Almost Human (10 page)

He snorted and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, your
young, impressionable baby sister. The
human
neighbors can
hear her and Misha screwing. I’m sure you’ll get to hear them,
too.”

I gaped at him before I grabbed a pillow and
whacked him with it. “Oh my God. Shut. Up.”

He laughed and snatched the pillow from me.
“Are you really such an insane prude?”

“No, but that’s my sister you’re talking
about.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’d be more worried
about my brothers. They’ll give you hell over this, and have a lot
of fun doing it. We do it to Casey all the time. She blushes
easily.”

“I slept with a vampire.” I’d had my fair
share of fuck ups, but this…this was a whole new level of dumb
ass.

His eyes narrowed. “You needed to feed. And
can you honestly say you regret it?”

No. It had been a damn good time. “Yes. It
was a giant mistake. One we don’t have time for. While we were
screwing around, I should have been briefing your family about
what’s going on. And just because we slept together, that doesn’t
make what you’ve done to me any better. We will have it out about
the fact that you turned me. And I mean a knockdown, drag out, bare
knuckle fight. Lots of blood, and hopefully your death.”

He smirked. “You’re good at lying to
yourself.”

No, not really. While a part of me would’ve
loved to take a swing at him, I doubted I would. My emotions were a
mess of confusion, anger and…gratitude? Damn it, but I was
reluctant to admit that he
had
saved my life. The bottom
line: take everything else away and I was still breathing, whether
I was a monster or not.

He stretched hard, bowing his body and
cracking his spine. He also showed off all his assets. His muscles
clenched as he enjoyed the stretch, and even flaccid his cock was
impressive.

He rolled off the bed and was next to me so
fast I didn’t see him move. “Did you enjoy the view?” He whispered
in my ear.

I looked up to meet his eyes. Christ, he was
tall. “Yes. You’re hot. Get over yourself.”

His rich laughter taunted me as he walked
toward the dresser. He opened a drawer and tossed me a t-shirt.

“Dress, and then you can tell us exactly
what we’re up against.”

* * * *

I walked out of Alaric’s room before he
dressed because I had to get away from him. I was too confused and
he didn’t seem to believe me when I said I was still pissed, so it
was best to leave before I tried to put him through a wall. I
didn’t do uncertainty well. I preferred to jump to anger. I met
Dagger, who was smirking in the hallway smoking a joint.

“Did you have a good time, Kori?”

I shot him a glare as I marched past
him.

“You won’t even admit it to me? I can
understand not admitting it to Alaric. He might start thinking he’s
God’s gift, and that he can slip into your panties whenever he
wants. But me? We’re old friends now.”

I snorted. “We are not.”

We entered the living room and I sat down on
the couch. Dagger blew a smoke ring and held the blunt out to
me.

“No thanks. I’m going to need a clear head
for this talk. Besides, smoking is bad if you have to run and play
a round of hide and go seek with the bad guys.”

“Honey, you’re immortal now. You can smoke
without getting any pesky lung problems. Never figured you as the
run and hide type anyway.”

I’d still always hated the stench of
cigarettes and marijuana. I’d continue to keep my distance. “I’m
not.”

“And yet you’ll hide from Alaric.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not hiding from
Alaric. We barely know each other. And I don’t need your advice on
my love life.”

He dropped the subject. “So you’re not
morally opposed to pot?” He took another drag.

“I never figured you for a burn out.”

He laughed and ran a hand through is hair.
“Honey, pot is the least of what I do. I do heroine, morphine, and
lots of sedatives.”

I arched an eyebrow. “No cocaine or
meth?”

“Hell no. I’d destroy the world on an
amphetamine. And I’m not exaggerating about that. The point of the
drugs is to keep me level, and since I can’t get an addiction, they
do their job.”

Now he had me intrigued. “How would you
destroy the world?”

His expression was completely wiped clean.
No more good-natured smile, just flat, dead eyes. He stared at me
until a bead of cold sweat ran down my spine. “I won’t be talking
about that. Pick another subject.”

I didn’t get the chance to press him
further, to inform him that I was a girl and we didn’t let go of
something like that. Alaric walked into the living room.

He seemed to have lost his cheerful attitude
since I’d left him. He was all business on the surface, but
underneath he was pissed. Whether it was at me or the situation, I
wasn’t sure.

His brothers and my sister came into the
living room from different areas of the house. Alaric collapsed on
the couch and shot me a hostile glare. Oh, yep, some of that pissed
male energy was directed at me. Great.

Jairdan crossed his arms and stood next to
my seat, staring down at me. “So, what the fuck went down last
night? Everyone has been wondering. But things happened so fast
nothing got explained.”

“Sherra’s been raised from the dead to kill
you all.”

All the brothers looked freaked but the
blood drained from Jairdan’s face, and he swayed. Before I knew
what I was doing, I grabbed him and pulled him onto the couch to
sit next to me. “Jairdan, sit before you fall.”

I frowned at the compassionate note in my
voice, but it was hard to be a stone cold bitch when the man was
sweating and shaking, and I could hear his heartbeat pick up
considerably.

Jairdan jerked his arm out of my grip and
slid to the other end of the couch. He crossed his arms over his
chest

Casey ran a hand through her hair. “Goddess,
what has she done…”

Alaric shook his head. “She?”

I cleared my throat. “Our mother raised her.
It’s against our laws to animate the dead. It carries a death
sentence.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Why?”

Dagger sank into a chair, and it
groaned under his weight. “Only necromancers raise the
dead.”

I nodded. “Necromancers are born with powers
that allow them to raise the dead without fucked up consequences.
For a witch to do it, we have to borrow the power from a demon. It
taints the soul and the demon always gets something in return.
Usually they ride the soul of the person being raised out of the
underworld. You damn yourself, the person you raise, and you
unleash something from hell that doesn’t answer to you. You also
can’t control a zombie unless you’re a necromancer.”

Dagger snorted. “Not to mention you never
raise a witch. They come back with incredible powers and almost
fully functioning, independent minds. For a while anyway.”

I took a deep breath. “And I know
I said soul, but what inhabits her body isn’t a soul. It’s only
power—and it’s evil power at that. She has her personality, but her
soul isn’t truly in there. If she had any compassion at all, the
evil obliterates it.”

Alaric curled his lip. “She had no
compassion. She had no soul to begin with.”

Jairdan spoke. “So, we kill this bitch. She
might be stronger, but it’s still possible.”

Alaric shook his head. “I get the feeling
it’s not. Kori tried to cut off her head. The sword passed right
through her neck. Like it was made of smoke.”

Dagger snorted. “When Kori said raised
witches have incredible powers, she wasn’t exaggerating. No mortal
weapon can kill this thing. I do have two immortal ones, but
they’re small daggers, which is a little closer than anyone should
get. Besides, they weren’t created for killing a raised witch. They
were meant to kill gods. I’m not sure it will work.”

“And even if we kill her, we still have a
demon on the loose.”

Dagger groaned. “Which can only be killed by
a Gate Keeper, or a mystical weapon that is demon specific. We
could try to send it back to the underworld, but that requires
incredibly powerful magic that usually taints the user.”

He took a little orange bottle of pills and
a flask from his jacket pocket and popped one, washing it down with
whatever was in the flask. “I could do it, but I’m pretty fucked up
now. You might have to kill me if I get too much evil in me. And
more importantly, you might not be able to.”

Fallon cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah, let’s
not go there. I’ve been told about the last time you went all dark
side. I heard it wasn’t good.”

“That’s the freaking understatement of the
millennium, kid.”

Fallon smirked. “Is it true you’re the cause
of the current Scourge problem?”

Dagger sighed and drank a little more.
“Yeah.”

I stared at him. “Holy shit.”

The Scourge were a diseased breed of
vampire. Faster, tougher, and absolutely insane. Like
world-domination-comic-book-bad-guy insane.

“We’ve lost a lot of hunters to those
things. One of them I ended up having to kill myself. Almost died
in the process.”

Casey caught my gaze. She remembered. Lisa
had been a dear friend to us both. It was one of the few times I’d
been in the hospital, and the only time I’d needed immediate
surgery to survive.

Casey frowned at him. “How in the world did
you create the Scourge?”

He glowered at her, and his voice dropped to
a dangerous tone. “It’s a long story, and not something I intend to
discuss. Let’s focus on the here and now.”

Alaric exhaled slowly. “So, where do we go
from here?”

We sat in silence for a second, and then
Dagger spoke up. “I think we should call a Gate Guardian.”

“No!” Casey and I shouted at the same
time.

Dagger scowled and opened his mouth to
protest.

Alaric held up a hand, cut him off, and then
pointed at me. “Why not?”

“Guardians are as dangerous as any other
demon. They’re unpredictable and damn violent.”

Dagger grinned. “I like them.”

Alaric snorted and raked a hand through his
hair. “Figures. But I need some solid information.”

“Okay. Well they are dangerous,
but it’s their job to deal with shit like this. A Guardian will
have special weapons forged in his realm that can defeat this
thing. And they will do anything to catch their demon, which is
what makes them so scary, because they will kill humans, vampires,
and anything else that gets in their way.”

“I know who to call if we go that route.
Gideon is a giant pain in the ass. He’s tried to kill me more than
once, but he’s also saved my life a few times, and he’s damn
good.”

I shook my head. “You risk unleashing a
rogue on society. Guardians tend to not leave this plane when the
job is done, and kill indiscriminately. Destruction is their
job.”

“Well, do you have a better idea?”

“You bring your immortal blades and we try
for ourselves.”

He snorted and rolled his eyes. “And some of
us will get killed in the process.”

“Or we might pull it off. I feel her out
there. She was weakened by my spell. If we’re going to act, we
should do so now. Not even death magic will keep her out of the
house forever. With her power and a demon backing her, she’ll break
it eventually.”

I sighed and glanced at Alaric. “Not to
mention I don’t know what effect turning me into a vampire had on
the spell. It was supposed to be powered by my death, but I didn’t
die. I can feel that it’s still there, but I have an ugly suspicion
the spell won’t hold her off for much longer.”

Alaric scrubbed his face with his hands.
“Fuck.” He took a deep breath. “Okay, I don’t want to unleash
another demon on this world. Sorry, Dagger.”

“Fine. I get why you don’t want to, but it’s
still a mistake.”

“You got those weapons with you?”

Dagger shook his head. “Nah, they’re
stashed. Close though.”

I interrupted. “I’ll go with him. No one
should leave the house without backup. And I think most of the time
that backup should be a witch. I’m sure all you boys fight well,
but the only thing that’s going to hold this bitch off is
magic.”

Alaric pointed at me. “You can’t go
anywhere.” I opened my mouth to argue, but I didn’t get a word out.
“Shut it. You’re still weak from your transformation, and you will
be for a while. You get to sit this one out. Fallon will go.
They’ll just have to do without a witch. Besides, Dagger isn’t
exactly untalented in that area.”

Dagger groaned. “Great, you’re sticking me
with one of Nyx’s fledglings. They’re all pains in the ass. Except
his new chick—she’s a damn good sparring partner, and she’s got a
vicious attitude.”

“Fallon is the least affected by Sherra’s
tortures, besides myself. You made Nyx a vampire. Shouldn’t you
like his fledglings? Shouldn’t they be a little like family?”

“Yeah, well, Nyx is a pain in my ass, too.
Why can’t you come with me instead?”

Alaric glanced at me. “I’ve got to stay here
and keep an eye on things.”

Great. That meant he wanted to keep an eye
and probably other things on me. My libido leapt at the thought and
I told it no. It was better to cut myself off from Alaric.

I frowned. But why would I? He was amazing
in bed, and gorgeous, and I was sure he wasn’t looking for a
long-term relationship. Why couldn’t I have fun with him while I
was here?

I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth. We
could have a little pleasure, and then go our separate ways.

When I glanced at Alaric, his eyes were
narrowed on me, like he knew what I was thinking and not
particularly liking it.

Everyone went their separate ways and I stood to go
after my sister. I had to apologize to her. I was still pissed, but
she had good intentions.