Dead Rising (29 page)

Admirer? Not anymore. Although maybe Dario was as eager to make things right between us as I was? Maybe he wanted to give me a reason to trust him as much as I wanted to regain his trust in me. Because he had trusted me—enough to sleep in my bathroom, enough to tell me, a Templar, so much of his history.

I thought about Shay. Bella, now. She seemed to have a peaceful life, surrounded by those who protected her. The vampire woman combing her hair clearly loved her. I wondered if it would make any difference to Russell to know his eldest sister was alive. Probably not. It would probably do more harm to the situation if he knew the vampires had turned Shay into one of them. Which made me wonder.

“Who turned her?”

“Dario.”

I blinked in surprise. “Dario?”

“Yes, Dario. Geraldo told me that it started the war that nearly destroyed our
Balaj
. Jean Marc was furious. Aubin threw Dario out of the family, cast him into the unclaimed suburbs to roam alone. For nearly a decade Dario was an exile.”

An exile. Him and a newly turned, clearly disabled, vampire. How had he survived? Clearly others in the
Balaj
had helped him against the Master’s orders.

And how had Leonora wound up on top in all of this? Dario’s exile was the spark that fanned an already fractious
Balaj
into a flame of rebellion, and somehow in the end Lenora wound up Mistress?

“Do you know why Lenora became Mistress? I mean, I know she’s older, but I would have thought Dario would have taken over after Aubin was killed.”

Sarge shrugged. “Geraldo said that Dario didn’t want the job. Lenora did. She’s a good leader, but many vampires turn to Dario for guidance before her. I’m no expert, but I think they’re one disagreement away from another rebellion.”

Vampires didn’t co-rule, and Dario’s loyal followers had to threaten Leonora’s sense of security in her leadership status. One disagreement away from a war. I only hoped this issue with Russell wouldn’t be the straw that broke this camel’s back.

T
HERE WAS A
tenseness at Leonora’s house. Both humans and vampires came and went with deceptive casualness, but their eyes darted at each shadow. Every vampire showed a hint of fangs, betraying their readiness to defend. Sarge led me into what I was now calling the throne room where Leonora waited—alone and pacing.

“Can we cut the formality, just for tonight? I’ve got a lot to do.” Russell had probably begun summoning right at sundown, which meant I had about a half hour to get all my stuff set up and ready to go.

“Watch your tone,” she snarled, reminding me an awful lot of Dario when he’d snapped at me at Sesarios last week. Unlike that incident, I didn’t curse the vampire Mistress and storm out. Instead I took a calming breath and waited, hoping that she’d hurry up and say her piece so I could get to work.

“You have tonight.” She pointed a red-nailed finger at me. “If you can’t resolve this by dawn, we will hunt down this magic user and kill him. We have his name. We know who he is. One night, and that’s it.”

I nodded, well aware that this wouldn’t end well for Russell if I failed. The vampires would find him. They had enough manpower for day and night searches, and the necromancer had to sleep sometime.

The woman stalked toward me, her leather bustier creaking as she moved. “And if you fail, you’re mine. And I mean mine. I don’t care if you’re a Templar. I don’t care if Dario has put a claim on you. If there’s so much as a scratch on any of my family tonight, I’m going to chain you in the basement and make you breakfast.”

Opal had called Dario “boss”. He’d beat the snot out of Federico for what he’d done to me. He’d been the vampire to step up to the plate and turn Shay, to face exile rather than see a young girl die. He was the one with a Templar in his pocket, the one who fought last night while Leonora had run to safety. I remembered what Sarge had said, that they were one disagreement away from rebellion.

This wasn’t about me. And it really wasn’t about Russell either.

“Don’t you forget that
I
am the Mistress here.” She towered over me, her boobs practically in my face. “You are to do as I say, or you’ll find yourself back in that basement cell before you can so much as light a candle.”

I shivered, then remembered something Dario had said to me. “I don’t give a shit about your internal politics. The deal was that I had one night to resolve this peacefully. You presented Dario as someone with the authority to speak on your behalf, and thus my deal with him is binding on the entire
Balaj
. You got a problem with that, take it up with him.”

Leonora sucked in a breath, but I continued. “You might not personally care about me being a Templar, but know that if you lock me in a cell and feed from me, and you’ll find yourself with a war on your hands. This necromancer thing may have divided your
Balaj
and put your fitness to rule in question, but imagine how you’ll fare once everyone knows that you brought down the wrath of an entire family of Templars on their heads.”

Her eyes flickered to my sword, then she drew herself up to her full height. “Templars haven’t done more than study and guard the Temple in over a hundred years. They won’t risk themselves to find a foolish girl, one who has spurned her birthright and turned away from the Oath of Knighthood.”

True, but there was a loyalty besides that toward the Order. “A father will always come for his daughter. That’s what got you all into this mess to begin with. Jean Marc took someone’s daughter, tried to intimidate an entire family, and thought that he could do anything he wanted without repercussion.”

“And they all died. We slaughtered that whole family of humans,” she interrupted.

We. I got the feeling that wasn’t the royal we she was using. Leonora had been there, had participated. She’d probably watched carefully as the
Balaj
split in two, choosing the side that would work to her best advantage.

“And now they all haunt you and kill you. Their remaining son won’t rest until he sees every last vampire dead. See how this snowballs? Continue to threaten me and play the heavy; we’ll see how you fare against a more powerful family than the Robertsons. Templar Knights have stared into the eyes of Satan himself; we won’t tremble before a
Balaj
of vampires.”

“Enough.” Leonora and I both froze at the one word from Dario. He tossed a bag at me and I caught it from reflex. “Eat. You’re grumpy. And you,” he pointed at Lenora, “you have no reason to threaten her. Back off before you alienate the only Templar who would even think of coming to our aid.”

I wasn’t sure how this was going to go down tonight with such an obvious fracture in the vampire management. What happened to Dario not wanting to lead? He was totally confrontational with his Mistress tonight and in front of a human witness, too. I looked inside the bag. Smoked ribs and cornbread. After my betrayal of his family, the guy bought me dinner. As if my feelings for Dario weren’t conflicted enough.

“We should just kill this magic user,” Lenora snarled. I wasn’t sure whether she meant me or Russell at this point. “We don’t have time for this nonsense. Every night we’re attacked we lose credibility among our human partners and present a weak front to those who lurk outside our territory waiting for a chance to take over.”

“I’m all for killing the magic user, but what happens when his aunt or cousin avenges
his
death? Or the local paper investigates? Or the police decide to stop turning a blind eye to our activities? Already your neighbors are noticing the amount of traffic in and out of your house. A drug taskforce stake out is going to really put a cramp in your lifestyle, Leonora.”

I shoved a piece of cornbread in my mouth and watched the two argue, amazed that I was being allowed to witness the disagreement. I’d learned so much about vampires in the last week. Dad would be impressed. I should write a book. I’ll bet it would become the equivalent of a Templar bestseller.

There was a loud, vocal battle of wills between the two vampires, then Leonora broke eye contact with Dario, waving a dismissive hand at him as she turned to me with a huff. “So what’s your plan, Templar?”

I swallowed the cornbread. “If you’re done with me then I need to hustle and get set up for when the specters come. Once they arrive, I’ll need your vampires to hold them off while I light candles and incense then chant them back into the grave.” It would take me a bit of time to run around the house, lighting candles and incense to contain the spirits, and even more time for me to recite the banishment spell on sixty names. Well, hopefully not all sixty. I was optimistic that I’d manage to banish all of them within the first twenty or so. Of course, that would all depend on how many Russell summoned. Last night there had been ten. After our confrontation today, I had a feeling he might up that as much as possible. Still, the prospect of me in a magical battle against a house full of violent spirits kinda turned me on. I’d learned so much in the last seven days. This experience would help me in the future, the next time I went head to head with a necromancer.

Wait. I wasn’t a Knight, I was a part-time barista at a coffee shop. How was it that I felt it my duty to fight supernatural baddies in Baltimore? The idea had an odd appeal, though. I had a sudden urge to get a cape.

“And that will rid us of them permanently? This spell that you and Opal worked on last night should end these attacks?”

I squirmed at Leonora’s question. “No. Once I find out which spirits he’s summoning, I can salt their graves and lay them to rest for all eternity. But even with that, the best way for me to stop the attacks is by delivering a whole lot of whoop-ass on the necromancer. If he fails miserably tonight, then I’ll be in a better position tomorrow when I try to convince him to give this up.”

The vampire Mistress snorted, shaking her head in disbelief. “Whatever. Tomorrow he dies.”

“More than a necromancer is going to die if I don’t get going on this spell.”

They both ignored me, once again doing the vampire version of a Mexican standoff.

“So you banish the attacking spirits, salt a bunch of graves,” Leonora commented, her eyes on Dario the whole time. “What if this necromancer is the stubborn type? What if he just summons more spirits the next evening? There are thousands of dead in the city of Baltimore. That’s a whole lot of grave salting.”

It was. And she was totally right. This all hinged on me delivering a giant throwdown to Russell. Enough so that he gave this all up and decided to settle his restless Esau spirit and take up his birthright once again.

Although none of this was going to happen if these two didn’t stop their pissing contest and let me get to work.

“Have a little faith in her, Leonora.” Dario lifted an eyebrow. I noticed his unusual reference to faith, as well as his addressing the Mistress so informally.

“Can I get started? Guys, I don’t want to break up this power struggle happening right before my eyes, but killer ghosts could arrive at any moment and I’m not ready for them.”

Dario folded his arms across his chest, still facing Lenora. “Aria has said that revenge is a very personal thing for this necromancer. The point of these attacks are that his own family’s ghosts are the ones here each night enacting revenge for their deaths. Lay them to rest, and I think it will be easier to convince him to cease his attacks.”

Dario was right, although who was to say random spirits that Russell raised would be motivated toward killing, or killing these vampires. I remembered my conversation with Russell and thought how funny it would be for him to raise a spirit, only to have them go haunt a cheating lover or cry over a spouse’s grave each night.

And then there was the focus item. Getting a focus item for summoning an unknown spirit would require a lot of work. Yes, if I hit Russell hard tonight, I would be in a prime negotiating position tomorrow.

Leonora snorted, clearly not pleased with Dario’s explanation. “Tonight, Templar. You have tonight to prove your worth. Then we kill him.”

I opened my mouth to respond and heard a huge crash. And a scream. Dario snatched the bag of ribs from me. “Hurry.”

I
KNEW THIS
was going to happen, and I suspected that Leonora had been intentionally stalling me to set me up for failure.

It wasn’t even an hour past sunset and they were starting. What happened to midnight? I knew Russell would probably start right up at sundown, but spirits took a while to get going. Midnight was the usual hour of action for them. These specters didn’t waste time, and I couldn’t either. I dumped my backpack on the floor, frantically yanking candles and Ziploc baggies of incense out. I shoved a lighter in my pocket, and slung Trusty over my shoulder. The sword was still in its scabbard since I didn’t have enough hands to light incense and candles, plus carry a sword. As an afterthought, I stuck the butter knife through a belt-loop. It hadn’t been effective last night, and I hadn’t had time to switch the spell on it. It might not help against the specters, but if Leonora got any ideas, or Federico tried to grab me again, I be prepared.

“Try to herd them toward the center of the house,” I told Dario and Leonora before running out of the room, my arms full.

I wished I’d paid more attention to the layout of the house while Federico was marching me to the basement the other day. I made a few wrong turns before hitting the kitchen pantry in the far back of the house. The specters seemed to always start at the front of the house, so I figured I’d set up where there was no fighting first, then deal with trying to light candles and incense in the middle of a battle last.

There wasn’t much time for planning, but I did have enough concerns about open flame in a house full of vampires that I stuck the candle in a dusty stock pot before lighting it. An old saucer served to hold the incense. I grabbed a few more cups and plates, all probably unused for a decade, before dashing out. I had thirty minutes before the incense burned out and four more sets to light. With sixty names I’d be cutting it close, and that’s if I didn’t have any issues getting the other candles lit.