by A. C. James
He closed his eyes reflexively, as if I had thrown something at him. “Holly, I want you. But I want to stop wanting you. You’re intoxicating. I’m afraid if you let me drink I won’t be able to stop, and I can’t afford to turn you. I don’t want history to repeat itself.”
I swallowed the emotion that surfaced without bothering to identify it. Looking down at my plate, I pushed the eggs around with my fork.
“I have to look into some things. So I won’t be around for at least a week,” he said. “Victoria will be keeping an eye on your apartment and the Coffee Grind for me. I trust you’ll be safe enough with her hanging around.”
“What are you looking into?”
“Your past, and if there’s a reason why you look so much like someone else, or if it’s all just coincidence. And I want to keep you safe.”
“Sure. I understand.” And I really did understand. But I’d still feel better with him sleeping on my sofa.
***
I grabbed a rag to wipe muffin crumbs from the Formica countertop. Sun began to filter through the clouds. It had rained on and off all day yesterday, through the night and most of the morning. I looked out the window. It appeared to be letting up. A sigh escaped my lips as I collected the fifty-cent tip some penny-pinching customer left me. Only one customer sat in a booth, reading a magazine. The morning had been busy, but on a slow afternoon like this, it left my mind to free to think about Arie, Tessa, and the Hellfire Club. It had been over a week since I had seen him. I couldn’t help but feel disappointed when he didn’t stop by for coffee even once.
Victoria had stopped in a few times that week. Once with the silver-haired moon faerie who waited on us at the club. She hung on every word Victoria said as if she was the one who hung the moon. Although, technically I wasn’t sure if that’s what Luna did or what that would entail. Shit, I had just learned about vampires. I didn’t want to even attempt figuring out the whole faerie bit. But either way she seemed to have the serious hots for Victoria. Not that Victoria seemed to notice whatsoever. I guess relationships were no less complicated even if you had supernatural powers.
I sighed.
Trina walked in carrying her purse and wearing an easy-going smile. She could always find something to be happy about. I wished I had half of her enthusiasm and optimism. I had a bad habit of waiting for the bottom to drop out, because in my experience it usually did. Looking around the coffee shop, she set her purse under the counter and greeted me with a warm smile.
“Hey…looks like a slow one today, huh?”
“Yeah, only a few customers this afternoon. Are you feeling better? You’ve been out all week.”
“Ugh. Don’t remind me. I hate being sick.”
I knew it must have been bad to put Trina out of commission. She never called off. It felt like a lifetime had passed since the last time I’d seen her. So much had happened in a week.
“So what’s new with you?” she asked.
“I went on a date,” I said blandly. With a vampire.
“So how did it go?” She looked at me with a smile, awaiting juicy details, and I couldn’t blame her. It wasn’t often I went out on dates.
“It didn’t.”
“What happened?”
“Let’s just say haven’t seen him all week and I’m fairly certain he’s hung up on his past.” I didn’t realize until that moment just how disappointed I felt when Arie never dropped by. Not even once. I understood why, but I missed him. I didn’t bother adding that my life could be in danger. How could I even begin to explain that to Trina?
“Who’s the guy? Anyone I know? No, wait, let me guess. It’s the good tipper, the handsome one who wears a leather jacket.”
I sighed. “Yeah, that’s the one.”
“Oh, he’s a hottie. What was your date like?”
“Well don’t get ahead of yourself. I’m not the type he’s into.” He likes women in leather who like to flog the living daylights out of you. Of course, I had no idea if he was really into Tessa. I was probably just feeling insecure because Tessa was like walking sex and Arie was probably used to the beautiful women at the club. Not that I was bad-looking. I just didn’t wear skin tight leather that showed every curve.
She shook her head. “I think he’s got it bad for you. He wouldn’t be in here so often if he didn’t.”
I smiled. “He did take me to an amazing restaurant.”
“Did you take him home?”
I rolled my eyes. I knew what she really meant was whether or not I fucked him. “Not on a first date.”
“Well, he kissed you, right?”
My head started to hurt when I tried to remember how the night ended. I remembered being on top of the Aon Center, the spectacular view, and I remembered him jumping, but there was a blank spot in between. Every time I tried to focus on the blank spot, piercing pain shot through my head. I didn’t want to think about the other night and his humiliating rejection, let alone talk about it with Trina.
“I’m not sure. I can’t remember.”
Trina laughed. “A guy that good-looking and you can’t remember if he kissed you. I’d think a mouth like that would be pretty memorable.”
I almost giggled but caught myself. “Trina! Really.”
“I’m just saying.” She threw her hands up. “Oh, hey… I didn’t see your Beetle. I did see a gorgeous BMW. Is it yours?”
I sighed. I’d started driving the car. Only on loan. I had to remind myself. “The Beetle died and a friend is helping me out.” I didn’t want to go into the truth with Trina. She’d never understand it.
“I wish I had friends like that.”
The door to Marshall’s office squeaked open and he trudged out, squinting at us with beady eyes. “If you ladies are done gossiping, there’s work to do. Trina, I need you to do inventory in the storeroom and put together an order. And Holly, the bathroom isn’t going to clean itself.”
I resigned myself with dread to the inevitable grossness that awaited me in the bathroom. The rest of my shift flew by since it overlapped with Trina’s today. And it took hours to scrub the grime from all the crevices of the disgusting tile. I’m sure Marshall would find fault with it anyway. I couldn’t wait to get home and take a hot shower.
I grabbed my army satchel, leaving Trina to finish her shift. Blessedly mine finished without any more disgusting demands from Marshall. “Bye, Trina.”
“See you later.”
I drove home to wash away the grime. The door to my small one-bedroom apartment was ajar when I got there. My heart trembled like a leaf, and with shaking hands I gripped my small aerosol can of pepper spray in a defensive stance. I nudged the door wide with my foot before entering. The ungreased hinges let out an ominous creak before settling into a silence even more menacing.
My apartment was in shambles, with books, compact discs, and DVDs strewn about. Elf and fairy figurines that had lined the shadow box on the living room wall were smashed to bits. Plates from my kitchen cabinets were shattered in pieces scattered across the floor.
Walking through the kitchen, my shoes crunched the remains of dishes into the cheap linoleum. I inspected the damage while clutching the pepper spray. Looking back into the living room where I had just come from, I noticed for the first time the bold red lettering scrawled across the wall. The three-letter word sickened me: DIE.
Suddenly, I heard a scraping sound and turned on my heel. Mystic was using the molding around the pantry door as a scratching post. My shoulders slumped in momentary relief, until I heard the distinct creaky sound of the hinges on my front door.
“Hello,” I called out. Only the resounding silence answered me. Holding my breath, I rounded the corner.
“Holly?”
“Arie,” I said, lowering the pepper spray. “You scared me half to death.”
“Are you okay? What happened?”
“I’m fine. My apartment has been broken into again. I’m just glad I wasn’t home when it happened.”
His
penetrating eyes scrutinized the scene and the threatening message on the wall. He stepped forward, brushing a stray strand of hair framing my face behind my ear. His gentleness made me want to step into his arms. I relaxed slightly.
“Has anything been taken?” I heard rawness in his voice.
I looked around the apartment, as if seeing it for the first time. I bit my lip before regarding Arie. “I don’t see anything missing. Not that I have anything really worth taking. Except my laptop, which is still here. I think the threat on the wall pretty much says it all. Don’t you think?”
“I don’t like this.” He gestured to the ugly three-letter word on the wall.
“Yeah, you and me both.”
Arie regarded the threat with renewed interest. It felt reassuring to have him there, even though his presence always made my stomach do flip-flops. But right now my stomach was doing flip-flops for an entirely different reason.
“I should call the police,” I said.
“Call. Don’t call. It doesn’t really matter. If nothing has been taken, there’s not much they can do other than take a report in the event something more serious happens. You said you don’t have anything of value, and unless you have insurance to cover the damages there’s no need to have them take a report,” Arie said, pragmatic as ever. “Besides, we know the cause of this.”
Taking in the depressing chaos of my apartment, I let out a heavy sigh. “I have to clean this up and get some paint at the hardware store to cover that up.” I pointed to the word DIE spray-painted in red on my wall.
Abruptly, Arie did his time-bending trick and whizzed around the room, cleaning up the mess in moments instead of what would have taken me hours.
“Thanks. You didn’t have to do that.”
Arie shrugged. “It was either that or wait for you to do it. I need some information. We should go to the club. This is not a childish prank.”
“But I have to paint.”
“Leave it.”
“Why am I going with you?”
“You’re safer with me than staying here.”
I couldn’t argue with his logic. I grabbed my brown suede coat, feeling very underdressed for where we were going.
CHAPTER 8
We were going to the Hellfire Club to see Tessa. I couldn’t block out the sick feeling in my stomach. I looked over at Arie as we walked to his black Venom GT. It’s disgusting how unfazed he is. Does anything ever bother him? Arie tossed me the keys.
“You drive.”
“If you’re trying to get my mind off my apartment getting trashed by letting me drive it’s working, at least a little,” I said with a grin.
The engine purred to life like a stunning cheetah, which could almost rival the Venom in exotic speed. I couldn’t deny that driving her gave me a rush unlike any I’d felt from driving. I couldn’t believe I passed up the chance when he offered before.
Arie pulled a cell phone from his pocket and dialed a number. “Is Tessa at the club? Tell her I’m on the way there now.” There was a pause and someone answered, but I couldn’t hear their response. “It’s urgent that I speak with her. Be sure to relay my message.” I’m not sure if he waited to hear an answer before he hung up. But then people tended to do what Arie told them to.
We careened through rush hour traffic until we reached the South Side neighborhood. I snaked through side streets until we came to the entrance of the underground garage at the Hellfire Club. I drove through the deserted arcade and pulled the Venom into an empty space. The club had not yet opened.
Just keep cool. Keep it together.
We walked through the double swinging doors made with art glass to the lobby and I could see Victoria’s petite figure seated behind an ornate table. She looked up from the laptop in front of her. A bohemian silk tunic dress clung to her willowy frame. It seemed to suit her better than the Cigarette Girl outfit, which I assumed to be a uniform of sorts. She nodded at Arie as we approached.
Arie stopped at the table only briefly. “Victoria, we’re here to see Tessa. She’s expecting us.”
She gestured toward the stairs and returned her attention to her laptop.
I followed Arie across the black marble floor of the club to the elevators. When we reached the third floor, Arie walked past the door that led to her office and stopped instead a few paces down the hall in front of a large steel door. I looked at the door, unsure whether I wanted to see what stood on the other side.
“Why aren’t we meeting Tessa in her office?”
“When I called they said she had a meeting prior to ours in here. Depending on the nature of the meeting sometimes she prefers a more intimidating environment.”
Arie opened the heavy door without hesitation, to a room that left me staring in stunned disbelief. The volume ceiling had steel-beam rafters where several pairs of chains hung. Suspended from each chain were heavy steel cuffs. Both walls to the right and left were mirrored.
Oh God, anyone dangling from above gets to see exactly how they’re being tortured.
On the far wall at the front of the room were all manner of weapons mounted—including a bastard sword, battle-axe, mace, katar, swallow, scythe, and halberd. I’m an avid reader and had read enough epic fantasy to have some clue as to what these weapons were. The only one I wasn’t sure of was a club-like weapon that looked like a mace. It had a round head with a long spike protruding from the one end and several smaller spikes surrounding it.
I swallowed the lump in my throat.
In front of the vast weaponry stood a Judas chair with countless sharp spikes that covered the back, arm-rests, seat, leg-rests, and foot-rests. As I moved closer the metallic smell of old blood drifted through air thick with tension. Or maybe my tension resonated through the room.
Tessa stood smiling in front of the wall of weapons, motioning for us to approach. She had stopped speaking to the Hispanic man who stood beside her. He had a tattoo on his upper arm of a Playboy bunny with the right ear bent and alphanumeric font beneath it that read G264.
He strode past us, exiting the room and aiming a polite nod at Tessa on his way out. I should not be here. I couldn’t deny the implications of the precarious situation, and tried to steady my breathing.
-Do you like my interrogation room? It’s sound proof, unlike my office.-
The telepathic message Tessa projected to me left me with the sensation of my heart plunging to meet my stomach. Tessa looked incongruent in the medieval questioning room in a Louis Vuitton seventies-inspired midi-dress. It made her appear more threatening than if she had been wearing her gauntlets.
“I have a dungeon meant for pleasure and pain. This is meant only for pain,” she said aloud, gesturing to the surrounding space. “You caught me in the middle of a meeting.”
The dangling chains clanked together from my slight movement as fear stopped me dead center beneath them. For the first time I noticed a small square table next to the Judas chair. On top of the table were various knives and instruments. I had no idea what they were. The only one I could identify looked like a scalpel.
“Arie, I’m glad you called. I have some important developments to share with you,” Tessa said.
“As do I. Her apartment has been broken into again, and I have a feeling I know who’s behind it whether you agree with me or not.”
I had forgotten Arie the moment we set foot in the interrogation room. I felt grateful for his presence now. Somehow it made me feel safer.
“Then shall we proceed to my office? My meeting ran over. You may bring your pet,” Tessa said.
Every fiber of my being screamed for me to run from this Medieval nightmare. The pepper spray in my army satchel would do me little good. Tessa acknowledged a soft knock at the door. Victoria entered the interrogation chamber, her silk dress billowing around her thin frame. “Mistress, phone for you,” she announced.
“I’ll take it in my apartment in just a moment. I have business to discuss with Arie. Could you meet me in my office in ten?�
�� she asked.
He nodded.
Tessa left in a blur. I followed Arie to her office, glad to be leaving the place where I’m sure countless people who had crossed Tessa had been tortured.
***
Arie and I waited for Tessa in her lavish office. We didn’t have to wait long. She entered swiftly, her wedge heels squeaking on the floor. Sitting in the damask wing chair at the desk, she eyed the plate on its opulent surface. The plate contained red raspberries, purple grapes, and plums. She popped a raspberry in her mouth, taking a sip of water before acknowledging Arie.
“The man I met with in my interrogation room is the leader of Gangsta Two Six Four. He came here to report that some prostitutes have been found drained of their blood.”
“Despite the decrees these infractions are tolerated as long as it doesn’t affect our exposure. And I assume with G264 on our payroll that it will be covered up. You are offering a payoff as compensation, I presume?” Arie asked.
I fidgeted with my locket as I listened to them talk.
“Unfortunately, whoever is behind this is an equal opportunist. A young girl went missing and he found blood near her home. The girl was his niece. When he found her body it had been drained and dumped a few blocks from where he found the blood. The police are not involved because he suspects the same one who drained the prostitutes is responsible. Our business dealings are far more important than seeking retribution. He expects us to handle it in-house. I will make sure the family receives generous compensation for their loss.”
“Of course, I assume that with G246 involvement, this has already escalated to the Legacy.”
“I had no choice, and Arie… I believe this implicates a certain vampire. We both know that she has a taste for young girls. I would not think it’s possible but since you told me of the presence, I put a call in to François. And I think we both know its source. He returned my call just now.”
“And?”
“Anna and Katalin passed through his Court a few months ago. Anna let it slip that she had been staying with them. She’s looking for you. You had to suspect someone was protecting her. You know her history with the sisters and her loyalty to them.”