Fallen Stars (The Demon Accords) (32 page)

“Bah, it’s cheap, and he knows it.  The government would pay that in the first hour in personnel costs just to keep a perimeter around a breach site.  Hell, any of the cast members of Jersey Shore get that much for showing up drunk at a speaking engagement or corporate event.  I could have gotten much more, but I knew you would balk.  You would do it for free, wouldn’t you?”

“Of course.”

“Tough to pay your bills with patriotic goodwill.  Plus, the government’s gonna tax you on that money, anyway.  They’re gonna get back a third of it, if not more.  I just don’t want you to get taken for granted.”

“You’re really good at business stuff.  Aren’t you supposed to be watching over the Coven’s interests?”

“I did that, and it almost cost me you.  From now on, I take care of my interests first and not the Coven’s.  Grandmother can suck an egg, and I swear to God I’ll kick Mausya’s ass if she gets within a hundred yards of you. 
Elder
, my ass!”

I was silent for a few steps as I thought about that.  “You shouldn’t alienate your family over me,” I finally said, wishing I still had a family.

“Oh, I tried it the other way before.  The result was unending manipulation of our lives and you losing all your memories of us and almost your life.  No more!” she said, one hand chopping the air in emphasis.  The air snapped in displacement at the force of it.  “Besides, they won’t exile us.  They don’t dare.  But they need to know we’re not their tools!”

She meant it.  Even deeper than her words indicated.  My link fed me her emotions, and her resolve felt like tungsten mixed with titanium, with a diamond coating for good measure.

Mr. Deckert held the door for us, giving me a short nod before continuing to scan the area around the Lincoln SUV, and I realized that my vampire was something of a force to be reckoned with among vampires.  Despite her avowed break from the Coven, the head of  daytime security was still personally escorting us—well, at least her.  Maybe the Coven had as much chance of withstanding her as poor Mr. Stewart had.  It would be interesting to see.

Chapter 35

So that’s how I spent my summer.  Demon bashing, portal closing, not remembering.  We had three more breaches to close in New York.  One in Manhattan, one on Long Island, and the last in Buffalo.

The next week, we flew to Miami where there were two portals, each breaking through into our world through the chicken-blood, finger-painted symbols of a voodoo altar.  Director Stewart flew us down on a government Gulfstream jet.  In addition to his assistant, Adine, he had another woman with him.  Stacia knew her immediately, calling her Agent Mahar.  Turned out
I
had met her when she was embedded in an FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit.  She was actually an Israeli agent on detached assignment to something called Task Force 17.  Tanya was familiar with that.

“In other words, Christian, she’s here to study us,” my vampire explained in front of everyone.

“
Us
? Like weres and vampires?” I asked.

“Us like you and me,” she corrected.  “What’s your background, Agent Mahar—science or… let me guess… theology.”

Mahar looked surprised, while Stewart just looked mildly uncomfortable.

“I have a Doctorate in Biblical studies from the University of Tel Aviv,” Mahar replied, a bit nonplussed.

“Would your father be Ari Mahar? Noted scholar?” Tanya pressed.  Mahar was visibly shocked, reduced to just nodding.

I looked a question at Tanya, but Lydia answered.  “She’s been studying a lot lately,” she said with a shrug.  “Remembers everything she ever sees.”

“I’d just settle for remembering what kind of car I drive,” I said, moving deeper into the plane to find a seat.

When we got back from Miami, the NYPD was waiting for us.  The same world-weary lieutenant met us at the airport.

“We found one of those Hellbourne things you mentioned.  After cross-checking the building's residents, we found one missing.  A little retired woman who suffered from debilitating Rheumatoid arthritis and chronic depression.  She showed up yesterday.  Got pulled over on the Long Island Expressway.  A Suffolk County sheriff’s deputy got his neck broke.  Other drivers called 911, and they cornered her in East Hampton.  She shot another cop with the deputy’s gun, then took fifteen shots to go down.  The last round was a head shot.  We think she’s dead, but we’re holding her in a secure morgue for you to check out.”

The body was dead, and the demon driver was long gone.  Free on planet Earth and undoubtedly looking for another meat shell.

There was a small notebook among her effects, full of rambling notes, written in blood.  One of them mentioned me by name.  Under a to-do list:

Get gordon’s new family.  Last 1 so much fun.
 

I spent a long time looking at that.  What new family?  My vampires?  The weres who lived next to the farm?  Gina, Roy, and Toni Velasquez? 

My memories of my family’s murder were the most vivid I had.  Picturing little Toni lying in a pool of blood terrified me. I felt a helpless sort of panic knowing they were vulnerable to the same thing that took my parents and brother.

Director Stewart detailed some of his people to guard the Velasquezs and the NYPD put a car outside their house.  Not enough in my mind.  I layered their home and car with aura-charged fetishes, adding to the necklaces they already had.  The bear pendant around Toni’s neck was the most powerful I had ever seen and I had no idea how I had made it, but it would be very difficult for a Hellbourne to pierce its protective shell.

There was nothing else to do but continue on with closing gates.

After Miami, we cleaned up five spots in Arizona and New Mexico which held a total of seven demons.

We came home, which was still the hotel even though Gramps had gone back to his farm.  Arkady had moved the saltwater bucket to a vault in a local bank, locking it in a safe deposit box big enough to hold a body.  We were back just two days before Stewart called to tell us about problems in New Orleans.  That city was riddled with holes in the fabric of reality.  We chalked up a total of eleven demons there.

By this time, we had settled into a regular team, consisting of me, Tanya, Awasos, and, oddly, Stacia.  My best guess as to why my fire-spitting vampire girlfriend didn’t object was because we often went into hell houses in broad daylight.  She was never at her best in those conditions, her reflexes slowed by the sun, so I my thought was that she sacrificed her peace of mind in order for me to have a supernatural backup unaffected by sunlight.  The blonde were girl had taken to carrying a short-barreled pump shotgun with her every time we went on a call.  It came in handy more than once, particularly when something physical had squeezed through into our realm. I finally asked Tanya about Stacia when we were alone and I felt particularly brave… or maybe reckless. 

“There are several reasons, Chris.  She’s actually quite competent – she has good instincts. She is honorable. But also she’s a reminder to me.”

“Reminder of what?”

“That I could lose you.  That if I put my grandmother’s agenda or Coven business before you that she’ll be there to snap you up.  She’s my competition and competition is good for me.  And last, if something happens to me I like knowing that you will have someone to watch your back.”

I had no idea how to respond to that, so I kept my mouth shut.  Maybe wisely – maybe not.

From time to time, Lydia and Gina joined us, and we were usually shepherded to each site by Director Stewart and, often, Mahar—who now made no bones about questioning us.  Well, mainly me, but also Tanya, to a degree.

I had a few more flashes of memory during the month of July, mostly right in the middle of some demon-bashing action.  Bits and pieces, mostly of Tanya, but also some involving motorcycles and werewolves, although one involved a giant cage and a dying Kodiak bear.

We also realized that almost every gateway was born on the site of some dark occult ritual or ceremony.  Any witchcraft practioner, wizard wannabe, or voodoo priest messing with arcane powers might leave behind a tear in the veil that hides our world from Hell.

We had to plug fifteen leaks in Los Angeles during August and believe me, the irony was not lost on us that Hollywood was the site of so many attempted deals with the devil.

Seattle offered up a few demon doors during early September, leaving us tired and travel weary by the time we got back to the Big Apple.  After a day of rest, Tanya decided she wanted to visit Coven headquarters and, more shockingly, she wanted me to go with her.  I hadn’t seen even a glimpse of the infamous Citadel that I heard about regularly, so I was extremely curious.  Travelling the concrete tunnels caused my skin to crawl with the feeling of memories hiding just beyond my grasp.  When I saw the rooms that had been our home, I could almost remember, almost recall things about it, but full memories remained elusive.

We were leaving with some of our personal effects when two female vampires appeared in the corridor ahead of us, each followed by a small army of lackeys.  My eyes told me that they were both very old, with one around nine hundred years and the other well over twelve hundred years of age.

I kept my mouth shut as I studied what could only be Elders Senka and Mausya.  Blonde, attractive Senka could don a business suit and look like a business executive or change to jeans and a sweatshirt to look like a minivan-driving house mom.  Mausya was a brunette, and if you looked past her coldly calculating eyes, she could be a Lands End or LL Bean catalogue model.

They both watched me with fascination, but Mausya paid close attention to the suddenly tense and angry vampire princess by my side.

“Granddaughter,” Senka greeted Tanya before turning to me.  “How are you, Christian?”

I got nothing when I looked at them. Not a glimmer or hint of any experience or feeling of familiarity.   “I feel good.  You know, unburdened by the weight of memory,” I answered.

Senka frowned at my tone, and a giant slavic-looking vampire behind her edged sideways to lock eyes with me. 

“He doesn’t remember any of you or any of this,
Grandmother
.  See, some vampire tried to assassinate him and failed,” Tanya said, her tone sharp enough to make every lower-ranked vampire freeze in place.

Senka turned a deep frown in her direction.  “I told you, Tatiana, I had nothing to do with any attempt on Chris’s life.  You know how much I value him.”

“Yup, value like a favorite tool,” my vampire replied, but her eyes were already locked on the other Elder.

“
I
certainly had nothing to do with it!” Mausya protested.

“Yet your entire platform for Elderhood consisted of preaching the dangers of
my chosen.
”

Two of Mausya’s security types shifted angrily, and I felt the dark one inside me jump to just under the surface.  I broke eye contact with the giant long enough to glance their way, and I felt a cold smile cross my face, one I didn’t have control over.  At the same time, I got a flashback of momory.  A concrete amphitheater with old vampires on raised daises.

Mausya jumped slightly, her right hand making a slashing motion at her men, but her eyes never leaving me.

“I can’t get a fix,” she said in a worried voice.

Senka turned to her in a superfast motion that reminded me of her age.  “What do you mean?”

“Everything is jumbled around him.  As if nothing is certain.  As if anything could happen,” Mausya said.

“Well, clear it up!  Get a lock on him,”Senka ordered, leaving no doubt about the pecking order among elders.

“Hello, standing right here?” I said mildly.  Part of me wanted very, very much to jump into the middle of the surly bodyguards and have at it.  The rest of me was busy realizing why Tanya had such issues with her leaders.

“They say you never get a second chance at a first impression.  But in this case, that is exactly what you both just got.  I’m not sure, but I think the first one went better,” Tanya said, shoving past the two elders and their entourage, towing me behind her.

“Tatiana Antonovna Demidova!” Senka hissed in an arctic voice that spoke of primordial death.

“No, Grandmother!  We are through here, and we are leaving!”

“Be very careful, little Darkken, how you act.  There are consequences.”

“Pot. Kettle. Black.” With those final words, Tanya turned and headed down the corridor, her hand on my elbow, her lips tight. I didn’t need the bond to know she was angry.

Behind us, I heard Mausya speak softly to Senka. “… Forty-seven percent chance she’ll pull away,” her voice trailing off as Senka hushed her.

When we were three turns and two passages away, I turned to Tanya.  “What did she mean
pull away
?”

“Mausya reads probabilities.  Actually, we all do it to some extent, but her ability to assimilate random variables and predict probable outcomes verges on psychic.  She could read that I’m considering cutting ties to the Coven.”

“What? They’re your family,” I said, stopping her in place, which, by the way, isn’t easy.  Like trying to slow a bulldozer.

“Families separate all the time.  Children pull away from overbearing parents and grandparents.  It happens.”