After what was probably about three or four minutes, I began to hear the noise of street traffic. I must have been close.
When I came to the end of the tunnel, I found an old rusty metal ladder leading up to what looked like a manhole cover. Great. Those things were ridiculously heavy. Like Mama June when she was still incredibly Not Hot.
I sighed in resignation and stuffed my phone into my pocket, then started on my way up the ladder. The darkness was absolute, and the rungs of the ladder were a little slimy. It would have sucked total balls if I fell back down to the floor of the tunnel. You know, especially since I hated cock.
It was freezing cold and I was only wearing a T-shirt, but I gritted my teeth and put up with it. I figured, if anything, it would help me keep my wits about me. I’d need ‘em all if I was going to avoid ending up a tasty (if stubborn and combative) vampire snack.
The ladder was pretty tall, maybe thirty feet up to the street. I could see a narrow beam of light through the small hole at the center of the manhole cover. An aggregated glow of streetlamps, neon signs and headlights. And now, now I had the tricky problem of how in the hell I was supposed to get that damned cover off. Especially while I was holding onto this ladder. What did I look like, Criss Angel? I wasn’t a goddamn magician.
I could only think of one thing to try. I went as far as I could up the ladder, putting my shoulder against the heavy cover while I wrapped my arms around the top rung to keep myself from falling. I pushed as hard as I was able to, and against my more realistic expectations (though I’d sure been hoping fervently that this stupid plan would work), the cover began to rise. It couldn’t shift yet, because it was settled inside a round hole with sides a couple inches deep. I’d have to push it up those two or so inches before it could slide.
I pushed with all my might, and when I heard the cover stop scraping against the sides of its little crater, I unwrapped my right arm from the ladder rung and reached up. This was the really stupid part. Thinking I could shift a manhole cover with one hand.
But I had no choice. Risa was out there somewhere, searching for allies to aid us – and there were bitchy vamps up in the street trying to invade her turf. I had to do this. I had to protect her territory.
I was beginning to shake beneath the weight of the iron cover, and I knew I didn’t have much time. I wasn’t a vampire, and I didn’t have superhuman strength. But I did have willpower that was tough as the object on my shoulder. I’d been a fighter all my life. I hadn’t always fought for the right things, but most of the time I’d tried to. This time was no different.
I curled the fingers of my right hand around the edge of the cover, calling on the beast inside me. Not a vampire, no, but trust me – I had my beast. She came out at unpredictable, inopportune moments. She frightened people. She made people cringe. She was rude, foul-mouthed and self-righteous, and she had a serious Wonder Woman fixation. She believed she was an Amazon who could rid the world of evil.
I’d never been able to call on my beast at will. She usually just came around when I didn’t really want her. But now, with my shoulder pressed to the iron manhole cover, and my fingers wrapped around its edge, I tried to summon her. I squeezed my eyes shut and pictured Risa’s face. Imagined the feel of her kiss. I was doing this for her – and I had no choice.
I pushed out with an inhuman burst of strength, and the cover began to slide to the left. I couldn’t believe it. Was I really doing this with my puny human arm? Damn right I was. Rock on, puny human arm.
I didn’t need to slide the cover all the way off, just far enough to make a space for me to wriggle out into the street. When I’d succeeded in doing that, I let out a heavy sigh of relief and let go of the cover, rolling my tired shoulder. I hoped I never had to do that again. Mental note: next time you move a manhole cover, Dani, bring a vampire with you. Or a forklift.
I put my head through the opening I’d made, peering into the street. Luckily, I was way over on the side, and this wasn’t the main street. So I didn’t have to worry about getting run over or anything like that. But unluckily – there was some serious vampy drama going down.
The scene was illuminated pretty well by streetlights. I could see Sonya and Dirk with their backs to me, facing two more people whose faces I couldn’t really make out. But of course they were Max and Jace. The woman was relatively small, with long blonde hair, and the guy was similar to Dirk in appearance, muscly and dark.
Max was doing all the talking, and Sonya and Dirk were just listening. Jace was standing there with his arms crossed over his chest, looking crabby. Like somebody had just stolen his juice box or something. Yeah, he seemed like a real gem. No wonder he and this crazy bitch Max were so tight.
“It’s more than obvious that you don’t have a chance,” aforementioned crazy bitch was saying. “You’re seriously outnumbered, and your wards have just been uncovered. As soon as I leave here, I’m going straight to Serenity. She’ll be back with her army before dawn. She already has Risa, anyway. The Fourth Coven handed her over this morning.”
My heart stalled in my chest, and I suddenly couldn’t breathe. Serenity had Risa? No, no – it couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be . . .
I remembered Risa’s words to me, just before we parted. I’d wanted to go with her, and she was trying to explain to me why it was too dangerous.
I don’t know how the other covens will react to my approach. Some of them might even try to capture me and hand me over to Serenity.
But it couldn’t have really happened. It was just too . . . it was just too dark and messed up . . .
I tried to breathe regularly, but my heart was pounding in my chest, and I was having trouble gripping the top rung of the ladder in my sweating, anxious fingers. I found it hard to believe that none of the four vampires had heard the scraping of the manhole cover as I disengaged it from its little crater, but I was pretty far away from them, and they were a little busy. Maybe they’d just chalked it up to regular street noise. Whatever the reason, I’d lucked out, and nobody was looking my way.
It was really hard to think about anything but Risa, but I tried to focus my mind on the situation at hand. There would be plenty of time to figure out what was really going on later. Right now, I had to see this thing through. Because that’s what I did. I was Wonder Woman, for fuck’s sake.
“Aren’t you even going to say anything?” Max inquired of Risa’s second-in-command. “Now I remember why I never liked you, Sonya.”
She sighed flippantly, then tossed her yellow hair over her slender shoulder. “This is getting boring,” she said. “How about a game of hide-and-seek? You’d better come and find me – or I might just go and tell Serenity that you’re hiding under the street!”
With that, she disappeared. She took off so fast, I couldn’t even tell which direction she’d gone in. But Sonya was after her just as quickly, and only Dirk and Jace were left, staring each other down like angry junkyard dogs. For a few seconds, they were perfectly silent and still – and then Jace launched himself at Dirk, knocking him down to the ground.
Dirk was a big guy, and of course he was strong, but it soon became apparent that Jace was a complete and total psycho. His fangs were out, glinting in the light of the streetlamps, and he was raining punches down on Dirk’s face. Dirk couldn’t even block him. He looked like one of those guys at the gym with the tiny punching bag, hitting it really fast, knocking the piss out of it. Poor Dirk, man. The guy was getting his ass handed to him.
Now seemed like a pretty good time to step up. I shimmied through the opening, into the street, trying not to make any noise that would attract the demonic Jace’s attention. It probably would have taken something rivaling an explosion to do that, though, he was so sickly immersed in the act of beating Dirk’s face in.
I didn’t want to get too close to this nasty little one-way demo of fisticuffs, so I fell back about a dozen yards away, took my gun off safety and lined up my shot. As I’d suspected, Jace hadn’t noticed my approach, and I wa
s free to open fire. So, not wanting to keep you lovely people in suspense any longer than is absolutely necessary – that’s exactly what I did.
I fired the metal projectile directly into his temple. Of course, that’s not a shot that can kill a vampire, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t enough to stun him. His body went completely still, and he rolled right off of Dirk.
Dirk looked over at me in shock, but I didn’t hesitate long enough to offer any explanations. I just strode over to the place where Jace lay twitching on his back, and I fired a round straight into his cold, black vampire heart.
His twitching stopped, and I realized that I’d succeeded in erasing him from the face of the earth. Well, well. Go me. I think I deserved a Happy Meal or something.
“What in the hell . . .?” Dirk asked in utter disbelief, peeling himself off the ground with a few well-earned grunts of pain. “What are you doing here?”
“Thought I’d come along and lend a hand,” I replied, giving him a wide grin.
He glanced back down the street towards the entrance to the tunnel, then at me again. “How the fuck did you get that manhole cover off?”
“What can I say?” I returned with a shrug. “Some girls have skills.”
He shook his head and held up his hand in concession, clearly impressed. He looked like hell. His handsome face had been practically pummeled in. I wondered how long it would take his vampire regeneration to heal him. “Well,” he said, “since it’s pretty obvious that you just saved me from getting my head knocked off – thank you. Thank you, Dani. I mean it.”
I nodded slowly, mildly affected by the note of sincerity in his voice. “You’re welcome, Dirk,” I replied. “Anytime.”
We were just standing there, not quite knowing what else to say to each other, when – thankfully – Sonya returned. She appeared like a streak of lightning, right in front of us. Damn, vampires were fast. They were like the frickin’ Flash.
“She got away,” Sonya told us. “No doubt she’s with Serenity right now, telling her exactly where we are.”
Suddenly realizing somehow that something wasn’t right, Sonya looked down at Jace’s dead body and frowned. “Well, that’s not good,” she said with a sigh. “Your work, Dani?”
“I couldn’t just leave you guys hanging,” I replied. “I wanted to try and help.”
“She saved my ass, Sonya,” Dirk admitted. “Jace was serving it up with fries and a Coke – and here comes Dani, gun blazing. It’s not all that hard to understand what Risa sees in her.”
Though this would have been a really great compliment at any other time, there was the little fact that Max had just told us Risa was being held captive by Serenity, and just hearing her name spoken aloud made my heart literally ache. Sonya seemed to be able to read this in my expression, and she reached out to lay a hand on my arm.
“Hey,” she said gently. “We’re gonna figure out what’s going on with Risa. We’ll rescue her if we have to. Whatever it takes. Okay?”
I nodded stiffly, but I couldn’t speak. My throat was too tight. My eyes were hot and I was blinking back tears. I must have looked like a sniveling kid, but I couldn’t help it. I was worried, and I needed to know that Risa was all right.
One thing was for sure. I would be getting absolutely zero sleep tonight. I’d figured out by now where the vamps kept their stash of alcohol, and I was going to drink it while I cried alone on the couch and watched re-runs of Chicago P.D. Sounds like fun, yeah?
Chapter 12
I fished out a bottle of bourbon and a highball glass, then made myself as comfortable as I was liable to get. No Chicago P.D. on the tube, but I did find some Law & Order. The ones with Jerry Orbach – which, in my opinion, are the absolute best.
No one knew what was going to happen next. Sonya had no doubt that Max had gone straight to Serenity, but she didn’t want to leave the warehouse in case any more allies came to us. Besides, there was really no other place to hide. No place where the other covens wouldn’t find us.
Sonya and Morgan built new wards around the building, strong wards of protection to keep enemies from coming inside. The wards of secrecy had been effectively useless against Max, but Sonya hoped that these would hold. For a while, at least, until we could come up with some sort of plan.
After that, everyone went to bed. Well, everyone except me. I stayed up to drink and watch Law & Order. I knew that it would be impossible to sleep while I was worrying about Risa. I felt so helpless – so powerless. I wanted to break into that whore Serenity’s penthouse and fire a little metal arrow into her heart, just like I’d done to Jace. The bitch might have thought she was hard, but she’d go down just like any other vamp. It was all I could think about.
While I sat there, completely bombed, listening to Jerry Orbach’s awesome jokes without laughing, I prayed for Risa’s voice to come to me. To tell me she was all right. Just to say my name, to let me know she was with me.
But it never came. I waited all night, until worry and exhaustion had completely overtaken my body, and I was nothing but a hollow, mechanical shell perched on the edge of the sofa, staring at the TV with empty eyes.
I passed out around six in the morning, and my sleep was tainted by nightmares, filled with creepy red demons who tried to grasp me in their hands.
***
I woke up with my face stuck in a pool of drool against the leather sofa cushion. I blinked under the dim overhead lights, glancing around. Jed and Morgan were sitting in the living room, too. Morgan was smoking, and Jed was watching an old episode of The Simpsons.
“Sleep well?” Morgan asked me cheerfully.
I groaned, peeling my heavy limbs off the couch and staggering to my feet. “What time is it?” I asked in a croaking voice.
“Noon,” Jed answered without taking his eyes off the TV screen. “You should eat something.”
I took a moment to be amazed that Jed had cared enough to tell me to eat. That was so not like him. Was the guy finally warming up to me?
Nah. I must have been imagining things. Next thing you knew, I’d be seeing unicorns running through the warehouse with glitter jizzing from their horns.
“Shower first,” I mumbled, shuffling across the building towards Risa’s room. I went in and shut the door behind me, glancing immediately towards the bed. I was tempted to pick up one of the pillows and inhale its scent – Risa’s scent – but I knew that would just make my heart ache all over again.
I took a quick shower, then sat down on the edge of the bed, blinking the haze of a hangover out of my eyes. What in the hell was I supposed to do with myself today? Go out there and watch the flipping Simpsons? Eat something that would taste like cardboard and sit at the bottom of my stomach like a rock?
I wondered how long it would be before Serenity came. Would the wards Sonya and Morgan built hold up against her? Probably not. An attack was inevitable. It was only a matter of time.
I sighed – and it was a damned hopeless sigh. I wasn’t used to feeling hopeless. I was used to having something to fight for, but I felt as if all my reasons for fighting had been taken away from me. Now I just felt . . . empty.
I’d been wearing my own dirty clothes for three days now, so I dressed in one of Risa’s clean outfits from the closet. Ripped jeans and a Guns N’ Roses tank top. Wearing her clothes made me feel stronger, somehow.
I figured I should go and scout out a bowl of cereal or something. Starving myself wouldn’t help matters, either. How was I supposed to kill a crazy vampire whore if I didn’t eat breakfast first?
Ah, there we go. It felt good to have a little optimism trickle back in.
So, I was already feeling a bit better – but what I saw when I stepped out of the bedroom made my heart soar. Suddenly, I went from the trenches of warfare to the dizzying heights of Cloud Nine.
She was here. Risa was here. She was standing near the metal door, talking to all of her comrades. Her expression was serious, and she looked tired, but as soon as she saw me co
me through her bedroom doorway, she glanced up and smiled.
It was probably pretty rude of me, but I couldn’t help it. I flew to her. In order to do that, I had to push Jed and Dirk out of my way, but I just had to hope they’d get over it. I clasped Risa in my arms and buried my face in her shoulder, inhaling her like cigarette smoke. That electric charge pulsed through my body, rolling between us, filling us like lightning. She was here. She was all right. I was so happy . . .
“It’s okay,” she murmured. “I’m okay. Max was just lying to upset you guys. I was never anywhere near Serenity.”
“All righty, then,” Sonya said pointedly. “I think that concludes our little meeting. Risa’s all filled in, we’re all filled in, let’s go find something to do . . .”
Everyone cleared their throats self-consciously, then turned to walk away from me and Risa. I, for one, couldn’t have cared less what they were doing. I just held onto her, breathing her in, my face pressed into her soft neck.
“I was so worried,” I whispered. “I thought she had you.”
She ran her fingers soothingly through my hair, kissing the top of my head. “Not even close,” she assured me.
“I waited for your voice to come,” I told her. “I waited all night.”
“I’m sorry, Dani,” she said, sounding pained that she’d caused me grief. “Remember when I told you I was gonna have to go to some weird places? Well, I was in one of those places last night. I couldn’t come to you while I was there. I’m sorry if I made you worry.”
I looked curiously into her face. “Where were you?”
“In the realm of Baital, lord of the dead. He’s one of the most powerful vampires in the universe, but he lives on a different plane. Good news is – he’s agreed to join us in the fight against Serenity and Ronin. We’ve also got Kali on our side, the Hindu goddess of war. Not bad friends to have.”
My eyes widened. Well, jeez. And here I was thinking I was top shit for shooting a vampire, while she’d been out recruiting goddesses and lords of the dead. That was so . . . hot.
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