Dead Rising (25 page)

He turned to me, his eyes cold. “No. We are a family. There will be no turning over of anyone. Jean-Marc is dead. The master of the
Balaj
at the time of the murders is dead. If that doesn’t satisfy this necromancer of yours then we will hunt him down ourselves and kill him.”

I had a feeling just the knowledge of Aubin and Jean Marc’s deaths wouldn’t be enough. Although maybe there was some way I could spin this. “How did they die? Rogue vampires outside the city? A savvy human? Drank bad blood?”

“We killed them.”

That, I did not expect.

“It was decades in the planning. Some of us didn’t like where Aubin had been heading with the
Balaj
, but as his blood-children, we were sworn to obey him. I won’t go into details, but suffice it to say there was a coup.”

I was already thinking about how I could relay this information to gain Russell’s buy-in for a peaceful resolution. Could I claim that the current members of the
Balaj
not been involved in the murder of his family, had ousted those who were and killed them?

“I’ll help resolve this without bloodshed, and come to a solution that works for both your family and this necromancer.”

“Like hell you will.” The vampire snarled, and I felt a return of that fear I’d felt when I’d been locked in the basement last night. “There has already been bloodshed. This human has attacked my family, murdered my brothers and sisters. For that, he’ll die.”

It sounded eerily like what Russell had said. “How about nobody else dies? This guy lost his entire family to your
Balaj
. He’s got reasons for what he’s doing.”

Dario turned so all I could see was his back. “That was forty years ago. What’s happening right now is my concern. I won’t let any more of my family die at this man’s hands. And as much as I respect your abilities as a Templar, I can’t put my faith in your reassurances that you can ‘handle this.’”

Everything was falling apart right in front of my face. No wonder Templars just stood back and let God sort it all out.

“What if I help you defend against the spirits? I’ll neutralize them each night until I can manage to come to a peaceable solution.”

The vampire’s laugh held three hundred years of bitterness. “Oh, like you did last night? Your pathway-of-light spell severely burned two of us. Any vampire who falls into that light is going to wind up cooked, and there’ll be no coming back for them the next night like there is for the spirits.”

He was right, but I had a few other ideas up my sleeve. “I can banish. It won’t create a holy area like the pathway blessing, it will just return the dead to their graves.”

Dario turned to face me. “Us too? Because we’re technically dead, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“But not really,” I argued. “Your spirit selves haven’t been released from your bodies. If I can come up with something that—”

“No.” He slammed a hand down on my table, cracking the wood. “You’ve done enough. Stay out of it. Just…just stay out of it.”

I wasn’t sure if he was worried I’d do more harm than good, if he didn’t want me to interfere with the massacre that was about to commence, or if he just wanted me gone from his life.

“Please.” I had no reason to ask him this, but still I did. “Please let me try first. Stay out of Leonora’s house tonight so the necromancer has to search for you. Give me twenty-four hours.”

Dario’s eyes met mine. “There are reasons why we can’t abandon Leonora’s house, reasons that have nothing to do with this. And a lot of my brothers and sisters could die in twenty-four hours. More if he finds our daytime resting spots.”

“Please.” I let the word hang between us and held my breath.

“No. This is an internal matter between us and this necromancer. Your services are no longer needed.”

Ouch. I needed to do something to buy time. I needed to help fix this, to redeem myself in his eyes.

“Let me help. There will be repercussions if you do this your way. You’ve already killed a whole bunch of people who may have had nothing to do with this. What if you get the wrong guy? Or what if you get the right one? Continuing to kill in retaliation is going to set up a chain of events that might not end with his death.”

“What, if the Templars get involved, you mean?” Dario’s voice was soft. “Are you threatening me, Aria? Be very careful where you’re going with this. I doubt even your own family is going to care about a
Balaj
and a practitioner of the dark arts duking it out, and you are only one Templar. One. How much can you do against so many of us?”

I winced, knowing full well I didn’t have the strength to take them on solo, and that there would be no Knights to back me up in this. Still, I wasn’t the only human who would take exception to a series of murders. “What if your gang partners join forces to take your
Balaj
down? What if they partner with some of the rogue vampires outside the city? What if the feds get involved?”

He raised an eyebrow. “You think we can’t handle that? I can’t say either of those scenarios would be pleasant but neither would damage us more than letting this necromancer live.”

Threats were clearly the wrong angle. “Give me two nights, Dario. Tonight and tomorrow night and I’ll make this right.” I wracked my brain, trying to think of something I could propose in exchange. An alliance with the
Balaj
seemed a paltry offering given I wasn’t even a Knight. Plus I wasn’t convinced I
could
partner with them long-term and keep my sense of morality, as shaky as it might be.

He laughed. “Oh yes. Please go ahead and take a few nights to work something out while I lose a dozen or so brothers and sisters. No problem, we’ll just sit back and accept our losses. It’s a small price to pay to save the life of
one
necromancer.”

I had nothing. “Please, Dario. I don’t want things to end like this, with you hating me and blaming me for the deaths last night. Evacuate Leonora’s place. The necromancer will need another day or two to find another one of your houses to attack. I’ll try to get him to call things off, and I’ll work on a spell that will banish the spirits without harming any of your family.” I blinked, ignoring the sting of tears in my eyes. “Please. Give me a chance to redeem myself, to make this right.”

A muscle in his jaw twitched. “Twenty-four hours. I’ll give you until tomorrow night to get him to back down, otherwise we’re going after him. I can’t guarantee what we’ll do with Leonora’s house. Just be aware that if things go bad tonight, I might not be able to hold them back.”

I let out the breath, knowing this was the best I could hope for.

“I know you need to head out to feed and to safeguard the
Balaj
, but can you stay just a few more minutes? I want to try something. Are you up for being my guinea pig?”

Yeah, like that was going to happen. I needed a vampire to see how these spells might possibly affect them, though. Dario was the only vampire I was somewhat friendly with, although after tonight I wasn’t sure how friendly we were going to be going forward.

He hesitated, looking at the sword at the end of my table before he replied. “No.”

I bit back a smile, realizing humor wasn’t really appropriate at this moment. “Not that. I want to try a non-Templar spell, one that deals with banishment of the dead but is more specific and without the religious slant to it.”

His eyes narrowed. “Make it fast. And I’m going to be really pissed if you kill me.”

Yeah, that would upset me, too. “I’m not going to hit you with it full force. I just want to see if you’re excluded from the area of effect or not. Worst case scenario is you have some minor pain.”

I hated to do this, but needed to know if this spell was going to work or not. And if it was going to wind up putting vampires in their graves as well as the spirits.

Dario folded his arms across his chest, still looking unconvinced. “Okay. But if I say ‘stop’, you need to end the spell. Got it?”

“Got it.”

I left my sword on the table, and motioned Dario to follow me over next to the window. Mindful of his impatience to get out of here, I gathered my supplies and set them up around the room.

“Stand as close to the bookcases as you can,” I instructed, lighting the candles and tracing a symbol in salt around each one. “The incense is going to burn out fast. Let me know if you feel any discomfort or…anything.”

Dario raised an eyebrow, watching as I lit the tiny button of incense.

“
Durmir unha vez
.” To my eye, nothing happened. But since there wasn’t a ghost or spectral being within the confines of the candlelit circle, that wasn’t surprising. “Can you feel it?”

“Yes,” Dario squinted. “It hurts my chest. It’s a sort of pressure, and sharp prickling feeling combined.”

That wasn’t good. If he felt the pull of the spell from the outside, then vampires would most definitely be affected by it. Somehow I’d need to keep the vampires on the outside and the spirits on the inside as I lit the incense. Not easy given that the spirits would be attacking the vampires, and thus right on top of them.

“Can you enter the circle? Cross the line of salt?”

Dario raised a hand to shield his eyes. “You’re kidding, right? I can feel it from here. There’s no way I’m going to come any closer.”

He had a point. I sighed. “This will banish the spirits. Bam. Gone for the night. The only hitch is that you all can’t be in the house when I’m doing it.”

The incense fizzled into ash, and I began to extinguish the candle flames.

Dario frowned. “Just give it up, Aria. We’ll take care of this.”

I wasn’t about to give this up. “No. I’ll spend the night researching this. Is there someone from your
Balaj
that you can send over to help? I promise nothing will happen to him. I just need someone to tell me how the spells are working from a vampire perspective.”

“Fine. Just make sure he can get home before sunup.”

I watched Dario leave. He was angry and rightly so. There was a chance that even if I made this work he’d never trust me again.

But that was something I could cry over another day. I had to hurry. If Leonora refused to abandon her house and more vampires died tonight, there was a good chance tomorrow evening would start with Russell’s murder. Vampires had humans who assisted them—and not just gangs they partnered with. Blood slaves could assist the
Balaj
until the point in their service where they got too weak. And there were Renfields.

Far from the bug-eyed sycophants of films, Renfields were vampire wannabes who acted in the interests of the
Balaj
during daylight hours. No exchange of blood took place until they received their ultimate reward—being turned and taking their place in the hierarchy of the vampire family. While vampires slept, Renfields guarded, did research, and broke whatever legs needed breaking. I had no doubt that if Dario didn’t convince Leonora to give me this twenty-four hours, she’d know Russell’s name by sundown, and he’d be dead shortly after.

Yanking books back off the shelves I sorted through them. Three grimoires in Greek, Latin, and Armenian. Mercer’s
All Things Undead
. Van Petersen’s
Grave Tidings
. Lawrence and Singtha’s
Beyond the Veil
. It was a good start in my search for a spell that would send the dead to their graves without killing the very beings I wanted to protect.

This was going to require more than research, though. I was going to need to make a phone call. And scrounge up some food, I thought as my stomach grumbled. Those French fries and the pickle seemed days ago, and I’d left my dollar and spare change as a tip for Russell. Which left me facing a night of research with a cup of Ramen noodles.

If only I still had my Emergency Beer.

H
OW ABOUT THIS
one?”

“Nah. Thanks, though.” I didn’t have to look at the book the vampire was holding out. In the last hour she’d suggested a Woodsman spell, a Siren protection amulet, and a scroll of blue fire, no doubt because she couldn’t read the Latin and was mainly going off the engraved, woodcut illustrations.

Dario had sent me a female vampire named Opal. Her ebony skin gleamed in the light of my apartment, her natural hair a poof of wooly black. I’ll admit I’d had some envy of her long legs and thin figure. As pretty as she was, I was sure she had no problem at all finding blood donors.

“Are you sure? This one says care-ooolea-um Ignatius.”

“
Caeruleum ignis
.” I glanced over at the book to confirm. “Blue fire. It has to do with dragons.”

“Dragons? No shit, there are really dragons?”

So asks a vampire. I glanced up at Opal before turning back to my own text, one that actually dealt with undead instead of giant reptilian beings. “Yes, there are dragons. And put your fangs away.”

“Sorry.” The fangs disappeared with a
snick
. “I’ve got a thing for dragons. Say, you don’t know any, do you? Would they be interested in a kinky vampire girl?”

“No, they’d steal all of your stuff then eat you.” I glanced at her again. Opal was a bit of a pain, but she’d proven herself to be very eager to help in all my various magical experiments tonight. I looked over at my clock, wondering how much longer I had until Opal had to return.

“I’m good for another hour,” she announced, carefully placing the book back on the shelf. “Do you wanna try that smoke thing again?”

The one that nearly combusted my vampire helper? I don’t think so.

“The protective radius one showed promise. Let’s try it with a modification of the End Times spell.”

She grimaced. “If you weren’t the boss’s blood slave, I’d never have signed up for this.”

That very liquid in my veins ran cold. Blood slave? Not in this lifetime. “Leonora hired me to do some research for her. I’m not her blood slave.”

Opal laughed. “I know. You’re hardly her type. She likes the soft, cuddly blond ones. I mean Dario. He asked for volunteers and we all practically staked each other for the privilege.”

I sat the
Undead in the New World
aside, and turned my attention to the leggy vampire, not sure what shocked me most—that the vampires wanted to work with me, or that she’d assumed I was already Dario’s blood slave. I went with the latter revelation first.