Sweet Blood of Mine (34 page)

Stacey pressed a palm to my cheek. "How heroic of you. You did not even possess your ful abilities, did you?"

"No." I gave Captain Tibbs a look. "Why do you cal him—I mean her—Nightliss?"

"That would be the English equivalent of what she cals herself. Besides, Captain Tibbs, as you caled her, is a rather ridiculous name." She smiled sadly and looked me up and down. "You are a filthy mess and your odor is most disagreeable. Go home and clean up. I wil ask other tomcats if they wil help you. If they say yes, then they wil be the help you receive from me. I expect nothing in return.

If I cannot have your love, I wil only be miserable in a relationship built on convenience."

It was a very melodramatic and very British way to put things, but it was a better outcome than I'd hoped for.

I kissed her on the cheek and hugged her while Nightliss batted at my ear from her shoulder. "Thank you.

Thank you."

"Remember, only those who say yes wil help you.

It may be none at al."

"I'l take what I can get," I said, wondering how she could ask a cat anything of this nature. Then again, I should be able to believe in anything by now. I scratched the ears of a few nearby cats, discreetly checking if they had the proper parts dangling between their legs. I needed to be on their good side.

"You know the one you love can never love you back," Stacey said in a sad voice. "There is no pain like unrequited love."

unrequited love."

I choked up and faced away from her. "Tel me about it."

I left for home to take Stacey's advice and clean myself. She told me she'd meet me back at her place the folowing evening. I had driven about a mile when the Jetta sputtered and stopped. I cursed and hit the steering wheel.

It took only a second to identify the problem. I was out of gas. With al the supernatural crap hitting the fan around me, I had forgotten the most mundane of things. I didn't know what to do except get out and run home. I'd have to make sure nobody saw my clothes. They looked like I'd come from a slaughterhouse and then gone mud sliding.

The shortest way to my place was to hightail it through Clarkston, an even more rundown part of town. I didn't know any backyard routes so I took to the back streets, hoping I knew where I was going. I ran past closed stores, boarded up homes, and mini-marts with thick bars on the windows. I had just passed the public bus terminal when I heard a faint noise that made me stop in my tracks.

It was the sound of fear. A bottled up scream that might come from a gagged mouth. The wrongness of it struck at my heart and I couldn't resist the pul. I sprinted toward the source, some hundred yards away behind a nearby strip mal. Two young thugs were holding down a girl who couldn't have been any older than I was. Her eyes were wide with terror.

"Let her go," I said before even thinking about it. It was rather stupid considering I didn't know if they had weapons.

The taler of the two turned and immediately confirmed they did indeed have weapons. He held a pistol cocked to the side in typical gangsta fashion. "You best get outta here, fool. You ain't got no business here."

His companion stood behind the girl with a leer on his face. "Sucka don't have a clue, D.J. School him."

"Let her go," I said, mapping out the route which was least likely to get me shot.

The armed thug's finger twitched. I blurred left, as the gunshot popped. I cut right. Grabbed his gun arm, and slammed him in the shoulder. His arm snapped like a twig.

I took the gun, gave him a dirty look, and tried to eject the magazine like the badasses do on TV. Unfortunately, I didn't realy know what I was doing, so I suffered a moment of awkward confusion while I fiddled with the stupid thing.

Finaly, I just flicked on the safety.

"What the hel?" said the other thug—the one who wasn't screaming about his broken arm.

"Guess you should've listened," I said, anger growling deep in my throat. Something shifted inside me.

Pain exploded in my head and the world went red. Blood rushed to my head in rhythm with the timpani thundering of my heart. My forehead felt like it was cracking open. Like something was growing from it.

The thug screamed at an impossibly high pitch for a man and fled. The girl passed out. The thug with the broken arm was too busy sobbing in white-faced agony to think about running.

I staggered. The pain receded. Faded to nothing.

I hadn't had these awful headaches for a few days. Maybe my growing pains as a demon spawn weren't over yet.

Whatever the case, aspirin wasn't going to cut it.

I picked up the girl and ran her toward the front of the shopping center where a group of teens were franticaly shouting someone's name. Aware of just how bad it would look if a filthy guy walked up with an unconscious girl in his arms, I set her on a nearby bench and hid behind the corner. "Over here," I shouted. I heard their footsteps and exclamations as they saw their friend. Then I was off again.

What a rush.

I took stock of my location and angled for home. It I took stock of my location and angled for home. It felt amazing to have rescued someone. Despite my low energy levels and the hunger that groaned in my body, I felt energized.

Foolishly, it gave me hope.

I finaly arrived at home and stripped off my ruined clothes which I trashed. After a shower I put on some jeans and a black T-shirt, figuring I might as wel try to camouflage myself while I reconnoitered the location Shelton had given me in his email. If Stacey came through, I had to be prepared.

Someone knocked on the door. Hope surged.

Maybe Dad had escaped. Maybe Shelton had decided to help me. Or it might be Nyte or Ash. I had several missed texts from the two of them.

I looked through the peephole and saw an empty stoop. I turned away. Another knock. I spun back and looked. No one was there. Somebody was playing games. That might be very bad. It could be more vampires or bounty-seeking sorcerers. I peered through the hole once more and a pair of violet eyes stared back at me.

I opened the door without thinking. Elyssa stood there, her eyes neutral rather than filed with hate or disgust.

That was a step in the right direction.

"I know about your father," she said.

"How could you possibly know already?"

"My people have an extensive network. Word gets around fast when something goes down in the supernatural world. If I'd known who your father realy is I would have also known you're an incubus."

"Oh yeah? Is that better or worse than vampreys and faders?"

"A monstrous souless leech is stil a leech."

"Wel, congratulations. One monster down, one to go."

"Oh come off it, Justin. You can't get him back.

The vampires who took him are rogues. They split from the Red Syndicate. Any lawful Syndicate member would have turned him in for the bounty, not kept him."

"Why do you say that?" I asked, resisting the incredible urge to kiss those soft lips, fangs or not.

"The Red Syndicate has an official image to uphold in the supernatural community, even when it comes to demon spawn."

"That's funny. I can't believe evil blood-suckers would be worried about their public image. "

"Vampire politics are tricky. They're very aware of which way the wind is blowing. Even if they consider your father a rogue, they'd treat him according to law."

"And what about my father's family? They'd stand by and do nothing?"

"They would, considering they disowned him."

I waved her in. Her eyes grew guarded, but she came in anyway. I noticed she had two short sai swords sheathed on her back. They looked a lot like the ones she'd constructed for Kings and Castles. She wore a black form-fitting shirt and pants that outlined her generous curvy physique. She had a knife on both thighs and a belt with matte-black grenade-looking spheres attached to it. She looked like a ninja goddess.

"Wel, aren't you just armed to the teeth?"

"In my line of business it doesn't pay to walk around in my underwear."

Now
that
was a sight I'd like to see. "I have to try to save my dad. You know I can't just leave him."

"There are other avenues to freeing him. We could petition the Overworld Conclave for their intervention."

"You said 'we'. Does that mean your family wil help me?"

"Oh, hel no," she said with a shake of her head.

"They don't even know I'm here."

"Do they know about me?"

"Do they know about me?"

"They're aware of you now, thanks to this hubbub over your dad."

"And?"

"And what? They won't hunt you down if that's what you think. Mom was not exactly happy to find out she styled the hair of an incubus and didn't even know it." Her lips curved into a sad smile.

"That's kind of creepy, now that I think about it," I said. "Finding out your hair dresser is a vampire. Speaking of which, is your family part of the Red Syndicate?"

She grimaced. "No, we're just a family. We're nothing like those creatures."

"Wait a minute. They're creatures but you're not?

Hypocrite much?"

She leaned against the back of the couch and narrowed her eyes at me. "Just because a vampire raped one of our ancestors doesn't mean we're anything like them.

We do something positive with our abilities. Besides, we're dhampyrs, not vampires."

"Wel if you're not a creature because your method of inception was out of your control, then I guess I must be okay too."

She grunted and averted her gaze. "We swore an oath to protect mortals from supernaturals. From leechers like spawn."

"Are you with the supernatural police squad?

Should I cal you Deputy Elyssa?"

"We're Templars," she growled.

"Like the knights?" I laughed. "You run around kiling vampires and demons?"

"It's not like that. We don't go around kiling anyone. We simply take care of the outlaws and rogues despite our dislike of…"

"Monsters like me?"

She met that with a protracted sigh. "It's just the way things are."

I paced into the kitchen and grabbed some water.

My insides churned with the desire to kiss her, frustration because I couldn't, and the need to feed. "I'm not going to beg a bunch of lousy politicians to help me free my dad. If it works anything like human politics, it'l take forever. No teling what they're doing to him right this moment." I chugged down a glass of water to quench my burning thirst, but it didn't help. It wasn't that kind of thirst. "I already have someone to help me anyway."

"Who?" she said in a scoffing tone. "Your little cat woman? What good wil she be?"

"At least she wants to help!" I yeled. I gritted my teeth and lowered my voice to a snarl. "Nobody else gives a damn because they think we're monsters who don't deserve to live in peace. We're blamed for being part of a family I never knew existed until a day ago." The anger fled from me as despair settled in. I groaned and sank into a chair.

She put an arm on my shoulder. I ached to touch her hand. To feel real solace in that touch. But it was an empty gesture.

"Justin, please listen to me. I don't want to see you hurt."

"Says the girl who almost cut my throat."

"No. Says the girl who thinks you're not al bad and don't deserve to die." She removed her hand and stepped in front of me.

"Look, I have to go," I said, the hunger and her presence becoming unbearable. "Can you at least tel me what I have to expect?" Aside from basic politics and location, Shelton's email told me nothing about how many vampires there could be or other lurking dangers for like-minded idiots who wanted to assault a vampire stronghold.

"You're realy going to do this no matter what, aren't you?"

you?"

I nodded, trying to look grim and determined while inside I felt scared and alone.

She huffed out an angry groan. "Stubborn idiot.

Fine." She puled a printout from a pouch on her side and laid it flat on the table. It detailed the layout of a building with marked entrances and little red dots I assumed indicated enemies.

"You knew what I'd say, didn't you?"

She nodded. "Of course."

"And you prepared a battle plan for me? How sweet."

"It requires stealth and a lot of luck. Also, it'l work best if we do it during daylight hours. The rogues wil be asleep aside from a few sentries."

"So—wait a minute. Did you just say 'we' again?"

"I'l help you."

My eyes misted. I turned away and wiped them so she wouldn't see me go soggy. "Thanks." I cleared my throat. It was difficult to speak over the knot that had formed there. "Why?"

"Even if things didn't work out due to you being a demon and al," she said, her lips turning up a smidge at the corners, "I don't want to see you kiled."

"I don't want to see me kiled either. I also don't want to see you hurt."

"I've got my big-girl panties on. I'l be fine."

I laughed despite the conflicted emotions coursing through me. "Why a daytime attack?"

"I don't know how much you know, but forget the myths. Vampires hate sunlight because it weakens them and they get a realy nasty sunburn since their skin can't adapt to the ultraviolet rays. It also hurts their eyes."

"What's the best way to kil them?"