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Murder At Zombies
Shadow
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Face laughed at me. “You just hit it and quit it, huh?”
“It wasn’t like that,” I muttered, feeling vulnerable and actually quite stupid that I’d kissed and told. Why had I done that?
“Yes, it was,” Kovah replied, lifting the beer to his mouth with a grin. “It’s cool, though. She’s hot. Just don’t turn her.” His face went serious and stormy.
I ignored the succubus-hater. “Well, she didn’t want me there,” I groused, downing the shot Dash had just poured me.
“If y’all are done gossiping like hens in here, we have a situation,” Viper said, as he walked to our table inside the Cobalt Room.
Thankful for the reprieve of the ribbing I’d been getting from my brothers—one I would never admit I deserved—we got up and followed Viper out of the bar and into the main area of the warehouse—our clubhouse.
“More witch trouble,” Viper started. He looked down at his phone and continued, “Theo reported three piles of ash behind his bar in the Quarter.”
“Who’s Theo?” Paz asked, coming out of the bike repair shop, wiping his hands on an oil rag. The prospect had proven to be very useful, and the kid seemed to have a good head on his shoulders. He was getting patched soon and I could see him making lieutenant one day.
Viper turned to look at him. “Hey, Paz. Huddle up.” He pointed to where he and we five lieutenants stood. Once Paz was in the circle, he continued, “Theo owns Zombies, a bar in the Quarter. He’s a vampire and employs only vamps and one human to take daytime deliveries. He gives me info when he feels we need to know shit.”
“Interesting,” Paz replied. He pulled a comb out from his back pocket and combed his hair back. I noticed he was rocking a mullet and made a face.
“The Nineties called. They want their hairstyle back.” I pointed at his head.
My fellow brothers laughed.
Face clapped me on the shoulder. “Sorry to burst your bubble, but that shitty-ass hairstyle is back in.”
“Fuck,” I murmured.
“Fucking awesome is more like it,” Paz replied, replacing the comb back into his rear pocket with a cheesy grin, then he flipped Face and I both middle fingers.
Viper cleared his throat. “Terrible, all of you. Just awful.” He swiped a hand down his face in annoyance. “Anyway, Theo’s got a witch on his payroll and says she detected magic in the ashes they found outside his club last night.”
“Vampires are, essentially, magic, though,” Venom chimed in. “Same with wolves. So how did they know witches were involved in the vampire deaths?”
“A sorceress’s signature,” Viper replied. “That’s what he said, anyway.”
I made a mental note to ask Bloome about this magical signature next time I saw her. But when would that be? Fuck... why was I thinking about her at all?
“So... what? We’re going to just hunt down this witch and kill her?” Phoenix asked, his massive arms folded across his cut.
“Absolutely not. She’s to be brought in alive. For questioning.” Viper cocked his head to the side and stared at the fire user.
I knew “questioning” meant “torture” if need be, and I was good with that.
“Darn,” Phoenix replied, biting back a smile.
Violent asshole.
“Okay, where do we start looking?” I asked, wondering how we were going to track down this witch without a witch of our own on the payroll.
“We’ll head to Zombies, see if Venom can get a scent,” Viper said, heading for the door.
“Always the bloodhound,” Venom grunted.
“Thanks for coming,” Theo replied, shaking Viper’s hand.
Theo was a little bit older, probably in his forties when he was turned, and was dressed in an expensive-looking suit and tie. Despite the loud and rowdy atmosphere of Zombies, Theo obviously took his job as owner of the club seriously. He must have a good head for business because the place was busy as hell for a Wednesday night. He had to be doing thousands a night in sales. The fact that Zombies was one street away from Bourbon Street surely didn’t hurt.
“When did you discover the remains?” Viper asked as we began to walk toward the back of the club.
“My daytime guy, Gil, reported it to me when I got here at six. Said they were there when he opened up around noon, waiting on a few deliveries.”
“And obviously they weren’t there last night when y’all closed?” Phoenix asked.
“Not at all. It must have happened between four a.m. and noon. Not sure what vamps would be doing out past sunrise, which makes me wonder if they were led out into the sun.”
Very strange indeed, I agreed in my head.
“But I didn’t touch anything,” Theo continued as he led us to the small alleyway behind the bar. “I was going to collect the remains before a big rain or wind came along but didn’t when you said to leave it.” He looked at Viper.
“You did good, thank you. We’ll get rid of it.”
“The clothes aren’t singed so they didn’t burn up in the sun,” I pointed out.
“Took the words right out of my mouth,” Phoenix replied.
Viper looked at Theo. “Did your witch say anything about who could have done this?” Viper asked.
Theo shook his head. “No, she just said it definitely was a witch who killed all three, and that she has a very specific ‘sorceress’s signature.’” He put up air quotes with his fingers.
“Interesting,” Viper replied. He glanced at me and I could tell he was thinking the same thing I was: The witch did know who did it and isn’t telling. No way she could tell a specific “signature” but not whose. All the witches knew each other around here.
“Okay, well thanks for your time. We’ll do some investigating.” Viper shook Theo’s hand again.
Theo glanced at Venom, then to all of us, then wandered into the back door of Zombies.
Venom ignored him and bent down to grab a pinch of ash.
“He’s lying or she’s lying,” I said quietly to Viper.
Viper nodded. “I think the witch is lying. Theo’s always been on the up and up.”
“It’s definitely female and human or witch. Not vampire,” Venom said, rubbing the ash between his fingers as he sniffed.
I made a face. “Those are the remains of a vampire, not an extinguished campfire. Have some respect.”
Venom looked at me and his eyes flashed yellow for a quick second like they did when he was angry. “I’m being as respectful as I can. What else would you have me do? Get on my hands and knees and sniff it? Ya know what, don’t answer that, dickhead.”
“Can’t you use the clothing?” I pointed to a man’s shirt on one of the ash piles.
He shook his head. “No, the magic the witch used to kill the vampires is what would be in the remains, not really the clothing. Those will give me the vampires’ scents, mostly.”
I guessed that made sense.
“Stop busting his balls,” Viper said next to my ear in a low tone.
I simply nodded.
Venom clap-swiped his hands back and forth to clear the ash. “It’s faint but we can try. Follow me.”
We really did treat him like a bloodhound. Oh well, he came in handy, and if we had to have a wolf in our MC, then I could think of way worse ones. Most of my club brothers knew how I felt about wolves—not that any of them were exactly fans of the mangy beasts either—but I was probably the worst of the haters.
“Collect this respectfully, in separate bags, along with the clothing. Ask Theo for a broom, since we already brought bags. Then take it back to the clubhouse,” Venom said to Paz and Jewel, pointing at the piles.
“Yes, boss,” they replied in unison.
Venom led us back through Zombies, where we received a lot of startled looks and stares, and out through the front door. He walked away from Bourbon Street and east toward the quieter streets. Viper, Phoenix, Face, and I followed him in silence, until he stopped short in front of a wiccan supply store. Being that it was two a.m., of course the shop was closed.
“The scent stops here,” Venom said, looking at us and pointing at the door.
“It’s a witch surplus store. Think she owns it?” Phoenix asked everyone and no one in particular.
Face typed the name and address of the shop into his phone. “I’ll run a full background on the owners, see what we can come up with.”
“Perfect,” Viper said. “Once we get a name, we bring her in.”
“You mean we kidnap her,” I said with a laugh.
“Something like that.” He chuckled.
After walking back to Zombies and retrieving our bikes, we reached the clubhouse fairly quickly and wandered inside. Phoenix and I went to check on the Cobalt Room, which closed in an hour and a half, and Face, Viper, and Venom went into Viper’s office to do some investigating.
We sat at our favorite table and Ally came over. “Your usuals?”
“Yes, sweetheart. Thanks.” I winked at her.
After she walked off, I went to say something to Phoenix but stopped when I saw him stiffen and his eyes dart around the bar.
“You all right, bud?” I asked.
“Witch,” he replied with a sneer.
I looked in the direction he was staring. A group of women sat at a corner table talking and drinking. Phoenix hated witches more than I hated wolves and could sense them.
“Which one?” I asked.
“Not sure. One of them for sure, though.”
“Here you go,” Ally said, setting down our drinks.
“Thanks,” we replied.
“Holler if you want another.” She left back to the bar area and we didn’t even appreciate her walking away as we usually did since we were fixated on the witch table.
I downed my bourbon in one gulp. Phoenix didn’t touch his gin.
“Let’s go say hi,” I replied with a smirk.
He nodded in agreeance and followed me to the table. The women stopped talking and pretty much froze when we approached.
“Hello, ladies. I’m Shadow and this is Phoenix. We’re the owners. Are you having a good time tonight?”
A blonde with her tits spilling out of her white top looked up at us. “Yes, we are. Thanks for asking.”
“Shadow and Phoenix,” a brunette with lots of curls repeated. “Are those your real names?” she asked around a snigger as she eyed our cuts.
“No,” Phoenix, whose real name was Gabriel, replied, his jaw bunching in annoyance.
“What are you guys, like some big biker gang? I didn’t know bikers owned this place. Seems pretty classy,” the blonde stated.
“They’re much more than bikers.”
We looked to see a pale, black-haired girl sitting at the other side of the table. Her eyes flashed purple quickly at us before going back to normal. So quickly no human would have noticed.
“What does that mean?” the blonde asked.
“Witch,” Phoenix muttered, staring at the woman.
The brunette with the curls scoffed. “That’s not very nice. Nora’s very sweet.”
“I’m sure she is,” Phoenix replied. “In fact, I’d love some alone time with... what did you say your name was?”
She hesitated before answering, “Nora. And no. I’m not interested.”
I stared deep into her eyes. “Of course you are, honey. Come with us. We just want to talk.”
“That shit doesn’t work on me, dickhead,” Nora replied, folding her arms over her black long-sleeved shirt. She wore a bunch of necklaces with strange symbols on them.
“What shit?” the blonde asked.
I made a tsking sound. “Explain later or just come chat with us. Your choice. We can help them forget.”
“Forget?” the curly-haired brunette asked.
Nora huffed and got up. She followed us back to the office and we closed the door.
“If you try to bite me, just know I drink hemlock tea daily. So, unless you want blood like acid, you’ll keep your damn fangs away from me.” She folded her arms across her chest.
I rolled my eyes. “We didn’t bring you back here to snack on you. Besides, hemlock is only poisonous to humans so I call bullshit.” I lifted my chin as I awaited her response.
“Not all hemlock. Now, what do you want?”
Phoenix pulled out a chair and pointed at it. “Sit.”
“I prefer to stand,” she replied.
“We don’t fucking care.” I pushed her down into the chair, forcing her to sit.
She glared at us but kept up the defiant body posture.
“Three vamps were killed in the Quarter last night behind Zombies. What do you know about it?”
She grinned. “Oh, how unfortunate. But why would I know anything? They probably got taken out by wolves or other vamps.”
I snorted. “No. A witch did it.”
“How do you know?” she asked.
I looked at Phoenix. We both hesitated but then decided to tell the truth.
Phoenix replied, “The remains have a witch’s signature on them. A ‘sorceress’s signature’ as we were told.”
She shrugged. “Fuckers probably attacked her. Self-defense, it sounds like.”
“Negative. Vamps don’t go around just attacking witches,” I said.
“Right. Is that what your little biker friends get told by the vampire community? Because that is wrong.” She snorted.
Just then, Viper walked in. “What’s going on?”
“Viper, this is Nora. Local witch. She was having a drink with some friends and we decided to have a little chat.”
“Is that so?” he asked, looking at her.
“Viper,” she jeered. “Poisonous snake. How fitting.”
Phoenix smacked his hand on the desk. “Look, one witch can’t take out three vamps unless she somehow impairs them.”
“Maybe she did.” Nora feigned boredom by staring at her fingernails.
“How?” Viper asked.
She scoffed. “Right. Like I’d tell you. Snake.”
“Listen, we find any more dead vamps and find out a witch is going around killing them, there’ll be a war. One I promise you and your friends will not win.” I opened the door. “Spread the word, sweetheart. We’ll be watching you. All the covens.” I narrowed my eyes in warning.
“Whatever,” she said, getting up and leaving the office. She didn’t even go back to her human girlfriends, she just walked right out of the bar, at a very fast clip.