Scarlet Revenge

by Sheri Lewis Wohl

  “You okay?”

  Tory looked over to see Ivy standing in the doorway. “Yeah, just having a little pity party.”

  Ivy walked into the room and took a chair next the small desk where Tory sat. Her expression was serious, her dark eyes intense. “You’re entitled, you know.”

  “Maybe, but it doesn’t accomplish a thing.” Didn’t even make her feel any better, so it was truly a worthless exercise.

  “Did you know Adriana lost her house too?” Ivy asked.

  That got her attention. “No. How?”

  Ivy scooted a little closer. “Did you ever hear about Riah’s first love Meriel?”

  Tory nodded. She knew about Meriel. During her early years, the stories were still being told about the two young women. The rich and powerful did love their gossip, even if it was from decades earlier. Particularly when that gossip was all about a love affair between two young, beautiful, and wealthy women. That one of the young women was her relative made the gossip all the more interesting.

  “Well, Meriel, or Destiny as she was called by the time we ran into her, blew up Adriana’s house.”

  “She blew it up?” Okay, that got her attention. A little more personal than the fire that took her home, even if it was intentionally set.

  “Oh, yeah, kaboom!” Ivy threw her arms up and waved them wide. “Not only did she lose her home and possessions, but everything she had been working on for years went up in a ball of flames.”

  “Working on?”

  “See, now that’s the really tragic part. Adriana, Riah, and I, when I could, worked together to try to figure out how to reverse vampirism. We were a regular scientific superhero team.”

  Tory shook her head. Though she loved Ivy’s colorful way of telling things, she’d heard that story a million times. Somebody was always coming up with some magic potion or another that would cure them all. Those that tried the witches’ brews were cured all right. Cured right into a pile of dust. She wanted no part of that.

  Ivy smiled as she studied Tory’s face, her enthusiasm for the story seemingly undampened by the disbelieving look she couldn’t hide.

  “Be a disbeliever, but you’re wrong. You see, Adriana had rushed down to Riah’s morgue that night to bring the news that she’d finally found the cure that would release Riah from her prison of darkness. It was incredibly exciting and Adriana was sky-high.”

  “Seriously?” Despite Ivy’s upbeat retelling, she still had a hard time believing the tale. She’d seen and heard of too many cures that ended badly. No one that she was aware of had even come minutely close to actually finding a cure.

  Ivy put a hand over her heart. “On my mother’s grave. Adriana discovered a cure.”

  Tory raised one eyebrow. “Your mother is dead?”

  A crooked smile lit up her face. “Nope, alive and kicking. But if she had a grave, I’d swear on it. I sure wouldn’t lie in a church. Grew up a good Catholic, after all. Don’t have any desire to spend the rest of the night saying Hail Marys.”

  Tory laughed, surprised how good it felt. Some of the darkness lifted. It was hard to resist getting pulled into Ivy’s optimism. “Well, I don’t want to be the one responsible for making you say a hundred Hail Marys.” Tory studied Ivy’s face. Could it be possible? “She really found the cure?”

  Ivy nodded. “True story. She really did. But when Meriel blew up her house, she also blew up the cure. Adriana’s been trying her hardest to recreate it ever since. Until then, you, me, Riah, we’re all stuck. But I know our little Adriana. That girl will make it happen again. She’s not just a budding sorceress, she’s a class-A scientist.”

  “She could make us human again.” The idea was hard to accept, yet at the same time, it sent a thrill through her. What she wouldn’t give to live like a real woman once more. She’d never really had her chance at a normal life, and selfish as it might be, she wanted it. She wanted to walk on the beach at sunrise, to find wrinkles around her eyes, to see gray hairs pepper her dark hair. All the things that humans bemoaned, she wanted.

  “Damn straight.” Ivy stood and patted Tory on the arm. “Now, you get those calls made, missy, and I’ll get hustling on my end. Night’s a wasting and we’ve got at least one killer vampire to smoke, if not more.”

  “You’re right, Ivy.”

  Ivy winked and started to leave.

  “Ivy?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Thank you.”

  Tory turned back to the desk and picked up the phone receiver, looked down at the piece of paper she’d pulled from her pocket, and started to punch in the first number. From above, a sound stopped her hand in mid-motion. It took only a moment to process the source of the sound: a woman’s scream. She slammed the receiver down and left the room at a full-out run.

  *

  Colin used the cardkey Naomi had given him to gain access to the cathedral’s underground parking. During normal working hours, it was open to the public. During the night, it was secured because those who came for the night worship rarely came in vehicles. They preferred to slip in and out of the cathedral as quietly as possible, keeping tight to the shadows. Safer that way even without the current state of affairs.

  Like the worshippers, Colin wanted to stay under the cover of darkness. The mood in the city was volatile and that was being nice. In the trip from Monsignor’s to the cathedral he’d counted no less than six roaming groups of vigilantes. It didn’t bode well for a night free of violence, which, given what had happened last night, was unlikely.

  Nothing about what he’d learned so far tonight filled him with confidence that they’d be able to put a damper on the city’s troubles. Not that long ago he’d been on track to destroy the last of the known vampires. At that time, he’d been aware of only two that still survived. He was intending to destroy them both and free the earth of an ancient evil. Turned out he was wrong on all accounts.

  The path he’d been on had brought him all sorts of surprises. Like, more vampires existed than the church’s records reflected. He couldn’t destroy them all. Worse…at least as far as the church was concerned…not all of them were evil. Particularly not Riah or his beautiful Ivy. Talk about a paradigm shift. It still boggled the mind on occasion.

  He’d walked away from his life as a hunter though he’d still respected Monsignor and what he stood for. Or what he believed he stood for—things like truth, goodness, faith.

  Maybe he’d been blind or, perhaps more than blind, naïve. He’d wanted to believe in Monsignor, but it boiled down to good old-fashioned denial. He’d let himself be lulled into believing what was on the surface was the truth. He never took the time to look deeper.

  Nothing had brought that home more than tonight’s visit. Monsignor hadn’t admitted he was responsible for the death of his family, but the truth was in his eyes. In the old days, Colin wouldn’t have noticed. He’d have taken Monsignor at his word and called it good. It was as much his fault as Monsignor’s.

  Tonight, he would have loved to hear the words come from the old man’s lips. It didn’t happen, at least not this time. Monsignor wasn’t giving it up. After all, he’d been trained to keep secrets, and he did it well.

  However, Colin did get the information about Clark Rockford that he’d come for. He was fairly certain Monsignor was leveling with him, and while that was a good thing, it didn’t answer many questions. In fact, all it really did was bring up more.

  Or maybe he was hoping for the easy answers. No such luck. They’d have to do some more digging and figure this out…quickly. Nothing else so far had been easy, so expecting this to be was unreasonable. Still, they had to know one way or the other, and now he did. He just needed to bring the others up to speed.

  He opened the stairwell door and had started climbing the stairs when he heard a faint sound echoing off the concrete walls. From this far down, he wondered if maybe he was hearing things, but he had a bad feeling that he wasn’t. He waited for a few seconds until the sound came again. This time, h
e knew exactly what it was.

  Taking the steps two at a time he ascended the staircase, then pushed through a door on the main level. The scent, though faint, hit him immediately: blood. The stairwell door slammed behind as he began to run.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Vlad was very glad he’d decided to stay. The reactions as they came in one after the other were priceless. The holier-than-thou former hunter turned as pale as…well, a vampire! Funny to think she’d been able to take a vamp’s head without so much as blinking, but one dead and bloody fatso and she was shaking like a little girl. How the mighty fall and how fantastic it was to be around to see it.

  Her little black buddy was upset but maybe not as rattled as he would have liked. A little more gasping and trembling would have been preferable to her calm approach to his special gift. Made him want to sink his fangs into her tender neck and feel the spasms in her shapely body as he drank her dry. Wanted to. Didn’t. His work here was done and certain to draw his quarry out. She wouldn’t take kindly to the death of her friend, precisely why he’d chosen Fatty.

  Wait until he brought out his final gift. He smiled just thinking about the pixie all trussed up and ready for his return. She was going to be fun. No way to lose with her. She’d be a good fuck and a good drink. Top it all off with the reaction from dear Victoria and she had perfect written all over her. All the years of waiting and planning were going to be worth it.

  He hadn’t lain in the cold and dark year after year, trapped and furious, for nothing. He didn’t give a tinker’s damn about forgiveness. Certainly there was a time when he’d embraced that kind of sentiment. Not these days. Not after what he’d been forced to endure…because of her. She’d taken everything away from him and now he was about to return the favor. Soon, his moment would be here and he’d get to see the look on her face when she realized she’d lost everything.

  And he was the one who took it from her.

  Silently, he moved in the shadows, slipping unnoticed out one of the side doors. Once outside, he scanned the nearby area, smiling when he saw them. Like an actor preparing for his big moment, Vlad ruffled his hair with his hands and put on his most frightened face. Then he jogged until he came to the group of men on the fringe of the church grounds.

  “Be careful, guys,” he said in a rush.

  “Why? What have you seen?” The man talked in rapid-fire words, his hands wrapped tight around a baseball bat. Vlad was pretty sure he had a handgun beneath his light jacket. There was no such thing as being too well armed when it came to violent mobs. When he was a child, they’d come with clubs and axes. These days, it was more likely to be an automatic weapon that served to make even the worst shooter a deadly enemy. He wasn’t a fan of this era’s weapons; he preferred his kills to be more personal. He wanted to see their eyes when he took the life from them. Not that it mattered tonight. If the goal was to incite mindless violence, then he was succeeding. These guys came armed and clueless, a perfect combination.

  “Looks like some lady got trashed in there.” He inclined his head toward the church.

  “Like in dead?” This came from a tall, rather intense-looking young man. He seemed as though he was coiled tight and just about ready to spring. His fingers twitched at his belt and the poorly concealed weapon under his shirt.

  “Yeah, real dead. I wasn’t close enough to see what killed her, but there sure was lots of blood. I got out of there as fast as I could. I think it might have been a fucking vampire.”

  “Damn it,” the first man said. “We can’t let the church hide these monsters. Look what’s happening. Now they’re even killing good people inside. It’s gotta stop. We gotta stop it, guys.”

  The young man beside him pulled a wicked-looking knife from a sheath at his belt. “You’re right, man. Let’s go. We’ll put an end to this shit once and for all. You comin’ with us?” He looked at Vlad. “We’re gonna smoke these motherfuckers.” A smile twitched at the edge of his lips.

  This was a guy who’d been waiting all his life for the chance to take blood. Vlad knew his type all too well and under normal circumstances wouldn’t have thought twice about putting the punk down. He didn’t like the type. Tonight was different.

  He shook his head. “No, man, I’m getting the hell out of here. I’m gonna lock myself up in my house. I don’t want no part of these monsters. I got a family to protect.” He thought he pulled that off pretty well, and the part about protecting his family—pure genius, as long as they didn’t stop long enough to question why a family man would be here in the first place. But they’d be too intent on drawing blood to worry about those little details. His bet paid off.

  “Probably a good idea, man. You better let us take care of this. We know how to deal with it. We have some experience, don’t we, Adam?” He looked over to the older man, who smiled grimly and nodded.

  “We know exactly what to do. You go on home and keep your family safe.” He turned toward the church and motioned for the others to follow.

  DC might be a major metropolitan city, home to many of the best and brightest, but it was also home to those who acted on emotion rather than intelligence. This bunch definitely fell into the latter category. The collective IQ was nowhere near genius level, and that was being kind. On the other hand, the emotion level was suitably high for his purposes. It was most likely going to take them a while to figure out the logistics of their assault, which was all right. Short of a ground missile to take out the massive doors, breaching any of the secured entrances to the massive building wouldn’t be easy.

  He sensed a good combination of determination and balls in the men. They’d get inside even if it took all night, and the damage they’d inflict once they did would be the perfect catalyst to disaster. All a person had to do was put a spark to the right kind of kindling to create a roaring fire. He’d put the flame to it and his little fire was on the way to a five-alarm. It was all falling together perfectly.

  Vlad started to jog away toward his imaginary family. Time to put some distance between himself and the cathedral. To be anywhere close when they finally forced their way through the doors probably wasn’t a good idea. Pity…he’d like to see it. Later, when all hell broke loose, he’d be able to slip in again and enjoy the fun. For now, let the good old boys do the heavy lifting.

  *

  Tory blew through the door and toward the nave, very nearly colliding with Colin, who seemed to appear out of nowhere. She slid to a stop, only keeping her balance by putting a hand on the wall. It wasn’t the near collision with him that made her stop; it was the scent on the air. Beneath the ever-present smell of burning votive candles was something too familiar and too intoxicating.

  Ivy and Riah, following behind, halted as well. The three of them looked at each other and didn’t say a word. They didn’t need to. They all knew what that smell meant.

  Colin didn’t wait for them. He raced to the front, where Naomi and Adriana huddled over the form of a large woman. Tory knew she should follow, only the scent of blood was thick and alluring. As strong as she was, sometimes it was better to be absolutely certain about control before rushing in.

  Up front, their voices were just a murmur, too low and far away to make out. What she did catch was the way Naomi kept glancing back at her. That expression made her very nervous. Bad news waited for her up there.

  She wanted to scream but didn’t. It wouldn’t help her or anybody else. Whatever tragedy had struck tonight, she’d have to deal with it. With a second to catch her breath, she was back in control, even after the scent of fresh human blood knocked her off stride.

  She wasn’t the only one affected by the scent in the air. She turned and looked at Riah and Ivy. “You ladies all right?” she asked.

  They both nodded and, while pale, looked okay. With the same visceral reaction to the fresh blood, like her, they just needed a moment to collect themselves.

  “Okay, then, let’s go see what the bastard has done this time.”

  S
he started to walk toward the three huddled just below the pulpit but only made it a few feet when Naomi looked up and began to sprint in her direction. Tory didn’t much like the expression on her face. When Naomi reached her, she put a hand on her arm.

  “Don’t go up there.”

  She looked past Naomi. Of course she was going up there, except...the hair…something about the woman’s hair seemed familiar. A sudden, sinking pain began in her stomach. “Oh, my God, he didn’t?”

  Naomi nodded and continued to hold her arm. “You don’t need to see. Trust me.”

  She closed her eyes and thought about Adriana telling them earlier that he had them.

  Riah gasped as all the pieces dropped together. “Viola?”

  Naomi nodded, her mouth a thin, grim line. “I’m afraid so.”

  Tory didn’t want to ask. “Sunny?”

  “If she’s here, we haven’t found her. Viola was alone in the pew.”

  Tory wrenched her arm free from Naomi’s grasp and ran to where Colin and Adriana stood. The front of Viola’s blouse that only hours before had been a beautiful shade of blue now clung to her ample body, dark and wet. The scent of blood was an overwhelming cloud of aroma that any other time would make her crave the taste. At this moment, it didn’t make her hungry, it made her want to retch.

  Viola’s face, slack and pale, was nothing like that of the vibrant woman Sunny had brought to her home. She wanted that woman back, wanted to see the life and joy that had filled her eyes. She wanted her to take her hands again and tell her the secrets she held in her heart. She wanted her alive. Oh, God, how she wanted her to be alive.

  As she stood there, her sorrow shifted and suddenly fury roared through her body and came out in her words. “It’s got to be Pierre and I’m going to tear his goddam head off.”