Page of Swords (The Demon's Apprentice Book 2) (23 page)

Then the other images came. The Maxilla: a plain sword hanging in the air, the point up, hidden inside its own little pocket space. All it needed was the key to open the door. I tried to focus on the location, to find any clue about where it was, and I saw the same thing I’d seen before. A building made of rough wood, and I heard a bell. Only this time, I saw the bell. It was freestanding on a post, with a frayed rope dangling from the pull arm. My point of view got pulled back to the Maxilla, and I saw myself standing in the middle of a creekbed. If I were ever there, I would know it. Then I was thrown back into my own head as Donovan grabbed my wrist and pulled my hand away.

“You bastard!” Dani said. And then, she slapped me.

Wanda and Lucas tried to come out of their seat, but I put my hand up to stop them. The other went to my stinging cheek as I watched her head for the dance floor.

“Pretty sure I deserved that one, guys. Donovan, I need you to stay with her, man. Even if she doesn’t like it, until she’s behind a threshold, you stick to her like glue.” He nodded and headed into the crowd.

“We need to head back to Dr. C’s place,” I told Lucas and Wanda.

“That’s it? You got what you wanted, and now you’re just leaving? Just like a guy!” Wanda said.

“She’s the one who did the leaving,” I told her. “I’m not gonna waste time making nice when I could be looking for her girlfriend.” I turned and headed for the snack bar.

“And saving your own ass?” Lucas said as they joined me. “I’d be kinda partial to that if I was you.”

I wasn’t about to argue with him about that.

Chapter 16

~ Eating the messenger is bad form when accepting an invitation. ~ Vampire etiquette

When we got back to Dr. C’s place, there was a low-slung black sports car parked in front of the house. Lucas was out of the car and around to the front of the house before I could even get out of the back seat. By the time I got to him, he was practically crowing in delight.

“Dude, do you know what this is?” he asked. He circled the car and looked across the top of it at me. “This . . . this is a Mercedes McLaren Roadster. I saw the episode they did on it on Top Gear. It costs like half a million dollars, and man is it fast! This one’s been customized, and it’s the convertible. See how it rides low because of the extra weight? Whoever drove this has some serious money!”

I looked down at the car. It barely came up to my elbow, and it looked like it was a couple of feet longer than the
Falcon.
Which was kind of funny to me, since it only had two seats.

“Then you probably can’t wait to meet whoever drove it, can you?” I said.

Lucas’ head snapped up at that, and his face broke out into a grin.

“Think they’ll let me drive it?” He was practically bouncing as he came around the car.

“Doubt it,” I said. “But I’m sure they’ll let you drool on the keys or something like that.” I gestured toward the front door, and he fell in beside me.

I opened the wards and let them through, then shut them behind us. The library door was open, and light spilled out into the hall. I headed that way, and ran right into someone soft and curvy the second I turned the corner.

She squealed and I grabbed for her, barely catching her.

“Sorry, ma’am,” I said automatically.

She looked up at me, and I recognized the blond from the limo at Thraxus’ place.

“Apology accepted,” she purred.

I pulled my hands away from her, but she didn’t move. Instead, she laid her hands against my chest and pressed most of the rest of her curves against me.

“I didn’t get the opportunity to introduce myself the first time we met. I’m Chastity.”

“Suuuure, you are,” Wanda snarked from beside me.

“Jealousy doesn’t suit you, little girl,” Chastity said. “The offer for that . . .
ride
. . . is still on the table,” she turned back to me.

“Again, I have to decline . . . for now. One, because I don’t like owing vampires squat, and two, I don’t do casual sex. With anyone.” I pushed her away. I tried to keep my eyes on her face, but Powers help me, I’m still as human as the next guy. I looked. Okay, I stared. I might have even ogled.

She’d somehow poured herself into a black dress that started way north of her knees and stopped just far enough south of her shoulders to be legal. Black stockings did their best to make it all the way to the cover of the skirt hem, but they fell short, despite the help of her garter belt. Platform heels made her tall enough to reach my chin, but I had no idea how she managed to stay on her feet in them, as top heavy as she was.

She gave me a smile that promised lots of pleasant nasty and turned her attention to Lucas.

“Maybe you’ll play with me tonight,” she said as she pressed herself against his left side.

His eyes went wide, and I could see him start to shake as she ran one manicured black fingernail down the middle of his chest. Her tongue trailed across her upper lip before she turned a look on him that should have blistered his cheeks.

“Whoa . . . um . . . boobs . . . I’d love to . . . um . . . but I have to . . . uh . . . Wanda, a little help here? Chance?” he stammered.

“These aren’t the breasts you’re looking for,” I said with a wave of my hand. “Crap, that only works on the weak-minded, doesn’t it?” I turned toward Chastity to finish the joke, but Wanda was already stepping in.

“Back off, bitch,” she hissed, and put her fingers against the buxom girl’s left collarbone. When she straightened her arm, Chastity staggered back like she’d been punched, and fell on her ass.

“That hurt!” she cried, surprise in her voice.

“I warned you not to try that act with them,” Dr. Corwyn said from behind his desk.

Collins had his butt half-perched on one corner of the desk, his arms folded across his chest. Both of them had matching smug grins on their faces.

“You knew this was gonna happen?” I demanded.

Chastity flowed to her feet more gracefully than most girls with her footwear ought to have been able to pull off.

“She tried the same thing on us when she first arrived,” Dr. C said. “I guess Thraxus decided to keep her in reserve in case you took her up the ride she offered. I would imagine the poor girl’s been more than a little bored.”

“Why in the Nine Hells is she here anyway?”

“I came to deliver an invitation. For Chance Fortunato and a single guest, and for Detective Demetrius Collins, also allowing a single guest. Safe passage is guaranteed, but discretion in your choice of guests is expected.” She pranced to one of the chairs facing Dr. C’s desk and pulled a pair of envelopes from a slim black attaché case. She handed Collins one and brought the other over to me, managing to jiggle all the way.

I took it and ignored the stroke of her finger across mine on the underside of the envelope.

Thraxus had good taste in paper, that was for sure. Dr. C had been teaching me a lot about the quality of paper for making scrolls, and just enough had sunk in that I could tell this stuff was heavy and expensive. My name was hand-printed on the front in fancy calligraphy with enough flourish to make it look good, but not so much that it made it unreadable. I flipped it over and saw a thick black blob of wax impressed with a round seal of a dragon with wings spread over the flap. I reached for my balisong and found nothing in my pocket. I frowned, remembering that it was in evidence at the police station.

Dr. C opened one of his desk drawers and held out a wooden case.

I took it and popped it open to find a black folding knife nestled inside.

“Happy birthday,” he said with a smile.

“Thanks,” I said as I pulled it out and opened it with my thumb, then popped the seal on the envelope.

Inside was a card on equally heavy paper, written in the same script as the outside, only smaller, inviting me to visit Lord Thraxus this evening at my earliest possible pleasure to discuss redress for grievances committed against me. My eyes went to Dr. C as I handed him the invitation. In vampiric politics, this seemed almost as good as a confession, which made Thraxus look weak. His eyebrow went up and he gave me that slight head tilt that was his quizzical look.

“All right, I’m in,” Collins said.

“I’m good with it,” I told Dr. C.

He nodded, but I knew he didn’t like it.

“Tell your Master we’ll be there soon. And no . . . I do
not
need a ride out there tonight.”

I saw Chastity’s smile transform itself into a pout as she pranced up to me and handed me a business card.

“In case you come to your senses,” she whispered sensually. She gave me a look that should have started fires nearby before she turned and flounced her way out in a clatter of stripper heels.

I shook my head.

“Boobs?” Wanda said to a red-faced Lucas, who looked like he was enjoying watching her leave.

“They were kinda hard to ignore . . . and you know how I get with girls,” he said.

“
No one
knows how you get with girls,” she shot back. “It’s like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. Lots of stories, but no
hard
evidence.”

“You two. Quiet,” Dr. C said in his business tone.

They shut up and parked their backsides on chairs across from his desk. Even I didn’t argue with him when he put the sharp edge on his voice like that.

“Tré, you’re going to need this. I wanted to get this taken care of while the kids were gone, but Chastity’s arrival shot that plan to Hell.” He pulled a gunbelt from behind his desk and handed it to Collins.

Collins drew the heavy black revolver from the holster and held it up to look at it. The cylinder was huge, and what looked like a large tube ran below the barrel.

“Guess this means the silver rounds you gave me don’t work on vampires,” he said speculatively. “What the hell kind of gun is this? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one like it before. This somethin’ one of you wizards made?”

“That is a LeMat revolver, commonly known as a grape shot revolver for the sixteen-gauge lower barrel. It’s a percussion cap pistol from the Civil War era, made for the Confederate Army. Originally, it held nine forty-two-caliber lead rounds in the cylinders, with the smooth bore under-barrel being loaded with grape shot, hence the name.”

“What’s it hold now?” Collins asked as he sighted down the barrel and tested the heft.

Dr. C came around the desk as he continued. “Nine rounds made from the lead of church roofs, each blessed and charged with an incendiary spell, with a special mixture of my own in the under-barrel called a Sunflare. Even a vampire as powerful as Thraxus won’t be able to shrug that off. In cowan terms, it hits about like a rocket-propelled grenade. It’s single action, and you move this lever on the hammer to fire the Sunflare round.” He stepped back as Collins holstered the pistol.

“So, why do I need to carry this? I thought we were invited guests.”

“To show Thraxus and everyone around him that you take him seriously enough to come loaded for bear. It helps him save a little face, which will put him further in your debt.”

“He’s gonna hate that,” I remarked.

“You’ll have to console yourself somehow,” Dr. C said as he went back behind his desk. “You better arm up as well.”

“I don’t get a cool revolver?” I asked. “I’m gonna feel under-dressed.”

“All you need is the Ariakon and your wand. You’re the demon’s apprentice; you beat your master and killed an alpha werewolf with less,” Dr. C told me with a smile.

Outside, the sound of motorcycles drifted closer.

“That’ll be Shade and the Pack,” Wanda said as she and Lucas stood up. I grabbed my backpack and headed for the side door behind them. We made it to the gate as they pulled up and dismounted. Smaller by one with Brad going rogue, the Pack was tighter than ever. And even though we weren’t Weres, they treated Lucas, Wanda, and me like family. That meant very physical greetings when we weren’t in public. Contact was important to Weres, especially among pack members, and since the wolf spirit ran closer to its emotions, they enjoyed being able to show affection when they could. Here, we were treated to forearm-gripping handshakes that pulled into enthusiastic hugs, with growled warm greetings. Whether it had been an hour or a week since we’d seen each other, meeting with the pack outside of school always felt like meeting old friends you hadn’t seen for years.

Once I made it through the wall of grinning, leather-clad Pack members, I went to Shade, who was still standing next to her bike.

Deek was beside her, and he had his hand on her wrist.

“I don’t care; this kind of crap has got to stop. Humans are not pack,” Deek hissed at her.

“They stood with us when no one else did, so they’re part of
my
pack. Deal with it or get the hell out,” she growled back.

“Someone needs to put you in your place, woman,” Deek said.

Shade lost it. She pulled her wrist free and shoved him back, then came off her bike at him with her finger in his chest.

“I spent three
years
being put in my place by Dominic King, you smug little pureblood! I wasn’t born this way. I got turned because a horny eighth grader wanted a permanent girlfriend! Where was your pretty little ass while I got raped every week? Where were you when he forced us to shake down humans and rob people? Where?” She had backed him up until he was at the curb on the other side of the road.

“That was his right, he was your alpha,” Deek said.

“I’M the alpha now! ME! And this is the way it’s gonna be.” She turned her back on him and strode across the street toward me.

His eyes turned hard and he started after her.

“We’ll see about that,” he said.

I gave him a hard stare, and he stopped in his tracks for a second. The rest of the pack was behind me, and I could feel their hostility toward him.

Then, he plastered a smile on his face and sauntered our way.

“What’s up tonight?” Shade said as she slipped her arm around my waist.

“Collins and I got an invite from Thraxus to come out and talk. We can each take one person with us. You can guess who I’m taking,” I said.

Shade leaned in and grazed her teeth across my neck as I was talking, then smiled at me.

“Bryce?” she asked innocently. She even batted her eyelashes at me.

“I didn’t think anyone knew,” I quipped, and a round of chuckles went up.

“I’m going,” Deek interjected.

“No, you’re not,” I said just as quickly.

“We’ve already been over this already. You can’t stop me from coming with you.”