Demon Child

by Kat Cotton

  I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. I showed him out of the office, then went back to my desk to try to make sense of things. One thing was certain. I’d need to be much more careful about my involvement with the vampires. Even if Kisho could fly under Bob and the mayor’s radar, Nic definitely couldn’t. He was way too high-profile, and anyone with half an instinct about these things could tell he was a vampire.

  Chapter 17: Warehouse

  “I’ve spotted the Demon Child. Can you get down here?” Kisho sounded determined.

  After Bob’s visit the other day, I’d told him not to come into the office anymore. I missed having him around, but I couldn’t risk him being caught. He’d been sad about that, so I’d told him to do fieldwork.

  I quickly wrote down the address.

  “It will be faster to walk, rather than take the car. Traffic is bad.”

  Damn. I really wanted to take the Mustang. But it wasn’t like the Demon Child would hang around just waiting to be staked, so I had to rush. I grabbed some stakes and my phone, then hit the streets.

  Kisho hadn’t given me any details on the phone, just that he’d spotted the Demon Child.

  I got to the spot, a warehouse on the docks. The kind of place where you’d expect all kinds of dodgy dealings to be going on. Graffiti covered the outside of the building. The row of windows above me were all smashed and the bars over them had rusted. Weeds grew all around.

  A cold wind blew off the bay. I wandered around, trying to find Kisho. God, maybe this was one of those things where someone had kidnapped him and made him use his phone to lure me here. I’d have my throat slashed and be dumped in that warehouse, where no one would find me for years.

  I leaned against the wall, making sure no one could get me from behind.

  Would anyone even think to look for me? Nic? He’d go looking for Kisho for sure. But definitely not me. Otherwise, there was no one. What a depressing thought. My housemates would give zero fucks except to dump my stuff on the street after realizing I wouldn’t be paying rent.

  I had no friends. I had contacts. People like Mitch that I saw once in a while. I hadn’t been in touch with anyone in years. Maybe, if I survived this, I should get in touch. Call people. Meet up for coffee. At least often enough that someone would notice if I wasn’t around.

  Shuffling footsteps made me look up.

  It was Kisho.

  I ran to him and rained punches on his chest. Bastard.

  “Why did you call me down here, then disappear?”

  He laughed, my punches not even causing him to wince.

  “I had to check out the back for a way in. That door looks like it hasn’t been opened for years, probably doesn’t open with the bars across it so rusted.”

  “You sure it’s him?” I said.

  “Yep. He’s holed up in here. We’ll need to be quiet, we don’t want to wake him.”

  “He’s sleeping?”

  “Napping.”

  “There is a way in?” I hoped it wouldn’t be too troublesome. There was no way we could fit through those bars on the windows, and I didn’t feel like scaling the walls up to the roof.

  “The loading bay at the back has been covered, but there’s a gap. Obviously, the building has been accessed recently or the Demon Child wouldn’t be in there.”

  We made our way around the building.

  “This place looks like it has rats,” I said.

  Kisho jumped a little. I’d forgotten he was scared of rats. Actually, I wished I hadn’t said that out loud. I didn’t want to think about rats either.

  I followed him. The gap was plenty big enough to get through even if it did look like the corrugated iron had been ripped off. There were some nasty edges that could cut you if you weren’t careful.

  “I’ll go first,” said Kisho. “There might be a trap.”

  “It’s okay. I can handle myself.”

  “But I have super healing.”

  I’d forgotten about that. I let him go first. Once he was in, he held the rusted iron aside.

  The smell hit me as I got inside. Dankness and dust and motor oil. The only light came from the broken windows, creating a patchwork on the concrete floor. That just threw the rest of the room into deeper shadow.

  Two rows of concrete pillars ran the length of the space, and tangles of wire hung from the ceiling. This place was freaky as fuck.

  Otherwise, the warehouse was empty. When my eyes adjusted, I noticed a pile of stuff at the other end of the room. That had to be his nest.

  “He’ll be asleep, right?” I whispered. This all seemed too easy. The vampire who’d terrorized the city, curled up asleep and ready to stake. If only.

  Kisho nodded. I shook my head.

  My rubber-soled boots made little noise, and Kisho had the light-footed step of a vampire, but still, it seemed like we made more noise than a herd of elephants getting across that concrete floor.

  Rubbish and debris covered that floor, as well as cracks in the concrete that would trip you if you weren’t careful. We stuck to the edges, where there was no light, and I rammed my hip into something. An old desk, just sticking out for anyone to run into.

  I hated this place and wanted to reach out for Kisho’s hand, but hesitated. As we got closer, the pile took form, wooden crates and pallets in a precarious heap. Some broken. That seemed a little dangerous for a vampire. Some of those grey blankets like furniture movers use hung over the crates. That pile almost reached the roof.

  Would it be true? Would the Demon Child be snuggled up in amongst those boxes? I bet he’d made himself a fort. He seemed like the kind who would. If he had a teddy bear, it’d be almost impossible to stake him.

  Kisho paused, grabbing my arm to halt my steps.

  He answered my questioning look by nodding at the corner. Then I heard it too, a scuffling noise. Rats? I clenched my jaw. No, it didn’t sound scurrying enough for rats.

  There was something there in those shadows, though. Something moving around.

  A loud bark echoed through the empty building.

  A dog?

  The Demon Child had a dog?

  Was it a Hellhound or a normal dog?

  “Shit,” Kisho whispered. “That’s going to wake the Demon Child.”

  I don’t know why he whispered, since the barking of the dog would wake the dead, or the undead as it were. We had no option but to keep going. Maybe the kid was so sound asleep that he wouldn’t be woken by that. Still, what was a dog doing here? He had to be a guard dog for the very purpose of waking the kid.

  We got almost to the corner when a movement flashed out of the corner of my eye. The kid jumped up to the top of the pile. I knew this wouldn’t be so easy.

  He stood on top of the crates, giggling. An eerie sound that bounced off the walls of the warehouse and seemed to envelop us.

  I rushed for him, not sure how I’d make it up that tower of crates without toppling them. As I approached, he did some kind of crazy flip off the boxes, somersaulting over my head and landing behind me. Raising a cloud of dust in the process. How the fuck had he done that? He’d been some ace gymnast in his human life, but that had been amazing.

  No vamp I’d ever met could move that fast. He was like quicksilver. He moved almost faster than my eyes could comprehend, jumping from the light to the darkness in a flash.

  “Catch me,” he said and did another flip.

  Kisho rushed for him, but the kid flipped again.

  We exchanged glances. How the hell could we catch him? The damn kid wouldn’t stay still. He laughed at us. He thought this was a game. Compared to the kid, even Kisho seemed slow and lumbering. I didn’t stand a chance. We’d tire long before he did. Our only option was to outsmart him, but how?

  “Watch me, pretty lady,” he said.

  He jumped up and grabbed one of the wires in his hand, hanging in the air. Then, with a forward thrust, he swung from one wire to the other. Flying like a damn vampire fairy.

  He moved
from one end of the room to the other, using the loops of wires. I could only stare in amazement.

  Then he flipped down and stood in front of me.

  I raised my stake but plunged it into thin air as he twirled away from me. The movement only made my arm hurt from the force with no impact.

  The Demon Child stopped to stare at me. “Pretty lady,” he said. “Get me, pretty lady.”

  His eyes shone with laughter.

  I ran across the room, hoping he’d be distracted enough not to notice Kisho sneaking around behind. He stayed still until I almost got to him, so close I could nearly touch him, then he did another flip, landing almost in Kisho’s arms. We had him, we so had him…

  Then he got away, slipped right through Kisho’s arms.

  I sighed, twisting the ring on my finger. This was no good.

  The little bastard. He laughed again.

  That kid would do this all day, but I was already tiring. A sheen of sweat covered my skin. I wasn’t even sure that Kisho could keep up with him. The kid seemed to have infinite strength and could defy gravity.

  The dog started up again, a high-pitched howl that cut through my nerves.

  Kisho stared at me. He wanted to say something.

  “What?”

  “Why don’t you do it?”

  “What?”

  “The sex thrall. That’s your thing.”

  “I can’t. He’s fourteen years old.” I coughed. All this dust being stirred up choked my lungs.

  “Well, technically, closer to one hundred and fourteen.”

  I could tell Kisho wasn’t any more enthusiastic about the idea than I was, but we both knew it was the only way.

  “Fuck it. I have few morals, but I draw the line and trying to sex up a little kid. Even if he is a bloodthirsty killer.”

  He shook his head. “Just enticement him to you. It’s not like you have to follow through.”

  Hell, I could not sex up a young boy, but there was no other option. Kisho thought he had a crush on me, so it’d be easy.

  I positioned myself in one of the beams of light and fixed my hair. I needed something to draw on to do this. There was only one image that came into my head. I actually blushed to think of Kisho like that when the real thing stood in front of me, but I had to go there.

  His back, glistening with sweat. That was the image I had in mind. I took a deep breath, hoping all the gods would forgive me for tempting a young child like this. Then I wiped that thought. He wasn’t a young child. He was an animal, a dangerous animal who would kill again at the first chance. Although, I didn’t know if that made it any better.

  “Hey, kid,” I called. Then I fixed him in my sights, parting my lips slightly.

  The kid moved toward me, a lot slower this time. He didn’t take his eyes off me. It worked. That kid looked horny as hell.

  “Pretty lady,” he whispered, raising his hand as he walked as through stroking my face.

  He came closer and closer, my thrall pulling him in. All the laughter and play had gone out of him. He moved like he was sleepwalking. He stepped into the beam of light, so close that I could almost reach him.

  “Pretty lady,” he said again.

  Then he blushed. That damn Demon Child actually blushed, like a regular teenage boy.

  If I breathed or moved, I might break the thrall. I had to stay as still as possible. I hated doing this kind of thing in front of Kisho, but he’d been the one to suggest it. He was right, and Nic had been too. This was the only way. That didn’t make it any easier, though.

  I turned the sex eyes up. Drawing him to me. Two more steps and he’d be close enough to stake. I just needed him to take those two steps.

  I shot a slow smile at him. He smiled back with that chipmunk smile. I took the next step. As much as I wanted to act, I had to entice him closer. He was too fast otherwise. Every ounce of my will went into drawing him.

  He stared and then he looked away.

  No. He had to look at me.

  “Kid…” I called softly. “Come here.”

  He lifted his foot. He’d do it. He’d be in my arms and I’d have that stake in his heart before he knew what hit him.

  I tried to still the beating of my heart.

  Put your foot down, I screamed inside. Take that step.

  Instead, he covered his mouth and giggled.

  Then he ran.

  He ran across the warehouse and flung himself into his nest.

  “Hey, kid,” I called.

  He giggled in spurts. What the hell was going on? No one had acted like that before.

  Then it hit me. He was acting like a normal teenage boy. Too young to follow through and embarrassed by his reaction.

  Fuck. Fuckity fucksticks.

  I’d come on too strong. Before, he’d happily wrapped his arms around my neck. I should’ve played it more subtle. Too late now. The kid would hide from me until all the hormones in his demonic body calmed the fuck down.

  I shrugged at Kisho. Maybe we should just take a break from this and regroup. I walked over to the old desk and sat on it. Kisho sat beside me.

  “We are going to fail,” I said. “Again.”

  Nic had said to do whatever it took to destroy the Demon Child, but what could I do? I was only human.

  I was human.

  That was the key. I had a plan, but it was the stupidest plan in the history of stupid plans. In my whole demon-fighting career, I’d never thought of anything so dangerous. It was the only way, though. I would not lose. I never lost.

  Chapter 18: Human

  “No way.” Kisho’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when I told him my plan.

  “It’s the only way. You have to see that.”

  “I can’t let you do that.”

  “Are you going to tell Nic that? Are you going to go back to him and say that we couldn’t catch that damn Demon Child because you refused to take a chance?”

  That would get him. He’d never do that.

  “Yes.”

  Huh? He was lying. He couldn’t look at me and lie, though.

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “I’d rather do that than have to tell him you were the child’s latest victim. You’ll die, Clem.”

  Damn, it made my belly flip-flop to know that he’d do that for me. Nic would go insane. He knew that better than me.

  While we talked, the Demon Child had gone over to play with the dog. It wasn’t even a furious dog, just a noisy one, chained up in the corner. I guess the dog didn’t need to attack. It just needed to wake up the Demon Child and let him do the damage.

  “He’s going to kill again if we don’t stop him. We can fight him, but there is a city full of people out there who can’t.” Then I remembered something else Nic had said. “You’ll be putting your pack at risk.”

  He frowned, those two deep vertical lines forming between his eyes. Kisho was far too soft-hearted for this, but I had to convince him to help me or the plan would fail.

  “I’m doing it with or without you, but it’ll be much easier if you help.”

  “You understand what will happen when the Demon Child smells your blood? You know what that will mean?”

  I totally understood. I’d seen the damage he’d done. But we couldn’t keep chasing him.

  I had to draw him to me and, since the sexual attraction had failed, the only way I had left was blood. I’d be the bait, bleeding my appetizing blood. Sweet, fresh blood that he wouldn’t be able to resist. When he came to feed, Kisho had about a split second to plunge the stake into him before I’d be obliterated by him.

  Hell, was this even me? I didn’t do self-sacrifice, even if it was to save a bunch of lives. I did money and I did winning. I would win. I had to believe this.

  I had to put my trust in Kisho, and I didn’t do trust that well either.

  He walked away a little, the frown deepening. He had something to say, but nothing he could say would change my mind. This was the only course.

  “I�
�ll do it. Cut me.”

  That made no sense at all.

  “But it needs to be human blood. I’m the only human here.”

  My heart raced. He struggled to get his words out, like they were trapped so far inside him that it hurt him to let them loose.

  “I’m not fully vampire,” he said. His face twisted in pain.

  I didn’t get that. “You aren’t? But… how does that work? You’re either human or you’ve been turned. That’s how it works, right?”

  What did he mean? Had something gone wrong in the turning process? Whatever it was, it really was something I’d have to drag out of him.

  “My mother was human. My father, vampire.”

  He bowed his head as though that was a source of shame. Maybe it was. Who knew with vampires? They had weird ways of thinking.

  “But that’s impossible. Vampires can’t…”

  “They can. It’s rare. Very rare. Most of the time the woman, the human mother, dies before the child is born. The baby saps too much of her strength in the womb. But then most half-breed vampires are more fully vampire than I am.”

  He still didn’t look at me, but the pain hadn’t left his face. I wrapped my arms around him and we stood like that for a while, far too long given the circumstances, but Kisho hurt.

  It’d been a huge thing for him to tell me. It was nothing to me but obviously, it’d been a big deal to others. I wanted to know about his mother too. Had she survived it? I couldn’t ask that, though. It wasn’t the right time.

  So many things fell into place. His smell. The first time he’d attacked me, I hadn’t been able to tell if he was human or vampire. That was why he didn’t feed. Why he was so gentle. So many of my questions had been answered, but so many more replaced them.

  “That’s why Nic kept me around. He said you wouldn’t be able to thrall me with your sexual aura. Then he met you and decided your sexual aura wasn’t all that anyway. Oh, sorry.”

  “That’s okay.” I patted his back.

  God, this was not the place to go into things. Nic obviously knew, and used that knowledge to keep Kisho oppressed. Damn vampires.

  “So, we can use my blood. It’s half-human blood. It should work.”