House of Darkness

by K. R. Alexander

  27

  “Ah, yes,” Fulco’s voice was a silky hum. “What you can do for me, you mean? Again, very simple. You will spare the vampires.”

  “What?” I gasped, looking up.

  “Fuck that,” Adam snapped.

  Gideon growled.

  “We can’t do that,” I said. “Vampires kill people, take their blood. You have to have blood to exist. Which, like, whatever… I’m not blaming you. But that’s…” Shrugging. “We can’t.”

  “Undead don’t belong here,” Gideon snarled. “You’re breaking the truce and you know it. Someone should have been purging your filthy kind from this place untold phases ago.”

  “Then,” Fulco spoke even more softly. “It seems we have a problem.”

  Wade glanced at me again, then faced Fulco. “We’ll do it without you. We don’t need deals like yours or your kind of help to clean up this town.”

  “You struck gold with that one, Miss Ahearne.” Tone pungent with sarcasm. “Who needs brainwashing when they show up with blind faith in whichever leading figure is placed before them? I bet this one believes what he reads on Twitter.”

  “I’m sorry we can’t help each other,” I said. “But he’s right. We can educate ourselves and plan better and figure this out. They kept records that I’ve hardly checked. Teaming up with you would be abandoning half the mission. No thanks.”

  “We’re clearing your cesspit blood bank out,” Adam growled. “Sooner or later. No way you can stop us.”

  “Sooner,” Gideon added menacingly. “If you want to see another Moon, you’d better take yourself back to the city where you belong. You’re not allowed beyond Atlanta city limits in these parts. Everyone knows that.”

  Wade glanced uneasily at him and I wondered if Wade had any idea how many vampires were in Atlanta.

  The fox abruptly sat up, shifting himself onto one shoulder so all four paws were bunched together like a parrot on a pirate’s shoulder. He looked at Fulco, trying to catch his eye, and, for the first time, Fulco acknowledged him by turning his head to meet the gaze.

  After a moment of some sort of silent communication, both looked at me.

  “A proposal,” Fulco said, voice smooth and flat, hardly above a whisper. “We will gather the vampires and bring them to this house for confinement, where they cannot prey on the mundane population. At such time that our task is complete, being that the vampires are collected and the restless spirits have crossed over, freeing the town of the black vail which currently oppresses it, I will converse with youths in Atlanta about relocating all of us to a more suitable urban habitat.”

  I was thinking that one over, but Adam snorted. “Hunt Moon, like we’d believe you? Gather them up just to keep them safe until we’ve gone home, you mean? Then break the dam?”

  “Right,” I said slowly. “Why should we believe you? How would we know you would really clear Midway City?”

  “Anyway,” Wade addressed me before Fulco could answer, “does it matter? That’s not an answer. Vampires should be destroyed. That’s like rounding up all the ticks and fleas in your own dog pound and dumping them off in someone else’s.”

  “Well…” I shrugged. “I don’t know about that. Vampires and urban living go hand-in-hand. They’re already there. Other than Midway City, they’re not out here.”

  “How would we get them to cooperate?” Gideon asked.

  “Sure as shooting ain’t sharing Marybeth with a blood-sucker,” Adam said.

  Fulco waved a lazy hand. “The details could be worked out. Do not overreact, Mr. Marshall. There are few locations in Midway City harboring them. We are not talking about renting cattle trucks to relocate. With me along, you will find them a manageable number. We will not charge you with the task of getting any farther than this house. As to the final move, why not? We would all be better off in Atlanta. I have no reason to mislead you.”

  “Scorpion don’t need no reason to sting a pup,” Adam muttered.

  I took a breath. “Maybe. We’ll have to talk about it. Tonight was a sort of trial. Maybe tomorrow night? A test run? There’s a house not far from my place—”

  “Yes or no, Miss Ahearne. Talk if you wish, but I am no test product. If you go on without me, you will die. If you have the pleasure of my company you will live much longer, probably even outlive the Midway City blight. The choice is yours. You know the terms.”

  “If we’re rounding up vampires instead of destroying them, would we be safe from them with you along?” I asked. “Sounds questionable. We could get bitten just by being near one.”

  “I can explain to them. The ancient ones, past understanding, we will address on a case by case basis. Your chance of coming to harm with me is infinitely smaller than without me. That is what one must keep in mind.”

  I eased a couple steps back, looking around at the others.

  For many seconds no one spoke, yet it seemed I could feel the minds racing around me.

  Adam and Gideon glanced at one another. I looked at Wade. He shook his head. I looked at the wolves. To my surprise, they nodded.

  I thought of Mom and Dad, how much they knew, the lifetimes they’d put into this. I thought of how little I knew, how it was better to keep moving forward than slam a door, how details could be sorted out later, how things could change and a simple yes now didn’t mean a contract.

  I turned back to the vampire.

  Gideon stepped up. “We’ll do it,” he said clearly, deep voice like thunder compared to Fulco’s tones of butter and mist. “Under one condition.”

  We all looked at Gideon.

  “Yes?” Fulco drew out the word, adding layers of skepticism.

  “You give us the fox,” Gideon said.

  I sighed, though there didn’t seem to be any point in saying anything. Obviously they were friends. Fulco wasn’t going to throw Vel to the wolves just because one of them had a vendetta over having his hands bitten.

  Fulco studied Gideon in the dark, our faces tinged in edges of light and much deeper shadow from two flashlights aimed at the ground.

  I could just make out what seemed to be a smirk on the fox, mouth open, eyes reflecting while Fulco’s eyes threw back no light.

  I realized then, inching the light closer, that he wasn’t a classic red fox. I hadn’t noticed in the various moments of terror or flash of a second when I’d seen him previously. He was a gray fox. Native to much of the United States and Mexico, one of the only canines in the world to climb trees with the ease of squirrels. Of course, that wasn’t actually what he was, no more than Adam was a real timber wolf.

  The nimble little beast clung to Fulco’s shoulder with all four sets of hooked claws, hunched down like a cat in their “meatloaf position” so his face was by the vampire’s. Unmistakably smug as he looked from the werewolf to the vampire at the good joke, his tail twitching.

  Fulco regarded us, then Vel. He addressed Gideon. “If you get him, you will agree to gather rather than destroy the vampires in your hunt?”

  “Sure will.” Gideon nodded.

  The fox looked sharply at Fulco, tail stopping dead.

  Fulco reached up. “Then we have a deal.”

  Vel made a dive, but too late. Fulco’s hand grasped the scruff of his neck. In the next second, he sent the shrieking fox flying through the air, right into the arms of two eager wolves.

  28

  “No!” I grabbed. Gideon and Adam lunged. The fox screamed.

  Gideon was the one who got him, left hand catching a foreleg and the right a fistful of fur and skin on his back. Adam captured the long, bushy tail as Vel spun and twisted toward freedom, jaws wide and shrieking as if being dropped in boiling oil. He managed to sink his teeth into the hand on his foreleg but didn’t hold on, thrashing and biting in all directions, mouth wide, claws as dangerous as a cat’s.

  My flashlight crashed to the weeds. Wade jumped back, shining his light at us while the two heavyweights tried to get a good hold and I shouted at them amidst the panicked
screaming.

  It was obvious Gideon had every intention of killing him—thrilled to finally have his nemesis in his clutches—and wasn’t bothered about inadequate weapons. He meant to throttle, crush, or bash the fox to death by whatever means worked the fastest.

  Stunned by Fulco, terrified for Vel, furious with Gideon, I took it all into the energy I called up to hurl at them as I jumped forward.

  Guided by my hands, white flames exploded into their faces with a rush of heat like a furnace. Out of control due to the nature of the emotions behind them, they took off in wild bounds past the shifters’ faces and exploded like fireworks.

  Gideon yelled and sprang back, dropping Vel. Adam also shouted in their own language, tripping and falling flat as he tried to escape. In the motion, he swung Vel away by his tail, sending him crashing into my legs and also knocking me back.

  “What the hell!” I yelled at them, hands still burning.

  “We’re in the same pack!” Gideon shouted back as he ducked a spray of bursting sparks. “Who are you really hunting with? Moon and Sun!”

  Swearing on the ground, Adam covered his face.

  Vel ran up my side, sticking like tree sap when he hit me, claws digging viciously into my blouse and skin. I grabbed him, holding him in my arms like a scared cat, and he joined in the yelling with a rattling battle cry reminiscent of a skillet being dragged along a picket fence.

  “Crazier than a coon in a clothes drier,” Adam panted as he scrambled away, getting out from under the last fizzing sparks. Nothing had actually been set on fire, but he wasn’t taking chances.

  “That fox is mine!” Gideon also kept his distance, voice shaking with anger more than fear. He held up both hands, marked with blade-like teeth from hours ago as well as fresh blood running over his knuckles. “I made a deal. We work together and we get the fox.”

  “I’m in charge,” I gasped, clutching Vel in both arms. “This is my mission. Sorry you got hurt but that’s seriously not a reason to tear someone apart with your bare hands.”

  “There’s a hammer on Marybeth.” Adam scrambled to his feet.

  “Tie him to the railroad tracks,” Gideon said. “Axe to the head, hang him, knife him; I don’t care. You just say how you want him to go and that’ll do. Don’t have to rip him up.”

  “Are you just being snide, or do you really think that’s the issue?”

  “You just said it was the issue!”

  Vel had been twisting away. He climbed my front and arm to reach my shoulders like he had on Fulco, claws digging in, and went right on yelling back at Gideon. Ears flat, mouth wide open like he could swallow the moon, tongue curled up, he shrieked and clacked and rattled like nothing I’d ever heard. Fur puffed up like a Halloween cat, tail wrapped around my neck as he tried to keep balance, he was not helping by screaming and stabbing me. Also, those massively exposed teeth in my face were a little alarming. Imagine the pointedness of cat fangs but practically an inch long, shockingly big in the tiny muzzle.

  While we shouted at one another, Wade watched from behind me with the flashlight and Fulco remained unmoved—in more ways than one—on the porch.

  Adam joined Gideon to face me. They didn’t move any closer, though. Eight feet back, neither willing to risk another brush with magic, even to snatch the fox.

  Gideon was telling me it wasn’t like this was what he called a “total fox,” meaning a real one, which he would of course leave alone.

  “What you’ve got there is a snake in the grass,” Adam said.

  “I’m not defending that,” I said. “I know what he is. You’re pissed off at him. So am I, but I can’t stand by and watch you rip another living person’s head off with your bare hands. That’s just not cool, Gideon. If you’re not aware that it’s not cool … well … that’s also not cool.”

  “Why do you have to watch?” Adam asked.

  “I just said we’d plug him another way,” Gideon said. “Doesn’t have to be bare hands.”

  “Ow! Will you stop it? Get off of me!” Each shift in his balance drove those needle claws deeper into my flesh. I grabbed at Vel. He crouched against my hair, making the craziest clicking and buzzing sounds. “Get away. I don’t need you on my neck.”

  “Folks pay hundreds for a dead one ’round their necks,” Adam said. “And we’re here to put right that one teensy flaw for you.”

  Vel hissed at him.

  I managed to get my hands awkwardly around the fox’s ribs and shoulders and heaved. He sunk in, yanking with all sets of claws and clicking his jaws.

  “Get off me or I’ll blast you off!” I yelled.

  Vel sprang off my shoulders, a mighty leap for a tiny beast, landing lightly in the weeds beside Wade, who took a few quick steps back as if to disavow association. Two pairs of brown eyes followed his flight. Gideon and Adam tensed, ready to rush in. Vel had placed his jump so I stood between him and the werewolves. They hesitated.

  The fox hissed and gurgled behind me. Gideon curled his lip at him. Everyone fell silent aside from rapid breathing.

  I turned halfway so I could look at Vel and still keep an eye on the other two. Why didn’t he run?

  Deep gulp of muggy air.

  “Yes…” Fulco said slowly. “What great relationships are made of… You will return to feed the cats as usual tomorrow evening, I assume? Come at sunset and we can get started. Between now and then, do not hesitate to continue your feud somewhere else.”

  While he spoke, Vel turned his attention on the vampire. Again opening his mouth wide, he produced that ghek-ghek-ghek skillet on a fence noise.

  Fulco was already turning away. He stepped inside, avoiding the hole, and shut the door.

  29

  Vel quieted down.

  The five of us simply stood.

  They were all looking at me.

  “So … yeah,” I said at last. “I guess that’s our plan. See you here tomorrow night? Or, this coming night. I guess it already is tomorrow.”

  “We’re in your car,” Wade said.

  “Oh, sure, you need a lift back.” I grabbed the dropped flashlight and started for the Volvo.

  Vel dashed to the porch steps and lifted his leg on them like a dog. I didn’t realize foxes did that. Then he ran to keep close to me while Gideon and Adam watched him, both avoiding me.

  “There’s no way you’re coming home with me.” As I spoke, I pulled open the driver’s door. Vel shot past my leg like a bar of soap. I yelled, grabbed, but missed. Maybe just as well since he probably would have bitten me. “Out!”

  He pounced into the backseat while Wade climbed in the passenger seat. Adam flipped him off through the back window as they passed. Gideon pointed to his own eyes, then the fox, and nodded. Neither paused. They were going to share Adam’s bike to return home for Gideon’s. Then where would they go? Did they have a room in town? Did they mean to stay out in their four-footed forms? Adam couldn’t change again. Wade could drive home. Vel could be locked out. But I wondered about the wolf buddies as we drove.

  The fox remained hidden in the floor behind my seat until he was sure I had committed to the drive. Then he climbed to the cozy vantage at the back, pressed into the glass that comes down above rear seats to join the trunk.

  Wade kept glancing around at him, seeming ready for rabies to present itself.

  I’d noticed when he’d been around my neck that the fox had a certain odor. By the time we reached home, my whole car smelled faintly of … pot smoke? Heavier than that. A dash of skunk mixed in. It wasn’t strong but it wasn’t a bed of violets either.

  As soon as we pulled up, I opened the door for him and pointed silently.

  The fox remained in the window, watching Gideon and Adam climb off Adam’s motorcycle.

  I sighed. “Will you get that one?”

  Wade opened the passenger door farthest from the wolves and Vel slipped from the car like a shadow, heading for the side of the house.

  I turned to the other guys, awkward all of a sudd
en and unsure. They walked to me and the path, bikes locked up.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  They didn’t pause. “Best curl up,” Gideon said. “It’ll be a long night tomorrow.”

  “Only right to look after you also,” Adam said. “The sort of trash you’re running with…”

  “We’re good wherever,” Gideon assured me. “Couch is fine.”

  “You didn’t book a room or anything?” I asked.

  “Supposed to be out in fur when it came time to curl up,” Gideon said with a sideways look to Adam as they walked ahead up the path.

  “We needed someone in fur in there bad as a fish needs gills,” Adam said. “Had to change. You do it tomorrow and let me do the talking.”

  “You always do the talking.”

  “And you always do the fretting and bellyaching. I’m the one what’s got to catch up in your whimpering contest.”

  “I’m the bellyacher?” Gideon laughed. “Have to tell your momma that one.”

  They stepped aside for me to unlock the door, still bickering. I let us in, trying to think of what space was available. Parents’ room had a queen, then there was a futon upstairs, plus the couch. No reason, really, that they couldn’t stay. Anyway, I was still creeped out by the whole night. I had to admit, even if only to myself, that I liked the idea of knowing someone else was in the old house. Beyond the six cats, that is.

  “Okay, I’ll show you a room. One can take the couch if you don’t want to sleep together.”

  Wade had followed us in and waited with his hand on the open door.

  Only Pickles ran up to us for attention. Even Blue kept his distance as he sniffed from the front room. The shifters studiously ignored the tabby as they walked past. I picked him up, turning back to Wade.

  “So…” I said.

  As he said, “Well…”

  Because we’re cunning spellcasters and all.

  We paused.

  The other two walked straight for the kitchen. They better not be meaning to touch my two extra boxes of wings.