Cat Adams - Demon Song

Until now. “Me, too. Don’t bother about sending me the photos. Give them to your lieutenant personally. Oh, and before I forget, what’s the scoop on the sniper who tried to take off my head at the Will reading?” Alex had been there and had seen John Creede use damned impressive magic to stop the bullet before it reached me. He’d won a lot of points that day.

“Crap! That’s right. I never told you about that. Guy’s name was Selik Mahrain. He’s a professional hit man and INTERPOL has been looking for him for a long time. They were more than happy to come collect him. Last I heard he was in a Turkish prison, awaiting trial for the murder of a Shiite leader. He’d been hired by the queen of a Grecian island to remove you before you met with the siren head queen.”

“Ah yes. The lovely Stefania. Did I mention she was Eirene’s mother and the one who’d put a death curse on me and Ivy when we were little kids?”

Alex let out a noise that was close to a raspberry. “Charming woman. Is that the one you killed?”

“No. I killed Eirene, the daughter. Mommy dearest was killed by Queen Lopaka, who didn’t take kindly to Stefania trying to kill her brother’s only remaining grandchild. Meaning me.”

“Okay, the station is in sight. Go home. Get some rest and we’ll talk tomorrow. I should know more after I make my report.”

Conveniently enough, by the time I hung up I’d arrived at one of my favorite restaurants. La Cocina y Cantina is a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place that was the favorite hangout of me, Vicki, Emma, and Dawna. We’d held Vicki’s wake there. It served the best food in the world. As I pulled into the parking lot, the main lights flicked off. What time was it? I’d forgotten to put on my watch, so I checked my phone display: 10 P.M. Why was the restaurant closing? They normally stayed open until midnight or later.

I got out of the car and knocked on the front door. A woman’s head poked out from the kitchen. Her face exploded into a smile and she rushed forward, rubbing her hands on the ever-present snow-white bar towel. She unlocked the door with a flourish. “Celia! What you doing here at this hour? Huh? Come in and sit down. Come. Come.” Barbara was part owner of the restaurant. She ushered me in like there was a storm outside and locked the door again, being careful to pull down the blinds. “You want a late dinner? Pablo will make you a ‘sunset smoothie.’ ”

Ooh. That did sound good. It was a concoction they’d come up with after my vampire attack. As long as I didn’t think too much about the cow blood in it, it tasted wonderful. But at least the blood was cooked. So it was sort of a beef fajita shake, without the beef. “Sure. That sounds good. What’s up, Barbara? Where is everyone? I was surprised the door was locked.”

She looked around as though afraid. “Bats. A whole flock of them. One old vampire showed up about a week ago and turned three of the boys in the neighborhood. They were bad boys, always into something. Stealing, drugs. But they’d never hurt anybody until he found them. Now people are scared. They’re not coming here after dark and I can’t blame them. If we didn’t have to clean up, we wouldn’t be here after dark, either. But for you … we’ll make an exception. Anytime. Day or night. You come and we’ll make you dinner.”

That was sweet, but I hated seeing nice people being terrorized. This business was all the family had. I felt my brow furrow and anger rise. “You fix me a shake. I’ll be right back.”

I stood up. She clutched at my sleeve. “Oh no, Celia. Don’t go out there. They’re not like you. They’re bad, bad vampires. I don’t want you hurt.”

My smile probably had a dark edge. “Barbara, I was putting vampires in their place before I was turned. Now I’m a lot harder to hurt, and I’m a lot smarter than them. I got to keep my brain.” I patted her arm. “I’ll be fine.”

Her face was wary, but she let me leave, then locked the door behind me. Every third streetlight was out. I’d heard some parts of the city were doing that to save money, but it made the sidewalks dark for long stretches.

I started walking, jingling my keys, anticipating that I’d soon be followed. It didn’t take long. There were four of them hiding in the darkness. I could just make them out because of my vampire vision. Two of the boys were growling, which made the small hairs on my neck rise. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all. It was one thing to take on one or two bats, but taking on four might be biting off more than I could chew. Maybe one of them would be willing to listen to reason.

Don’t laugh. It could happen.

I hissed and let myself get all glowy. “Evening, gentlemen.”

“Prey!” One of the boys leapt into the air and came down on the other side of me. I’d done that leaping thing once. It was pretty amazing, but I didn’t like being surrounded.

“I don’t want to have to hurt your fledglings. But your flock has to leave. I’m protecting this block.”

I wasn’t sure which one I was talking to, but after a long pause one vampire floated forward. Yeah, I said floated . That’s never good. Only the really old ones can do that. “This isn’t anywhere close to your side of town, Celia. You don’t make the rules here.”

Oh, crap. I didn’t know the voice, but he knew my name. He floated on power, gleaming with both internal and external light. He’d been killed early in life but long, long ago. The black eyes were ancient, pitiless and remorseless. The slope of the nose and high cheekbones reminded me of high-caste Spanish.

“Do I know you?”

He smiled, but it was really more a baring of fangs. “Lucien was right. You’re just eye candy. You got lucky with Luther and Lilith. But Edgar’s a fool for trusting you. That’s why I decided to start my own flock. We don’t trust anybody.” He moved slowly forward and so did his fledglings, widening their group to flank me.

I guess that meant I wasn’t going to get a name. I pulled my knives from the sheaths. He stopped abruptly and stared at the twin blades. “Are those the blades that killed Luther? They witched?”

“Better than you’ve ever seen. The black one killed Lilith, too. You willing to risk whether I’m faster than you?”

“She’s not bluffing, Marco.” The voice seemed to come from far away and echoed between the buildings like it was everywhere.

Just as Edgar descended onto the scene, Marco hissed. He snarled, showing sharp teeth. “Nobody invited you to this party, Edgar. We’ll all be better off if I just let the fledglings take her down. She’s an abomination. My boys are still feral enough that she won’t be able to handle them if they attack at once.”

Unfortunately, he was probably right. Three against one is just plain bad odds. If I lost even one of the knives, I was probably a goner.

Edgar looked at me and there was something in his eyes that hadn’t been there the previous night. Desire.

It wasn’t sexual, but it was real. “Why kill her fully? She would be an amazing vampire. Tough, fierce, smart. A force to be reckoned with.” He smiled and it made every hair on my body stand at attention.

Now Marco was smiling, too. Shit. “We could call her Lilith in honor of the one we lost. She’ll never know the difference once her memories are gone.”

Five against one, and I’d seen Edgar fight. “I helped you save Kevin.” I was down to bargaining as I tried to find a wall to keep my back safe.

Edgar took another step forward. He wore chino pants, a gray dress shirt, and shining black dress shoes that were more suited to a boardroom than a slaughter on a deserted street. “True. And I’m certain he’s grateful. But you don’t realize just how safe it made you when I believed you were his Vaso. Now he doesn’t have a clue where you are. If you were attacked by three feral new-turns and I saved you by bringing you over, there wouldn’t be much he could do. Would there?”