So I picked three of the lesser vamps from the floor and had the three Harlequin practice simultaneous head chopping. It’s harder than it sounds to decapitate a body, and trying to get three people to do it in unison sounded almost impossible, even if they were the great and fabulous Harlequin.
I let them pick the angle they wanted for the bodies, while Lisandro stayed in the hallway and tried to negotiate with Marius and the others on the stairs. I counted down for the beheadings. “One,” and a finger out, “two,” another finger, “three,” and as I sliced down on three, the three Harlequin were supposed to decapitate the vampires.
They got settled over the sleeping vampires. I counted, motioned, and their swords were a shiny blur. Two heads came off and rolled away from the bodies. The third head took a second blow. I stared at Thaddeus, who had needed two blows.
“The angle wasn’t perfect,” he said.
The male lion managed to express with body language alone that they had both managed to do it just fine. I said, “I’m with him, you had all the time in the world to set up your angle. Let’s pick three more and take one more practice.”
I’d half expected them to protest just slaughtering the vampires, but they didn’t. Either they were used to following orders without question or they weren’t particularly fond of any of the vampires here. Either way, we had three more dead-to-the-world vampires lined up pretty quickly. It was also three fewer vamps for Mommie Darkest to possess once the sun went down; it was a win-win.
Lisandro called out, “Anita!”
I went for the door at a jog. I prayed that there wouldn’t be any more body parts at the bottom of the stairs. I wasn’t that close to Bernardo, but I liked him and I didn’t want to think of him having to go through life missing bits because I hadn’t figured this out in time. Yes, I know it wasn’t my fault, but somehow it felt like it was.
Lisandro said, “They’re going to send Bernardo’s hand down next if we don’t give up our weapons.”
“Shit,” I said, “we’re not ready.”
“Where is Anita?” Marius asked.
I yelled, “I’m right here, you son of a bitch.” How did I keep him from chopping things off Bernardo that wouldn’t grow back? Then I had another very bad, very good idea. “Get one of the heads we cut off and bring it back ASAP,” I said.
Lisandro didn’t argue, just ran back to the room I’d just left. I tried to reason, or at least delay them hurting Bernardo. “Why so fucking impatient, Marius? You’re blocking the only exit.”
“You are human,” the woman yelled, “you should be honored that the Mother even wants you.”
“When she can possess your body and walk around in it, we’ll talk,” I said.
Lisandro was back with a head in one hand and his gun in the other; with his shoulder-length hair flying out behind him, it was very modern barbarian.
I heard sounds of struggling. Was it Bernardo? “I have a present for you!” I yelled. To Lisandro I said, “Do it.”
He threw the head in a graceful arc to land at the bottom of the stairs. It was perfect placement, which with a basketball wouldn’t have been that impressive, but with a human head—impressive. I’d have never gotten it to land like that.
“What is that?” the woman asked.
“One of your little vampires,” I said. “You send more body parts our way, we send you more heads.”
“We could send you a head, too,” she yelled.
“You have only two hostages; we have a dozen, and three of them are your masters, which means if they die, you die.”
“Thaddeus,” Marius yelled, “you wouldn’t dare.”
“Thaddeus isn’t in charge of these negotiations; I am, and I so fucking would.”
There was silence on their end, while they conferred. If we really planned on negotiating our way out of here, we’d need to do it before the vampires rose for the night. That was going to be soon. I couldn’t explain how I knew, but even underground if I concentrated I could feel the coming of dawn or dusk. We were actually planning on killing most of the vampires and then escaping over the dead bodies of our enemies, but to keep them from guessing that, we had to pretend to negotiate. You always have to lie more to cover the first lie you tell; it’s a rule or something.
“What do you want?” Marius asked.
What I really wanted was for the three Harlequin to work on their timing at decapitation, but out loud I said, “We want safe passage for all of us.”
A moment’s silence and then he said, “Of course.” He knew that as soon as night fell and the Mother entered one of her vampire children she would come after us, but he would pretend that he could let us go and we’d really be free. I could pretend that we were so stupid we’d believe the first part. We began to negotiate in earnest; we were both lying, and both delaying.
How many beheadings do you have to do to get the timing perfect between three sword blows? Nine, as it turned out. How many vampires can you behead before wereanimals fifty yards away smell the fresh blood and death? Yep, same answer. The three Harlequin sliced the necks perfectly, like some executioner choreography, and the wereanimals on the stairs yelled, “You’re killing them all!” “Your lovers are dead!” And the three Harlequin moved to the masters’ bodies laid in their neat row. Their swords were a shine of silver, gleaming and faster than my eye could really follow. In one second a sword was raised, there was a blur of movement, and heads rolled away from the bodies. The white masks made them look like doll heads, but dolls don’t bleed.
There was a scream from the stairs, and a sound almost of struggle, and then nothing. The silence was so thick, I could hear the blood in my head roaring in my ears. I wanted to call out to Bernardo and Ethan, but I forced myself to keep quiet. Were they doing the same, or were they dead?
The two lions moved toward the stairs, using the curved edge of wall to hide them from the stairs until the last minute. Then one did a quick glance up the stairs, and jerked back. He was so fast at it that I thought he’d seen the bad guys still alive, but then he took a second, longer look, and then he moved into the stairwell with the other lion following at his heels.
We waited at the entrance to the hallway. I held my breath, listening, but there was nothing to hear. Then one of the lions came down the stairs and gave the all-clear signal. We started across the open space and I felt it, night was falling. I felt it click into place, and I felt something else stir.
A cold breeze eased past me, breaking my skin out in a rush of shivers and goose bumps. A voice echoed in my head: “Necromancer.”
“Run!” I yelled it, and took my own advice. No one argued with me. We ran for the stairs.
40
THE VAMPIRES CAME for us, and worse yet, they took back control of Thaddeus. He didn’t attack us, but he stopped moving, stopped running. Thaddeus said, “Save yourselves if you can. It is too late for me.”
I reached back for him, but Lisandro grabbed my arm and pulled me forward. He got a death grip on my arm and ran toward the stairs. I had a choice of being dragged, or running. I ran.
Bernardo and Ethan were at the mouth of the stairs with guns in their hands. They fired over our heads at the vampires, and missed. “They’re too fast!” Bernardo said.
I stumbled, fell, and Lisandro half-carried, half-dragged me. I held on to my gun, but I couldn’t run like this and aim. I started to try to pull loose of Lisandro so I could turn and fight, but something hit me so hard it drove all the air from my body, and I carried Lisandro’s nail marks in my arm as the vampire slammed me into the wall. It knocked all the air out of me for a moment. Just a moment, before I was able to try to bring my gun up, but a moment was all the Harlequin needed to pin my arm and gun against the wall and snarl into my face. One minute I was looking into pale brown eyes, and the next the eyes were black, like staring into the deepest, darkest night you’d ever known. The Mother of All Darkness was here. The man’s voice said, “Necromancer,” but though the voice was deeper, t
he intonation was still her.
I screamed, and tried to move my arm enough to use the gun that was still in my hand. She laughed at me. “Drop your shields, necromancer, or my Harlequin will kill them one by one.”
“Don’t do it!” Lisandro yelled, and then made a pain noise. Thaddeus and another Harlequin that was probably his master had him pinned to the floor. It’s harder to capture than to kill someone as good as Lisandro.
Ethan and one of the werelions were circling each other. One of Ethan’s arms dangled, badly broken. The werelion had a gun in each hand. The other werelion had Bernardo shoved up against the wall, one arm behind his back, the other around his throat. Bernardo’s face was bloody. It looked like they’d shoved him face first into the wall to stun and disarm him.
The vampire in front of me leaned his face near mine. “Drop your shields, necromancer.”
“Don’t do it, Anita,” Bernardo said. The werelion tightened her grip on his throat and began to slowly squeeze. I watched his face darken as the werelion choked him.
“Shall we kill your human lover first, necromancer?” the vampire asked, and leaned in, the male body pinning me more solidly against the wall.
“Why won’t anyone believe he’s not my lover?”
“Jokes, even now, Anita,” she said in that deep voice. “There is a difference between bravery and stupidity, necromancer.”
Bernardo went limp in the choke hold. It takes longer to choke someone to death than you think it does, but I didn’t want to chance it. Shit!
“Let him go,” I said.
“But if he is not your lover, then you shouldn’t care.”
“Let him go,” I said, through gritted teeth.
“Let him breathe again,” she said.
The werelion eased the hold, and Bernardo made that terrible wheezing breath like coming back from the dead. He choked, and finally whispered, “Don’t do it, Anita.”
“He is very brave, your human lover,” she said.
I didn’t correct her again. “You’ve gotten inside my shields before and couldn’t possess me; what makes you think this time will be different?”
“I have a body to touch you with that I already possess. You should know that physical contact makes all vampire powers harder to resist.”
I stared into that stranger’s face with eyes that I seemed to have known for a lifetime. “But you’re wearing gloves. None of you is touching my skin.”
I saw the frown lines through the eyes of the mask. “Drop your shields, necromancer, and we shall see if I need to remove the gloves.”
I hesitated.
“You will do as I ask eventually, necromancer. The only question is how many of your companions will die first.”
Ethan was on the ground, and the werelion pistol-whipped him across the face. The werelion aimed one of the guns at the fallen man.
“We will kill the wererat first. He is more dangerous than the human, and I don’t like rats.”
“It’s because you can’t control them,” I said. “If it’s not a cat you can’t force it to do anything. You have to ask, just like with me.”
“Shoot him.”
“No!” I yelled.
The shot echoed through the emptiness of the space, but it was Thaddeus kneeling over Lisandro; he’d moved his body in the way of his master’s shot. He half fell over Lisandro, as his master fell to his own knees wounded as he’d wounded Thaddeus. “I can’t disobey you,” Thaddeus said, “but I can do things that you have not forbidden.” He coughed and blood sprayed down his chin. He looked across the room at me. “Thank you, Anita Blake.”
“Thaddeus,” I said.
“I am a slave no more.” He let himself collapse over Lisandro, and then his hand was up, his gun under his own chin. He pulled the trigger before his master could tell him not to, and they both fell in a heap, their cloaks and their bodies entwined. Lisandro lay under them and I couldn’t tell how badly he was hurt.
“You are forbidden to harm yourself,” she spat out, and the werelion that had Bernardo seemed to shift her weight, as if she’d been thinking about it.
The last Harlequin went toward the last werelion. “I forbade such things centuries ago, or he would have done himself a harm long ago, wouldn’t you, my pet?”
The male werelion snarled at him, but he kept the gun steady on Ethan. They might not like what they had to do, but they’d be good at it.
“Good, pet,” the vampire said, and then he stalked toward us.
The vampire pinning me to the wall said, “Everywhere you go you disrupt my vampires. Revolution follows in your wake like a plague after a rat.”
I wanted to make a smart remark, but my last one had gotten Lisandro hurt, and maybe worse. He hadn’t moved since Thaddeus and his master fell. Some ammunition went through flesh like it was butter. It could have traveled through Thaddeus and into Lisandro. He could be dead because I had to remind her that she couldn’t control wererats.
“Drop your shields or the human dies next,” she said.
“You would never fuck me, don’t do this for me,” Bernardo said. Lisandro lay very still on the floor. I didn’t want to see someone else die for me, and there was one more benefit to dropping my shields. Domino was one of my tigers to call; if I dropped my shields he’d be able to sense me. If I dropped them and burned bright enough, Jean-Claude and everyone I was tied to would sense me, and there were ties between us that physical distance had nothing to do with. She’d wanted me alone, but was I alone? Was I ever really alone?
My heart was trying to climb into my throat. I was so scared my mouth was dry.
Ethan called out, “Anita!”
“Don’t do it,” Bernardo said.
“If you can’t possess me, I don’t want you saying it’s because I didn’t drop my shields enough. You said it yourself: Vampire powers work better if you touch skin to skin. Take off the gloves at least, because when you aren’t vampire enough to roll my ass, I don’t want you bitching.”
“You are impudent, girl.”
“You’ve been trying to roll my mind and take my body for over a year; don’t go all high and mighty about the fact that you can’t do it.” My words were brave, but my mouth was still dry and I was so scared my fingertips tingled with it. One strong emotion reads like another sometimes.
“Do you want me to hurt you? Is that it? Are you trying to anger me so I kill you instead of possessing you?”
“No,” I said.
In the end, she let the other Harlequin help hold me and disarm me while she stripped off the gloves, and then she undid snaps at the neck and lifted the mask off. “Mistress, you reveal his face.” He sounded shocked. Everything else that she’d done, and this was the thing that shocked him.
The man’s face was very ordinary. It was a face that you’d pass in a crowd a dozen times and never notice. It was a real spy’s face—attractive, but not too attractive, ordinary, but not too ordinary. He was neutral, from the dark brown hair cut short to the medium skin tone. James Bond is a myth; real spies don’t stand out unless they wish to, and the man standing in front of me would have blended in almost anywhere, almost.
“This body is shocked to be so naked.” Her voice sounded bemused, and just that one comment let me know that the vampire whose body she was using was still in there, still feeling his own feelings. Would that be what it was like? Would I be in there, but a prisoner in my own body? Would I have to watch her do terrible things to the people I loved and be helpless to stop it? I said a silent prayer: Please, God, don’t let her take me over.
“If you use your fighting skills to hurt this body, your friends will suffer for it. Do you understand?” she said.
“If I hit or kick you, fight you physically, you’ll hurt Ethan and Bernardo.”
“Yes.”
I nodded. “Fine.”
She put her hands on either side of my face and said, “Let her go.”
The vampire at my back didn’t argue, but simply let go of
me. We stood there for a breath, and she whispered, “Drop your shields.”
I did what she asked. I did exactly what she asked. I dropped my shields. She’d never specified which shields. I let the ardeur spill up and over my skin and into hers. Her night-filled eyes widened, and she drew me in against the borrowed body.
“Sex opens us all up, Anita. I have tamed many a necromancer during sex.” She leaned down and kissed me, and I dropped another shield. I dropped the one that guarded the worst power I had ever learned, the one that I had learned in New Mexico from a vampire whose eyes were the color of night and stars. She had taught me to take the life, the very essence of a person and drink it down. It wasn’t that different from the ardeur; they both fed on energy, except with the ardeur there was an exchange like any act of sex in which pleasure and energy mixed and mingled, but for this feeding there was only the taking. I fed on the body, on the energy that animated it, the life of it.
She drew back from the kiss, but her hands were still on my face, and any skin would do. “Necromancer, you surprise me,” but there was no fear in the surprise. “I will gain so much power when we are one.” And I saw in my mind’s eye a great wave of darkness, as if the deepest, darkest part of night had suddenly formed a body and reared up above me, impossibly tall, impossibly everything.
I drank down the body I was touching. I drank his very “life” that made that sluggish blood pump, that body move. His skin began to run with fine lines as if he were drying out. I drained his energy, but he hadn’t fed for the night, and there wasn’t nearly the “life” to him that there was when I’d fed on lycanthropes, but I took what was there, and the energy filled my eyes until I knew they glowed with brown light, my eyes made blind with my own vampire power.
The Darkness crashed into me, and for a moment I thought I would drown in it. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see, couldn’t . . . I tasted jasmine and rain, and smelled the scent of a long-gone tropical night in a part of the world I’d never seen, in a city that no longer existed except as sand and a few wind-kissed stones.
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