Putting my foot on the windowsill, I levered myself up and over, cautiously jumping through to land inside the room. My boots scrunched on the broken glass as I hit the floor, and I quickly crouched down, just in case anything might have noticed me. After a moment, the silence of the room echoed around me and I slowly rose up as my eyes adjusted.
The room was dark, and even with my eyesight being what it was—vampires could see better in the dark than just about any other creature—it was hard to make out how big the chamber I was in, or what else might be lurking in the shadows.
I cautiously moved forward, feeling my way through the darkness. I had a miniature flashlight on my keychain, but if I used it, then I would alert anything or anybody else in the area. As I skirted the room, edging to my right, I began to see nuances in the darkness—dim light from the streetlamps outside filtered through some of the barricaded windows. A table here, a chair there . . . what appeared to be the remains of a broken-down sofa that smelled terribly musty but wasn’t infested by mold yet. Apparently, there weren’t any leaks, though with the window I’d broken, that could easily change.
I still didn’t have a handle on what this place had been until I nudged into a sign leaning against a desk of some sort. Frustrated with the slow going, wondering where the scream had come from, I finally flicked on my flashlight.
ROSELLE’S DAY LABOR. So this office had been a temporary employment agency. While the light was on, I flashed the beam around the rest of the room for a quick look. Nothing in particular stood out.
As I was trying to get my bearings, another scream echoed in the building, this time from higher up. I could hear it through the ceiling, and this time I could smell the fear and I could smell blood. That wasn’t any ghost, that was a woman.
Catching sight of a door, I raced for it, ignoring the noise I was making. As I slammed through—breaking it off the hinges—the scream echoed once more. My flashlight showed me that I was in a hallway, near a door marked STAIRS, and so I grabbed the handle and pulled. It was locked. But locked doors weren’t really a problem for me. Gritting my teeth, I gave it a good yank. Metal screeched as the hinges twisted. I put my weight into it, and the door gave way as I ripped it off the hinges. Sending it flying behind me, the door splintered as it hit the wall.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I flew up them, pouring on the speed. The scream had sounded from the floor above, and so I busted through the second-story stairwell door, shoulder-butting it to slam it back against the wall. Stumbling through the opening, I found myself in a large open room, dimly lit by a handful of scattered candles.
Figures vanished into the shadows. Vampires—I could sense my own kind. At least three of them.
What they’d been up to was obvious. A woman lay on a dirty mattress in the middle of the room, either dead or comatose. Her clothing had been ripped away and blood trickled down from her neck, from her nipples, from between her thighs. I winced, grateful she wasn’t awake at the moment. Please, let her be alive, I whispered. This was no way to die.
I debated. I could either take on the other vamps and chance letting her die—if she was still alive. Or I could bundle her up and get the fuck out of there. I wanted to follow them into the shadows, to drag them out by their hair and make them pay, but then—in the silence of my hesitation—I caught the faint sound of the woman’s breath.
Her chest rose and fell in a shallow beat. She was still breathing.
Hurrying before they figured out that I was alone, I gathered her up in my arms. Her flowing blood set off my hunger but I drove it back and made for the stairs. I took them two at a time, until I reached the first floor, and raced into the first room I’d entered. Shouts echoed down the stairwell from behind me. Apparently the other vamps had worked out that I wasn’t leading an army, and no doubt they were planning on retrieving their stolen toy.
At the window, I debated the best way to get her out without hurting her further. Finally, I cautiously lifted her through the broken window and lowered her to the ground. She slowly crumpled to the sidewalk. Then, leaping out to land beside her in a crouch, I pulled out my phone and speed-dialed Camille.
“Where are you?”
“Almost there. You sound harried.”
“I just climbed out of the building across the street from the park. I have a wounded woman with me—vamp attack. She’s alive, but she’s really roughed up. The other vamps are behind me. I’m going to lock her in my car and go back in—we can’t let them run loose. Roman’s right, there’s trouble going down in the vamp community.”
Camille was brusque. “No. Wait for us. We’re just around the corner. Make sure the woman is safe and I’ll call the FH-CSI to send a medic unit.” She signed off.
I gathered up the woman in my arms and, still ignoring the allure of her blood, bundled her over to my car and into the backseat. I checked her pulse again—the beat was thread but definite. She was so pale I could tell she’d lost a lot of blood. Her features made me wonder if she was Fae, but there was no time to focus on her ethnicity. Right now, I just needed to keep her alive.
Opening the trunk, I pulled out a blanket—we all kept emergency supplies in our cars for situations just like this one—and covered her to try to keep her from going into shock. The blood on her neck had slowed to a trickle. Reluctantly, I examined her thighs to check on the damage.
She’d been bitten in the femoral artery, but there was a coagulant in vampires’ saliva—including mine—that slowed the flow of blood. We used it when we chose to leave our victims alive—often if a vampire was building a stable of bloodwhores. Apparently, they had chosen to keep her alive, probably for their fun and games. I also noticed bruising around her labia and inner thighs, and—with growing trepidation—I took a closer look.
Holy fuck. They’d fed from her clit. The fang marks were savage and my temper began to boil. I’d been tortured by the vampire who sired me—tortured like this, and worse. As my fury began to rise, all I could think about was finding these freaks and staking them to dust. I pulled out my phone and called Roman, but he wasn’t picking up. I left a message, then went back to tucking a blanket around the woman.
As I slipped quietly out of the car, locking it behind me, I saw Camille’s Lexus and Delilah’s Jeep pull in behind my Mustang.
They got out and hurried over. I pointed to my car. “She’s in there, and she’s badly hurt. They’ve been toying with her for a while. Have you got stakes?” I didn’t like the question, it was one that personally touched me, considering I was also a vampire, but the fact was, the only way we could take care of these freaks was to wipe them out and that meant stakes, fire, or sunlight.
“We have our emergency kits in the back. You can thank Rozurial for that.” Camille opened her trunk and pulled out a duffle bag filled with weapons. She unzipped it and pulled out five stakes and five little red balls—magical firebombs. “We have pointy sticks and fire. We can roast ’em on a spit!”
I stifled a snort. “Good. I have a couple in the back of my car. Delilah? You have pretty much the same setup?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Let’s roll. Oh, by the way, Carter wants to see us when we’re done.”
Carter was a friend who was also half-demon, half-Titan. He had answers when we needed them, usually.
“I want to see him, too. Camille, somebody has to stay here with the victim, to wait for the FH-CSI to get here. You’re best suited for that.”
I tried to avoid saying that she’d be the most vulnerable, but that’s the way it came out, regardless of my wording. But she just nodded. We were beyond the point of taking offense by now. We’d come through too much to lie to ourselves about our strengths—and our weaknesses.
“Will do. After they get here, I’ll head in if you’re still involved.”
Delilah and I went in, she armed with a stake rather than her dagger. By nature, I was a weapon without an
y extra toys. And we had flashlights, stakes, and the firebombs, although we left a couple with Camille on the off chance that the vamps might sneak up on her.
I clambered through the window. Delilah slipped in behind me, easily swinging over the broken sill. A moment later, there was a soft shuffle and one of the shadows to my right lunged forward.
“Heads up!” I whirled around.
Delilah raised the stake as she assumed battle position.
I intercepted the vampire heading toward her, even as the second fell on my back. They were hellaciously strong. I was fighting both a man and a woman.
I slammed hard against the one I’d intercepted, taking her down to the floor beneath me, even as the male vamp wrapped his arms around my throat. He couldn’t break my neck, or rather—even if he did, it wouldn’t affect me other than to discombobulate me. But if he could get his fangs in me, he could try to drain me until I was too weak to fight.
As the woman and I went down, I kneed her in the stomach, hard. Something cracked. Whether it was a bone or cartilage or whatnot, I wasn’t sure, but I laughed as she let out a loud “Ooph.”
“Bitch,” she said with a hiss, wrapping her arms around my waist.
A second later and the male lodged against my back vanished as a shower of ash wafted up and around me. Delilah let out a low laugh. She had managed to stake him while his back was turned.
Free from his grasp, I plunged my teeth into the female vamp’s neck and ripped at her jugular. She screamed as I tore a piece of flesh away from her throat, and the next moment, she vanished and a bat appeared, wavering slightly as she tried to fly away.
Delilah leapt forward, turning into Panther as she did so, and snatched the flying rodent clean out of the air, biting hard. The bat squeaked as I brought out one of the firebombs and shoved it into the creature’s mouth. Delilah dropped it, and as the vampire fell to the floor, the bomb exploded, sending sparks everywhere. I jumped back, trying to avoid the sizzling shower.
As flames shot up, incinerating the vampire, they caught hold of the ragged edge of the sofa and it went up like a light. The fire spread, racing through the tinder-dry wood and detritus littered around the room. Delilah grabbed me by the arm, once again back to her normal self.
“We have to get out of here. This building’s old and the wood’s dry. It’s going to go up like a matchstick.” She dragged me to the window, and for once, I followed without protest. The other vampires could be anywhere, and chances are they’d already fled the scene, especially if they sensed smoke and fire.
As we slipped out the window, across the street I could see the FH-CSI medic unit under the glow of a streetlamp. The woman lay on a stretcher, with an IV going in her arm. Camille was staring in horror at the smoke billowing from the building, but a look of relief swept across her face when she saw us.
Delilah held up a stake. “I retrieved this one after stabbing the vampire. I don’t like to waste things.”
As I stared at it, a thought crossed my mind. “Maybe we can get some sort of read off of it—as to who was on the receiving end. We’re headed toward Carter’s next. He might be able to help us.”
As we crossed the street, the sound of sirens echoed in the distance. The medic unit must have called in the fire department. Camille ran over to us.
“What happened? Did you get them?”
“Two of them—but I know for a fact they were more.”
Even as I spoke, I glanced in the sky. Against the cloud cover, the shapes of five bats glided silently into the night. I thought about shifting form to follow them, but that would be foolhardy. However, now we knew there had been at least seven vampires in the building. Maybe more. Seven rogue vamps.
“How is she?” I nodded toward the stretcher.
Mallen, chief of the medical unit now that Sharah was gone, frowned. “She lost a lot of blood so we have her on a transfusion. If she dies, I don’t know if she’d turn. We can’t tell if she ingested any blood. However, she’s beat up and bruised. I guarantee you she’s been raped. Her genitals are pretty torn up down there. She’s still unconscious and I’m not sure how much that has to do with her injuries, or exhaustion, or both. We’ll know more once we get her into the emergency room.”
He pushed past me. “Sorry, but we’ve got to get a move on. She needs all the help she can get. I’ll call you with anything new.”
As the ambulance sped away, I turned to Delilah and Camille. “I suppose, while we’re here, we should have a look at the park.” I gave them the rundown that Roman had given me. “When I got here, I sensed energy coming from that building, and you know I don’t usually sense energy the way you do. Camille, can you feel anything that might be other than vampire?”
She walked into the street—there was little to no traffic—and held out her hands toward the building. A moment later, a gust of wind, or what I thought was wind, rushed past and belted into her back, shoving her forward to land on her hands and knees. She let out a shout as Delilah ran over to help her up.
“Are you all right? Anything broken?”
“No, but fucking hell.” She brushed herself off, examining the palms of her hands, which were abraded from the asphalt. Luckily, she’d dressed for action, meaning she was wearing her Emma Peel cat suit and kitten-heeled granny boots instead of her usual corset, skirt, and stilettos. Which meant her knees were relatively unscathed.
“All I know is I felt a rush of wind and then you went flying.”
“Well, something shoved me. Hands, no less.” She turned to stare at the park. “It came from the park. I swear I heard laughter.”
Severance Park loomed in the night, the maples barren and stark against the sky. Firs towered behind them, dark silhouettes in the oncoming storm. A lone path led through wrought iron gates. I shuddered. Iron—wrought, cast, and pure—so not our friends. We were half-Fae, half-human. Even at half-blood, cast, wrought, and pure iron was anathema to us, although I would heal a lot quicker and hurt a lot less, given my vampiric nature.
The mouth of the path was overgrown and wild, reminding me of the entrance to a tunnel or cave. The vegetation hadn’t been trimmed back in a long time, and weeds cracked through the pavement. The prospect of heading into the park, which stretched for several blocks, dark and overgrown, wasn’t exactly on my bucket list.
“Should we?” I turned to the others.
Camille shook her head. “There’s something in there, all right, but I’d rather do some research first. We don’t know where the other vampires went. If they’re rogues, there might be more of them. We’re good, but even with you along, we can’t fight off a full nest.”
“Agreed.” Delilah echoed the sentiment. “We go visit Carter, see what he wanted to talk to us about, and ask him if he knows anything about what’s going on. How many deaths did you say Roman thinks have occurred?”
I frowned. “Five newly minted vampires taken down in the past week, total. Several bodies that vanished without a trace. So . . . quite a few. Somebody out there is on a killing spree, and intent on creating a nest of followers.”
“Then, I vote we adjourn and head over to Carter’s.” Camille edged her way toward her Lexus, staring at the sky. “We’re in for one hell of a storm, I can tell you that. It’s going to break at any moment.”
After the sentient storm that had destroyed Elqaneve—the Elfin city in Otherworld—every time she mentioned the weather, I grew uneasy. But we were Earthside, and while the sentient storm was still raging across the face of our homeland, so far, it hadn’t crossed between the realms.
“See you there. I hope by then Mallen will have news on the woman I found. If she lives, maybe she’ll remember something that will help us.” I pulled out the keys to my Mustang. The backseat of my brand-new car was tinged with blood. So much for spotless. But then again, nothing we ever did seemed to remain in a pristine state.
As we pulled away from Severance Park, I glanced in the rearview mirror. There was a flash of green from the trees. A sickly, olive green that made my stomach turn. Yeah, something was going on there. And we were right in line to find out.
Chapter 2
As I followed Camille’s Lexus through the Broadway district, I felt a wistful tug. The Wayfarer—my bar, a few streets over—had burned to the ground about two weeks ago. Arson, actually. Eight people died, including one of my waitresses and friends—Chrysandra. The whole mess still made me sick, and even though we’d taken out the person primarily responsible, I had a lot of unresolved rage simmering at a low boil.
But I would rebuild and the Wayfarer, which had originally been a human hangout, would take on my style. If anything good could emerge from the arson, it was that I could rebuild from the ground up and really make the Wayfarer my bar.
***
When we’d first come Earthside, I’d been assigned a job as the bartender in the bar, and it had been my cover. My sisters and I work for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. Back then we were lackeys, exiled over Earthside due to poor performances. Now, we run the Earthside division. We’ve managed to turn what was essentially a sentence of exile into a thriving success. Well, if you can call being on the front lines of a demonic war a success.
I’m Menolly, the youngest of the D’Artigo girls. And as I said, I’m a vampire. I used to be a jian-tu, a spy of sorts, for the OIA back in Otherworld, until I fell into a nest of vampires. That’s where Dredge—the most vicious bloodsucker that ever walked either world—got hold of me. He tortured me in ways I can never forget, then killed and turned me. Afterward, he sent me home to destroy my family, but thanks to Camille, that little plan didn’t work. The OIA took me in since the whole mess had been their fault in the first place, they rehabilitated me, and I managed to survive, sanity returning after a year.