Four Dukes and a Devil

by Cathy Maxwell

  Elise’s whistling shook Blake from his dark ponderings. She was whistling “Beautiful Dreamer” in a soft, melancholy way, the notes as perfect as if they were coming from a flute. Blake wondered how a vampire, who supposedly didn’t breathe, could whistle. He wondered how Elise was out in the daylight without spontaneously combusting, or how it was that vampires even existed at all. So many things he hadn’t thought were possible turned out to be true. Vampires? They existed. Demons? Real, too. If aliens landed at the Capitol tomorrow, he’d only be mildly intrigued.

  “If sunlight doesn’t hurt you, why do you live underground in a tunnel?”

  Elise kept whistling. Blake thought she’d decided to ignore him, but when the last strains of the song ended, she replied.

  “I don’t do so well around people.”

  Her voice was soft, too. Filled with a sort of disconnected regret, as though her lack of social skills made her sorry, but she didn’t understand why. She started to whistle that same song again. Blake sat down, leaning back against a tree, and closed his eyes. He could almost imagine he was somewhere else, listening to the sweet and haunting tune.

  “You won’t let me hurt anyone, will you?”

  Elise paused. “No.” She continued whistling, the sound and her answer lulling him, making him feel almost…safe.

  Blake did something he hadn’t done willingly for weeks. He let himself fall asleep.

  Elise listened as Blake’s heartbeat and breathing became more relaxed with slumber. She kept whistling, even though she wasn’t used to breathing this much. Still, the song seemed to soothe him, though why that mattered to her was a mystery. His being quiet will draw less attention, she told herself, knowing that was a lie. They were in Arlington National Cemetery. There weren’t many people around to notice if Blake caused a stir, except perhaps the ghosts.

  It was so odd, this protective feeling. Once she’d made up her mind to help Blake, her long-dormant emotions awoke. Elise couldn’t help but admire Blake’s concern for other people, even over his own life. You won’t let me hurt anyone, will you? It had been a long time since Elise had cared that much about other people, especially strangers.

  When DC’s homeless or criminal element attacked her—which happened every few months—she killed them. It didn’t occur to her not to since she reasoned that by doing so, she was saving someone else from that person’s future attack. Blake wasn’t responsible for what the demon inside him did, but he was willing to die in order to prevent other people from getting harmed. His strength of character under these extreme circumstances held up a mirror to hers, and Elise didn’t like what she saw reflected there. Mencheres is right, she realized. I’ve let myself slip away. How much of the person I was is still left? Can I salvage the remains before apathy eats away at the rest of me?

  She’d start with Blake. Maybe by helping to save his soul, she’d earn a reprieve for her own.

  Chapter Five

  A black Volvo approached, driving along an area where vehicles usually weren’t allowed. Elise felt the encroaching power from inside the SUV.

  “Here they are,” she told Blake, waking him.

  The SUV stopped next to them, interrupting whatever Blake had been about to say. Two people got out, the man radiating a crackling power that announced him as a Master vampire, and a redheaded woman who seemed human.

  “Bones,” Elise said, bowing her head in the deference he deserved as co-sire of Mencheres’s line. Elise might have been out of touch with vampire society, but every undead person knew about Mencheres’s merging lines with Bones several months ago.

  “Elise,” Bones replied, with a nod. “This is my wife, Cat.”

  Cat smiled and stuck out her hand. Elise shook it, thinking the famous half-breed didn’t appear as she’d pictured her. With Cat’s reputation and nickname of the Red Reaper, Elise had expected a more imposing presence, but Cat looked no more threatening than a Hollywood actress.

  Blake looked at the two newcomers warily. “Are they both vampires?” he asked Elise.

  “He is,” Elise replied, glancing at the redheaded half vampire again. “She’s more…complicated.”

  Cat laughed. “That’s one way to put it.” She extended her hand to Blake, but before he could even twitch, Bones batted it away.

  “Don’t touch him, Kitten.”

  The cold menace in Bones’s voice had Cat blinking in surprise even as Elise felt her anger flare.

  “The demon doesn’t have him now,” Elise said. “There’s no need to act as if he’s foul.”

  “It’s all right,” Blake said, looking down at himself with sadness and disgust. “I am foul. If I were he, I wouldn’t want my wife touching me, either.”

  “It’s not your filthiness that concerns me, but she’s half-human,” Bones said, his hand still on Cat’s arm. “Demons can’t possess vampires, but so little is known about half-breeds that I’m not risking the possibility.”

  “Aren’t you being a tad paranoid, Bones?” Cat asked. “You told me on the way over that the host had to die before a demon could jump. Well, he looks alive to me.”

  “Heart attack, aneurism, blood clot, stroke.” Bones ticked the items off his fingers. “He’s human, so he could drop dead in seconds just while he’s standing there. This is why I didn’t want you coming with me, Kitten.”

  Cat rolled her eyes, giving Elise a look that clearly conveyed her exasperation. “Paranoid,” she repeated. Then she turned her attention to Blake. “Sorry to meet under these circumstances, but we’re going to take you to Mencheres and hopefully he–”

  “No!” Blake screamed, his hands flying to his head.

  Elise knew what that meant by now. She flung herself onto Blake even as a blast of sulfur filled the air.

  Bones also launched forward, wrapping one arm around Blake’s throat and the other across the heaving man’s chest. The fiery red lights were in Blake’s gaze again, his skin turning sallower with each instant.

  “Let me go,” the demon hissed in a voice that sounded nothing like Blake’s. It was hoarse and sharp, like glass being ground together.

  “Kitten, start the car,” Bones directed, not taking his attention off the demon.

  Cat turned and walked to the car. The demon’s eyes followed her, then it let out a laugh.

  “Catherine.”

  The redhead froze at the suddenly older, feminine voice coming from Blake’s mouth. She turned around, eyes wide.

  “Catherineeeeeee…” the demon drew out in that same voice, but now with a pleading undertone. “Please don’t leave. Help us. There were creatures at the door asking about you, Catherine. They’re hurting us. Make them stop. No, don’t, let my husband go! No, don’t touch him, don’t…NO! Joe, oh God, JOE!”

  “Grandma,” Cat whispered, tears in her eyes.

  “Bloody sod,” Bones snarled, clapping his hand across the demon’s—Blake’s mouth. “Don’t listen to it, Kitten.”

  She still seemed shell-shocked. “That was my grandmother’s voice, Bones!”

  “It’s a trick,” he said firmly. “That’s why the best thing to do is take this poor bastard out to the salt flats and kill him.”

  “No one’s killing him,” Elise said at once.

  Bones leveled her with a glare sizzling with green. His power expanded until it felt like it was burning her.

  “Don’t be a fool.” Each word was scalding. “The only reason I’m not snapping this bloke’s neck now is because there are too many living creatures around the demon could jump to. But his life will end on the salt flats. The only way to get rid of a demon is to kill the host.”

  Elise was frail compared to the power emanating off Bones, and as her sire Mencheres’s coruler, Bones was also in a position of authority over her. But that didn’t mean she was giving up on Blake.

  “Mencheres told me I could bring Blake to him,” she replied, her voice hard. “So that’s where we’re going, not to any salt flats.”

  Bones’s mouth c
urled. “You were always stubborn.”

  Elise just stared at him. You don’t know me, she thought . And you might technically be my Master now, but you’re not going to win this one.

  “Shouldn’t we be going?” Elise asked.

  The demon’s eyes locked onto hers. Evil. Knowing. Anticipating.

  You’re not going to win, either, Elise silently vowed. Determination welled up in her, stronger than any emotion she’d felt in decades. I won’t let you.

  Chapter Six

  Elise hadn’t seen her sire in months. That wasn’t unusual, except in this case, Mencheres had been the one to keep himself secluded away. One glance showed that the toll from the recent war that resulted in Mencheres’s long-estranged wife being killed still hung over him. Physically, Mencheres looked the same. His waist-length black hair was just as lustrous, his creamy skin still held the amber tint of his Egyptian heritage, and his features were as handsome and regal as ever. But sadness clung to him in a tangible way, making the familiar lines around his mouth seem more likely to form a frown than a smile.

  She hugged him, feeling none of her normal aversion to close contact. At the feel of his arms around her, the same peace washed over her that Mencheres always inspired. Father, I’ve missed you.

  When he let her go, Elise touched his face. “You look terrible.”

  Mencheres gave her a strained smile. “True, but I will be better in time.”

  All things heal with time, he’d told her shortly after turning her into a vampire. Elise still wasn’t sure she believed that, but things did numb with time, at least.

  “Tell me about the man,” Mencheres said.

  Blake wasn’t there; Bones had taken him directly to the basement, where the vampire cell was located. Every permanent vampire residence had a reinforced room for confining new vampires while they fought to control the initial blood craze. If a new vampire couldn’t break out of it, Bones had reasoned, neither could a demon.

  “He’s back to himself now,” Elise replied, shuddering at the memory of their hours-long car ride. The demon had continued to torment Cat by mimicking her grandparents’ voices on what had—apparently—been the scene of their murder by vampires. Bones couldn’t keep his hand over the demon’s mouth the entire time, either. Not with the demon biting Bones and trying to drink vampire blood off the wounds. Or choking when Bones gagged him. Several times, Elise had worried that Bones’s temper would snap, and he’d kill Blake, but they’d all made it in one piece, though Cat was still outside composing herself.

  Mencheres studied Elise. She looked away from his probing gaze. Finally, a heavy sigh came from him.

  “You’ve come to care for the human.”

  It wasn’t Mencheres’s mind-reading skills that betrayed her. Those only worked on humans, not other vampires. Mencheres just knew her too well.

  “It makes no sense,” Elise admitted. “He has no value in this world, no reason to go on. Plus, he wants to die. But I was like that, too, once. Maybe more than once.”

  The silence stretched between them, filling with the unspoken memory of their history. Mencheres didn’t need to be reminded that Elise had also been desperate to die when she was human. After all, it was how they’d met.

  “I will try,” Mencheres said at last. “But there may be nothing that can be done.”

  Elise laid her hand on her his arm. “Sire…father…thank you.”

  Mencheres’s dark gaze was bleak. “You may not thank me when this is over.”

  The metal clamps bit into Blake’s wrists, ankles, and waist. Bones had shackled him to the wall in a way that let Blake know the vampire wasn’t concerned whether he was bruised in the process. Add the green glinting in Bones’s eyes and the fangs curving where normal teeth had been, and Blake knew he was staring death in the face.

  “No one’s here,” Blake said quietly. “You could say it was an accident, that I tried to get away.”

  Bones shot him a single glare. “Mate, if killing you were an option, you’d have met your maker hours ago. But I’m not giving that foul beast inside you the satisfaction of freeing it. Not until there’s nowhere for it to run.”

  Elise’s entering the room with a tall, foreign-looking man stopped Blake’s reply. She had her hand in the stranger’s, and Blake wondered if this was her husband or boyfriend. Oddly, he didn’t like either thought.

  “You tried to control his mind?” the stranger asked Bones, traces of an unfamiliar accent in his voice.

  Bones grunted. “Too right. Filthy get wouldn’t shut up in the car, and for some reason, he kept after my wife the whole bloody trip.”

  The stranger looked thoughtful at this information. Blake winced.

  “I’m sorry.”

  The stranger moved to the side, and Blake saw he had a dog behind him, of all things. Elise shut the door. It was just the four of them and a mastiff in the room. What now? Blake wondered.

  The stranger’s eyes narrowed on Blake, then went green. So bright, like looking into the sun, but a different color. Staring into his eyes, Blake felt as if he were spinning, but that was impossible, since he was manacled to a wall. His heart began to pound, and a weird feeling of panic rose.

  Elise moved to stand close to him, not touching, but her presence was soothing anyway.

  “This is my sire, Mencheres,” she said softly. “He’s going to help you.”

  No one can help me, Blake thought, then almost recoiled at the blast of invisible bands that gripped him. What the hell?

  “Something’s…squeezing me,” he gasped out.

  Mencheres kept staring at him with those hypnotic eyes. “I am.”

  The pressure increased until lights danced in his vision, and he could barely breathe. This is it, Blake realized. I’m dying.

  “Sire,” he heard Elise say, sounding agitated.

  Don’t worry, Blake wanted to tell her, but didn’t have enough air for the words. I’m not afraid. Thank you for everything you’ve done. It’s not a bad way to go, actually, looking at your beautiful face…

  “What is your name?” Mencheres asked. His voice sounded far off and echoing. Amidst the encroaching darkness, unable to breathe, Blake wondered how the guy expected him to answer.

  “What is your name?” the question was repeated, with more emphasis. Mencheres’s face filled Blake’s vision, those ghastly glowing eyes boring into his. Get away, Blake thought. Let me see Elise again. She’s the only one in this room who gives a shit about me.

  “What is your name?” With a harder squeeze. Everyone but Mencheres faded out of Blake’s sight. Blake’s lungs were burning, his chest jerking in a vain attempt to coax air into it.

  “Xaphan,” someone hissed. Surprisingly, the voice was clear to Blake. Should he be able to hear things while he was dying?

  “Xaphan,” Mencheres repeated. More power slammed into Blake, until there was nothing in his vision but black, and he couldn’t feel the pain in his lungs anymore. “Leave him.”

  An ugly laugh echoed across Blake’s mind. “No, little Menkaure. And you’re not strong enough to force me.”

  Another squeeze. It seemed like so long since he’d breathed, Blake didn’t know how he was still even alive to register the viselike grip.

  “Leave him.”

  That awful buzzing filled his head, indicating the demon was about to take over. Blake wanted to scream, but he couldn’t move, couldn’t see, couldn’t talk. What if this was hell? Was he already dead and paying for all the things he’d done?

  A string of words in a language Blake had never heard somehow penetrated his consciousness. The weirdest thing was, it was in a feminine voice, and it wasn’t Elise.

  Mencheres growled. That’s how it sounded, anyway, and something so heavy and hard pressed against Blake that he prayed for mercy. Please, no. Too much. Stop. Stop!

  “Come out of him!” It was a roar that Blake felt in his bones. Then he was falling, blinding lights streaking by. For a few incredible seconds, Blake felt
free of everything. Even sound faded into silence, leaving blissful, peaceful, welcoming silence. At last…

  Then feeling came back in a rush of pain as something pressed on his chest, and his lungs felt like he’d inhaled fire. This time, when he opened his eyes, he saw Elise’s face over his. Her mouth came down, not in a kiss, but to blow air into him.

  Blake coughed, tilting his head because all of a sudden, he needed to gulp in breaths. Her hands—pale, cool, soft—touched his forehead.

  “Are you all right?”

  Blake couldn’t reply, too occupied with gulping oxygen to try to form words. A dark head leaned over him, black hair falling around his shoulders.

  “I can’t save him,” Mencheres stated flatly. “The demon inside him is too strong.”

  Chapter Seven

  The sun had set an hour ago. Elise was tired, lack of sleep from this morning starting to catch up with her. Still, she didn’t take Mencheres up on his offer to have someone else guard Blake while she rested. It seemed too cruel to pass Blake off to a stranger just so she could sleep, especially since people were acting like Blake was already dead.

  She took Blake to the kitchen, knowing there would be plenty for him to eat. The humans who lived with Mencheres as willing blood donors for him and his entourage meant that the kitchen was stocked. Blake was ravenous, wolfing down three plates of food before looking embarrassed at his excess. Elise’s stomach growled as well, but not for what Blake was eating. She pushed down her hunger with the same ruthlessness she’d used to forgo sleep. Blake didn’t have long to live. The least Elise could do was to make these last days as comfortable as possible.

  With that in mind, she’d refused to pack Blake up and start the journey to the salt flats tonight. There’d be time enough after Blake was fed and rested, she’d insisted to Mencheres, and he didn’t argue. Bones was less agreeable, muttering that every minute they hesitated, the demon had a chance to possess someone else, continuing its carnage through a new person.