Steele City Blues: The Third Book in the Hell’s Belle Series (Hell's Belle 3)

by Karen Greco

  "Let's see," Leila said, as she paced in front of me, counting on her fingers. "First I took your daddy. Then I took your aunty. Now..." She grinned, her fangs glinting in the fluorescent light.

  "You won't be taking him," I said, my voice thick.

  "No," she said. "Not yet anyway. I need him to stir one little spell for me."

  "What spell is that?" I asked, tempering my anger. The bolt holding the wrist restraints was loosened enough that if I raised my arms, it would simply pop out.

  "Why, the spell that made you, of course," she said.

  I froze. "What do you mean?"

  "Leila, please," Dr. O said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Leave her out of this."

  A cold smile broke across her face. "Our little witch doesn't know?"

  "Know what?" I asked. Panic mingled with curiosity, filling my stomach with a tight ball of tension.

  She snorted. "I really need to explain the birds and the bees? At your age?" She heaved a dramatic sigh. "Vampires are dead. They can't have children."

  "My very existence proves that false," I interrupted.

  "But did you ever stop to think why?" she asked, her eyes glowing their eerie green as her excitement grew. I wondered if I looked like that when I was vamping out, because it was creepy as hell. "Of course you didn't. You weren't a miracle, Nina. You’re not special. You were conjured."

  "What do you—" I started, looking down at Dr. O as he reached for Leila's shoe, his mouth forming the word "no." She kicked him in the face before he could get the word out and he went down with a thud. I yanked towards Dr. O’s slack body, but strain of the bolts kept me in check, reminding me to settle back down.

  "I mean, we created you. Me, your father..." She turned to me, her eyes vibrant. "...and your well regarded mayor." She laughed as my expression turned from defiance to dumbfounded. So Gramps wasn’t bullshitting me. "You don't think a centuries dead vamp can father a child without a little demonic intervention?"

  Max's hand clamped down on my shoulder, giving me a small squeeze. Was this a protective gesture? I glanced up at him, his face contorting as he tried to contain his anger and keep the Berserker chained in his body. Bertrand made me a monster. Just like he made Max.

  Max's anger channeled into me through his hand. I wasn't there when Max asked the demon for a favor, but I was sure the outcome wasn't what Max had in mind. The outcome never is where demons are involved. That's why it's best to avoid dealing with them at all.

  Leila reached her hands to her knees and squatted in front of me to get a better look at my face. "Bertrand is your daddy too," she taunted.

  "Leila, don't," Dr. O pleaded from where he was heaped on the floor, his own magic neutered by iron binding.

  "Don't what, old man?" she said, turning her attention to him. She straightened and stalked to him, circling his spent body. She prodded his midsection with the toe of her high-heeled black boot. "Don't tell my daughter the truth? That we had a little demonic fertility help? Keep her in the dark like you've done for decades? It's time she learned that she was a mistake, an error. But damn it all if she wasn't the closest we got."

  "I thought you did it for love?" he whispered.

  "Love?" she scoffed. "Love! You are all so damn sentimental, aren't you? It was an experiment."

  "An experiment for what?" I asked, digging my nails into the arms of the chair. I cast my eyes down, worried that they were glowing as my anger built, giving my vampire away. Not yet. It wasn't time yet. Not when I was finally getting a sliver of truth out of this woman.

  She turned to me, her copper-colored hair so much like my own flowing around her. "To build the perfect weapon."

  "To fight who?" I asked, my voice edging higher as my control waned.

  "Everyone," she said.

  "There's a good answer," Max quipped.

  She glared at him. "You'd do well to remember your place, human."

  "But I wasn't a perfect weapon," I interrupted.

  "You weren't meant to be the weapon," she said. "You weren't meant to live, child. The charm was meant for me."

  "But you weren’t an immortal at the time," I said, realization settling in. "If Bertrand's charm didn't work, you'd be dead."

  "And your father was a willing participant, with all his talk of love. He thought we were creating a baby."

  "But really you were checking to see if the demon charm would kill me?" I said.

  "Not kill you, create you," Dr. O interrupted, his voice weak. "Genetically speaking, if the embryo created from the coupling of a vampire and a witch survived, there would be reason to believe that whatever allowed the genetic mix to pair could be applied to an already living witch. It would give that witch the strength to carry both vampire and witch magic. Without that charm, the strength of the two combined would be disastrous to the host body."

  "So you knew?" I asked.

  "What's a little alchemy between friends?" Leila taunted.

  "I knew that there was magic involved, of course," Dr. O said, closing his eyes. "I didn't know that it was for anything other than starting a family.”

  "So Bertrand's charm is how you’re able to hold witch power, even after you turned," I said, not adding that it was how I was able to as well. "So what do you want from me?"

  "Your demon mayor has been unable to replicate his charm," she said, surveying me. "Or perhaps he’s been unwilling?” Leila met my gaze. The right corner of her lip curled up in amusement. “Either way, I need to do it without him. We can analyze your blood. We can kill you, watch you turn, figure out what he did to create you. And maybe replicate his spell. My experiment on Kittie gave me a good idea of how to do it.” Annoyance flashed over her face. “But then you didn't need a tattoo to ignite your power. All you needed was a nick from a spelled knife.”

  That infernal knife triggered the entire chain of events. It was like the safety of a gun, needing to be released in order for the trigger to work. It was also a death sentence for me, with the vamp and witch waging war within my body.

  "So what did you need the werewolves for?" I asked. I wanted her to keep talking. As long as she was talking, no one was dying.

  "She won't stop at one genetic experiment," Dr. O said, curling in on himself. I hiccupped to hide the surge of power that coursed through my body as Dr. O shifted his position. The iron wasn't completely blocking his magic either. He was too powerful for that.

  Leila glared at him, telling me she felt it too. "Please, lose the horrified expression. It's called progress."

  "It's called murder," I said. Max squeezed my shoulder harder, and I felt my clavicle shift under the pressure.

  Leila slinked, cat-like, towards Dr. O, pulling her blade out from where it was sheathed at the small of her back. Her mouth twitched up in a grin that made my blood colder than it already ran. I gasped as I realized what she had been doing. He was covered in blood from countless stab wounds. Leila didn't slice into him deep enough to kill him, but only enough to syphon his magic.

  As powerful as Dr. O was, he was weak from enduring the iron and untold number of wounds. I wasn't sure he had enough magic to keep himself alive, never mind a plunge of that infernal blade.

  We were out of time. The cavalry in the box truck hadn't arrived. My vampire beast was barely in check. Dr. O couldn't withstand anymore blood loss. It was do-or-die, and I was ready to die doing.

  I yanked my arms lose of the bindings while I jerked my feet forward, popping the bolts that held iron clamps around my ankles. Shrapnel from the hardware went flying, kicking off a sort of duck-and-cover confusion among Leila's human army that I used to my advantage.

  Hurling myself out of the chair, I raced towards Dr. O. Without my team of werewolves in the box truck, I was on my own. Vampire and witch or not, there were a lot of heavily magically armed humans standing between me and our exit, and Dr. O was my priority. I'd figure out how to get the rest of the witches and werewolves out some other way.

  A burst of electricity hit m
e, and it felt like I was running through molasses. Even though my body moved at vampire-speed, I barely inched closer to Dr. O. Another jolt slammed into me, and the distance between us stretched out like a Bugs Bunny cartoon. I glared at Leila, her hands and lips moving as she tossed spells at me, hindering my progress. Shit. With the iron bounds released, my own magic — shitty as it was — would have to counteract her spells.

  I closed my eyes, pushing my focus inward. I imagined breaking her spell; imagined what my speed would feel like; imagined the air tickling my skin as I zoomed through it towards Dr. O.

  "Mobilitas," I blurted out, the Latin word for speed exploding off my tongue with all the delicacy of a freight train. My body hesitated, leaving me hanging in a midair leap. "Damn it all," I muttered, my mind racing over the countless ways that I probably blew the spell. Just as I was about to give the spell a go in English, my body lurched forward, breaking through the magical barrier that held me back.

  "Grab her!" Leila shrieked, flashing a mouth of full fangs as she barked orders at her minions. Her eyes brightened, and, with no blood running in her veins, her skin's translucence was magnified. Her anger must have kicked her bloodsucker into full force. With the vampire dominant, her magic was slower, weaker. That’s how I was able to break through her spell. I finally had an advantage.

  A pack of guards stepped between me and Dr. O, and it was my turn to let my freak flag fly. My body shifted into an ungainly gait, jerking forward like an out of control NASCAR Sprint Cup. I barreled through the first row of guards, riot shields at the ready, like a set of bowling pins. Face to face with the next layer, I bared my fangs and reached towards one of the officers, his face pale with shock at the site of my vamped out body.

  "She's a... she’s a..." was all he managed to choke out as I grasped him by the front of his neck and squeezed. His eyeballs bulged and he flapped his arms, searching for his sidearm. The stink of desperation flowed off of him, causing me to gag. It was just enough of a distraction that allowed him to yank his sidearm from its holster and pull the trigger. I felt the lead burn through my abdomen, rip apart my intestines and then slice out of my back. Max laid down a string of expletives.

  "Crap," I said, Max’s salty language told me where the bullet landed. That’d piss him off for sure.

  I tossed the guard, who was now unconscious, into the path of more security advancing on me from the left. His limp body slammed into the group, all four henchmen hitting the ground.

  Another spell drove into me. Leila had enough mojo going to hit me with something, but whatever it was didn't seem to have any effect. I pushed forward as three more guards advanced and powered through them with a few well-placed punches, knocking each one out cold. Easy-peasy, as Darcy would say.

  Somersaulting over the bodies heaped on the floor, I headed towards Dr. O. But as soon as my feet hit the ground, my knees buckled and vision blurred. Then what felt like a weight dropped into my head, threatening to split it open. Teeth gritted, I pressed my knuckles into my temples, unable to concentrate on anything but the pain ripping through me. Leila had gotten her mojo back.

  While Leila's magic held me captive, I was an easy target for her hopped up humans. Lucky for me, they had to bring me down alive, although that was all relative. How alive did I have to be, really? Through my distorted vision, a group of guards, lead by the lone female, advanced towards me, but their movements were cautious, hesitant. They still weren't sure what I was, but they knew it was more than witch. And whatever Leila knew about me, she wasn't sharing. Yet.

  I sensed the iron before the mega-shackle clomped onto my wrist. Given the weight of the metal, and my ability to sense it from at least a foot away, they were leaning towards the witch on steroids. The advantage was still mine; they didn’t know I turned. Before they could chain my other wrist, I lashed out, striking a blow to the unlucky shackler, sending him across the room. Just as I was about to round on the next one, a force of electricity jolted through my body. I toppled to the floor, my body jerking from one side to the other, setting my nerves on fire. As I thrashed around, I watched the female guard press a cattle prod into my thigh, singeing the fabric of my pants. My focus trained on her gleeful face before a larger jolt killed my concentration again. My fangs extended while I clawed at the cement under my body, searching for some way to ground myself against the feral electricity. I wrinkled my nose as the smell of charred flesh assaulted my vamp-tuned senses.

  I felt the vibration of the boom before I heard it, and the woman wielding the cattle prod landed on the floor in a heap, her nearly severed head landing just inches from my own. The flow of electricity that burned through my body mercilessly ceased, but the relief was short-lived. Blood gushed from the woman's open neck, spilling onto the floor and creating a viscous red river that flowed towards me. I licked my lips when the metallic scent hit my nostrils, and I was suddenly very aware of the ache forming in the pit of my stomach. Another heavy boom vibrated the walls, jarring my head up just in time to see a Hulked out Max remove another guard's head with simply the swipe of his hand.

  I forced myself to my feet, away from the appetizing stream that pooled beside me. Leila had a momentary moratorium on magic, her eyes as wide as saucers, mouth twitching into a gleeful smile, as she witnessed a Berserker attack. The supernatural creatures had died with the Vikings until Max and Bertrand teamed up to bring them out of extinction.

  Max was systematically wiping out each of Leila's guards. Blood spray hit the walls and puddled on the floor along with chunks of flesh and bone that he tore away with his bare hands. Max moved through the ranks, each human cowering before him, their pleas unnoticed by his Berserker-blind rage.

  The problem with Berserker-blind rage is that it doesn't always point to the right targets. So once he felled Leila's minions, Dr. O was directly in his path.

  The giant loomed over the tiny man still crumpled on the floor. With both his body and his magic so weakened, Dr. O was as good as dead.

  I launched myself between Max and Dr. O, not caring that my preternatural swiftness was on full display. Max looked at me, lost in the fog of war, his eyes not registering any recognition. Now in close proximity to him, I caught the pungent scent of adrenaline mixed with sweat. His fury manifested in his heart, the muscle pounding so hard that I could see the taut skin over his chest constrict and relax, working to pump an unnatural amount of blood around his freakishly large body. Between the gore soaked room and the sound of his blood pulsing through his body, my hunger trolled just below the surface. I felt my control slipping away as Max continued to advance on me, threatening me, his jugular vein a tantalizing reminder of the damage I, too, could inflict on the living, no matter what size.

  Max raised his hand and landed a punishing blow to my jaw, my bones shattering on impact. I raised my bowed head, my jawbone healing as fast as he mangled it. I massaged its hinges and took in his expression of surprise, probably because my head was still attached to my body. His disbelief short-lived, he snatched me by my neck, lifting me off the floor. His hands threatened to crush my trachea, not that I needed it.

  My un-manicured nails sprouted into claws, and I slashed at him until he lost his grip. I dropped back to my feet. Leila stalked behind Max, hesitating as she looked between the two of us.

  She motioned to the guards behind her, eyes bright. "Take them both down. Keep them alive."

  The guards advanced with a glacial pace. I smelled their unease — attacking the Hulk and a Living Dead Witch at the same time was a definite cause for consideration. A guard up front decided he didn't want to be in the line of fire and pulled out a Taser, shooting its tendrils at Max while maintaining a safe distance. The probes landed on his chest, and I felt the force of the electricity jolt his body. But, rather than bring the big man down, it only served to piss him off even more.

  Max came at me with renewed ferocity. I dropped into a crouch as he reached for my neck again, coming back up to drive an uppercut into his stomach. Eve
ry knuckle in my fist cracked as it collided with a wall of muscle. I grunted, but Max didn't even flinch. Instead, he raised the back of his backhand and slammed it into my cheek. The force of his punch sent me flying several feet and I landed against the wall, some of the stones crumbling on impact. Shaking the cobwebs from my head, I scrambled out of the concave dent that held the shape of my body as Max advanced towards me. He reached for me and I ducked to get out of his grip. But with my brain still foggy, I misjudged the space between us and he caught me by my hair, yanking on my braid and pulling my head back. I raised my leg and landed my booted heel straight into his kneecap. A satisfying crack was heard just below his bellow of rage and pain. But instead of releasing my hair, he twisted the plait around his hand and then slammed my face back into the crumbling wall.

  I raked my razor sharp claws through my hair, slicing the braid until it dangled in his hand, freed from my scalp. Before he could snatch me again, I sprang onto him. He held steady, and I climbed him like a mountain, finding his neck and sinking my fangs into him. Warm blood exploded into my mouth, and as I pulled, I felt my own strength blossom as his receded.

  I glanced up to see Leila's henchmen advancing on both of us, a mix of Tasers, guns and iron chains all at the ready. A metal link slammed into the side of my head. Hands groped at me, trying to pull me off of Max's mountain of a body. My teeth slipped easily out of his neck as he slumped against the wall, his body slowly returning to human form. The chain came at me again. This time I caught it in mid-swing, yanking the chain hard and bringing the man on the other end towards me. I wrapped the chain around his neck and pulled him to my chest, using him as a shield as I turned my body out towards the other guards. Bullets sprayed into both of us, his body jerking at their impact. Throwing his limp body aside, I powered through the wall of humans. They fell on me like rabid animals. Not one of them had the sense to get the hell away from the vampire supped up on Berserker blood.