He just glared at me. I could feel it, then. I’d hurt him, more than I ever would have guessed.
“Brennan, it’s always been Nain,” I said, blushing, knowing the words were true as they left my lips. “Always. As much as I hate him sometimes, as much of a bastard as he is…it’s him.”
“Because of the demon thing?”
“That, and everything. Whatever he is, it’s part of me and I’m part of him. I didn’t realize it fully until I said it just now, but, yeah. He belongs to me.”
“How nice for you,” he muttered.
“Don’t do this,” I begged. “You’re a good, powerful, gorgeous man. You have women throwing themselves at you just walking down the street. I’m the last thing you need.”
“Just forget it,” he said, turning and walking back into the building.
I was watching him storm into the building, when the imp leader popped out of the Barracuda.
“Hey,” I said to him.
“Mistress. Lost girl. East Side imp brigade reports intel that she’s in a house in Indian Village.”
“Normals, or something else?”
“Vampire.”
“Just one?”
He nodded. “Still might want to call demon skin,” he said, ears twitching. “Vampires nasty.”
I glanced at the building. “I can handle one vampire,” I said.
The imp’s disbelief was evident on his face. “As Mistress says,” was all he said. We got into the car and headed toward Indian Village.
Leader imp, deputy imp, and I drove to Indian Village. I circled the neighborhood, driving past the house twice. This was a ritzy neighborhood. The homes were large, well-tended. Expensive cars sat in the driveways, and the word “manicured” aptly described everything from the lawns to the people. I’d noticed a private security car driving around. I’d have to avoid that. The last thing I needed was to have to answer questions about what I was doing sneaking around in this neighborhood, wearing all black.
A house like this was trickier than the dumps I usually had to make my way into. One like this could have alarms. Hell, that was probably a given. Especially if the person living there had something to hide. Like a girl.
I parked the car a couple of blocks away, in the parking lot of a little neighborhood coffee shop. I got out and disappeared into the night, jumping fences and making sure I avoided the security squad, making my way back to the brick Tudor where, right this very moment, someone might be living or dying solely on the whim of a sicko creature of the night.
Times like this, when I was getting ready to run into the unknown, I felt more alive than at almost any other time, especially until I’d met Nain. Rage filled me, adrenaline pumped through my veins, and I could feel my power singing within me. My body felt loose. It was the only time I felt normal.
Man, I was one screwed up chick.
I got into the back yard and crept around the house, listening. I could hear a television on somewhere on the first floor. Probably the family room. Or, what did rich people call them…dens? Maybe in the den.
I went around the back. A window was open, letting in the cool night breeze. I listened outside, heard nothing. Cutting the screen and climbing in was simple. This was ridiculously easy.
I was in a bedroom. Dark and empty. I stood and listened, let my eyes adjust to the darkness. The den was across the hall.
“I hear you in there. You might as well come in here talk to me, Angel,” a male voice said. And now I knew what a vampire felt like; an energy signature so smooth, so powerful, that it was easy to see how the Normals succumbed to their charms so readily.
I held my knife and walked out of the room and into the den. The imps were still following me. “Sure about this, Mistress?” leader imp asked in a raspy whisper.
I nodded. “Too late now to turn back.”
We walked into the den. The vampire was sitting on a dark red wingback chair. He was not a bad looking fella, for an undead parasite. Rather handsome, actually, with wavy brown hair and dark eyes. Pale skin. Fangs.
“Your little network works quickly, doesn’t it?” he asked, folding his hands in his lap.
“Yeah, well. We try.”
“It’s an imperfect system, it would seem. There are no girls here. Well, there weren’t until you arrived,” he said, smiling.
Oh, shit. I exchanged glances with leader imp. “We been set up, Mistress,” he said, shame flooding through him.
“It was easy. Start a rumor or two, get the right people talking. I knew I could count on your imp army to carry word to you.” He was still smiling. I surveyed my surroundings, planning, always planning. “Are you afraid? You are.” He smiled again as if we were discussing the weather.
“Nah. I’m just disgusted by your decorating choices. Very old lady,” I said, still looking around.
He laughed, though I felt irritation coming from him. He wanted me afraid, trembling. Good luck with that, buddy. I’d be afraid later.
“So, now what? Shouldn’t there be organ music or something playing, Dracula?”
“Watch it, Angel.” Irritation. This one was vain. I could use that. Hopefully.
“So, how are we going to do this? Are you just going to be a nice vamp and admit you made a mistake luring me here? Or am I going to have to hurt you?”
He smiled at me again. His fangs grew. “Oh, I think we should play a while. I can’t keep you, unfortunately. Reward to collect and all, but I bet your blood would be spectacular,” he said. “I’m sure Astaroth won’t begrudge me a little taste.” And he got up and charged at me, faster than I would have thought possible.
I grabbed a heavy marble ugly candlestick thing off of a nearby table and swung it at him, Detroit Tigers style, just as he reached me. I made contact, and my arms jerked with the impact. He fell down, but was right back up again. His head was bleeding, but he shook it off and sprung at me again. I kicked out, catching him in the gut. Note to self: have Brennan teach me more martial arts when he’s done being pissed at me. Those kicks came in damn handy, I thought as I watched the vampire fly back against the expensive mahogany bookcases.
I advanced on him, swung the candlestick at him again while he was down, and he caught my wrist in mid-swing. I kicked him between the legs, and he let go of my arm. While he was bent double, I brought the candlestick down on the back of his head, twice. The second time dropped him.
I didn’t waste any time in binding his wrists behind him and his ankles together with the zip ties. I had no illusions that they would hold him forever. Vampires were strong, and I’d gotten lucky. I needed to remember to start carrying silver or garlic or something with me.
Vampires. Holy shit.
I added an additional zip tie to both his wrists and ankles. Then I glanced at him one more time and crept through the house. I’d make sure he didn’t have any snacks stashed anywhere before I left. The first floor yielded nothing, as did the second floor.
I peeked in at him, noted that he was still out, then headed down to the basement.
Nothing. Well, that much was a relief.
“Gotta go, Mistress,” the leader imp said, pulling on my pant leg. “Should have left already.”
“I know. I had to be sure. We’re going.”
Then, of course, I heard footsteps on the basement stairs. I cursed myself for not moving faster. My life was like one of those horror movies where you’re yelling at the girl “no, no, don’t go in the basement” and she does it anyway. Dumb, dumb, dumb. The imps shrunk back, giving me a fearful glance.
I grabbed the candlestick again. It had worked wonders so far.
Chapter Twelve
The vampire was now visible on the stairway. And the further down he came, the better I was able to see him.
And he carried a sword.
Candlestick-wielding mindflayer versus sword-wielding vampire. Great.
I tried using my mental power, even though, from what little I knew, I didn’t think they’d work on vamps. �
�You want to drop the sword now,” I said, filling my voice. He simply laughed and shook his head.
“Mortal mind powers have no effect on the undead, bitch,” he said, coming slowly toward me. “It’s convenient that you made your way down here. Blood is so hard to get out of the upholstery.”
Keep him talking. “It’s ugly furniture anyway. The blood would be an improvement.” He kept coming at me. “That’s quite a bump there, Fangy. Poor baby,” I mocked.
“I can see why you have so many enemies,” he growled. “It will be a pleasure to have you unconscious for a while.”
“Well, I’ll just stand here, trembling in fear. Oh, wait. No. No, I won’t.”
“What are you going to do, mortal?”
“I am going to kick your pale ass so hard you won’t know which hole to piss out of.” Then I thought a second. “Wait. Do vampires even have to piss?”
“We do not.”
“Oh, well. You get the point.” And I lunged at him, surprising him, and he met my candlestick arm with his sword, sweeping the candlestick easily aside.
After a few more hits, it became clear that getting into a fight with a vampire was among the dumbest ideas I’d ever had.
He kept sweeping the sword at me, and the best I could do was try to time it to knock the sword away. I earned a series of cuts along my arms, shoulders, and sides, and I could feel my blood soaking through my clothing. I was weakening. I was strong, when I was fully focused. But a lot of my power was going toward closing and healing the wounds I was getting. And I was accumulating wounds faster than I could heal them.
He was pushing me back, toward the wall, trying to corner me. His fangs were fully extended now, and he had a crazed, hungry look in his eyes. All the blood.
He struck at me, hard, with the sword, and I backed up, trying to miss the blade that was aimed for my neck. I ended up overbalancing, and tripped over a crate on the floor behind me, fell back, hard, onto the concrete floor.
He laughed, gleefully, like a madman, and tossed the sword aside, leaping on top of me. I struggled, but vampires are freakishly strong, and I was weak from healing. I needed more energy. I cursed my stupidity.
Fire. Fire and vampires didn’t mix. I tried to call my fire as the vampire lowered his face to my throat.
Nothing. Too weak.
Stupid. So freaking stupid, I cursed myself.
I felt his fangs pierce the side of my neck, in slow, agonizing detail. I could feel the instant fang punctured skin. I could feel my blood start to trickle, felt each pull as he began to drink from me. My neck and shoulder were on fire.
I started to panic. Tried to call my fire again. Nothing.
Irony. My healing ability may have just helped seal my doom.
Thinking became harder.
I could feel my heart start to slow.
Thump.
I remembered Nain’s teeth on my neck, my collarbone, just hours ago. Ecstasy.
Thump.
Please, fire?
Thump.
Please.
Thump…
Please, fire? I begged as the vampire kept drinking.
I thought of all the things I still needed to do: destroy Astaroth. Make things right with Brennan. Learn who my parents were. Feed my dogs. Let Ada teach me about defensive gems.
Many things involving Nain.
Thump.
Please.
Just a spark?
Thump.
And then I felt it. Even as my heart slowed more, a flicker. Just a little.
Please.
I opened my hand. Willed the fire forth.
A tiny, perfect ball of fire appeared in my hand, and I smashed it into the vampire’s back. Flames crept along the back of his shirt.
He ripped his fangs out of my neck, and I nearly passed out from the pain of it. He screeched, flinging himself away and trying to put the fire out. He rolled, and, eventually the flames died out.
His back was burnt, blackened, and terror, anger, flooded from him. Panic. The basement smelled like cooked flesh. I stood up said a silent thank you to whichever gods had helped me remember my fire.
I still hated using it. Stolen treasure. It still felt dirty flowing through my body. But it had saved my life this time. And I wasn’t done yet.
I called forth another ball of fire. I was dizzy, determined not to let him see how weak I still was. My body had resumed healing itself, slowly. The gaping wound in my neck, where he’d been biting me, was the worst of it. The burning as I healed was almost too much.
No way I’d let this parasite see that.
“I believe you said you wanted to play,” I said.
He snarled at me, but cowered into a corner.
“Where is Astaroth?”
He hissed at me, and I bobbled the fire in my hands.
“You know where he is. You were going to bring me to him. So where is he?”
“You’re going to kill me anyway,” he said. “I’m not telling you a thing, demon bitch.”
I felt the leader imp standing next to me. “Get Nain, please,” I said softly.
“Wifey already gone to get demon skin,” he said. “Heard you say his name.”
“Excellent.” Then I glanced at him. “I didn’t know you two were married. How nice.”
He shrugged. “Five hundred and twenty seven years.”
“Wow.”
“Yes.”
We stood that way a long time, me holding fire in my palm, the vampire cowering and glaring at me from the corner, and leader imp watching my back.
“You have a name?” I finally asked the imp.
“Bashiok. Wifey is Dahael.”
“Sorry I didn’t ask before,” I said, still watching the vampire.
“Mistress is the first to bother asking.”
“Demons are jerkfaces,” I said.
The imp stayed silent, but I sensed humor.
It wasn’t long before I heard heavy footsteps up above, felt Nain’s presence. Dahael came scampering down the stairs first, followed by Nain. I felt my power growing, fed just by being in his presence. I devoured him with my eyes. I watched him as he took in the sight of me and my shredded, bloody clothes, surveyed the basement floor covered in drying, sticky blood. Rage flooded through him, and when his gaze finally landed on the vampire now pitifully cowering in the corner, I could feel how much he wanted to destroy the creature.
“Molls,” he said, cool and calm on the outside. Only the muscle tic in his clenched jaw gave him away. And I only recognized it because I’d seen him pissed off so often.
Usually, at me.
“Hey.” I nodded toward the vampire. “Vlad here knows where Astaroth is. He was going to turn me over to him. He won’t tell me, but then it occurred to me that it might be better if you ask him.” I tried getting into his head. I’m still nearly tapped out. The fire and healing are all I can manage.
Nain looked at me, raised his eyebrow. It makes me hot when you get all tactical like this.
I bit back a grin.
He hurt you.
Yeah. It was gross.
I’m going to enjoy hurting him. I am the only one who gets to bite you.
I blushed, felt my body responding to him, to the desire, rage, and adrenaline running through him.
I looked at Nain again, met his eyes. I nodded toward the vampire, and Nain gave me a nod in return.
“Okay, bloodsucker. Here’s the deal.” He spotted the sword the vampire had tossed aside, went over and picked it up, weighed it in his hand. My blood still stained the blade. “You know things. You’ll tell us. My blade can end it quickly if you behave yourself. But the demoness there? You’ve really pissed her off. And she’s not someone you want to piss off. Looks like you got a little taste of her wrath already. She can fuck you up real bad. And she can do it over and over again, for as long as it takes for us to learn what we want. And you know what I am. I’ll know if you try to lie to me.”
The vampire snarled. “Screw
you. She’s dead, just as much as I am.”
I took a breath, swallowed against the sick feeling in my stomach. Now that he was here, and it was clear what would happen to the vampire, I almost felt bad for the bloodsucker.
Molly. He was dead anyway. Don’t.
This is wrong. Just kill him. I shouldn’t have called you.
He knows things. Do you want to be surprised like this again?
I didn’t answer.
“He knows where to find her, demon. He will take her, or one of us will make a gift of her, but either way her time is up.”
That is not acceptable. Hate me later, but this fucker is telling us what he knows.
“So where is he?” Nain asked the vampire, glancing at me.
“She was delectable, by the way. Intoxicating.”
I felt rage course through Nain.
“Can’t say I was as impressed with you,” I muttered.
“Astaroth is really going to have fun with you, mindflayer.”
I walked over to where he was huddled, in pain. “Tell us what you know,” I said softly. “He’ll end it quickly.”
He just glared at me. Then he laughed. “She doesn’t have the stomach for it. You chose a weak weapon, Nain Rouge.”
Then Nain met my eyes. “Go upstairs, Molly.”
I nodded, climbed the stairs. My imps trailed me, and I could feel Nain’s eyes on me as I went.
I waited in the living room with the imps. I paced, listened to the grunts and screams coming from the basement. A few shouts. Nain’s rage permeated the very air around me. He was frustrated. I felt victory a few times from him. I guessed he was learning something. I tried not to think about what he was doing.
It went on for hours. Eventually, I lost all sense of the vampire, and I heard Nain climbing the stairs. I glanced at the imps. “You should go outside.” Bashiok and Dahael nodded, scurried out the front door.
Nain walked into the living room. He was covered in pale blood. Not his. He met my eyes, and I saw him glance at my neck. It had not finished healing yet, but at least it wasn’t bleeding as much.
“He told me what I wanted to know. He didn’t know where Astaroth is, only how to reach him. Who’s in his inner circle. It’s a start,” he said.
Lost Girl: Hidden Book One Page 14