by Michele Hauf
The vampire stopped struggling, and in that moment, Kaz managed to wrap the zip tie around both his wrists and pull it tight.
“Did Zoë send more dust?” the downed vamp asked. “I need more Magic Dust, man. Gimmee!”
One punch to the vampire’s jaw knocked him out cold. Kaz caught the vampire across his shoulders and hefted him up. Too light, he thought, and he felt a long, bony arm slap him across the back. He’d suffered for the drug. Poor guy.
Yeah, so falling for the witch really had screwed with his sympathies.
Taking the stairs down, he strode out into the lobby—and felt the swoosh of something pass by his cheek.
Dread curdled up Kaz’s spine and he instinctually ducked back into the stairwell.
“Faeries,” he muttered. “Has to be.”
Cautious, Kaz snuck out into the main lobby, the unconscious vampire over a shoulder. He couldn’t see the damn thing, but knew there was a faery in the building. The air stirred with a strange yet familiar vibration that he had remarked while passing through FaeryTown. The thing could be walking alongside him, for all he knew. He needed the ointment in his pocket but speed was of the essence right now.
When he made it to the front door, he began to slip through the broken frame and door when Luc let out a banshee cry.
“What the hell?” the vampire shouted.
The vampire jostled out of Kaz’s grip, and he had no choice but to set him down and slam him up against the door. “Be quiet or I will stake you.”
“What did you do to me?” Luc slapped his shoulder where a flechette like the one Kaz had taken to his hip sat implanted deep in the flesh.
“Don’t touch it,” Kaz warned. “It’s faery. Poisonous if you remove it. Got that?”
Luc’s lashes fluttered over his sunken eyes. “Faery stuff.” He reached for the flechette with his bound hands.
Kaz punched him again, reducing him to a silent, but annoying lump of skin and bones that he preferred to stake. Zoë had better appreciate this sacrifice.
Opening the door deflected another of the flechettes that pinged the steel and dropped to the parquet, spinning once before defusing into a pouf of violet smoke and glittering ichor.
Kaz rushed outside and into a fine mist of rain, sure the faery would tail him. Yet he’d remembered reading something about faeries and rain. What was it? No matter. He had to keep moving. Heading down into the Metro system would prove a death wish, so he darted across the street and down an alleyway toward a more populated area. If the faery maintained glamour he wouldn’t have to worry about innocent humans spying a creature flying overhead.
Another flechette tore the air above his head. “Damn.”
On the other hand, the faery was invisible, so he couldn’t see it, either.
Kaz fumbled in his coat for the vial of ointment and managed, with one hand, to twist off the top. He stuck his finger into it, nearly losing his grasp on the vial, and smeared what little stuck to his finger under his eyes.
A glance over his shoulder spied a tall, dark faery still standing before the door to the business building, sheltered from the rain. One arm was thrust out, a weapon strapped to his wrist and hand. With a flick of his finger, he dispatched another deadly flechette.
Kaz slammed his body against the brick building, feeling the arrow skim the air, missing his nose by inches. A fine mist of faery dust trailed the weapon like a comet’s tail. He spied a taxi cruising to a stop at the end of the alley and made a dash, hard-lining the right turn out of the alley just as another flechette cut the air beside him.
He shoved Luc into the back of the cab and the driver, thankfully, sped away when Kaz offered to double his fare if he got them out of this neighborhood immediately.
Luc grabbed the flechette on his shoulder, but Kaz smacked his hand away.
“That’s not the good kind of dust. It’ll kill you if you pull it out. You want to die?”
The vampire shook his head, but then snarled at him.
Out the back window, Kaz spied the faery, who did not attempt another shot at the car, but instead unfurled vicious black wings that looked demonic. The faery lifted into the air and soared backward into the alley through which Kaz had passed. He didn’t suspect the faery was turning tail and running, only following discreetly.
“Holy hell, I have never seen anything like that. Not sure if this seeing-eye stuff is good, bad or plain stupid.”
And yet, the thing appeared to be struggling with flight. Was it the rain?
Luc moaned and pulled up his knees to his chest. Kaz eyed the flechette, sitting against his bare skin, surrounded by seeping blood. Could the poison already be coursing through the vampire’s system?
No skin off him. But Zoë would be devastated should anything happen to her friend.
“Keep your hands off that thing,” he reminded Luc, then tugged out his cell phone and dialed Rook.
After three rings, his supervisor answered. “What’s up, Rothstein?”
“I need a safe house,” Kaz said, playing it by ear. This was so wrong, and yet, he was out of options for the moment with the faery on his ass. “Had a scuffle with some faeries and need a hideaway to think through my game plan.”
The pause on the other end of the line told Kaz that Rook did not approve. So it was a surprise when Rook offered an address to an Order safe house.
“You’ve got it for the afternoon,” Rook said. “You need my help?”
“Not unless you know how to kill faeries.”
“Hell.”
“I’m fine. I’ll report in later.”
“I rely on you, Rothstein.”
Clicking off, Kaz glanced aside. The vampire stared at him from his crouched position on the backseat. The rain had increased, pounding against the window.
“I hope you’re worth it, man,” Kaz said. “I’d do anything for Zoë, but if you look at me the wrong way...”
The vampire snarled and flipped him the bird. And in that toothy snarl, Kaz noticed something missing.
Kaz’s heart rocketed to hyper speed. He lunged for the vampire, gripping him by the throat, unwary of the flechette, and shook him.
“What happened to your other fang?”
Chapter 18
Kaz slammed the sneering vampire against the car window, well aware the wrong move could tear the flechette from his shoulder and it would be “goodbye, bloodsucker.” The vampire deserved the agony, if his suspicions were true.
Kaz’s fist bumped the flechette. Luc gritted his jaws and growled. He considered ripping the thing from the vampire’s flesh and bone. It would be so easy. But he needed the truth first.
“How did you lose that fang?” he insisted.
“Hell if I know.”
“How can you not remember losing a fang?”
The vampire’s smile was slippery and gross. Of course he wouldn’t remember if he’d been high on Magic Dust.
“What are you, man?” Luc slurred. “Zoë did not send you.”
“I’m Order of the Stake, and this is your last ride if you don’t spit up some truths right now, longtooth.”
“When did Zoë hook up with the Order? Go fuck yourself, man.”
A fist to the vampire’s gut felt ribs crack. The creature yelped and screamed for more dust.
The cabbie yelled back that they had better settle down or he was pulling over.
“Did the man whose wife you murdered for her diamond necklace knock out that fang before you fatally woun
ded him?”
“Maybe.” The vampire flicked his tongue through the gap in his teeth. “I need more sparklies. You got some?”
Disgusted, Kaz shoved the vampire so hard the creature’s skull cracked the side window. The cab swerved sharply and pulled over to the curb.
“Out!” the cabbie insisted. “You’re a block away. You walk from here.”
Kaz dug in his coat pocket and thumbed a roll of Euro bills. He peeled off three hundreds and tossed them into the front seat. “Sorry about the window.”
He shoved Luc out onto the wet pavement, the vampire landing on his shoulder, his wrists bleeding beneath the zip tie. The rain had picked up.
Kaz stepped on Luc’s ankle as he got out. He hefted the vampire by the hair and slammed his head against the cement bollard used to keep cars from parking on the sidewalk.
“You are going to die, longtooth.”
“Fuck you.”
Kaz dug in his coat pocket and produced the fang he’d carried with him since watching his friend die. “Recognize this?”
Luc’s hazy gaze landed on the tooth for a moment before he smiled and grabbed for the thing. Kaz snapped it away.
“Hey! That’s mine!”
“I should stake you right now.” Standing and jamming his boot onto the vamp’s chest, Kaz tugged out the stake. “Ask for it.”
“You said Zoë sent you! She wouldn’t like it if you staked me.”
No, she wouldn’t. But what if he’d had no option but to stake the crazy vamp in self-defense? Kaz stood over the vampire he’d been looking for, the one responsible for Robert and Ellen’s deaths. As far as he was concerned, the dust freak was already ash.
Zoë would never forgive him for it. But he’d get over her rejection.
No, he wouldn’t. For the same reason he hadn’t been able to remain angry with her after learning she had created the Magic Dust.
Because he loved her.
Kaz swore. Using the stake as a baton, he dashed it aside the vamp’s jaw, knocking him out, and hopefully, loosening the one remaining fang. Tossing the unconscious vamp over a shoulder, he cursed his decision not to stake him then and there. He hoped he wouldn’t regret this.
He feared he already did.
* * *
A pan of brownies sat cooling on the counter while Zoë took the phone call from Kaz. He sounded aggravated, but he’d found Luc. He wanted her to meet him at a safe house. He spoke so quickly, and she could hear Luc groaning in the background.
After scribbling down the address, she cut up some brownies and wrapped them in tin foil to bring along. Telling Sid she’d return soon, she slipped on her shoes, then ran out into the rain and caught the Metro to the seventh arrondissement. A safe house? Must be an Order thing. They actually took vampires into their care? Didn’t make sense.
Spying the building, a nondescript limestone number that boasted three stories topped by a slate mansard roof, Zoë took the stairs up, expecting to hear shouting and a tormented vampire yelling at the hunter, but all was silent.
The door slammed open before she could even knock. Kaz grabbed her by the arm and tugged her inside, locking the door behind her. Stunned at his abrupt reception, she looked about the sparely furnished living room/kitchen. All was beige with no decoration and modern-styled furniture. A man pad, surely.
She set the brownies on the kitchen table beside her.
Kaz paced behind her. The tension strung through his body was palpable, and before she could ask him what was wrong, Zoë cautioned misplaced curiosity. He’d rescued her best friend.
Kaz was supposed to slay vampires, and he was dedicated to snuffing out those who used Magic Dust. Luc was everything Kaz most hated. And she had asked him to keep him alive.
He’d sacrificed for her in ways she couldn’t begin to comprehend. Or rather, she could comprehend, but she had been too selfish to weigh the pros against the cons and to give a moment’s thought to who would be most affected.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
He still paced behind her.
“Where is he?”
“There’s a soundproofed room in the back. I’ve got him chained up.”
“Chains? I need to see him.” She rushed down the hallway, but Kaz followed and slammed her against the wall. “What’s wrong? I didn’t do anything to you. Kaz?”
He fisted a hand beside his face, his expression tightening. His thigh muscles pulsed against her leg as he fought against—what?
“Zoë.” Now he put his hands firmly against her collarbone. One twist of his wrists and his hands would be placed to choke her. “When I watched my friend die—the one I told you had fought the vampire to save his wife...”
“Because the vampire went after her necklace.” She realized she was wearing her mother’s pendant. How it must dig into his pain even deeper. “Yes.”
“Why does everything about you hurt me so much?”
She sucked in her lower lip, but the tears were unstoppable. Indeed, she had done nothing but stir up his pain and anger. When she’d thought they were a perfect pair, dashing across the written page, she could not have imagined the tale would turn into a nightmare.
Kaz shook his head, as if dismissing something he’d wanted to say. “I just need you to be careful when you go in there. He’s manic.”
Her body quivered. Tears spilled freely. Zoë didn’t want to step away from him. She felt every muscle in her body tighten—as did Kaz’s fists—and then they twanged to a loose, shivering shudder.
“Oh goddess, this is all my fault.”
She beat her fists against his chest, once, twice, then he pulled her against him and held her there tightly.
“No, it’s not,” he said and held her tighter, keeping her from struggling free to run down the hallway and look upon the monster that she had created.
“I’ve hurt you. You should not want to stand here like this, holding me. Kaz, I’m so sorry.”
He hugged her and his fingers tangled in her hair as he kissed the crown of her head. “Hell, life isn’t worth it without the struggle, right?”
“Don’t do that. You hate me. Don’t try to make it better.”
“I don’t hate you. I...think I might hate that I love you.”
Zoë exhaled. Her chest rose and fell as she met his eyes. He loved her? And yet, it seemed to tear him apart that he did.
“I love you,” he said again, and this time he kissed her on the forehead. “I can’t help it. It is what it is.”
She shook her head but he bracketed her face to stop her silent protest. “We’ll figure this out. But right now, there’s that.” He nodded down the hallway. “He’s contained. But...”
But hung there, and Zoë could feel Kaz’s unspoken words. He has to die.
And she wondered if Luc should die. The Magic Dust had changed him, made him something not so different—she hoped—just more vicious. She knew Luc was capable of doing great harm when pushed to his limit. Yet he was also capable of forgiveness.
Tears spilling freely, she melted against Kaz’s hard frame and let him lift her and carry her to the sofa out in the living room. The rain had picked up, the dark sky shadowing the room. She spilled her regrets out in tears against Kaz’s chest until she had no more tears left to shed.
“I’ve the safe house only for today,” he said after her sniffles had grown further apart. “We’ve got to move him, or do something with him.”
“You think he should die.”
“I don’t know what to think anymore, Zoë. He’s— When I was in Mauritius’s lair I was followed by a faery. Didn’t see the guy, but I’m sure he was the same one who was tracking me before. The rain slowed him down, but not before he fired a couple of those flechettes. He got Luc in the shoulder. The thing is still in him. I chain
ed his wrists so he couldn’t pull it out. You’ll have to remove it.”
Zoë nodded.
“Check the bathroom for what you might need to get the flechette out.”
Hands shaking as she sorted through the few items in the medicine cabinet, Zoë claimed tweezers and some towels. Despite Luc’s predicament, she couldn’t help think of what Kaz had said. He loved her. And he hated himself for loving her.
What woman wanted to hear that? And yet, the confession had been honest. He genuinely loved her, and she wanted to give him good reason for that love.
“I will,” she whispered. “If it’s the last thing I do.”
She followed Kaz down the hallway and stopped before the bedroom door. She looked up his broad, bare chest, and realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt. Hadn’t been since she’d arrived. He was so beautiful, both outside and in. And she didn’t know how to make him not hate her.
“Kiss me,” he said, his hand poised on the doorknob. “Make me remember why I just did the most foolish thing a knight in the Order could ever do.”
“Confessing that you love a witch?”
“No, taking a vampire into an Order safe house.”
She nodded. “A kiss won’t change anything.”
“A kiss in the alley, with four vampires lying at our feet, stole my heart.”
“I don’t think it can take away the hate,” she said, looking away.
He touched her chin, tilting her gaze up to his. “You bring up strong emotions in me, Zoë. Love. Hate. Anger. Fear. That’s powerful magic right there. I’m not in the middle about you. I’m right here. Whatever happens, I want it to be with you.”
And he kissed her with urgency and insistence. The kiss was at once angry and then forgiving, and then so tender Zoë felt tears again spill down her cheeks. Kaz rubbed his thumbs through the tear trails, and finished the kiss with a simple press of his mouth to hers.
“It’s not enough,” she said. “What you’ve done can never be repaid. I’ll take Luc and get him out of here as quickly as possible. I don’t want you to get in trouble with the Order.”