AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Willy hasn’t been in for about a week. I think he’s back on the wagon, but he’ll fall off again. He always does. Just wait and see.”
“That’s what concerns me. He’s going to go on a bender one of these days and convince himself he can fly. I’m not looking forward to getting a call that he took a nosedive off one of the downtown skyscrapers.” Chase toyed with the soda. “Listen, I didn’t come here just to ask about Willy.”
“No shit, Sherlock. What do you want?” I gave him a toothy grin. Chase and I butted heads a lot, but we’d developed a healthy respect for each other.
“I’ve got a question for you.”
I wiped the counter with a clean rag. The Wayfarer was still fairly packed, but everybody looked happy. Chrysandra was the best waitress I had. I leaned over the counter.
“Sure thing. What’s up?” I said, refilling his glass.
“I’ve got a problem, and I wondered if you’d look into it. I’d ask Delilah—she’s the PI, after all—but this is more along your alley.” He glanced across the bar at me, his dark gaze meeting mine. It used to be that Chase wouldn’t even look at me. Now we were comfortable around one another. More or less.
“What’s going on?”
He shrugged. “I’m not sure if it’s actually anything or not, but here’s the deal. We took a missing person report a couple days ago. Now, normally, I wouldn’t think twice about bringing this to your attention, but the info came through the FH-CSI tip line, and the person who’s missing is a vampire.”
I stared at him. “Who made the report?” Vampires seldom ever approached the authorities about anything. Chase was right to be concerned.
“Don’t know. The line’s set up to provide anonymity. It was a woman’s voice, though. We couldn’t get a trace on the number. She had call block. Anyway, have you heard of the Clockwork Club?”
“I know of it,” I said. “I’ve never been invited to their meetings.”
The Clockwork Club was the opposite of the Fangtabula. A classy, upscale vampire hangout, they didn’t allow blood whores or vamping on the premises. Bottled blood only, and only blood taken from volunteers.
The club reeked of old money. The members had been among the blue-blooded crowd during their life. They ignored both the old-school vamps as well as the sloppier newborns who hadn’t learned how to cope. Elitist and determined to keep it that way, membership was by invitation only. From what I knew, the club’s roster stood at under two hundred along the entire West Coast. There were three branches: one in Seattle, one in Portland, and one in San Francisco.
“A member of theirs, a female vamp, disappeared five nights ago. She hasn’t been seen or heard from since she vanished. Apparently, she managed to pass in society.”
A few vamps struggled to hide their undead status to their friends and family. Some of them managed, at least for a while. Our friend Sassy Branson had kept up her charade for well over three years now. I didn’t consider it a healthy choice, but some vampires took longer than others to learn how to let go of their old lives. Hell, I wasn’t one to talk. Look at how long I’d carried the scars from Dredge before confronting him.
“What happened? You sure she didn’t walk into the sun? You know the suicide rate among vampires is astronomical compared to other Supes.”
Chase shook his head. “No. The woman who left the tip was positive that there’s foul play involved. She told us the name of the girl and her husband. The couple lives here in Seattle. Claudette Kerston was twenty-one at her death. She’s been a vampire for seven years. Apparently, she has a full life, if that’s what you call it. She’s married. Her husband’s still alive. I checked her out. Apparently, the Social Security office had no idea she was dead.” He arched his eyebrows.>My name is Menolly D’Artigo, and I’m a vampire. I’m also half-Fae and half-human. My sisters and I work for the OIA, the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. We were transferred Earthside to keep us out of trouble, but that’s when our problems really blossomed. You see, we promptly discovered that a demon lord from deep in the Subterranean Realms—Shadow Wing—plans on breaking through the portals that separate the different realms. He intends to lead an army of his demons to raze both Earth and Otherworld to the ground and set himself up as king of the land.
My sisters and I are on the front line of the battle. For a while, we were fighting alone, but we’ve been slowly gathering allies. The newly returned Queens of Fae—Earthside—are on our side. In a way.
The elfin Queen, as well as the new Queen of our home-land—Y’Elestrial—are backing us up as much as they can.
And we’ve gathered together members of the Earthside Supe Community and have their pledges of support.
But the fact is that no matter how many allies we count in our ranks, the enemy numbers in the thousands. And demons aren’t easy to kill. Bullets bounce off, they’re hooked on uranium, so radiation’s like a fix. Even bombs can’t wipe them out all that easily.
So here we stand, the brains of the resistance, trying to figure out how to save two worlds, one monster at a time. As a career move, this sucks.
Camille, my oldest sister, is a Moon witch whose magic goes astray too often for comfort. And now she’s delving into death magic, thanks to her youkai husband. Delilah, the second-born, is a two-faced Were, meaning she turns into a golden tabby when the Moon is full or when we’re squabbling. But she’s also recently discovered a second Were form, that of a black panther.
And me? As I said, I’m Menolly D’Artigo. I was an acrobat-slash-spy for the OIA until I fell off the ceiling and got caught by the most sadistic vampire who ever walked the realms. But I had the last laugh and sent a stake through Dredge’s heart. Which is a big no-no among vampires. Frowned-on behavior or not, it felt good. When Dredge realized he was toast at my hands, well, that was the best day of my second life.
So here we are, a small vanguard against a violent threat against all of Fae and humankind. Unfortunately, with friends like us, the world sure doesn’t need any more enemies!
CHAPTER 3
By the time I got back to the Wayfarer, my anger at Wade had retreated to a low boil, just enough to keep a grudge aflame but not enough to do anything about it. I gave Luke a thumbs-up and headed upstairs. Camille gave me a quick once-over and motioned to her chest. I glanced down at my shirt and grimaced. I’d been sloppy. Blood splattered my top.
“Excuse me for a moment,” I said, darting back down the stairs to the back storeroom, where I kept extra clothing. I slid out of the bloody shirt and pulled on a deep indigo turtleneck, checked my jeans to make sure they were still clean, and headed back upstairs.
Once there, I whispered to Camille, “Is my face clean?” I couldn’t look in a mirror to check, and it was hard to tell by feel.
