Chapter 30

THESE GIRLS WERE smart, way smarter than the baby vamps underground. Of course, they’d been able to feed before I got there, so their bloodlust was calmed, and they weren’t starved animals anymore. They also weren’t quite used to their new strength, but I couldn’t count on that to counteract the close quarters and the fact that there were three of them.

Clara came at me head-on, while the black girl shot in from the right, trying to take out my legs. I leapt straight up into the air, punched my fists through the tiles of the drop ceiling, and used the supports for the ceiling to swing forward into the more open space in the middle of the box. “More open” didn’t mean I had much room to move, but it was a little better than hemmed in by the door.

Clara spun around and leapt at me again, and this time I grabbed her by the hair and slammed her face into the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the first-base line. Her nose hit with a crunch, and blood splattered across the glass. She dropped to the floor, stunned, and I turned to the other two young women.

“Stop this bullshit now, and you don’t have to die,” I said. “I don’t go around killing every baby vamp I meet, I just need to make sure you aren’t out there turning all the humans into undead every night.”

“I think you have underestimated how little I give a damn what you or any other man has to say about what I do,” the black woman said, her lip raised in a sneer. “I might have been taken advantage of by the prick that turned us, but I guarantee that’ll be the last time it ever happens.”

“I’m not going to take advantage of you,” I said. “I’m either going to teach you the rules of being a vampire in my city, or I’m going to kill you. Those are the only options. So which one are you doing, learning or dying?”

Her eyes narrowed, and I read her decision before she moved. But instead of charging me, she held up her middle finger and turned for the door. “Screw you, I’m out of here.”

I leapt over the row of seats between me and the exit and slapped my hand on the door, slamming it shut just as she pulled it open a few inches. “I didn’t give you the option to leave.”

“I didn’t ask.”

I was tired, and cranky, and still had at least three or four more vampires to hunt down, and I still had to go back underground and chase their maker, so I was done talking. I focused my will on the girls and said, “Sleep.”

The girl nearest to me just looked at me like I was crazy, then she said, in a mocking deep voice, “Drop Dead.”

Another newborn that my compulsions didn’t work on. This was a pattern that I really didn’t enjoy or understand, but I didn’t have time to worry about that now. Right then I had to deal with the young woman trying to pull the exit door open and the two other vampires circling to get a better position to attack me.

“This is my last offer,” I said, grunting to hold the door closed. “Get away from the door and we can talk about the rules for vampires in Charlotte. Then you don’t have to die.”

“This is my last offer, asshole,” the girl at my side growled. “You piss off right now and I won’t rip your head off.”

I jammed a foot against the door and swung an elbow at the girl’s head. She did the logical thing, which was to duck. Too bad that put her chin right in the path of the uppercut I threw to follow up the elbow strike. She straightened up with the force of the punch and staggered back a couple of steps.

I resigned myself to fighting in an alcove and turned to put my back to the door, drawing my Glock as I did. All three girls froze, then Clara smiled, a slow grin that stretched across her face.

“We don’t have to be afraid of bullets anymore, you dick. We can’t die, not again.” Then she came at me, fangs down and arms outstretched.

I proved her wrong. I put a bullet in her forehead, and the silver hollowpoint shredded her brain before blasting half the back of her skull off. She dropped on her face right on the carpet at my feet, and I turned to the remaining two vampires. “These are vamp-killer rounds. They’ll turn you true-dead quicker than you can blink. Now put your hands up, and we’ll figure out what to do with you two after I clear the rest of the stadium.”

The black woman did as I ordered, but the blonde sprinted to her right, then picked up a table and hurled it at the window. It bounced off the thick glass, and she turned to me, fury written in every line on her face. I saw the decision run across her eyes, and shook my head, trying to tell her it wasn’t going to end well for her, but she was never going to listen. I put one round in her chest as she ran at me, and that stopped her in her tracks. She dropped to her knees, looking at me with naked hate and fury all over her face, then her eyes went completely blank as I put a round through her heart.

The blond woman fell to her side, true-dead, and I turned to the sole survivor. “I need you to answer some questions for me, and if you’re lying, I’ll shoot you in the face. Do you understand me?”

She nodded but didn’t speak. She was obviously terrified, and I didn’t blame her. I holstered the pistol, knowing I could draw it again before she could get to me. “Did you kill any of these people?” I gestured at the ten dead humans littering the room.

“I-I don’t really know. I was kinda crazy when I got in here. I was so hungry, and all I could think about was blood. By the time I came to myself, they were all dead. The girl you just shot, she was drinking from the bartender, and the other girl, the one with the Clara nametag, had her face buried in a waitress’s neck, so I guess I probably killed one or two of them. Oh God, I . . . I killed a person!” She pulled her hands down to cover her face and sank to her knees. “God, you should kill me. I’m a murderer!”

“You weren’t responsible for your actions. You didn’t kill anybody else, did you? After you came to your senses?”

“N-no.”

“Okay, then you’re not a murderer. The asshole that turned you, he’s a murderer, and I’ll see that he answers for every death, including yours.”

“What about the other girls?” She looked at me, part afraid, part accusing.

“Their deaths are on him, but you have a decision to make, and you have to make it right now. Are you willing to play by the rules, or do I have to shoot you, too?”

“What are the rules? I’m not going to be your sex slave. If that’s what all you assholes are into, then just kill me for real. I wish the other prick had given me that choice.”

I had no idea what she was talking about, but that would have to wait until all the innocents were clear and the rest of the newborns were either dead or subdued. “I don’t want slaves, sexual or otherwise. The rules are simple: don’t turn humans; don’t tell anybody about the supernatural world ever; and don’t do stupid shit that will get you noticed by the humans. There are some others, but they’re all just variations on these. Don’t kill humans, and don’t do other stuff that will draw attention. If you can live with that, then you can live.”

She nodded. “I can do that. As long as the other rules don’t involve any kind of weird sex club stuff.”

“You’ve totally watched too much True Blood,” I said. “But I will need you to do one thing for me, while I go try to see who else I can save out there.”

“Okay, what’s that?” She smiled, apparently eager to prove she was a team player. Well, she was about to run out of smiles. There were a good dozen dead humans in the room. She was in for a rough next few minutes.

“First, I’m Jimmy Black. I’m the Master of the City. It’s kinda like being the chief vampire of Charlotte. And your name?”

“Shelly.”

I let out a short laugh, the sound strange amidst all the bloodshed. “Well now I’m really glad I didn’t have to kill you. Emily would have been pissed.”

“You’ve seen Emmy? Is she okay? Where is she? What did that son of a—”

“She’s fine. I’m . . . an old friend of her family, actually. So she’s safe. As soon as I get this place cleaned up, I’ll take you to see her. After you do what I need you to do.”

“Okay.”

“I need you to put a stake through the heart of every dead human in here, and break their neck when you’re done.”

“What?!?!? You just said I shouldn’t kill anybody, now you want me to murder these people?”

“They’re already dead. At least for the next few hours. But if you don’t do this, they’re going to wake up and be just as hungry as you were when you first woke up in that cage. Then I’ll have to go through this all over again, probably with more innocent people dying. So take this stake, and put it through the heart of every corpse in here. Then give their heads a sharp twist until they’re looking directly behind them. That should make sure they don’t get back up. I’ll be back here for you when I’ve cleared the stadium. Do not leave this room. If you do, I’m going to assume you’re out killing people, and our deal is off. Got it?” I handed her a silver stake and held her gaze for a long moment.

“I got it.” She got to her feet and looked around the room.

I stepped out into the concourse, shaking my head at the randomness of my night.

I pulled out my phone and dialed Abby.

“Yeah, boss?” she answered on the first ring.

“Where are you? How is it going?”

“I’m back on the main concourse. I took down one, and three of them . . . surrendered, I guess? I mean, they were crying and freaking out, all guilty and shit, so I didn’t feel right killing them. I was just bringing them back to find you.”

“I’m outside one of the boxes on the first-base line. I’ve got one that surrendered, two that didn’t, and a luxury box full of corpses to deal with.”

“I staked a bunch of dead people in the stands. A couple of them I couldn’t tell if they were drained or trampled, but I figured better safe than sorry. But I can’t find any more vamps.” She walked around the curve of the stadium with a quarter of baby vamps in tow.

“So now what?” she asked. “I think we got all the escapees, but who knows?”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “We’ve got seven accounted for, and McDaniel didn’t know if there were seven or eight newborns running around.”

“And none of these guys were coherent enough before feeding to count, so they’re no help.”

“Let’s stash them in here and make one last sweep,” I said, jerking a thumb to the door of the luxury box. “They can help Shelly with cleanup. We’ll come back for them when we’re done.”

“Shelly?” the guy said, hope flashing across his face. “Black girl, big boobs, wearing a corset?”

“Black, yes. Boobs and corset, I don’t know. She’s wearing a T-shirt now. Are you Quinn?”

His face went from hopeful to suspicious in an instant. “How do you know my name?”

“Then that is your Shelly in there. And Emily is safe, too. She’s back at our place with . . . a friend.” I cut myself off before mentioning that Greg was Emily’s brother. I didn’t know why, I just felt that might be something they wanted to keep private for the moment.

“Okay, then you three vamplets get in there and help your friend make sure the dead stay that way while the bossman and I make another sweep of the stadium,” Abby said. The trio went into the luxury box, and she turned to me. “So what the hell are we going to do with four baby vampires, plus Greg’s kid sister? It feels like we’re running an undead daycare.”

“Honestly, Abs, I have no idea. Let’s just get this place cleared so we can get home and start to figure that out.”