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“That’s good, right? Do you think you’l ever be free of it?”
“You can kil the source, but some sins are never washed clean. Whatever Karvanak did to you
—can you easily forget that?”
He shook his head. “And that was just my finger and some . . . light torture. What you went through . . . yeah. I get it.”
“Let’s change the subject. Give me the locations where you found the bodies. We can find out if they’re on a ley line, or if they’re near any known vampire nests.” My head had already cleared from the panic and hunger, and I suspected that Chase had somehow had more to do with it than he realized.
“Come on back in the building. I’l have Yugi get the information for you.” He paused at the door.
“Thanks, Menol y. I know you don’t have to help out with things like this—and I realize it takes you away from your real work—but you have to know, I appreciate the assistance.”
For what was not the first time since we’d met, I looked up at the detective and saw yet another facet of his personality shining through. He was human and fal ible, but even the gods had their faults. Johnson had taken more than most FBHs could handle and stil walked through with his head held high. He’d undergone demonic torture and managed to come out relatively unscathed.
He’d fought alongside the rest of us against demons, ghouls, and zombies, and there was no way we could fault his courage. Al in al , his indiscretions aside, Chase was one of the good guys.
I leaned up on my tiptoes and did something I rarely did—even with my sisters. I gave him a peck on the cheek.
He blinked, slowly raising his hand to his cheek. “What was that for?”
“The fact that you have to ask means you earned it, dude. Now shut up and let’s get in there.
We’ve got a serial kil er to catch.”
So—I guess it’s rol cal time. I’m Menol y D’Artigo, jian-tu turned vampire. Jian-tu means . . . wel , the most equivalent job over Earthside would be ninja without so much assassin attached to it. But I fel —literal y—into a nest of vampires. Dredge, the most vil ainous piece of filth that Otherworld had ever seen, caught me, tortured me, raped me, kil ed me, and brought me back as a vampire.
After that, I spent the next year in rehab learning how not to kil my family or friends.
I’m half-Fae, half-human, and along with my sisters Camil e, a wicked good witch and priestess of the Moon Mother, and Delilah, a werecat who’s also a Death Maiden, I work for the Otherworld Intel igence Agency. Or rather, worked. Until a couple weeks ago. You see, last month the queen of our home city-state and her lover—our father— disowned Camil e for traitorous activity. It was a frame-up, not so pure and not so simple. Delilah and I backed her and got ourselves tossed out on our ears, too, so we now al work for Queen Asteria, the monarch of Elqaneve, the elven lands.
We’re in the middle of a nasty demonic war, trying to prevent Shadow Wing, the demon lord in control of the Subterranean Realms, from pul ing a major coup on Earth and Otherworld. To do so, he needs to gather as many of the spirit seals—parts of an ancient artifact—as he can. We’re trying to get to them first, so it’s a race. We’ve managed to keep five away from him. He’s got one.
Three are up for grabs.
So far, we’ve kept him and his hordes at bay, but a month ago they trashed our house and so we’re doing our best to regroup and strengthen ourselves. There are so many variables in this war by now that we’re taking it one day at a time and hoping for the best. But lately the best just seems to mean we get beat up a lot. And a few of our friends have learned the hard way that their connection to us can lead to major injury . . . or death. We do what we can, but one day our luck’s going to run dry.
The best we can hope is that somehow we’l emerge victorious. The worst is that our end wil be as quick and painless as it can be, because frankly, the more mired we get, the less optimistic we are. But until we know which way the pendulum’s going to swing, we’l kick al the demon ass we can, and if we go down, we’l take as many of them with us as we can. Because we know we’re on the right side. And that’s what counts in this cold, heartless world.
As I headed back to the bar, I thought about the meeting with Chase. A vampire serial kil er meant major problems. For one thing, I was persona non grata among the vampires who might give a damn, and a vil ain among those who would cheer the creep on. Which meant that, for al intents and purposes, I was the odd vamp out.
Sassy Branson—the socialite turned vampire who was fostering the one daughter I’d sired—
might help me, although Sassy was having problems of her own, and they were growing more marked. I wasn’t quite so trusting of her as of late. But Wade, the leader of Vampires Anonymous, and the rest of the pack that fol owed him had made it clear I wasn’t welcome anymore.
The bar was jumping when I returned, but Derrick seemed to be handling the crowd in stride. I waved to him and headed into my office.
Chrysandra poked her head in. “Nerissa said to tel you she’s headed out for the night. She’l cal you later.”
“Thanks, chickadee,” I said, mul ing over who might be able to help us out in this situation.
Delilah was ostensibly a PI, but real y that was more for show than anything else, though she was good at ferreting out information. And no way was I sending her out scouting for information on vampires. That was a recipe for disaster. No, we needed help from the undead side of things.
Hesitating, I picked up a cream-colored invitation and stared at it. I hadn’t answered yet—at least, not more than a maybe. But the man who’d sent this, he might be able to help. Technical y, he wasn’t just a man. He was a vampire, but I was very cautious about getting anywhere near him.
With a sigh, I picked up the phone and dialed the number.
Both Kitten and Camil e were waiting up when I got home. I’d cal ed and asked them to haul ass out of bed because we had a few things we needed to discuss, and I didn’t want to wait until tomorrow night.
