Hot Demon in the City (Latter Day Demons Book 1) (5 page)

"Vann Jacobs is set to show up at the bar tomorrow and attempt to force his way in while recording it all for the news." I emptied the bottle and tossed it in the recycle bin before going to the fridge for another. "He wants to get personally involved in this, and you know what kind of trouble that will cause."

"I'll call Claudia now," Watson had his cell phone in a hand and punching a button almost before I stopped talking.

"Claudia, this is Watson," he said. "You know Kory Wilson—who works for News Seventy-Four? He says Vann Jacobs plans to show up at the bar tomorrow and record us throwing him out after refusing to answer questions."

"Son-of-a-bitch," I heard Claudia's voice clearly. "Tell Kory thanks—I know this could jeopardize his job," she added. "Let me think about this and get back to you."

"Will do," Watson replied. "I'll see you at eight." Watson ended the call before turning to me. "I almost want to ask you to come with me tonight, but that would land you in more hot water if Vann or somebody else shows up early."

"I hear that," I said before pulling on my second beer. "Still," I said after swallowing, "if something looks like it's about to go down, call me. I doubt they'll recognize the other me—if it's needed."

"You still haven't told me," he began.

"Need to know," I held up my free hand. "Need to know only, bro. Need to know."

"What's going on?" Mason shuffled into the kitchen and walked between Watson and me to pull a unit of blood from the fridge. Watson and I watched as he snipped the top off the bag neatly with a sharp claw before sipping blood like a child would sip juice from a box.

"I'm glad we're not the squeamish type," Watson pointed out dryly.

"Hmmph." Mason walked out of the kitchen while flipping both of us off with his free hand.

"I'll bet he was grumpy after waking when he was human, too," Watson observed.

"Save your philosophy—it's wasted on both of us," I grinned. "Go—if you leave now, you'll actually be on time for work."

"Why should I spoil my record?" Watson chuckled. "Look, man, if I need you, or Claudia makes a decision, I'll let you know." He held his cell phone in the air with one hand and flipped me off, just as Mason did, with the other. I laughed as he headed for the door to go to work.

* * *

Lexsi

I should have bought stock in the company making my brand of ibuprofen; I'd gone through enough of it during the day from hell. I lay on the sofa, a cool, wet cloth over my eyes when my cell phone rang.

It was Farin.

"Lexsi, I need your help," she begged before I could say anything other than hello. "My brother, Rick, is good friends with Mike—they used to work together at News Eighty-Two. Mike went to that bar again tonight and was thrown out again. He called Rick and now they're both going back down there. I have a bad feeling about this. Will you call Mike and tell him that Vann has an emergency or something, just to get him and Rick out of there?"

"What the hell are they thinking?" I snapped, sitting up and causing my head to pound from the sudden movement. "Do you know if they're already there?"

"According to the app on my cell phone, they are. They're just not answering."

"Fuck," I said. "Look, keep trying to call. If the app shows they've moved, call me. I'll see what I can do from here."

"Thank you." Farin was crying, now.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck
.

I hadn't used my ability to skip in a while. Sending mindspeech to Anita to let her know where I was going, I skipped to Clawdia's Bar.

* * *

Kordevik

"Dude, that guy you drove to the bar is back again, for the second time tonight," Watson reported. "This time, he brought the weatherman from channel Eighty-Two with him."

"Then get him out of there," I said.

"That's not all," Watson hissed. "Some of Granger's vamps just showed up. They overheard the humans asking questions. Now, maybe you don't know much about Granger, but he gets real paranoid when humans start asking about vamp fights. I'm not sure these two will be found alive if they walk out the door."

I swore in my native language, which left Watson completely baffled and asking for an explanation.

"I'll be there in a minute," I snapped and ended the call.

* * *

Lexsi

I didn't expect Anita to be waiting outside the bar for me, but she was. I shouldn't be surprised—her kind could fold space.

"This is a supe bar," she whispered when I appeared.

Supe
—supernatural. I wasn't surprised at all.

"I'm glad you're here," I straightened my tee and smoothed my hair back. "We may need your mojo to get these guys away from here."

"I'd be happy to make that suggestion," she nodded. "Let's go get 'em."

The bouncer at the door knew we weren't human when we walked in—the loud breath he drew was a telling indication. Uncle Sal taught me that years ago—to read the signs. This one was a werewolf; he didn't have a vamp vibe.

Except for the music, the bar hushed when Anita and I walked in. Everyone started talking again the moment we stood beside Mike and Rick's table, frowning down at them.

"Who gave you the shiner?" Rick drawled.

"You know, I like your sister a helluva lot more than you," I snapped. "We have to get you out of here," I added.

"You'll come," Anita worked her mojo. Both men stood up, which drew the attention of everyone in the bar, including the vamps in the corner.

How did I know they were vamps?

They all had full beer glasses in front of them. They weren't even pretending to drink.

Read the signs.

"Come on," I grabbed Mike's arm while Anita took Rick's.
We have eyes on us
, I sent to Anita.
Vamps in the corner booth
, I added.

Then let's go out the back way
, she suggested.
Through the ladies' room
.

Yeah. I think you're right
. The vamps had stood the moment it looked as if we were about to haul both human men out of the bar.

One of them hissed when we herded our charges down the hall toward the restrooms. I figured we had minutes at best before the fanged and clawed came after us. I regretted not buying the knife I'd considered after the attack in the parking lot.

"Why are we going in here?" Mike asked when I hauled him through the ladies' room door.

"Shut up," Anita hissed while dragging Rick farther in. I wanted to laugh—there was a baby changing station folded up on one wall. It must have been part of state law or something—I couldn't imagine anybody in a supe bar needed a changing station.

"I'll get us out of here," Anita began before the restroom door hit the adjoining wall so hard it cracked.

Six vamps attempted to crowd in while Anita folded space, dragging all of us with her.

* * *

Kordevik

Mason insisted on coming with me; I was forced to skip with him tucked under an arm—for the second time. He didn't remember the first time, actually; he'd been unconscious during that trip.

By the time we walked into the bar, it was to find six angry vamps headed toward the front door. That's when they saw Mason. Their attention shifted from their first targets (I could only assume they were Mike and Rick), to Mason and me in the space of a heartbeat.

None of their hearts were beating; I could only count nanoseconds between the beats of mine. Those had ratcheted up to an alarming rate the second the vamps settled on us as a suitable second objective.

"Well, well." The six separated into groups of three to allow a seventh vampire through.

Granger.

No, I'd never seen him before, but I could put one and one together, just like most people could. The way he eyed Mason, too, spelled doom for the vampire at my back if I didn't do something quick.

"Clear the bar," Watson shouted behind the counter, before blasting the ceiling with the rifle he kept within easy reach below the bar.

Granger didn't blink while everyone else ran past our little standoff and out the door.

"You on their side?" Granger turned to Watson, then.

"Yeah."

"Then get over here," Granger sounded magnanimous. He and six other vamps intended to make mincemeat out of us—in short order.

Watson left his rifle on the bar and walked past several tables to get to my side. "You ready, bro?" He gave me a dark look.

"Oh, yeah," I agreed. I skipped Mason and Watson six blocks away, landing on the sidewalk just in time to hear the explosion and watch the fireball from Clawdia's bloom upward into the foggy night sky.

* * *

"Didn't kill a single one of the vamps," Watson reported the following morning. "That means Granger will be more determined than ever to wipe the floor with what's left of us after his goons are done. They ran away when we disappeared, so they weren't caught in the blast. What I'm worried about," he hesitated, "what I'm worried about is the news guys. They went toward the restrooms with two women just before you came along. I expected the vamps to have blood on their claws after coming back down the hall, but they didn't. I have no idea why that is, or why there weren't any bodies found in the restroom area."

"This was Clawdia's plan? To blow the place up? While there were humans inside?" I shook my head at Watson.

"Yeah," he shrugged. "Humans getting too close; she gets rid of her problems and still owns the ground the bar stood on. It'll sell for quite a bit. She has plans to rebuild the bar somewhere else."

"Insurance?"

"Werewolf-owned company," Watson shrugged and went to find something for breakfast.

"They didn't find a finger or anything else?" I pursued the human aspect of Watson's story.

"Nothing. That's what Claudia called to tell me a few minutes ago. According to the police, fire and everybody else at the scene, the place was empty when it blew."

"Then how the hell did they escape? Through a window?"

"Not unless they made one," Watson replied. "Want eggs?"

"I guess I'll know for sure if Mike doesn't show up for work today," I growled.

"Well, you won't have to worry about Vann sticking his nose into werewolf business, now," Watson snickered.

"You," I pointed at him, "are a piece of work. Or shit. Take your pick. What about the women who came in?"

"Both lookers, but the one with long, platinum hair and a black eye made everybody sit up and take notice, if you know what I mean."

"What the hell?" Smoke escaped my nostrils as I went for Watson's throat.

"Dude, stop choking me," he managed to get out as I bent him over the island and breathed clouds of smoke in his face.

"Look like this, did she?" I jerked my cell phone off the counter with one hand and scrolled through my recent photos until I got to the one I'd secretly taken of Lexsi.

"That's her," Watson coughed as I let him go. "Who is she?"

"None of your business. If I find out she got hurt or killed last night, I'll kill you and Claudia for keeping that bomb shit to yourselves."

"You're serious?"

"Hell, yes."

"Damn. Do you have a way to reach her? I need to know whether I ought to start running or not."

I had the news station on the phone in seconds. "She's here—with Mike, the weather guy from Eighty-Two and somebody else from the downtown office," the intern at the night desk informed me. "Mike looks like he's been through hell and keeps yelling that his car was blown up."

"Thank the Mighty," I muttered. "Look, I can come get them if you think they need a ride."

"Mike and the other guy for sure," the intern said. "I'll have to ask Lexsi."

"I'll be there in half an hour," I said. "Tell them not to go anywhere," I added. "I'll drive them home."

* * *

Lexsi

Kory showed up in less than half an hour, checked out one of the station's vans and herded us into it. Anita didn't like it—she'd intended to fold space to get us away from Mike, who was still yelling about his car.

My headache still hadn't gone away; that meant I wanted to yell right back at Mike, telling him he was damn lucky to be alive instead of blown up or drained vampire bait. Those six vamps would have been all over him and Rick, with the bodies hidden so well afterward nobody would have found them.

"We're gonna talk," Kory growled as he held the van's back door open for me to climb inside.

"About what?" I rubbed my forehead.

"Fuck," he muttered before shutting my door and stalking toward the driver's side door.

He dropped Rick, Mike and Anita off at their homes, leaving me for last.

"Get in the front seat," Kory barked after Anita walked into her building.

I was too weary and in too much pain from the perpetual headache to argue with him. He buckled me in after I fumbled the seat belt. He waited until he'd pulled away and headed for the bridge to start talking.