vampireinthebasement (9 page)

Although her dreams troubled her, she only thought they were dreams. The dreams had been with her since she was a child. It was the same way when she got the feelings she did when she touched people. She had wondered if the abilities had come from her past, but she had never thought about looking into it. Why would she, when she was abandoned by both of her parents and no relative claimed her? All that Daniella wanted was to curl up with Tris and maybe start a life with him. Studying him now, she could see that he did not want anything to do with her. The cold gulf that had opened between them screamed and turned her frigid. If she could cry, she would have.

Daniella smiled at Joe and thought about her dreams where she had seen Lori being tortured. What did it have to do with her, and why did they want him? Why was Joe having him look into where she had come from? “What do you mean that he was only partially right about me being an incubus or a succubus?”

“
Balthus
has been around for about nine hundred years, which is a long time to be in the service of the
Grigori
. He’s had to be resourceful or pretty damn lucky not to have been killed by either one of our hunters or by your
Grigori
master. Do you know what the
Grigori
are?”

“No.”

“
Grigori
are the true fallen angels. They’ve been twisted by Lucifer’s minions or Lucifer himself into one of his legion.
Balthus
has been in service for a long time, and he has seen a lot. I had contact with him when he was younger and I was in a different position. However, you’re different, which I’m sure you figured out, because you can’t kill people. It takes a while for you to truly feel the hunger, and you can resist it, unlike the others of your line.”

“It doesn’t make her special.”

“Quiet, Tris,” Joe commanded.

Daniella jumped at the sudden bark, but she was intrigued to learn more about what the other man said. “What does that mean about where I’ve come from?”

“Your grandfather on your mother’s side was an incubus. So your mother was half succubus, and you inherited part of that: the unnatural allure and knowing instinctively who will advance your position in life. Does that sound familiar?”

Daniella nodded. She had dreamed about the men in her life and when she did, her position always changed. “So when I get a taste of them, I figure out if they’re going to be the next step on my road to success?”

“Yes. I think that you have to touch them first, since your powers are not as strong as a normal succubus. Can you take control in your dreams?”

“No. I pop up in their dreams and when I wake up, the dreams come back as flashes, so I’m never really conscious of them until the man says something. Normally if I have one, I wake up feeling sated.”

“That sounds about right, but there’s another reason why you’ve been having these dreams and can see into people’s souls when you touch them. Do you know why that is?” Joe asked.

She shrugged.
“Because I’m some sort of twisted, hybrid vampire?”

“Get on with it. Just have her tell us where Lori is so we can go in and get him. I’m tired of burning daylight.”

Joe turned to him. “Tris, so help me if you say another thing, I’m going to rip your wings off right now and leave you for human. Be quiet or get out!”

Daniella waited for him to leave, but Tris clenched his fists by his side and quieted. Hearing the rage and sensing it in him broke her heart. There was nothing she could do to calm him. Would he want her in his arms once more now that he had passed judgment on her? Feeling that awareness, she tried not to think about it and focus on what Joe was saying, but inside it felt like everything had shattered.

“Sorry, Daniella.
Sometimes he doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut. Did you ever wonder why your abilities lasted when you were turned into a vampire? If you were a human psychic who was turned, you would’ve lost your gifts. Besides being one-quarter succubus, you are also one-half angel. You were never meant to be a vampire. Your grandmother was an angel, and she fell in love with a man who was a quarter
angel
. That is why you’re so special. You were supposed to be a servant of Heaven and not the darkness. I sent Lori to try and find your grandmother, if we could, because it would help to figure out what kind of an angel you are related to.”

“Why does that matter?” Daniella was intrigued. It was odd to think that she was both good and evil in the same body.

“Different angels have different strengths and different powers. Some control the elements, some are warriors, and others are muses. Sometimes they’re a little bit of something else. If we knew what your grandmother was, then we could figure out what kind of other inherent powers you had and if they were completely suppressed with the succubus. Because you are a vampire, your angelic lineage is troublesome to pinpoint. If the
Grigori
figured out your true pedigree, he could use it against you and completely twist you into an angel of evil. Because of what you are, it also puts a question on your soul.”

“What do you mean? I don’t have a soul. That was made clear when I was turned the same way with me being undead.”

Joe sighed. “That’s not entirely true either. You see, because you’re half angel and the way fate was moving your life, you were meant to be working for Heaven. Because the darkness got to you first, it put your soul in a perfect balance, so you’re in purgatory. I think it’s one of the reasons why you can’t kill people. Because you are
here
, you have the choice of your own destiny.”

“But I’m still undead and I’m still a vampire. Whatever I am can’t bring me back to life.” Daniella tried to take in all the information.

She glanced at Tris and wondered if he believed any of it. His face was blank, but his gaze was murderous. Daniella figured that if he had had his sword, then her head would have been severed from her body. That hurt her even more.
Why is this bothering me so much? Why do I even care about him after such a short time?
Daniella felt the emotions welling up inside of her throat. Her head hurt assimilating what Joe had told her. Tris wanted to kill her. Joe was looking at her as though she was some sort of...well, she did not know what. Her heart twisted from what she saw looking into Tris’s eyes. With all the info, all she wanted was to be in his protective embrace with his wings around her. Were they going to throw her to the wolves now that they had discovered her true nature? Certainly they would use her to find Lori. He had been nice to her in the beginning.

“Yes. You’re still a vampire. Nothing can change that. Your unique situation puts you in a place where some of your angelic abilities might counteract more of your
vampiric
ones. Maybe walk in the sun for a little while, or maybe even have your heart beat. All you need to awaken your angelic ones is the right jolt.”

“Really?”
Doubt was the first thing that gripped her,
then
a little bit of hope.

“Maybe.
I can’t promise anything. Of course, that won’t happen without your help in finding Lori.” Joe glanced at her, and she knew that he was serious.

“Of course, I’d have helped him regardless. He was nice to me when you guys captured me, and he’s Tris’s best friend. I have no loyalty to
Balthus
or my
Grigori
master.”

“Aren’t you compelled to go to him and do whatever he says?” Tris asked.

“Only if he orders it,” Daniella responded.

“So he could’ve ordered you to come here, make friends with me, and seduce me so you could learn our secrets. I bet you were the one who tipped off the rest of your nest we were coming and waited around to see us.”

Daniella was tired of his remarks, no matter how much she felt for him. She walked up to him and slapped him across the face with all of her strength. It forced his head to the side. “How dare you! I can take the snide comments, but you should know that I have no loyalty to them. I should be furious with you for killing my
nestmates
, but I’m not. After these past couple of weeks, I’ve given you everything. Did you think I spread my legs for anyone? Maybe I’m also sleeping with Horatio.” Daniella did not care that it was daylight; she needed to get away from Tris.

She bolted up the basement stairs and was hit with the full rays of sun. She dashed into the nearest patch of shadows that she could find, which happened to be under the stairs in the hallway. She was cramped sitting on top of a pile of coats, boots, and other things that poked into her butt. Daniella really wanted to cry at what Tris thought of her. He basically called her a whore. Even when she was stripping, she did not sleep with just any of her customers. The emotions choked her, and she needed to cry or shout. Something to express how she felt, but there was nowhere she could go that would get her far enough away from Tris right now.

“Are you okay?” Horatio asked.

She glanced up at him and shook her head. Of the three other angels in the house, he was the one who had taken more of an interest in her than the others. He treated her like she was a woman and not a vampire. “Not really.”

“Tris?”

“Yes. He started going off about me and being an ass. I get he’s insecure about love, and he hates vampires. I’m not like them. I’m not. I’ve tried to make him see that. He won’t understand, and I don’t know what else to do. He thinks that I’m trying to sabotage you all. Or that I’m reporting back to
Balthus
. I’m not. I just want to be with the man I love.”

“So the information that Joe gave you didn’t upset you? This is all about Tris?”

She nodded.
“Yeah.
Joe told me some stuff about my heritage. I couldn’t believe it. Why are you asking?”

“No reason. It’s odd to see someone so worked up about Tris. He doesn’t normally let himself get involved emotionally. Considering you’re a vampire, it’s difficult to see him with you. But I’m sure he’ll come around once you talk to him. He’s always been harsh. These past couple of weeks, he’s blossomed into something that I’ve never seen before. I was hoping you might crack him.”

“Yeah, well, he’s an ass, and it doesn’t matter. Whatever I cracked, I think tonight it all sealed back up. I just want to get out of here. Can you help me with that?”

Horatio glanced at the shaft of sunlight and back at her. “The sun is going to burn you, but if you can stand to be with me, I think I might have the place to bring you. Would you be willing to come?”

Daniella shrugged. The footsteps of the other angels were coming up the stairs.
Anything to get out of the house and away from them.
“Could we go shopping, maybe? I mean, I’d need you guys to lend me money.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Horatio snapped his fingers, and a long, black cloak appeared. He opened it for her. Daniella slipped her arms into the cloth and slid it down over her head so she was cocooned within the soft material. Once the darkness descended over her, she felt Horatio’s arm encircle her. She felt the wind whisk around her the way it had done with Tris. And even though she was being carried away, she wished it was his arms that she
were
in. When they stopped, Daniella sensed they were in a dark place that felt safe. Taking out her stress on clothes, and dressing rooms, made her feel good. The idea made her giddy, and being away from Tris was the best thing of all.

Chapter Six

“Tris, you have to learn not to be an ass. She might have been our only chance in finding Lori. What is it with you? One minute you’re going all
googly
eyed over her, and the next you want to rip her head off. I’m tired of your behavior. If I didn’t need you to go find her, I would tear your wings off right now.”

Tris felt a whoosh of air go by his face and heard a distinctive
thunk
right next to his ear. When he glanced toward the sound, he saw Joe’s dagger deeply embedded into the concrete of the foundation. A few strands of his hair were wrapped around the blade, and he realized how close he had come to having Joe wound him. He turned his gaze to the senior angel whose eyes were alight with fury. The butterflies that normally were on his chest appeared on his face, and they were black, darkening his skin. The light in the basement was eclipsed by his wings that were several colors of feathers he could not make out because they changed every time he flapped them.

“What did you expect me to do, get over my hatred of vampires in two weeks? So what if she’s a mishmash of different beings? At the base, she’s still a vampire.”

“And you’re an idiot.”

“You keep saying that, but expect me to get over what happened to me. I’ve done everything you’ve ever wanted. You knew that by me taking on this assignment, it would go against everything I’ve believed in.”

“And you were making progress. Daniella was knocking down your walls. I saw it when I first spoke with you upstairs. I don’t care if you’re sleeping with her. And you can’t even see it.”

“See what?” Tris asked.

Joe walked over and pulled the dagger from the wall. Tris didn’t dare move in case he enflamed his boss’s anger even more. Joe was millimeters from his face. “If I have to tell you, then you’re not worthy to be an angel. Consider this your last rodeo. I don’t have to pull your wings off. You’ll do that yourself and become one of the
Grigori
. She was your last chance, and you blew it.”

Tris felt the blood drain from his face.
“My last chance for what?”

Joe shook his head, turned, and walked away. He went up the stairs and turned back around. “Goodbye, Tris. Find Lori, and your duties will be concluded. That is my final order.” He continued to walk up the stairs and winked out.

Tris stared at the empty space where his angelic commander had been and waited for some reprisal to come down on him right then, but it didn’t. Instead, all he felt was a dizzying emptiness with Joe’s words. He sank down the wall until his ass hit the floor and he stayed there, staring ahead of him because the shock had not worn off yet. He was going to be kicked out of the Fallen. Joe was not even going to kill him, but he was going to let him descend into Lucifer’s pit and become one of the
Grigori
; that was the one fate Tris was trying to avoid. He opened his wings and stared at the feathers. He did not see that they were falling off, and he could not see any patches of leather in his wings where there had been some before, the first time he had almost given himself up to
Caillech’s
twisted views, and he had almost succumbed. If it had not been for Joe giving him that second chance, then he would have been dead, or one of the ones Daniella was serving.

As he thought about the vampire he was meant to protect, he felt his heart hitch. All the things he said to her had just slipped out. He realized that he did not mean them. Well, he meant them at the time, but that was a different part of
himself
talking, one he thought he was finally working through because he had been opening himself up to Daniella and seeing parts he thought he had lost so very long ago, before he had even become a Fallen. Apparently that was not the case. He was still worse off than what he realized, and maybe he had not tried hard enough, because he did want to be with her. He thought of how her tiny form fit in his arms and how wonderful she smelled. Daniella’s laugh lifted his heart. Her attention to him made him realize how much he had become focused on only killing. He had been steeped in death for so long he had forgotten the light. Daniella wanted to explore the world. They might not have gone anywhere, but he had told her stories of the places he had seen. Tris had walked around the yard and showed her plants from all over the world. As he told her stories, it was as though he was seeing them all again for the first time, and that thrilled him. It had been a long time since he had felt that excited about anything, and he wanted more of it. He wanted more of her. The realization hit him hard. His mouth had gotten him into trouble. She was gone. He had lost her. All his dark thoughts came crashing down around him, and he had slung accusations at her without thinking of consequences. The spot still ached where she had hit him. Tris cursed himself.
She’ll never forgive me now. What have I done?

“Tris, have you seen Horatio?”

He glanced up from the protective covering of his wings and saw
Hesphital
standing midway down the stairs staring at him. He pulled his wings back so that he could focus on the other angel. “No. I haven’t seen him since before Joe came down here with me. What do you need him for?”

“Something we need to plan. He’s not in the house, and I can’t find Daniella either.”

Tris got up. “So? He probably took her out. I’m sure she needed to get away from me after what happened.”

“No. It’s more than that. I can’t sense him at all. He’s gone off the radar, and he never does that.”

“You three are joined at the hip. Maybe he doesn’t want to be disturbed, and that’s the reason you can’t sense him.”

“We might not hunt together much, but you and Lori are the same as we are, joined at the hip, and with him gone, can’t you sense the hole that’s within you?”

He thought about it, and what
Hesphital
said was true. Tris should have been able to sense where his connection was to Lori, but that was blocked. He had not thought about it for the past two weeks because he thought that his friend was off on an assignment for Joe. Even now, he could not sense Lori, or even the space where he had occupied. He had not realized it before. Why hadn’t he been able to sense him or not sense him? Was Joe right? Was he really losing himself a little piece at a time? He shook his head. “No. I can’t even tell that he’s being blocked.”

“Then we have a big problem.”

Tris nodded. They certainly did.

* * * *

“Look what we have here. You had no trouble bringing her, then?”

Daniella paused, slipping the hood from her face.
It can’t be.
Balthus
.
She looked around the room they had appeared in. Horatio stood next to the same chair that she had first met her
Grigori
master in.

“No trouble at all. I had to get her completely alone and gain her trust. That was the easy part.”

“It took you long enough,” the cold voice of her master said from the chair. She could only see the top of his head. He did not rise to greet her; instead, the frigid aura he personified blasted around her. The sudden pain that shot through her body forced her to her knees.

“Forgive me,
Halliel
, but getting her alone was the tough part. Tris has become quite enamored with her, but now I’m not so sure.” Horatio ran his fingers along her cheek.

She turned her head from his grasp and spit at him. “Get away from me! I trusted you.”

“Of course you did. Who would believe that I, one of the great vampire hunters, would ever do anything to go against the Fallen?”

“Why? Why would you betray the others? They’re your friends,” she stammered, not believing what she was hearing.

“They’re not my friends. They think they are because they were told to be. Even when they came down from Heaven and were cast out, they didn’t get much of a soul, much of a choice to do things. At least I know what I’m doing here.”

“And what is that?” Daniella asked.

“Stop your questions,” the
Grigori
ordered.

Daniella wanted to say something else, but her mouth was forced shut when the full power of the
Grigori
came down upon her. She glanced around and saw Marlon blending in well with the wall, standing by the doorway. Her eyes widened, but he put his finger to his lips and gestured for her to not draw attention to him. She nodded slightly and turned her attention back to what was going on around her.

“What did you find out?”
Halliel
asked to Horatio. “Why has the Fallen taken an interest in her?”

“It appears that one of her relatives was a succubus and mostly because she’s part angel.”

“Angel.”
Balthus
squeezed her chin gently. “I knew there was something different about you when I first saw you. What a catch.” He smiled that satisfied grin he did after a kill.

It irritated her now. She had never seen it before, but being away from
Balthus
and the rest of the nest for so long now, she finally understood that she never truly belonged with them. All she craved was to be wrapped in Tris’s arms. Yet he no longer wanted her, so that was out of the question. He probably did not know where she was or even that Horatio had taken her. Daniella was at the mercy of whatever they were going to be doing to her. If she could cry then, she would have, but she could not give up hope.

Halliel
rose from the chair, and the temperature plummeted all around her. This time, it was even more intense than what it was the last time she had met with him. The others did not seem to be affected by it. She saw his dark hair and his pale, chiseled features. He was dressed in a well-tailored suit she assumed cost several thousand dollars. Daniella had seen the gambit in the strip club she used to work in. His dark hair was cropped short and his cheekbones angular. The
Grigori
wore a red shirt with a black tie underneath the black suit. It was his eyes that caught her. They were the palest blue she had ever seen, with only a ring of black showing his pupils.
Halliel
stared straight through her. He bent down and slipped a finger underneath her chin. Once he touched her, all her free will was sapped away. Daniella rose, even though her mind fought against it. All that went through her mind was the pact she had sworn when she was first made. She had to obey her master. Staring at him, she understood how he could be an angel. But the longer she looked at him, the more she saw underneath the façade. Where there was porcelain skin, it was really dried and stretched over his bones. The manicured fingernails hid claws.
Halliel’s
tailored suit was nothing more than a mass of tattered fabric, but she could see dark wings that were supported by a hunched back. His eyes were dark and soulless. Tris’s eyes had looked like that back in the basement, when he thought she was the one who had betrayed him.

The pressure his finger exerted on her started to burn, but not from heat; it was ice cold, and it scorched her insides. “You’re so very beautiful. Feeding off the angel these past couple of weeks has brightened the angel in you. I can see it now. I couldn’t before. You truly are a remarkable find. And you’re going to do anything I wish of you, aren’t you?”

Daniella gritted her teeth. Everything in her screamed to say yes, but she gathered every ounce of strength and defiance she had in her and uttered one word. “No!”

The
Grigori
blanched and lost his composure. If the others noticed, she could not tell because he made his face a perfect mask once more and forced a smile. “She’s a feisty one,
Balthus
.”

“I’m sorry, Master. She wasn’t so defiant the last time I saw her.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s all the angel blood in her. It’s awakened the other side of her. I would almost say she has the beginning of wings, but being a vampire, that would never be possible.” The
Grigori
rubbed her chin harder, holding it between his thumb and forefinger and scrunching it together. A small moan of pain came from her lips the harder he squeezed. He lifted her off her feet and peered into her eyes. His breath was a blast of cold air on her face. With his other hand, he pulled back her eyelid and studied her. He snarled and threw her across the room. “She has a soul! She’s no use to me with a soul.”