Wardbreaker: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles) (17 page)

“So what’s it like being a succubus?” I called over the music, and if I hadn’t seen her fingers clench around the steering wheel, I’d have assumed she hadn’t heard me.

“It’s not super fun. Usually, I get to seduce gross people for things I don’t really care about.” She waved at me with one hand like I was an example.

“I thought most of you, um… liked your jobs?” I said, feeling the blush rise on my cheeks.

“Some of us do. Those ones mostly work in massage parlors and strip clubs.” She shrugged her shoulders.

“And I’m guessing you don’t do those things?” I asked, worried that this conversation was about to take a train straight into uncomfortable station.

Danae quirked one perfectly sculpted eyebrow at me. “No. I don’t.”

“Okay,” I replied, looking away from her so I could stare out the window.

“It’s not like I have anything against those that do,” she continued, and I groaned inside my head. I had no idea where this discussion was about to go or what my part in it would be, but my desire to have a heart to heart with a vampire about her life choices wasn’t exactly large. “It’s just, I mean okay, sex is awesome, and I feed on it, so you might think I was all sorts of slutty, but really…” She glanced at me. “We’re not all that way.”

“I believe you.” I smiled at her, and she nodded.

“Thanks,” she let out a breath. “It’s just weird to explain that I’m a succubus but don’t like sleeping with random people.” She blushed a little bit and looked back out the windshield, which was good because she was driving and there was traffic.

“It is a little odd, but not out of the realm of possibility.” I rubbed my temples with my hand. “I know lots of people who sleep around and lots who don’t. I’m not sure why it would be different for vampires.”

“Most people wouldn’t see it like that. They’re always like, ‘oh, you’re a sex demon? Well feed off this,’ then they whip it out…”

“I feel like you’re going into way more detail than required,” I said as delicately as I could because I did not want to discuss sex with a succubus because, well, it was embarrassing. I hadn’t even had sex and here she was talking about people whipping it out in front of her, which come to think of it… “Who willingly has sex with a succubus?”

“You’d be surprised what people are into,” she said before lowering her voice to a whisper. “I know this one guy… Let’s just say I don’t think his hair has turned back to its normal color ever since he found out about us.”

“You fed on someone enough to drain the color from his hair?” I asked, incredulous. “And not only did he live, but he came back for more?”

“Like I said, some people are into weird stuff.” She flipped on her blinker and pulled onto a side street. Up ahead, a huge hospital stared at me through the window, and even though I hated hospitals with every ounce of my being largely due to the ginormous amount of time I’d spent inside them, I was happy to see it.

“I’m glad we had this talk,” I said as politely as I could when she pulled up in front of the massive building.

“Me too,” she replied. “I know you’re lying and uninterested because I can tell exactly how interested people are in what I’m saying, but it was nice of you to try. I’ll remember that.” A look of horror must have slipped across my face as I looked at her. I’d been trying to be polite, and she’d known I wasn’t concerned in the slightest. It was
so
embarrassing. “Now get out of my car and go save your friend.”

“And what will you be doing?” I asked as I opened the door and stepped into the brisk air. It always surprised me how cold it was outside when the sun was shining. It was one of the reasons I’d picked Southern California over say Northern Minnesota. I’d have died from the cold in three seconds there.

“I’ll keep the car running for your inevitable escape.” Danae patted her steering wheel. “Try to hurry though. I get bored easily.” With that, she leaned over and pulled a paperback book out of her glove compartment. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting her to read, but it wasn’t a book about sparkly vampires, that’s for sure.

She looked up, catching me staring at her book and grinned. “It was either this or the one about a young girl murdering other teenagers in a game of death. It’s a sad day when the story about fictional vampires has the happy ending.”

The hospital smelled like bleach and disinfectant, which I guess was par for the course. Then again that could have been because I was currently hiding in a janitorial closet. I cracked the door an inch to make sure the nurse who had nearly seen me sneak in was gone. Not seeing him, I crept outward.

“You there!” a gruff male voice called, and I spun on my heel, heart hammering. The nurse I’d been trying to avoid stared at me with annoyed grey eyes, his nostrils flaring in annoyance. He took a couple steps toward me, his tight green scrubs pressed against his body as he moved, making it pretty damn obvious he was well built beneath the garments. “What are you doing up here?”

“Visiting a friend?” I offered, sheepishly looking at my feet. It was actually sort of hard because I was wearing Luc’s trench coat. It was so long, it nearly covered my feet completely. I was using it because it was the only thing large enough to hide my swords. I always had half a mind to ward them with symbols that would make them invisible to the casual observer, but I hadn’t. Mostly because those symbols would slowly drain the power from me and my weapons. It would suck to need them at full strength and find them half empty. So I was stuck to hiding them the old fashioned way.

It made me glad she’d had Luc’s coat even though I wasn’t quite sure how Danae had managed to snag it. Then again, she had gotten the governor to let me out of supernatural jail, and I hadn’t even known the governor knew about the supernatural, let alone had a prison for its denizens. This would be exactly the kind of thing I’d have written in a report, you know, if I hadn’t run away.

“If you’re visiting a friend, why did you come out of the janitor’s closet?” he asked, gesturing at the door behind me. He rubbed his stubble covered chin as he watched me carefully. “People don’t usually do that when they’re just visiting a friend. Just saying…”

“Wait,” I said, waving my hand in front of me as I felt my cheeks flush. “We’re allowed to see patients in here?”

“Uh, yeah,” he replied, confusion filling his face as he stared at me. “It’s visiting hours after all. Who are you looking for?”

“Um…” I said because I was a little thrown off by not having needed to sneak around. “I’ve been trying to sneak in here for the better part of an hour, and now I find out I could have just asked to see my friend?”

He gave me a weird look and shrugged his massive shoulders. “That’s how visiting hours work. I should probably turn you in, but I’m inclined not to do that. Besides, what sort of trouble a teenage girl could get into sneaking into a hospital to see her friend?” The words he said sounded ridiculous even to me, which was probably why he gave me a weak smile. If only he knew.

“Yeah, okay,” I replied, trying to figure out what his deal was. “I’m trying to find my friend, Luc. He’s supposed to be here somewhere.”

The nurse pulled a strange gadget from his back pocket and poked at it with one slender finger. “Luc what?”

“Luc what?” I repeated, dumbly.

“What’s his last name?” the nurse asked, staring at me over the top of his device so all I could see of his face were his eyes and salt and pepper hair.

“I have no idea. We just met a couple days ago. We were in a car accident together,” I said, totally realizing how bizarre I sounded. “You know what, I’ll just find him on my own.” And yes, that’s when I began whistling and trying to walk off.

“You expect to find someone here when you don’t know his last name? You’re aware we have quite a lot of rooms, right?” he asked, walking up beside me. Even from here, I could feel the heat coming off his body. He had to be really hot for me to feel his warmth almost a foot away.

“What are you?” I asked, glancing at him as my right hand curled into a fist. I could smash him with a magically infused punch and be down the hall before he pulled himself up from the ground. Probably. Depending on what he was.

“I’m a nurse,” he replied, looking at me like I was totally crazy.

“Yeah, fine, whatever.” I waved my non-clenched hand dismissively. “What type of shifter are you? Wolf? Cocker spaniel?”

He stopped so suddenly, I actually made it several paces past him before he cleared his throat. “How did you know? I’m pretty good at hiding what I am,” he said in a low voice. “Wait, are you a Dioscuri?” His jaw clenched.

“Yes,” I said because what was the point of hiding it?

“Bear,” he said, jogging over to me like it was the most natural thing in the world to admit you were a werebear. It wasn’t like there were only thirty-six of them on the whole planet. “And if you’re a Dioscuri, I’m guessing you’re looking for Jean Luc. What’d he do this time?”

“Wait, you know who he is?” I asked, stopping at staring at the shifter.

“Yeah, I was hired to keep him safe,” the werebear replied, giving me a thin-lipped smile.

“Is that why you’re off the werebear preserve?” I asked, wondering who hired him. “I hear it’s nice there.”

“I’m not going back there,” he growled. His voice had changed to a low rumble as yellow spilled around the edges of his eyes. Great, so he was thinking about shifting. That was exactly what I needed. “You can’t make me.”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass about taking you back,” I said. “Ariel’s in this goddamned city and you shouldn’t be. I don’t care how much you feel like you owe it to Luc to protect him, you need to be gone. Now.” Normally, I’d be more than willing to let a werebear help me since they were like hell with claws in a fight, but I was not about to be responsible for getting one of the only creatures of his kind left on the planet killed.

He visibly shook at my words like he hadn’t realized one of the most powerful vampires in the world was in town. “Room 237,” he said before spinning on his heel and making his way back down the hallway as quickly as he could. “Make sure you keep Luc safe.”

Well, that was weird. I mean I knew some shifters had integrated into society and all, but it was still a little strange to see a werebear providing guard duty. They were endangered after all. Why had he left the preserve? Why didn’t he want to go back?

Most of them seemed happy to live in what amounted to an all-inclusive Caribbean resort. It had been set up because they had been hunted to near extinction. Besides, what better way to increase the population than with copious amounts of free alcohol?

Many of the Dioscuri had long suspected the reason werebears in particular were nearly gone was because they were solitary. Werewolves tended to form packs, even within the city, but werebears were almost always solo creatures. Sometimes, survival was a numbers game after all.

I watched the werebear disappear down the hallway before glancing at the closest room number. 215. So I was close. I grinned, reached under my borrowed trench coat, and felt the familiar weight of Shirajirashii. Just touching the weapons gave me a surge of confidence as I moved down the hallway toward Luc’s room. I wasn’t sure what would be waiting for me in there, but something told me it wouldn’t be good. If Ariel really was watching Luc, then she’d have guards around here somewhere. Just because I couldn’t see them, wouldn’t mean they weren’t there. Then again, there had been that werebear here. Maybe Luc was all alone inside the room?

Still, the thought of engaging a bunch of vampires inside the hospital wasn’t exactly appealing because magic didn’t exactly play nice with most modern technology. If I started throwing spells around, I’d short out equipment. I most certainly did not want to cause someone’s mechanical lung or dialysis machine to give out.

Which was why instead of using my magic to check for traps or hidden assassins, I held my breath and reached toward the knob on Luc’s door, hoping it wasn’t rigged to blow me to smithereens. As soon as my fingers touched the brass, something smashed into me like a goddamned freight train, flinging me across the cheap laminate floor like I was a broken doll. I bounced, once, twice, three times before smacking into a metal cart filled with towels and other miscellaneous objects. The cart fell over with a horrific crash as I laid there dazed and confused.

“I forgot something,” growled a creature that sort of looked like a fifteen-foot-tall panda, you know, if that panda was hewn from a nightmare realm of indescribable fear, fangs gleaming in the light as its jowls curved into a smile. “I’m supposed to kill you first.” His yellowed toe claws carved gouts in the tile as he raised a paw the size of a tennis racket into the air. “Good bye.”

“Pandemonium,” I murmured, and he seemed ever so pleased that I knew who he was. That was why he hadn’t been on the reservation. Pandemonium was a werebear assassin. He was said to be older than dirt itself because a witch had placed a curse upon him that stopped him from aging until he found true love or something stupid like that. Only he was a soulless killing machine who enjoyed ripping the hearts from people before they died because they tasted better when they were still beating. I wasn’t sure who his true love was supposed to be, but she’d have to be a hell of a beauty to tame this beast. “Let me guess, you’re working for Ariel?”

I flung myself to the side as his claws tore through the cart in a shriek of steel and gouged inch deep holes into the floor where I’d been.

“Yes,” he growled, whirling around and swinging with all his bulk. I scrambled out of the way as his claws cleaved gashes into the wall beside me. The hallway was so narrow it was sort of to my advantage because he couldn’t move that well, but I wasn’t exactly keen on close combat with a freaking bear. I may have been magical and all, but so was he. At the end of the day, it was still me fighting a goddamned bear and that was pretty scary.

Even still, I pushed down my fear before it could bubble over and paralyze me. With a battle cry, I threw myself at the enormous creature and drove my knee into the two-ton monster’s gut. He looked down at me like he had barely even felt the blow. Which was probably because he hadn’t felt it. At all.