Demon Blood (Vampire in the City Book 5)

by Donna Ansari

  “You need to help fix this,” Tammy said to the girl. “If you help us, we can get the demon into a circle and then banish him back to wherever he came from.”

  “I’ll think about it,” she said. “But I already told you, it’s not going to help Emma.”

  “What’s his name?” Tammy asked. “We were trying to find out his name tonight when he appeared. We know it’s the symbol, but how do you say his name?”

  “It’s Zanyepherthiaklion.”

  Tammy blinked. “Come again?”

  “You know, the names of powerful beings are deliberately hard to pronounce so you don’t say them by accident and it also makes them harder to remember. Plus who ever heard of a demon named Steve?”

  The name had triggered something in me, however. “The name sounds vaguely familiar to me, actually.”

  “Yeah,” Amy said. “We called him by his name during the ritual you helped me with.”

  “But if you knew his name then, how did you not know he was a demon?” I asked.

  “I don’t know.” Amy looked at her feet. “I thought there was a possibility he was just a really powerful witch pretending to be a demon and so he gave himself that name. Like how some idiots wear plastic fangs and pretend they’re vampires.”

  Tammy and I looked at each other and sighed.

  “Can I go to bed now?” Amy asked.

  Tammy waved her up the stairs without a word, and Amy turned and scooped up my cat, who was still lying on the floor. Cradling Gypsy like a baby, the girl walked up to bed. Unlike me, she must not be plagued with allergies. That was probably one of the perks of being of demon blood.

  “So, we have to think of a plan, but right now it’s two in the morning, and I’m losing my ability to think,” Tammy said.

  I had to agree with her, and we both went upstairs, going into our respective rooms. After undressing, I got into bed and closed my eyes, but that was all that happened.

  Finally, when I saw that over an hour had passed, I got up and took a very long, hot shower. Then I put on some comfy pajamas and pulled a large, black book off my shelf. It was my grandmother’s magical diary, also known as a Book of Shadows.

  Getting under the covers, I began to scour through it for anything about summoning or banishing demons. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find anything, but fortunately the act of reading it made me accomplish my secondary goal, which was falling asleep.

  Sometime later, I woke up with the heavy tome draped across my forehead. I pushed it off with a grunt. Then, right before I achieved full consciousness, an idea occurred to me.

  Jumping out of bed, I ran downstairs in my pajamas to find all of my roommates gathered around the dining room table eating sandwiches. As I was currently unemployed, I had to remind myself what day of the week it was.

  “Isn’t it Friday?” I asked. “What are you all doing at home?”

  “Hey Em,” Tammy called out. “Yeah, I called into work due to a possible apocalypse.”

  “And I don’t think half demons should be forced to play volleyball,” Amy said.

  “Slackers. I’m going to work soon,” David said.

  “Anyway, we thought you were reverting to a vampire schedule,” Tammy said.

  “Why? What time is it?”

  “It’s afternoon already. Have a sandwich.”

  I took a seat at the table and put some turkey and Swiss cheese between two slices of rye bread. “Thanks. I had trouble getting to sleep last night, but I just had an idea about how to deal with the demon.”

  “Okay, let’s hear it,” Tammy said.

  “How tasty are werewolves?” I asked.

  “Well, it all depends….” David began.

  “I’m asking Amy.”

  The girl looked startled at first, but after a pause said, “Oh, they’re pretty bad.”

  “And vampires?”

  She wrinkled her nose up. “Even worse.”

  “So why was I the person he came after first?”

  “Because you took part in the summoning ritual?” Tammy asked.

  “I think it’s partly that,” I said. “But in order to help with the ritual, I had to drink Amy’s blood.”

  “And yet, he still hasn’t tried to find me.” Amy frowned.

  “Good point,” I said. “I’m not quite sure why that is, but what I’m trying to say is that he’s coming after people in order of preference. Like a coven of witches together is better than a pack of werewolves, but maybe a huge pack of werewolves is better than a lone witch, and a bunch of vampires may be better than a lone werewolf.”

  “Your point, exactly?” David asked.

  “If we could gather most of the remaining witches in the city together in one spot, that would almost definitely cause him to show up.”

  “The May Day gathering!” Tammy said.

  “Yeah, isn’t that soon?” I asked.

  “Haven’t you been reading the email list?” Tammy asked. “It’s this Sunday afternoon.”

  “Oh, that is soon. But maybe we can still figure out something in time. It’s a witch event, so no one will think it’s out of place if we draw a circle on the ground.”

  “You’re right,” Tammy said. “That could work. But we’ll need to get the word out to everyone as soon as possible. And we also need to research what kind of containment circle would be able to hold him there while we did the banishing ritual. Plus, we need to write the banishing ritual.”

  “It’s a lot to do in one day, especially since we’re not sure what we’re doing,” I said. “Amy, is there any way you can give us some insight here?”

  The girl was silent and staring at a potato chip. Finally, she said, “I can help you. I’m the one who’s responsible for this, and I should help make it right.”

  Tammy looked as surprised as I felt. “Well, thanks. Should I call the coven over again for another research party?”

  Amy shook her head. “That’s not necessary. We should just use the same circle and banishing ritual that my mom used.”

  “The problem with that is that she doesn’t seem likely to help,” David said. “Although I suppose we could make her.”

  “Unless she’s in Florida already,” I reminded him.

  “Even if she is, her books may still be in the house, since my grandparents are freaked out by witch stuff,” Amy said. “But I shouldn’t need them too much, since I saw the whole ritual when I looked into her brain. But it would be best to have them, to be certain we get every detail right.”

  Amy finally ate the chip and took out her phone. In a few seconds, we heard her say, “Hi grandma, it’s me. Yes, Amy, your only grandchild. No, I don’t need money. I just wanted to know if I could talk to my mom. Oh, she’s not there? When are you expecting her? Oh, I see.”

  She started to put the phone down, but then lifted it up again and said, “Grandma, I changed my mind. Could you send me some money? But it’s almost my birthday anyway. Whatever, why did you ask then, old woman?” With that, she did hang up.

  We all stared at her. At least I was shocked by her talking to her grandmother that way.

  “She’s not there,” Amy said. “Let’s go to the house and see if she left any of her books behind.”

  “She never showed up in Florida?” I asked. “Then how do we know she’s not still here in her house?”

  Amy shrugged. “What difference does it make? I’ll be able to get the book out of her hands, one way or the other.”

  As soon as we finished our sandwiches, we all left the house together.

  After walking with us for a few blocks, David stopped. “I’ve got work this afternoon. And I’m not so good with the witch stuff anyway.”

  We said our goodbyes and in a short while, arrived at Diana’s house. It looked the same as it had the other day, with the “For Sale” sign outside. Amy walked up to the door and rang the bell. After a few minutes of no one answering, she started knocking on it instead.

  “Maybe she really did leave, but not to Flor
ida,” I said.

  “Or maybe your grandmother lied to you about her being there,” Tammy said.

  “We’ll see.” Amy picked up a stone from the side of the steps. For a second I thought it was one of those fake rocks that hid a key, but then the girl threw it at the front window, shattering the glass.

  “What are you, crazy?” Tammy asked. “People can see us!”

  Amy shrugged and tried to reach through the window to turn the lock from the inside. “I still can’t get it,” she complained.

  Then she dug into her pocket and took out a key chain, and unlocked the door with one of the keys on it.

  “Why didn’t you try that first?” I asked.

  “I’ve always wanted to break a window,” the teen said by way of explanation.

  Nevertheless, the door opened easily and we followed her inside. The living room looked the same as it had the last time I had been over, even down to the fact that Diana was still in it. But now her lifeless body was just lying in the middle of the floor.

  Chapter Sixteen

  An odd protective instinct came over me, and I held my hand in front of Amy’s eyes. “Don’t look!” I warned.

  “Why?” Amy pushed my hand away. “I don’t care what’s happened to her.”

  “I wonder if it was the demon.” I leaned down to get a closer look at the body. She appeared just as she had when David and I had visited. There were no obvious marks or blood anywhere.

  Tammy’s voice came from behind me. “Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.”

  I turned around. “What’s wrong?”

  Tammy pointed at Diana. “She’s dead!”

  “Seems like it,” I agreed.

  Amy was looking through one of the many cardboard boxes. “Yup. But don’t let it get to you. She had it coming.”

  “But there’s a dead body in the room with us!”

  All my time as a vampire must have desensitized me to seeing dead people. “Oh, right. You haven’t been around any corpses. Minus me. Minus other vampires. And minus all the zombies.” I paused. “I guess you just aren’t used to dead bodies that are unable to move.”

  “Maybe I should just wait outside.” Even with her darker complexion, Tammy looked pretty pale.

  “Not necessary,” Amy said. “I already found the book we need.”

  I looked around the room for a minute. “Did she have a cat?” Even though I had never liked Diana, I was worried about leaving a cat with no access to food and water.

  “Like any living creature could bare her presence for more than a few minutes,” Amy said. “Why? Do you see a cat?”

  “No, but when I was here before with David, she was packing cat toys.”

  “That’s odd,” Amy said. “Are you sure they were cat toys?”

  “Yeah, it was one of those little felt bag things with the catnip inside.”

  “Did you see where she put it?”

  I pivoted around in a circle, trying to remember. “I think that one.” I pointed to an open cardboard box.

  Amy reached a hand in and pulled out the bag in question. “This?”

  “Yeah, that’s it.”

  She gingerly pulled it open and glanced inside. Her eyes widened and she quickly pulled it closed again and shoved it into her pocket.

  “I don’t need any more cat toys,” I began. “Gypsy hardly ever plays with them.”

  “It’s not a cat toy, dummy. It’s a bag of hair.”

  “Ewww, was she going bald?”

  “Are you sure you were ever a witch? A person’s hair is powerful and can be used against them.”

  “Oh, right. That does sound familiar.” Although it was far more likely that it was something I saw it in a movie than read in a magic book.

  “Let’s go.”

  We opened the front door to find Tammy sitting on the front porch, head in hands and dry heaving.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “No, I’m not,” she said, standing shakily. “Let’s get out of here.”

  I gave her my arm, and we walked down the street back toward my house.

  After a minute, Tammy started to look a little less ill. She glanced at Amy. “You should probably call your grandparents.”

  “No way. I’m not calling them again. They didn’t even want to give me money, and it’s almost my birthday, too.”

  “Don’t you think you should let them know that their daughter is dead?”

  “Oh, that. But if I tell them now, they’ll probably fly here right away, and then take me back to Florida or put me in an orphanage or something. It’s better to wait until after this whole thing is over before we get them involved.”

  “Well, maybe I should call Gregor.”

  “Whatever. We’re going to need to get everyone involved anyway if we do this at the Beltane event.”

  “So do you know for sure that the demon is responsible for killing Diana?” Tammy asked. The further we got from the house, the better she looked.

  Amy shrugged. “It was probably him. Other than me, he’s who she has pissed off the most.”

  Tammy nodded and got out her phone. When she started talking, it became apparent that she was speaking to Gregor.

  “Why don’t you just become a vampire again?” Amy asked me.

  “I told you, Alex won’t do it because he works for Michael.”

  “Isn’t there anyone else you could get to do it?”

  “Maybe.” I remembered James, the very unstable vampire I was seeing briefly, who was hated by both Michael and Alex, and had since moved to New Jersey, a place where it seemed there wasn’t much in the way of a native vampire population.

  It was possible that James would be willing to turn me, but it was also possible he’d just kill me to put me out of my blood doll misery. Right now, I was willing to remain alive in my somewhat pathetic existence to see how this whole demon debacle panned out.

  “I’m also thinking that you being a vampire could benefit me.”

  “What? How?”

  “Well, he came after you that first night because he was confused, since you had drank some of my blood. If I could get a few vampires to do that, it would really confuse him.”

  I was contemplating the merits and drawbacks of her plan when Tammy said, “So Gregor called the police.”

  “Ugh, are you kidding?” Amy asked. “That idiot. Now my grandparents will come up for sure.”

  “We had to tell them Amy,” Tammy said. “It’s the right thing to do. You just can’t leave her body laying there.”

  “But did you have to do this right now, when all the details haven’t been worked out yet?” Amy shook her head. “I’ll just have to figure this out really quickly.”

  By then, we had gotten back to my house. “Right,” Amy said. “Here’s the plan. Tammy, you make sure every witch that’s left in the city will be at the Beltane ritual on Sunday.”

  “There’s no ritual,” Tammy frowned. “They’re just planning to do the Maypole dance.”

  “There’s a ritual now. Tell them it’s to regain the magic that everyone lost and to protect the magic of those who still have it. And have the ritual start after sunset. Emma, you need to figure out how to get someone to turn you into a vampire again. You’re no good as a regular human.”

  “Thanks,” I said, but the girl had taken off and went to her room, hopefully to figure out how to banish her father.

  Tammy put her hands on her hips and glared at me. “Are we really going to listen to a teenage half demon?”

  “Her plan seems as good as any. Besides, remember you’re talking to the person who didn’t even have the common sense to avoid walking into a vampire club and becoming a blood doll.”

  “So I guess I’ll get in touch with everyone. Marie is planning this, so I’ll call her first.”

  “What should I do?”

  “I don’t know. Become a vampire?” Tammy walked up to her room, presumably to make calls to the other former witches.

  I walked around
the first floor of the house for a while, seeing if there was anything I could pick up. Cleaning was one of the more productive ways I dealt with stress. But as Tammy was more of a neat freak than I was, there was hardly anything for me to do.

  Deciding to check my email, I went into the room designated as my home office and turned on my computer. I was especially curious to find out if there was any communication from OmniPlus, but there wasn’t, so it didn’t look like I was going to be working for them again anytime soon.

  There were, however, a ton of emails from the witch mailing list. The most recent one, sent only a few minutes ago, was from Marie, asking everyone to please stick around for the ritual that would take place at 9 pm. I consulted a sun calendar and saw that it was roughly an hour after sunset.

  Since it was now about 7 pm on Friday, that meant I had roughly 48 hours to convince someone to turn me into a vampire and make it to the ritual on time. It seemed pretty impossible to me, so I shut off the computer and went upstairs to my bedroom.

  Rummaging through my purse, I found the list of vampire events. Tonight’s was listed as “Full Open Court—Mandatory Attendance.” The time was 11 pm to 1 am. As a human, I wondered what time I should show up. Michael had implied that I would be with him, but I didn’t know if that meant he expected me to arrive at the same time as he did. Since the sun was currently still up, I knew I wouldn’t hear from him for a while.

  While I was waiting, I looked through my closet for something to wear. I went through several outfits, but most of them were unbearably tight, since my vampire self hadn’t needed to breathe like my human self did. While I was throwing clothing around, I began thinking about what my life would be had I stayed an ordinary human, without falling victim to being a blood doll.

  For one thing, I would probably get a full-time job, most likely for an advertising agency, but hopefully not for one owned by vampires. I would probably start dating again. Perhaps unbelievably, my dating history had been even worse before I started seeing Alex. Would I have started a relationship? Would I get married? Would I have children? Would they grow up to be annoying teenagers who summoned demons?