Wardbreaker: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles) (4 page)

“Let’s get out of here before police show up,” I added, already hearing the shrill cry of sirens in the background, though I could have been imagining it for all I knew.

“So why exactly was that vampire out in the open like that?” I asked, gesturing back at the diner as it receded into the distance. “Usually they stick to the shadows and dark alleys if they come out during the day at all, but that guy was acting like he owned the place, and he was just a newbie. I bet he hadn’t even joined a caste yet.”

Jean Luc stopped in front of a big red sign with the word “stop” written on it before turning left down a street and gunning his engine. Our van made a half-hearted groan and things inside it sounded like they were grinding together before we lurched forward, and I wondered if it was about to die.

“Do we need to take your van out back and shoot her?” I asked as he shifted a knob with his right hand, the grinding noise stopped, and we drove normally, weaving into traffic as the strobing red and blue lights of law enforcement appeared in front of us. Thankfully, they were going in the opposite direction, but it wouldn’t be long before someone identified our black van.

Then again, with no body to find, I sort of doubted they’d actually look for us anytime soon. More than likely, the cops would just write down a few notes and move along. That’s what they normally did on the occasions I’d stuck around to watch them work. It was one of the reasons why Dioscuri weapons were designed to make corpses dissolve.

The other reason was because it made it easier to kill things if there was no carcass to stare at afterward. I wasn’t quite sure why that was true, but all of our research had shown it to be. Still, I didn’t exactly enjoy killing things even if they evaporated when killed with one of our weapons. It was more of an occupational hazard I’d come to terms with, albeit uncomfortably. And besides, I wasn’t always lucky enough to strike the deathblow with one of my swords. When that didn’t happen, the corpses remained behind, a stunningly horrible reminder of the horrors of our war on the monsters. Let’s just say, killing a werewolf who reverted back into a ten-year-old girl upon death was not one of my fondest memories.

“I told you already,” Luc said, ignoring my comment about shooting his precious van. “The vampires run this town. That’s why I need to kill them.” He smacked his palms hard against the steering wheel, and the suddenness of it made me jump, though I didn’t know why. It wasn’t like I was super worried about him attacking me, after all. I could call upon my magic and throw him from the vehicle with ease if need be. Still, something about his sudden rage was a little unsettling, and I was glad it didn’t seem to be directed at me.

“That’s impossible. While the Dioscuri don’t monitor this area very closely, they observe it enough to keep vampires from taking over the town.” Then again, maybe they didn’t. One of the reasons I’d picked Orange County was because my people barely paid attention to it. Maybe the reports showing it lacking activity were just pencil whipped? A bad feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. Maybe lots of places were infested, and the reports were doctored to make it look like it was better than it was?

The Dioscuri were already stretched thin… and report writing wasn’t exactly high priority since almost every able-bodied warrior was in the field ninety-plus percent of the time.

“Believe what you want, Lillim. I haven’t seen a Dioscuri set foot in the city since Dirge last came here.” Luc glanced at me before turning his eyes back to the road.

“But that would have been years ago,” I said before I could help it.

“Yeah, that’s my point. I’ve even tried to petition for assistance the way she showed me, but my hails have gone unanswered.” He glanced at me. “Then you show up out of the blue and I think, ‘hey, there’s a Dioscuri who can help us,’ and you won’t even do it.”

“I am showing you things right now, aren’t I? Or do you want me to stop?” I asked even though his words made me feel like the worst person in the world. He had a point after all. I hadn’t wanted to help him. I’d been more concerned with staying hidden from my people even though I knew they needed me right now. With me gone, others would have to take up the slack left in my absence… and sadly, there weren’t very many of them. More than likely, it’d mean the monsters would kill more people. I tried not to think about it, tried to hold onto my justification for leaving, but as I did, I suddenly felt responsible for everything happening. The weight of this town’s infestation fell upon my shoulders like a leaden weight. My job was to keep this type of thing from happening. By running away, I was going to cause this to get worse.

“No, I don’t want you to stop.” He sighed. “I just want you, and by you, I mean the Dioscuri, to do more than you are.” He gestured back behind us in the direction of the diner even though it was far out of sight. “That shouldn’t be happening.”

“And that somehow makes this my problem?” I crossed my arms over my chest and looked out the window. “You don’t understand what it’s like. You don’t know what I’ve seen. You don’t know what I’ve done on a daily basis. You’re looking at a very tiny sliver of the world!”

“Is this where you imply my friends and family getting killed off by monsters doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things?” he asked in a voice so low and cold, it almost made me shiver. I’d just pissed him off because that was exactly what I was implying. In fact, it was the main reason I’d run away. Yes, I was tired of going out on missions to fight things so scary they gave me nightmares, but I could have gotten past that. But when every single day someone didn’t come home, and we got smaller and smaller in number… no, I couldn’t stay and watch that happen. I just couldn’t. Call me a coward, it’d fit.

“I was going to say just that, yes.” I hoped he could hear the apology in my words. “I’m sorry for that, Luc. I know you said something about your friend’s parents…”

Luc glanced at me even though he should have been watching the road. Every time he did it, my heart hammered just a little faster than it should have. “It’s fine. Just teach me how to get rid of these vamps, and I’ll forgive you for implying it’s not important for me to lose friends and family to the monsters.” He turned back to the road and slammed hard on the brakes, sending me hurtling into my seatbelt. The force of it hurt my chest as I smacked back into the dirty brown seat.

The black car ahead of us was stopped, though I couldn’t understand why. Another black car pulled up behind us, boxing us in. A bad feeling came over me as I looked around, suddenly claustrophobic. There were tall houses on all sides of us, and judging by the time of day and lack of vehicles in the driveways, I was guessing the people who lived there wouldn’t be home. They’d be out doing whatever things they did. No one would see us if something happened.

“What’s going on?” I asked as the doors to the cars opened and men clad in very nice suits stepped out of the vehicles. They all looked eerily similar though that could have been due to the shaved heads and dark aviator sunglasses.

“We’re about to get paid a visit by our ‘protection,’” Luc said, unbuckling his seatbelt and reaching casually into the spot between the door and his seat and clutching something. “You may want to cover your ears. This may get loud.”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked just as one of the suits rapped against the glass, and Jean Luc rolled the window down a couple inches. The guy peered inside, barely glancing at me. It was kind of nice. Normally, people always focused on me, especially back home. With Jean Luc here, I wasn’t noteworthy. Awesome.

“What can I do for you, Dimitri?” Luc said, his voice calm and surprisingly even.

“News is you killed Ralph. You know what the rules are Luc. You aren’t allowed to kill vampires within the city,” Dimitri said, laughter on the edge of his lilting voice.

“But he has a writ. That makes his kills valid anywhere,” I piped up before I could stop myself.

The man’s gaze swiveled to me. He lowered his glasses to peer closer at me, and as he stared at me, I realized the truth. Dimitri was a vampire too. “Writs are not valid here.” He turned back to Luc, about to say something else when I started laughing.

“That’s a joke right?” I said only no one else was even smiling.

“I think we might need to teach you just who is in charge here, girly,” Dimitri said as my door opened, and I felt hands on my shoulders.

I was jerked roughly out of the seat, which took some doing since I’d been seat-belted inside. Pain ripped across my body as I hit the pavement in a heap. Another of the suits stood over me, hands clenched into fists as he placed one leather loafer covered foot onto my chest and pressed. Agony exploded through my ribs.

“You really shouldn’t do that to her,” Luc said from within the car.

“Or what? What will you do, Luc? Use the Vulcan death grip on me?”

Rage filled me as the suit pinning me to the ground started laughing like his friend had made some kind of really funny joke. I wasn’t sure what was so funny. I wouldn’t want any kind of death grip used on me. Still, as the guy stepped off me, I was sort of happy they’d turned most of their attention back to the hunter. Evidently, they didn’t expect me to do much, which was fine by me. You know, since I was planning on killing them.

“Anyway, I think we can make a deal. Ralph wasn’t especially well liked or anything, so I’m willing to let you off easy. Let’s say, $20,000?” Dimitri said, and I heard Luc’s door start to open.

“Dollars?” Luc gasped, the shock in his voice clear.

“No bicycles. Of course dollars.” Dimitri shrugged. “That’s the weekly buy in for my poker games.”

“I don’t have that kind of money,” Luc said as I started to get to my feet. No one seemed to notice me.

Dimitri shoved Luc against the wall of the van. “That’s right. I forget how poor you humans are. Good for only one thing.” Dimitri leaned in and licked Luc’s neck. “Blood money it is.”

A shudder ran through me at the prospect of fighting them all by myself. Six vampires seemed like a lot, even if they didn’t seem very old. For there to be this many newbies around, there had to be a nest nearby, but how could that be? The only masters still alive were old enough to know they should play by the rules. But what if Luc was right? What if there was a breakdown between the information I got back home and what was really happening? If that was true… No, I didn’t want to think about that. If I did, I was going to feel responsible, and I wasn’t. I just wasn’t.

“Who is your master?” I asked, brushing myself off and turning toward the vamp who had pinned me, but even through his sunglasses I could tell he wasn’t quite sure what I was asking him.

“What are you talking about?” Dimitri asked, stopping short of Luc and looking over at me with confusion evident on his features.

“Who is the vampire who created you?” I smiled as best I could as I held up one hand. “You’re clearly just a baby, so I’m guessing you didn’t make all these guys yourself.” I gestured to his compadres. “Unless you have a thing for guys who look just like you.” I smirked. “That’s cool if you do, I don’t judge.”

“What’s she babbling about?” the vampire closest to me asked as he leaned down and smelled me, actually smelled me. Even though lots of supernatural creatures did that, it was always a little unnerving. “She doesn’t smell like food either.”

Dimitri took a step away from Luc and rounded the car in an instant. He was pretty fast for a young vampire, much faster than Ralph had been, and by the look of it, I was guessing he was two, maybe three years old… about how long it’d been since the Dioscuri civil war.

The vampire grabbed me by the collar, his hand twisting my sweatshirt in his fist as he pulled off his sunglasses and gazed into my eyes. As a rule, you weren’t supposed to meet the eyes of a vampire, especially an older one because it could lead to some crazy mind games. Thankfully, this guy was just a baby by vampire standards.

The force of his stare slammed into me, and I smiled back at him as sweetly as I could. “Oh, that sort of tingles. You’re pretty strong…” I shook my head. “For a baby. The one’s we use during our training to withstand a vampire’s gaze are at least ten times your age.”

“What are you?” he asked, letting me go and taking a step backward, horror etched across his features. “When I looked in your eyes… it felt wrong…” I tried not to take his words personally. I’d heard it from vampires before, and like always, it shook me. I wasn’t sure what the vampires saw when they met my gaze, but let’s be real here, a vampire had just looked into my eyes and gotten scared. How could I not shiver at that?

“I am Lillim Callina, Hyas Tyee of the Dioscuri.” I reached up, straightening my sweatshirt. “Hyas Tyee is our highest rank, in case you wondered.”

“Dioscuri…” the one next to me said, rolling the word over in his mouth. He pulled off his glasses, revealing his blood-colored eyes and looked at me like I was some sort of mythological creature. “We’ve heard of you… but our creator said you were all wiped out a few years ago.”

“Well, your creator lied to you.” I turned back toward Luc, ignoring the two vampires. “Get back in the car, Luc. Let’s get out of here. The Owls have a chateau a few cities from here. Let’s pay them a visit. If there’s a bunch of mooks like this,” I jerked my thumb at Dimitri and his counterparts, “doing things like this in broad daylight where they could get discovered by the humans, they will definitely put a stop to it.”

Luc gave me a strange smile before opening his door, presumably to get back inside, when Dimitri put his fist through the hood and tore something important looking free in a shriek of tortured steel. Green fluid spurted into the air as he dropped the hunk of twisted metal to the ground with a thud.

“No one’s going anywhere. We have a right to be here. We have an agreement with the Owls. We keep the wolves, the spooks, and the others out of here, and they let us do what we want.” He grinned at me, baring his fangs. “If you expect them to help you, you’re wrong.”

I believed him because vampires couldn’t flat out lie. They could twist the truth like hell, and for all I knew, what he said wasn’t true, but this guy believed it was. Still, what he’d said made no sense. Why would the Owls, one of the most powerful vampire castes, align themselves with these scrubs?