Devlin's Curse

by Brenda, Lady

  She heard a harsh whisper. “Quiet woman! It’s Walking Ghost.”

  Dahlia went still. “What do ya want, Injun?”

  Shhh …”

  From the shadows they saw the two gunmen pause, look hard in their direction, then move on down the boardwalk. Then Walking Ghost gripped her arm.

  “Devlin sent you away. Why are you back, woman?”

  Dahlia pouted. “I ain’t finished here, an that’s that.”

  “I think Devlin must decide. You are a burr under his saddle blanket. Come, he will know what to do with you.”

  Before Dahlia could protest he pulled her along with him and they headed up to the Emerald Salon. When they arrived they were told that Devlin and Esmeralda were upstairs in her private salon. They found Esmeralda dressed for the day eating a light breakfast while Devlin drank from a tumbler of brandy. When he saw Dahlia his brows drew together.

  “Why am I not surprised? I should have known you would not do as you are told. Where did you find her Walking Ghost?”

  “I found her behind the Lutheran Church. She was being hunted by the Windigo’s men.”

  “What do you know of these men?” Devlin asked.

  Dahlia gave him a coy look from under her lashes.

  “Them’s a bunch of flesh eaters, murderous swine of the likes I ain’t never seen outside of New Orleans. When I saw them at the depot I knew they was coming for ya, so I followed um, thought ya might need Dahlia’s help.”

  Devlin was touched at her words. The girl had more heart than brains.

  “ No more Dahlia, after this stunt I should send you packing, have Walking Ghost take you to Carson City and see that you get on that train”

  Dahlia wrung her hands. “ Oh please My Lord.”

  He felt Esmeralda’s light touch on his shoulder. He smiled. “Well, since you are already here and they are after you, you will have to stay with us. No more mischief though, this is not a game we are playing. Tonight we will be attending the Vampire Ball and you will accompany us.” He saw her lips turn up into a smile. “It’s only because I don’t trust you to stay out on the streets alone.”

  The last thing he needed was another complication. He had his own psychic powers and was able to see things. He knew all hell was going to break loose and he wanted no distractions when it did. He would make sure that everyone was heavily armed before tonight. Both Esmeralda and Dahlia could both handle a gun. He sent Dahlia and Walking Ghost downstairs to find Jamie to prepare for the trouble that was sure to come.

  He and Esmeralda were once again alone in her parlor. Without a word she rose and came over to him. She reached for his hand and took it in hers.

  “Come Devlin, I have something for you.”

  He followed her to her boudoir. Esmeralda sat down at her vanity and opened a small jewelry casket. Inside were two items a red ribbon and the Queen of Hearts playing card. She took out the ribbon and handed it to him as she met his dark gaze. Devlin closed his eyes then opened them and stared back.

  “No, I cannot trust myself.”

  “You must, you will need your strength and the Vampires will know I am mortal and not a donor.”

  Devlin looked away. Esmeralda took his face in her hands. “You must, I trust you.”

  Devlin’s nostrils flared then he crushed her to him.

  “I want you, all of you. I’m not sure I can stop.”

  Esmeralda rose and turned her back to him.

  “Unbutton me,” she commanded.

  Devlin, his hands unsteady, made short work of the dozens of tiny buttons and in seconds he had shimmied it off her and into a silken puddle on the floor.

  Esmeralda turned to face him and then unbuttoned his shirt and pushed it off his shoulders.

  “There is no turning back,” he whispered.

  She closed her eyes as if afraid she would lose her courage. When they had both shed their clothes he lifted her in his arms and took her to the bed. He laid her down on top of the coverlet. Esmeralda stretched out like a cat. He took the red satin ribbon; he tied her hands together, and then to the bedpost above her head.

  Devlin began to kiss her starting at the inside of her knees. Slowly, tortuously, he made his way up to her honey colored mound. Esmeralda quivered and when his lips tasted her center she gasped. Waves of ecstasy rolled over her as his tongue flicked the bud of her desire. Tension built within her and she felt like a swollen dam ready to burst. When he lifted himself up and slid into her she bucked like a wild mare. She met his thrusts with a fiery, frantic energy. When he placed his lips to her neck she stilled. His next thrust drove her over the edge with a shattering climax.

  At that precise moment his teeth sank into her flesh.

  Devlin savored the gift of her blood. Even though a mad hunger pulsed through him he forced himself to take only a taste. In the few seconds as he drank of her essence darkling dreams swam before his eyes. They became shared dreams, in which they walked side by side in a green meadow, free of the tendrils evil that surrounded them.

  He abruptly drew back and sat at the edge of the bed. Esmeralda’s eyes fluttered open with her lips slightly parted. Blood from the twin puncture holes in her neck slowly seeped onto the bed sheets. She felt euphoric, lighter than air as if her very bones were as hollow as a bird’s. When Devlin untied the red ribbon she watched his every movement. It was as if the world moved in slow motion. The expression on his face was one of inner turmoil, emotions that mirrored her troubled thoughts. She was silent when he gathered her up in his arms.

  “I love you, Angel,” he said. “My love for you is absolute, a universal truth like the cycles of the moon and the rising sun”

  Her eyes filled with tears.

  “Please Devlin, please don’t say those words.”

  “That is my truth, whatever happens next.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The Dance Macabre

  Flaming torches lit the narrow trail that led to the Morpheus Mine. Along that path came a steady stream of horses, carriages and carts carrying the Vampires and their guests from all walks of life.

  Among them were Grandfather Woo and his wife invited by special request of Ligea. When the invitation had arrived at the Herbalist Shop his sons begged him not to go. But Grandfather had appreciated the gesture for he could see the politics in it and the unspoken request for his support. So he, and his wife Ming, had dressed in their finest blood-red silks and headed to the ball in their donkey cart.

  Grandfather had given all of his sons’ specific instructions. They were told to stand ready for action, and were extremely suspicious ever since that insect Wing came groveling into the shop. Wing was a dung eater and as such he kept his ear to the ground for the latest and most sordid bits of gossip. He was also wracked with arthritis so painful even the opium did little to relieve him and only Grandmother’s needles and her special tea could help. For that service Grandfather expected him to report anything he had seen, or heard, from his customers. Virginia City was a kettle of tea ready to boil over this night and both he and Grandmother were heavily armed under their robes with knives, swords and assorted other weapons.

  They were not the only ones heavily armed. Devlin, Esmeralda and Dahlia carried their own personal arsenals.

  When Devlin arrived at the Emerald Salon, driving a rented buggy, Esmeralda watched him pull up from her bedroom window. A pressure headache built within her and she rubbed the spot on her forehead between her eyes. She thought again of running, disappearing into the horizon but like a puppet with no will of its own, she whirled her cloak over her shoulders and went downstairs.

  Devlin handed her into the buggy and she took a seat next to a scarlet clad Dahlia.

  Walking Ghost, along with Jimmy and Kuong followed on horseback. However as they were not invited to the ball, they were instructed to wait in the hills above the mine for any signs of Big Jim or Lance Peabody and his crew.

  When Devlin, Esmeralda and Dahlia arrived at the Morpheus mine they entered
through a pair of heavy steel doors. Once inside, they traveled by a rail-cart pulled by mules deep into the earth. From there they took a lift down three hundred feet to a large cavern. The inside of the cavern was fantastic, lined with glittering quartz crystals, chandeliers hung from the ceiling and a fine wood floor of glossy ponderosa pine had been laid over the dirt of the cavern floor. An orchestra played music and couples whirled around the floor. Waiters dressed in white aprons circulated around bearing trays of Absinthe champagne.

  On a raised platform at the end of the ballroom Ligea sat in a high backed medieval chair with Virgil at her side. Both of them were dressed in elaborate costumes from centuries past. Grandfather and Grandmother Woo sat to the left of them along with other members of the Hive. When Devlin entered the room Ligea gasped and started to rise. Virgil laid a hand on her sleeve. Her face was thunderous.

  “Devlin? What are you doing here? You were not invited.”

  “It was I that invited him, Domina,” Virgil said.

  Ligea pulled away from him. “You had no right!” she hissed, under her breath.

  Devlin led Esmeralda and Dahlia up to the platform. He made a short bow to her just an inclination of his head.

  “Ligea, let me present to you Miss Esmeralda Jones, and of course you know Dahlia.”

  “I did not expect the pleasure of your company Devlin.” she gestured to her left. “Grandfather and Grandmother Woo.”

  Devlin and Grandfather exchanged glances. He made a short bow to them. “I am honored.”

  Ligea rose from her chair, her six foot height almost matched Devlin’s. He took her hand and placed a kiss on her palm. She looked down at Esmeralda.

  So this was Devlin’s latest fascination? she thought.

  Ignoring Dahlia, Ligea stepped forward and circled her like a cat. This one is more than a donor. What is his game with her, the very mortal Miss Esmeralda Jones?

  “So you are Esmeralda Jones? The Monte Dealer? Devlin’s latest donor?” she sneered.

  “I have heard a lot about you as well, not from Devlin of course,” Esmeralda countered.

  “Devlin has always had the most unusual taste in women. That is a weakness of his and damsels in distress are a particular favorite isn’t that right Devlin?”

  Devlin smiled. “You have a long memory Ligea, perhaps too long”

  Ligea inclined her head. “Virgil should not have invited you. In fact I had forbid it. I also want to make it very clear that we want no part of your war with Big Jim.”

  “Sooner than later Ligea, this conflict will come your way, without my involvement. Do you have any idea what Big Jim plans to do? Any idea what he plans to unleash on this town?” Devlin asked.

  Ligea and Virgil exchanged glances.

  “The demon that resides in the Gilded Bird Mine is one of the Seven,” Devlin said.

  “The Seven?”

  “Yes, the seven demons of Babylonia.”

  “But what of Red Bluff? And Haures? I saw him die. I also saw him burn to ashes?” Esmeralda asked.

  Devlin squeezed her fingers, which were placed lightly, on his sleeve. “Haures, called Hennessey in this world, is no more. His space on this earth however has been occupied once again, or is in the process of being, through the possession of another host.”

  Virgil had many questions. He met Devlin’s gaze.

  “Are you sure of where the demon comes from this time Devlin? The Gilded Bird mine? That a fissure from Hell that has opened up inside of her? What is not to say that he will bring the rest with him?”

  Grandfather Woo puffed on his pipe. He raised his hand. “While you argue like old women, the Fire Dragon will steal the soul of Big Jim. He is within twenty feet of the Demon’s lair. If the Demon Fire Dragon is freed and reaches the surface untold death will follow in its wake.”

  Devlin nodded. “Yes, I agree, but I also know that they have hit solid rock. They will be shut down for a while, enough time for us to stop them”

  “The Mortals of this town are oblivious to what is going on, that swine Big Jim Diamond must die by next sunset,” Ligea said.

  “I agree, but first we must also deal with Peabody and his gang,” Devlin replied.

  Ligea’s eyes narrowed “I was not at Red Bluff, but I was in Paris in 1809 when you confronted a similar monster Devlin, this curse falls to you again. It is a bitter pill to swallow but we have no choice but to join you. It must end if we are to survive. As for the Zombie Peabody, the Hive and I have our own score to settle there.”

  Devlin drained his glass of champagne. “You may rest assured Ligea. I need not remind you that this is personal.”

  Ligea glanced at Esmeralda. “Devlin, you are a fool.”

  Devlin smiled. “Perhaps.”

  The musicians struck up a waltz. Without another word Devlin whirled Esmeralda onto the dance floor.

  Ligea tried not to glance their way, or to surrender to the memory of her own waltzes with Devlin, both outside and inside the bedroom. How he managed, after all these years, to make her dance to his tune infuriated her. Although, not as much as this liaison with Esmeralda Jones.

  Throughout all the conversation Dahlia had been silent. She stood at the edge of the dance floor and watched enviously as her Lord danced with Miss Esmeralda. Dahlia did not know how to waltz. With a voice that stung her ears Ligea whispered.

  “He is not for you peasant, do not let yourself hope.”

  Dahlia looked up at Ligea. “I ain’t seen him knocking down your door neither.”

  “Do not forget Dahlia that I own you. I paid good coin to your wretch of a father to take you out of that brothel in New Orleans.”

  Dahlia’s eyes snapped to hers. “What’s it to ya?”

  “Just a reminder my dear, of where your loyalties lie.”

  Dahlia did not give the vampire queen’s words another thought. She caught the eye of a prosperous looking gentleman and gave him a wink and with a swish of her silk skirts she made her way over to him.

  I’m aim ta have me some fun tonight. There ain’t nobody exceptin’ her Lord that she had to answer to ever again Ligea be damned, she thought.

  For several moments Esmeralda allowed Devlin to sweep her effortlessly across the floor.

  “What was that cryptic exchange between you and the other vampires? This thing about the Seven?” she asked.

  He looked into her eyes.

  “There’s no need for you to worry about it.”

  “Why must you be the one to hold back this terror?”

  Devlin did not answer right away but stared straight ahead. After a moment he spoke. “Because, my dear, I am the one that unleashed it.”

  Inside the clapboard shanty on D Street, a place he had set up as a home base, Lance Peabody guzzled from a jug of white lightning. What was left of his crew shifted nervously on their feet. They haphazardly filled empty whiskey bottles with the highly combustible liquor and spilt half of it on the floor.

  “Listen up, you turd brains,” Peabody said. “That bastard Devlin and his whore are going to the bloodsucker shindig tonight. Get yer shit together and fill up them bottles. I’m fixin’ ta mess with um when they are down in their hidey hole, light that friggin’ mine up like a chinee firecracker. We got orders ta grab Devlin and the woman first. Big Jim wants em alive, what you do after that I don’t give a rats ass.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The Seven of Spades

  Devlin was the seventh son of a seventh son in a household of ten children, six of whom had died in battle by the time he was sixteen. He felt doomed to end up the same way. His father had been plagued with sullen moods, terrifying dreams and unholy thoughts. He’d drowned those thoughts with wine and women until his soul, barren and weak, was unable to resist the call of the Beast. When he died atop his latest whore the seed he planted in her womb was the seed of the Demon.

  The night before the birth, Devlin’s mother came to him in a dream. She stood before him dressed in pure white, her inky black
hair flowing in tendrils around her face.

  “Devlin, my son, you are now the eldest, the chosen one. The Demon’s spawn will be born tomorrow night. You must not let it live. Promise me.”

  He remembered feeling paralyzed unable to speak. He only knew that he nodded and promised to carry out her wishes. The next day he made his way to the village and to the shack of his father’s whore. He waited in the shadows and peered through the solitary window. He could see that no one attended her and that she had been left alone in her pain. None of the villagers had dared cross her threshold. Devlin watched as the moon rose high and child tore its way out of its mother’s womb. It lay bloody and red with eyes of fire and teeth of steel. It chewed hungrily on its dead mother’s body. From his hiding place Devlin could hear the beating of wings. They became louder and louder, nearer and nearer. The child shrieked but before it could be enfolded in the leathery wings of the Demon, Devlin jumped through the open window. He used an iron lance to impale the infant spawn from stem to stern. He planted it in the ground in front of the mean shack and fled.

  The piercing scream of the Demon filled his ears. It followed him. Its long shadow reached out enveloping Devlin as he spurred his stallion back to the castle. That night he left his boyhood behind.

  That night the demon planted its own dark seed, in the form of a poisonous curse, in Devlin’s young heart.

  When Ligea questioned him about the Seven Demons of Babylonia, he was reluctant to speak about it. He had personally dispatched three of them in the past hundred years but each time they morphed into a more powerful and devious enemy than before.

  Tonight, at the ball, he whirled Esmeralda across the dance floor and his dark thoughts briefly lifted. He held her lovely, vital, body close. In his arms she felt like a fragile and delicate flower that he was loath to crush. He looked around the room, at the other dancers, and the vampires, which were at the edge of the dance floor.

  “What are you thinking about?” Esmeralda asked