Wardbreaker: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles) (2 page)

“I applied for it after some vampires killed my friend’s dad. You wouldn’t think you’d need a license to kill the undead, but there you go.” The words came out of his mouth strangely brusque and disconnected, like he hadn’t actually expected to say them out loud. Then again, I doubted monster hunting came up in casual conversation since talking about it with people ‘not in the know’ was pretty much forbidden.

“Uh huh,” I muttered, glancing from the writ to him and back again. Something about this guy was off, I just had no idea what it was, and honestly, I didn’t really want to know. Whatever he was involved in would be trouble, and I’d had enough trouble in my short life to last a couple lifetimes.

Besides, if I helped him, I’d have to use my magic… if I did that, I was sure my people would find me since every time I drew on my power, there’d be a blip on the systems they used back home to track monster activity. If enough blips showed up where there hadn’t previously been any, well, someone would come snooping around. That, I did not want.

“It’s true,” he replied, shoving the writ in his pocket with one hand. “How else would I have gotten it?”

This was an excellent point because writs were magically bound to the owner. If someone else tried to use it, the writ would disintegrate into ash. Damn.

“Who sponsored it?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him as I glanced around. There was no one else here. I could make a break for it and be halfway down the street before he took even two steps. So why hadn’t I run? Why was I even having this conversation?

“Dirge Meilan,” Luc replied, and everything inside me went sort of cold and empty. Of all the Dioscuri he could have known, why did it have to be her? I swallowed as panic crept down my spine like an icy spider. Was that how he’d recognized me? Was it because I looked so much like Dirge had? No… it had to be something else. Surely, it was something else… but even as I had the thought, I knew it was a lie.

“No…” I muttered, and before I could stop myself, I was sprinting across the parking lot of the gas station as fast as I could. I made it about three feet before a loud honk filled my ears. I glanced toward it in time to see an old brown station wagon plow into me at ten miles an hour. It smacked into my ribs so hard I was reminded of the time I’d been punched in the side by a yeti. My breath exploded from my lips as I flopped sideways onto the concrete. The sound of people shouting filled my ears. The vehicle lurched to a stop as I lay there, struggling to breathe.

It’d hurt less than I’d expected, but then again, when you’re used to getting thrown twenty feet through the air by werewolves, well, what was a car? I tried to move, tried to crawl to my feet but everything was sort of hazy and far off. I shut my eyes, pulling in a deep breath, but when I opened them again, everything was still shaky. That wasn’t good. Maybe I’d been hurt worse than I’d thought.

An old woman with hair the color of fresh snow and glasses that made her eyes appear huge and bug-like hobbled over to me, yammering in some language I didn’t understand. Only… only I couldn’t even hear her voice very well. Her lips were moving… how come I couldn’t hear her?

I was about to ask when hands gripped me under my arms and hauled me to my feet like I weighed nothing, which wasn’t exactly true. I might have only been five feet tall, but I was almost a hundred and twenty pounds of muscle. I tried to kick and fight, but before I could land even a single blow, Luc leaned in close and whispered into my ear.

“Let’s get out of here before the police come,” Luc said, and his voice was warm on my neck. “Something tells me that won’t go well for you.”

He smiled at me as he tucked one arm around my shoulder and began hustling me away from the lady. I wasn’t sure where I was going exactly, but it didn’t matter. He was right. I did not want the police finding me. If they did, they’d want all sorts of things I wouldn’t be able to give them, like identification and my parents’ phone numbers.

We were sitting in a restaurant I’d never been to before which wasn’t that surprising since I’d never actually eaten in a restaurant on Earth before. I’d tried to tell Luc I didn’t have any money, but he’d insisted. So we were here even though I couldn’t afford anything. Everything smelled so good, I could feel my mouth water. Maybe I could just order water? I’d remembered reading something about water being free in American restaurants, but maybe I wasn’t remembering things correctly? Either way, I’d have to do something or the smell of food was going to drive me insane.

I’d never been the world’s best student, especially when it came to Earth’s studies courses. There were tons of countries, all with their own customs and things. Besides, most of our lessons usually revolved around how to deal with supernatural shenanigans, like say chasing a vampire through a blood bank or paying a mortician to forget a zombie really had tried to eat him. I’d had exactly one hour of class time pertaining to restaurants which isn’t very long when you consider how many countries had restaurants…

“So what will you two be having to drink?” asked a lady with short brown hair and eyes that seemed way older than they should have since she looked only a few years older than I did. She shifted in annoyance, tapping her plastic blue pen against a green pad of paper in her hands as her gaze shifted from Luc to me. Her eyes lingered on my soft lavender hair before she glanced back at Luc and raised an eyebrow at him. The gesture made my cheeks heat up. Was there something wrong with my hair? Even among my people colored hair was pretty rare, so I usually dyed mine, but I hadn’t had time before I’d made my escape. Hopefully, it hadn’t been a huge mistake.

“I’ll have coffee, the whole pot,” Luc said before gesturing at me. “What would you like to drink?”

“Um… water, I think,” I said, looking down at the menu on the table. I had glanced through the drink section, but hadn’t seen water with a price listed next to it. Should I ask how much it was? No, then I’d seem like an idiot. Still, if it cost money, I wouldn’t be able to pay.

“You think?” the lady asked, raising one eyebrow at me.

“Occasionally,” I replied, smiling sweetly. “Though usually I get distracted by shiny objects.”

Luc laughed as the waitress shook her head and walked away, her black tennis shoes squeaking across the dirty linoleum floor. Watching her go made me a little jealous because her jeans fit her way better than mine fit me. Then again, hers probably hadn’t come from a thrift store, so there was that…

“Let’s start this over,” Luc said, grinning as he ran one chocolate-colored hand over his bald head before holding it out toward me. “I’m Luc and you are?”

“I’m Lillim,” I replied, staring at his hand, unsure of what to do. So I copied him. I ran one hand through my short hair before holding it out across the table like he was doing. He glanced at my hand for a second then shifted his gaze back at me and chewed on his lip.

“Are you messing with me?” he asked, staring at my hand like it somehow offended him. I fidgeted and retracted my hand before dropping it into my lap as I looked sheepishly at the table’s brightly-colored top.

“I don’t know what you mean by that,” I whispered as my cheeks burst into flames. “I… um… I was trying to return your gesture.”

“It’s called a handshake,” he said slowly. “It’s how we say hello.” He flung himself back against his seat as he shook his head. Clearly, he didn’t actually want to shake my hand so I retracted it and dropped it into my lap. His eyes followed me, and he flushed slightly, embarrassment clouding his features. “Sorry. I don’t really know much about you guys. Dirge is the only Dioscuri I’ve ever met…” He left the “and she seemed pretty normal” part of his statement unsaid, but at least he had the decency to look like he meant the apology. That was something. I guess.

“It’s okay,” I squeaked, ashamed I didn’t know more as I stared down at my hands. Dirge had been an earthborn after all. She would have known how to act before she’d been recruited to hunt monsters by my people, the Dioscuri. Sometimes it seemed like all the knowledge she’d passed down to me was useless. It sort of pissed me off.

“Look, I’m not trying to make you feel bad,” he said as the waitress came up to us and placed a big glass container filled with black liquid on the table along with two white mugs. Then she put a glass of water with three pathetic looking ice cubes drifting inside of it in front of me.

“Thank you,” I said because good manners never really go out of style.

“You’re welcome.” She smiled, though it didn’t reach her hazel eyes and pursed her lips. “What would you two like for breakfast?”

“Two specials,” Luc said, tapping the menu in front of him with one dark finger. “And a side of pancakes with extra syrup.”

“Anything else?” she asked, writing furiously on her little pad and though I could see the words, they didn’t make any sense to me. Maybe she had her own little code?

“Orange juice. That will be all.”

“Two specials, pancakes with extra syrup, and an orange juice?” she repeated back to him and he nodded.

She turned and walked off without even looking at me which was a little odd. I mean part of me was relieved she hadn’t asked me what I’d wanted because I wouldn’t have known, but still… I smirked in spite of myself and decided to chalk it up to finally accruing some good karma. I’d been spared an opportunity to humiliate myself in front of Luc even further.

I mean, after this meeting, I was going to go to another town stat, but I still didn’t like embarrassing myself if I could help it. I wasn’t sure why since most of my people tended to shrug it off when they did things they weren’t supposed to around normal people, but it’d always bugged me, like something deep inside knew I was behaving incorrectly.

“I took the liberty of ordering for you. I hope you don’t mind,” he said, and when I looked at him, I must have had a strange look on my face because he hastily added. “I didn’t know if you’d know what you wanted and…”

“Thanks,” I said, feeling my cheeks heat up. “I appreciate it, but I don’t have enough money to eat here.” I swallowed, about to say more when he held up one hand. I spoke anyway. “I can’t pay for this.”

“You can work it off. How’s that sound?” He smiled at me, showing a mouthful of white teeth. “Then I wouldn’t be helping you per se, it would be you getting payment for a job. You know, freelancing.”

“I already told you I can’t help you.” I sighed, letting my breath out slowly as I scooted toward the edge of the booth so I could make a run for it if I needed to do so. “I can’t use my magic down here… if I did…” I stopped, trailing off as I realized I was blabbering to this guy. I barely knew him. I didn’t need to tell him anything, let alone spill my life story to him. Besides, he’d known Dirge. If that wasn’t a strike against him, I didn’t know what would be. Then again, he couldn’t have known her very well since I didn’t know a thing about him…

“I don’t need you to do any magic, Lillim,” he replied, pouring the dark liquid into each of the mugs before stirring a bunch of white powder and what looked like milk into one of the cups. Then he slid the mug with the new mixture toward me. “I just need you to give me some information, like a consultant.”

“I don’t know what that is,” I said, glancing at the cup full of steaming brown liquid.

“It’s coffee. It’s the nectar of the gods. It’s pretty much as close to magic as us humans can get.” He smirked at me and picked up the first cup which was black as coal and took a sip. “It has the ability to turn near-corpses into functioning humans with a single sip.”

“I meant, I don’t know what a consultant would do in this circumstance,” I replied, hesitantly lifting the cup and sniffing it. Just the smell was enough to wake me up. Was it some kind of stimulant? “Why did you put stuff in mine and not yours?”

“It takes a while to get used to drinking it black. You’ll like it better that way.” He grinned at me. “And you would just consult on a problem I have.”

“Well, that’s real helpful.” I glowered at him before sipping the drink. It was strangely sweet and acrid at the same time. I plastered a polite smile on my face before setting it down. “Yum,” I added for effect even though I was pretty sure he was trying to poison me.

He watched me set the cup down with his large brown eyes, but something told me he didn’t buy my reaction. “Basically, I need you to teach me about vampires so I can kill the ones who have taken over this town.” He took a swig of his coffee. “Every time it seems like I learn something it turns out to be wrong. That’s why when I saw you, and realized what you were, I decided to follow you.”

“You know following young girls around is not usually an endearing trait,” I muttered and he had the good sense to look sheepish. His mouth opened and closed for a second, trying to assimilate my words into his brain. “Besides, your story doesn’t make a lot of sense. Surely, my people have kept your entire town from being overrun by vampires. We’re magic-wilding demon hunters tasked with keeping Earth safe. That’s our job.”

“If you guys were the only ones fighting monsters, why do I have a writ?” he asked, completely serious, but something about the way he looked at me told me he was having a hard time not yelling at me. Not that it would do him much good. Was that why he didn’t? Points for him. My mother still hadn’t learned yelling at me got her somewhere between nowhere and zilch.

“Fair enough,” I replied. My stomach gurgled, and I glanced back at the coffee so hungry, I was about to down the stuff regardless of the fact it tasted like battery acid. One more sip wouldn’t hurt… but if I started accepting his stuff, I’d be obligated to help him. Still, what harm would a little information do? Besides, I was starving. “What do you want to know?”

The words had barely left my mouth when he reached into his jacket and pulled out a pad of paper with a ratty green cover half torn from its metal spirals. He pulled a blue pen from between the spirals and flipped a few pages over, scanning them before stopping on a specific page.

When he caught me watching him, his cheeks flushed slightly. “Sorry, I’ve been writing down questions for a while. When us hunters meet in the field we trade information, half of which is usually bogus, but I write it all down anyway.”