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LENNY HAD WITNESSED the scene along with everyone else in the club. He was grinning widely enough for his black gums to be on show when we reached him. As always, he had the center stage of the bar that ran from one side of the room to the other. He was wearing a neon pink shirt with random yellow blobs on it. They looked like boils getting ready to burst. “I’m honored you’ve graced us with your presence,” he joked. “We don’t usually have such famous people here in the Den.”
“Our fame will fade soon enough,” I said with an embarrassed shrug.
“Don’t count on it, Saige,” the zombie said and winked with his milky eye. He turned and reached up to the top shelf behind the bar where his most expensive alcohol was stored. He poured amber liquid into a shot glass and handed it to me. “Courtesy of your fans,” he said.
I glanced over my shoulder to see the blonde, brunette and redhead wave. I waved back, then took the glass. “What is it?” I asked after taking a cautious sniff.
“It’s scotch, but it’s a lot stronger than anything you’ve probably tried before,” he warned me. “I’ll heat you up a glass of blood, Ruen,” he added.
“That won’t be necessary,” my partner said, but the zombie was already heading towards the fridge that was being guarded by a shifter.
“It’s also courtesy of your fans,” Lenny said when he returned with a glass of warm blood.
Ruen couldn’t possibly refuse, or he’d insult the girls. He turned to nod his thanks and they blew him a kiss. If he’d been able to blush, I was pretty sure his cheeks would have turned as red as the contents of his glass.
My sidekick scoffed his blood down, then handed the glass to a hungry leech who appeared at his elbow. Even he couldn’t resist her big brown eyes when she stared at him beseechingly. “Thank you so much!” she said in a breathy voice. She licked it clean, then gave it to Lenny and scurried back to the shadows.
I took a cautious sip of the scotch and it burned all the way down. My eyes bulged and I coughed in reaction. “It’s smooth,” I lied in a raspy voice.
Lenny chuckled as he poured beer for another patron. His hands were dexterous even with a couple of fingers missing. “If you were human, one shot of that would knock you on your butt,” he told me.
I took that as a challenge and downed the contents in one swallow. Fire flared in my stomach and my eyes watered. Unable to breathe for a few seconds, I took the glass of water he handed me and gulped it down. The fire subsided and I was left with a warm glow and a slightly fuzzy feeling that was already beginning to fade.
“How was it?” Lenny asked.
“Horrible at first, but the kick at the end is worth it,” I decided.
He snickered, then turned serious. “What brings you two here tonight?”
“We’re looking for a rogue demon,” Ruen said quietly. “He murdered two women last night.”
“Are you talking about the joggers?” Lenny asked gravely. We nodded and he shook his head. “Those poor girls,” he said mournfully. “The guy you’re looking for has pale blond hair with a brown patch on the back. I’ve heard he lives somewhere near the river.”
Blond hair was common, but the brown patch would definitely make him stand out. “Thanks, Lenny,” I said, voice still a bit raspy from the scotch. I reached for my wallet to pay him for the information, but he waved my bribe away.
“I’ll give you this one for free,” he said. “You two did a good thing for the vampire community,” he added quietly. “I just hope it doesn’t come back to bite you on the ass.”
A chill went down my spine when he directed that comment at me rather than at both of us. I nodded in response, aware that he was warning me about Lady Galantine. The master vampire hadn’t retaliated so far, but he’d obviously heard rumors along those lines.
“We’d better get going,” Ruen said. “We need to track our target down.”
Lenny lifted his hand in farewell, then we worked our way through the crowd to the exit.
“You reek of vampires,” the bouncer on the door said when we stepped outside.
“Ms. Sterling has acquired some groupies,” Ruen said, managing to keep his face straight as he said it.
“The fledglings have been coming here every night, hoping you two would show up,” the shifter said with a grin. “It’s about time something was done to change the way they’re treated. Master vamps have been getting away with their abuse of power for far too long.”
“Why does everyone think Ruen and I are responsible for the changes?” I asked nervously. It seemed to be common knowledge how poorly young coven members were treated.
“You know how fast rumors spread in Nexus,” she said with a shrug. “No one knows the details. They only know twelve masters agreed to treat their covens better after you rescued some of their fledglings from a rogue necromancer.” Her expression was curious, but she knew better than to quiz us about it.
“I can’t discuss the details,” I said uneasily.
“I’m not sure I even want to know,” she confessed. A couple of shifters came towards the building and she turned her attention to them.
Ruen and I returned to his car and drove away from the Den in silence. “Is Drake going to be angry about this?” I asked as he headed towards the river.
“It isn’t our fault the rumor mill in this city works overtime,” he said with a scowl. “Besides, at least he isn’t involved in the rumors. We’ll be the ones who’ll be targeted if this backfires.”
“You mean I’ll be targeted,” I muttered morosely. “Lenny practically told me Lady Galantine will be gunning for me now.”
“Her reputation is everything to her, just like all ancient masters,” my sidekick said. “Since no one knows why they agreed to treat their covens better, they assume you threatened them into compliance.”
“I did threaten them into compliance,” I pointed out with a grimace. “They know better than to retaliate openly, or Drake will tear them apart with his bare hands.” My tone reflected my satisfaction of that notion.
“As we’ve already warned you, Lady Galantine won’t be that direct,” he reminded me. “She’ll bide her time before she gets her revenge on you.”
“Are we talking days, weeks or months?” I asked.
“It could be years before she strikes,” he said un-comfortingly.
“Great,” I muttered sourly. “I’ll get a crick in my neck from looking over my shoulder all the time.”
He snickered, then concentrated on driving to the east side of the city.
We didn’t know exactly where the target’s lair was, so he parked on the fringes of the suburb where the demons lurked. I could feel them inside the rundown buildings. Most were pimples on my scale, as were the bulk of lesser demons. Some were boils. A few were ulcers. None of them were higher than level three, so we wouldn’t be in much danger.
“Why are they all in this dimension?” I asked as we climbed out of the car.
“They fled here from their cruel owners centuries ago,” he said. “A lot of the demons in the States gravitated to Nexus, since it’s a hub for supernatural species.”
“Don’t they have jobs?” I asked, taking in the decrepit structures they called home.
“Of course not,” he scoffed. “They live off scraps they find and rob humans when they can get away with it. Even living in squalor here is better than fending for themselves in the wilds of the nine realms.”
We’d been in the wilderness ourselves in four of the realms, so we knew how tough it could be to survive. I wasn’t sure it was much better squatting in broken down buildings and eating garbage out of dumpsters. At least they didn’t have owners to mistreat them. They were free to live their lives, but their lives were downright miserable. If most demons weren’t inherently evil, I could almost feel sorry for them.
