“Disgusting. What happens after your fifty years are up?”
“We go back to hell to get re-forged, remade as demons.”
“How does that happen?”
He glanced at her quickly before standing. “Exactly how you think it happens, but about one hundred times worse.”
“Why do you do it, then?” She craned her neck to look at him, shielding her eyes from the sun until he stepped sideways to block the rays.
“Believe me, we’d do anything to get out of it if we could. Almost anything.”
“Do you get to come back?”
“For another tour topside? Of course. There will always be more work and more fun to be had here. Come on.” He reached his hand out. “I’m better. Plus, talking about shit like that is a massive turnoff.”
After a moment of hesitation, she put her hand in his, feeling a shock of heat but nothing unpleasant, and he yanked her to her feet with no effort at all.
Sixteen
“The second-most powerful vampire in this zone has a house in the ’burbs.” Davyn stood in the middle of the street with his arms crossed, staring at a decent-sized, nondescript two-story house with terracotta shingles, and a long stone driveway. “What’s the world coming to?” He understood the iron fence around it, though. Arrows of protection, spelled just like the rest of the place. Seriously strong, too. If the hunter hadn’t been there before, they never would’ve found it. Unless Lamere had hired a flock of mages, there was definitely some Treaty magic involved here.
Davyn caught up with the hunter after she’d already jumped the fence, shook as she crossed the line of magic, and marched up half the driveway. Impressively naive until he noticed the tension in her body. Not going-to-war tension. This was the good old-fashioned fear-based kind that turned even the smartest humans into walking bobble-head dolls. Surprising to see it on her, although they’d both been in Lamere’s place in Montreal, both seen the vamp’s design preferences.
“What’s your plan, hunter? You just going to knock on the front door?” If Lamere was inside, he was stuck there until the sun went down. But daylight didn’t make him any less deadly.
“Hey,” Davyn called. “I didn’t come all the way here to watch you get killed in the first three minutes.” He snagged the hunter’s arm and pulled her behind the thick trunk of a flowering tree. “Let the anticipation build up a little first.”
“I’ll try my best. But…um…” She craned her head to look him in the eye. “You weigh, like, three thousand pounds, so could you get off my toes?”
Deciding not to think about why he was doing this in his corporeal form, Davyn grabbed her by the waist and boosted her onto a branch a few feet above his head. Her scream was muted—good instincts. She threw a quick glare at him before climbing up to the level of the second-story roof. While she shimmied along one branch, holding another for balance, he focused on any nearby minds. Annoyingly, the magic around this place played with his power, blurred it, and that felt like shit. Made him grumpy and want to hurt someone…even more than normal.
He phased up—to prove to himself that he hadn’t completely lost his mind—just as the hunter stepped onto the curved Spanish tiles of the roof.
She crouched down because that’s what humans did to keep from being noticed. When Davyn was corporeal, no amount of crouching could keep him from being noticed. Plus, hiding took time and patience he didn’t have. Supernaturals weren’t too big on human types of security, so all the second floor windows were unlocked. He let her pick which one they went through because she’d been here at some point, and her instincts weren’t terrible. That said, he went in first just in case, telling her he didn’t want to get her blood on his shoes if she walked into something deadly.
One by one, they went through the rooms upstairs—all completely empty. No furniture, artwork, or vampires hanging from the wall bleeding out.
“Maybe he moved into a place with a bigger torture room,” Davyn said.
The hunter stumbled when she walked through the last door in the hallway, stopping so abruptly Davyn almost stepped on her again. The Master bedroom. The bed itself was huge and covered with conveniently dark red pillows. Vampires weren’t known for their originality, but nothing about the room screamed “a bloodsucker sleeps here with his victims occasionally.” The walls weren’t black, the chandelier was electric, and the rug looked like something an angel would pick out. No blood splatter, squeaky wood floors, or anything else from a horror movie. Definitely nothing that explained the hunter’s wide eyes and pale skin.
He left her to deal with her issues and headed for the staircase. None of the rooms downstairs had much in them, either—a couple bottles of booze and a single glass in the kitchen, a long table with only one chair in the dining room.
“The vamp must do a lot of entertaining.” When he realized he was talking to himself, he wondered if the hunter had gotten into any trouble without him. He shouldn’t have wandered away from her.
Finally, he found her standing in front of a wide wooden door. Basement probably. “Gonna open it?”
“It’s locked. Magically.”
“No, it’s not.” Figuring they had enough annoying crap going on today, he phased through the door and popped the lock from the inside. When he opened it, she looked shocked.
“That was…”
“Shut up.” He turned around and walked down a stone staircase. “Nice.” Guaranteed, this was the only house on the block to have one of these. The hunter stayed a foot behind him, stopping at exactly the same moment he did.
“Do you smell that?” he asked.
“You mean the horrible stench? Who can’t smell that?” Anyone who wasn’t part of the Heights wouldn’t recognize the stench of hell, but that’s not what he meant.
“Someone’s been playing around with portals down here.” The smell would be burning the hunter’s eyes if the hell-gate was actually open, but maybe this was where Lamere brought the lower-level demons through. “If your eyes start to sting, get out of here as fast as you can. Understand?”
Davyn moved slowly, knowing she was getting impatient and not caring—he needed time and focus to sense any minds close by. The magic here blurred his senses like static on the radio. Then a whine made it through. “Female. Not human but something close.” A seer, maybe, or even a witch, he couldn’t tell.
“What are you—?”
He silenced her with a hand. “Hurting, but not Otis-level hurting.” He jerked when he heard a cry for help on top of the whimpering. “I think there are two of them.” Which made three too many females, including the hunter. But no vampires. “Don’t get distracted. We’re not here for them. We’re here for him.”
“Thanks for reminding me why I decided to come here,” she mocked. “You know, someday you’re going to stop treating me like I’m so beneath you.”
“Yeah, probably on the same day you’re beneath me.” He tilted his head and smirked. “Wait, you’re talking about while we’re naked, right?” He ignored her growl and started down the stairs again, maneuvering his bulk to make sure she didn’t sneak past him.
The stone room at the bottom of the stairs formed a circle fifty-feet wide. Two exits, including the one they were currently occupying, and another directly opposite. Unfortunately, Davyn immediately recognized the dark crater taking up the middle of the room. Scorch marks blackened the floor, leaving a path about ten-feet wide going all the way around.
Now that was a well-used portal. Completely unprotected as far as he could tell. No salt, no charms, no good.
Gasping, the hunter jumped around him and ran the perimeter of the room before he could grab her.
He cursed when he realized the fuzz of power in here conflicted with his own and he couldn’t phase without some serious effort. On the second try, he caught up to the hunter by phasing in between her and whatever she was running towards.
“What the fuck are you doing? Laps?”
When she shoved him sideways,
he let her move him, if only to stop her from rebounding right off the path. Everything in this place was dangerous—the closer to the center, the worse that danger got. It would be really smart to leave right now. He turned around and saw what she was running for. The two females he’d heard were chained to the wall, probably in the same spot Lamere had the hunter strung up three years ago. She slid to the ground next to the first woman, shaking her and telling her they would get them out.
“I thought we just had this conversation,” he grumbled. “We’re not here for them.”
She glanced up, her eyes narrowing when she saw what a hurry he wasn’t in to save these women. “It will take you two seconds. Please.”
“Me?” Then he understood what she meant. Wow. There were no chains, ropes, or anything else visibly attaching the women to the wall. Made sense considering what a psycho Lamere was—those things left marks when someone struggled, and he preferred to leave his own marks. Plus, there was something perverse about having nothing physical binding you somewhere horrible, but still not being able to leave.
“Fine, but they’re walking out on their own. I’m not a firefighter.” Those people always ruined everything fun. Davyn ran his hand across the wall until he found the magical connection between the woman and the wall. That vampire had some cool and extremely hard-to-come-by shit, and now Davyn was going to send a pulse of very high heat into it and ruin the thing. “We’re leaving now.”
With a sob, the woman collapsed forward into the hunter’s arms.
“Now the other.” She flicked her head towards the next woman. “Then we’ll go.”
“Remind me to never let you take me anywhere again.” But if he didn’t do it, he’d have to listen to the hunter whine, and it would end up taking them longer to get out. For some reason, Lamere had used a much stronger tie for the second woman. Since she didn’t have anyone to catch her when she was released, she nose-planted.
“Tada,” he said. “Now she’s free to lie on the floor.” Well worth their time and the danger of hanging around here.
When he turned around to the hunter, he cursed again. “I told you to tell me when they started stinging, damn it!” Her eyes were red and tears dripped down her cheeks. Not from sadness. “Out! Now!” Before they found out what was going to come out of that pit.
The other woman’s dead weight made it hard for the hunter to even stand.
“Leave her!” He was impressed with her when she lowered the woman to the ground, and then far less impressed with himself when he saw what he should’ve been paying attention to instead. Not the hunter or two limp women, not even the portal just beginning to come to life. What he should’ve been focusing on was locating the vampire and the demon who’d come out of that other door and were now walking towards them from either direction.
“Still so beautiful, chérie.” Lamere’s eyes were rapt like a lover’s—focused on one thing and one thing only. The hunter. She didn’t say anything, her bravado and meager human toughness evaporating as soon as she saw him.
“Wow. Could you get any creepier, vamp?” Davyn stepped closer to her. “Seriously, you should offer a class or something.” The words redirected Lamere’s focus for only a moment, at least long enough for her to inhale. And enough time for Davyn to assess their current situation’s level of horribleness.
An asshole on either side blocking the exits, a hunter who seemed to be shocked-stupid, two almost-dead women to trip over, his own power being pretty glitchy, and a portal to hell right in front of them that was about to open and let who knows what come out. What could possibly go wrong?
“All jokes aside,” Davyn said, “your man cave is really impressive and, while I try not to say too much about another guy’s hole, yours is huge. How many have you let in and out of it?”
“Would you like to see it more closely?” Either the vamp didn’t have a sense of humor or Davyn was— Nah, the vamp didn’t have a sense of humor.
He smacked the hunter in the arm to wake her up and whispered, “I know you’d rather take on the good-looking one, but since you seem a little distracted right now, I’d like you to keep the fucking ugly one occupied for a second. Can you do that without dying?”
She looked up at him, her eyes still wide and leaking all over the place, and he had to remind himself her tears were because of the portal. Then he had to remind himself that he shouldn’t care what caused them.
As soon as she nodded, he turned towards Lamere and pushed the second women they’d released out of the way with his foot. Unfortunately, that woke her up.
“Oh shit,” he said, just before it hit the fan.
Seventeen
The female vampire stood, staring at Davyn with eyes that were hypnotic, lifeless and predatory simultaneously. A soulless vampire was beyond a dangerous thing, way worse than the others—Lamere being the exception, of course. Unpredictable, without conscience, probably with some seriously bad judgment.
Davyn stepped back, trying to assess a situation no one had ever been in before. He’d never seen one, never thought he would. Who’d be stupid enough—? Oh, right. He finally understood what Lamere was offering the demon he summoned. Not a bad deal if you’re a psychopath.
He’d bet money that half the woman’s soul was in Drinod now. That motherfucker had stolen her soul while she was human and able to tether him to this world for as long as she was in it. Lucky for him, Lamere had then made her immortal. So the demon would get to stay topside forever, and the newbie vampire would be eternally ruined and incredibly dangerous.
“You released her,” Lamere said, staying back. “That was unwise.”
“No shit.” He tried not to move too quickly, not wanting to provoke her until he understood what he’d be dealing with. Already, he heard sounds of a struggle behind him. The hunter was probably doing what she did so well—hitting low and fast, using the demon’s newness to his own physical form in this world against him.
“Once she is fully awake, her bloodlust will begin. Nothing human will be safe.”
“She doesn’t have a soul, asshole. Nothing inhuman will be safe, either.” He couldn’t die, but he could bleed a lot. “Even other vampires.”
“Exactly why I invited the demon to come here,” he said, nodding, “and why the portal is opening.”
“You’re sending just her?” When the vamp didn’t answer, Davyn had his. “Wow, you gotta have some huge balls to break a deal with a demon.”
“I did what I promised to do. This is something entirely separate from our deal.”
“Hey, Drinod!” Davyn called, laughing. “Did you know your employer opened that gate for you and your new girlfriend?” Once they went through, the soul Drinod had stolen would become the heaviest kind of burden, enough to drag him all the way down to Level Nine.
“What?” the demon roared.
Lamere grimaced. “Again, something unwise for you to do.”
Davyn heard a thump, a grunt, and then saw something skitter across the ground. He glanced behind him to see if the hunter was all right, and turned right back when he felt something stab him in the chest. The blade went deep, to the hilt, and then the bitch turned it.
“Fuck!” He snapped her neck and shoved her backwards. Unfortunately, a broken neck wouldn’t keep her down too long. “That hurt!” He yanked the knife out, recognizing it and spinning around again towards its owner. “Puppet, you okay?”
Drinod’s eyes were burning, but he wasn’t looking at the hunter. He stared over her head and Davyn’s shoulder, his hands forming a ball.
“You’re weak, Lamere. A ridiculous waste of life on this planet.” The demon could throw all the insults he wanted at the vamp, but the demon fire should wait until everybody else was out of collateral-damage range. “You think to control me? Me?”
Davyn lunged for the hunter, grabbing her waist and pulling her down right before the first ball flew through the exact location she’d been standing in. He turned over and got to his feet, watching as Lam
ere took off running for the closest emergency exit.
“Coward!” Actually, the vamp had done the right thing, the thing Davyn should’ve done as soon as he’d seen the portal. The thing he was going to do now. Davyn pulled the hunter off the ground, and then shoved her behind him when he saw the next ball of fire. It hit him, ricocheting off his shoulder and flying towards the pit. They all watched it stop just above the portal’s center, hovering momentarily before being sucked straight down below the earth.
“Fuck!” he and Drinod said together. The pull immediately got more powerful, the force picking up as the gate started to open. While the lower-level demon was distracted by his fear of having to go back with his shiny new soul, Davyn moved close enough to grab him. As soon as he had a fistful of the bastard, he flung Drinod off the path. Shrieking, the demon stumbled backwards, his hooves sliding until he fell onto all fours. Then all fours slid, the strength of an open hell gate impossibly stronger than anyone who belonged on the other side. He yelled, begged, and then screamed as he was pulled down like a bug into a vacuum cleaner. Kind of fitting, actually.
Davyn didn’t need to watch it all go down—it would probably give him nightmares. He just had one more issue to take care of. Make that a big issue.
The female vampire had risen and—maybe by accident, maybe because she didn’t know how bad things were about to be for her—she’d stepped off the path. The only thing keeping her from being dragged into the pit was a little over five feet of deluded courage. The hunter’s toes were at the edge of the scorch zone and, even using her entire body weight to pull back, she was barely creating an angle.
“Let her go, puppet!” Or she’d go down, too.
“No, I got her!” the hunter shouted as he grabbed hold of her arm. “Go after Lamere!”