by Jen Pretty
“Later,” I said, shaking my head at the strange god, then I was shoved out of the meditation.
I opened my eyes to Singh’s bright yellow ones. His lion head was tipped sideways like a dog trying to understand something.
‘Where did Frankie go?” I asked, looking around for him.
Singh shifted back into human form, crouched in front of me. “He went to settle some dispute in the warehouse. Did you know you whisper when you meditate?”
“Really? No one ever mentioned that before.” I thought of the times I came out of meditation to find Vincent in front of me. Great. “What was I saying?”
“I believe it was a prayer, in Sanskrit, but I have never heard that one before.”
“That’s weird,” I said. He nodded.
I got up and went to find Frankie. I hoped the trouble didn’t involve his father.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I followed the sound of voices down the stairs and through another door into the big warehouse with the dragons on the ceiling.
Hundreds of candles lit the room; on tables, the floor, and in wall sconces. The painting on the ceiling was visible except this time, it moved. The faded dragons flapped their wings in slow motion. Some had shoots of red fire blasting from their open jaws, and others had smoke curling from their scaly nostrils. The warriors carried spears across the walls launching their sharp weapons into the sky, but they always fell short of the flying monsters.
In the middle of the room, there were two groups of witches and warlocks, facing off like two football teams. They were divided. One group stood behind Cindy, the witch who had dreams of marrying Frankie. The other group was obviously on ‘team Frankie’ and stood around him like a group of bodyguards. They were tense and ready to go to war at the least word.
“You lied to us!” Cindy hollered.
“It was the will of the council. I had no say in it,” Frankie returned.
“Your father is a good man. He didn’t deserve this!” Cindy yelled. “You made him what he is. This is all your fault.”
“You better shut it, Cindy.” One of the other warlocks said.
“Or what, Aaron? You are not strong enough to take me on.” Cindy disappeared and reappeared in front of the warlock, Aaron, who had called her out. She held up her hand and electricity shot from her palm, striking the man in the chest. He fell to the ground and the room erupted in violence and magic.
The dragons on the ceiling started flapping violently now. The battle raged on the walls and ceiling, matching the one on the floor. Durga wasn’t too interested in the fighting until Cindy’s eyes fell on me and her magic pulsed in my direction. Durga went from asleep to raging vengeance between one breath and the next. Our blade flew across the room, end over end, until it sunk into the witch’s stomach, hilt deep. It flashed back into my hand as Cindy dropped to the ground. Durga flashed an image of our blade slicing Cindy’s throat, but I wasn’t sure I could do it. Cindy wasn’t a vampire.
Durga flashed the image again and kicked me in the stomach. I started to move towards the witch. The rest of the witches and warlocks were in battle, and some of them blocked my way. Some witches on Frankie’s side used magic to create forcefields. Some of the opposing warlocks had knives or other weapons and some, like Cindy, were using flames and electricity to attack. Based on Frankie’s description of dark magic, I knew they were using that now. Durga shoved at me. Trying to make me go faster and end the witch’s life. Cindy was laying on the ground with her hands on her stomach, blood oozing out between her fingers.
A sudden roar caused me to spin. Singh, in lion form, leapt across the room and ripped the head off one of the warlocks who had been using fire to try and burn through a forcefield. Everyone stopped fighting, Singh dropped the warlocks head and it rolled sloppily across the floor.
The dark-magic users turned on my lion and magic came pouring out of them. I threw myself into the battle --my lion was off limits.
My blade flashed in the flickering candlelight. I only had experience fighting vampires, so when I sliced a warlock across the chest, and he fell to the ground, I was surprised. Then I quickly moved on as a witch started aiming fire and lightning at me. It bounced off an invisible force field. When I turned around, I saw Frankie chanting and holding his hand in my direction. I kept fighting alongside Singh until there were only Frankie and his loyal witches and warlocks left.
I surveyed the injured and dead, trying to find Cindy, but she was gone. Shit.
Frankie took out his phone and made a call. A moment later two grey-haired men and a woman popped up beside Frankie.
“Frankford, what has happened here?” one of the men asked.
“Thank you for coming, Counsel,” Frankie said with a bow.
The grey-haired man’s eyes shifted and locked on me and Singh, who was leaning against me, still in lion form. Bright red blood and other stringy bits covered his white fur.
“My God,” the man whispered. “Durga.” He breathed her name so softly it was like he hadn’t even spoken.
Durga pushed at me, so I let her speak. “You did not cut out the rot. Now it has spread to this coven and infected these witches and warlocks. Now the rot leaches to the human world, and I must step in to clean up your mess.” Her angry goddess tone left no room for argument.
The three members of the council bowed their heads.
“Apologies, Durga. This will not happen again. I assure you.”
“Your assurances mean little when there are several dead humans. Assurances cannot bring them back. The old laws are in place for a reason,” Durga said, making me wonder what the old laws were exactly. “I will leave you to this. My body needs rest if we are to hunt the leader of this evil.”
With that, she turned and pushed me towards the door as she relinquished control to me and I walked back out. She was great at speeches. From now on I decided to let her do all the big talking.
Singh followed behind me until we entered Frankie’s apartment. Singh walked into the washroom and I heard the shower flick on. A shower was a great idea. The sun had risen and I could feel the tiredness creeping in.
I wasn’t sure how much hot water the apartment had so I waited till I heard Singh flick off the water before I walked into the en-suite and took a shower too.
When I came back out, clean and in pyjamas, I wasn’t shocked to find Singh taking up half my bed. The lion was sparkling white again and mostly dry. What I was surprised to see was Frankie, sitting at the end of my bed.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I hoped I could take care of my father on my own before anyone found out.”
“It’s ok, Frankie.” He stood and walked over to me, wrapping me in his arms and burying his face in my shoulder. The embrace was more for him than for me. Frankie talked a good game about killing his father, but it was honestly eating him up inside. How could it not?
“Cindy got away,” I said. He straightened and brushed my damp hair back from my face.
“I think my father might have introduced her to the dark magic. There is no way she figured out all of that on her own.”
“You think they are working together now?”
“Maybe. She has been acting strange lately. I should have known something was coming. She has always been volatile and when I informed the council that I wasn’t going to marry her last week, she stormed out and hadn’t spoken to me since.”
“Durga wanted me to slit her throat, so she might be a tad pissed that I let her get away.” Durga sent me an image of fire. It was a bit vague, but I got the feeling that was her anger. Creative.
I was having trouble keeping my eyes open now. They kept shutting against my will.
Frankie took my hand and led me to the bed. He tucked me in and kissed my forehead before he left and shut the door.
I tugged at the blankets pinned under Singh, but gave up and moved up next to his giant fluffy lion body. His mane kept tickling my nose, so I buried my face in the pillow. His warmth had me pushing th
e blankets back again a little while later. I slept restlessly all day. I would wake up and the clock would say I had only slept an hour or so. I had never had so much trouble sleeping during the day.
Singh was grumpy when I finally got up. He growled when I turned on the light and again when I made noise, rooting through the dresser to find clean clothes.
“Shut it, or I’ll make you into a lion skin rug,” I said, giggling. I was strangely not tired. I should have been exhausted, but I was ready to fight some bad guys.
I got dressed in leather pants, a light t-shirt, and a heavy leather jacket. Then pulled on my boots and I was ready to roll.
“Coming, lazy bones?” I asked.
Singh roared at me and rolled onto his other side. I flicked the light back off and went out to find Frankie and some dinner. The night was young.
In the kitchen, I found Frankie cooking. The smell of frying onions filled the air making my stomach rumble. I watched him silently for a few moments.
“Dash of salt,” he muttered. “Add the peppers.” I leaned against the wall and watched him. He went on like that for a while before he seemed to sense me behind him. He stopped what he was doing and turned to look at me.
I broke out laughing.
“Do you always talk to yourself?” I asked between gasping breaths.
He tossed a dish towel at me, but it landed by my feet.
“Maybe I just need expert advice,” he replied, laughing too. It was good to see him laugh. His smile lit the room and I loved it. I loved him.
That smile disappeared instantly and his eyes locked with mine. Fuck. Right. I would never get used to controlling my thoughts.
He disappeared and reappeared in front of me.
“The food will burn,” I said and heard the click of the stove turning off. Magic was a bit too handy.
“Did you mean that?”
“I don’t know what I mean, Frankie. I don’t even know who I am half the time.”
His eyes searched mine. I loved Frankie, but Vincent…
He sighed and dropped his eyes. And there it was. He scooped up the dish towel he had thrown at me and walked back to the kitchen, flicking on the stove.
“Frankie.”
“It’s fine, Lark. Just promise me when you figure out what you mean, you don’t make me read your mind to find out.” He smiled at me, but it wasn’t a real one.
“So, I hope you like stir-fry,” he said changing the topic.
I took another deep breath and walked to the counter, and slid up onto the stool.
“I love stir-fry,” I said. The vampires usually had some form of stir-fried vegetables at the dinner buffet.
The sizzling of the pan was the only sound to fill the awkward silence until Singh came walking out of the bedroom as a human and slumped down beside me.
“I’m not sleeping with you anymore if you can’t sleep quietly,” he muttered.
“I didn’t ask you to sleep with me,” I reminded him. “In fact, I tried to kick you out of my bed, but you weigh four hundred pounds as a lion.”
He just yawned and ignored my statement of facts.
“It’s still weird that you are here, you know. I’m surprised your partner hasn’t tracked you down. Did you even quit your job?” I asked.
He took out a cell phone, hit a button, and brought the phone to his ear.
“Chief, its Jeffery,” he said, waiting a moment. “Yes, sir, I quit actually. I’m shacked up with a nice rich lady, and I can’t drag myself out of her bed.”
I punched his arm. What the hell?
“Thank you, Sir, goodbye.”
He closed his cell phone, shoved it back into his pocket and then folded his arms on the countertop, resting his head in them.
“Are you happy now?” he muttered.
“No.”
Frankie set a plate down in front of each of us with perfectly cooked vegetables and fluffy rice. Then he came back with a third plate for himself. He was an excellent cook.
When my plate was empty, my stomach was so full I could hardly move. I rolled off the stool, waddled to the living room, and collapsed on the couch. Durga seemed restless, but she didn’t have anything to show me. Even when I concentrated on her, she was just anxious.
It made me feel a bit jittery, even in my overstuffed state. We hadn’t heard from Frankie’s father, Bennet, in 24 hours and I had no hope that he had just wandered off to live a peaceful life on a deserted island.
Singh and Frankie started a card game at the kitchen island and I clicked on the TV and switched the channels for a while. There was nothing worth watching. I grabbed my phone from my bag and checked in with Vincent. I waited for his reply for a few minutes then set my phone down. He was probably off doing business stuff. Durga sent me a flash of him with the tall blond bombshell from the other day. His teeth sunk into her creamy white skin, a trail of blood running down her neck and his bright red eyes fixed on mine. Thank you, Durga.
Lion Singh sauntered over and climbed up on the couch beside me. There wasn’t enough room for him, so he moved slowly, as I edged closer to the armrest.
“There isn’t room,” I said.
He kept moving and finally he just flopped down, crushing me to the couch with his massive head in my lap.
“Jesus, Singh.” I squirmed to try and get out from under him and, after fighting for a minute, he finally lifted his head and let me slither out from under him until I was sitting on the floor in front of the couch, my sweater pulled up and caught in his nails, so I was strangling myself.
“Freaking lion. Do you know how inconvenient you are?” I waved my arms about until he unhooked my clothes from his claws. I straightened myself out and realized I had probably flashed the room.
Singh licked his lips and then started grooming his foot. His razor-sharp talons exposed at the end of each toe.
Frankie came over and raised an eyebrow at me in question.
“He booted me off the couch,” I complained, taking his offered hand so he could help me to my feet.
“Come on, I have something to show you,” he said, laughing at me.
He kept hold of my hand and pulled me over to the window, then let go to slide the window up revealing a fire escape. It wasn’t rickety, but it was a steel grate instead of a solid set of stairs. It gave me a bit of vertigo to be up high and able to see straight down to the pavement below. The stairs led up, and once we were both through the window, Frankie motioned me to keep walking. I kept my eyes up and climbed two more flights of stairs that led up to the roof.
The roof was flat and tarred smooth. There was a railing that ran all the way around the edge, but we were up high enough to see pretty far across this part of the city, right down to the river. The city lights twinkled until a few blocks from the river where they faded out. The moon reflected off the water in sharp contrast to the darkness. I followed the river with my eyes until I saw a ship travelling up towards the docks. Its lights flashed in time with my heart. Frankie stood right behind me, breaking the wind of the cool night. The heat from his body sent goosebumps on my skin. I closed my eyes and sent out my senses. I could sense the vampires back at the mansion. They were moving around in the house. I wondered which one was Vincent and one of the lights shone brighter than the others for a brief second. I smiled. Durga had some neat powers. That was one that would come in handy.
I searched farther, letting my senses expand as far as they would go and the world lit up in little pockets.
“Whoa,” I whispered.
“What is it?” Frankie asked in the same hushed tone.
“I think I just found every vampire in the state.”
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah.”
Frankie wrapped his arms around my waist and I focused on the vampires. One of them could be Vernon. If he was in the state, I had problems. But the longer I concentrated on them, the surer I was that he wasn’t here. Just as well, for now.
If this power could get stronger the mo
re I used it, I had to keep trying. The farther away I could sense that fallen vampire, the better.
I tried to find Bennet. He was out there somewhere, but I couldn’t sense him.
I closed my eyes and just let the city wash over me. With Frankie behind me and the city before me, I felt like a goddess. I felt like Durga. Powerful, invincible and unstoppable.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
It was nearly 3 am when Durga shoved me towards the door.
“Frankie!” I yelled, pulling on my coat and kicking my sleeping lion.
Frankie came out of the bathroom, his hair dripping wet. He was buttoning his pants with his shirt tucked under his arm.
“Where is he?” he asked, pulling his shirt over his head.
I focused on Durga. “He’s at the mansion”
“Vincent’s?”
I nodded. “Go, I’ll catch up,” I said, turning to head down to the parking garage, but he wrapped his still damp arms around me and suddenly we were in Vincent’s house.
There was a scream from the north wing. I took off that way at a dead run, my knife flashing into my hand. Rounding the corner in the hall, I caught a quick glimpse of Bennet before he disappeared.
“Shit.” I slid to a halt and flung open the door he’d come out of.
In the middle of the room, someone was on fire. Flames shot upwards and licked across the ceiling. The smoke alarms in the house went off and the ringing added to the chaos. Behind me, vampires ran past. I looked down the burning figure and saw a familiar shiny dress shoe below the flame.
“Vincent!” I yelled.
Frankie shouldered past me. His magic collected around his feet and rose to his arm where it flowed out and encircled the fire, snuffing out the flames.
Suspended by magic, Vincent’s blackened face was frozen in a silent scream. His clothes had burned away, revealing leathery skin stretched over his skeletal frame.
As Frankie released his magic, Vincent collapsed in a pile of limbs like a marionet with cut strings.