Night Lurks (5 page)

“Who needs luck when you have medieval torture devices at your disposal?”

“Princess, everything okay with you?” Jonas asks when we exit my room.

“Peachy, as usual, Jonas. Sebastian has been kidnapped, I have a vampire baby, and I have killed enough people to let Lucifer be able to key in on my existence. It is just another day. We are going to be leaving within the hour and I want you guys fully loaded. Do what you can to make it happen,” I order as I continue my path to the door. “Clyde, stay and play with Ben. I need to get some information before we leave.”

“Yes, Mommy. Do I get to play with my new brother?”
Demon Dog asks. I look over my shoulder and see Will following behind Alex. It is really bizarre to hear both Ben and Clyde call Will his brother. I am not sure how happy Will will be about that thought.

“Not right now. I think we are going to let him warm up to that idea.” The fact that Clyde is so eager to make a new friend has me worried. That scenario screams of ulterior motive and I am afraid to find out what it is.

“Who is she talking to?” I hear Will ask confused.

“The dog. He wanted you to stay and play with him. Nyx told him she would introduce you later,” Alex replies as he is the only one that knows what was said.

“She can talk to a dog? That is just weird. Can anyone else talk to him?”

“I can hear him through Nyx’s mind. Her other mate can too, but only she has the ability to directly communicate. He isn’t just a dog, if you hadn’t guessed. He is a Hellhound and you will learn he is a little peculiar.”

“Am not. Tell him to quit talking smack. I will graduate from chewing on his shoes to peeing on his porn collection if he isn’t nice,”
Clyde relays.

“Children, I don’t want to hear you fighting right now. I am trying to stay focused on the task at hand, and I don’t want to have to interrogate Alex about this porn collection. How Clyde knows it even exists would need to be answered and I am sure that will just lead to a whole bunch of more questions that I don’t want to know the answers to,” I sigh and hit the elevator button.

“I don’t have a porn collection, Clyde, at least not anymore. You need to stay out of my room.”

“Alex, do you need a timeout?” I ask stepping in the elevator. Once I get Sebastian back and securely tied to my bed, I think I will give myself a little timeout. Peace and quiet sounds really good right about now.

We make our way back down to the dungeon. Will seems to like to stop to ooh and aah at stupid things and I don't think it will be long before I am seeking out a roll of duct tape for his mouth. If I had a penny for every time I thought of using that product, I would be a very rich woman. I already have plenty of stacks of money so I think the pennies would have to be melted down to make bullets. I don't know that I would have any other use for them.

“When we get in here you are not allowed to open your mouth, Will. I am going to be talking to a very old vampire that already hates us. A baby with a smart mouth won't likely be tolerated,” I explain.

“So just what am I supposed to call you? Master? Sire? Mom?”

“Nyx still works. I am not big on silly titles and I couldn't begin to tell you the proper protocol.” I thought we already went over the fact that this wasn't a normal situation as far as turning someone into a vampire goes.

“Have you figured out why you did it? I know you didn't have any crazy feelings for me like that Sean guy tried to convince me. In fact, I am pretty sure I did my best to annoy the snot out of you,” he claims and would be correct with his assumption.

“No idea. You were giving your life up willingly to help save others from a mad man. I guess I just thought the world would be a better place with someone not afraid to take a stand like that,” I tell him.

“And my outlook on life isn't going to change now that I have become a soulless bloodsucker?”

“Does it feel any different to you?” Alex asks. “I really hope Sebastian has some kind of book laying around for you to study, Junior. Becoming a vampire does not rip away your soul. It enhances your abilities and only strengthens characteristics you already have. You lose the ability to go out into the sun and have to survive on blood, but gain quite a bit in exchange. I imagine the vamps let humans believe the whole soul thing because they don't want them all lining up to be turned. They have to keep some food available and they don't like snacking on each other or things with fur.”

“I get that,” Will says and I motion him to zip his lips.

I have stopped in front of the dungeon containing Dante, Marcus, and Alan. There is no hidden wall blocking this one. Alan is tied up to a vertical board that gives him the ability to see me. The hostility looking back at me tells me this is not going to be fun. Sebastian is going to owe me for this one.

Chapter 6

Will the real Smitty please stand up?

“Marcus, I need you to run an errand for me,” I say as I pull him out of the cell. I am trying to be quiet, but I know everyone can still hear me. “You are the only person that can get a positive outcome, so I have to send you.”

“Let me guess, Spellbinders,” he replies knowing me all too well.

“You will know what might be useful to us and you are the only one that can get in and out of there without a bunch of extra hassle. If you have to, barter with her and I will owe you big time,” I plead. I really hate sending him to Hilda's lair, but it has to be done. One of these days I am afraid I won’t get him back. I can picture Hilda with a cage in the backroom just waiting to catch Marcus so she can keep him as a pet.

He takes a deep breath and lets it out. “She is so creepy. If she is able to look like anything, I don't understand why she makes herself green. It isn't appetizing at all.”

I don't disagree, but the way he puts it makes me wonder if she does it so he will think of her as something other than food. A nice shade of purple would work better in my opinion. He still wouldn’t want to snack on her, but at least it would be a pretty color. The green she chooses is a really dark shade of moss that looks like it was barfed on.

“I am not even going to pretend I know what is going on in that brain of hers. Just try to get her to give you something useful. We really need some help and there is no way she will give us anything if I go in there myself. I can’t even trick her and say you were kidnapped with Sebastian since she has some kind of tracker on you.”

“Fine. I see that grenade launcher I have been checking out in my near future, though.” He sprints away to get his task out of the way. Grenade launcher. Great choice of payment. I may need to get a matching one.

I have no time to daydream about it now. I move back to the cell to join Alex, Will, Dante, and the captive. I really want to find out how Alan was able to drive the nasty demons away when they showed up on his doorstep. Keeping him tied up until Sebby gets back is just an added bonus.

“Go ahead and remove the tape, Dante.”

“Are you sure? He has been much more pleasant to be around while he is silenced,” Dante jokes, but takes the tape off like I requested.

“You are so dead, you little upstart. Do you think Sebastian is going to be able to protect you from me? I don't care what perfume you wear to try to convince people you are more than just a vampire, you are still just a child compared to me,” Alan starts ranting and I can see where Dante was correct in thinking the tape was a nice accessory.

“Please stop talking. You are giving me a headache already. I don't feel like turning into a wolf right now, but I assure you it is possible. I just have a couple of questions for you and if you aren't a total dick about them, I will upgrade your visiting quarters. I won't let you go until I have Sebastian back, but I can make your stay a little bit more enjoyable.” Not really, but he would get a cot to lay on instead of being stuffed in an iron maiden.

“I don't believe for a second that you are dual or tri-natured and I still don't think helping you retrieve Sebastian is in my best interest,” he says and spits at my feet. Really? This guy is an idiot of top order.

“I really don't care what you believe. I thought we had been over that already. All I want is information on what you did when the Kurkua and Shagles showed up at your door. I wouldn't be surprised if I don't run into them on my quest and I prefer to have a little preparation in place to fight them.”

“He isn't going to give anything up with just your blabbing at him,” Smitty says joining our group.

I am a bit amazed to hear his voice, so I spin around to get a good look at my rogue vampire guard. Surprisingly, he looks about like Marcus did in the shredded pork sense of things. His wounds are healed, but his shirt tells a tale of many blades.

“Found a band of Kurkua trying to make off with Bastian outside of the building, so I tried to help. I am starting to think I was a little overconfident in the undertaking. Those things are really nasty pieces of work.”

“You tried to help Sebastian?” I ask not necessarily shocked, but pretty close.

“I know you have been told things about me, and I am not proud of those things, but you can rest assured that I stand behind you one hundred percent now. Someone was kind enough to shed some light on the situation during the big conference. I know who will be the winner in the grand scheme of things,” he whips out a knife and walks over to Alan. “Now, with Alan here, you have to be a little bit persuasive if you want to get any information. Judging by your arm that looks to just be getting back to full strength, I would say you have already had enough fun for today. Let me do the honors.”

This is a different Smitty than I remember seeing before. I really want to know who he has been talking to and just what was said to change his mind. I still don't trust him with my life, or those that I care about, but it is an interesting little twist.

“You are more familiar with him, so please proceed.”

“Good. Now, Alan, you know me well enough that I am just going to bypass the tickle phase of this interrogation. Do you have anything you would like to say before I start?” It is nice that he is giving him an out, but I did already try that route.

“Why do you even waste your time with them, Smitty? You are old enough to be out carving out your own place in the world.”

“Wrong answer,” Smitty says and then draws his knife across Alan's throat. It doesn't go deep, but whatever the knife is made of makes the skin that touches it sizzle. How cool. I want one. “You will soon enough be groveling at her feet like the dog that you are. She is the future of all of us. She will redeem those of us who have gotten a little off track, and condemn those who cannot be saved. Which side are you going to fall on?”

Whoa. I think this has gone just a little off track. He is giving me a little more responsibility than I crave. Okay, it is a lot more responsibility and I kind of want him to take it all back.

“What are you talking about? Did they give you some kind of crazy Kool-Aid? I think you should consider about joining a detox program to get it out of your system. She is a short nonentity that could actually be my way to bringing Sebastian down. I can see why he wouldn’t want her to be at the conference because every Tom, Dick, and Harry would see just how weak she is,” Alan says. I would like to know how he has lived this long. If he talks this way about everyone, he should have been dealt with years ago.

Smitty laughs and then stabs his knife into Alan's stomach. “You really don't see it? I guess I didn't at first either. If you look at her very closely you can just see the slight glow surrounding her. It really is beautiful.” He twists the knife and then pulls it out.

I make a mental note to keep him away from any beverages in the future. I should probably make sure he didn't get some magic mushrooms somewhere while I am at it.

“What did you dip that knife in? Shit, it hurts,” Alan moans as he leans back and closes his eyes. If it did the little sizzle trick on the skin, I can just imagine what it did to his insides.

“Like that, don't you? It is a little something special I picked out. Liquid ultraviolet, very hard to come by. I have a bit of resistance from being able to get out in the sun in non-peak hours, but you haven't bothered to pick up the resilience in all of your years. You wanted to be the vampire from the legends and have stuck to the shadows your whole life. I imagine sticking this knife into your heart will make you see the error in your ways.” I am kind of digging this really sadistic Smitty. It is a part of him that I haven't seen before and it makes me glad that he is on my side.

“Please, enough with the knife. I will tell you what I use to make the demons go away,” Alan says giving up. Good.

“You are smarter than you look, Alan. I am sorry we won’t be able to continue this fun,” Smitty tells him. “Tell her what she needs to know.”

“It is a mixture of slippery elm and gravel root. That is enough to banish any low level demon. Two tablespoons of the elm, one tablespoon of the gravel, and I add a sprig of spearmint for smell. I don't even have to fight them that way. I carry it on me at all times.”

“I will call Marcus,” Alex says and goes to complete the task outside of the cell.

“This doesn't change the fact that I am still going to kill you when I get out of here,” Alan claims.

“Believe me, it does,” Smitty replies as he twirls his fancy knife around in his hand. He is very careful not to let the blade touch his skin. “You don't have what it takes to beat her, so you should just get those crazy ideas out of your head now.”

This is getting to be a little Twilight Zone for me, or maybe I slipped into some other dimension. Smitty has never been on my side like this and it is starting to scare me. I know I just said I liked it a few minutes ago, but I have changed my mind.

“What do you want me to do with him to secure the creep until Sebastian gets back?” Dante asks and I am not sure how to reply.

Leaving him down here to rot does have its appeal, but other than being stubborn he hasn't really done anything to me personally. Since I carry the stubborn gene myself, I know how difficult it can be to work past it.