Angel: Private Eye Book One (29 page)

It had almost killed me. If he’d forced any
more blood in my mouth, maybe it would have.

I began shaking my head in nasty, snapped
movements that stressed the muscles so much I felt a twinge deep
into my shoulder. If I didn't stop madly shaking, I’d probably
dislocate a joint. Did I stop? Could I stop? God no. God no.

A few times I experimentally tried calling
Benson's name. I dipped my head back, let my pulsing, shuddering
lips jerk open, and I called for him. Begged for him. Offered the
darkness anything if only Benson would come to my aid. A few days
ago, I would've cringed at the thought of pinning my last hope on
that man. Now he was my everything, the only way I would see
another day.

But Benson never arrived, no matter how
badly I hurt my throat in screeching his name.

Someone else did.

It wasn't Theodore. It was the vampire who’d
dragged me in here. The guy who’d messaged me with those placards
from the side of the street.

He'd obviously been tasked with checking on
me. Every few hours, I heard his languorous footsteps as he pushed
out of the darkness. He would suddenly appear by my side, lean
down, and sniff me. And yeah, that was just as creepy and
spine-tingling as it sounded. Every time I would stiffen to the
point of shattering as I watched him tensely out of the corner of
my eye.

Just as I dipped my head back and called for
Benson once more, the vampire appeared, laughing, stretching his
shoulders to the side as he licked his lips with a quick, darting
movement. “Little Lizzie, Benson isn't coming. No one knows you're
missing. Even if they did, they'd have no idea you're here. You
have to face facts, you're going to die. Theodore will bleed you
dry.” His gaze flashed with unmistakable greed as his eyes locked
on my neck. “Ever been bled by a vampire, little Lizzie? They say
it's the best way to die. Beats heroine, and cocaine doesn't even
come close. We can make you feel like you're tripping off on cloud
nine. If I'm real good, and I ask Theodore real nice, I bet he'll
let me take the first bite.”

I shuddered. Of course I shuddered. I
practically fell off my chair as I shook. But at the same time, my
brow knotted in confusion. Had Theodore not told his groupie that
my blood would kill a vampire?

It certainly seemed that way as the guy took
another long, pointed look at my neck.

“I bet you taste like strawberries, little
Elizabeth. You see, different people taste like different things.
Susan Smith was like honeydew melon dipped in tequila.”

Though I really should have fallen off my
chair at the admission I would taste like strawberries, I locked on
what he’d just said. “Susan Smith? You killed Susan Smith?”
Something shook through my voice. Indignation. Anger. Rage.

The guy didn't pick up on it.

He just shrugged from under the confines of
his leather jacket. “Sure did. Found out something she wasn't meant
to. Discovered Theodore was breaking Regulation 12. So she had to
die.” The vampire gestured wide and shrugged as if he were
admitting to something as innocent as double parking in order to
take a sick friend to the hospital.

My fear… my fear was burning away. It was
burning away because that rage was getting brighter and brighter.
It was chasing back the prospect that I may have to sign a contract
with Van Edgerton. It was chasing back the gut-clenching fear of
the vampire staring at my neck in hunger. It was chasing back
everything and replacing it with bone-crunching rage. “How dare
you,” I said, except my voice in that moment couldn’t exactly be
classed as normal. I didn't simply speak, I commanded. I bellowed
at the man with all the force and import of god parting a cloud and
smiting someone with a bolt of pure vengeance.

This time the guy noticed. This time the
vampire shifted back, jerking his head to the side as if he’d just
been slapped. His eyes drew wide, and he sneered. A hiss of breath
darting sharp through his teeth like a snake suspiciously tasting
the air. “What did you just say?” he asked after a considerably
long pause.

“I said,” that rage still burned through my
soul, “That you will be punished. That you will pay for your
crime.” I was surprised I didn't shake from the power of my own
voice as it ripped through my chest.

Something shook. It wasn't just the guy. It
was the massive magical chains holding me in place. They shuddered
is if a strong electrical charge pulsed through them. The guy took
a jerked step back, surprised, wide eyes locking on my chains as he
took a startled breath. “What the hell was that? What the hell are
you doing?”

I had absolutely no idea. But I knew one
thing. I couldn’t shrink from this anger anymore. From the light.
From the force soaring through me. Shrink away, and I'd let
Theodore snuff me out.

So my only option was to burn as bright as I
possibly could.

In one single, shuddering, powerful moment
that I would remember for my whole life, I threw myself at the
vampire.

I was tied to a chair. I shouldn't be
throwing myself anywhere. That didn't matter.

I lost all sense of the seat. The unyielding
wood. Of the fact I was little more than a confused mouse thrown
into the violent otherworld. I concentrated only on one thing. That
this vampire had killed, and he would pay.

The chains shattered. They exploded in such
a pulsing blast of light that the bulb above me suddenly stirred
with an earsplitting zing, and the spell casting the rest of the
room into shadow broke with a crack.

I realized I was in the very same basement
I'd been attacked in by the glass demon.

The very same set of stairs led up to my
right, and behind me, covering the floor in little glistening
shards, was what could only be the remains of the demon.

None of that mattered. The only thing that
mattered was the fight pulsing through me as I threw myself at the
vampire.

The guy doubled back, hissing, bringing up
his hand to defend himself.

He also lurched forward, snapping towards me
with one of his long legs. He was much taller than me, and his kick
reached me well before I could round a hand into a fist and slam it
into his jaw.

The kick should have sent me sailing back.
Should have collapsed my lungs and left me as nothing more than a
wheezing mess by his shiny leather shoes.

It didn't. As the light pulsed through me, I
lurched forward, latched a hand on his foot, and pushed. I sent him
spinning backwards with such force, that he rolled several meters
until his back smashed up against the far wall with a
bone-splitting crunch.

Just before I could think I'd finally won,
he gasped, jerking a hand up almost immediately as a single drop of
blood trickled down his lip. Pushing a hand into the wall behind
him, he shakily got to his feet, keeping that blood-covered finger
held out like a sword. “Try that again, try that again,” he
screamed.

Reason told me I should stay exactly where I
was. Reason told me that Theodore Van Edgerton himself had just
confirmed that a single drop of vampire blood would kill me.

But where was reason now? Oh, reason was
completely and utterly burnt away by the light driving through my
soul. By the light lifting me up. By the light pushing me forward
as I stalked towards him. Before I knew what I was doing, I latched
a hand on his throat and pulled him up.

Though my grip around his neck was
crippling, it wasn't enough to stop him from jerking forward and
flicking the blood at me. A few specks alighted over my cheeks, but
one or two drops… they reached my lips, pushing right into my
mouth.

…
I should have died.
Curled up on the spot, succumbed to the poison that was vampire
blood.

I didn't. The light burnt it up.

That light cracked up my skin as if I'd
swallowed an army of fireflies that were now tearing out of my
soul.

My lower lips jerked open and I screamed. I
screamed. But I didn't die. The light… that holy light, it simply
coursed through me and attacked the vampire blood, until it
disappeared in a magical wisp of smoke.

The guy’s eyes widened. He shuddered. And
with one limp, pathetic scream, gave in to my grip. “Don't kill me.
Don't kill me,” he begged.

“Frank Lipscomb, you took the life of
another,” I preached. It was honestly as if my voice belonged to
some rattling Southern pastor, commanding his flock to stay on the
righteous and true path.

My voice didn't just shake out of my throat,
it powered through the building, cracking up the walls and sinking
into the concrete with great shuddering booms.

Before I knew what was happening, the walls…
fell away. They didn't crumble to the ground, and the roof didn't
suddenly spring down from on high and crush me flat. Instead, the
spell holding this room in place completely shattered.

And in a snap, I found myself standing in
the lobby of a casino.

Shocked patrons and staff gasped and jerked
away from me.

I still had my hand pinned down on the
vampire's throat, and he still spluttered and gurgled under my
grip. The lines of light coursing over my skin were burning him
wherever they touched.

A woman to my left screamed, and before I
knew it, several security guards appeared. Except, they weren’t
real security guards. They were more golems in tailored suits.

At first they went to throw themselves
towards me, but wisely they stopped as they saw the unrivalled
power cracking over my body.

It was so bright I could barely see any
more. But could I stop? Did I have the option to pause what was
happening?

No.

I wasn't in control anymore. Something, some
incredible force from beyond was using me. And I continued to
channel it as I took a jerked step forward.

Even the golems, who were reputedly so
stupid they'd accept an order to run into a volcano, hesitated.

By now all the normal people had screamed
and run from the room.

The vampire still squirmed in my grip,
grasping at my hand as it locked his throat in place.

He would never be able to break my grip.
Never be able to quench the holy outrage that powered through me at
the prospect of what he'd done.

I jerked forward, heading for the door. Some
part of me that wasn't currently busy burning with holy outrage
appreciated it was a seriously bad idea to take this little party
out onto the human street beyond. This atrium was familiar enough
that I knew where we were – in the middle of town. Not the
otherworld district, but where the humans lived. Sure, people were
a little bit more comfortable with magic now, probably a lot more
comfortable since those work laws had been passed and humans could
theoretically keep away from the magical folk. But they would most
definitely not be comfortable with a burning lady dragging a
kicking, screaming vampire out onto the pavement.

While I was aware it was a bad idea, I
couldn't stop myself. You see, I wasn't in control. The moment I'd
opened up to the holy outrage burning in my soul, was the moment it
had taken almost complete control of my body. Now I sat back,
practically a spectator as I continued to drag the vampire forward.
Once or twice, he tried to use his blood on me again. It did
nothing. The light tearing through me burnt it to dust.

Just as I reached the doors, I heard the
frantic patter of feet. Then, finally, he arrived.

I turned, the vampire still clutched in my
unforgiving grip. My muscles were so stiff, they almost creaked as
I shifted over my shoulder and stared at Van Edgerton.

He locked me in his terrified gaze, bulging
eyes jerking up and down my body as he obviously took in the fact
that I was glowing like a fire cracker getting ready to
explode.

“What– what are you?” Theodore spluttered,
lips jerking hastily around his words as his eyes bulged even
more.

I didn't answer. All I could do was take one
step to the side and stare at him.

The rage doubled in my heart as I remembered
what he’d promised to do to me. “You will pay,” I roared, voice
possessed with so much force, it could have split the heavens in
two.

And hell, it did. Outside, there was such a
massive clap of thunder, it was as if ten strikes of lightning
struck all at once.

As the terrifying sound drew into silence, I
heard the screams of people out on the street and further into the
building.

Perhaps their fear should have gotten to me.
Perhaps it should have told me to stop, to draw this fight back
into the dark basement from which I'd come.

It didn't matter. Not to the force burning
brightly in my bones. A crime had been committed, and justice had
to be served.

I took a strong, jerked step forward as I
ticked my head down, locking Theodore in my burning gaze.

I was satisfied to see him jerk back as more
cold dread washed down his cheeks as if I'd slammed his face into
an ice-cold bucket of water.

“Get back,” he hissed through his teeth as
his eyes continued to bulge. “Get back, Elizabeth. Get back, or
I'll kill you.” He brought up his hand, crammed a trembling finger
into his mouth, and ripped a hole in his skin. Instantly a dark red
drop of blood pooled over his fingertip.

He was going to kill me. Or at least try.
Because he’d failed to appreciate one fact – a fact that was only
dawning on me now.

I couldn't be stopped. I was a bomb, one
that had been set to countdown – and one that would explode, no
matter what.

I took another step forward, and Theodore
screamed in anger as he lurched towards me, flicking the blood
along his finger right at me.

He was a centuries-old vampire, and his aim
was just as good as Annie Oakley’s.

The blood splattered over my face.

Did it kill me? No. Did it even hurt?
No.