Once Upon A Midnight

by Stephanie Rowe

  She made another one of her secret signals, and the men fell in line behind her. Rafe pushed off the ground and stood on unsteady legs. Blood poured from a deep slash across the bridge of his nose. He limped over and leaned against a table, which was miraculously still standing in one piece, and smiled a big fangy grin at his attackers.

  “A couple more minutes, and I would have had both of you,” he mumbled.

  Ignoring Rafe, I pointed a stern finger at Duska. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”

  She holstered her gun. The men behind her stayed as stiff as a board. If I hadn’t noticed the rise and fall of their chests, I would have thought they were robots trained to follow her every command. If only my family’s servants obeyed so well. I mentally threw glaring daggers at Conrad’s granddaughter.

  ~~~

  Blacking out definitely does have its advantages. You get to miss out on all the pain that being smack dab in the middle of an explosion causes your body. But much like adrenaline, once the cradling arms of oblivion fade away, the agony of reality comes barreling back. I couldn’t help it. I screamed. Pain racked my body, hitting me like a freight train, before I was even able to fully crack open my eyes.

  “Kris, everything will be okay. Just be still.” I felt a slight shift of my body and a cool cloth being placed over my brow. “Do any of you have something to give her for the pain?” I heard Rush grit out between his teeth.

  I believe it was Devil who said, “Yeah. I have some oxy. Be right back.”

  I tried to sit up, but Rush nudged me back down. “Give it a minute. I want to make sure you’re all right. You’ve been out for a couple of hours.”

  If that was true, that would put the time at around five o’clock in morning. I bounced my hand off the side of my breast, checking for the cell phone I’d stashed there. I breathed a sigh of relief when I found it. Missing Wolf’s phone call would be disastrous. The patting motion sent a twinge up my shoulder, so I did what Rush said and stayed put.

  It wasn’t just my shoulder that was injured. My whole body ached, and my right hip was on fire. I opened my eyes and searched for Devil. I really needed those pain pills.

  Instead of Devil, I saw a room full of people I didn’t know. There was a young lady staring at me from across the room, and two unassuming males stood by her side. She looked familiar, with medium-length black hair that was straight as a line. Dark lashes outlined a pair of bright green eyes. She was dressed head to toe in dust-covered leather, and her beautiful face had a fresh cut across the cheek. She was maybe five-seven, and her build was curvy, but toned. She had a thick tension around her that screamed Don’t fuck with me! But my mouth opened to say something, anyway. I never was any good at erring on the side of caution.

  “Who are you?” I asked in a clipped tone. At that point, niceties were a thing of the past. I needed to catch up with the rest of the class fast. I was lying injured in a room full of people, only two of whom I knew, and even those two were only acquaintances to me. I looked up at Rush, who was gently cradling me in his lap, and realized rather quickly, part of that thought was wrong. Rush had become more to me than an acquaintance, but in what sense was yet to be determined.

  I flicked my eyes back to the familiar stranger who was walking towards me. The muscles in her toned arms slightly bulged as she moved, stretching the sleeves of her tight jacket. The girl obviously hit the gym hard, and on a regular basis.

  Against the protests of Rush’s arms trying to hold me still, I sat up. Big mistake, that was. The buzz I had earlier paled in comparison to the way my head was spinning due to the sudden movement.

  “Stay back, Duska. You’re making Kris nervous,” Rush said.

  The woman Rush had called ‘Duska’ stopped in her tracks. She folded her arms and looked at the ceiling. “Fine.” She huffed. “I can speak to her from here. It’s just rude.”

  “You know her, then,” I stated.

  “Her family works for mine. They span centuries in our service.” Rush’s face was set with grim lines as he sent a reprimanding glare Duska’s way. “She knows what she did tonight is strictly forbidden and punishable by death. She has disgraced her family’s name.”

  Duska flinched like she’d been slapped across the face, but quickly hid her pain by lifting a prideful chin. It made me feel sorry for her and envy her strength, all in the same go.

  “What could she have possibly done to deserve all that venom?” I asked, truly curious.

  “She deserves far more than my stern words, Kris. Duska, along with her jolly band of morons here, is responsible for tonight’s attack on Devil’s Playground.”

  My mouth dropped open. I didn’t feel sorry for Duska anymore, funny that. If she and the two men standing beside her were the ones responsible for the attack on Devil’s Playground, which left me and probably countless others injured or dead, then why were they not in handcuffs, being hauled off to jail? Or rather, how did they escape death by Devil’s own hand? I asked the obvious question, “Why hasn’t action been taken against them?”

  “Because apparently, these three terrorists are on the same mission you are,” Devil answered for Rush. He had caught the tail end of the conversation as he walked into the room, or his vampire hearing was good enough to hear through walls—one of the two…or both. “In consideration for you, my best friend’s Creator, I held off judgment until you woke up.”

  “Um, okay. I appreciate that, but how, or more importantly, why is it my place to judge? Duska is Rush’s problem, not mine.”

  “Hey,” Duska said, her face showing offense.

  “Sorry, lady, I don’t know you. And from what I’ve seen so far, that might be a good thing. I have my own problems to work out. It’s as simple as that.”

  Speaking of which, the pain in my hip flared wide, crawling down to reach the space right above my knee. The agony left me panting, but I tried to cover it up by taking deeper breaths. Devil must have noticed, because he rushed over with a glass of water and dumped a couple pills in my hand. “Thanks,” I whispered, and shoved the pills into my mouth, swallowing them down between several gulps of water.

  Creators healed faster than a human, but in comparison to a vampire’s ability to regenerate, we healed at a snail’s pace. All in all, I would be hurt for several more hours, but after that, my body would be as good as new and in tip-top shape to save my sister.

  Duska said, “I can’t change what I’ve done, and I’m certainly nobody’s problem, least of all, yours. But it seems we have something, or rather, someone in common. It’s why I came here and thought I had reason to attack.”

  “Oh yeah?” I pushed out between breaths. “This should be good.”

  Duska uncrossed her arms and reached inside her jacket pocket. She pulled out a folded photo and shot a look over at Rush. “Can I show her?”

  With Rush’s approval, Duska crossed the space between us in three long and confident strides. She didn’t move like someone who took orders, but like someone who should be giving them. Regardless, she obeyed Rush with little complaint.

  She handed me the photograph, reluctant to let it go. She seemed attached to it. The picture was worn out and creased, torn a bit at the edges, but I could tell the picture had been taken recently. I knew because of the image it reflected. It was the smiling face of my sister; she was standing next to the same woman who stood in front of me. Torra and Duska had their arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders. It was a show of camaraderie and friendship. I handed the photo back to Duska. My heart ached; stress, lies, and my injuries weighing heavy on my body. More and more, I was beginning to realize that I didn’t know my sister at all.

  “Tell me why you showed up here, guns blazing, in search of Torra. And while you’re at it, I want to know how you two even know each other.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Duska sat on the edge of the coffee table, her knees inches from mine. The proximity was a bit unnerving; I would have felt more comfortable if she had kept her
distance. I was feeling much like an injured animal in that moment, and I just wanted time and my own space, so I could lick my wounds and heal in peace.

  “I met Torra at the Center three years ago.”

  “That’s around the same time our mother left,” I said.

  She leaned forward, settling her crossed arms against her knees, which were also crossed, and rested her chin in her cupped hand. “I suppose it was. Anyway, it was all part of my job as Kissa’s assistant to help educate Torra on the more tedious aspects of her magical abilities. Right from the start, she excelled at the craft. She was one of the strongest beholders I’ve seen. And that’s saying a lot, considering how many I’ve run into, being a part of the Center and the Davis household.”

  Rush grumped and huffed beside me while he listened to her explain her connection to Torra. It was obvious that he wasn’t planning to keep Duska on as a part of his household for much longer. After the night’s antics, I didn’t blame him. With apprehension written all over her face, she continued on with her story. She kept shifting her worried eyes to Rush every few seconds. It was as if she was expecting him to do something, and whatever it was, she wasn’t looking forward to it.

  “We became friends instantly,” Duska said, her tone pitched a little lower than when she’d first started. She broke off her story, her face full of worry. “It was only natural for us to do what we did.”

  “What did you do?” I asked.

  She looked me dead in the eyes. It was a serious look. “It all started when Linda went missing.”

  Rush sat ramrod straight at the mention of her name. “Archer’s Linda?” he questioned with a grim voice—a tone I’ve only heard him use when he was addressing Duska. I didn’t like it much. It made him sound like the spoiled aristocrat I almost forgot he was.

  She nodded. “Torra and I decided to form our own search party. Linda was our friend, you see, and we always met up in the rec room after Torra’s combat class. We would drink coffee and shoot the shit for about an hour or so before Torra had to rush home before her sister…” she paused to shoot me a guilty look, “before you got home from work.”

  “So you knew she was keeping her involvement with the Center secret from me?”

  “I did.”

  “What about Linda?” Rush interrupted.

  Before she could answer, all attention turned to Devil. He sauntered over to us, carrying a tired-looking Addison is arms. The vampire took up a lot of space with his imposing body. The petite blond he held in his arms fit comfortably snug against him. She lifted her head from off his shoulder and smiled at me. I almost gasped when I caught sight of all the scratches and cuts littering her beautiful face. Instead, I smiled back at her with a sly wink.

  We had survived a bombing together, so I considered us battle buddies, bonded by a mixture of blood and shrapnel. Devil took a seat across the room from me, settling into an overstuffed arm chair. Addison snuggled deeper into his arms as he shifted his massive body, back and forth against the cushions, trying his best to make himself and his passenger comfortable. I turned my attention back to Duska when she began to speak again.

  “The day Linda went missing, Torra and I waited for her to show up for well over an hour after our normal meeting time. We knew deep in our guts that something was wrong, but still held out hope she was with her boyfriend, Archer, and forgot to meet with us. It wasn’t long after that, we heard the devastating news of her disappearance. Several hours passed without any word from Linda or the Center, so we decided to take matters into our own hands and go find her ourselves.”

  Rush said, “But we did receive word in the way of an anonymous e-mail; there was a photo attached, a picture of Linda. She had been tortured and killed. Archer lost his mind when he saw it. We thought we’d lose him, too, for a while. It was the decision of the Council to keep things quiet. It was for Archer’s sake.” Rush was without remorse.

  Duska stood. I tucked my legs in to my chest, a vicious assault of pain tweaking the muscles in my hip, so she could walk between me and the table. She scanned the room, maybe searching for an escape route, or maybe it was so she could brace herself for what she had to say next. And what she said, I would have never seen coming.

  “We found evidence of Linda after only a day of searching. Like I said before, we were all close friends. We knew each other better than almost anyone else could.” She stared ahead blankly and crossed her arms, consoling, holding herself tightly. “We think she started the day at her favorite spot, under a deserted boardwalk a couple of miles down from the main beach, tucked away and hidden behind the Grey Bluffs. That’s where we found her favorite book and scarf.”

  She leaned forward and picked up a crystal decanter filled with amber liquid. She poured a healthy serving and gulped until it was gone. Duska set the glass down with a clack against the wooden table and gave Rush a look of trepidation.

  “Why didn’t you inform me of this? That evidence could have helped us find her in time. But now, it’s too late,” Rush said.

  Duska took a couple steps backwards, until she was standing shoulder to shoulder with her men. “I figured I could find her myself.”

  That did it. Rush flew off the couch and marched right up to Duska and her crew. I cringed when he flew a finger in her face, almost knocking it against her nose, and said, “You had no right to make that call, Duska.” Rush gritted his teeth, and without breaking eye contact with her, he said, “Devil, you can do as you please with those two interlopers.”

  Rush waved a dismissive hand towards Duska’s men. The corners of her mouth ticked like she desperately wanted to say something in protest, but thought better of it. She said something, anyway.

  “They are not to be harmed.”

  “You have no say in the matter,” Rush barked.

  “According to Devil, I have some say in these matters,” I said.

  Everything in the room quieted. Even the scotch-covered ice that had been melting away in Duska’s glass seemed to stop making its soft tinkling noise.

  “I agree that those men have no business here and should leave, but Devil may not be the wisest choice of chaperones to show a couple of humans, ripe with fresh blood, to the door.”

  Duska shot me a grateful smile. I returned it out of habit, but I wasn’t saving the lives of those humans for her sake, even though the rebellious woman was beginning to grow on me. No, it wasn’t because of her. I was doing it because I believed it was the right thing to do.

  “I really wish you’d let me handle this, Kris. She is part of my household; therefore, it’s my duty to mete out the punishments for all three of them. It’s law,” Rush said.

  I pushed myself off the couch and stood, ignoring my aches and pains. How quickly I went from feeling comfort and warmth towards that man, to wanting to punch him in the nuts. He was infuriating!

  “I am not bound by your laws, Rush. I don’t even recognize them. I’m bound by a personal duty of my own, and killing humans, even the ones deserving of such harsh punishment, goes against the grain for me.”

  “Then what should we do with them? They blew up my club, in case you’ve forgotten,” Devil said, eager to see retribution. .

  Was anyone killed in the explosion?” I asked.

  Devil shook his head. “Nope. A few humans were hurt and one of my brides was pretty battered. Other than the damage to my club, that’s the extent of the injuries.”

  I was relieved to hear that the explosion produced no causalities. If there had been any serious injuries or deaths, I doubted I would have been able to get Duska’s men out of there in one piece, or with all their blood.

  I glanced at Duska. “Are you willing to take full responsibility for the actions of your men?”

  “I am.” She spoke without hesitation.

  “Then I propose a trade,” I said.

  “I can’t wait to hear this,” Rafe said, entering the room. He was freshly showered, his wet hair slicked back, and he was wearing a pair of blue jea
ns and a black cotton t-shirt. He reminded me of a buff James Dean.

  I ignored the Johnny-come-lately’s smart-ass comment and continued. “I think it makes sense that Duska should work here to rebuild the club, and after the repairs are finished, she can work off the costs of the damages, as well.”

  “Um…uh…wait, what? You want me to work for a vampire?” Duska choked, her voice coming out in a squeak of disbelief.

  Devil began to laugh. “Well done, Kris.”

  Rush stared at me, red faced, not saying anything.

  Rafe lazed against the wall next to the exit and the liquor stand. He was holding a glass of booze he’d poured for himself, tipping it at me in a cheers gesture, and then he winked.

  Addison ignored us all and kept trying to snuggle in deeper against Devil’s wide chest.

  Duska’s men remained standing, quiet as little mice, but one couldn’t mistake the look of terror in both their eyes. They knew how close they were to being eaten up by the cat.

  “Would you rather he took the lives of your friends for your acts of war against him?” I asked.

  She looked down at her feet. “I came here tonight to kill Devil, Kris. I still want to kill him.”

  I had almost forgotten that in all of Duska’s explanations, she never clarified why she bombed Devil’s club in the first place.

  “Why do you want to kill him?” I asked.

  “It was a vampire who killed Linda; I just know it.” Duska shot Devil a poisoned glare.

  “An assumption doesn’t give you the right to attack or try to kill anyone. Especially if only because he’s a vampire,” I tried to explain.

  As soon as I realized the true meaning behind what I said, I found myself face to face with my own demons. I may have hunted and killed vampires that the ghosts of their victims led me to, but didn’t I hold the opinion that all vampires were evil solely based on the actions of the guilty ones I’d killed? Inner growth could be a bitch sometimes, especially when said bitch forces you to realize how wrong you’ve been. I was guilty of one of the worst sins imaginable—prejudice.