Bliss (The Custos) (36 page)

"Good to see ya made it boys." Leushus said just as low, he could chose who heard him though unlike the rest of us. Honestly a Vamp as old as him had some bad ass powers. Thank God he was on our side tonight. Bastian stood beside him dressed in leather and black makeup on his eyes. I was certain nothing would make me laugh tonight. Bastian did.

"What the bloody hell did you do mate?" Preacher asked and walked around Bastian taking in the sight of his gothic appearance. He looked more like Danzig than an Emo.

"Fuck off. The waitress could have given my description and while we were here looking around I couldn’t risk being spotted." He looked at me and I was holding back a laugh. "You should say thank you."

Like that I was back at the task at hand. "You’re right. Sorry." I looked around. "So what’s the plan?"

Leushus shrugged his shoulders and the three of them looked at me. "You tell us, this is your raid."

"Walter Chase is in the VIP corner to the right."

They all looked back to me. "I haven’t seen Conlin, but we have a lot of eyes in here tonight." Leushus said. "Klem and a few of his guys are looking around, as are some other Custos I could get here in time. We have maybe twenty, all old all dangerous. Klem is looking for Conlin now, wants to get him aside to talk about Bliss distribution in his club, Bas is watching him close. We'll know when he finds him."

I was thankful for Leushus but I knew being here was costing him more trouble than he bargained for. "Leushus I appreciate everything but I know what this fight will bring and I don’t think it's wise for them to know you were here fighting."

"Fuck that. I adore Miss Chase and I have wanted to kill a bunch of these fucks for a long time. I'll deal with repercussions later."

I nodded; we both knew this would most likely start a war. Custos and
Nex
had fought diplomatically for the last two thousand years, fighting only with permission. When we killed it was because they knew we were doing it. Any Vampire regardless of sides, killed without reason, became the target of the Mercenaries. This was not on the books and the
Nex
would fight back. Absolutely.

Bring. It.

"Ok I get Chase and Conlin. If anyone see’s London run with her. Don’t look for me don’t look for anyone. You find her you take her." They all nodded and suddenly I could see the Custos and few
Nex
that were there to help. They were all in close but not noticeable and when I spoke they all nodded. "Go and kill any
Nex
that try and stop you or block you from
my
Princess."

I didn’t wait. I saw my target sipping a Johnny Walker Red on the rocks and slapping the ass of a working girl, a human completely
blissed out. He didn’t see me coming; neither did the
Nex
beside him. I took him from behind the neck and spun him around. By now his security seen me as a threat but Preacher and another Custos by the name Shamus took them down.

I took Walter kicking and screaming further back behind private rooms blocked off by curtains for blow jobs no doubt. I tossed him twenty feet and he landed on his ass on the couch. I was fast and in his face before he could blink. This man made my insides crawl when no human ever had. But not from fear, he had treated my Princess so foul, so completely ruthless that I would show him no mercy.

"Wwwhat do yyyyou wwwant?" The old man asked his tongue tying as he stuttered. I smiled and showed my fangs.

"Tell me Walter, do you know who I am?" I asked my voice completely distorted and I seen Preacher's eyes bulge momentarily. Yeah I sounded like satin himself.

Walter feared me as he should and as he drooled and cried knowing this was his end he shook his head no. "I am Cacius Troy and I am in love with your daughter London."

He looked at me as realization hit. Conlin had to have known me and my reputation and I would thank him before I killed him for doing me justice, I was scary but Walter was shell shocked with fear. "Now tell me where she is."

Walter shook his head no. "III ddddont kkkknow."

"Tell. Me." I roared and Preacher and Shamus stood on guard if anyone heard me. "Tell me or I will rip your throat out."

He still said nothing and Preacher stepped in. "I was a Father, I had two beautiful children. Cacius here had a son. I loved my children and gave them everything I could to see them thrive and adapt to a good life. Cacius’s son asked him for one thing only and he gave it regardless the cost." Preacher stepped in and he knew I would let him. He would give me the death blow, besides his calmness was scaring Walter. "You are a feeble excuse for a man and never would I call you a Father. Tell me… do you know who I am?"

He shook his head no and I was actually excited. If he knew about me then he definitely knew about Preacher. "They call me Preacher." He pulled out his cross/stake and scraped the edge over his middle finger.

"Honor your cloth then Father and don’t let them hurt me." Walter cried. Did he really not know what Preacher was all about?

Preacher tipped his head and looked at me with a smile and laugh. Turning back to Walter he said, "Sorry but you did this, God would smite me himself if I intervened, but..." He paused for effect only. "Maybe if you tell us where London is I may grant you freedom."

Walter nodded and took a deep breath. "Upstairs, room 119."

"Thanks." Preacher said and crossed his heart with his cross in hand. He was a man of his word. "You’re free." Walter went to stand but Preacher stopped him.

"Your freedom is from my wrath, not his." He handed his cross to me and asked. "Please use my stake, then I can look at Cookie in the eye and know I helped avenge her."

I nodded and felt the warped cross fit in my hand like no other has. I stood before Walter and gave him nothing but my hate. Cross in his chest and killing him the way anything stabbed through the heart would, I lowered my head to speak directly in his ear. "I hope the gates of hell burn when you open them."

*

London

His voice was different from the night he fooled me into believing he was helpless, that kid seemed sweet and innocent this was another nameless, soulless  member of The Nex and I hated everything he stood for, more than I hated my Father, our Father. "I believe you hate me, I can feel it as well as read it. Tell me London can you read my mind as well?"

He was close, to close. From a distance I seen his every feature but up close I seen his every pore. "I hate you." I said through gritted teeth, er...fang.

He laughed at me, a cackle that made my skin crawl then slapped me across the face. My first thought when he hit me was like Father like son, second was I better not bruise and my third was Cash is gonna kill you slowly. But said nothing, he knew. And hey here’s a shocker, the slap, it didn’t hurt. It was like a leaf fell from a tree and gingerly landed on my cheek.

Bad ass.

He only laughed again. "Remember when I told you of my friends who were such big fans of yours?"

I knew what he meant but I was totally pleading the fifth. "Well London, they are here and desperate to see what you have in store for us."

No longer able to keep my mouth shut, true to form I snapped back to my normal self and went off. "I could care less about you and your undead groupies Conlin. All I care about is you getting to the point because I am fucking bored of you." He slapped me again this time, and I
laughed. "Too much? Sorry Brother, I have a problem saying the first thing that comes to mind. Like right now I find it disturbing that we could be related, based on your cheap target brand Khakis and Hanes T shirt." I spoke flippantly because I knew what they were going to do to me and I shielded my thoughts the same way I shielded Cash and Preacher. It didn't work though.

"No, you’re wrong London, you are so far off from why I wanted you, scratch that. I don't want you anymore than Father does, I need you."

"Why? You think I would help you?" Conlin was statistic proof that crazy starts from the home.

"No, but you don’t have a choice." He leaned into my face again. "
I
chose for you." He pulled a flip phone from his pocket of the cheap khakis he wore and scanned the screen before flipping it shut with a smile. "See we share the same genetics and when our Father met our Mother he had one thing in mind and that was money. You were given the spotlight while I was trained."

"For what?"

"Well Father is a very powerful man and a genius. He had planned originally to create a pill to erase the long term effects caused by sexual assault by using the pattern in all males against the pattern in all females; the senses and what not. Then when he was close, a member of the Nex who had been working in the lab swiped the applications for the drug. They loved what they saw and asked him to create a drug similar."

He took a seat at the foot of the bed I was in and only then did I notice the shackles on my feet. I knew I couldn’t budge them and groaned, making Conlin laugh. "Anyway.... so Father accepted the deal, Infatuation is a bitch. But try as they might the application worked best with our blood, the similarities in it. Long story short, I became a lab rat and you became a bitch."

"That doesn’t explain why they want me as a
Nex
, hell if anything it ruins the whole plan."

He laughed then, a real evil deep resonating sound that made my skin shrivel and screech against my bones. "Actually it does. See our blood is different because we have what the Cado call Bliss. The serotonin in our bodies is ridiculously higher from the average human not jacked up on Ex. Take what we produce naturally as freaks of nature and make us Immortal, increase all of our strengths.... What they created was Bliss the drug, our blood mixed with the power of Infatuation.... Jesus it was brilliant."

It was, I wouldn’t deny it but the fact remained that what the drug did was wrong and dark and vile, originally the drug could have helped women move on from the darkness they had been put through. The fact they intended to make it stronger.....I shudder to think of the outcome. "I will find a way to kill myself before I let you or the fucking
Cado
near me."

Wrong thing to say. I felt the darkness; I could smell the stinking wrenching sulfur as it wafted through the room. Like a mist had come and gone it left in its place three large men, frighteningly beautiful and deathly terrifying.

The Cado, I don’t know how I knew because they had cloaked themselves in something that kept me from seeing them clearly, but with them they brought my meal in a black dress.

*

London

There was nothing that Conlin or the
Cado could do to make me feed. I was strong and a fighter, everything I knew I taught myself or learned from my mistakes. I had a love so deep and so all consuming for Cash that nothing would force me to sacrifice my soul.

I looked at my meal sitting in the corner. She was young with messy tangled long blonde hair and big blue eyes that were smeared by black makeup and tears. She looked at me with fascination and I knew it was Infatuation. Anything I wanted she would give me. I could smell her blood and I finally understood it wasn’t like smelling really as just sensing it, associating it to a scent. If I were to force air into my lungs I would be in too much pain, her blood and Conlin’s cologne would do me in.

"Hey Lady." The young girl slurred and tried to stand flashing me her crotch and I had to cringe. So many Hollywood starlets had done this same thing for attention, but this girl didn’t even know how many times she had been raped today. "They say I taste so good, want to try?"

I know longer felt the familiar lurch in my stomach as I did as a human, now it was more of an angry pit of disgust and hate that I would use to my advantage. Looking at her I shook my head no. "Sit please, you look weak." I could see numerous bite marks on her neck and wrist; I knew there were more, the idea chilling me. She would die quickly if I fed from her, she had nothing to give and in Bloodlust I wouldn’t be able to sneak a taste and stop. The knowledge of how evil, truly evil made me want to kill them all.