Annie Nicholas - Bait

Even though emotionally I felt scattered, my mind cut through the fear and panic like a sharp ax. I focused on the locked door while I stumbled to it. My left wrist could move but in agonizing jerks. When I examined the locking mechanism I saw it needed a key to open.

“How did you ever get those pictures?” She wiped a tear from her eye.

I twisted and leaned against the door, my sore wrist cradled in my right hand. “I’ll tell you if you give me the key to this door.”

She fingered a chain that hung on her neck, the key dangled between her breasts. “Come and get it.”

“Lizzy, are you making a pass? I’m really not attracted to crazy.”

Her smile turned feral. She turned the knob on the oil lamp to increase the flame and lit the room then sauntered to a desk in the far corner by the window. Thick red drapes blocked the view to outside, and inside the top drawer she pulled out a thin stack of photos.

Suddenly, I felt foolish for ever believing in those cursed pictures Colby gave me. The flame flickered in the lamp. I should have burned them.

Lizzy returned to the table, shadows played on her face and helped me remember another way to rid myself of a bitch vampire. She wanted to steal Rurik, kill his coven, and worst of all murder me. If this worked, there’d be no regrets. If.

I approached the table as she displayed the images face up. They were duplicates of the ones in the manila envelope, except no Rurik. A different vampire replaced him. “I don’t understand. Why frame him for this massacre?”

“Dragos hates Rurik and everything he represents with a passion. Your band of mercenaries wouldn’t take the contract without proof of some kind of misdeed. Dragos had the pictures made and then Tane’s pet, Eric, convinced them one of the dead girls was his daughter.” She chuckled. “Vampire slayers hired by vampires to do their dirty work. Quite poetic, even for Dragos.”

“He had those people slaughtered just for that. Why didn’t he just go after Rurik himself?”

“You do not understand our politics. Rurik has a great deal of supporters. If Dragos were foolish enough to kill him, it would cause an uprising. All those centuries of power gone for one little city.”

“I take it Dragos is more than an Overlord.”

“Oh yes, he rules them all.” She swept my hair from my face and tucked it behind my ear. It gave me the creeps. “Don’t worry your pretty, little head. I’ll take care of Rurik. Once his clan is destroyed, he’ll be powerless and Dragos will let me keep him.”

I couldn’t stand the way she spoke of Rurik. It made him sound like a pet. My blood boiled at the thought this dominating witch touching him. She reached for me again but I stepped back. “Why did Dragos attack Rurik’s original lair two nights ago?”

“He did what?” She growled. “That impatient fool! No wonder Rurik hides in Marie’s home. No matter, Rabbit. I will see if you taste as sweet as Dragos dreamed you would.”

Before she moved, I lifted the oil lamp from the table and smashed it at her feet. Her eyes widened when the oil splashed on her legs and caught fire. The flames spread up her limbs with forest fire speed. Her ear splitting screeches filled the room as did a foul, rotten smell.

I pressed my hands to my ears and back peddled to the far wall. Heat scorched my skin and smoke choked my lungs. The fire ate at the furniture as Lizzy flailed around the room. I could have planned this better. Instead of being eaten by her, I’d burn with her.

She managed to tangle herself in the long thick red drapes behind the table. They flashed into an inferno that licked the ceiling. She cried out again and burst through the window pulling the curtain with her. She didn’t fall very far. The room sat on the first floor.

I grabbed what remained of the scorched pictures and climbed out after her.

She flailed on the ground but her movements became weaker.

I allowed myself a moment of satisfaction as I watched Mistress Elizabeth, Wicked Bitch of the West, burn.

Shouts from inside the house startled me out of my dark pleasure. I ran across the garden, clutching the original pictures. Branches caught at my red t-shirt as I pushed between some thick bushes surrounding Lizzy’s property. At least my jeans protected me from scratches. The busy street was visible through the hedge. I needed to make things right for Rurik.

My mind raced with excitement, I finally had the evidence to prove his innocence. Who should I go to first? Colby, to stop any further attacks, or Rurik, to try and win him back?

I ran through the busy streets disoriented as to where I was. Cars passed me and one honked when I stumbled too close to the road. The Buda Castle stood on the hill to my left, which meant the river would be east of me. I continued running, afraid one of Lizzy’s minions would follow. Smells of spiced food drifted from the many restaurants between the storefronts. The late evening traffic clogged the boulevards as I got further from her estates.

My breath came in painful heaves with each step. I didn’t know how many blocks I ran but it felt like I’d done a marathon. A bench invited me over to take a rest. I needed to stop and gather my thoughts.

No one caught me yet so I assumed Lizzy’s people too busy with the fire to wonder about me. They would need to regroup after the loss of their leader. I smiled in satisfaction at the memory. Happy her plans to murder me and destroy Rurik’s clan had backfired.

The smell of smoke clung to the pictures still clutched in my hand, their edges singed in the initial blaze. I laid them on my lap and tried to flatten out the crinkles. They clearly showed someone else instead of Rurik. He looked similar but couldn’t compare to Rurik’s beauty.

Colby needed to see them. I hoped to convince him to decline the contract on Rurik’s existence and switch it to double-crossing-rat-bastard Tane, if not Dragos himself. Colby wasn’t a greedy man, justice would compensate for the monetary loss. There were no human laws that governed the paranormal world, so he elected himself to do it. Once he knew Rurik is innocent of the crime, he won’t kill him. I knew how Colby worked.

Rurik needed to see the pictures too. Not so much for the images but that I got them for him. I wanted him to forgive me and trust me. He had to believe in me again. How would he react when I told him where I got the pictures and why Lizzy had them? I grimaced. And that I killed her?

He never expressed any affection for her.

A bus pulled in front of me. The door opened and the driver stared at me. I shook my head, even if I knew where to go I didn’t have a cent on me. My wallet sat on Rurik’s bedroom floor. This situation would have been my biggest nightmare a few days ago but after tonight, it was a cake walk.

Initially, I wanted to go to Rurik but my insides still felt tender and sore from our last conversation. If I knew for sure this could make things right between us I wouldn’t hesitate to go to him first but I didn’t know. It made more sense to find Colby and call off any further attacks. The least I could do was make sure Rurik stayed alive regardless of what became of us.

One of the wonderful things about Budapest was the abundance of pay phones. I scanned the area while I rested on the bench. Across the street and down half a block I spotted a pink phone stand.

It’d been years since I’d had to panhandle but the technique was simple. Locate a john and ask. Begging put food on my plate when things got rough after my grandma died and the landlord kicked me out of our rent-controlled apartment. I could always find some guy who wanted to play my hero. It was a gift. I had a good sense of character—I think this helped me be good bait. A big percentage of men would try to take advantage of the situation but it didn’t take long for me to spot the right kind of gentlemen.