“That a fact?” it was a rhetorical question. “Everybody in here works with Sophinia in one way or another, so what do you want?”
“We’re here to give a message to Cassandra,” Jerry said.
“Cass is busy. She’s about to go on stage,” the Bartender said. He didn’t ask if they wanted anything to drink, he just pulled out two cold beers, popped the caps and placed them in front of them. “You can wait.”
“Thanks,” Goose said, as the bartender walked away. He didn’t even ask for money. “I love this place!” he whispered to Jerry, then turning to eye up one of the waitresses.
“Those two chicks in the booth have been staring at us since we walked in,” Jerry said in a hushed tone.
“Who, Scarface and the snake charmer?” Goose asked, not looking over.
“Yeah, it’s making me nervous,” Jerry replied.
“Maybe they think we’re hot?” Goose smiled and shrugged.
The song suddenly changed to Welcome to the Jungle by Guns and Roses and the roof lights all swiveled round to point at the stage. Several men and even a few women crowded around the sides looking excited. Smoke started to pour from the back of the stage and a moment later, in sync with the music, Cassandra stepped out.
“There’s your girlfriend,” Goose nodded.
She was wearing a camouflage jacket and trousers and big army boots. Her long brown hair was tied up in a knot at the back of her head. She walked straight over to the pole in the center of the stage and started up her routine, causing the crowds of horny customers to wolf whistle and cheer.
Cassandra was obviously very popular here.
She pulled at the knot on her head and her long brown hair fell down over one shoulder. A second later she ripped open the camouflage jacket, revealing nothing but a black bra underneath. She threw the jacket at one of the customers, who seemed more than happy to receive it. Money was being thrown on the stage. Jerry and Goose just looked on, their eyes glued to her lovely body. Jerry practically fainted when she ripped off her trousers, revealing nothing but lacy black underwear.
Cassandra continued to undulate around the pole, bending and twisting, graphically illustrating how nimble and lithe she was. With cat-like agility, she jumped about ten feet in the air and back flipped before landing and doing the splits. Jerry was starting to feel very warm inside and he shifted uncomfortably as his lower body took on a mind of its own.
“Dude, I take it back,” Goose said, still hypnotized. “You should totally let her eat you...”
“It is tempting...”
Cassandra flipped herself back onto her feet. She strutted around the stage inviting people to throw more money at her. As she reached one end, however, she looked over towards the bar. Her seductive smile disappeared as she caught sight of the boys and her canines actually extended into fangs. She glared at Jerry with fury building behind her eyes.
“Oh shit!” Jerry squeaked.
Cassandra pivoted gracefully away from them and continued to dance for the crowd, but it was plainly obvious that she was angry.
“Well,” the bartender’s voice came from behind, causing them to jump. “She doesn’t seem too happy to see you, so what the hell are you doing here?” now he was looking angry as well.
“I told you, we’re here to give her a message,” Jerry spluttered.
“Really? What message?”
“Black Forest are hunting her down!” Jerry said.
Suddenly the whole room seemed to freeze. Everyone in the bar had superb hearing; talking about Black Forest had instantly grabbed their attentions. The bartender looked over Jerry’s shoulder at the people sitting in the booths.
“You really shouldn’t have said that,” he said.
Goose and Jerry looked puzzled for a second before shifting around to see what the bartender was looking at. As they did so, all of the men occupying the booths burst forwards out of their seats, knocking tables over and smashing glasses, fangs bared.
Black Forest were already here!
Immediately, the room exploded into action as other customers and waitresses charged, attacking the Black Forest troops. Cassandra jumped, grabbed the pole and spun away off the stage, smashing one of the Black Forest vampires in the face before landing. The bartender reached swiftly under the bar and pulled out a sawn-off twelve gauge pump. The butt had been carved into a wooden point : A stake and a gun in one.
He took aim and fired, hitting one of the Black Forest soldiers in the chest, causing him to combust into sparks. Jerry and Goose followed suite, pulling out their pistols and firing. Goose clipped one in the leg. The silver bullet sizzled inside the wound, causing the vamp to fall to the ground in agony.
“You just had to make a Dusk till Dawn reference, didn’t you?!” Jerry yelled in anger.
“What, you’re blaming me for this?!” Goose snapped back, indignant.
Jerry tried to target another Black Forest vampire, but he was moving too fast. The bullets sailed past harmlessly and hit the wall. Suddenly, he caught sight of the two ladies who had been sitting in the booth. They were still sitting there, serenely sipping their drinks and looking bored. As he looked, they glanced at each other and rolled their eyes.
The one holding the cigar flicked her hand casually and her drink shot off the table and through the air, smashing into a Black Forest goon. She clicked her fingers and the booze that had sprayed all over him suddenly ignited, causing the vampire to panic and scream as flames danced over his body.
“Hey! No fire in my bar!” the Bartender shouted, but the ladies just giggled behind raised hands.
Jerry didn’t have time to look shocked. He had to dive out of the way of a vampire who had just been booted through the air by Cassandra. The vamp in question slammed into the bar and flopped limply to the ground. Jerry unloaded half of his clip into him before he finally exploded into stars, ash fluttering into the air around the bar.
Shooting a man when he was down wasn’t very sporting, but Jerry didn’t give a shit when it happened to be a morally challenged Black Forest vampire. Goose was more accurate in his shots and was having better luck. He hit a vamp in the shoulder and then plugged him in the chest, causing him to detonate spectacularly. Just behind the resulting ash pile, a waitress made a grab for one of the pool cues, snapped it in half like she was breaking a toothpick and threw one side of it to Cass.
Both women launched themselves at the nearest Black Forest lackeys and staked them in the chest. Cass rolled backwards as her victim burst into golden sparks. The fight had gone beyond a riot now and the bar was a veritable war zone!
Suddenly, another vampire came flying at Jerry, this one with purpose. Jerry jumped out of the way and hit the ground, but the impact caused his gun to roll out of his hand. The vampire rushed at him, but was met instead by a massive right hook from Cassandra. She laid several punches and kicks into him while Jerry scurried across the floor trying to get to his gun.
He grabbed it and stood up, ready to shoot. At the exact same, however, time Cassandra wheeled her arm back to punch the vampire again, but instead caught Jerry straight in the face with her elbow.
His eyes rolled back and he hit the ground like a sack of bricks, barely conscious. Cassandra didn’t even seem to notice.
Jerry grabbed his face, pain filling his jaw and clouding his vision.
Then the wooden door to the club burst open and dozens of vampires led by Claire rushed in. A moment later, Sophinia entered, her wings out and ready. It had been impossible to tell when they had been folded up, but now it was easy to see that she must have at least a twenty foot wingspan.
The Black Forest goons who hadn’t been killed took one look at her and freaked. They rushed for the exit, but it was blocked. One of them got too close to Sophinia and she grabbed him mercilessly by the throat, unfazed by his puny struggles. The pureblood then punched a hole straight through his chest, ripping his heart out and crushing it in her hand.
He exploded into flames which
didn’t even seem to sting her.
A few seconds later, the battle was over and nothing but ash remained of the fifteen or so Black Forest soldiers who had come to ambush Cassandra.
Regardless of the others in the room, Goose rushed over to Jerry and helped him up. “You okay?”
“No! Fee hib me!” his voice sounded ridiculous.
“No I didn’t!” Cass snapped back.
“Yes wou bib!”
“Bib?” Goose repeated looking at him very oddly.
“I bid my ongue,” Jerry growled.
“You bit your tongue?” Goose said, making sure that he had heard right.
Jerry nodded in annoyance. The pain in his mouth eased off a bit when he looked up and saw Cassandra standing next to him in nothing but black, sexy underwear.
“Everybody out now!” Sophinia growled, and the patrons immediately darted for the exit. “Louis, send me the invoice for the repairs,” she said to the bartender, as he left with the others.
The moment the bar was empty, Claire turned on them, “What the hell were you two thinking?!” she yelled, looking outraged.
“We came to warn her about Bwack Forwest,” Jerry slurred.
“Daniel, this whole escapade was reckless - you have to be smarter than this!” Sophinia said. Her usual calm demeanor was shredded.
“Claire had weft and we twied to get a hold of you, but nobody pwicked up!”
“I was busy; I got his call about ten minutes after you two left the house. There was no reason for you to have to come here,” she said.
“We had to warn Cassandwa,” Jerry said.
“My hero,” Cass spat insultingly.
“Hey, we were twying to help wou! Wou should be wanking us!”
One of Cassandra’s eyebrows rose impressively and she folded her arms across her chest.
“Will you go and put some damn clothes on!” Claire growled.
Jerry actually felt the urge to object to that order, but he didn’t.
“What’s wrong sis, am I making you blush?” she mocked.
“This isn’t a photo shoot you stupid slut!”
“Blow me!”
And they were off! Once again, they were at each other’s throats and looking to tear them out.
“Enough! You two are going to stop this childish bickering!” Sophinia commanded, before turning to Cass. “Black Forest are after you because you know about him. That leaves me with two options. One; we stake you, or two; we protect you.”
“I vote we stake her,” Claire said straight away. Cass gave her the finger.
“That’s not something I’m fond of doing,” Jerry found that hard to believe considering she had just seen Sophinia summarily punch out the heart out of a vampire. “So...from here on out you’re in the same boat as these two.”
Jerry sat there wiggling his jaw around as she spoke.
“Now I don’t have the time or the resources to put you into hiding, so you’re staying with them.”
“What?!” Jerry, Goose, Claire and Cassandra all yelped at the same time.
“It’s a lot easier for me to keep an eye on you all if you’re staying together, so that’s what’s going to happen. Sophinia said sharply, ignoring their shock.
Jerry wasn’t sure this was a good idea. Cassandra had fed on him, she knew what his blood could do and it was highly likely that some part of her wanted that again. Putting them together seemed very rash indeed.
“You’ve gotta be kiddin’ me!” Claire hissed, thinking the same thing. “She’s had his blood, Sophinia!”
“And she’s a whiny bitch; I can’t stay with them!” Cass added.
“That’s exactly what you’re going to do. You both know exactly what will happen if you harm him. Besides, it means more protection for Daniel, which is no bad thing considering how he’s behaved,” she said, shooting a warning look at him.
“Look, I’ll leave okay? I’ll go to Europe or something,” Cassandra pleaded.
“And they will track you down there and torture the information out of you. I can’t risk that.”
“But staying with her and them -”
“It’s that or a stake, Cassandra, which would you prefer?” Sophinia said, her eyes boring fiercely into Cassandra’s own brown ones. “I will kill you to keep him safe.”
“Goddamn it! Fine!” she scowled.
“This is going to end badly,” Claire mumbled, “I can tell…”
“So...” Their heads all snapped around to see who had spoken. It was the snake lady from the booth. She and her cigar smoking friend had stayed when everyone else had disappeared. “Sophinia...this is who you’ve found to save your species?” The snake lady asked in amusement, pointedly looking Jerry over. “Hmm...beautiful eyes.”
“Celeste, I don’t need to warn you that -”
“Don’t worry,” she said, waving her hand lazily. “Your secret’s safe with us. Besides, you know Black Forest can’t touch us.”
The woman that Jerry now knew as Celeste turned away from him and looked at Cassandra. A small smile crept onto her face as she examined her body. “Loved your show Cassandra, we should really get together again sometime,” she winked salaciously, causing Jerry to feel weak at the knees. Cass just rolled her eyes and looked away.
Was Cassandra a lesbian?
“I suppose we’ll be in touch, Sophinia. No doubt you’d like our help?” she said.
“That would be very much appreciated,” Sophinia said gravely, giving her a small bow.
“Very well, I’ll get my girls together. Speak to you soon. Nice meeting you two,” she smiled at Jerry and Goose before turning away.
Celeste and her cigar smoking friend exited the bar, stepping delicately over the mess on the floor.
“Who were they?” Goose asked as soon as they were gone.
“Ever heard of the Salem Witch Hunts?” Claire answered.
“Yeah.”
“Well, they missed quite a few.”
“Those were witches?!” Goose blurted.
“Yes. Celeste’s a high ranker when it comes to magic. The Salem ladies are very friendly, just make sure you don’t piss them off or you might find yourself with a nasty case of genital leprosy,” she said.
Goose went pale.
“Speaking from experience, Claire?” Cassandra smirked.
“Look who’s talking. The amount of desks you’ve bent over, I’m surprised you haven't had to fight off every STD in the book.”
“I’m surprised you know what an STD is,” Cass shot back. “I mean, have you even been laid in the last hundred years?”
“Will you two stop it already? We should be very grateful for the witches’ help,” Sophinia said sharply.
“They’re gwoing to hewp us?” Jerry asked.
“Yes. She and the others will put up protective enchantments around your house.”
“Awesome,” he replied, his tongue still aching horribly.
“Speaking of which, we should get these two back to Jerry’s,” Claire said to Sophinia, who nodded emphatically.
“Yeah, so Joe can tear us a new one,” Goose groaned.
CHAPTER 12 – BRAVE NEW WORLD
Joe’s House – St. Cloud
“WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!” Joe roared. He looked ready to punch Jerry. “Are you crazy, stupid or just plain suicidal?!”
Joe had apparently woken up to go to the bathroom and found the house empty. He had been ripping into them ever since they had gotten back.
“I’m going to say stupid,” Cassandra said, leaning again the fridge. She was now fully clothed in tight black trousers and a white shirt. “By the way, hi, I’m Cass,” she added.
“I know who you are,” Joe growled and walked over to her. “You’re the one that took a bite out of my nephew!” now he looked like he wanted to shoot her.
“I’m also the one that saved his ass!” she retorted, not backing down.
“And we just saved yours in return,” Jerry said. His tongue was s
till a little swollen, but at least he could talk properly now.
“Oh, please,” she snorted.
“You didn’t even know they were there. They were going to jump you the moment you left the bar.”
“Nobody recognized them. Looks like Black Forest has got some new members,” Claire said.
“I swear, you ever do something like that again...” Joe said, pacing from left to right. “You could have been killed!”
Blood Heavy (Blood Heavy Series) Page 13