by Shéa MacLeod
“Listen to me, Mikey,” I didn’t let a hint of anger slip into my voice. He was freaked out enough. I needed him calm. “I want to help you, I do. I want to make sure you don’t have to … ” My voice thickened and I had to clear it. The tears wanted to come, but damn if I’d let them. “I don’t want you to ever have to do that anymore. You got it?”
“You can’t help me.”
“Yes, yes I can. You help me and I promise. I promise I will help you.” I had no idea if I could keep that promise, but damn if I wouldn’t kill myself trying. Nobody deserved this kind of shitty life.
“What … what do you want?” his voice trembled.
“Last night you were there at the Madras Hotel when a man was beat up. Beat so bad, it put him in the hospital. That man was my brother.”
Mikey squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
“Listen to me, Mikey. I need to know what happened. I need the truth, okay?”
He nodded a little, his cheek smooshing against the carpet. “Okay.”
Inigo handed me a blanket he’d grabbed from somewhere. I gave him a grateful look and turned back to Mikey. “Mikey, I’m going to put this blanket around you, okay? Hard to have a serious conversation with you in your Hanes.”
A wry grin at that. Good, there was someone home.
I draped the blanket around him. “Now, can you sit up?”
He nodded and slowly sat up. I didn’t help him, didn’t touch him. What he’d been through, he probably wouldn’t let me if I tried. “Okay Mikey, tell me about last night.”
He squeezed his eyes closed. “I was hanging out down at the bar with a couple guys I know and this man came up to us. Said he had a job. Said he’d pay us good. I thought … :” his voice trailed off.
I knew what he’d thought. He’d thought the man had wanted his special services. “But the man wanted something else?”
Mikey nodded, his stringy hair flopping in his face. “Yeah. He said there was this … ” He slid a look toward me. “He used a bad word for your brother. About him being black. I’m sorry, Miss.”
Miss. I nearly rolled my eyes, but I kept my expression neutral. “I get it. Go on.”
“Well, he said that your brother didn’t belong here, and needed a lesson. He’d pay us to teach him that lesson. I didn’t want no part in it, honest. But the others.” He shrugged his skinny shoulders. “And I needed a fix real bad. I’m so sorry … ” sobs wracked his body. “I didn’t touch him, I swear. I just stood lookout. But when I saw … when I saw … ”
“Calm down, Mikey. Calm down. When you saw what?”
“They beat him pretty bad, miss. I knew they were gonna kill him and I begged them to stop. They gave me my money and told me to leave and let them finish up. That they’d kill me if I told.”
There was a look in his eyes and I knew without a shadow of a doubt there was still something in Mikey worth saving. “You called the cops, didn’t you?”
“If they knew they’d kill me. Please don’t tell.”
“I won’t. Promise.”
A look of relief spread across his face. “I’m really sorry, I just. I needed.” He hung his head in shame.
He was a junky. He needed a fix. Gods, this world was fucked up. “Mikey, tell me about the man. The one that hired you.”
He frowned. “He was kind of scary. Tall, thin, really pale. Had this spooky voice.”
“He give you a name?”
“No, but I was kind of out of it. Maybe he told the others.”
“You got their names? An address, maybe?”
He did and he gave them to me eagerly. Atoning for his sins. But I knew he’d never get straight without help. A lot of help.
“Mikey, you’ve been really helpful,” I said. “But you owe me for what you did to my brother.”
His shoulders slumped even more than they already were. “I know.” His voice was barely above a whisper.
“So here is what you’re going to do. You are going to take this card.” I handed him a simple white business card. “You are going to call the number on this card and you will tell the lady who answers that Morgan Bailey sent you to her. You got it?”
He turned the card over and over in his hands. “Yes, Miss.”
“You will tell her the truth. About your drug habit, what you do to support it. The truth, you understand?”
The look of shame on his face was so profound it broke my heart. “She won’t judge you, Mikey. I promise you that.”
He finally nodded. “Okay, I’ll call.”
“Good. And you will do everything she tells you. Everything. You got me? Because if I find out you haven’t, I will hunt your ass down.”
A look of absolute panic crossed his face. “I’ll do it, I promise.”
I smiled for the first time. Maybe there was hope for the kid yet. “Good. And Mikey?”
“Yeah?” He gazed up out of big tear-stained eyes like I was some kind of freaking saviour.
“Take a shower.”
***
Beau and Benedict Radnor lived in a rundown mobile home in the local trailer park. The pink siding, plastic grass, and piles of empty beer bottles screamed white trash. No surprises there.
“I don’t think we should knock,” I whispered to Inigo.
“No kidding. They’re probably armed to the teeth.”
He didn’t look at all nervous, which was good, because I was nervous enough for both of us. I know, I know. How stupid is that, a bad-ass Vampire Hunter scared of a couple of rednecks. What can I say? I’m not used to going up against creatures I can’t kill.
Not that I couldn’t kill the hillbilly brothers, I totally could. But that would get me thrown in prison for a very long time. And I don’t look good in orange.
“Okay.” I sucked in a deep breath. “Ready?”
Inigo gave me a nod, then with one little push he sent the door flying right off its hinges. It crashed into the opposite wall of the single-wide trailer, then bounced back, hitting the floor with a bang.
“Oh, way to be subtle, babe.”
He flashed me a smile before leaping over the fallen door in a graceful bound. Show-off. I climbed over it somewhat less gracefully.
We needn’t have worried about the noise. The Radnor boys were sprawled out on the floor of the bedroom, dead to the world and reeking of booze. They hadn’t even made it to the twin beds before passing out. Gods, I hated drunks.
Inigo knelt down next to one of them and yanked the guy’s head up by the hair. Nothing but a snort and some drool.
An evil smirk crossed my face. “I have an idea.” I tromped out of the room, rustled around the kitchen a bit, and came back with a garbage can filled with water. Really cold water. Which I proceeded to dump straight in the faces of the Radnor brothers.
They came sputtering to life.
“Hello, boys.” I sat down on the nearest bed, making a mental note to call my doctor for a tetanus shot later. And maybe a rabies one while I was at it. “We need to have a little talk. Somebody was very naughty last night.”
They blinked at me through identical blood-shot eyes in identical puffy faces. They looked close to thirty with huge bellies hanging over their saggy jeans. Career drunks and assholes. Goodie.
“What’choo talkin’ ‘bout, bitch?” the one on the right snarled nastily.
Inigo yanked the guy’s hair back and got all up in his face. I could sense his dragon rising to the surface and knew the Rador brothers could see the gold fire dancing in Inigo’s eyes. “Listen you waste of human flesh,” the dragon was in his voice, too. “Show the lady some respect, or I will remove your oh so valuable manhood from your body before I flay you alive.”
The Radnors looked ready to piss themselves. I smirked. Playing Good Hunter / Bad Hunter with Inigo was hella fun.
“Thank you, my love. Now, boys, I want to know all about the man who hired you to beat up the federal agent last night.”
“What do you care?” the Radnor on
the left spit out. “That fed was just some … ” The word that came out of his mouth was not one that I will repeat. Ever.
I am not a violent person. Okay, you can stop laughing. I am not a violent person against humans, but that asshole had me planting a fist straight in his face.
“That’s my brother you’re talking about, asshat. Now I want the truth, or I let my boyfriend here turn you inside-out. Literally. Got it? I want to know about the man that hired you.”
There was some howling and carrying on, but eventually I got the answers I needed. An address for a farmhouse out near Culver.
“What should we do with them?” Inigo asked.
I gave the Radnors a rather nasty grin. “Tie them up with a pretty red bow and leave them for the police.”
Which is exactly what we did. Minus the red bow.
Chapter Eleven
“You have got to be kidding. This place is a dump.”
I couldn’t disagree. The farmhouse we’d been directed to by the Radnor brothers was just this side of falling down. I gave Inigo a little nudge with my elbow. “Want to go in first?”
“I thought you were the big, bad-ass Vampire Hunter.” Humor laced his tone.
“Yeah, and you’re the big, bad-ass Dragon Boy.”
That made him laugh. Which made me grin. His laugh had a tendency to hit me right in my yummy spot.
The tingling at the back of my skull sobered me up. “It’s a vamp nest.”
“You sure?”
I gave him a look. He had the grace to look embarrassed.
“Sorry. You’re sure.”
I crossed my arms and studied the run-down house. Getting in without attracting attention was going to be tough. Too much debris. Too many loose and rotten boards.
“The only thing that’s on our side is that it’s full daylight. We’ll have the upper hand.”
“We could burn them,” Inigo suggested. “Light the place on fire and leave it.”
I shook my head. “We need answers. Hard to question a pile of ash.”
“I can’t tell how many are in there, can you?”
I couldn’t. “We can’t risk pulling the boards off the windows, either. We don’t want to accidentally fry the guy with answers. Dammit.” I went around to the back of the Mustang and popped the trunk.
I began pulling out various blades and bottles and stashing them about my person. When in doubt, load for bear. Figuratively speaking.
Inigo was more conservative. He chose a UV gun and a single blade. Then again, he had abilities far beyond mine. Like, say, shifting into a dragon the size of a large horse. Trust me, that was way more of a shock to the system than a UV gun. Though damn if he wasn’t pretty when he did it.
“Ready?” I asked. He nodded and we slipped into the house as fast and quiet as possible.
The minute we stepped through the front door I knew the vamps weren’t in the house. “They’re underneath,” I whispered.
Inigo nodded and headed for the kitchen with me hot on his heels. He pushed at one of the doors that led off the kitchen. It resisted, but finally gave in with a squeak and a groan revealing a large pantry.
I got the next door. It swung open easily, if a bit creakily. Steps led down into the gloom of a basement.
The grip at the base of my skull tightened. There were definitely vampires in the basement, but I still couldn’t get a fix on how many. And my stupid amulet felt like it was burning a hole in my skin where it lay against my breastbone. I was half tempted to take it off and stick it in my pocket, but I didn’t have time for screwing around. We had vamps to interrogate.
“Did you see any windows leading into the basement?” I asked. I hadn’t seen any, but it was always good to double check.
“Nope. It looks like this one’s completely underground. Probably why they chose it.”
Damn. Without a way to let in the sunlight, we were at a disadvantage. Even though vamps were usually forced to sleep by the rising sun, they could still wake up. And being completely underground, they’d still be deadly.
I clipped my flashlight onto my UV gun. The flashlight was a special Tesselah edition with a full-spectrum light bulb. It wouldn’t do the same damage as the sun or a UV gun, but it would hurt the suckers like a hot stove to bare skin. Probably not what the original inventors of full-spectrum lighting had in mind.
I crept down the stairs, Inigo hot on my tail. At the bottom we both stopped and gaped in surprise.
The floor was covered with sleeping bodies. There must have been about thirty of them. And they weren’t all vamps. There were demons in the mix.
What the … ?
“Demons and vamps don’t work together,” Inigo hissed in my ear.
“No shit.” I had no idea what was going on, but I really didn’t like it. Anything that got vampires and demons together in harmony was not going to be good for the human race.
“I think we should get out of here and just burn the place. We can figure out what’s going on some other way.”
I opened my mouth to agree with him, but it was too late. We hadn’t noticed a demon clinging to the dark ceiling. Slowly it unfurled its wings and let out a low keening sound. Before we could bat an eyelash, the entire place was thrumming.
“Up the stairs,” I yelled, training my gun on the nearest vamp and firing off a ray of pure UV light. The vamp dusted, but there were more coming. Way more than we could handle in such a tight space on our own.
Move your ass, Morgan. Inigo’s voice in my head was practically a yell.
“Believe me, I am.” I dashed up the stairs after him, another vampire just a breath away.
I hit the kitchen just as Inigo smashed the boards off the window, spilling hard winter sunlight into the room. The vampire that had been milliseconds from snacking on me burst into dust.
Sunlight would stop the vampires, but not the demons. Two more vamps dusted before they wised up and sent the non-combustibles instead.
Not good.
Inigo and I backed up in the kitchen as far as we could from the basement door. We’d both switched from guns to blades, as UVs were useless against demons.
The first one that crept through the door was about four feet high and covered in greenish brown scales. It was snarling like a mad dog and just as friendly. What really had me worried were its talons. Razor sharp and twice as deadly.
I eyed the thing warily. “Dammit, why isn’t Kabita here? She’s the demonologist, not me. What the hell is that thing?”
“Looks like a Sonne demon,” Inigo said. “They look nasty, but they’re low-level. Easily manipulated by anyone with more psychic power.”
“Oh, good, then you can control them.”
“Afraid not,” a frown creased his forehead. “This one’s already being controlled by someone else.”
“The vamps?”
“No. Something stronger.”
The demon snarled and charged at us, its deadly talons flashing. One swipe of Inigo’s blade declawed the demon. I finished it off with a dao across the throat. The head went toppling off and rolled across the floor to stare up at us blankly. Bye, bye, demon.
“That was easy and painless.” I spoke too soon.
Demons came pouring out of the basement as if from the bowels of hell itself. Inigo and I had no time to think, let alone speak. We only had time to hack and stab and slice.
The floor under my feet was slick with demon blood. My boot slid out from under me and that was all one of the demons needed. He jumped on my back, taking us both down. I hit the floor hard. Fortunately my training kicked in and I rolled with the fall, shaking off the demon and coating myself in blood in the process.
As I lay there flat on my back, the demon made another run, talons flashing in the sunlight. Fortunately, I was in the perfect position. I raised my legs, bending my knees, and caught the creature in the chest with my feet. One heave sent him flying across the kitchen, nicely impaling him on Inigo’s blade.
“Oh, well done.”<
br />
“Thanks, babe.” I flashed him a grin.
“Damn, you’re a mess. I think we should hose you off after this.”
I looked down at my clothes. Ruined, no doubt. Shit. That meant I’d have to go shopping. “We got some vamps to dust first.” I glanced over at the basement stairs. I so did not want to go down there. “Ideas?”
“Plenty,” he gave me a leer. “None that would help in this situation, though.”
“Seriously? Me covered in demon gore turns you on?”
He just winked at me. Frustrating man.
“Okay, so we got the demons cleared out,” I changed the subject. “There can’t be that many vampires down there. Right?”
“I still can’t get a read on them, but yeah. Maybe a dozen.”
Crap. A dozen vampires in an underground, enclosed space. This was so not my day.
And then an idea hit. It was so ridiculously over the top it might just work. “I’ll be right back.” I dashed out to the car, rummaged around in the trunk, and came back with an axe. Axes weren’t my weapon of choice, but they had their uses.
Inigo eyed the axe, then me. “You going to take up lumberjacking?”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be an idiot.”
Moving around the living room floor, I felt the floorboards under my feet until I found just the right spot. Then I heaved the axe and slammed it into the floorboards, my Hunter strength sending it deep into the brittle wood.
“Shit, Morgan.”
I ignored him and swung again. And again. Until a hole began forming right in the middle of the living room floor.
Inigo smiled and held out his hand. “Damn me, you’re a genius. Here, let me have a turn.”
My shoulders were aching so I handed him the axe and let him wale at the boards for awhile. I was woman enough to admit my Hunter strength was no match for his dragon half.
Before long, there was a huge hole spilling sunlight straight down into the basement. Hissing and snarling and poofs of dust told us at least some of the light had hit its mark. Hopefully we hadn’t accidentally dusted the wrong vamp, but we could no longer play it safe.
Replacing our blades with UV guns, we headed back downstairs. Amazing how light really opens up a space. There were only a couple of corners dark enough for the vampires to hide.