Night Huntress 03.5 - Devil to Pay (3 page)

“No. Now quit talking.”

At those words, Blake didn’t care about her brusqueness, his cramped position with his knees mashed to his chest, the stink, or the throbbing in his head. The demon had taken control of him—but the vampire had kept it from harming anyone. For the first time in months, Blake felt a stirring of hope.

Whatever he was stuffed into vibrated. From the feel of it, Elise was pushing him along an uneven surface. It was hot, too, and with the reeking dark material covering him, hard to breathe.

Blake pulled the rancid material off him and looked around. They were in a cemetery, of all things, and from the looks of it, Elise had stuffed him into a shopping cart.

“A shopping cart?”
Blake said. “Whose stuff is piled on top of me?”

“It belonged to a homeless woman, but don’t worry, I paid for everything,” Elise said, shrugging. “It was a good way to transport you without drawing notice.”

“Why didn’t you just… commandeer a car or something?” Blake asked, getting out of the cart. His bones creaked once he was freed from that cramped position.

Another shrug.
“I don’t know how to drive.”

Blake looked at her with more shock than he’d shown when he found out she was a vampire. “You don’t know how to drive?” he repeated.

Elise seemed amused at his disbelief. “I never got around to learning.”

Waking up in a homeless person’s shopping cart was still better than waking up to the sight of dead bodies. No matter his current circumstances, Blake was grateful for that. He still didn’t know how Elise thought she could help him, but she could apparently keep him from killing when the demon possessed him. And since she was taking Blake to meet her sire, maybe
that
vampire would put him out of his misery even if Elise refused to. It was something to hope for.

It was ironic, Blake reflected. Before becoming possessed, he’d never thought much about death beyond having a life insurance policy and exercising to stay healthy. Now, Blake lusted after death as though it were a beautiful woman. Death meant he’d never hurt anyone again. Death meant his family would be safe. Death meant his remaining friends never had to open their doors and see a demon standing on the other side of it, concealed in Blake’s skin. Death was Blake’s only way of beating the thing inside him, and Blake wanted to beat it more than he wanted anything else.

Elise’s whistling shook Blake from his dark ponderings. She was whistling “Beautiful Dreamer” in a soft, melancholy way, the notes as perfect as if they were coming from a flute. Blake wondered how a vampire, who supposedly didn’t breathe, could whistle. He wondered how Elise was out in the daylight without spontaneously combusting, or how it was that vampires even existed at all. So many things he hadn’t thought were possible turned out to be true.
Vampires?
They existed.
Demons?
Real, too.
If aliens landed at the Capitol tomorrow, he’d only be mildly intrigued.

“If sunlight doesn’t hurt you, why do you live underground in a tunnel?”

Elise kept whistling. Blake thought she’d decided to ignore him, but when the last strains of the song ended, she replied.

“I don’t do so well around people.”

Her voice was soft, too. Filled with a sort of disconnected regret, as though her lack of social skills made her sorry, but she didn’t understand why. She started to whistle that same song again. Blake sat down, leaning back against a tree, and closed his eyes. He could almost imagine he was somewhere else, listening to the sweet and haunting tune.

“You won’t let me hurt anyone, will you?”

Elise paused. “No.” She continued whistling, the sound and her answer lulling him, making him feel almost… safe.

Blake did something he hadn’t done willingly for weeks. He let himself fall asleep.

Elise listened as Blake’s heartbeat and breathing became more relaxed with slumber. She kept whistling, even though she wasn’t used to breathing this much. Still, the song seemed to soothe him, though why that mattered to her was a mystery.
His being quiet will draw less attention,
she told herself, knowing that was a lie. They were in
Arlington
National
Cemetery
. There weren’t many people around to notice if Blake caused a stir, except perhaps the ghosts.

It was so odd, this protective feeling. Once she’d made up her mind to help Blake, her long-dormant emotions awoke. Elise couldn’t help but admire Blake’s concern for other people, even over his own life.
You won’t let me hurt anyone, will you?
It had been a long time since Elise had cared that much about other people, especially strangers.

When DC’s homeless or criminal element attacked her—which happened every few months—she killed them. It didn’t occur to her
not
to since she reasoned that by doing so, she was saving someone else from that person’s future attack. Blake wasn’t responsible for what the demon inside him did, but he was willing to die in order to prevent other people from getting harmed. His strength of character under these extreme circumstances held up a mirror to hers, and Elise didn’t like what she saw reflected there.
Mencheres is right,
she realized.
I’ve let myself slip away. How much of the person I was is still left? Can I salvage the remains before apathy eats away at the rest of me?

She’d start with Blake. Maybe by helping to save his soul, she’d earn a reprieve for her own.

Chapter Five

A
black Volvo approached, driving along an area where vehicles usually weren’t allowed. Elise felt the encroaching power from inside the SUV.

“Here they are,” she told Blake, waking him.

The SUV stopped next to them, interrupting whatever Blake had been about to say. Two people got out, the man radiating a crackling power that announced him as a Master vampire, and a redheaded woman who seemed human.

“Bones,” Elise said
,
bowing her head in the deference he deserved as co-sire of Mencheres’s line. Elise might have been out of touch with vampire society, but every undead person knew about Mencheres’s merging lines with Bones several months ago.

“Elise,” Bones replied, with a nod. “This is my wife, Cat.”

Cat smiled and stuck out her hand. Elise shook it, thinking the famous half-breed didn’t appear as she’d pictured her. With Cat’s reputation and nickname of the Red Reaper, Elise had expected a more imposing presence, but Cat looked no more threatening than a Hollywood actress.

Blake looked at the two newcomers warily. “Are they both vampires?” he asked Elise.

“He is,” Elise replied, glancing at the redheaded half vampire again. “She’s more… complicated.”

Cat laughed. “That’s one way to put it.” She extended her hand to Blake, but before he could even twitch, Bones batted it away.

“Don’t touch him, Kitten.”

The cold menace in Bones’s voice had Cat blinking in surprise even as Elise felt her anger flare.

“The demon doesn’t have him now,” Elise said. “There’s no need to act as if he’s foul.”

“It’s all right,” Blake said, looking down at himself with sadness and disgust. “I
am
foul. If I were he, I wouldn’t want my wife touching me, either.”

“It’s not your filthiness that concerns me, but she’s half-human,” Bones said, his hand still on Cat’s arm. “Demons can’t possess vampires, but so little is known about half-breeds that I’m not risking the possibility.”

“Aren’t you being a
tad
paranoid, Bones?” Cat asked. “You told me on the way over that the host had to die before a demon could jump. Well, he looks alive to me.”

“Heart attack, aneurism, blood clot, stroke.”
Bones ticked the items off his fingers. “He’s human, so he could drop dead in seconds just while he’s standing there. This is why I didn’t want you coming with me, Kitten.”

Cat rolled her eyes, giving Elise a look that clearly conveyed her exasperation. “Paranoid,” she repeated. Then she turned her attention to Blake. “Sorry to meet under these circumstances, but we’re going to take you to Mencheres and hopefully he–”

“No!” Blake screamed, his hands flying to his head.

Elise knew what that meant by now. She flung herself onto Blake even as a blast of sulfur filled the air.

Bones also launched forward, wrapping one arm around Blake’s throat and the other across the heaving man’s chest. The fiery red lights were in Blake’s gaze again, his skin turning sallower with each instant.

“
Let me go,
” the demon hissed in a voice that sounded nothing like Blake’s. It was hoarse and sharp, like glass being ground together.

“Kitten, start the car,” Bones directed, not taking his attention off the demon.

Cat turned and walked to the car. The demon’s eyes followed her,
then
it let out a laugh.

“
Catherine.
”

The redhead froze at the suddenly older, feminine voice coming from Blake’s mouth. She turned around, eyes wide.

“Catherineeeeeee…” the demon drew out in that same voice, but now with a pleading undertone. “Please don’t leave. Help us. There were creatures at the door asking about you, Catherine. They’re hurting us. Make them stop. No, don’t, let my husband go! No, don’t touch him, don’t… NO!
Joe, oh God, JOE!”

“Grandma,” Cat whispered, tears in her eyes.

“Bloody sod,” Bones snarled, clapping his hand across the
demon’s—
Blake’s mouth. “Don’t listen to it, Kitten.”

She still seemed shell-shocked. “That was my grandmother’s voice, Bones!”

“It’s a trick,” he said firmly. “That’s why the best thing to do is take this poor bastard out to the salt flats and kill him.”

“No one’s killing him,” Elise said at once.

Bones leveled her with a glare sizzling with green. His power expanded until it felt like it was burning her.

“Don’t be a fool.” Each word was scalding. “The only reason I’m not snapping this bloke’s neck now is because there are too many living creatures around the demon could jump to. But his life will end on the salt flats. The only way to get rid of a demon is to kill the host.”

Elise was frail compared to the power emanating off Bones, and as her sire Mencheres’s coruler, Bones was also in a position of authority over her. But that didn’t mean she was giving up on Blake.

“Mencheres told me I could bring Blake to him,” she replied, her voice hard. “So that’s where we’re going, not to any salt flats.”

Bones’s mouth curled. “You were always stubborn.”

Elise just stared at him. Y
ou don’t know me,
she
thought
.
And you might technically be my Master now, but you’re not going to win this one.

“Shouldn’t we be going?” Elise asked.

The demon’s eyes locked onto hers.
Evil.
Knowing.
Anticipating.

You’re not going to win, either
, Elise silently vowed. Determination welled up in her, stronger than any emotion she’d felt in decades.
I won’t let you
.
.

Chapter Six

E
lise hadn’t seen her sire in months. That wasn’t unusual, except in this case, Mencheres had been the one to keep
himself
secluded away. One glance showed that the toll from the recent war that resulted in Mencheres’s long-estranged wife being killed still hung over him. Physically, Mencheres looked the same. His waist-length black hair was just as lustrous, his creamy skin still held the amber tint of his Egyptian heritage, and his features were as handsome and regal as ever. But sadness clung to him in a tangible way, making the familiar lines around his mouth seem more likely to form a frown than a smile.

She hugged him, feeling none of her normal aversion to close contact. At the feel of his arms around her, the same peace washed over her that Mencheres always inspired.
Father
,
I’ve missed you.

When he let her go, Elise touched his face. “You look terrible.”

Mencheres gave her a strained smile. “True, but I will be better in time.”

All things heal with
time,
he’d told her shortly after turning her into a vampire. Elise still wasn’t sure she believed that, but things did
numb
with time, at least.

“Tell me about the man,” Mencheres said.

Blake wasn’t there; Bones had taken him directly to the basement, where the vampire cell was located. Every permanent vampire residence had a reinforced room for confining new vampires while they fought to control the initial blood craze. If a new vampire couldn’t break out of it, Bones had reasoned, neither could a demon.

“He’s back to himself now,” Elise replied, shuddering at the memory of their hours-long car ride. The demon had continued to torment Cat by mimicking her grandparents’ voices on what had—apparently—been the scene of their murder by vampires. Bones couldn’t keep his hand over the demon’s mouth the entire time, either. Not with the demon biting Bones and trying to drink vampire blood off the wounds.
Or choking when Bones gagged him.
Several times, Elise had worried that Bones’s temper would snap, and he’d kill Blake, but they’d all made it in one piece, though Cat was still outside composing herself.