Ironic Sacrifice (11 page)

“How long will you be staying with us?” Silas asked, changing the subject.

“Only a week. We gotta be back in Seattle in time for the Halloween concert at The Mortuary.” She glanced at the line of people forming behind her. “I gotta go sign autographs and stuff. Talk to ya later.”

Jayden’s mouth went dry.
A week?
How the hell would she be able to stand an entire week with her around?

Something cold touched her hand and she jumped. Akasha was handing her a bottle of water.

“Here, you look a little pale.” Her amethyst eyes were wide with concern.

Jayden took the bottle gratefully. After she uncapped it and took a big swig, she gasped, “Oh my God, Akasha, she’s not human!”

Akasha and Razvan nodded. “We know.”

That knowledge gave her a semblance of relief. “But what
is
she?”

Silas answered, “That, lass, is something we’re not quite sure of.” He had his own bottle of water and sipped it pensively. He kept glancing at Razvan as if he were trying to send him a message.

“But she’s
good
, Jayden,” Akasha said fervently. “I promise. It’ll get easier once you get to know her better. Now, remember, Xochitl and the others can’t know about vampires. Delgarias forbids it.”

Jayden nodded, only half hearing her as she focused on the vampires. Razvan seemed to get Silas’s signal and they both headed away. They probably needed to feed. Akasha didn’t seem bothered, so Jayden decided everything was okay.

“Come on, let’s go meet the others.”

Jayden realized that the other band members had been swarmed by fans before they could reach Akasha. Xochitl was the only one who wasn’t. She noticed now that the singer’s line of autograph seekers was smaller than those of the rest of the band. And each person looked almost scared of her and they were being extra careful not to touch her.

Whatever it is, they sense it too. They know somehow that she is different.
Xochitl’s eyes had darkened to a puppy-brown. She seemed hurt by their trepidation. Jayden felt a wave of sympathy for her. She must be very lonely. As if sensing her scrutiny, Xochitl’s eyes met hers. Jayden smiled. Xochitl smiled back.

“Akasha, look,” Jayden said. “They act like they’re almost scared of her.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “At first I thought it was because some how they know she’s not human. But now I’m pretty sure it’s not that. If they really knew her they’d want to fall to the ground and worship her.” Akasha shook her head. “No, I don’t think it has anything to do with her genetic difference. It’s more that she’s one of those people that are truly great. I’m damn sure plenty of people were scared of Da Vinci, Ben Franklin, Tesla, and Einstein.”

“Wow,” Jayden gasped, overcome with the depth and insight of Akasha’s statement. “That’s….”

“Hey, ‘Kash!” a voice interrupted.

Aurora Lee left her group of fans and enveloped Akasha with muscular brown arms. “I’ve missed you like hell, girl! How’ve you been?”

“Pretty good,” Akasha answered. “Shop’s making money. This is Jayden, Razvan’s… er, girlfriend.”

Before Jayden could pull back, Aurora’s warm hand gripped hers and shook it. “Pleased to meet you. Jayden’s a pretty name.”

Jayden got a glimmer of information from the drummer before her shields went back down.
She had a fight with her mother today. She hates Aurora’s music.

“Beau, Sylvis! Come here,” Aurora called. “Akasha wants you to meet someone.”

A pretty young man with spiky burgundy hair and a tall woman with a blue bob-cut came forward.

“Hey, baby,” Beau said as he kissed Akasha on both cheeks. “Long time no see.”

Sylvis grinned and shook Jayden’s hand as Aurora introduced them. No visions came, to Jayden’s profound relief. Sylvis was the comedian of the group. She’d hosted Saturday Night Live last week and Jayden had nearly peed herself laughing. Akasha swore up and down that her performance was a hundred percent improvisation.

“Razvan’s girlfriend, huh,” Beau said. “And here I was hoping he’d swing my way. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to move on.” His gaze swept over her. “Has anyone ever told you that you kinda look like Tori Amos?”

Jayden flushed at the compliment. Akasha was right, Beau was a sweetie.

The bassist grinned. “Speaking of Razvan, where is he? And where’s your sexy husband, ‘Kash?”

“Oh, they’re around somewhere,” Akasha said with a shrug. “Are you coming to the Powder River with us after this?”

A look of boyish shame came over his face, “No, I already invited Eric out for drinks. We’re going to stay in Spokane for the night and go to Dempsey’s.”

“Who’s Eric?”

He pointed. “That roadie over there. Isn’t he cute? Anyway, the Powder’s not really our style and…”

Jayden didn’t hear the rest of the conversation. She sensed she was being watched. Sure enough, there were two vampires not ten feet from her. She reached out to tap Akasha’s shoulder but one of the vampires, a large male that somehow resembled a cowboy, shook his head and spoke in her mind.

“Don’t be afraid. Razvan sent us to guard you ladies while he and Silas take care of some business.”

“What business?”
she asked silently.

He flinched in mingled surprise and pain at her response.
“Jesus, woman, you don’t have to yell. Tone it down! They didn’t say. I just take orders. Now go back to your friends before Silas’s woman notices.”

Slowly, Jayden turned back to Akasha and Beau. Sylvis and Aurora had gone back to signing autographs. Xochitl had more people surrounding her than earlier, and not so many looked scared.
“It’ll be easier once you get to know her,”
Akasha had said.

“So this is what has been occupying the master lately.”
Jayden heard the voice in her head. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the second vampire guard, a tall, but voluptuous blonde.
“She looks pretty scrawny to me.”

“Yeah, but she’s damn powerful,”
the other vampire answered.

Jayden realized she was somehow eavesdropping on their conversation. She took another drink from her water bottle and studiously focused on Beau’s chatter. Her hackles rose at the blonde’s possessive tone when she’d said “the master.”

“It doesn’t matter. He’ll be done with her eventually, as he is with all of them.”
The blonde seemed to sneer.
“And then I’ll be waiting.”

Jayden seemed to hear the male snort.
“Waiting for what, Hilda? He’s done with you too. He never comes back for seconds, you know that.”

They stepped away and she couldn’t hear them anymore. She shivered. Was Razvan some sort of man-whore? She lifted her chin and glared at the blonde’s back.
He won’t throw me away if I find his brother.
She checked to see if either had heard the thought. There was no reaction as they faced each other, still involved in their silent argument. Some guards they were. She was tempted to yell “help!” as loud as she could just to see what they’d do, but decided against it. It would be hard explaining that to Razvan. She giggled at the thought.

“What’s so funny?” Akasha asked.

Jayden smiled. “I was just wondering if Razvan knew Beau has a crush on him.”

They both laughed, but Jayden didn’t hear Akasha’s reply. Something caught her eye— and her mind. The pregnant fifteen-year old had just come in. The girl’s frantic worry was still amplified like a loudspeaker, but that wasn’t what made Jayden’s stomach churn. A hazy reddish vision was overlaying her view of the girl, as if Jayden was viewing her through 3-D glasses.

Without thinking, she focused harder. The red haze solidified into ropes and blobs that were pulsating in a familiar rhythm. They blurred then solidified, and when they did, Jayden’s heart skipped a beat as she realized what she was looking at. Everything was insanely clear and yet somehow tangible. There was the uterus, the ovaries, and the fallopian tubes. Jayden had the strange feeling that she could somehow touch them. She frowned. There was nothing in the uterus. The girl wasn’t pregnant after all! She would be fine and hopefully would be more careful in the future. She began to focus her will to bring her shields back in place, and then stopped with a force that was like a thunderclap in her skull. There was something in the girl’s left fallopian tube. It glowed with a malignant light.

Oh God, it’s a tubal pregnancy!
Jayden’s throat tightened in fear for the girl. If she didn’t get to a doctor, she would die.

She returned her concentration to her vision of the girl’s insides to see how long she had left. The embryo was not yet straining against the tube but…Jayden focused harder…it would in about three weeks. The feeling that she could somehow touch it multiplied to the point that she had to brace her hand on the wall to keep her balance.

I could destroy it.
The thought came suddenly, but she didn’t doubt its conviction. Some hidden, almost cruel part of her, reveled in the thought of reaching out with those hot invisible fingers and crushing the embryo.
It would save the girl’s life,
it whispered. But it wouldn’t be good if the kid had a miscarriage backstage at a heavy metal concert. Her mother’s reaction would be the least of her problems.

Breathing became the hardest task in the world. It felt like the first time she smoked pot. Her thoughts were racing, but the forces of the universe were doing their best to slow her down. At that time, Jayden had curled up in a ball on her friend’s couch and waited for the so-called “high” to wear off. Now she wondered if this thing would ever go away.

What do I do?
She closed her mouth before the shriek escaped her lips. Her heart went out to the girl and her predicament; that alien part of her wanted to do something about it, and her mind longed to help her, but didn’t want to do further damage.

Her eyes darted randomly across her surroundings as if imploring for aid amongst the sweating, music shirt garbed masses. But she could still see the girl’s insides and the microscopic potential for death that threatened insidiously.

Jayden’s gaze skimmed across the male vampire guarding her. He was watching her, but doing a stellar job of not making it obvious. She remembered his shout in her mind:
Jesus, woman, you don’t have to yell….
The idea was like a plug in a socket. But would it work on a normal human? She turned her full attention back to the girl and focused her thoughts before forcefully, but silently saying,
go see a doctor.

Nothing happened. Jayden focused harder on the girl and elevated her mental voice to a shout.
Go see a doctor! Something is wrong.

The girl blinked and looked around. Jayden took a swig from her water bottle and turned to the person at her right as if occupied in deep conversation. She counted to ten and glanced back to see that the teenager was looking in the opposite direction.

Go see a doctor tomorrow!
She thought louder…or she hoped it was louder.

The girl flinched as if struck, then her eyes widened and her shoulders straightened. She looked up and gave the ceiling a nearly imperceptible nod. She would go to the women’s clinic, at least just to weigh her options…and as soon as possible.

Jayden sighed in relief and her shields clanged into place with minimal effort. It seemed that this direction of her powers took effort.

But once the red haze vanished and she was relatively herself again, the realization of the past few moments struck her with such force that she had to brace her weight against the wall.

Oh God, what’s happening to me?
She screamed silently.

Just as Silas and Razvan left the backstage area, they spotted their quarry. The two Post Falls vampires were circling the area, looking for another way in. And they had conveniently slipped out of sight to mortals.

The Lord of Spokane exchanged a glance with the Lord of Coeur d’Alene before they were on the invaders in a flash of preternatural speed. Razvan’s captive was a fledgling vampire resembling a boy in his mid twenties though he was about fifty years old. His Adam’s apple jerked and bobbed above the collar of his
Rage of Angels
tee shirt as if it had a mind of its own. The vampire Silas held was older, but so frozen in terror a strong breeze would likely topple him.

“And what brings you here this evening, flouting my decree, youngling?” Razvan asked silkily.

“W-we just wanted to see the show,” the vampire lied.

“You may as well tell him,” Silas’s hostage said. “They’ll find out anyway.”

Silas grinned. “Wise words, lad.”

“Yes,” Razvan said. “You should heed them.”

The vampire swallowed audibly. “Our lord commanded us to bring her the psychic…and the creature Xochitl, if possible.”

Both Silas and Razvan laughed. “There’s no chance in hell you could have taken Xochitl,” Razvan said.

“And if you did,” Silas added, “There’s no way you could have kept her. She’s under the protection of every Lord vampire in the world as well as the entire Elder’s council.”

The vampire Silas held sighed. “We know, but the commands of our lord and high priestess are impossible to refuse.”

Razvan’s sinister laugh made both captives shiver. “But if you had refused, you may have lived. It is a shame you have to pay for your mistress’s foolishness.”

He tightened his grip on the vampire, reveling in his victim’s cry of pain.

“No, please! You don’t understand. Selena is crazy. We had to obey!” the vampire cried desperately as Razvan bared his fangs.

“Selena’s madness has been obvious for many years. You are a fool if you were not aware of that,” Razvan replied in a bored voice.

“Besides,” Silas added. “You could have applied to be transferred to another lord’s territory.

From the vapid expression on his face it was apparent that Razvan’s captive hadn’t thought of it. Silas’s prisoner, however, slumped his shoulders in defeat. “A few have tried. When Selena found out, the punishments were unspeakable.”

Silas frowned. “Forced loyalty is no loyalty at all.”

Before Silas’s compassion could get them in trouble, Razvan spoke up, “No matter. The fact is, you both have disobeyed my decree banning all Post Falls vampires from my territory and now you must suffer the consequences.”

With that, he plunged his fangs into the youngling’s throat. Razvan drank the young one down, absorbing all of the vampire’s meager powers as thoughts and images of his relatively short lifetime flashed before Razvan’s eyes. Normally he closed his mind to such dull visions, but this time he allowed his victim’s experiences wash through him in case there was important information to be gleaned.

Visions of Selena’s twisted “worship” sessions danced through his mind, making his stomach churn in revulsion. Indeed, her punishments were harsh. She frequently starved her followers, tortured them, and sometimes executed them by tearing out their hearts. Razvan frowned, realizing it was a trick she’d learned from Silas centuries ago.

Amongst all the chaos and carnage, Razvan learned one thing that was worthwhile. There was a spy in his territory. Unfortunately, his victim, who he now knew was called Daniel, didn’t know the vampire’s identity, for he’d only eavesdropped on the end of the Selena’s conversation with her “apostles.”

The last images of Daniel’s life drained away with the final drops of his blood. Razvan dropped the drained husk on the floor with a growl.

“It seems I have a spy in my territory,” he told Silas.

“Well, well, that
is
interesting,” Silas said, locking his gaze on his hostage. “Perhaps if
you
have any edifying information on this matter, you may live to feed another night.”

“But we can just kill him and learn all we need,” Razvan argued. “After all, I am still hungry. A starved vampire is hardly nourishing.”

If the captive was a mortal man, he would have wet himself by then. “Please, let me live! I swear I’ll tell you all I know.”

Razvan toyed with his beard. “Your lord would show you no such mercy. Why should you expect it from us?”

The vampire had no reply for that, but Silas answered, “Because we are better than she is.”

“I suppose so,” Razvan sighed with exaggerated regret.

The other vampire slumped in relief. “Thank you, lords!”

Silas shoved him against the wall. “We have not yet decided, laddie. Tell us what you know, and we’ll judge whether the information is worth your life.”

The captive tried unsuccessfully to lick the beads of sweat from his upper lip before the words poured out in a frantic rush. “I don’t know who the spy is, Selena only shares that sort of information with her apostles, but from what the rest of us have overheard I do know that the spy was installed sometime after construction of our lair in Post Falls was completed. That is all I know, I swear!”

Razvan and Silas exchanged a look. “What sort of construction?” they both inquired.

The vampire swallowed again and squared his shoulders in resignation. “We dug an underground fortress beneath a cul de sac of suburban houses.”

Razvan chuckled. “That is clever. What say you, Silas? Is that worthy information?”

“Perhaps,” Silas replied. “I do not think this creature looks remotely appetizing, anyhow.”

“Very well,” Razvan said before turning to the captive. “Take your worthless life and run. But know this, if you enter my lands again,
my
punishment will rival that of your former mistress.”

The vampire needed no further urging and was off in a flash of preternatural speed.

“As a rogue, it is doubtful he will get far,” Razvan commented as he sent out a mental call to the nearest of his subordinates.

“Indeed,” Silas replied.

A blond vampire who looked more like a corporate intern approached and bowed. “You sent for me, my lord?”

Razvan pointed at the body at his feet. “I want this disposed of in a place that the sun will find. But first, James, give me your wrist.”

James cringed, but complied. Razvan sank his fangs into the sensitive flesh. A quick sip revealed that this vampire was loyal.

“Do you think you can handle this task, James?” he asked with deceptive casualty.

James looked down at the body and paled in disgust. “Yes, my lord.”

Once the body was out of sight, Silas asked, “What are you going to do about this spy predicament?”

Razvan sighed. “It shouldn’t take too long to flush out the traitor. In the meantime, I shall keep Jayden away from Spokane until I deem it safe for her.”

***

Jayden and Razvan followed Akasha and Xochitl to the parking lot and to the most interesting Datsun she’d ever seen. It was a pale sparkling blue with flames on the fenders and skulls and crossbones on the hubcaps.

“What’s up, Little Beast,” Akasha said. An almost maternal smile crossed her lips. Jayden would bet money that the mechanic beside her was responsible for this vehicle’s restoration.

Xochitl dug the keys out of her pocket, which was quite a feat since she held a Siamese cat in her arms. This one was much slimmer than Akasha’s cat, Isuzu, and had paler markings. It could be no other than the infamous Isis, the only cat known to go on concert tours. Isis squawked a protest at her owner’s shifting grip.

The rock star chided, “No, Isis, you can’t sit on my shoulder. You’d hit your head when we get in the car.”

Akasha called shotgun once the car was unlocked.

Razvan smiled. “It seems we shall always be relegated to the back seat.”

“Wait a minute,” Jayden said. The first time Razvan had taken her somewhere, he had flown, the second time they took a cab and all other times were riding in someone else’s car. “You can’t drive, can you?”

For a second he looked embarrassed. It was an adorable expression on him. Then his features settled into his typical arrogant smirk and he leaned over to whisper in her ear. “Why drive when I can fly?”

Once they all loaded up into the car, (Isis climbed under the driver’s seat with only her tail remaining visible) Akasha asked Xochitl to go around Post Falls.

The three of them held their breath in fear that the rock star would protest, but instead she shrugged her shoulders. “Good point. The traffic always sucks there after a show.”

The ride was uneventful as Xochitl chattered away to Akasha and attempted to draw Razvan and Jayden into the conversation. Jayden tried to contribute, but Razvan remained silent. An ominous frown turned his features malevolent. She wondered what he was thinking about even as she cursed her luck that he was in a bad mood when she wanted to talk to him about her nightmarish experience with the pregnant girl backstage. On second thought, maybe that was a bad idea. Maybe he’d be disgusted with her.

She wished they would have ridden with Silas. Even though there was no way she could talk to him with the band members in the car, the presence of someone who understood what she was going through would be soothing. Instead she was stuck with a grumpy vampire, a hard ass mechanic, an inhuman chatterbox…and a cat.

They arrived at the house at the same time as Silas. Isis was dropped off to keep Isuzu company and Xochitl lectured them both on getting along. Max had left a note saying he would meet them at the bar. It was a short drive, only four blocks from Akasha’s shop.

Stepping into the Powder River Saloon was like going back in time a few decades. The tavern was dim and smoky like an old Western movie. Pictures of John Wayne lined the walls along with countless dart trophies. The bar was made from hand carved polished wood, worn and scarred. Johnny Cash played on the jukebox instead of the blistering loud heavy metal she’d expected with Akasha’s taste.

“Well, look who Akasha dragged in!” the bartender, a balding man with a white beard and bushy eyebrows called out.

“Hi, George!” Xochitl exclaimed and practically leapt over the bar to give him a hug.

“We better watch out,” another man said with a smile as he lifted his beer in a toast. “The rock stars have arrived.”

Xochitl made her way around the bar hugging the patrons one by one. The crowd was predominately older blue collar men, many still in their work clothes. The few women there were either sassy middle aged women or silver haired smiling matrons who looked like one’s ideal grandmother.

To Jayden’s astronomical relief she was not bombarded with thoughts, visions, or emotions. For once it was like she was a normal person…though what she had done tonight was leagues away from normal. She forced the thought away, determined to enjoy an evening free of psychic assault.

As they sat down at the bar, Silas signaled George. “I’m paying for everyone tonight.”

George nodded as if he expected nothing less. “Does that include Max?”

Silas smiled as if they shared a private joke. “Indeed.”

George chuckled. “He’s not going to like that.”

The vampire smiled. “I know.”

The bartender turned his attention to Jayden. “Who is this pretty young lady and does she have I.D.?”

“This is Jayden,” Razvan said while she fished in her purse for her wallet.

“What have you been up to, Razvan?”

He managed a laugh far more cheerful than his usual sinister modus operandi. “You know how it is, nothing but work.”

Jayden ordered a glass of White Zinfandel and admired the mason jars hanging from little hooks on the support beams. Johnny Cash gave way to the Rolling Stones on the jukebox.

“This is not at all the kind of place I pictured Akasha and her friends liking.” Jayden said to Razvan. “I mean, look at that.” She pointed at a sign which read: “
You say F**K, you pay.”
A picture of a quarter was below the caption. “How does Akasha’s shop mouth survive here?”

Silas laughed. “She does better some nights than others. They use the money to fund a summer camping trip for all the regulars.”

“The charm of the place is in the conversations,” Razvan said. A shadow of his bad mood remained in his eyes, but it appeared that he was trying to force it away.

Sure enough, his words were proven a moment later.

As Xochitl, Akasha and Max began a dart game, an animated and educational discussion of guns and hunting followed. To Jayden’s surprise both Xochitl and Sylvis hunted. It shouldn’t have been a shock since they both grew up in the area, but it was hard to conjure up an image of the two girls with their crazy colored hair wearing bright orange vests and toting rifles. In a blink of an eye the conversation bled away to debates on classic literature. Of all people, Xochitl and a man resembling an aging cowboy dominated the argument, quoting Voltaire and Mark Twain breezily between drinks.

Sylvis challenged Razvan to a game of pool and Jayden darted a glance at Silas. She needed to talk to him, needed to figure out the horror that happened.