by Lucy Lyons
“Remarkable, considering how long they had her imprisoned, but she’s still weak enough that I worry for her safety from Chronos. He’s the only one left to hurt any of us.” I was happy for Dominique, who had walked the earth for a thousand years looking for the right partner for her magic, and she’d finally found someone good enough. Unfortunately, that had turned out to be the bloody source of the vampire scourge on earth.
“Then she should focus on getting better. We just about got our asses handed to us by a regular vampire last night. I don’t need a demi-god vampire coming around for the leftovers.” Dom’s face grew serious and she leaned into the mirror on her side, zooming her in on mine.
“Clay, is Caroline all right?”
I shrugged and tried to smile. “I haven’t heard of any complications from the encounter, but she was pretty well-done when Nick carted her out of here last night. It was a total cluster…It was bad news last night, Dom. We lost people.”
“Are the Venatores going to be involved?” she asked. Like me and Caroline and even the professor, Dominique di Borgia had spent most of her life in the society of hunters. In fact, she’d been the one to go to the Bishops in Rome and ask for their support when she started the Venatores lamiae.
“No. It’s, ah, it was an internal thing. The vampire was just an opportunist, and he’s dead. But Dom? He had the power to reopen wounds. He stank of decay, and honestly, facing him was the most terrified I’ve ever been. So, I’m not really feeling the vampires right now.”
She sucked in a breath, held it for a moment, then turned away from the mirror and consulted someone outside my field of vision. Nodding, she turned back to me, worry deepening the fine lines that had only just started to appear in her face a few months before.
“Clay, Chronos can cause wounds to rot. It has something to do with time, the way all life decays. If the vampire was his…”
“The vampire was Glory’s. He’d been hiding out with Nick’s people, waiting for an opportunity to muck up our whole world. FYI, it worked.” I tugged at my hair and started to pace. “Did Glory belong to Chronos? Because that would explain a whole lot of the last couple of years.”
An attack by Glory on the Venatores compound where we used to live had inadvertently caused the situation I was living in now. When she’d died, I’d celebrated without a moment of remorse for my prejudice and hatred toward her. If Chronos had been involved way back then, and Caroline and Nick kept messing up whatever grand plan or picture-perfect vampire world he had in his ancient, mother-imprisoning, off-his-nut head, he could already have another attack planned. He could have been gunning for Caroline all along.
“Dom, I have to go. I’ve got to check in on Caroline. I’ll get back to you, OK?”
“I understand.” She looked like she wanted to argue but stopped herself. “I have a gift for you from the queen,” she said, and the mirror glowed so brightly I had to close my eyes and duck my head. When the light faded enough for me to see again, Dom was smiling in the frame.
“What did you do?” I growled, and she raised her hands in surrender.
“Unlocked some of your hidden potential, Clay. The queen wanted to give you something to help you see her intentions are good.”
Angry and worried about what Dominique had done, I waved my hand in front of the mirror, and just like I’d hoped, it terminated the connection somehow. I’d worry about what “potential” she’d unleashed in me later. We had too much to worry about without adding the queen mother of vampires to the mix.
I picked up my cell phone and ran out the door to apologize to Roger. Staying wouldn’t save Lisette or Allan from the actions of the night before, but I could still protect the people I loved—Caroline and her unborn child being at the top of that list.
“Hey, Rog? I found out some pretty bad news about that vampire last night. I think I need to get to the bottom of why he was here and make sure there aren’t more on the way.” Roger straightened up and glanced back at his older brother.
“Hold on, you need to repeat that for Bernie. I swear, he said the same thing. Said he had a dream about a queen warning him of an invasion of rotting vampires who could speed up time.” I shuddered and considered telling him that the dream had been sent by the queen of vampires but decided against it. We’d had enough insanity of our own without the pack learning that yet another vampire could control their dreams and call their beasts.
Bernie joined us and repeated what Roger had just told me. He thanked me for going to the vampires to dig around and made me promise to tell him and Ashlynn anything I learned. I went one up and promised to tell Roger and Henny too. Our pack needed the transparency, and, frankly, it was time to introduce democracy to our people.
Chapter Eight
Pulse, Nick and Caroline’s night club, was jumping when I walked through the door, but it was all work and no play as bartenders and chefs, wait staff and janitors and all the people you never bother to think about as necessary cleaned and prepped and brought in produce and fresh meat for the club’s growing dinner crowd.
On stage, burlesque dancers rehearsed, bending and twirling and wriggling in little more than bikinis to music by the Malcontent Orchestra. Once the club opened, the music would be live, but for rehearsal, recordings were good enough. On another day, I might have stopped and appreciated the beauty of the lithe vampires as they danced, but I had a mission, and even the curves and shimmies of the most beautiful vampires in the clan barely registered.
A short ride down in the elevator backstage and I was in hive central, surrounded by more vampires, all hurrying around performing their various duties for either the club or the master and mistress of the clan. Not seeing anyone familiar, I made my way directly to Caroline and Nick’s living quarters, praying along the way that I found her resting happily with baby bump as big as ever. I’d embraced my cowardice enough that I hadn’t called before I showed up, afraid that the news might be bad.
“Clayton, you don’t look as well as I expected after a night of healing. Are you all right?” I started as Nick appeared from around the corner unexpectedly.
“I’m OK. The fight and then the ritual after the fight took a little out of me, but I’m OK. Thanks for asking. I was actually here to check on you and Caroline.”
He chuckled and clapped me on the shoulder, laughing harder when I winced. He motioned toward the sitting room that attached to their bedroom, and I followed him through the heavy double door. He called out to his wife, and I looked around, happy to see all the baby accoutrements piling up in every corner.
Caroline came out of the bedroom, still rubbing sleep out of her eyes, and I cringed, embarrassed.
“Sorry, Care. I should’ve just called before I came. I didn’t mean to get you out of bed.”
“No matter,” she waved off my apology and sat down, gesturing for me to do the same.
“Hey, Nick, you need to hear this too. I’m sorry.” I tried to put all my thoughts and suspicions into a coherent order so Nick could make use of them. “Glory’s vampire was a rotter, which is rare, right?” Nick nodded and emboldened, I continued. “Chronos’ power is the power of decay. Something to do with controlling time and how long things take to rot or heal.”
“OK, I see what you’re saying. What if Glory and Chronos were working together?”
“Basically. I was wondering if Chronos is pulling strings with Glory’s vamps still, and the Night Mother seems to feel the same way.” I sat back and watched Caroline process what I’d said.
“You’ve been talking to Ony?” I’d forgotten that the vampires had started calling her Ony, or Onyxis. It was a lot easier to use than her title, and made her seem less foreign and freaky, which I heartily approved of.
“Dominique called me on my mirror this morning, which I will admit, is far better than dropping in unannounced, but still not great…” I confessed. Caroline sputtered a little, saying that anyone in their right mind would find the sudden appearance of a face other than th
eir own in the mirror unnerving. “Actually, she made it ring first, like little bells, and it glowed, so at least I was expecting not to see my reflection, even though I wasn’t sure what to expect.”
“What does the queen want from you?” Nick interjected, looking almost his smooth, polished self but missing by just enough that I knew he’d been expecting her to talk to me.
“Dom says she wants to help me. The queen somehow saw or divined our infighting and wants to help us stop it.” I rubbed my hands over my face. “Caroline, I’m so sorry that we got you involved with our fight and put you and the baby in danger. I really thought that having you guys there would deter a fight, not put you in the hands of that stinking, rotten demon.”
“Astomi,” she replied, and I stuttered for a moment.
“Come again?”
“Vampires who can rot or cause purulence are from an ancient race called Astomi, once worshipped by people of the Roman, you know, region of the old world.” She smiled gently, and I nodded and shrugged.
“OK then. We have a name for it. Does that mean we can cure it?”
She laughed and patted her husband on the leg, and he shrugged and smiled down at her from his perch on the arm of her chair.
“Caroline has been classifying the vampire population. I am impressed by how many she’s nailed down. Chronos is the immortal father of the Astomi people. Basically the first vampires are like demi-gods, right?” he explained, and I stared at him, my mouth gaping in dumbfounded shock.
“Well, vampires have that magical blood and human blood combined. Sometimes it created a variable—sometimes it didn’t. We won’t know what we have until she’s born, but boy am I nervous,” she giggled.
“But why would Onyxis want to help my pack? I hardly had anything to do with her rising. We don’t owe her a debt, and I assure you, the alpha’s greatest fear is being a slave to a vampire. You know that’s why she resists the call from you.”
“The Night Queen is older than any of our social customs and used to being obeyed without question or hesitation,” Caroline reminded me. “You had best tread lightly. Did Dominique seem in any way inclined to take your side?”
“I can’t get a read on her any more than I could when she was just the super-hot, mysterious teacher who might be a little older than she looked.” I scratched my head. “Speaking of that, she’s looking a little older lately. Do you think Ony’s draining her?” I asked. Caroline shrugged, and Nick’s face remained a cool blank.
“I would hypothesize that she stopped using magic to keep from aging in preparation for the blood bond between them. If Onyxis is getting better then perhaps they will complete the blood bond soon and Dominique will go back to not aging,” Caroline shrugged. “It was always a priority to her, staying young forever. I can’t imagine she suddenly changed her mind.”
“Not to mention, we have no idea how old the Night Mother will appear once she’s in full health. I received a call of my own from her before your skirmish at the campground last night. She is certainly in better health than any of us remembered.” Nick shifted uncomfortably, perched on the arm of the chair, but his face was passive and cool. In fact, were it not for the scar that ran down from the corner of one eye to his jaw, he would’ve looked like a wax figure. But that smooth scar looked real in his otherwise plastic face, making him appear more human and less alien than some of his followers.
“Well, I’ve got to decide what I’m going to do then. I never thought I’d come to the attention of the source of all vampires. As a hunter, I didn’t even imagine it.”
“That’s for sure,” Caroline agreed. “But don’t panic until you get an idea of her game. So far, she’s been more ‘friendly fae,’ less ‘terrifying creature of the night. I just hope it stays that way.”
I nodded my agreement. Caroline was working on a theory that vampires came from fairies, not from demons, and the Night Mother, Onyxis, seemed to validate that theory. Then again, she was Chronos mother too. We’d barely escaped with our lives from Eos, her daughter, and that was with her help. If Chronos had Nick’s people in his sights and our pack had somehow accidentally wandered onto his radar, we might not get the chance to win again.,
I thanked them both and Caroline let me feel the baby move before I left, just to assuage my lingering guilt over bringing them both into danger. Nick walked me out, but instead of taking me to the elevator, we veered off toward the security sector, where the wererats sat in front of computers and monitored the video footage from within the club and the intelligence from vampires and Renfields, or human helpers, all over the city.
We passed through a thick, steel vault door, and Nick led me through the section of the hive that I knew Caroline never got to see. I recognized several of Glory’s vampires behind bars as we walked down the wide hallway, hissing at us or ignoring us altogether and staring into space as we passed. He stopped in front of an empty cell that looked like it had been inhabited recently. There was a messy, unmade cot, a small bar of soap at the metal sink that hung from the wall, and, most telling, a tin of mints still sitting on the table.
Breath mints were a matter of course for the modern vampire. We shifters had the benefit of living metabolisms and stomachs that could handle food and water. The singular nature of the vampire’s diet seemed to give them a universal case of halitosis. I’d never seen a people so committed to their oral hygiene. If you needed an after-coffee mint, your best bet was always to ask the nearest vampire.
“So, who used to sleep here?” I asked when Nick wasn’t forthcoming. He took a deep breath and exhaled in what would have been a sigh if it had come from anyone else.
“Malcom has been staying here, due to his decision to assault a young woman who got separated from her friends a few weeks ago,” he said, rubbing his chin like he was expecting there to be stubble. “You need to see this video.” I followed him through the next door and greeted Fin, the wererat who worked as the head of security. When I was at work, he was my supervisor, but off the clock, we sparred and went shooting together.
When we entered the small, technology-cramped room, he was leaning over a desk, connecting wires and soldering pieces onto some sort of motherboard and cursing a blue streak as he burned his fingertips.
“Give me a sec, guys. I have the footage queued up for you. I just need to finish…this,” he swore again and I felt a grin split my face.
“This is a matter of some urgency, Fin,” Nick reminded him, and he sighed and waved his scorched fingers as he slid across the floor in his chair and punched keys rapidly on the computer next to us. The footage was in black and white and silent, but it was clear that Malcolm was communicating with something in the mirror, seconds before the video fuzzed and cut out for a moment. When the footage came back online, the cell was empty, and vampires and wererats raced into the frame, confused and angry.
“He escaped with magical help. The only people I know who can speak through mirrors are witches, like Dominique and Caroline,” Nick offered, “and I know it wasn’t Caroline.”
“I can’t imagine it was Dom, unless…” my voice cut out as my throat closed.
“Unless she was manipulating you to agree to the demands of her mistress,” he finished for me. “I can’t prove it, Clay. But you’re family. We wouldn’t make you go into negotiations with the Night Mother blind.”
“Right. But I believe that I’m right about his ties to Chronos, as well,” I insisted. “I know Dominique has never been the most loyal of us, but we helped her, and we helped her mistress. If she helped him escape, I have to hope it was so we could destroy him for her, not so he could harm you or your child.”
“With creatures like Onyxis and Dominique, one can almost never tell where their true motivation lies,” Fin observed, and Nick agreed.
“You need to watch your back or let us watch it for you. It doesn’t just affect you if you’re taken by the queen. It could bring down the freedom that we’ve worked so hard to share, in my clan and in your pack
.”
I nodded, sobered by the thought of losing my pack to slavery the same moment I’d worked up the nerve to shake the foundation of dictatorship it was built on. I flexed my fingers, my skin tight with the need to set the beast free to hunt whatever threat was circling my pack, and I felt Nick watching me.
“Are you well, Clayton?” I rolled my shoulders and clenched my jaw but nodded in reply.
“Prof says there’s a funky lunar eclipse this full moon that’s probably affecting me. I’ll be OK, I just feel…weird. Out of place in my human skin.”
“Hm. Interesting timing, don’t you think?” he mused, and I rolled my eyes, cursing myself for not seeing the possible connection before he pointed it out.
“Isn’t it always?” I quipped, and he chuckled and grabbed my shoulder, shaking me gently.
“Either way, Malcolm is dead, Chronos wants us dead, and the pheromones your alpha secretes when you enter a room are so strong it’s almost nauseating,” he declared. My face burned with embarrassment, and he laughed at my discomfort. “Just another Tuesday for a former Venatores hotshot, right?”
“Something like that,” I managed to sputter. I felt him looking at me out of the corner of his eye, and I prayed he didn’t continue. “I need to get back home and check in on my job interview before I have to face my alpha again. Our people will burn tonight, and normally I would invite you and the rats to honor them with us, but I’m afraid of endangering Caroline and your offspring again.”