by N. R. Larry
Amir cracked his knuckles, and I cringed at the sound. He shot me a sideways glance. “My bad.”
I waved him off and took a slow sip of my brandy. It burned just the right amount as it went down.
“I spent a few hours with the... parts.” Amir swallowed and gestured to his glass. Ryland grinned and poured him more unicorn juice. “I got a sense of... desperation.” His jaw clenched. “That woman, she died in terrible pain. It’s like, she felt every ounce of blood being drained from her.” He shuddered. “And the venom. Bismillah. It isn’t like any vampire venom I’ve ever studied.”
“What do you mean?” Ryland asked, darting his gaze toward me.
Amir tapped his fingers against the smooth cherrywood of Ryland’s bar and shook his head. “For example, your venom... It’s designed to calm its victims. It puts them into an almost twilight sleep, it creates pleasure.”
“Right. And what does this vampire venom do?” I asked.
“The opposite,” Amir told us. “Panic. Pain. Agony.” He frowned. “Not only are these fuckers killing people. They’re torturing them.”
I glanced over at Ryland, whose gaze was still trained on Amir. “What about Bao?”
“What about her?”
“Does her venom—” Ryland paused to take another drink. “Torture people?”
Amir shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never done my thing on her. But, to be safe, I’d assume so.”
I sighed and rubbed my eyelids. “Did you find any weaknesses?”
“It’s pretty much all bad news. I don’t always catch everything, but I didn’t find anything. I don’t see how Ada Anne will be able to help.”
I rested my head against my hand. “I’ll have to assume they have the same weaknesses all vampires have.” With a frown, I added, “Maybe, once I catch one, I can get some useful information.”
Ryland stared at me. “That’s still your move? To leave Bao out of it?”
“What choice do I have?” I downed the rest of my brandy. “People are dying. I have to hunt them down. One by one.”
“That’s stupid,” Amir muttered.
I turned to him. “Excuse me?”
He shrugged. “If I told you I was going to lure in a monster I knew nothing about and just hope for the best, you’d cuss me out.”
Ryland snorted, which was the closest he ever got to laughing. I gave him a pointed stare as I addressed Amir. “If you have any suggestions, I’m open. But for now, these vampires are killing people. And I stop vampires that kill people.”
“Yeah, I mean, okay.” With a sigh, he exchanged a look with Ryland.
“What?” I hugged myself. “No more secrets.”
Neither one of them spoke.
Finally, Amir cleared his throat. “Ryland. Has a plan.”
I snorted. “Oh?”
His lips screwed up, and he kept his gaze on Ryland with an expression on his face that let me know I wasn’t going to like their idea.
“Let me guess.” I stood up and glared at the two of them. “It involves using Bao as bait.” I shook my head. “It isn’t happening.”
“Oh, cut the shit,” Ryland snapped at me.
My palm itched. It took all my self-control to not reach for my knife. After all, part of me wanted to know how effective it would be against him.
“You really think I’d use Bao as bait without a plan to keep her safe.” His eyes narrowed. “Really?”
I smiled and we stared at each other for several moments of silence. Each second was more uncomfortable than the last. Amir cleared his throat. “Uh, do you two need a minute alone?”
“No,” I snapped without looking at him. “Play the horn, and then go home.” I widened my smile at Ryland. “I got this.”
Amir sighed and sat without saying anything for so long that I finally tore my gaze from Ryland and raised an eyebrow at him. He had his horn in his hands and was obviously working up the nerve to say something.
“What?” I asked from between my teeth.
Slowly, he lifted his head and turned to me. “I won’t do it unless you hear us out.”
Karma. I shook my head. For all the crap I gave my foster mother as a teenager. “Fine,” I finally said in a tight voice. “What is your idea?”
Amir squared his shoulders, glanced at Ryland, who nodded at him, before turning his attention back to me. “We think Bao should know about what’s going on, and see if she can draw these vampires to her. From everything Ada Anne has said, she’s their natural ruler. She can get them to stop.”
Almost as soon as he’d started speaking, my thoughts started to scream “no.” I tapped my foot and gazed somewhere above Amir’s head. “Bao,” I finally said through gritted teeth. “Is fifteen.”
“And that’s why we do this in a controlled setting. Between all of us, no one is going to be able to hurt her. And from what I understand, none of them would want to anyway. The only advantage we have right now is that we know what they want.”
I scoffed. “Yeah, but what we don’t know is how they’ll react when they don’t get it.” I closed my eyes, pressing my palms against my eyelids. “Unless of course, you think I should just hand her over to them, let her become a teen vampire mom.”
I lowered my hands in time to see a mask of anger settle onto Ryland’s face. His eyes flashed and his angular jaw set into a hard line. Something twisted in my stomach. I knew, in the back of my head, that I’d taken my words too far. But, the other part of me didn’t care. All I wanted to do was protect Bao, and for me, that meant keeping her as far from the situation as possible.
“Mal,” Amir said in a flat tone. I turned to him. His expression was wrinkled in disappointment. I winced. That didn’t feel good. He threw his arms up in the air and then let his hands flap against his thighs. “You know how much I respect you, but you’re being...” He shook his head and took in a breath. “You’re supposed to be about protecting people. The difference between us and everyone else is that, when these things come for them, they’re completely screwed.”
I stared at him. Half my heart warmed because I was impressed, while the other half tightened in fear. Damn. When was it okay for my sixteen year old to start handing out sage advice. I was forced to nod.
“Fine.” I held my hand up before he could get too excited. “But first, we try it my way. If this doesn’t work...”
“Then we’ll go with Ryland’s plan.”
I sucked in a breath and nodded. “Now—” I removed my blade from its wrist holster and nodded at Amir. “Play me a song on your unicorn horn.”
Amir raised his horn to his lips and closed his eyes.
The only indication that he started to play were the knots that twisted in my gut. A sense of dread crept up my spine, but then slowly went away, like something I had imagined. For the monster he was calling, the feeling wouldn’t be so easy to shake off. A dark song I couldn’t hear was carried through the night. A song played only for the monster that created the corpse in Ryland’s basement. I closed my eyes and tightened my senses.
Somewhere in the distance, perhaps miles away, a low wail echoed in my ears. I held my hand up. “Stop.” I nodded to Amir. “Get home. Lock the doors. Make sure everyone stays inside.”
With a nod, Amir nodded and removed the horn from his lips. Seconds later, the instrument dissolved, and multi-colored light enveloped him. There was low pop, the smell of lavender, and when the light cleared, Amir was gone.
I perked my ears again. The monster’s feet were grinding against the ground. He was closer now, and he was in agony.
I tightened my hand around the hilt of my knife. If he thought hearing the dark melody of a unicorn song was agony, he didn’t know shit yet.
Chapter Thirteen
Ryland flashed to my side. Clenching his fingers, he muttered, “He’s less than a mile out.” He sniffed the air. “I don’t hear anyone with him. But, that smell... What is that?”
I lifted my head slightly, trying to pick up whateve
r scent he was talking about. “I don’t smell anything,” I told him, cursing the fact that my sense of smell was nowhere near as refined as his. Closing my eyes, I sniffed the air again.
Still, nothing.
I was about to ask him if we needed to be worried, when something echoed above us. It was subtle, the lightest of clicks.
“On the roof,” Ryland muttered.
When I opened my eyes, he was gone. I clutched my knife in my hand, darted outside, and flew up to the roof. Hovering in the air, I peered down. Unable to tell what was going on, with my eyes at least, I closed them and turned my head in order to hear better.
“Knock it off,” Ryland hissed.
A low growl rumbled, followed by a snarl.
“I just want to talk.”
The answering roar was louder. Ryland cursed, and then there was a loud crash. I opened my eyes and started to lower myself to the rooftop. Ryland had the vampire pinned to the ground with his knee. Gripping my knife tighter, I started toward them. My feet were inches from the ground when a howl ripped through the night. Ryland’s head was twisted to the side, and his facial features bunched up in pain. An ear-splitting creak echoed in my ears.
I recognized the sound.
The vampire was about to rip Ryland’s head off.
I swooped down, grabbed Ryland’s shoulder and tossed him off the vampire. With a hiss, he went tumbling across the rooftop. I stared down and my breath hitched. The vampire’s face reminded me of Bao, or at least, how she was in the school that afternoon she went after the cheerleader.
His hair was a mop of dirty blond, and a thick, tar like substance muddied his chin. He snarled up at me, and blood red eyes flashed with anger. His forehead was broad, like a Neanderthal, and veins were pressed up against his skin in such a way that I could see the blood pumping through them.
He reached out and wiped the black crud off his face. Air rushed behind me, blowing my hair up and away from my face. I knew Ryland was at my back.
“Fucker is strong,” he hissed.
I held my hands out, hoping to keep the monster calm.
He snarled, leapt to his feet, and landed in a crouched position. Without a word, he swatted at his face and writhed like a child in pain. I started to inch forward when a voice buzzed in my head.
I shook my head. “What? What do you mean?” I asked the voice that only I could hear.
“Mal!” Ryland shouted.
I blinked. The vampire charged at me. Ryland tossed me behind his back and I stumbled backwards. I shifted my weight, spun around, and managed to keep myself upright. The creature had Ryland in the air. I ran toward them. He slammed Ryland into the ground and then jumped on top of him. Without thinking, I jumped onto his back and jammed my knife into his throat.
His high-pitched shriek tore through me. I twisted my knife in the other direction before removing it. Again, Mom buzzed inside my skull, so loud my head started to swim. Before I could attack again, I was thrown off his back, and into the air.
I went tumbling upward. Clenching my jaw, I stopped my momentum, changed direction, and started back for the roof. There was no one there. I stopped and darted my gaze around.
“Ryland?” I called out, landing on the tips of my toes. I crept forward and spotted a large hole in the roof. Wiping the tar from my blade, I dove through the hole and began searching the club.
“Mal!” Ryland’s voice echoed from the bottom floor. “Get out!” he screamed. “Now!”
I sucked in a shaky breath and rushed down the stairs. Ryland was kneeled down in the middle of the floor. Blood poured out of him, and he was holding his insides in with both hands.
“Ohmygod.” I rushed forward.
He raised a hand drenched in crimson toward me. I was inches away from him when the vamp darted out of nowhere and crouched down. I gritted my teeth. “You’re gonna pay for that.” I whipped my knife through the air and then started for him.
Something grabbed me from behind. I stabbed my knife into a pale arm, and twisted around to stare into a set of milky, white eyes. A woman smiled at me. I pulled my knife out of her arm and held it to her neck, matching her smile.
As her fangs shot out, she laughed. “Oh, hon. We’re not just any ole’ vampires.”
There was as growl from behind me. Something sharp sank into my neck. I gasped, widening my eyes in surprise. My body went limp. The woman wrapped her arms around me again and chuckled. She leaned forward and sank her teeth into me, joining whoever had me from behind.
As the vampires fed, I screamed.
My knife clattered to the floor, useless.
I twisted and writhed in pain, unable to stop the creatures from drinking their weight in my blood.
“DON’T FALL ASLEEP,” a female voice purred into my ears.
I blinked against the blackness creeping into the corners of my vison. My body was numb. Even though my heart should have been hammering in fear, it crawled at a near dead pace. I knew the vamps had dragged me out of The Heights—away from Blood N’ Fangs, away from Ryland.
With a gasp, I sat up straighter. “Where is he?”
She laughed. “That a girl.” Grabbing me by the neck, she peered down at me. My breath hitched. She had the same broad forehead that the male vampire had, only her eyes were cloudy white, and her skin was gray and stretched too tightly over her bones. Her hair had the consistency of cobwebs and was the color of the sky before it produced a storm. Even though I could barely make them out, her features were Asian, specifically Chinese.
She was jiangshi.
“What did you do to Daniel?” she asked with a hiss in her voice.
I swallowed. My mouth was dry. I began to cough so hard my body rocked. That was when I realized I could barely move. I glanced down to find I was bound to a chair. I snorted a laugh and stared back up at her. “Rope.” I narrowed my eyes. “That’s cute.”
“What did you do to him?” she asked me again.
I took a labored breath. “Where am I?”
She stared at me for several seconds, turned around, and then sauntered to the other end of a poorly lit room. I followed her with my gaze, trying to get some idea of where I was. The space was almost bare, with only a crude couch in the corner. There were a few guns, one that sat by a door with a hook lock, and one on a table that was a few inches from me. The surface of the table was coated in thick blood and strands of hair.
The sound of a chair being dragged across the sawdust floor made me cringe. I turned my attention back to the woman, who was now sitting across from me. She smiled and her gums were black, which was a startling contrast to those bright, wild eyes. Something bubbled in my stomach. I swallowed bile.
I was about to ask where we were again when there was a loud clanging to my right. I glanced toward the table and homed in on a metal box. Something was crashing around inside of it.
The woman laughed. “Yeah, that’s your knife.”
I turned back toward her.
She shrugged. “Every few minutes it starts glowing.” Her eyes narrowed. “And you start glowing. And that damn knife tries to get to you, so I locked it up.” She tilted her head. “So, what did you do to Daniel?”
I smiled and then forced my arms away from my body. The rope broke easy as if it were cotton candy. Reaching down, I took my time untying the rope around my ankles. Then, I sat back up, crossed my legs, and grinned.
To my surprise, she laughed. “Impressive... Mal is it?” Pressing a skeletal hand over her heart, she added, “I’m Mo Chau, but everyone calls me Mo.” Another smile. “What did you do to Daniel?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t do shit to him.”
“Really?” She nodded her head to the left. I followed the movement with my gaze. There was a dark hole—a door, and every few seconds, a whimper breathed out of it. I almost smiled. Amir’s magic was still working itself on the little fucker. “We had to knock him out. He can’t stop rocking and whining about all the horrible things he sees. I assume it’s some ki
nd of magic.”
“I don’t know anything about that.” I shot my arm out. The clanging in the box reached an earsplitting level. Seconds later, the blade began to tear holes through the metal. Golden light streamed out of them, and within seconds, the box jumped a few inches toward me.
“Don’t do it,” Mo warned.
Ignoring her, I unlatched the box and my knife flipped up into my waiting hand. Turning back go Mo, I said, “Maybe he should see someone about that.” I regained my feet and charged at her.
Mo laughed, grabbed me by the neck, and then slammed me onto the table. The wood collapsed under me, and I crashed to the floor with her bony fingers pressing into my flesh. I struggled against her, but her hold was a vice. She reached for my knife hand and slammed it into the ground, while her other hand sealed tighter around my neck. I kicked my feet, struggling to breath.
“Listen, I don’t know what you are.” She laughed, and black spittle dripped from her mouth and onto my face. “And I’m not sure why you’re not dead, but after feeding on you, I feel stronger than I ever have.” She gritted her teeth and used her knee to pin down my legs. “You’re not going anywhere, blood bag. My family loves the taste of you too much, and those human sacks are just so damn fragile.” She reached out with her free hand and smacked me across the face.
My head snapped to the left. I clenched my jaw and tried to push against her. The effort left me breathless.
“Now, I’m going to ask you one more time,” she hissed. “What did you do to Daniel?”
I snorted, and then slowly forced my head back around so that I could scowl up at her. “And I’ll tell you one more time,” I pushed out. “I don’t. Know shit. About that.”
She smiled. Her lips formed a tiny “o” and a high-pitched whistle filled the air. I cringed and once again tried to get out of her grasp. There were several whooshes of wind. Black figures blurred through the sides of my vision. More of them. More vampires. Low growls filled the room. Slowly, Mo leaned back and gestured toward me.
“Try to keep her awake. I still need answers.”
I clenched my jaw and swung my free leg up into the air. Someone caught it. Sharp fangs sunk into my calf. Then my neck. Then, both arms. They tore into my thighs. Into my sides. Into all of me.