Stolen Chaos: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Cardkeeper Chronicles Book 1)

by A. C. Nicholls

  Chapter 14

  I got in line outside the nightclub, just behind the velvet ropes. Drunks surrounded me, singing, play-fighting, screaming and laughing and yanking my chain. I stomped my shoe on the cold ground as I waited. Even my little black dress was giving me grief; riding up my leg every time I moved and making me look like a hooker.

  After a half-hour and a near-collision with a young girl who couldn’t handle her alcohol, I got inside and marveled at the size of the place. From outside, it had only looked to be the size of a modest bar. On the inside, however, I was met with a glass-lined staircase that led to different floors, each playing a different kind of music and – as a result – hosting different demographics. I found the one that seemed more likely to allow for audible conversation, and hung there for over an hour.

  As I sat at the bar with Link in my purse, worrying about whether Jason had made it out alive, a dreadful thought crossed my mind; what if the vampires could detect me? What if they could sense magic the same way that us mages could? What if everyone in here was a vampire and they all turned on me at any given moment? I was becoming confident with my magicard, but I would never be that confident.

  The vampires were easy to spot. The ones who were ‘bumping and grinding’ seemed to have their tongues out a lot, tasting the sweaty flesh of their dance partners. I’d not seen humans do it live before but I’d seen those crazy photos on Instagram from spring break in Cancun. To me, that suggested a taste for human skin, and probably, for human blood.

  Those who weren’t dancing were drinking from metallic cups. It had taken me around forty minutes to figure out why they’d started serving drinks in those, and when I did, everything clicked.

  Milk.

  Due to their nocturnal inclinations, vampires needed the vitamin D, and couldn’t get it from sunlight. It made perfect sense to seek it from other sources. I would probably have done the same, if I’d suffered the same curse.

  Slowly getting fed up, I drank the last of my absinthe, knocking it back and wishing I hadn’t. My immortal genes caused my blood cells to recover so quickly that it was almost impossible for me to get drunk, but it still tasted like a sweat-hardened sock.

  Link stirred in my bag as I headed for the stairs, willing to try another floor.

  That was when I saw him.

  The expensive blue suit gave him away. Over six feet tall, he stood out like a sore thumb in this place. His long, black hair fell down his back in a perfect ponytail, while stray wisps lingered around his pale face. His sky-blue eyes had a healthy glow, highlighted by the whiteness of his flesh. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he was a vampire, and his stylish attire indicated a position of power.

  I tried to get closer, careful not to stand out to him or the bouncer he was talking to. The music blasted in my ears, and for the first time in my life, I hated Bohemian Rhapsody. I inched closer and hovered behind the suited man, leaning closely to eavesdrop.

  “If he can’t control it, he shouldn’t have it,” the suited man said to the bouncer. “That guy is a problem for all of us.” His hand rose and scratched the back of his neck. I was close enough – lucky enough – to get a glimpse of the bite-mark under his collar. This guy was definitely a vampire – no question about it.

  “What do you want me to do?” the bouncer asked.

  But the suited man didn’t respond. Instead, he turned to look at me. I tried to act casual, staring out at the dancing crowd, swaying to the music and pretending I was just another drunken white girl. My acting didn’t work – I could feel his eyes all over me, staring and assessing me.

  By a thin stroke of luck, he turned and continued with his business. Then, he whispered something into the bouncer’s ear and took off toward the stairs. The bouncer stood stock still, glaring at me.

  “We need to get out of here, Keira,” I could imagine Link saying. I wouldn’t have thought it was a sign of weakness, either. Something didn’t sit right, and I also thought that we should leave, pronto.

  While the bouncer kept staring, I turned quickly and took the stairs farthest from me. I didn’t want it to look like I would cause trouble. All I needed was information, and if I couldn’t get it here, I would rather be elsewhere. Screw Victor Kronin – let him have his fun, if that was what it would take to leave this place. Let him use his power and destroy the Sacred Temple of R’hen. It wasn’t like we would live to know about it, anyway.

  I reached the bottom of the stairs and scanned the perimeter. Bouncers stood on either side of the exit. One of them had a hand on his radio, taking orders as he held it to his ear. It looked like he was trying to focus, listening intently to his instructions.

  Until his eyes locked with mine.

  My pulse quickened and a sweat broke out on the nape of my neck. I had to get the hell out of the bar, but I couldn’t use my power. If I did, it would just draw attention from the hundred or more vampires still inside.

  Desperate now, I turned to head back the way I came. But I didn’t manage to turn all the way round. Before I could face away from the exit, a large hand clamped over my shoulder, gripping tight. Squeezing. My heart raced. When I looked up, the huge bouncer from upstairs stood before me, anger filling his eyes.

  There was no escaping this. I was all alone and surrounded by vampires.

  And they had home-field advantage.

  Chapter 15

  The bouncer manhandled me up a steep staircase and through a locked door. I didn’t try to fight him – I knew my odds pretty well, and didn’t feel like taking any chances. All I could do was let him escort me to God knows where.

  On the other side of the locked door was a small, dark room, with an exotic fish tank along the left wall. An executive desk sat at the back of the room, where the suited man sat with his feet up. His hands were tucked behind his head, and an arrogant grin played on his lips.

  “Frisk this one,” he said.

  Deciding not to kick up a fuss, I raised my hands and closed my eyes, biting down on my lip. I knew what was coming; first, he would disarm me of my magicard and leave me vulnerable. Then, when I was left defenseless, they would search my bag and find Link. I realized then that I was in the middle of a snake pit. I swallowed, hard.

  “What do we have here?” the bouncer said, taking my card in one hand and pulling Link from my purse in one large, meaty fist. “Looks like the mage brought you a snack.”

  I stepped forward, wanting to slap his stupid bald head. I only made it two steps before his fangs came out and he hissed, reminding me that I’d been disarmed.

  The suited man stood and made his way around the desk, leaning back onto it with his arms crossed. “Put the faery in the cage, Brisco, and bring the magicard to me.”

  “But–” Brisco the Bouncer began.

  “Do as you’re told,” the suited man said.

  I watched in silence, worried about what might happen to Link as he was placed inside the bird cage. I strained my eyes to see if there was an actual bird inside, but thankfully I couldn’t make one out. As for Link, I was actually quite impressed to see how he was taking it. Although he shook like a leaf, he didn’t try to squirm, squeal or run away. In fact, he did nothing but stay still, which was probably all he could do to stay alive.

  Brisco handed over the magicard, and left the room when dismissed.

  Now it was just us, and the man in the fine blue suit.

  “Do you know who I am?” he said calmly.

  I shook my head.

  “Do you know what I am?”

  This time I nodded. “A vampire.”

  “Very good.” The man smiled and stood, holding out a hand.

  I cautiously took it, and gave it a short, firm shake.

  “The name’s Edgar George,” he said, before making his way around the desk and sitting back in his reclining office chair. “You may have figured this out by now, but you’ve been drinking in my establishment. Now… you’re a mage, and I’m assuming…” he said, raising my card and crook
ing an eyebrow, “a Cardkeeper?”

  Watching the card glow with the soul of the mage inside, I nodded slowly. I had never been more grateful that a vampire couldn’t use a magicard. Not unless he was a mage, too, but the chances of that were slim at best.

  Edgar placed the card back on the desk, and then leaned forward, tenting his hands and looking me dead in the eye. He reeked of confidence. He was a big man anyway, but being a vampire as well, I imagined it would take a lot to spook him. “So then, care to tell me what a Cardkeeper and a faery are doing inside my club?”

  “What makes you think we knew this was a vampire lair?” I said with a sneer.

  Edgar grinned at that. “Because you brought a magicard with you, sat at the bar for an hour with only one drink, and then tried to sneak out after listening to my conversation. I know you probably don’t get much company at the Vault, but you must know that mortals don’t behave like that.”

  “I could have come here to kill you.”

  “Then you should have brought a few of your friends.”

  “Maybe I did,” I bluffed.

  “Not likely.”

  “How’s that?”

  Edgar leaned back, a smile creeping out and exposing his sharp fangs. “You may or may not know this, but your magic stinks. It doesn’t even need to be active for me to pick up on it. The smell is…” He sniffed at the air. “Putrid, like rot. Powerful, dangerous rot.”

  I guess that answered a question of my own. I would be sure to let the Keepers of all the pillars know that vampires could smell our magic. If I made it out of here alive.

  “I’m going to ask you one last time,” Edgar said. “What are you doing here?”

  I took a deep breath. It was time to come out with the truth, and put all my cards on the table – so to speak. “A powerful magicard was stolen from our Vault by a man named Victor Kronin. He used it to kill a pack of werewolves, and sources tell me that he has been here. Or will be, anyway.”

  It must have taken everything he had to neutralize his expression. The news that a pack of wolves had been slaughtered must have been music to his ears, but if he was amused, he was hiding it behind a stern, serious face.

  “Victor’s wife says that there would be an assault carried out against the vampires. As soon as I heard that, I made my way here to see what I could dig up. The way I see it, if I could get a murderous mage off the street and defend the vampires, you might have been interested in sharing some information. That’s why I’m here.”

  Edgar finally broke into a laugh, a hoarse noise that chilled me to my very bones. When his laughing fit subsided, he wiped his eyes and pierced me with an accusatory stare. “You came straight here from Kronin’s house, huh?”

  I straightened up, glancing at the magicard on the desk. I wondered if I could go for it. Would he see it coming? Would he snatch it out of my reach before I got to it? I knew it would take some time to warm up – that I couldn’t use it immediately. As sensitive as vampires were to fire, it would take more than a spark to burn one to death. I put that plan on hold and simply nodded. “Right.”

  “And you didn’t make any stops along the way?”

  “Right.” I didn’t want to tell him the truth: that Lena and the werewolves were expecting some sort of attack to happen here, while I stood and watched.

  Edgar sighed, sitting back once more. “Thing is, we’ve been on to you since we saw you at Jackson Park. We saw you head to Karen Saunders’ house. We followed you back to the VHS store, and we saw you go to the sewage plant. What do you have to say about that?”

  My mouth went dry, words sticking in my throat. If I had been followed, there was every chance that the vampires knew my plan, which meant that Edgar knew I had lied to him. I looked over at Link, who sat on the bird’s perch, swinging softly while hiding behind the rope suspension. I needed to get us out of this vampire lair before we became a midnight snack.

  “Well?” Edgar pressed, anger lighting up his eyes.

  There was only a slight chance that I could make it, but I had to try. As fast as I could, I lunged forward and reached for my magicard. For a second I thought that I would succeed, but when Edgar made his move, I realized how much trouble we were in.

  The vampire’s suit vanished in a blue streak, moving faster than the eye could see. He scooped up the card and carried it away before I could make out what had happened. That’s the thing with vampires; they move so goddamn fast, and they were almost impossible to kill without a little fire to aid with crowd control.

  He struck my jaw with his lightning-fast fist. I hit the deck. It hurt like crap but I tried to recover, tried to get to my feet and grab Link. The blue swirl of air swept around the room and the cage sprung open. Before I knew it, I was watching Link float helplessly inside the fish tank, while a furious vampire with red eyes and extended fangs contemplated how to finish us off.

  “Link!” I screamed, frozen stiff.

  “There are only two ways you’re getting your little faery back,” Edgar snapped. “Either I hear the truth immediately, or his bones will be tipped out when the tank is cleaned on Sunday. What’s it going to be?”

  I didn’t need convincing that this wasn’t a bluff. My eyes lingered on Link as my pounding heart strangled my throat. Fish surrounded him. One with sharp teeth swished around him as he struggled to keep his breath. It looked like only seconds before my best friend would become fish food.

  “Let him out,” I said quickly.

  Edgar shook his head. “The truth.”

  “Let him out! I’ll tell you what you need to know!”

  “Tell me now.” Edgar tapped on the glass of the tank with his sharp nails. “Clock’s ticking.”

  My lips moved by themselves, but no words came out. I didn’t know what to tell him, other than how I’d really found their lair. What else was there? He said I’d been followed, so they probably knew I was on Team Wolf. All I could do was be honest, and pray that I wouldn’t be condemned to join Link in the fish tank.

  “Fine,” I said. “The wolves told me about this club.”

  “Why?”

  “To see if I would really come here.”

  “They let you live?”

  In the tank behind Edgar, Link thrashed around, trying to scare off his predators.

  “Yes,” I said urgently.

  “But why?”

  For God’s sake. “They want me to stop Kronin, and thought that this would help. Listen, I’ll tell you anything else you need to know, and then you can do what you like, but please, please get my friend out of the goddamn tank!”

  Edgar smiled and turned slowly toward the glass. He studied it long and hard, before finally lifting up the top and reaching in to grab Link. “Here’s your pitiful faery,” he said, and tossed Link across the room to land at my feet.

  I knelt to pick him up, desperately searching his body to check for bite marks. His eyes slowly peeled open, and I had never known relief quite like it. He coughed up a shot of cold water, spitting it onto the floor. Those tired, terrified little eyes looked up at me with gratitude

  A soft breeze whooshed past my face, and I turned to see Edgar sit back in his chair, feet up as if nothing had happened. “Okay, Keeper. I’ll let you in on a little secret. This buddy of yours, Victor–”

  I ground my teeth. “He’s not my buddy.”

  “Whatever you say. Anyway, he came by here looking for trouble a couple weeks ago, throwing magic around like it was pixie dust. Didn’t hurt anyone though, and that seemed a little strange to me. So I brought him up here, showed him around.”

  But you didn’t kill him, I thought, furious.

  “We struck something of a deal, and I turned him into a vampire.”

  “You what?” I stood up and removed my jacket, wrapping it around Link and cradling him in my arms. “You turned a mage into a vampire, and then set him loose? Are you crazy? That man will kill us all!”

  “Watch your tone, girl, or you can go for a swim, too.”


  I snarled at him and took a short step back. “What did you want from him?”

  “Oh, just a few little jobs. You know, a bank robbery here, a mass genocide there.”

  I shook my head in disapproval. Victor Kronin was dangerous enough with the Chaos card, but making him immortal had to be the most selfish and thoughtless decision ever made. “I want to find him.”

  “Ha!” Edgar smacked his knee. “Me too!”

  “You don’t know where he is?”

  “No. We turned the bastard, and then he turned on us. Last time we saw him was at Hale’s Hotel, where he used your stolen card to kill twenty vampires just like that.” Edgar snapped his fingers. “Turned them into dust as easily as you could crack an egg.”

  “But why?”

  Edgar George shrugged, his suit creasing up at his shoulders. “Testing his power, I suppose. I should have known the guy was crazy. All he ever talked about was growing stronger, hurting people and… a summoning.”

  “A summoning?”

  “Don’t ask me what that means. I just know that it wasn’t good.”

  The more I heard about Victor, the less bothered I was about vampires and werewolves. I hadn’t signed up for this but someone had to do it, and nobody else seemed able to manage without falling victim to the cards’ powers.

  “The reason you’re still alive,” Edgar went on, “is because I want that man dead. We all know how much I love to kill mages, but I would rather he die than you. If you think you can handle that, go see what you can dig up at the hotel. If you die…” He shrugged. “Well, it would be no skin off my nose.”

  “You’re letting me go?”

  “Obviously. But don’t let me regret it.” Edgar tossed my magicard at me, and I somehow managed to catch it without dropping Link. “I have to warn you, though; Victor is getting stronger with each passing day. If you ask me, he’s up to something bigger. All this talk of summons and temples… Kill him, and do it fast.”

  Temples? Was Victor planning an attack on the vault? Doing so would cause the Sacred Temple of R’hen to topple, and that would end in complete annihilation for us all. I knew that he was a bad guy, but didn’t think he could be that crazy.