In Darkness We Must Abide: The Complete Second Season: Episodes 6-10 (35 page)

Vanora gingerly sat at the end of the metal chair and started to shrug off her leather coat. It was abnormally warm in the small room and there was a faint whiff of sulfur. Armando helped her remove her coat and slung it over the back of her chair before pulling his closer and sitting next to her.

“So, here you are!” Greg rubbed his hands together with a gleeful look on his face.

“Yes, I am.”

“So you’re a witch.”

“And you’re really an incubus.”

“I don’t have to look like your pretty boy here to get me some fine quality pussy,” Greg assured her. “My very nature draws women to me. I feed every night and never miss a drop, cupcake.”

“You’re really disgusting,” Vanora decided.

“I really, really am.”

“I would appreciate it if you were more respectful in front of the lady,” Armando said, his accent heavy and his stare fierce.

“Tsk, tsk. Your vamp boyfriend is a sensitive one.” Greg folded his arms over his wide chest and slumped further in his chair, his legs sprawled apart in a way that made Vanora feel vastly uncomfortable.

“Sheila says you can help us locate Carlotta. It’s vital we talk to her,” Vanora said keeping her gaze squarely on his face.

“Wondering what I got hanging, aren’t ya?”

“Not really.”

Armando growled.

Greg dramatically shivered. “Oh, he’s a saucy one!”

“Are we wasting our time here?” Vanora started to swivel about in her chair to claim her coat. She felt like she was being toyed with and did not like it one bit.

The room flashed a deep red for a second and abruptly Greg was very close to her, his face inches from hers. “You don’t want to leave until we get a chance to talk. Trust me.”

Armando violently shoved the incubus away from Vanora. The office chair skidded into the monitors and made them shake. “Stay back.”

Chuckling, Greg shook his head at Armando. “None of that, vampy. You don’t want me setting your ass on fire, do you?”

When the demon’s eyes flashed with flames, Vanora put her hand swiftly on Armando’s arm to keep him at her side. “Let him have his theatrics, Armando.”

“See! She’s the smart one!”

“Get to the point of the matter,” Armando ordered.

“The point of the matter. The
point
of the matter. The point of the
matter
. See, those could all be different things. You think you’re here just to find out where Carlotta lives so you can go pump her for information on her Master. But you’re really here because I
want
you here. In fact, I’ve been waiting a very long time to get a certain colorless bastard back for fucking around in my business.”

Again, his words shot icy waves of fear through Vanora.

Beside her, Armando went scarily still.

“You see, I’m a man of simple needs. I feed off of sex much like your boyfriend here feeds off of blood. I’m a ‘live and let live’ sort of guy. I don’t fuck with the business of other supernaturals. I expect the same from them. But when that pasty-ass, muscle-bound asshole came into my territory and killed off all my women to drive me out... Greg shook his head. “No, no, no. You don’t do that to a demon. Especially when one of those women is the only woman I’ve ever fuckin’ loved. The
only
one. Ever.”

“And this is the vampire that ordered my brother to die?” Vanora was barely breathing, and didn’t move at all. She was pinned to her chair by fear and a strange excitement.

“It’s much more than a simple purge, sweetheart. But you already sense that, don’t you?”

Vanora reluctantly nodded her head.

Greg grinned, flashing all his dull, yellowish teeth. “I’ve waited centuries to get him back. To fuck up his own little plans. And now I can!”

“What are you talking about exactly?” Vanora dared to ask.

Leaning forward, Greg stared into her eyes, pointedly ignoring Armando. “It’s about you, little girl. It’s all about you. At least, it is
now
. All the coming mayhem, the pain, the deaths, the blood, the flames...all of it...about
you
.”

Every word the demon said felt true. Vanora couldn’t tear her gaze from his murky brown eyes.

“What do you know, little girl? What secrets are hidden in your purse that you’re scared to show me?” Greg tilted his head, viewing her fingers clutching her bag.

Shakily, Vanora pulled out the sketches and handed them to the demon without a word.

“Ah, Aeron in all his fuckin’ glory.” The demon flashed the sketch at Armando. “Handsome, ain’t he?”

“Aeron,” Vanora breathed. “His name is Aeron?”

“Means 'slaughter' in Welsh. Nice, huh? Suits him, the bastard. Ah, and his favorite little henchie, Lorelei. Isn’t she the one who offed your brother?”

Vanora nodded, then withdrew her phone from her purse. Pulling up the gallery, she showed her sister’s painting to the demon.

“Yep, that’s Aeron. So you
do
know about him?” Greg studied her for a long moment. “No, no, you don’t. It’s all been dreams and nightmares, hasn’t it? Visions? Maybe a visitation or two?”

Armando’s stillness was disquieting. Vanora was afraid to even look at him. The dread of betrayal flamed inside her, cold and heavy.

“You don’t know much at all. I can see that. Which is great! Awesome! It means I get to tell you all the deets of Aeron’s great plans and hopefully throw a big huge wrench in them.”

“Tell me...” Her voice was hardly audible.

Greg swiped the screen and pointed at the next painting. “There they are. It all starts there. With them.”

“The Pleiades?”

Armando started, then leaned forward swiftly to look at the picture on her phone. His curls fell over his brow in such a way she couldn’t see his face from the angle he was at.

“The Seven Sisters...” The incubus shoved the phone toward Armando. “Never told her about your dear old moms, huh?”

Hot angry tears filled Vanora’s eyes, but she didn’t speak or move. She listened.

“Do you like mythology, Vanora? Did you enjoy it in school?”

“What’s your point?”

“Most mythology has little kernels of truth in them. Take Icarus for example. Flew too high to the sun, fell to earth and died. He’s actually rooted in truth, but his story got all fouled up. He was what you call an angel. A
beautiful
angel.”

“Like you were before the fall?”

“Honey, demons were never angels. We didn’t fall. We’ve always been demons.” Greg snorted as if she’d insulted him. “Anyway, this angel – and he was a hottie, trust me – fell in love with a witch. She was one hot piece of ass, too. And thus began a forbidden love affair that would severely fuck up the world.” Greg motioned to Armando. “Do you want to take over here? Tell her the rest.”

“You’re doing such a fine job, why don’t you continue?” Armando said darkly.

“So! This angel and witch do the nasty and she gets knocked up. Now, angels aren’t supposed to have children. It’s forbidden, so the offspring was cursed.”

“Cursed by who?” Vanora asked, narrowing her eyes. “God?”

“Mother fucking nature herself, kiddo.” Greg wagged his eyebrows. “The natural order of things doesn’t like when things are no longer
oh-natural
. So, out of her womb comes seven cursed little baby girls. Each one holding the ankle of the one before it. They came out just like a chain. They refused to let go of each other and formed a perfect little circle when laid next to their mother on her birthing bed. But these were no ordinary little girls. Because of their lineage, they were neither angel, or witch, or even human. They were
other
. They could not venture into the sunlight and the only nourishment they craved was blood. Which their mother found out in a very unfortunate way.”

“The Pleiades were the first vampires?” Vanora stared at him skeptically.

“The Seven Sisters. It’s what we call them,” Armando answered.

Vanora didn’t dare look at the vampire who lingered in her peripheral vision. “Why didn’t you tell us about them before?”

“Because they’re all dead,” Greg answered for Armando. “Aeron killed them. But I’m getting ahead of myself in the story. Way ahead.”

Armando settled back in his chair out of Vanora’s view, but she sensed his disquiet.

“So...the angel wept over his dead lover after his seven little daughters bled her dry, but he couldn’t stand to destroy them. They were his offspring after all. His seed made fuckin’ manifest. So he continued to feed them the blood of unfortunate mortals and watched them grow into seven beautiful young women. They were probably around your age when dear old dad finally lost his mind. They looked so much like his dead lover and yet they had killed her. And they continued to kill...He had to keep moving them from place to place so the villagers wouldn’t take up their torches and burn them out. So he killed them.”

“You said Aeron killed them,” Vanora said, struggling to follow the story.

“Well, dear old dad killed them the first time. He put them in the ground and three days later...”

“He made them immortal by killing them,” Armando explained. “If he hadn’t killed them, they would have grown old and died just like mortals.”

“Bingo! And that is when the Seven Sisters became the first true immortal vampires. When dear old dad came back to weep over their graves, he got a big old surprise.”

“He flew too close to the sun –
love –
and fell to earth.” Vanora dared to look at Armando. His grim look and averted eyes frightened her.

“Bingo! A little bit of truth in the myth. The Seven Sisters figured out the limitations of their existence, but they also figured out their strengths. They learned how to make more of their kind.” Greg slouched further in his chair, lightly swinging it side to side making it creak. “So...enter Aeron the White and Terrible. That’s an official title, by the way. He was born of a mortal and a witch. Powerful and a great warrior, he was also deeply superstitious. It was his mother that foretold that he would be immortal–
a god!
– and that he must seek out the Seven Sisters. So he obeyed dear old mom. Aeron searched all through the known world until he found one of the sisters, Parthenia. She was totally smitten with his appearance and bravery and all that other shit that women are suckers for. And she made him into a vampire.”

“And then he killed her?” Vanora’s head was throbbing.

“He killed her just recently actually. About a week ago.” Greg sighed. “It’s a shame. She was actually one of the few vampires I actually liked. Anyway, back to our story...Aeron is one of those guys with really grandiose ideals. He holds himself to a very high standard and expects everyone to follow. He grew uneasy with the Seven Sisters. He waited for them to take control of the world and rise up as goddesses. Except for being mentioned in Greek mythology, and by the
wrong
names, they never really rose up at all. Unsatisfied, Aeron sought out an oracle. She told him that he was the future of the vampire race. That the Seven Sisters were too close to the original curse to ever rise to the true heights of power. Aeron needed to kill the Seven Sisters and take their blood.”

It was difficult to fight the queasiness growing within her belly, and Vanora clenched her hands into tight fists.

Greg noted her action and reached out to open them. “It’s just getting good, cupcake.”

“Don’t touch her,” Armando said in a warning tone.

“Life lines are interesting things, aren’t they?” Greg pointed to the center of her hand.

“What else did the oracle say?” Vanora asked, her eyes staring squarely at her open palms.

“Your lifeline is such a mess though, isn’t it? All broken up like that.”

“Just tell me!” Vanora shouted, though she already knew the truth deep within her.

Greg flashed his disconcerting smile. “The oracle told Aeron that out of his own bloodline would be born another powerful witch that would be marked by her albinism. That witch would give birth to his children. The new Seven. And those new Seven would be even more powerful than the original Seven Sisters for they would walk in the sun and lay the world at their father’s feet.”

“Lies!” Armando stood up so sharply, his chair toppled over.

“No, truth! Oh, you never heard the last part of the story?” Greg shrugged. “Sucks to be you if you love this lovely thing, huh?”

It felt as though she’d been sucker punched and it was hard to take a breath. Doubling over, Vanora pressed her hands to her chest. Realizing she was in distress, Armando kneeled beside her, his hand tenderly rubbing her back.

“Breathe in, Vanora.”

“So there it is, pretty girl. All of this is because of you. He’s killed the last of the Seven Sisters and now it’s time for him to establish his new rule over...well,
everyone
. You’re his baby mama, so he’s definitely gunning for you now. His usual M.O. is to come into an area, purge the vampires, and establish his own vampires in their place. He’ll do that here, but he’ll have the added bonus of your sweet, white flesh next to him.” Greg chortled. “Surprise.”