by Mandy Lee
“Wow.” Sergei breathed as they walked into the grotto. “This place is wild.”
“Just wait until you see what’s on the other side of the portal.” Mara said with a wicked smile.
She moved to the edge of the pool and sliced into her hand yet again, allowing the blood to flow down to the icy surface. The blood seeped in and the ice began to crack and boil up. Gadreel sighed.
“Blood again. Why is it always blood in our world?”
Mara chuckled. “Funny! Asking a vampire why it always comes down to blood.”
“It’s everything.” Sergei cut in. “Blood is the very essence of life…without it we’re nothing. That’s why blood magic is so strong; it speaks to the very core of our being.”
“That’s the problem, isn’t it?” Gadreel muttered.
Sergei frowned and opened his mouth to ask what Gadreel meant, but Mara touched his arm lightly and shook her head. Sergei raised his shoulders in a slight shrug and let it go. They all turned back to the pool, the ice had disappeared, and the portal was ready to be used. They stepped into the waters together and began the journey to the other side.
The tinkling sounds of female laughter struck Mara as they emerged from the pool into the glittering cave room. Mara wasn’t sure whether to laugh, slap herself in the forehead, or cry. Nymphs. Nymphs everywhere. Naked nymphs with their long, tousled hair hanging down their backs were crawling all over each other, their hands sliding over the nude skin of their svelte bodies. They really were known as the nymphos of the underworld for good reason. Rumour had it that they were most often attracted to each other with good reason, objectively speaking. They were supremely hot, but they did have the nasty habit of occasionally killing their partners, though some would argue that the risk was be worth it.
Male laughter drew her attention to the bed across the cavern. Mara frowned in confusion. When she’d left earlier, B hadn’t been in any kind of condition to have an orgy with a dozen nymphs given their rather gymnastic sexual moves. As the nymph pileup on the bed shifted, Mara caught a glimpse of the man at the center of the action. Rodney. Mara rolled her eyes. The last time she’d found her charming ex-boyfriend in this position, she’d been bereft. This time her reaction was to burst out in laughter. The magic sparked off the nymphs’ skin as Rodney fed off their unrelenting lust. They sighed and moaned in ecstasy as he drew them in with pheremones that were sure to keep them all in a state of sexual intoxication.
Gadreel cleared his throat loudly beside her. The nymphs, so deep in their sexual fantasies, ignored the noise, but Rodney’s head popped up from the melee. His eyes connected with Mara’s face almost immediately, a blush raced up his neck as embarrassment took hold.
“Mara! Oh fuck!” Rodney shouted out as he scrambled to push his nubile companions off his body.
As the nymphs hit the floor, they made small noises of irritation before starting back up with each other, writhing on the floor of the cave, heedless of who was watching.
“What are you doing here?” Rodney asked as he wrapped the bed sheet around himself toga-style.
Mara thought absently that he would have made a wonderful Greek god. “We’re here to get Baal.”
Rodney rushed over to Mara’s side, holding his toga on with a death grip. “What do you mean you’re looking for Baal? He left a few hours ago with a friend.” He reached out and grabbed Mara’s arm, leaning in close to whisper in her ear. “I’m so sorry! The last thing I wanted you to see was this. I just didn’t think you’d be back.”
“Wait.” Mara shook her head. “What do you mean B left with a friend? What friend? Nobody knew he was here but me…unless you told someone else?”
Rodney fiddled with his bed sheet. “I figured you’d told one of his boys and they’d come to get him. I really didn’t want you to see this Mara.”
She blew out a frustrated breath. “I don’t care about your personal life Rodney. Trust me, I'm fine. We really need to know where B went, though. He could be in danger.”
“Did you get a good look at who he left with?” Gadreel piped up.
“No. I was kind of…distracted at the time.” Rodney looked down at his feet.
“Nymphs?” Mara asked with a note of humour.
“Succubus.” Rodney replied sheepishly.
“Lovely.” Gadreel grumbled. “Can we get back on point here? Do you have any idea where he was going?”
“Look, he’s a grown man and I’m not a babysitter. I agreed to let him stay here as a favor to Mara. I didn’t think I needed to be his watcher, and I certainly don’t LoJack my guests.” Rodney was clearly annoyed with Gadreel’s questions.
Mara stepped between the two men, trying to cool things down before an all-out fight broke out. “Rodney, nobody expected you to be a babysitter. You didn’t ask for any of this, but thank you for letting B stay here.” She turned toward Gadreel. “There is another way of finding him now that we know he’s left. I gave him some of my blood during his visit to the ER. I can track him through our blood bond.”
Gadreel took a deep breath and nodded. “Sorry, man. This has been hard on us. None of us will rest easy until he’s back safe with us.”
“Understood.” Rodney nodded. “No hard feelings.”
“So, what do you need to track him?” Gadreel asked.
“My blood, a lighter, and open space.” Mara motioned toward the portal. “We should probably head back to the alley and do it there.”
“All right. Let’s go.” Gadreel turned back to the pool.
“Sergei…Sergei!” Mara snapped her fingers, trying to get her friend’s attention.
Mara walked over to grab him by the arm, dragging him away from his rapt fascination with the ongoing nymph orgy.
“But, can we just…? A few more minutes…” Sergei nearly snapped his own neck trying to keep an eye on the acrobatics as he was dragged away.
“Boys and their nymphs.” Mara muttered as they stepped into the pool.
A short while later the trio emerged from the main door of the club into the alley. As the heavy metal slammed shut behind them, the group of fallen they’d left hanging outside snapped to attention.
Sam stepped forward, a confused look marring his handsome face. “So? Where is he?”
“He left on his own. We don’t know exactly when or where to.” Gadreel shrugged. “You know B. He marches to his own drum. Mara’s going to track him through their blood bond. We need to get to him before anyone else does.”
“Wait.” Al butted in. “You guys have a blood bond? When did that happen?” he asked with a cheeky grin.
“It’s not what you think.” Mara interjected. “I gave him blood to save his life. I didn’t know who or what he was at the time. It was purely a means to an end.”
“Well, that’s disappointing.” Al sighed.
“Guys, get back on point here.” Sam said impatiently. “Our primary concern is finding B. Mara, go ahead and do whatever you need to do.”
“Aye aye, sir.” Mara gave Sam a salute. “Does anybody have a knife and a lighter?”
Every fallen angel shuffled, muttered, and dug around in their various pockets for the requested items. Before she knew it, there were five knives, and five lighters presented to her like they were the crown jewels and she was the princess of the alley.
“Um, thanks,” she said, reaching forward to grab Gadreel’s ornamented dagger and heavy pewter lighter. “So, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to slit my palm and light the blood droplets on fire. The magic will lead us to wherever B is hiding out. It should happen pretty fast, so get ready to run.”
Mara took a deep breath, steadying herself to bleed yet again for this group of fallen angels. She clasped her hand around the blade of the knife and with a swift, sure motion, she drew it across her hand. Keeping her fist closed, she handed the knife back to Gadreel.
“Hold on to your hats,” she said as she opened her palm.
Mara turned her hand over, allowing droplet
s of blood to fall. With lightning speed, she whipped out the lighter and flicked it on, the flame jumping to life just in time to catch and light the crimson drops. The blood sparked and turned into winking, glittering red fairy dust that hovered in the air a foot off the ground. With a life of its own, the dust spun and twisted like a tiny shining tornado in the muted light of the alley. The mini funnel cloud of magic seemed to have a consciousness, trying to decide which way to go, leaning first toward one end of the alley, and then reversing and leaning toward the other end. Suddenly the tiny glittering lights decided exactly where they wanted to go, and streaked away.
“Game time!” Mara shouted as she took off at vampire speed with Sergei hot on her heels. The fallen raced after them, unable to keep up, but doing their damnedest to try.
The group raced through back alleys, leaping over dumpsters and chain link fences with Mara and Sergei in the lead. It seemed as though they were getting an in-depth tour of every alley in the city when suddenly the twinkling lights stopped on a dime in front of the weathered back door of a dilapidated warehouse. The building was clearly abandoned; a notice posted to the door showed that it had been condemned for some time. The windows were broken and cracked, and the brickwork had obviously been crumbling away for years.
“This is it.” Mara said quietly, not wanting to alert anyone in the vicinity to their presence.
The fallen raced up a few seconds behind the two vampires. “Must be nice to be able to move that fast.” Sam whispered to Mara and Sergei.
“It has its perks.” Mara whispered back. “I can’t hear much going on in there, just a few rats moving around.”
“Ok, let’s move in quietly. If there is anyone hanging around we don’t want to spook them.” Sam motioned for the other fallen to fan out around the building. “Find any other entrances. We need to make sure nobody gets away if he’s been hurt.”
The guys nodded and moved off. Sam tried the door and found it unlocked. He pushed lightly and it swung inward on its hinges, creaking and groaning and in desperate need of oil. Mara winced at the noise — so much for a quiet entrance. The sparkling red lights shot out into the darkened building, speeding toward their target. Mara, Sergei, and Sam nodded at each other and proceeded into the pitch-blackness of the abandoned building in single file. They stepped carefully, trying to avoid as many creaking floorboards as they could in their search for B. Broken furniture and overturned canisters of whatever this factory used to produce were strewn all over the place. It looked like this building had gone through a zombie apocalypse. Mara thanked the demonic forces that had gifted vampires with perfect night vision as she reached out to stop Sam from kicking over a metal bucket.
“Thanks.” He whispered.
The faint sound of metal clinking on metal caught Mara’s ear. Sergei motioned toward a nearby corridor and Mara nodded in assent.
“What?” Sam asked, unable to hear the noise without the vampires’ superior senses.
“Over that way.” Mara whispered back.
They made their way carefully down the hallway that opened up to a large storage room. Directly in the middle of the space in a shaft of dimmed moonlight streaming in through an old window was B. He was strung up by his wrists hanging from a wooden ceiling beam. The chains that bound him looped around the beam and travelled along the wall to a winch and pulley system.
“Over here!” Sam shouted.
Heavy footfalls sounded from every corner of the building as the remaining fallen charged through the hallways toward them. Mara ran over to B, her breath caught and she choked out a sob as she saw his body. He was covered in streaks and smears of blood. The magic glow of their blood bond created a red aura around his body, and then disappeared as blood melded with blood. His eyes cracked open and he peered down at her, his mouth moving but no sounds emerged.
“Hold on,” she said, reaching out to touch him gently.
Sam and Sergei worked on figuring out the pulley system. Al, Bill, and Gadreel ran over to Mara’s side, each helping to gently ease B to the ground. Gadreel looked like he was about to vomit at the sight of his friend in this condition. Mara frowned. Surely after all these years of battle and hardship they’d all seen each other in rough shape at times.
“Mara.” B’s weak voice drew her attention away from his friend and back down to him.
“Shhhhh. Don’t talk,” she said quietly, laying her hand gently on his shoulder.
B reached up a shaking hand and cupped Mara’s cheek with all the care in the world. She reached up, laying her hand over his, tears pricking the corners of her eyes. Her heart clenched. This simple gesture felt like an apology for his earlier reaction, and Mara was more than happy to accept. The other fallen backed away from the couple slowly.
A shifting of the air drew their attention away as a curtain in reality opened up and Amir popped his head into the room.
“Am I late to the party?” Amir asked. “You never know how long these shadow walking trips are gonna take.”
“Nope.” Sam said, walking over to shake Amir’s hand. “You’re right on time. We’ll need your help to get him back to The Advocate on the sly. He looks like he’s in pretty rough shape and I don’t want to drag him through the city.”
“Think we should get in touch with Luc and Katia about this?” Amir asked, raising an eyebrow.
Sam took a deep, pensive breath. “No.” He shook his head. “Not yet. There’s nothing they can do right now. Give them a while longer to enjoy life together before we burst the happy bubble.”
Amir nodded. “Ok, you’re going to have to lift him up and pass him through to me. I’ll walk him to The Advocate and meet you guys there.”
Sam and Gadreel each looped one of B’s arms over their shoulders and lifted him as carefully as possible. Ever so gently they passed him over to Amir. He leaned forward so they could drape B over his shoulder. He stood back up straight and gave them a sad wave with one hand as he held onto the backs of B’s legs with the other.
“See you guys soon,” he said, stepping back into the misty hallway of the spirit world.
The curtain between the worlds slid back into place as the swirling fog swallowed both men whole.
Chapter Seventeen
His head was pounding yet again. This was becoming an all-too-familiar sensation. Aside from having the good fortune of being treated by Mara, this week was really starting to suck the big one. B groaned and cracked his eyes open. He was lying on a dirty concrete floor. He was most likely in a basement, given the unfinished ceiling and storage shelves filled with canisters and a variety of forgotten household goods. His neck cracked as he craned his head around. What he saw next made him wish he’d stayed unconscious. There he was in all his evil glory — Keir. His pale skin appeared to glow in the small shaft of light filtering in from the tiny window set high up in the wall. Definitely a basement.
“Well, well, Sleeping Beauty woke up again.” He smirked at B as he crouched down and twisted his head at an unnatural angle to look him in the eye.
“Please tell me you didn’t kiss me to wake me up.” B couldn’t help himself.
Keir bared his teeth in disgust. “You’re really not my type.”
“You don’t say.” B muttered.
“Well.” Keir stood. “I hate to rush out…important meetings with the boss and all, but I have arranged some special entertainment for you during my absence.”
Keir reached down and grabbed the chains that attached to the shackles on B’s wrists, yanking him up into a seated position. His body was still weak from blood loss, and he slumped back to lean against the cold concrete wall behind him.
“You’re going to have the non-stop viewing pleasure of our newest reality show. I like to call it Your Friends are Fucked.” Keir stomped over to the opposite wall and stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling shelving units with his hands on his hips. He looked like he was eyeing the place up for a TV home design show.
“Well, this just won’t do,” h
e said.
He reached out and grabbed the metal frame and with the flick of his wrist, he sent the whole unit crashing to the ground. Random pieces of some human's life went flying off the shelves, plummeting to the ground in broken heaps. B figured the owner of this home must already be dead, but it still broke his heart to see things that had been collected over the course of that life tossed aside like so much garbage.
Keir dragged a huge metal paint bucket toward the wall, viscous red liquid sloshing around inside it. He slid a paintbrush out of his pants pocket and leaned down to dip it into his very special custom paint. He lifted the brush to the wall and began to outline an image, chanting as he went.
“In nomine diaboli, corruptus in extremis, veritas diaboli manet in aeternum.” The chant went on as he continued to paint. B tilted his head and frowned as the image became clearer. Keir stood back from his oeuvre d’art and smiled at B.
“Yes, it’s a TV — a very special TV just for you.” He dropped the paintbrush into the bucket, blood splashed out onto the floor leaving tiny little droplets of spatter.
“Look, dude, I know my brain’s a bit muddled from the blood loss, the punching, and the drugging, but I’m not out of it enough to hallucinate a show on your pretend TV.” B rolled his eyes. “I do love the bunny ear antennae though…very retro of you.”
Keir gave a smile full of teeth, and waved his hand in front of the painted TV. Electric sparks seemed to jump off the wall, coming faster and faster until they coalesced into a clear image. There was no sound, just the images of his friends crowded around together in the basement room of The Advocate. B breathed a sigh of relief that they were all okay. The group slowly broke apart to reveal the two individuals they‘d been hovering protectively around. Mara was crouched on the floor beside…B. He felt his heart jump into his throat as he watched the woman he lov...cared about...fawning over…himself…or rather, the other, evil him. The shape shifter had already infiltrated his circle of friends.