by brett hicks
A man rushing me was non-paused by the bullets. I aimed up and I caught him in the left eye and he spun to a crashing halt. The second was on me in a blur of motion. He pinned me to the floor and his maw of teeth snapped at my neck and I kicked and thrashed with all m might.
His hand dug into the wound on my right shoulder and I screamed in pain. I threw my head forward and I slammed into his soft nose as he tried to come in for another bite. His weight rocked back as he was stunned for a moment. I felt my right hand freeing enough and I did not have time to cry like a baby at how much it hurt to use that arm, or how much it burned every time my muscles tightened.
I felt the glowing sword suddenly in my palm again, as if it had never left my body. I was beginning to suspect it was somehow tied to me. I thrust up with all my strength and I caught the hulking daemon in the heart with the blade and his chest began to dissolve around the light-green light of his wounded chest.
“Thea, are you ok?!”
I looked up through the haze of my pain and found a pair of concerned hazel eyes. I smiled up cheekily at Skylar.
“Super healing remember?”
I heard multiple boot-clad feet stomping through the floors above, clearing the building. My mind was a haze of pain and delirium. I heard several shouts from above, and a few sputters of gunfire. After a very long moment of waiting and worrying for the humans, I heard them sound the all clear.
I grabbed Skylar by the collar and pulled him down to my face.
“Get them in here. We need a place with a solid cover so we don’t get picked off. Have the vampires carry in the wounded and get your dad in here too. We need to keep a clear chain of command and this is probably the best beach-head we can ask for right now.”
Skylar’s eyes were wide in realization.
“You rushed in here blind to establish a command center? You’re nuts, you know that right?”
I shrugged and winced in pain.
“A girl works with what she had at her disposal. Lucky for you, crazy is not in short supply with me.”
Skylar snorted and quickly spun on his heels and carefully ducked back out the door. One of the ESU officers came storming down and crouched beside me. I could hardly see more than the pair of dark eyes and hints of his dark chocolate skin behind the full tactical gear.
“Hang in there Detective; we’ll get you patched up in a jiffy.”
I nodded and waved my good hand towards the front.
“I’m fine I just need time to heal, please keep the door covered Sir.”
He nodded slightly.
“Yes, ma’am.”
He perched up on one of the shattered glass windows and a minute later opened spurts of fire on an unseen foe out in the shadows. I hated just sitting here like a damsel, but my body ached and my shoulder was burning like I had taken an unexpected trip to the fiery realm of the hottest hell.
I was already itching to be back in the fray. I felt like I had to show my comrades that inhumans were with them and that we were not going to be their enemies, even if we were fighting a pair of species that were distant relations to some inhuman species.
The gunfire seemed to be getting loader now and I spotted several armored forms rushing through the open door calling out their identification. Along with them were several rangers and Skylar, who was pulling his bulky father through the door, ducking black arrows that hissed with magic.
Vivian strode over to me and she arched a dark brow in silent question. I pointed lamely to the still glowing dagger on the floor beside me and she sighed. She knelt down and she fumbled through her pouches and she pressed several wet herbal substances I couldn’t put a name to, only that they stunk like a swamp. If the wound burned, this absolutely incinerated my blood on the inside.
I managed not to scream, but the pain was blinding and my wounds seemed to writhe against the intrusion of the substances. Vivi pressed her slick wrist to my mouth and I bit down on instinct alone. I was a vampire after all; blood was my most potent sustenance.
“Easy there little princess that was pure hell-fire poisoning your blood it can kill even immortals. You are very fortunate that these daemons didn’t hit the humans with that stuff, or they would have dropped dead in their tracks.”
I hissed against the burning in my body as the poison seemed to be fighting the new invading substance.
“God, what is that stuff?”
Vivi smiled her creepy and very morbid smile at me.
“It is something from my home, something that borders this realm and the plane of the dead. It is Styx Bloom.”
I narrowed my eyes to slits.
“As in the River of Styx?!”
My tone was raspy and full of my shock. Vivi’s eyes danced in amusement and she nodded.
“Aye, that is what the Greeks called it when some wondered in unawares. We called it the Death Lotus in my native tongue, but most do not know that name.”
Vivian had formed a sort of bond with me. I got the feeling that the dark elves did not take in strays or even friends very often, but when they did they were very loyal to their friends. The significance of the sharing pieces of her culture with me was not lost on my pain-addled mind.
I felt the burning slowing down and my breath seemed to come in more evenly. Vivi smiled and she nodded.
“I’ll return once we have secured the slaves and rounded up the rest of the marketers.”
I nodded to her and I gave her a thumbs up with my left hand.
“Good hunting shadow huntress.”
Vivi smiled brightly and she inclined her head slightly.
“Good hunting to you as well, you will be fine in a few more minutes, but keep the salve on your wound for the time being Princess.”
Without another word, she was gone and back into the shadows like a whisper of a memory and not a flesh and blood woman.
Sixteen:
Five injured officers and a bunch of banged up immortals were the results of our raid. We managed to free over forty hostages in the daemon and witch slave dens. Besides that victory, we also managed to confiscate many metric tons of dark magic and more spelled drugs than I ever imagined possible.
All in all, this was a win and we also managed to detain some of the witches who opted to surrender over trying to fight the better armed and organized group. While the ranks had seemed to be two distant formations, at the end of everything inhumans and humans were intrinsically intertwined forgetting any borders that had separated them. There was something to be said about fighting in the trenches with someone that made you grow to respect them, or at least care if they lived.
While I held many doubts as to the long-term progression of mutual relations, today had been a true victory. A victory hard won and several police officers had been hospitalized. Several fairy healers had been sent to tend to the wounded of both parties.
Now I was sitting off to the side of a massive press conference between the Police Commissioner, Inspector Johnson, and Seri. A host of high ranking officers and several local figures from the inhuman community were seated on the stage behind them. This had gone viral and everyone who was anyone jockeyed to be seen in this photogenic moment.
“I don’t see why you insist on being left out. This is was your bust Detective.”
I turned and saw Vivi’s curious gaze on me. She too had refused the spotlight, despite the many men and women in blue who sang the praises of the dark fae rangers. I waved my hand in a grandiose gesture before me.
“Well then, right after you Miss Vivian.”
She snorted and rolled her eyes. Despite their seeming stoicism, the rangers of the dark woods are very personable, if they trust someone. I wasn’t exactly sure what their criteria was based upon, but Vivian had taken a liking to me and she even stopped by for no reason sometimes and watched films with me. She loved the old pictures from the late forties until the early sixties. She claims this was before humans killed the pictures with color.
“They have taken all the imagin
ation out of the pictures, see!”
Vivian was prone to that very rant, over and over. Then again, fae were largely beings who thrived on creative energy. They feed subtly on human emotions, even though most humans will never realize little bits of their imagination have fueled the life-force of the world’s most beautiful immortals.
“You know very well why I chose to stick to the shadows.”
Vivi gave me a warm smile that conveyed her apparent comprehension.
“You still hope to retain some semblance of your anonymity for your job, both of your jobs. After all, most of the humans are not aware that it is you and not Patty, who runs the Harlem Republic.”
A casual single shoulder dip was all the recognition Vivi was going to get from me. I had become very cautious of open microphones and the endless stream of smartphone videos. While I might have drug most of the immortals out of the closet, I had placed myself in said closet for safe-keeping.
“You know that what we do is as important to safety, as the staged political theatrics.”
Vivi nodded slightly and her smile widened and her eyes sparkled with mischief.
“You remind me of an immortal girl I once knew and love dearly. Perhaps I will tell you of her someday.”
With her cryptic praise spoken Vivian disappeared back into the shadows of night. I was left to chew on her latest strange statement. The stream of reporters and local officials seemed to slow to a slight trickle. I could feel the tangible energy of the crowd gathered and their great anticipation.
“Good evening ladies and gentleman of New York, human and inhuman alike, welcome.”
The Police Commissioner started off with his firm authoritative tone. He was a man who could work a room over when he needed to, despite his apparent revulsion at political games and theatre.
“We have called this press conference tonight to discuss the raid on a newly discovered threat to lives of this city.”
He paused for a moment and gestured to Seraphina.
“Despite fear for their own safety, the inhumans of this city chose to share their concerns when they uncovered a den of daemons and witches holding hostages of human and inhuman alike.”
A roar of questions began, cutting the Commissioner off.
“Is it true that these witches have been using blood to fuel their spells for hundreds of years?!”
“Why have the inhumans allowed this practice to go on for so long?!”
The commissioner held up his hands and bellowed, “We must have order!”
With a firm chastising look at the throng of reporters.
“Now, I will tell you what happened today and I will also remind you that Seraphina Herrington was formerly running the inhuman territory in Brooklyn. She would not have had the power or the ability to affect changes here in Manhattan before now.”
Oh, he is good at this!
We listened in relative silence, despite the clicks and flashes of news photographs being shot off almost constantly. The Commissioner told of Seri’s trek to the magical hollowing and he promised that Seri would further expand upon what a hollowing was. He even mentioned their attempts to capture and imprison Seri. The Commissioner knew how to play on a crowd’s emotions.
“Now we would invite Miss Seraphina Herrington, Inhuman Princess of Earth to speak.”
The Commissioner said it and Seri strode forward as many shutters clicked and more flashes went off around the room. She gave a smile polite smile that was less Seri than the one I knew. This was the vampire princess, the powerful figurehead. She was both and neither at the same time.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the press and good friends of our fair city of New York; thank you for this opportunity for us to bring light too much-needed practices. For as long as I have been alive, and much further back still, daemons and the once human witches who gather power from them, have been linked to many of the worst acts against your species and mine. Blood is our life, our magic and it is your eternal essence. To rob men and women of their lives, regardless of species, is a crime against all of us and nature.”
One reporter was now shouting above the rest and Seri pointed to her. She was a yellow-haired woman of one of the national papers.
“Yes, ma’am?”
Seri asked kindly.
“If this is how you feel, then why have you waited over three-hundred years to do something?”
Seri’s smile held but I saw the poisonous beast lurking behind the smile. Her power was mostly subdued, but I could feel a ripple of energy from the stage.
“Mrs. Andrews, I believe the chief reason would be Salem. I was here for that atrocity. We deemed mortals too immature to comprehend that most of the supernatural community have co-existed beside humans in harmony. They see our fangs, or our claws, or wings and they judge us. Shifters have been impaled on silver spikes and beheaded. Vampires as well, we have suffered all have suffered. History recent or distant is filled with the stories of our sorrows. As to why now simple, because I am aware of the threat here and now. We have come out of the darkness and we will remain side-by-side, so it is our duty to inform the proper authorities of any threats to the mutual public.”
The woman sat down looking as if she had been slapped. Seri’s tone was neutral, but even an idiot could see that the question had been insulting to her. Seri is a very proud creature. She loathes having her integrity questioned, even if that is exactly what humans seem to do best.
Several more questions were directed at why the witches and daemons wished to capture Seri. She only cited some “ancient evil” desired her. She was not going to hang the human authorities out to dry after they had openly backed her tonight. While she was far from happy with the ever-present danger that was Dean Sylvester, she knew we still had to face him down someday, regardless of how he became free.
“Miss Herrington, can you tell us exactly what a hollowing is and why we are only now learning of such massive hidden spaces around us?”
Seri smiled and she launched into a deep explanation of all she knew on hollowings. I had felt the space, it was manufactured by some force and giving over to a semi-state of conciseness all its own. Space seemed to be far too ancient and alien to have been shaped by any inhuman species and it lacked the sulfuric stench and taint I had begun to associate with daemon magic and ritual.
Another curious thing I noted was that Seri’s vague explanations were contrary to what I could clearly feel about the hollowing in my limited exposure. Either Seri was lying through her teeth—which I could not sense in the slightest—or Seraphina Herrington didn’t know what made the pocket realities in the first place.
That realization disturbed me on so many levels. My mind seemed to fly off without being bid to; setting to solving the riddle of why I could feel the hollowings and no one else seemed capable.
The press was salivating for every morsel of facts they could gather while they had the Crown Princess of the Earth Throne on the stage. Seri was careful with her answers but open enough to lend credibility to her statements on all matters she was asked.
Then someone launched into the topic that seemed to have been hanging like a sword over all the heads since the Dawning.
“Princess Seraphina, why is your father yet to reveal himself to the authorities of the UK or Europe? His counterparts from Germany and Holland have been forthcoming, but we have yet to hear a word from the one all immortals refer to as “The Earth King.” Please tell us what this is about.”
Seri looked slightly uncertain as to how to handle this newest question. I knew very well that her answer could provoke a three-thousand-year-old vampire to wrath. Seri gave a sad smile and shrugged.
“I have not spoken to my father since I moved to the early colony that became New York. My attention over these past three centuries has been the welfare and safety of my area and the peoples who have depended on my protection. I am certain there are reasons, but I cannot answer any further.”
Being reporters, none of the press sounded or f
elt satisfied with her very diplomatic answer. She neatly deflected a portion of the focus to her constant role of vigilant guardian. Seri did a masterful job of navigating the rough waters.
After a few less tedious questions, the Police Commissioner stepped forward and he thanked everyone for coming. He shook hands with Seri for what was likely to become the headline picture in the morning. He promised the inhumans of Manhattan the full cooperation of his men and women moving forward and not to feel alienated.
I found myself hoping these were not empty platitudes, but the construction of a bridge to lasting peace. Humans have short memories, or so all my research over the past year has led me to believe. We are convent tools to them when needed, but otherwise, we are the monsters under the beds.
I still hoped against hope that I had made the right decision. I just hoped that we were not all doomed to war because I couldn’t find a better answer to the threat of Dean Sylvester last year. If only I had been stronger then
Seventeen:
Seri seemed to work the room for a long time before she found the shadows I was skulking in. I couldn’t find it in me to be shocked that she knew where I was hiding, despite how well I had been masking my presence from everyone else. She was kin something that transcended the normal boundaries of sires and sired.
She was changed from her witchy scented clothes. Her light-red dress was an off the shoulder design that hugged her elegantly shaped figure perfectly and complimented her faery colored hair. Her piercing green eyes beheld me with a gentility one would not dare associate with the Crown Princess of Earth.
My traitorous body shivered as she neared me and butterflies assaulted my stomach in open revolution. I could have sworn, but she would hear anything I said this close. I licked my lips and looked down at my blood stained clothes and my dusty leather jacket. We were extremely different, polar opposites. This was a fact I was made keenly aware of every time we were within the same room.
Her eyes drank me in and I shivered again.