I pulled one of my knives from a sheath strapped to my thigh. Hesitantly, I got down on my hands and knees and peered under the dumpster. It was way back against the wall, tucked in nicely. Its beady little eyes found mine and it hissed again.
Watch out for the quills! At the sound of JoAnn's voice I jerked and hit my head on the dumpster. You remember the last—
"Yesss, JoAnn. I remember," I said, rubbing my temple. "But I don't think it can—"
Looking to get pricked, darling? Marcus pushed.
Marcus, are you on your way? If so, you should be concentrating on your driving. I pushed back, pulling my gloves on.
I'm perfectly capable of driving and keeping a mental eye on—
Nip it! You're distracting.
Oh, if that were only true. Marcus' laughter bounced around in my head.
I tried to ignore him as I looked for something to prod the animal with. There was a long piece of pipe beside the dumpster. Crawling carefully around the side, eyes riveted on the porcupine, I reached for the pipe. The porcupine's eyes followed my movements.
Pipe in hand I crab-walked back to the front of the dumpster.
"What the hell are you doing?" Christopher asked.
I yelped, dropped the pipe, and shot Christopher a nasty look. He tossed back a shit-eating grin. The porcupine took that moment to try to escape. It scurried out, stood on its hind legs, and hiked its back of quills at me.
I turned to run. Christopher threw a knife. Quills shot everywhere.
"Ouch—damnit—shit," I hopped circles, trying to pull quills out. "I can't reach them all, damnit. I should've put up my freaking shield."
Not to worry, dear. I'll do a full body search when I get there, Marcus pushed.
You still have three more critters to go, JoAnn told us.
Christopher snorted.
I glared at him as he slit the porcupine's throat. "It's not funny, you little shit. These suckers hurt."
"Your ass is a quill magnet." Christopher stood in front of me with gloves on, holding the severed animal, not a quill imbedded in his little body.
"You do this crap on purpose, don't you?" I huffed, sliding my gloves back in my pocket.
No need for drama, darling. They all missed your heart, Marcus pushed.
How 'bout yo-ou just shut the hell up?
/> You'll be in my soothing embrace soon enough, my—
Like that is sooo not going to happen!
A cute little growl-laugh had my body all a tingle. I tried to ignore it, picked up the pipe and headed for the dumpster with a vengeance.
Christopher rolled his eyes.
I climbed on a crate, leaned in, and maniacally waved the pipe around inside. Critters scattered. I swung and batted a squirrel down the alley. Christopher took off after it.
Two squirrels and the raccoon jumped to the ground on the other side of the dumpster and chattered at me. I dropped the pipe and threw up my shield, blocking the alley and their only exit. They looked at each other and then studied me. The raccoon backed away. The squirrels didn't.
I have the ability to draw up a shield of protection that shimmers and even Dorius can't penetrate it. Not always a good thing if I happen to be trapped inside with an adversary and can't reach the shield to disarm it. Not a problem at the moment.
The vamp-squirrels chattered loudly, leapt at the shield and slid to the ground.
I stood inside smiling.
They tried to find a way around it, claws and fangs scratching and nipping. Both hooded their eyes at me, screeched what I felt were little squirrel obscenities, and abruptly scurried toward the raccoon and Christopher. I followed and as I ran through the shield, it melted around me.
Christopher had a squirrel in his hands, severing its little head from its shoulders, when I skidded to a stop in front of him.
The raccoon hissed like mad and scrambled up the fence—no sign of the other squirrel. I leapt for the raccoon and caught it by the tail. It was all claws and teeth. I jumped around trying to get a good grip on it, and wished I'd left my gloves on. The damn thing bit me three times before I could slit its throat.
Christopher tossed boxes around, looking for the last squirrel. I shoved the raccoon into the bag tied to my belt and headed over to assist.
The squirrel scrambled out of a coffee can and headed for the fence. Its body got halfway through the gate; both Christopher and I hit the ground and slid after it. We fought for the tail and I grabbed it, just as the squirrel cleared the fence, dragging my hand with it. It began gnawing on my flesh.
"Don't let go of it!" Christopher yelled.
"Easy for you to say. It's not biting the hell out you." I yanked it back through the fence.
JoAnn vivaciously said, Woohoo! You got your man…squirrel… whatever!
I dropped the squirrel. Marcus chuckled. I curled back my lips and snarled.
Christopher was on the squirrel before it hit the pavement. He turned to me, squirrel wiggling in his hands. "Jesus, you and your sister are like Lucy and Ethel."
"Ya know its shit like that makes me remember how old you are."
* * * *
We were in my black Jeep Wrangler, headed for home, the dead animals safely tucked in a bag on the back seat.
"So, what time is Marcus getting here?" Christopher asked, wiping blood off his mouth. He shoved an empty blood bag into the small cooler at his feet.
"He just said later today. Do you think Paul and Gibbie are already home?" I asked, pointing to the cooler. He pulled out a bag of blood and handed it to me. I popped it to my fangs.
"I hope not. Since no one crossed paths last night, we need to make sure the conversation about the bodies in the motel room is handled properly. If your mother gets wind of a demon, she might tell Dorius." Christopher wrinkled his nose, brushing body matter off his Spiderman t-shirt onto my clean floor mat.
* * * *
I dropped the bag of carcasses on the dining room picnic table in front of my mother. Christopher headed upstairs to shower and change. We were going out again later—all of us this time. JoAnn had informed us on our drive back that there was a bull with red eyes scheduled to bounce some poor cowboy around at a rodeo tonight in Kissimmee. Killing the vamp-bull at a rodeo was going to be a bit risky. We would all have to cover each other's backs.
"There you go, Oh-Gracious-One, we got six tonight." I smiled at Mom. She shot me a classic set of Italian eyes and turned to Jake, who wiggled on the bench next to her.
The middle level of the house was communal, with a large living room, dining room and kitchen separated by a breakfast bar. Anywhere you stood you got a good vantage point of the whole room.
Deer, fish, and other animals hung from the walls, displaying my pre-immortal hunting skills, and a large rock fireplace was the center of attention. Two sets of sliding glass doors on either side of a picnic table in the dining room led out to a screened in porch off the lake. The other end of the room was all large floor-to-ceiling windows and gave a shaded view of the woods and barn. We lived on one hundred acres full of fanged Florida wildlife, always such a frigging pleasure to hunt these days.
"Jake, take this out to the woodstove in the barn, and that too." Mom pointed at a big black garbage bag by the front door. "We start burning the carcasses today. Dorius said that if animals are digging them up, eating off them, it could be what’s causing some of the problems. I guess after eating a vamp-animal, all it takes is a bite from another infected animal, and presto, an immortal critter."
Jake grabbed our bag and headed for the front door.
I just wanted to strangle my sister. What a frigging mess. I doubted we'd ever get this under control.
"We found neither hide nor fangs of the vamp-gator either," Jake said. "Mort's coming back tonight—maybe he found something."
Paul walked in from the back porch with Gibbie on his shoulder.
"Have you told her about the dead humans in the motel room?" Gibbie squealed, swinging from Paul's hair.
I shot him a look that made him frown.
"What dead bodies?" Mom shouted at me. "Tell me the fruit of your idiot sister's fangs are not killing humans."
No one said a word.
"Susabella, what dead bodies?" Mom had a bit of a chill in her voice.
I sucked air through my teeth, purely for the sound of it, and ignored the usage of the nickname because at the moment I didn't want an argument. I needed a comeback that didn't screw up the plan Christopher and I had.
I winged it. "We followed a few of the vamp-critters into a motel in Kissimmee and found two dead bodies. We took care of the animals—anonymously called the police—then left. Not our problem."
"The hell, you say! Did the vamp-animals kill them? If they did, those bodies may just walk right out of the morgue tonight." Mom, animated now, paced the floor in front of the fireplace, hands adding accouterments to her muttered Italian obscenities.
Gibbie started spreading the silver dust around, dodging Mom's flailing arms. "Susan, do you have any more of that Valium?"
I raised a brow. "Turn your arms off, Mom, and I would appreciate you not using that damn nickname again." I added a hand gesture of my own.
"Concetta, animals don't write poems on the walls in blood," Gibbie announced in a shrill voice, making me reach for my ears.
Mom was not satisfied with the response. "Figlio di puttana! So who killed them and what were the animals doing there?"
"They must have followed the blood scent, Chick," Paul offered. "They were lapping it up when we got there. We destroyed them. Their little hairy bodies are burning as we speak." Paul headed for the kitchen.
"Hi everyone, hope you're all ready for a rodeo. It's gonna be such fun!" JoAnn's perky voice floated from the laptop sitting on the picnic table.
"Great. Who turned that damn thing on?" I groused and walked over to the computer.
JoAnn's big face filled the screen. She wiggled fingers at me.
Frigging Skype. I wiggled mine back. "Where's Jeni?"
JoAnn looked off to her left, giving us a screen full of pink blush. "Right here working with Resi and Zaire. Say hello, Jeni."
"Hello, Mommy Dearest. The girls kicked butt and are headed back to the compound. They captured the mortal Dorius sent them for. He was consorting with a demon. It's so exciting. A demon
! Can you imagine? Hope it isn't grandpa!" Jeni's sweet cheerful voice filtered through the speakers while JoAnn's pink cheek wobbled on the screen.
Christopher walked into the room looking all rosy from recently feeding and his hot shower. He sauntered over to the computer, eyes playing tug-of-war with questions.
JoAnn turned to face me. She looked like she was leaning into the camera, her face taking on a fish bowl effect. "Can you believe your daughter almost had to fight a demon?"
Christopher's eyes met mine over the top of the computer screen. We both turned to Paul. I wondered why he wasn't fessing up about the possible demon presence in the motel room. It didn't sit well with me, but I wasn't going to ask him. There were too many demons floating around for my blood. I turned back to Christopher. He didn't say a word.
"So, what's on the agenda for the rest of the day, Chick?" Paul asked, pouring himself a cup of coffee in the kitchen.
"We're going to do some interviews with the rest of the staff at Gatorland," Mom said. "Jake and I will take care of that. Paul, you can meet with Animal Control to see if they have any more complaints in the area, and Gibbie can go with the troll to check out the woods and surrounding rivers at Gatorland again. Susan and her half-pint sidekick will be staying here. They can email Dorius with the updates."
I sauntered into the kitchen and pulled a couple of bags of blood from the refrigerator. I held one up for Mom to see. She shook her head from side to side.
"I ate while we were out. You know I can't drink from those," Mom said, scowling at the bags of blood.
Being a Seraph, Mom couldn't drink processed blood. There were only eleven Seraphs in the world and they were the highest ranking Rogue Hunters—Dorius one of them. He taught Mom how to drink from humans without killing them, mixing sex with dinner. It evidently fought off the killing urge. But I have to tell you, it was the blight of my immortal existence when I sauntered in for a breakfast blood bag and found my mother wrapped around a man on the kitchen counter, her fangs in his neck, riding him like a Yorkie humping a chair leg.