Heart Blade: Blade Hunt Chronicles Book One

by Juliana Spink Mills

  “I’d rather not tell you over the phone, if that’s all right.”

  “Tell me in person. Where are you now?” Dominique’s voice was a soft purr, and a shiver ran up Camille’s back despite her exhaustion and the lingering headache.

  “East Hartford.”

  “Would you like some company tonight? Dinner, on me?”

  “Perhaps.” She relented. “All right. But I’d rather not risk being seen in the area, if you don’t mind. I’m thinking popcorn and a movie. A girls’ night in.”

  “How delightfully quaint! I can do popcorn and movies. But I’m bringing vodka.” Dominique got the address and hung up, leaving Camille to smile down at her turquoise toenails in anticipation.

  As evening approached, she stripped off the clothes she’d carefully selected for the bus station outing, and went for a shower. She didn’t have to act the teenager with Dominique, a vampire a century older than her. In fact, she didn’t have to act at all: she’d met Dominique only six or seven years after Étienne Darkwing had Gifted her. Camille had been a desperately greedy young thing back then, all ravenous hunger and no impulse control. Her year-long tryst with Dominique had been a revelation, and a lesson as to the true power of her hunger.

  Camille dried herself and wrapped her body in an acid-green kimono, the silk soft as moonshine. She watched her reflection in the mirror as she toweled off her golden hair. Then she set her hand to her heart and drew her soul blade. It glittered in the artificial light, brighter and more beautiful than anything should possibly be. She had few memories of her human life, but one she held close, sharp as the sword in her hand. When he’d found her in that cramped attic, emaciated and starving, her creator had drawn his own soul blade.

  “So hungry,” he’d said in the cold glimmer of his sword. “Shall I make it better?”

  Her eyes had followed the sword as it danced delicately in the squalid room. “Do you like it?” he’d asked, a trace of amusement on his cold face. “You shall have one, too, ma petite. A blade, and eternity. Come, die a little more, let me make you mine.”

  Well, now she had her sword, and she had her eternity, but the hunger had never really gone away. She was hungry now.

  There was a knock at the door. She let her blade shimmer out and opened it to find Dominique in the hallway, all brown skin and confidence. Dominique ran an appreciative eye over the kimono. “You dressed up for me? I’m flattered.” She waved a bottle of Absolut in the air. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

  Camille reached out to take the vampire’s slim wrist and pulled her into the room. “But of course.” She smiled and kicked the door shut with one bare foot.

  Chapter Eleven

  Del

  Ash returned in less than an hour, a backpack over his shoulder. Del, after checking he was alone, ran down the spiral stairs to meet him. “Do you have it? The Guild contact?”

  “No.” He sounded out of breath and out of temper. “My dad wasn’t home. He rang me, though. He’s been called away. Work stuff, not sentinel stuff. He won’t be back until tomorrow, near lunchtime.” He dumped the backpack on the floor and wiped his sweaty face on the shoulder of his shirt, a faded blue tee with “UConn Huskies” blazoned across it in huge letters. Then he stalked off to the kitchen.

  “Did you talk to him?” she called out. He didn’t answer, so she followed him in to find him gulping down water from the mug she’d left on the draining board.

  He finally set the mug down. “It’s hot out there.” He was avoiding the subject, she was sure of it.

  “Did you talk to him?” she asked again.

  “No.” He frowned, the cute crease rumpling his forehead. Focus, Del, she told herself.

  “Because…?” she prompted him.

  “Because it’s hard, okay? My dad and I… Believe me, it’s hard.” His honey-brown eyes had a vulnerability to them that suddenly made him seem a lot younger. And his ever-present sadness tugged at Del’s gut, teasing her, tempting her to just have a taste.

  Ash leaned back against the sink, crossing his arms. “My dad would never have agreed to give a demon Sanctuary. Especially not a Raven. It’s going to be hard enough explaining what I’ve done in person. I can’t do it over the phone. I just can’t, okay?”

  “Fine.” She wanted to scream. Everything was taking too long. But Ash was doing what he could. At least, she thought he was. “You’re not trying to stall me, are you?” A sudden horrible suspicion blossomed. Had he talked to his father, after all? Were they in touch with the Court, or worse, with Shade? She took an involuntary step back.

  “Stall you? Yes, of course I’m trying to stall you.”

  “What? You swore on your name, James. That you’d help me.” She kept backing out of the kitchen, fighting a stupid urge to cry.

  Ash followed her out of the kitchen, his strides strong and assured. “What are you talking about?”

  “You ratted on me, didn’t you?”

  “Ratted on you? Who even speaks like that?”

  She reached the bottom of the stairs and turned to climb them. He caught up with her and touched her shoulder, but she shrugged him off roughly.

  “Don’t touch me! Traitor!”

  Ash snatched his hand away. “I’m getting tired of being called a traitor. First Jordan, now you. Del, I’ve kept my word. I swore on my name. I don’t take that lightly. No one except my cousin knows you’re here, and he promised to follow my lead on this.”

  He backed off. “Yeah, I’m trying to stall you. Shade obviously has people on the lookout for you. They must know you’re in Hartford. You want to run on out there, make a target of yourself? Be my guest. But I thought you wanted something different, something more. To put up a proper fight. Maybe I thought wrong.”

  Ash turned abruptly and walked to the far side of the shop, where he settled down, back against the wall, his legs stretched out. He tipped his head back, staring up at the ceiling.

  “I’m tired, Del. I hate secrets, and I hate this whole tangled situation. And above all, I hate feeling powerless and I hate the Covenant.”

  She took a first hesitant step toward him, and then another. “Tell me why, Ash? Please?” She was afraid to ask, but she had to understand him if she was going to trust him. “What happened to you?”

  He closed his eyes, and for a long moment she thought he wasn’t going to answer. When he spoke, his voice was so soft she was forced to come up close and settle down beside him, back against the wall and arm a bare inch from his.

  “First you have to understand that the sentinels and Shade have been locked in a private war for well over a century. Because of the restrictions of Covenant law, it’s a battle of politics, of quiet backstabbing in the shadows, of manipulation and deception. But sometimes one of the sides risks everything in a grand gesture.”

  He shifted slightly and his arm brushed against her. She didn’t even know if Ash had noticed, but his arm remained where it was, just grazing hers.

  “I was fourteen when they came for my mother. They couldn’t openly target my dad, and the Court would never have sanctioned a Hunt against a child. So they chose her. Someone in the Court tipped us off, and we ran for this place. My grandfather’s old repair shop. It was a safe house for the sentinels, and my dad thought he could buy us time until he could get my mom out of Hartford and hide her.

  “But the demons were closer than we thought. They found us before we even had time to call for backup. They took me down first, dragged me away kicking and screaming, and tied me up against that column over there. My dad fell next, even though he called upon Michael’s Blessing and took five demons down with him. They had to use chains on him. He would have snapped a rope in a second with the Blessing still on him.”

  A chill ran up Del’s back. Ash’s voice was quiet and steady, never wavering, as if he were reciting a lesson he’d learned in class. But she could sense the underlying grief, enough to fill an ocean. She felt for his hand and he let her take it.

 
; Eyes still closed, he finished his tale. “She never stood a chance. She was human, my mom, and even though she could fight, she couldn’t take on a whole pack. They killed her slowly, destroying her bit by bit.” He opened his eyes and turned his head slightly to look at Del. “The other day you said, ‘we’re not vultures.’ But you are, you know? They pecked away at her, feeding off her fear, her pain, her anger. They took it all, and when there was nothing left they cut her throat.”

  He removed his hand from hers and pulled up the side of his shirt to show her a series of old scars like a band around his chest. “I tried to get free, I tried to help her. But I just couldn’t get loose.” His voice finally broke and the words choked off.

  Del touched the scars gently with her fingertips. Then, without saying a word, she began to pull off her own t-shirt.

  “What are you doing?” He was loud, startled.

  She ripped her shirt over her head, cheeks warm. “Look.”

  He did, face as red as hers, and then his eyes widened when he realized what she wanted to show him. There, in big jagged marks on her chest, running all the way along her left side under her bra, was the scar from her death wound.

  “She did this to me, Ash.” She pointed at his chest. “She did this to both of us. At least you know why she hunted your family down. I’m going to find out why she came after me, and then somehow I’m going to stop her from doing this to anyone else.”

  She put her shirt back on, hiding her blush in the soft cotton. “So, what do you suggest I do?”

  “Wait. Yeah, I know it’s hard. I know what it feels like to want to run as far as you can. But they won’t come into Hartford in force. It was forbidden after everything that happened. My dad was thrown in Court prison for defending my mom, can you believe it? Shade had him charged with impeding a lawful Hunt and for illegally killing five of her children. He pleaded self-defense and was released, but things were tense for a while. So the Court formally banned them from Hartford and us from Boston.”

  “But you saw that demon at the bus station!”

  “I know, but I’ve been thinking things over and she has to be just a scout. So what I need to do is get to my dad as soon as he arrives and convince him to help before the demons put in some sort of official extradition request.”

  “And I just sit here until tomorrow? Ash, I’m going crazy here. I can’t just hang around.”

  “So don’t just hang around. Here.” He reached for his backpack and pulled out a pile of books and papers.

  “You expect me to sit around and to read? That’s your big plan to keep me busy?”

  “Yes. No!” He huffed, exasperated. “Look, I need to study. So I thought you might want to look through some of this stuff and see if you can’t find anything about demon rogues. I mean, I know half-demons aren’t allowed to be free. Packless. The full demons wouldn’t allow it, even if the Covenant did. But maybe there’s something… some loophole, somewhere? It’s a long shot, but maybe it’ll help pass the time.”

  Del picked up the first book. It was by someone called Cavendish and titled A Beginner’s Guide to the Covenant.

  “Hey, that’s not a bad idea.” She gave him a tentative smile and he returned it: an awkward smile, but a true one.

  “So, shall we start?” He picked up a sheaf of notes.

  Del shrugged. “Might as well.”

  She leafed through the introduction to the Beginner’s Guide until she reached a chapter about the founding of the Court of the Covenant. She knew the gist of it. Europe in the Middle Ages was a dangerous place in which to be preternatural. Nowadays, if she were to stand in Times Square and scream, “I’m a demon!” no one would believe her. Or they’d think it was a YouTube stunt. But back then, people believed in the existence of the supernatural. According to Cavendish,

  “In those early days preternaturals roamed lawless and free in all the lands of the Earth. There were wars between preternaturals, some aligning with the wars of men. But in Europe, the Church was rising, more powerful by the day. The Crusades had begun, spreading the Christian word by steel and by fire, and the first Inquisition was held in France.”

  Del wondered how many innocent preternaturals had died alongside the ones who were actually guilty. Or innocent humans, for that matter. Somehow, she didn’t think the Inquisitors bothered to distinguish between them. She found the part about the Covenant itself.

  “Inspired on the Magna Carta of human society, a Covenant was created, along with a Court of Barons to rule it. And the sentinels set aside their quarrels with demons and other preternaturals and signed an oath in blood that they would uphold the Covenant laws and protect the Court rulings as they once protected Earth against the demons.”

  The last line jumped out at her. Against the demons. Because that was supposed to be the natural order of things, wasn’t it? Angels and demons, locked in eternal battle. She looked over at Ash, deep in his notes with that small crease of concentration on his forehead that she found so cute. Maybe the Covenant had some things right. Maybe the sentinels and demon packs didn’t have to be enemies.

  Except Shade was never going to be one of the “good guys”. The sentinels were never going to forgive the exceptional cruelty her Hunts were famed for.

  Del had never really understood why demons were allowed the Hunts. Each lawful pack was allowed two Hunts per year, on the winter and summer solstice. Each Hunt equaled one kill, but technically demons didn’t have to kill to feed. They could feed on human emotions whenever they wanted, without shedding a drop of blood. When she’d asked, Diana had said something about tradition and ancient rights. But Ash was right. It was stupid and outdated, and the killing had to stop.

  Del hated being a demon. She hated that she had no choice in the matter, that there was no going back. And most of all she hated her immortal hunger, that constant reminder that she was no longer human. She turned determinedly to a chapter named Outlaws and Outcasts and tried to focus on something other the nagging sense of Ash’s sorrow as he sat quietly beside her.

  Chapter Twelve

  Rose

  The demons swerved around the corner in the bright blue jeep, hard on their tail. There were two of them: two guys, roughly her age. Rose had caught a glimpse when they’d pulled alongside briefly on the main road.

  Dan screeched into a parking lot, tearing across it and out the other side. The demons missed the entry and had to brake and back up, but soon Rose spotted them a few cars behind.

  “They’re gaining on us!” she shouted. “Where’s Finn?”

  Right on cue the pixie swung into the lane beside them, his motorbike loud even over the blare of evening traffic. He saluted them and fell back, taking the rear.

  Rose searched anxiously for the demons. It was lucky they had been stupid enough to choose bright blue for their vehicle. It made finding them an easy task. Almost too easy. Why would they go with the garish paint job? She answered her own question a second later.

  “Decoy,” she murmured.

  “What?” asked Dan.

  “A decoy! They’re not alone.”

  “I know.” His quiet calm was impressive, and almost believable except for his death-grip on the steering wheel. “No sign of the main ambush yet, though.”

  “How did you guess? When did you guess?”

  “Not my first rodeo. I guessed as soon as they began to follow us so obviously.”

  Dan took a left, and a right, and another left, and Rose realized they were back on the main street, a broad, three-lane affair. A gas station flashed by, and a fast food place, and then all of a sudden they were stuck behind two maddeningly slow cars, dark and tinted in the twilight.

  “And there’s the main act,” he said. “A classic move. They block us from ahead, the jeep from behind. We’ll have two more cars along soon, and they’ll box us in neatly and lead us to a safe zone of their choosing.”

  “You’re too calm,” she said suspiciously.

  “I’m not planning on being pu
t in a box.”

  A shopping mall came up on the right, and at the very last minute Dan spun the wheel and made a sharp turn onto the parking ramp. The jeep followed, and Rose caught a glimpse of the pixie flashing by on his bike. Dan led them higher and higher in the parking garage, first one level, then two and three. When they got to the last level, he slowed down and parked next to a large and rowdy family group surrounding a seven-seater van.

  The jeep idled past, the demons watching. Dan and Rose joined the family group, following them leisurely into the mall. “Hiding in plain sight,” said Dan.

  Once they were inside, Dan pulled out his cell phone as he hurried Rose away.

  “Finn! Meet me out the back exit.”

  They walked at a brisk pace, but it wasn’t fast enough for Rose. Her shoulder blades itched as she imagined the demons behind her. “Don’t run,” advised Dan. “We don’t want mall security on us.”

  “Why not? Can’t they help?”

  “Covenant law. We don’t tell humans about preternatural business. Ever.”

  “But you’re human,” she said.

  “I’m Guild,” he answered shortly. “Special case.”

  He turned his head, searching for their tail. “Keep your eyes open. Look for the auras. I can’t see them, remember?”

  He’d partially removed the wards that protected her when they arrived at Finn’s place at four in the morning. The first thing she’d seen was the pink shimmer that surrounded the skinny pixie.

  “So you are a witch,” she’d said accusingly.

  But the priest had shaken his head. “No. I’m just plain human. But I’m a trained exorcist. I can handle some of the easier wards and counter-spells. The ones that don’t need actual power.”

  Now he rushed her along and down the escalators to the ground floor. As they passed an interminable display of gaudy lingerie, he cautioned her. “It’ll be hard to spot an aura in this lighting. Remember to search for the shimmer. A distortion in the air. Lilac for demons, but let me know if you see any other colors, too.”