“Definitely a good someone,” he said.
Nodding briskly, I grabbed the bag of holy items from the bottom of the box and headed for the door, pushing past him.
“Did I say something wrong?” he asked, following me into the living room.
“Nope.” I bit down on my tongue, hating the sudden jealousy that sparked through me. His life was none of my business, and yet part of me desperately wanted it to be.
I tossed the bag over my head and settled it around my shoulders. Holy items weren’t a guaranteed thing against vampires—they were sort of hit or miss. Silver crosses worked, but I didn’t know if that was only because of the silver, with the religious aspect being a mere coincidence. It still wouldn’t hurt to have the holy items with me, but I viewed them the way I viewed most things in life—if I had to rely on them, then I was probably already dead.
“I’m coming with you,” he said again.
“Nope, this is my job. I have to do this myself… It’s a fae thing.” That wasn’t strictly true, but neither was it a lie. There tended to be a bit of a grey area when it came to carrying out the Faerie Court’s orders.
Samira peered up at me from her position on the couch. “What am I to do?” she asked, and I swore under my breath.
I’d completely forgotten that having Byron hanging around was pretty handy. He was strong and resilient, and I knew he could protect Samira just as well as I could.
“If you’re looking to make yourself useful, I’ve got some things you could do,” Mazik called from the kitchen, and I spun around in time to see him swaggering into the living room with a piece of raw bacon in his hands. He rolled it up and sucked it in between his lips, chewing it carefully before swallowing.
“How did you get in?” I asked, eyeing the new wards I’d gotten from the Noree. She’d promised me they would keep most anything out, but Mazik’s presence called that claim into question.
“Is that any way to greet someone willing to save your arse?” he asked, his London accent drawing out over the last word.
“Answer the question, Mazik,” I said.
“You’re not going to like it.”
“I already don’t like it. Spill it.”
“Fine. When you put the new wards in, I may have added a little back door for myself.” He folded his arms across his chest and narrowed his eyes at me.
“You did what?” I exploded, crossing the room toward him. He slinked out of reach and shrugged.
“I told you that you weren’t going to like it,” he said. “You people always make everything so bloody unpleasant.”
“You’ve damaged the wards, and you expect me to be all right with that?”
“Not damaged, just added a little something that lets me slip in and out when I want. It’s safer that way. If something goes wrong here with little Sammy, who you gonna call, love?”
I cornered him against the back of the sofa. He gave me a wide, charming grin as he raised his hands in mock surrender. But Mazik was about as likely to surrender as I was to hand Samira over to the Noree to use as part of an experiment.
“I want it fixed,” I said.
“No can do. It’s a one-way deal.”
“She said fix it.” Byron’s voice had dropped to a growl, and Mazik’s eyes flashed black as the demon surfaced.
“Down, boy, don’t want you biting off more than you can chew,” Mazik said, his power crawling up my arms like thousands of stinging ants.
“Both of you, cut the crap,” I said.
Mazik laughed and backed away toward the front door. “Like I said, love, if Sammy is in the mood to get her hands dirty, she can always wander in my direction.”
“Get out, Mazik,” I said with a frustrated sigh.
No sooner had the words left my mouth than he was gone, leaving me standing in the living room with Byron and Samira.
“Bloody demon.” I moved toward the door and ran my hands up and over the lintel and frame. I could feel the ward buzzing away against my skin. It didn’t feel any different to me, but I always found it difficult to understand the Noree’s magic.
“It’s actually perfectly safe,” Samira said, leaning on the back of the couch.
“You knew about this?” I turned on her, and she nodded as she chewed her lip nervously.
“I saw him doing it. I thought you knew.”
Burying my face in my hands, I sighed in frustration. “No. If I knew, I’d have stopped him. If he can slip past the wards, then what else can get in?”
“Nothing,” she said. “It’s not that he’s slipping past the wards, more that he coded his DNA into them… if demons even have DNA.”
I stared at her uncomprehendingly.
“Look, he used blood to add his name to the list of people allowed in here without an invitation.”
“If he can do it, then what’s stopping others from doing the same?”
“They’d have to be in here first, and that pretty much defeats the purpose of the wards because you already would have invited them in,” she said.
It made sense, in a roundabout, warped way, but it still nagged at me. Could whatever Mazik had done be the cause of my nightmares?
“Go,” Samira said, waving me off. “I’ll be fine here. If I’m feeling lonely, I’ll call Mazik to come and keep me company.”
“I don’t know…” I said.
“I’m a big girl, I’ll be fine. And, anyway, you can’t babysit me forever. I need to be able to look after myself, and I’ve totally got this.”
I’d once seen her call a demon from the earth, so I knew she was definitely capable of looking after herself in the face of most nasties, but those brave enough to come to my door looking for trouble wouldn’t be the typical nasties.
But I didn’t have a better idea, and Byron wasn’t exactly forthcoming with the offers of help, so what choice did I have? If I didn’t carry out my tasks for the Faerie Court, then I would be up to my eyeballs in trouble… and they definitely weren’t the forgiving type.
I unhooked one of the blades from my belt and passed it to Samira. “If there is even the slightest hint of trouble, call Mazik. The wards should keep everything uninvited out, so at the very least the witch hunters shouldn’t be an issue.”
Worry gnawed at my guts as she twirled the blade in her hands and a wide smile lit her face.
“You really don’t have to worry. Besides, I’ve got Fuzzikins to keep me company.”
“You mean Havoc.” The kitten lifted her head and meowed gently before returning to sleep.
Samira smiled at me and shook her head as she stroked the kitten’s satin ears. “That name won’t stick.”
“We should be going,” Byron said, eyeing the overcast skies beyond the windows. “Vampires can go outside as long as they don’t directly expose themselves to UV light.”
“You’re not coming,” I reminded him, but he just smiled in response.
“If you try and stop me, you’re just going to waste more time than you can afford.”
Glancing out the windows, I had to agree with him. Just because the vampires were babies didn’t mean they weren’t deadly, and vampires had a predilection for fae blood—being a harbinger wouldn’t exclude me from the menu. It would be safer if I finished the job before nightfall.
“You’re right, I don’t have time to stop you. But you’ll have to keep up, and no matter how fast you might think you are, even you can’t do something like that.” I darted for the door.
I knew my bike’s abilities, and nothing man-made could keep pace with it. The sound of Byron swearing beneath his breath followed me onto the stairs, but I was already pushing through the doors and into the gloomy daylight. The motorcycle sat waiting for me on the curb, and I swung my leg over the seat as I heard Byron crash to the bottom of the stairs.
Either he’d jumped or fallen—and I hadn’t pegged him for being clumsy despite his size. I pulled away from the sidewalk, glancing back over my shoulder as he appeared on the street, his
face a mask of fury that curled my lips in satisfaction.
He was good, but I would always be better.
Chapter Sixteen
I locked up the bike in the safest place I could find outside the abandoned industrial estate, which I realized, as I glanced around, wasn’t particularly safe at all. The whole area seemed utterly deserted, but I could feel eyes watching me.
As I took in the landscape, I could understand why both groups had chosen this particular area of the city. It was empty, devoid of any humans, which might have been strange if not for the multiple signs warning of sinkholes. Water nymphs didn’t mind the odd sinkhole, and more than one hole had been created by a particularly nasty nymph’s desire to run off the human populace. The vampires, on the other hand, were drawn to the rundown shopping mall on the edge of the abandoned space. It had plenty of places to hide from the sunlight, and the young teenage snacks sneaking in to party at night simply added to the allure, making it the perfect spot to create an empire of undead blood suckers.
I headed toward the nearest sinkhole, pausing at the edge and staring down into the water. Nothing shimmered on the surface or in its depths. Nymphs had a particular calling card that humans thought was bioluminescent bacteria when it was really just a weird jelly coating that covered the nymphs and protected their skin when they were out of the water.
If they were here, then the water would be filled with it. But I could only see a few lonely water beetles and some flies that had obviously misjudged the water’s surface.
I stared at the abandoned mall, contemplating getting a closer look, but there was no way I was going in there without good reason. Crossing the broken asphalt, I headed toward the next large sinkhole but was met with the same situation. This happened over and over until only the sinkholes right outside the mall were left to explore.
Why would the water nymphs choose to inhabit a space so close to where the vampires had taken up residence? If there were even vampires here to begin with, that is, because so far I’d seen absolutely no evidence.
Alert and cautious, I edged closer to the mall and the wall of mostly smashed glass that made up the front entrance. The sinkhole that sat directly in front of the entrance was the largest I’d seen so far. Reaching its edge, I stared down into the dark water in search of any signs of life. Something glowed faintly in the corner of the pool, and I crept around the edge in an attempt to get a closer look.
The glow extended all the way to the surface of the water, and as I got closer I realised it was also smeared along the edges of the broken rock and asphalt that lined the hole. The colour wasn’t the usual blue I’d been expecting, and I didn’t figure out what I was looking at until I was practically on top of it.
The blood of the fae, particularly the purest of the species, was violet. Water nymphs’ skin glowed powder blue in the light, growing brighter at night as their skin absorbed more of the light around them. But their blood was a brilliantly vibrant violet that glowed with their essence.
I stared down at the glowing violet blood that covered the jagged rocks. It was spread up and over the lip of the hole, and I could just make out traces of it throughout the overgrown weeds and grass that had sprung up around the hole.
Following the drops, I paused on the edge of the plaza that led into the mall and stared at the smeared blood that covered the ground. The drag marks were much more apparent on the open ground than they had been in the grass.
The water nymph had been attacked at the edge of the pool and then dragged back into the secure darkness of the mall.
“Shit,” I muttered beneath my breath as I peered into the almost impenetrable darkness.
If the nymph was already dead and I went in there all gung-ho to save her, the likelihood of walking out alive diminished with each potential vampire waiting for me beyond the grey sunlight that covered the plaza. But if the nymph wasn’t dead and I walked away, leaving her to suffer Goddess knows what kind of terrible end, how would I live with myself? Although, at least in that situation I wouldn’t have to worry about living with myself for very long. The Faerie Court had sent me in to settle the dispute; if I allowed an innocent of Faerie to perish when I could have helped, they would kill me anyway.
“Just gets better and better,” I said to myself.
A scream cut through the air, slicing it apart with almost as much force as one of my own cries. The scream came again, followed by the sound of running feet.
I drew my machete and watched the darkness just inside the mall. Something shimmered out of sight, and when the scream cut off abruptly I felt my heart drop.
The nymph was alive. Or she had been.
It was a trap. I knew it, and yet I was left with no good choices. Sucking in a deep breath, I raised the machete and crossed the plaza toward the mall. If I hated anything more than creepy Auriella and the Faerie Court, it was vampires.
Pausing before the darkness, I said a quick prayer to the Goddess—if she was even listening to me anymore—and stepped inside. I was going to need all the help I could get if I wanted to walk out of there alive.
The darkness washed in around me, thick and heavy. But it wasn’t completely black within the mall, and I could make out grey shapes I identified as tall pillars that seemed to sweep up out of the darkness, their pale marble reaching all the way to what I could only imagine was the roof.
From inside, I could tell that the light didn’t penetrate the gloom because of the black paint smeared on the glass, blocking out all potential light sources. Something scuttled in the dark and I turned toward it, using my machete to feel around in the gloom.
My eyesight was good, and despite being a harbinger, I still wasn’t a match for the eyes of a true predator.
Byron would be able to see in the dark. The thought popped into my head unbidden, and I quickly pushed it away. This wasn’t Byron’s problem, it was mine, and I would deal with it the way the Court expected.
My foot bumped something movable, and when I glanced down my eyes slowly picked out the shape of the discarded mannequin lying in the middle of the tiled floor.
I stepped over it, my foot sliding on the slick tiles and almost shooting out from beneath me. I couldn’t see what I had just stepped in, but I imagined that it wasn’t pleasant. Righting myself before I landed on my ass, I crouched down and drew in a deep breath, the taste of copper and iron mingling at the back of my throat.
Humans often believed that blood smelled like pennies, but beneath the metallic tang was a raw smell…and the scent of death. A normal nose wouldn’t usually pick up on it without knowing what it was looking for. That was the strange thing—death had a stench that I could smell even in the spill of blood I’d almost slipped in.
The stink had always been the first thing I noticed when someone passed. The body usually went through several moments of muscle spasms, involuntary breaths, and other functions that gave the mourning humans the feeling that their loved one was still with them. But from the moment the spirit vacated the body, from the moment the person actually died, their body began to decay and the scent of death washed over them, coating their skin, hair, and clothes. Blood had the same smell, particularly when it came from a killing strike.
As I pushed back onto my feet, another faint sound caught my ear. The noise formed a mental image in my head of nails on metal, and I knew without a doubt that I was being watched. The vampires knew I was here, and yet they weren’t rushing out to attack.
Young vampires were impulsive, and the scent of fae blood turned them ravenous, so nothing short of a master could stop them from behaving like piranhas during a feeding frenzy.
The moment that thought crossed my mind, my heart came to a shuddering halt. The vampires were young, and yet everything so far appeared completely restrained. If this was truly a nest of newborns, they wouldn’t have the wherewithal to cover their tracks. A little smeared blood on the plaza and the rocks in the sinkhole wasn’t the kind of carnage newborns left in their wake.
&
nbsp; And they definitely didn’t have the sense to spring a trap. Their desire to drain the nymph would have been all-consuming. If a newborn had her, she wouldn’t have been able to run away. Hell, if a newborn had her I’d be lucky to find any whole bodies— most newborn nests were made up of the ripped remains of their victims.
I heard a giggle somewhere behind me and turned in the direction of the sound as it bounced off the walls and echoed through the cavernous mall. It was soon joined by another burst of laughter coming from my right, then another and another until I was surrounded. The laughter resembled a pack of hyenas and sent a shiver up my spine.
This definitely wasn’t any normal newborn nest—Auriella had to know that. The Faerie Court had to know, too, so why had they sent me here? Perhaps they were hoping I would die, but sending me to my death at the hands of vampires definitely wasn’t their usual M.O. For all their flaws, the fae were an honourable bunch, and if they wanted me dead they’d just as soon do it themselves.
Honourable, yes. Afraid of getting their hands dirty? Definitely not.
But if they didn’t know about the vamps, then they were being fed poor intel, and that by itself was a problem. I was one bounty hunter; granted, I was working in exchange for keeping my head attached to my neck, so my death would be a minor issue, but there were plenty of other enforcers like Lunn who worked for the Court because they wanted to. They were strong, powerful fae, with power far beyond anything I could ever hope to possess, and an asset to the Court. The loss of one of them would be a huge blow to the Court and the power it wielded. So if it really was an issue of poor intel, then how many others were being sent into situations that would mean almost certain death?
“Little one, what brings you here?” a voice called out from the darkness, cutting off the laughter abruptly.
The words echoed off the glass, making its location impossible to pinpoint, but I had a feeling that the speaker was directly ahead of me. Call it intuition, or whatever, but I could sense his immense power.
Huntress Moon (Bones and Bounties Book 2) Page 11