Dark Whispers Sheridan and Cain 2009

by Unknown

Concentrating on the steady beat of Sakurai’s heart, Dai followed the older vampire into the center of Chinatown. Into the back alleys where even the locals rarely tread. It was so different from what he remembered from his childhood. The sights were so much more clear, the smells of food and humanity so much stronger than he’d ever experienced.

  Yes, it’s one of the few things the fiction writers have gotten correct. Ah, here they are, right up ahead.

  Dai swallowed and licked his lips. Without really thinking he touched the tip of his tongue to the roof of his mouth and immediately his canines extended like a cat’s claws. Shit. It was really true.

  The thirst hit him like a punch to the gut. Subconsciously, he’d been aware of the desire welling up inside of him. But he’d ignored it, thinking it only his desire for Sakurai. And yeah, there was that, alright—if he let his thoughts drift out of focus, all he could imagine was the taste of Sakurai’s cock.

  But this close to fresh blood . . . .

  Dai could smell it brimming in the bodies of the three kids hanging out behind a seedy bar, stronger than the alcohol they drank or the cigarettes they smoked. It stirred something primal inside of Dai, made his mouth water, his body tense and his fangs ache to tear into their young throats.

  “Do you really think you can take them?” Sakurai breathed into his ear, clearly amused.

  “Yeah,” Dai said as he watched the little bastards from the shadows and let their thoughts drift into his head. These were the little fuckers his friend Cal had been wanting to get the goods on a few weeks back. They worked for a Fukienese tong and had been earning their shitty keep by harassing vegetable and fish vendors. The old people wouldn’t talk. None of the old folks who’d gotten away from the Mainland talked to anyone in authority, let alone turned to them for help. At the precinct, there was a saying: It is what it is. Nothing in Chinatown had changed, nor would it ever. And this part of New York was a world unto itself, the new independent gang fuckers made a killing both literally and figuratively off the sweat of hard-working people’s backs. But these shits weren’t content to collect the protection money as ordered…no, they had other ways to amuse themselves, like assault and rape.

  Sakurai watched from a distance as Dai fed. Once his thirst had been slaked and the gang members lay in a limp heap, Daisuke came back to him, pausing for one telling moment along the way.

  This is not a unique situation. This is the way it is for you now. If you haven’t the stomach for it once Yun and the others have been dealt with, tell me now.

  “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me,” Dai muttered, wiping the blood from his chin with the back of his hand then licking it away.

  Sakurai raised an eyebrow and smirked. “You are taking to the taste of it pretty well.”

  “I’m a quick study.” Dai raked a hand through his hair, shuddering as the fresh blood circulated through his system. “Shit . . . .” He breathed in deeply and tilted his face up to the starless sky.

  “It feels good, doesn’t it?” Sakurai watched him carefully for the first sign of weakness.

  “That word hardly covers it.” Dai held his hands overhead, examining them in the blue neon lights from the bar. “Everything is so different. I could taste their . . . life . . . as I was taking it. Does that even make sense?”

  Sakurai laughed. “You’re starting to make my mouth water.”

  “Huh.” Dai exhaled and looked around him with the dazed expression of someone whose senses were on the verge of being overloaded.

  “My turn.” Sakurai grabbed Dai’s wrist and pulled him down the alley. “Those little fucks were easy to take from; I’ll show you what a real hunt is like.”

  When they reached the chainlink fence at the end, Sakurai jumped straight up and gracefully leapt over the 8-foot height to drop as easily as a cat on the other side. Dai followed on pure instinct, too drawn by Sakurai to even realize this kind of movement would’ve been impossible in a mortal body. They took off running as soon as their feet touched the ground, stopping only when they reached a park a few miles away.

  Sakurai passed the few homeless guys they saw sleeping on benches, even ignored the one lone jogger in sweats that Dai was sure had to be the most fucked up nutcase to be running around alone at this hour and in this city.

  “Can you smell his blood?”

  Dai thought Sakurai had meant the jogger until he picked up the tangy scent of blood tinged with lust. There was another man up ahead, walking away from them with his head bent low and his hands stuffed into his pockets. There was a tension in his posture and an overall air about the man that set off Dai’s instincts as a cop. Now that he was a vampire, the feeling was intensified.

  What is he?

  He’s a hunter like us. Sakurai’s eyes flashed. That makes the kill more exciting.

  Whatever it was the man was hunting, Dai knew it wasn’t good. Not that he would’ve protested at the way Sakurai darted forward without making a sound, snatching the man in his arms and dragging him under one of the small bridges decorating the park’s landscape. He felt a certain satisfaction as he watched his lover bite into the man’s throat and drain the life out of him. Dai was enthralled, observing silently, holding his breath. When Sakurai dropped the lifeless body, Dai sucked in some air at last.

  Sakurai came up to him and Dai couldn’t stop himself from grabbing at the front of the otherchiang shih’s shirt to pull him close. He wanted to kiss him--to fuck him right here where they were standing. He got a good knock on the side of his head for it, too.

  “What the fuck?” Dai pushed him and rubbed at the spot above his ear. “Bastard.”

  “Bitch,” Sakurai teased him back. “You can’t afford to lose focus. I bet you didn’t even notice we’re being followed.”

  Dai’s first impulse was to say, “So,” until he sensed the watcher’s gaze. His neck hairs rose and he whipped around, knowing immediately that what he sensed wasn’t human.

  “It’s a demon,” Sakurai said dryly, his eyes glowing a fierce scarlet now that he’d fed. “I’ve dealt with these little shits before in the apartment. It’s fun, but gets old quickly.”

  And then he was gone on the trail of this new prey, disappearing into the shadows faster than Dai’s sight could track him.

  Shit! Think Detective Dumbass. Think, Dai ordered himself. Concentrate on me. Listen to the beat of my heart. Feel it.

  Dai closed his eyes a moment and struggled to get back that particular sensation, that steady beating rhythm echoing from Sakurai that matched the tempo of his own heart. He let it tickle at the edges of his senses, slowly draw him forward. The more steps he took the more he felt Sakurai’s presence and he didn’t realize he was running at top speed until he noticed the landscape around him beginning to blur.

  It was a shock to his heightened perception when his cell phone rang and vibrated in the pocket of his jeans. He ignored it at first, intent on finding Sakurai, but then he realized it may be his mother. Stopping, he pulled out the phone and flipped it open.

  “Dai are you there? Please. It’s Susan. Help me—”

  “Susan! What’s wrong?”

  A man’s laugh echoed from the other end. Then the line went dead.

  Dai looked at the screen. The call had come from Susan’s apartment phone. Shit.

  The change wasn’t just enhancing his senses or strength. Any emotions Dai felt seemed sharper, more vivid, too. The scared tone of Susan’s voice triggered a strong protective reaction that drove him to race through the park without even consciously mapping out the way to Long Island and her apartment—he just went.

  He pictured his brother and Watts, two people he’d loved so much . . . and let down so badly. Dai felt the grief stab him through the chest like a knife, and he stopped to lean against the back of a building until the pain subsided enough for him to keep moving.

  He wasn’t going to let it happen again to anyone. Not to his mother, or even Sakurai . . . .

  When he got to the back of Sus
an’s building, he easily jumped the nine feet to grab onto the end of the fire escape and climb up. Dai forced open her apartment window, snapping the locks right off in the process, and jumped inside. Susan was coming out of the kitchen with a couple of glasses of wine and gave a start when she saw him. She dropped one of the goblets, spilling the liquor.

  “Susan!” He looked her over, trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with her—why she’d called in a panic.

  “We were expecting you to use the front door, Matsui. What’d you do, break every traffic law in the state to get here so fast?”

  Dai turned, finally registering the two other people in the room. Brandt had spoken from his spot on the couch; Diaz was crouched by the bookcase looking through Susan’s collection of CDs.

  Shit. Sakurai had warned him to be careful with this bitch, hadn’t he?

  Diaz made a face, pulling his lips away from his teeth and snapping them at Dai. “Nice dental work, fuckface. That’s one thing we weren’t expecting.”

  “Not after the way they made a mess out of little brother Wei Wei,” Brandt said from behind a cold smile.

  The words had barely left Brandt’s lips when Dai snatched him up and shoved him against the wall, his fangs aching to bite into the bastard’s jugular. “Don’t even speak his name, you fuck.”

  Far from appearing afraid, Brandt smirked. “Now, now Detective, control yourself or we’ll have to do it for you.”

  “Asshole.” Dai struggled with the primal instinct compelling him to feed. The inner struggle was just long enough for Susan to come up unnoticed behind him.

  “Do it Lenzer!” Diaz shouted.

  Dai looked back just as Susan drove a large iron nail into his back. The pain was like a gunshot wound he’d gotten his fifth year on the job, only this pain—the agony— was amplified by his new awareness and something more. It burned like acid, zapped his strength as he crumpled to his knees.

  “I’m sorry, Dai. I have to.” Susan kissed him lightly then took another nail with a small paper prayer charm attached and slammed it into his right shoulder.

  The pain and lightheadedness swept over Dai. He fell onto his back, driving the nail farther in. Crying out, he tried to sit, to pull the spike from, his shoulder, but he barely had the strength to move. “I’ll kill you fuckers for this. All of you.”

  Susan bit her lip, wrung her hands, tried to back away, but Brandt grabbed her arm and kept her in place. “Big talk from a fallen man—er, vampire, Matsui.”

  Diaz stepped on Dai’s chest, flicked cigarette ashes in his face. “It looks like your master or whoever you fucked for this didn’t teach you much, did he? Or was it a she?”

  “Definitely a guy, Carlos,” Brandt said. “You need to see that DVD. He takes it up the ass real good. Maybe we should give it a try before we go.”

  Susan whimpered. Dai snarled. “I will so fucking kill you.”

  Diaz laughed, crouched to put out his cigarette on Dai’s forehead. “Then kill me, go on.”

  Dai managed to grab the bastard’s jacket but he couldn’t do much more. Fuck! Sakurai hadn’t told him anything about this shit!

  Diaz grabbed Dai’s balls and squeezed. “We better not bother. He probably has some fucking Asian VampAIDS or some shit.”

  Brandt got a good laugh at that.

  “No kidding,” he sneered, squatting down by Dai’s head. “Guess he fucks too good for you to say ‘no’, eh, Matsui?”

  “What the hell are you two talking about?” Susan asked and folded her arms across her chest.

  “Shall I break it to her?” Brandt patted Dai’s cheek condescendingly and almost had his hand bitten off. He pulled away fast enough though and Dai’s teeth clamped down on empty air. “Watch it, tiger.”

  Diaz squeezed Dai again—harder this time. Combined with the agony of those fucking nails burning and stabbing into his body, the pain blurred Dai’s vision.

  “Oh, let me tell her.” Diaz chuckled.

  “Tell me what, damn it?” Susan snapped.

  “Your boyfriend’s a cocksucker, Lenzer. Literally.” Diaz stood up, laughing. “Sorry, honey—he’s been too busy chasing a vampire’s dick to give a shit about you.”

  “Christ,” Susan muttered and rubbed the sides of her head. “This is a joke.”

  “You didn’t show her the video?” Brandt laughed at Dai.

  “There’s a video?” Susan’s jaw dropped.

  “Complete with him moaning while the vamp shoves it up into his asshole.”

  “Shit!” she whispered furiously.

  Diaz snickered. “Your pussy isn’t that good anyway, honey.”

  “Fuck you!”

  “Both of you—shut up,” Brandt said coldly, grabbing Dai by the collar of his shirt and standing him up. “He’s weak enough to handle now. Let’s go.”

  Dai tried to kick out and managed only to spasm. The nail pinched the nerves in his spine, sending wave after wave of a nauseating, throbbing pain. Blood-filled bile filled his mouth.

  “Easy, easy.” Brandt slammed him against the wall. The back of Dai’s head hit the wall and his vision was temporarily lost in a white burst.

  “Don’t make us rough you up now, Matsui. The Mistress might want that pleasure all to herself. You and your brother must have done something bad to piss her off enough to want him dead like that. We’re betting she wants the same pleasure for you.”

  Dai snarled from behind his clenched jaws in a rage. “You motherfuckers,” he choked out through the pain. “I swear to God—I’m going to kill you.”

  Brandt slammed his head against the wall once more. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell it to someone who gives a shit.”

  Dark Whispers Sheridan and Cain 2009

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The stab of pain hit Sakurai dead center as he let the demon’s lifeless body slide from his grasp, and a feral growl rumbled up from within his chest. Daisuke. He called out silently for his lover but received no reply. He knew the young man’s powers were still weak, but adequate enough that he should have heeded the call—if he were able.

  “Fuck.”

  He kicked the demon’s corpse aside and headed back toward the park to pick up Daisuke’s trail. It led to that blonde bitch’s apartment. And there had been others. Men. Adversaries. A prickling on his arm caught Sakurai’s attention and he looked to the left.

  “My, such ingenious little bastards,” he said, picking up the fallen iron nail with the Buddhist prayer charm attached. It did nothing more than burn his skin, as touching a hot cooking pot might, but to a new vampire, one whose mortal sense of fucking chivalry would have gotten him caught unawares . . . .”They shall pay for this, pet, and then you and I will have a little talk.”

  * * * * *

  The car turned onto West 20th. They drove past the Resurrection before turning down a side street to get to the club’s basement entrance. Through the tinted car windows, Dai saw the place dark and closed down for what was left of the night. Which wasn’t much. The sky was already turning a dingy yellow on the horizon and it prickled his skin when Brandt yanked him out of the back seat and tossed him out onto the pavement.

  Dai hit the concrete hard and winced, though he refused to cry out.

  “What’s the matter?” Brandt grabbed him by the collar, dragging him roughly along toward the back stairs. “I thought you liked it rough, bad boy.”

  Dai wanted to call him every kind of motherfucker but the best he could muster as pain flared around the iron in his back was a unintelligible growl.

  Two more car doors slammed shut as Diaz and Susan stepped out onto the sidewalk. That bitch—when Dai caught site of her, he finally felt something other than the pain—a fury that would’ve made some of the tempers he’d seen on the streets look like shit in comparison.

  She caught his look and narrowed her eyes.

  “You did it to me first, baby,” Susan muttered, giving him the finger.

  Brandt threw him down the stairs before Dai had a
chance to tell the little slut off. He hit the bottom—hard. Brandt came down, taking the steps two at a time, and lifted him up. Blood spattered the floor where he’d landed. That was the only way Dai noticed he was starting to bleed from where the nails were piercing him.

  Brandt pounded on the metal door.

  “Mailman,” he called out. “I’ve got a special delivery for the Mistress. It’s nice and gift wrapped, too.”

  A set of glowing yellow eyes stared back at Brandt from the tiny peep window set into the door. The door swung open and Brandt stepped inside, dragging Dai with him, only to be shoved against the wall hard enough to crack his skull. He crumpled to the floor, leaving a scarlet trail along the bricks as he slid.

  “This one is mine,” Yun said.

  Diaz and Susan tried to back out but their exit was blocked by a group of demons at the bottom of the steps on the other side of the door.

  Diaz took a look at those demons stalking in, with their disproportioned bodies and the rows of pointed, crooked teeth, and pissed himself. The sharp, acidic odor of urine reached Dai’s nostrils even through the sickening scent of Brandt’s blood.

  “W-wait!” Diaz stammered and pointed at Dai. “We brought that little shit for you to make nice. We’re all friends here!”

  Susan made a strangled little noise in the back of her throat as one of the demons touched her ankle, leaving a gash with its sharp claws. “Oh God, oh God, oh God . . . .”

  “Yes,” Yun hissed darkly. “My little ones arevery friendly, especially to the ladies.”

  In a blur of knife-sharp teeth and claws, the demons jumped on top of Diaz all at once.

  His and Susan’s screams pierced Dai’s sensitive ears and he winced.

  “Oh, don’t let this bother you,” Yun said in a sickening sweet tone. “Let’s go someplace quiet, yes? And I’ll make you feel so much better.” He yanked out the nail that was in Dai’s shoulder. “See? Feeling better already, aren’t you, Daisuke?”

  “Let me go, you fucker.” Dai tried pulling away and kicking out at Yun, but he was still too weak, thanks to the fucking nail in his back.