Without preamble, he used his powers to open the door to Dieter's home. Velkan strode through the doorway as if he owned it. Dieter and Stephen looked up with a gasp, as did five other men.
And before Velkan could move, an arrow was shot at his chest. He caught it in his fist and tossed it to the floor. "Don't even try that again," he snarled.
"W-what are you doing here?" Dieter said as a fine sheet of sweat appeared on his forehead.
Velkan pinned each member there with a hostile glare that should adequately cow them. "I'm here to bury the proverbial axe. Where exactly I bury it is entirely up to you. Either we can bury it in the ground and let bygones be bygones or I can bury it in the heart and head of every one of you here. Either way, the persecution of my wife and her friend stops now."
Dieter stiffened. "You don't come in here and order us about."
Velkan shot a blast that knocked him off his feet. "Be smart. Take the out I'm offering you. I promised Esperetta that I wouldn't be a barbarian anymore. So I'm trying to be civilized about this and let you live even though the warlord inside me would rather I bathe in all your entrails."
"We are sworn - "
"Save it," Velkan snapped, cutting Dieter off. "I was one of the members of this Order five hundred years ago and I know the oath you've all taken. And I've taken a new one. The next man or beast who threatens my wife or my servants will not live to regret that stupidity. Is that understood?"
He waited until each man had nodded.
Velkan took a deep breath. "Good. Now that we have an accord, I'll leave you in peace."
Turning toward the door, Velkan caught sight of something from the corner of his eye. Before he could react, a single gunshot rang out.
He snapped his head toward a corner of the room where Esperetta stood with Raluca, Francesca, Viktor, and Andrei.
Esperetta was holding the gun in her hands. Her eyes were narrowed on the men in the room. "Anyone else want to try and go for my husband's back?"
Velkan looked to see Dieter lying on the floor with a single gunshot in his chest. Stunned, Velkan met Esperetta's gaze.
She didn't speak as she moved forward to take his hand while the wolves stood their ground. "Gentlemen," she said quietly. "I think most of you have met Illie's family and I believe they'd like a word with you. Alone."
Stephen came to his feet. "Retta..."
"Save it, Stephen. You already told me what I needed to know."
Velkan wasn't sure what he should do, but as Esperetta pulled him from the house, he followed. And as soon as the door was closed behind him, he heard the screams of the men.
He stared in stunned awe of his wife. "I thought you wanted them spared."
"I'm not the girl you married, Velkan. I'm a woman who now understands the way the world works. They wouldn't have stopped coming for us. Ever. Frankie and her family owed a blood debt for what the Order did to her father. I say bon appetit." She stepped into his arms and placed a chaste kiss to his cheek. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"For trying to be a gentleman when I know it goes against every part of your nature."
He took the gun from her hand and threw it into the woods before he cupped her face in his hands. "For you, Esperetta, anything."
She gave him a speculative look. "Anything?"
"Yes."
"Then come and get naked with me. Right now."
Velkan laughed before he kissed her lightly on the lips. And for the first time in his life, he gladly submitted to someone else's orders. "As you wish, Princess."
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT SEARCHER
1
"Isn't it great?"
Rafael Santiago wasn't a religious man in any sense of the word, but as he read the short story Jeff Brinks had published in the SF magazine in his hands, he felt a deep need to cross himself...
Or at the very least, club the college student over the head until he lost all consciousness.
Keeping his expression carefully blank, Rafael slowly closed the magazine and met his Squire's eager look. At twenty-three, Jeff was tall and lean, with dark brown hair and brown eyes. He'd only been a Squire to Rafael for the last couple of months, since Jeff's father had retired. An eager young man, Jeff had been good enough at remembering to pay bills on time, run Rafael's business, and help to protect his immortal status from the unknowing humans. But the one thing Jeff had wanted more than anything else was to publish one of the stories he was always scribbling on.
Now he had...
Rafael tried to remember a time when he'd had dreams of grandeur, too. A time when he'd been human and had wanted to leave his mark on the world.
And just like him, Jeff's dreams were about to get the boy killed. "Have you shown this to anyone else?"
Damn, but Jeff reminded Rafael of a cocker spaniel puppy wanting someone to pet his head even though he'd just unknowingly pissed all over his owner's best shoes. "Not yet, why?"
"Oh, I don't know," Rafael said, stretching the words out and trying to mitigate some of the sarcasm in his tone. "I'm thinking the Night-Searcher series you're starting might be a really bad idea."
Jeff's face fell instantly. "You didn't like the story?"
"Not a question of liking it really. More a question of getting your ass kicked for spilling our secrets."
Jeff furrowed his brow, and by his baffled look it was obvious the boy had no idea what Rafael was talking about. "How do you mean?"
This time there was no way to keep the venom out of his voice. "I know they say to write what you know, but damn, Jeff... Ralph St. James? Night-Searchers? You've written the whole Dark-Hunter/Apollite vampire legend, and I really resent your making me a Taye Diggs clone. Nothing against the man, but other than the occasional bald head, the color of our skin, and a diamond stud in the left ear, we have nothing in common."
Jeff took the magazine from Raphael's hands, flipped to his story, and skimmed a few lines. "I don't understand what you're talking about, Rafael. This isn't about you or the Dark-Hunters. The only thing they have in common is that the Night-Searchers hunt down cursed vampires like the Dark-Hunters do. That's it."
Uh-huh. Rafael looked back at the story again, and even with the magazine upside down his eyes fell straight to the scene. "What about this, where the Taye Diggs look-alike Dark-Hunter is confronting a Daimon who's just stolen a human soul to elongate his life?"
Jeff made a sound of disgust. "That's a Night-Searcher who found a vampire to kill. It has nothing to do with the Dark-Hunters."
Yeah, right. "A vampire who just happens to steal human souls to elongate his life as opposed to the normal Hollywood variety where they live forever on blood?"
"Well, that's just cliche. It's so much better to have vampires who have really short lives and are then compelled, against their wills, and by a hatred fired by envy, to lash out at the human race. Makes it so much more interesting, don't you think?"
Not really. Especially since he was one of the people caught up in that battle. "That is also the reality we live in, Jeff. What you just described is a Daimon, not a vampire."
"Well maybe I borrowed from the Daimons a little, but the rest is all mine."
Rafael flipped to the next page. "Let's see. What about the cursed Tyber race that pissed off the Norse god Odin and is now damned to live only twenty-seven years unless they turn vampire and steal human souls. Substitute 'Apollite' for 'Tyber' and 'Apollo' for 'Odin' and again you have the story of the Apollite race who turn Daimon."
Sighing, Jeff crossed his arms over his chest. He shook his head in denial.
"And what about this part here where the Night-Searchers sell their souls to the Norse goddess Freya, who is a vibrant redheaded femme fatale dressed all in white, to get revenge on whoever caused them to die?"
"No one is going to figure out that Artemis is Freya."
Rafael growled at him. "For the record, unlike Artemis, Freya happens to be a strawberry blonde. But you were right about one thing. She is gorgeous
and highly seductive. Definitely hard to say no to her."
"Oh." Deepening his scowl, Jeff looked up. "How do you know all that?"
Rafael grew quiet as he remembered the night he'd met the Norse goddess and she had tempted him well. That had definitely been one hell of a day... "Freya's the goddess who hand selects warriors for Valhalla. Or in the case of myself, she wanted to take me off with her to her own hall and add me to her harem."
Jeff gaped. "And you chose to fight for Artemis instead, what kind of stupid are you?"
There were times when the kid could be eerily astute. "Yeah, well, in retrospect it was a bad bargain on my part. But at the time, Artemis was offering me vengeance on my enemies it seemed so much more appealing than being Freya's love slave... which gets back to Freya being Artemis in your story."
"But you just said she's not Artemis and she comes after warriors, too. So it could happen. She could make a bargain like the one I wrote about in my story."
And icicles could grow on the sun. Freya collected warriors, she didn't send them back to the mortal plane to fight Daimons/vampires. Artemis did that. But not willing to argue the point anymore when it was obvious Jeff didn't see it, Rafael moved on to the next similarity. "And what about this? Ralph - Jesus, boy, couldn't you come up with something better than a bodily function to name me - was a Caribbean pirate, son of an Ethiopian slave and Brazilian merchant..." He glanced down to read the description. "At six six, Ralph was one to intimidate anyone who saw him. With his shaved head that was tattooed with African tribal symbols given to him by a shaman he'd met in his travels, he walked the earth as if he owned it. But more than that, the black tattoos blended at times with his dark brown flesh, making the two of them seem indistinguishable from each other as if he bore some kind of alien skin."
Unable to read another word of the description that was so eerily close to himself that it made him want to choke his Squire, Rafael let out a disgusted breath. "While I'm both flattered and highly offended, I can assure you, this won't win you a Hugo or Nebula nomination."
Jeff pulled the magazine out of his hands again in a high-handed manner. "I resent that. It's a great story. And you don't exactly have those tattoos, either, now do you?"
Rafael's right eye started twitching from the aggravation. "I have intricate scroll work tattooed up my neck to the base of my skull and like Ralph" - he growled the word - "I have them on both arms. They're close enough to what you describe. No matter how you disguise this trite bullshit, it's my life, Jeff. Penned in an awkward manner. It's things I didn't want to see in black-and-white print. You're lucky after three hundred years that I've mellowed. In my human days, I'd have slit your throat, pulled your tongue through the opening, and left you tied to a tree for the wolves to eat."
"Ew!"
"Yes," he said, taking a step toward the overgrown adolescent, "and effective. Trust me, no one betrayed me twice."
"What about the guy who killed you?"
Rafael's eyes flared as he fought his urge to kill the boy. It was a damn good thing that he liked Jeff's father and the man had served him well for over twenty years. Otherwise Jeff would be meeting with an "accident" right about... oh, now.
Taking a deep breath, Rafael asked in a tone that belied his anger, "I only have one more question. What's the circulation on this rag?"
Jeff shrugged. "I don't know. About one hundred and fifty thousand worldwide, I think."
"You are so dead."
"Oh, come on," Jeff said, dismissing the very real danger he was facing. "You're overreacting. No one is going to care." The best place to hide is out in the open. Haven't you ever heard that? Step out of the Dark Ages, Rafe. Everywhere you look there are vampires and a whole counterculture dedicated to them. Open your mouth to a woman, show her your fangs, and she'll beg you to bite her. Trust me. I have a fake set I wear to parties and use frequently. Nowadays being undead doesn't get you killed. It just makes it easier to get laid."
Rafael shook his head. "Your argument has reached a whole new level of lame."
"Please, spare me that, old wise one. There's a whole new school of thought going around about how best to protect and hide you guys. If we start telling people about the Dark-Hunters, but make them think it's a book series or some urban fantasy thing, when they actually meet one of you, they'll just think you're either actors or roleplayers. Or at the very worst, they'll think you're insane, but never will they believe you're real."
He was seriously considering getting Jeff a CAT scan to make sure the kid still had a brain. "What Einstein came up with this?"
"Well... originally it was Nick Gautier."
"And the poor man is now dead. Shouldn't you guys be following someone else's ideas?"
"No. It makes perfect sense. Get out of the basement, Rafe, and hang with the new generation. We know the 911."
Rafael snorted. "It's 411, Jeff, and you don't know shit. But you are going to need 911 once the Council learns about this."
"I'll be fine, trust me. Nick and I aren't the only ones who think like this these days."
Those words had no sooner left his mouth than Rafael's cell phone started ringing. He checked the ID to see "Ephani." An ancient Amazon who'd crossed over almost three thousand years ago, she was definitely an acquired taste. But even so, he liked her a great deal. Pulling the phone off his belt, he answered it.
"What's up, Amazon?" he asked, stepping away from Jeff while his Squire continued to admire his story in the magazine.
The kid had no sense of self-preservation.
"Hey, Rafe. I... um... I'm not sure how to break this to you, but do you know what your Squire's been up to lately?"
Deciding to play it cool, Rafael cut a glare at Jeff. "Writing the great American novel, what else?"
"Uh-huh. Have you ever read one of those novels he's been working on?"
"Not until today. Why?"
She let out a long sigh. "I'm assuming you have a copy of the Escape Velocity magazine with his story in it, right?"
"I do."
"Good, then it won't come as a shock to you to know that my Squire just left and she's heading over to your house to have a talk with Jeff. If I were you - "
"Say no more. He's leaving the country even as we speak. Thanks for the call, Eph."
"No problem, amigo."
Hanging up the phone, he narrowed his eyes on Jeff. "That was Ephani warning me that you're about twenty minutes from dying."
Jeff's face turned stone white. "What?"
He nodded. "Her Squire, Celena, Ms. Blood Rite, I-kill-anything-that-breaks-formation, is on her way over here to have a word with you. Since Celena isn't real big on conversation, I'm taking that as a euphemism for 'kick your ass.' "
Rafael paused as those words conjured one hell of an image in his mind - Celena kicking his ass in that pair of stiletto corset boots she often wore. And in his mind she was wearing nothing but a thong... Yeah... that was something he definitely wouldn't mind.
A native of Trinidad, Celena had the most perfect mocha complexion he'd ever seen. It was so smooth and inviting that it begged a man to taste it.
And her lips...
Angelina Jolie had nothing on her. She moved slow and seductive like a cat and he'd spent more than his fair share of time wanting her to rub that lean, curvy body of hers up against his.
But unfortunately, she was a Squire and he was a Dark-Hunter. By the rules of their world, she was off limits to him, and though Rafael didn't give two shits about most rules, Celena lived for them.
It was a crime against nature in his opinion that a woman that fine couldn't be corrupted.
"What do I do?" Jeff asked.
"Well, not to insult a man who looks like a rocket scientist in comparison to you, but... run, Forrest, run."
"But I didn't do anything wrong. It's a new era where - "
"Do you really want to argue that point while someone, who is only a few minutes away, is speeding over here to most likely kill you?"
> Jeff paused for a single heartbeat before common sense finally seized him. "Where should I hide?"
If it wasn't for the fact that as a Dark-Hunter Rafael was impervious to illness, he'd swear a migraine was starting right behind his left eye. "Get to the basement and hide there. Don't make a peep and don't leave until I tell you it's safe."
Jeff nodded before he ran for the door. Two seconds later he was back. Rafael watched him with a frown as he searched around the room until he located the baseball bat he'd used yesterday at the batting cages. He picked it up and cradled it to his chest before he headed back toward the basement.
"What are you doing?" Rafael asked.
"Protection."
Yeah, right. Celena was highly trained and deadly. A whack with the bat would only piss her off an instant before she jerked it out of Jeff's hands and beat him with it, but far be it from him to tell Gomer that.
"Hide well," Rafael said, exaggerating his voice.
Jeff nodded again before he dashed down to where Rafael's bedroom and living area were.
Pressing the heel of his hand against his brow where the imagined pain seemed to be located, Rafael glanced around the parlor of his Victorian house to make sure that Jeff hadn't left anything like his underwear lying about. The boy was a good Squire in that he kept up the appearance that someone lived in the house who actually aged but seriously sucked when it came to general housekeeping.
At least for once the place was decent. Except for the Xbox that Jeff had left stretched from the plasma TV to the leather sofa. Rafael had just turned the game off and put it away when he heard a fierce knock on his front door.
Rafael straightened his shirt before he sauntered over to answer it. He could already see Celena's curvy outline though the frosting on the glass. The porch light highlighted her medium brown hair that she wore pulled back from her face to trail in a ponytail of small braids from the crown of her head.
Her lips were perfect and outlined in dark red glossy lipstick. She had catlike almond-shaped eyes and an attractive mole right above the left arch of those lips.
Damn, she was the finest-looking woman he'd ever seen. Opening the door, he gave her the sexiest smile he could. "Hi, Celena."
But she was all business. Her dark brown eyes didn't even glance his way. They went straight past him, into the house.