The Vampire's Rebirth (Fatal Allure Book 11)

by Martha Woods

  “If we decide to go after them,” Caleb said, “Will you stop us from doing so?”

  “No, I won’t stop you. We’ll take care of anyone that you leave behind, young and old, but until I say otherwise we’re not going to jump into a chase that we don’t need. I hope you understand that.”

  “Yeah, yeah we understand.” Visibly relaxing, his shoulders slumped and his hand winding into his hair, Caleb breathed a sigh of relief, “At least we’ll be able to keep most of us safe in that case, you have no idea just how much you’ve helped us out right now.”

  “I think I have some idea but… you’re welcome, I just hope that I’m doing the right thing here.” Stepping closer to them, I analyzed them with the eye of an investigator. “I am doing that right? You’re the good guys in this situation?”

  Caleb huffed a laugh, “I don’t know if I’d say we were good, or bad, but I’ll tell you one thing… we sure as hell aren’t them, you know what I mean?”

  “We do what we have to do to survive, always have, and I’m sure that any number of your friends would say the same.” Nathan waved his hand around us, at all the vampires still perched in place and ready to pounce at the slightest hint of trouble. “We don’t kill for pleasure, we don’t hunt people for sport, and we most certainly do not disrespect the dead like they have been doing at every opportunity like they have done. We have standards, and standards are what make us people, they… are really no better than animals, regardless of how many hunters they have on their side.”

  “I’ve seen the work that shifters have left behind, ordinary ones, just like you.” Damon stepped beside me, inclining his head in curiosity. “Some of the scenes that you’ve left behind you, there’s no way that you could describe them in any way except for brutal. What makes them so different?”

  “You have no idea,” He said, “Whatever you’ve seen, and I have no doubt that it was bad, it doesn’t compare to this. What you’ve seen is brutality out of desperation, but what they are doing now, not just to us but to everyone… it’s brutality as an art form, there’s no other way to tell it.”

  That didn’t sound good, in fact it sounded just about awful, and more than a little familiar. We’d already buried two witches who’d fallen victim to a mad artist, I wasn’t keen on the idea of having to bury anymore of them. If these shifters that were coming after them really were as bad as they were saying then that would be another step towards getting into a fight, but I wouldn’t know for sure until I dug deeper. Looks like I have a few more nights of research ahead of me to see if their claims actually hold any weight, but for now I was content having them move towards the city to get into a place of comfort.

  “We’ll have a place set up for you, it might not be the best at first but… we’ll try, and it will be comfortable.”

  “We’ve been sleeping in forests and on the side of the road for the last few weeks,” Caleb laughed, “You could lay out a bunch of cardboard boxes in a warehouse and we’d be happy with it, trust me.”

  “You’ve done more for us than we could have hoped,’ Nathan said, “Believe me when I say that we’re incredibly grateful.”

  “I believe you,” I said, reaching forward to shake his hand, “Just don’t make me regret it.”

  “Oh trust me…” Caleb shook my hand after Nathan, giving another wink before stepping backwards. “Without you we’re probably dead.”

  Damon, Vincent and I watched them go back the way that they’d come, only five feet away from us and already starting to bicker with each other again. We could hear them even after they had started descending down the ladder, even over the roar of the wind their voices still floated up to us with all the strength and clarity of someone who was standing right next to us. It was a mercy when they finally faded away.

  “Jesus,” Damon groaned, “Me and Vincent aren’t that bad, are we?”

  “No,” I replied, “You’re more serious than Caleb, and Vincent isn’t as stuck up as Nathan. They seem decent enough though, what vibe did you get from them?”

  “They seem fine, a little too eager for a fight, but at least they’ll leave the rest of them out of it if they have to.” Damo rubbed his chin in thought, humming lightly to himself, “Still, wouldn’t hurt to keep a close eye on them and what they do. I trusted people that I’d known for years before, and look what happened to me.”

  Vincent nodded, both of our minds going back to that night that he’d been bleeding out in a wet, dirty alleyway. “I don’t think it’s a lesson that any of us are going to forget anytime soon.”

  “Well,” He said, snapping out of his moment of melancholy and smiling back at me, “We should probably get back to work huh? Lots of stuff that needs to be organized if we’re going to be hosting a clan of shifters. We should definitely prepare for an attack as well, I did some reading up on what’s been happening upstate, and messy is definitely a word that I would use to describe it. No subtlety at all, they’re just slashing people down left and right before keeping up the chase.”

  “Whatever they did to piss off that clan, it must have really been bad huh?” Or maybe it hadn’t been, maybe it had just been nothing at all and this other clan just couldn’t stand it, I’d been an investigator long enough to learn that sometimes the motive was that there was no motive, sometimes people liked hurting and killing just… because. The why and who didn’t matter, only the fact that they got to do it. We’d already had a run in with someone who was exactly like that, all focused on killing and killing alone, coming across a whole clan like that wasn’t out of the possibility.

  “Amy?” Vincent shook my shoulder, understanding perfectly what I was doing the minute that he looked into my eyes. “You alright?”

  “Yeah,” I said, nodding along, “Just thinking you know? Nothing major.”

  “If you say so…” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his phone and flipped it around to me. “Maybe we should check in with Cara and Tariq, I’m sure that they’ll want to know the news now that we know for sure.”

  “Good idea, I can’t exactly put a plan together if I don’t know how many people we have either.” Placing the phone to my ear, I walked us over to the rooftop access to get out of the wind, trusting that the other vampires wouldn’t want to listen in on the call. Some of them had seen that their services were no longer required and were moving on back to their dwellings, no doubt disappointed that no blood had needed to be shed tonight. A disappointment to them, a success to me, and the start to something potentially so much better. Or disastrous, I wasn’t quite sure yet.

  “Hey Cara, you there?” I blocked my ear from the wind outside, still so loud even in here. “How are things going?”

  “Amy!” She almost yelled, as excitable as ever, “It’s gone so well! You were right, they really do like me!”

  “I told you they did, who could possibly not be charmed by you? What do they think about the plan?”

  “They’re not quite sure about defending people that we don’t know, but they figure that there’s probably a good reason that we’re doing it to begin with. Besides, none of the groups in this place were ever getting along until a few months ago, what’s the difference with that and this, right?”

  “Exactly,” I said, thinking that was a pretty good point about this whole thing, “How many did you get to agree to come with us?”

  “There’s only ten that agreed to come out to wherever it is that you need them, but the rest agreed to stay behind and step in if they’re really needed. Alexis and Faye are willing to organize everything as well, just so that there’s no confusion between what you want everyone to do and what everyone else thinks they should do. They’ll get the job done, they’re awesome!”

  “They are, yeah. What about Tariq? Have you heard from him yet?”

  “Yeah but… I don’t know, he sounded kind of weird, he hasn’t gotten them to agree to anything yet but he didn’t tell me what was going on, he just said that they were dealing with some things first.” Her
voice was filled with worry, even if she didn’t want to show it she could never quite hide her concern when it came to things like this. “He’s over on the outskirts where the werewolves hang out, do you think that maybe you could check in on him? I’m… kind of worried actually.”

  “Yeah, yeah no problem Cara…” I snapped my fingers, mouthing at Damon and Vincent that we needed to find Tariq. “Don’t worry about a thing alright? We’ll find him and everything is gonna be just fine, he’s probably just having a drink and clearing the air before he gets down to business.”

  “I hope so…” The slight rustle of her hair hitting the phone was obviously her trying to shake the thoughts out of her head. “Ah I’m probably just being stupid about all this, you’re going to find him and they’ll have just been giving him a hard time, it’s nothing!”

  ‘I’m sure it will be Cara, good work tonight, go back to bed if you can, you’ve earned a day off.”

  “I’m going to come into work whether you like it or not Amy, I love my job.” She disconnected the call, always needing to have the last word but always letting it be positive rather than negative. That was exactly what I needed tonight, considering that worries about Tariq were the last thing that I needed.

  “What’s going on Amy?” Damon asked, “What’s happening with Tariq?”

  “He’s apparently having a hard time with the werewolves and sounded weird on the phone. It’s probably nothing but… we need to make sure, don’t we?”

  Vincent nodded. “It could be nothing, or it could be something. I’d rather risk wasting my time than losing a friend, wouldn’t you?”

  “When you put it that way, yeah, I think I don’t really care about my time. Let’s get going.”

  Sure, it was probably nothing, Tariq was probably fine and everything was going according to plan. We weren’t going to find him held down with a knife nearing his chest or tied up and waiting to be drowned, we were just going to find him annoyed with a group of stubborn werewolves who had different ideas of pride and honor that we did.

  But what if, you know? What if something is wrong, and what if we can do something to stop it? I’ve been involved in this for a decent amount of time right now, and I’m tired of people being hurt because of ‘What If’. Compared to losing someone I’d grown to care for so much so soon, what was an hour out of my night to make sure that they were safe? If it meant making sure they were all safe, I would give everything.

  * * *

  All the concern in the world couldn’t make you get somewhere any faster, once you hit your limit that was about as fast as you could go. I wasn’t a cop anymore, I couldn’t fall back on the excuse of chasing a lead if I was pulled over for driving over the speed limit, one perk to the job that I hadn’t appreciated until now. Still, driving a brisk forty miles an hour down the road gave us time to think and prepare ourselves for whatever it was we found, and however unlikely that it was.

  “You don’t think there’s actually going to be a fight waiting for us, do you?”

  At least Damon said it out loud, I’d been hemming and hawing for the last five minutes over whether it was even worth bringing up again. “No, I don’t think we’re going to be walking into a fight. A very heated argument, maybe, but not a fight. The werewolves are proud and combative, but they are very far from stupid, they’re not going to do something so dumb for no reason at all.”

  I said that, but then I’d also seen smarter people do far dumber things for little to no reason. The entire reason I wasn’t a cop and my former boss was wasting away his last days in prison were proof enough of that. Sure the werewolves were smart, but so were the hunters, the vampires and the witches, we were all smart, but for hundreds, even thousands of years we’ve been at each other's throats all for the purpose of… what exactly? It’s all a learning process, and part of that process is accepting that for all the strides we’ve made in improving, there is still always the chance that any of us could slip and end up right back in a fight again, it’s all a part of what makes us human.

  Well… not human exactly, but you know what I mean, right?

  Besides, even if there was a fight I’m pretty confident that Damon and Vincent could shut it down with a minimum of death, not damage certainly, if I’ve learned anything it’s that a werewolf will keep coming for a fight even if you break both their arms and half their legs. But if things escalated, I’m fairly sure that we could calm everyone down once they’ve knocked out the first twelve. That or… well, things will get much worse, but it’s not really worth thinking about that right now.

  “The werewolves, even if they haven’t made much of a deal about it, have wanted this alliance just as much as any vampire.” Vincent would have known better than me honestly, he’s been a part of the fight for longer than I’ve even been alive. “For all their talk of fighting and action, and they are very much dedicated to both, make no mistake, they desire peace just as much as the rest of us, a circle of friends that they can turn to when all other options are exhausted, or even just for the chance to relax next to someone new. Isn’t that what we are all looking for to some extent?”

  “I can’t argue with you there,” I said, “Have there ever been any… forbidden romances between your two groups before?”

  “A vampire and a werewolf?” He laughed, “If they could stop themselves from killing the other for five seconds I’m sure that they would make quite a couple, but I haven’t really heard of any that I can remember. I have no doubt that they existed, but understandably they would be pretty tight lipped about it. Now though, I’m almost certain that they are going to be springing up like weeds all over the place, one thing about vampires and werewolves that we share in common is an insatiable need for passion after all.”

  “Yes, you certainly have that in common,” I chuckled, “Don’t think I haven’t seen how some of them look at the two of you when you aren’t looking.”

  “Don’t think that we haven’t seen how they look at you.” Damon smirked with that almost insufferable certainty that I’d come to love. “Seems that you’re the great unifier in a lot of ways, doesn’t it?”

  “I’m not going to apologize for being attractive,” I said, flipping my hair and winking at the two of them, “Neither should you, whatever helps us make more friends right?”

  “Oh of course, they can look but they can’t touch, I’ve got no problem with that. Besides, it’s nice to be wanted I suppose.”

  “You suppose…” Damon laughed, “Come on Vincent, don’t pretend like you don’t love that shit, I’ve seen the way you basically preen when we give you attention. You’re like… some kind of bird or something, shaking your feathers at the slightest sign.”

  “I don’t… preen. I don’t do anything of the sort, I just stand there and appreciate being appreciated, I’m sorry that you can’t understand that.”

  “Oh I can’t understand that?”

  “Clearly not.”

  “I know what preening is when I see it, because people have been finding me attractive for years and I do the exact same thing, you can’t fool someone who’s already vain my friend.” He slumped back in his seat, crossing his arms with a triumphant grin plastered across his face. I should probably tell him that’s not something that you generally admit to with an aura of pride and triumph. But he just looked so happy to have gotten a one up over Vincent, how could I possibly tread on his moment? Besides, not like I was in any position to say anything otherwise, I’d just spent a good part of the last conversation saying how much I loved attention, it would be pretty hypocritical of me to say something against one sentence.

  “You know,” Vincent drawled, “When you cross your arms like that you look like a toddler who just learned to walk for the first time. I’m very proud of you.”

  “Come on!” Damon protested, “You’re telling me that the thing that you do isn’t clearly some sort of… mating dance? You’re subtle, sure, you’re subtle, but you can’t fool me so easily Vincent, I’ve been watc
hing you.”

  “Yes,” Vincent said, “It seems that you’ve been watching me quite closely, haven’t you?”

  “Oh ha ha, very funny. I’ll get you one of these days, don’t you worry about that. You’re going to do your little dance and I’m going to get it recorded and you’re going to eat all of your words.”

  “How are you going to record it?” I asked, “I thought vampires didn’t show up on film.”

  “It’s not film though, it’s digital. And besides, that’s mirrors.”

  “It’s actually both,” Vincent said, “Logically vampires should show up on digital footage, I’ve never really looked for it myself though. The old superstitions about mirrors and film are because they typically involved a lot of silver back in the day, silver is something that we are averse to, therefore we don’t show up reflected in it.”

  “So… if I held up a regular mirror in front of you, you would be reflected in it?”

  “Maybe, as long as it didn’t contain even the smallest bit of silver, I’ve seen myself in the rain before so I know it’s not quite impossible.”

  “What was that like?”

  “Terrifying, I hadn’t seen my face in thirty years and after a rainy night of drinking I see myself staring back up at me from a muddy puddle on the side of the road. I just about died again from shock.”

  The idea of the cool and collected Vincent yelping in fear at a puddle was far funnier to me than it ought to have been, and judging by the full bellied laugh that Damon was letting out in response I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be laughing,” I gasped in between heaves of air, “But how did you go thirty years without noticing that you could still see yourself in things, how did it possibly last that long?”

  “I had other things to focus on! When you don’t age anymore years pass by a lot faster, it didn’t feel like thirty years, it felt more like… ten. Much shorter.”