vampireinthebasement (10 page)

“How can she have a soul?”
Balthus
asked.

Daniella landed against the far wall and heard her head crunch from the impact and felt the pain. She glanced over to the doorway and saw Marlon kneeling beside her. He leaned in close so his mouth was pressed against her ear. “Do not fight with him. The angel’s life depends on it. Do you understand?”

She was not sure she could speak and wondered why he was helping her. So she
nodded,
a slight movement of her head.

“Good. Hold tight.”

“Marlon, what are you doing?”
Halliel
inquired.

“Only making sure she was okay, sir,” Marlon replied.

“With a soul, she’s no good to me now. Let Horatio have her for a pet.”

“That would be wonderful. Thank you,” Horatio answered.

“Sir, if I may, she is valuable to you even with her soul. Think about what a rarity it is to have a vampire who still has a soul, and she’s almost an angel. Her soul is a powerful bargaining chip. You, of all people, can give her that spark of life she needs to become human once more. If you do that, then she’ll be tied to you even more. It would show the great one how powerful you are. Think what her destiny was originally supposed to be. She’s more than a
Nephelium
and not quite an angel,” Marlon explained to the
Grigori
.

Daniella could not believe what she was hearing. Was it possible for her to become human once more? Could she regain that lost part of her life? Was it even something she wanted? Even if it was, she did not want to be tied to the
Grigori
. She would rather deal with Tris and his bulling. She sighed and tried to figure out what she was going to do. Should she listen to Marlon? If there was a way to save Lori, then she could at least do that and pray that he would be okay to show Tris that she was trying to help out.

Her head tingled where her scalp knitted back together.
Halliel
stared at her and rubbed his chin. “This is true. Lucifer would think it’s amazing to have an angel under our command. It would show how powerful I am. And you, Horatio, would be the one to break her. Could you deal with that?”

Horatio beamed.
“Of course, my Lord.
Anything to please you and show my worth.”

“What about me, sir?”
Balthus
asked.

“You get to rebuild your nest for my amusement. If it wasn’t for Horatio, you would have been wiped out the first time the hunters went to the warehouse to retrieve Daniella. It was good enough I told him to warn you. Now go!”
Halliel
dismissed the older vampire with a wave of his hand. He turned to Marlon. “Go. I’ll call you when needed. Horatio, go get the
Fallen
one you brought me. I want you to see what it means to embrace being one of us. Once you’ve taken the final step, you will be by my side.”

Daniella wondered what the final step was. Horatio smiled and exited the room. Once Horatio left, the façade around the
Grigori
vanished and she saw his true nature underneath all the pomp and circumstance. The illusion was well played, and actually seeing him in the flesh was far worse than what she had imagined.
Halliel’s
skin was stretched over his bones, where she could see the muscles underneath it. What appeared to be the beginning of horns and scales protruded out of various spots on his
face.
When he unfurled his wings, they were tattered leather. It was tough to believe that he used to be an angel.

“You must have really charmed that angel in order to get him to fall in love with you.”

“He doesn’t love me,” Daniella answered.

Dark laughter filled the room. “He does love you if he’s allowed you in his bed. I almost had him, you know. Tris was so close to becoming one of us. Soon Horatio will join our ranks, and you will call him Master. You’re tainted goods. He can break you in. I’m not sure it would be a good idea to return your humanity to you. It might be too much for you to handle, and do you really want to go back and be human after everything you’ve done and learned about yourself?”

“It’s better than serving you.”

Halliel
chuckled. “Maybe, but aren’t you curious about what it is that will make Horatio mine? Or maybe how you’re going to lose the one who you’ve aligned yourself with? Don’t you want to see the final transformation? It is a thing to watch; I’m sure you would find it interesting.”

“Go to hell!”

He threw back his head and laughed. “My dear, I’ve already been there, and it’s amazing. You’ll learn to enjoy it too. Once you’re broken in, you’ll see what you’ve truly been missing. Right now you’re only on the fringes of the shadows. You haven’t even begun to see the real darkness.
Once you bathe in it, let it wash over you, you won’t ever wish to be human at all, and whatever angelic tendencies that have emerged in you will fall away. I see the succubus too, but you would make a wonderful avenging angel.”

At that moment, the door opened. Horatio came back, dragging Lori behind him. There was a rope around his neck, and he was not even fighting. It seemed he was a limp doll. There was nothing to the man that she once knew. His skin was loose, and even his wings dragged behind him, leaving a trail of feathers. Horatio brought him to the center of the room and dropped him there. Lori did not even move when the other angel walked away from him.

“He’s already broken,” Horatio said to the
Grigori
.

Daniella crawled over next to him and touched his hand. His eyes fluttered. Before she could do anything else, she saw a shadow move swiftly and then felt the leather of a boot hit her jaw. Pain exploded before her eyes and then she knew nothing more than darkness.

Chapter Seven

Tris heard a knock on the door and swore under his breath. Now was not the time for some traveling salesman or a girl selling cookies for some troupe they were in, although he was a sucker for those thin cookies covered in chocolate that tasted like
mint.
He smiled at the thought, and it helped to lighten his mood. But it did nothing to alleviate the idea that Lori was still missing, Daniella was gone, and Horatio had also disappeared.
Hesphital
was looking for the other H to see if he was also feeling the same thing he was about Horatio and not responding to them. His thoughts seesawed back and forth about what Daniella’s role in the situation was. Tris weighed what Joe had said. Once he figured out where Lori was, his life would go to hell. He was going to end up being a
Grigori
. He knew it. First he had to save his friend,
then
his death sentence was going to be passed. Before he opened the door, Tris glanced at the mirror and stared into it. Instead of his normal eyes, he saw the flat black stare of one who was already dead or lost.

The person at the door knocked again. Tris pulled himself away from his reflection and opened the door for the first time in almost two hundred years.
“Marlon?
What are you doing here?”

Seeing the other angel, he thought about all the time he had been friends with him, but then he had disappeared. Rumors were that he had Fallen and turned to the darkness. If that were the case, then he was a
Grigori
, but he did not resemble one of the ragged angels who had become demons. His dark skin was shiny underneath the sun, but Tris noticed silver vine tattoos all over his skin. Marlon’s head was bald, but his wings were hidden from him. The protective spells around the property should have made it so that no evil could come onto their property, but then again, Daniella had come into the house, and she was evil. However, if she had some angel in her, maybe she was not completely evil. He shook his head. The lines were blurring too much, and he needed to find Lori.

“Hello, Tris.
Been a long time.”

“It has. I ask again: What are you doing here?”

“I know where Lori is, but you have to come with me now or you won’t get him back.
The same with the vampire.”

Was he hearing him right? “You know about Lori? How? Where is Daniella? How did you get in here?”

Marlon shook his head. “How is not important. If you truly wish to save them, then there’s time, but you have to come with me now.”

Tris glanced around the house and wondered if the others were close by, but he could not wait if Marlon was telling the truth. Maybe he was luring him from the house. “How can I trust you?”

Marlon shrugged. “You can’t. You just have to have faith. Do you remember what that is?”

Tris summoned his weapon and felt
himself
being outfitted completely in his dark uniform with his sword at his back and a silver dagger that was at his hip. If he was going to rescue Lori, then he had to be well prepared. “I’ve learned that faith can be overrated.” He stepped out of the house and felt for
Hesphital
.

“I have a lead on Lori. Get H and follow me when you can
,” he sent out along their mental connection. It was the best he could do and prayed that the other angel would come. He stepped out of the house and closed the door behind him. “Let’s go.”

Marlon disappeared, proving him wrong that his old friend had no wings. Tris raced after him and found himself outside of a grand house in the middle of nowhere. He could feel the power that kept it concealed from prying eyes. He never would have been able to find it on his own unless he had been shown the way. Marlon put his finger to his mouth and motioned for him to come around the back. Tris drew his sword from his back sheath and followed Marlon to the back of the house and into the kitchen. The first thing he smelled was the metallic scent of blood, and he was blasted with cold air that made him shiver. When he turned to ask Marlon something, the other man was gone. A loud
scream
erupted from somewhere in the house. Lori.

All his instincts told him to run in and rescue his friend, but he had to be careful. Tris worked through the house and was surprised that there were no guards. Then again, the
Grigori
must have figured that the house was spelled against anyone who could not come in, so he wasn’t thinking a Fallen was going to walk into the house. He slid through a dining room and followed the sound of another shriek that made him cringe. Tris tightened his grip on his sword and told himself he was going to get through this and rescue Lori.

Another screech came from his friend. It sounded like he was being tortured. Fury spurred his hatred, but it was more for the vampires. It was all of his hatred condensed into one thing. Kill the
Grigori
and rescue Lori. If Daniella was there, he would see what part she had in Lori’s capture. He gritted his teeth and was about to burst into the room when he heard another voice.

“Enough! Leave him alone. You’re killing him,”
Daniella
exclaimed.

Tris recognized another voice.
“Isn’t that obvious.”

Horatio.
What is going on? Why is Horatio here? Why is Daniella pleading for Lori? Shouldn’t she be helping to torture him?
He pressed himself against the wall and listened.

“Yes, it is. Soon Horatio will be like me, and you’ll be his pet. He’ll break you in, and you’ll be wishing that you called me Master once more.”

There was a loud smack, and
Daniella
whimpered.

“Quiet. Or the next time you speak, I’ll kill him. Do you understand?”

Tris’s
heart wrenched at the sound. Maybe he had underestimated her. Maybe she really was a good one, and everything she had said was true. Maybe she actually had feelings for him. Too many questions whirled in his mind. He did not need to be distracted by them. All that mattered was getting Lori. He peeked around the door frame and saw Lori shackled to a metal rack. Horatio stood before him with a knife. The frigid temperature chilled his fingers. Tris gripped his sword and slipped into the room. Horatio was about to slice it down Lori’s already red and marred chest. His friend was half close to death, and his wings were hanging limply. Some of the feathers were scattered along the hearth carpet.

“Stop!”
Tris commanded, gathering all of his power. This was the last act he would do as a Fallen; at least he could do it right this time.

Horatio glanced at him, and a smile slid over his features.
“Tris, how nice of you to join us.
I see you found your way here. I guess you and the little vixen are a little more connected than I assumed. Are you here to try to rescue her or Lori?”

“I would say he’s here for both,” the
Grigori
said.

Tris glanced over and saw the true
Grigori
that was Daniella’s master. There was nothing left of the angel. His once-majestic wings were now leathery scraps. His eyes were so sunken into his skull Tris wondered how he could still see. When he turned his gaze on Tris, those ice-blue eyes implied he had once been an angel, but then they glazed over to complete black; in them he saw his future, but pushed it aside.
I will not become like him. I will redeem myself.
Behind the
Grigori
, Daniella was bound with silver manacles attached to the fireplace. Her left side closest to the flames was red and appeared to be blistered. She turned toward him, and he saw how badly seared her face was. Seeing her beauty marred hitched his heart, but he had to stay focused. It seemed she was weathering the pain.
I have to free her, no matter what happens to me. Joe can give her something of a life that isn’t locked in darkness. I see that now.

“It doesn’t matter who I’m here for. Let them go, and I’ll spare your lives.
Even yours, Horatio, traitor that you are.
How could you do this? Lori is your friend.”

Horatio grinned. “That’s exactly what I wanted you to think, but you don’t know how tired I am of doing what I’m told. I rather enjoy wreaking havoc rather than having to clean it up. Besides, killing vampires is overrated. What else is there? One more step, and I’ll be what I was truly meant to be. And you can’t stop me.” He lifted the knife to plunge it down into Lori’s chest when the temperature plummeted in the room and he froze in midair.

There was a blur and then a hole in Horatio’s chest where his heart had been. A small trickle of blood ran down his skin. The shocked expression on his face slowly relaxed and the knife dropped from his hand, embedding into the floor. It took a moment, but his body fell limply before the rack and lay still. Tris stared back at the
Grigori
across the room with Horatio’s still beating heart in his hand. His lips twisted into a devious smile before he tore a large chunk from the meaty flesh and swallowed it. He threw the remains into the fireplace. The flames exploded out of the hearth and wrapped around Daniella’s left arm. She screamed. The
Grigori
sucked the remnants of the blood from his fingers.

“It’s a pity, really, but he’s outlived his purpose.”

“And what purpose was that?” Tris stepped closer to Horatio’s body and pulled the dagger from the floor.

“He was only the distraction I needed in order to get you here. You’ve always been so close to the edge. All that hate you carry inside of you; killing vampires was the only way you could channel it.
Caillech
had you so close to turning, so close to sitting at my side. Even after you staked her, all you had to do was reach out. But Joe got to you first.”

“
Calli
was yours?”

“Of course she was. She was
Balthus’s
child. Once I saw her, I knew
Caillech’s
beauty could draw even an angel down from the clouds.”

Tris could understand that because
Caillech
had done that very thing. “Why would you want me now? I don’t want anything to do with you or your kind.”

The
Grigori
chuckled. “You don’t have a choice, Tris. You’re right on the edge, even closer than you were before. All you need to do is to kill your friend. I’ll even let you break in the bitch. She’ll be so much fun to play with.”

He glanced at Daniella. Fear lingered in her eyes. The heat from the fire was slowly dissolving her skin. Her flesh was rare and black in some patches. The beauty she had once been was eaten away, but he could not think about her right now. Lori was his main target. He studied Lori. His friend was near dying. It would be so easy and humane to put him out of his misery. But at the thought, the darkness growing in him rose up and he felt a glimmer of enjoyment. Tris could see the abyss and feel the power that it offered. If he stepped into it, then he could have a level of power he never knew before.

“Take the dagger and plunge it into Lori’s heart.” The
Grigori
stepped closer to him.

Tris was mesmerized by the way the creature spoke. He lost himself in the
Grigori’s
dark gaze. He lost his grip on his sword, and it clattered to the floor. Tris tried to regain control of his body, but he was not able to. His fingers curled around the dagger that he had slid into the waistband of his pants. He heard the seductive tones of the
Grigori’s
voice in his mind telling him what he needed to do.

“Yes. Plunge it into his heart, and you can join me.”

Tris stepped toward Lori. His friend opened his eyes and started to say something, but he was too weak. Cold fingers slid around his shoulders and along his neck.

“That’s it. Give yourself over to me. Once this is done, everything before it will be a bad dream.”

Yes, it would. Everything would be a bad dream. A cold desire infused him to snuff out the small flame that remained within Lori. It would be so great. He could let it all go. All of his burdens would fly away. He stepped closer and lifted the blade over his head.

“Tris, no!”
He heard Daniella’s voice through the haze.

“What did I tell you?” the
Grigori
growled.