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A week later, Bella was on her Kawasaki Ninja and heading into Seattle. It was after a hunt in an abandoned warehouse for some of the nastier unnaturals, ghouls. She hoped the smell of decay hadn’t permeated the fabric of her clothes or her boots. Last time it took forever to get the scent out and her boots had to sit outside for days. Bella took a deep breath of the cool air that never seemed to go above seventy-five and dropped in temperature at night.
It felt good to be free in a place that had so many different people, Bella could get lost in a crowd. Her birth happened to be in the worst place possible, one where she never wanted to go again. South Carolina, right in the middle of the Bible Belt, where pastors wanted to cure her by touching her or beating the sin out of her.
Then life changed at eighteen, the only time she had ever seen or met her father. He came in a blaze of glory to the dingy room where she was staying and took her way from that place. She saw it burning at he took to the skies. The manor house where she lived now became home and he told her many things, explained how her mother died, how her siblings died. He also told her what care he took to not be anywhere near her so that she wouldn’t be targeted even more.
Bella focused on the road, hugging the sharp turns until she was in the city and cut through lanes of backed up traffic. She seemed to hit downtown at the exact time rush hour caused a clusterfuck of traffic and annoyed people trying to get home. The honks and yells in her direction as she zipped through gaps between the cars, trucks and buses didn’t faze Bella in the least. They were hella pissed they couldn’t do what she could.
The sun was setting on the Pacific when she finally parked her bike and looked up at the sign on the bar she’d driven to. Mistress Diablo’s was a club where unnaturals could hang out as long as they followed the rules. Vampires could feed on humans who were willing feeders, and werewolves who liked a good whiskey could stake out a corner of the room, glowering at their nemeses with fangs. Ghouls didn’t feed on anything living, so they came for the music, and their version of dancing always made Bella grin.
The stoic faces and tall, black-draped bodies never showed any emotion as they stood close and circled each other no matter the tempo of the music. It was the weirdest square dance you’d ever see. Demons, angels who loved a piece of human action, all types came to Mistress Diablo’s. Bella tended to stay away because they all wanted a piece of her. It didn’t matter, if they went feral she took them down. At the club none could touch her ever though she felt the angry, hateful glares in her direction. She was there at the behest of the owner herself, Abeona Diablo. Bella made her way to the back wondering why she’d been summoned. Their conversation from that morning had done nothing to give any clues.
Her phone rang on the one morning when she actually had a chance to sleep in, the dreams didn’t drive Bella into consciousness too early, and that in itself made her grumpy when she answered the phone.
“Lo?” Bella mumbled, her face buried in the pillow.
“Nightshade, how are you... you’re not hungover,” the melodic voice held a tone of approval. “I’m pleased.”
“Well, I’m glad I can do that for you,” she mumbled.
“The angel and the demon always seem to bring out the worst in you,” the caller pointed out. “If you want I can remove them both from your life.”
“Thanks but no, Abeona, this is my burden to bear and then I would be forever bound to you.” Bella rolled over.
Abeona laughed. “Would that be such a bad thing?”
“Depends,” Bella pinched the bridge of her nose. “What can I do for you?”
“Would you mind coming into the club this evening?” Abeona asked. “There is a matter of great importance I need help with and some information you may need.”
“So a tit-for-tat,” Bella sat up. “Very unusual, Miss Diablo.”
“Ah the relationship we could have, if it was just us as a team,” Abeona said. “But yes, a favor for information is what I’m suggesting. Come this evening and Samson will let you into my private entrance.”
“Sure thing.” Bella disconnected the call.
The rest of the day, she wondered what it was all about. If Abeona called, something was truly up. Bella liked the woman, Abeona’s choice to not take sides impressed the hell out of her. Most of the time she had to raise her own magical shields against Abeona’s laugh and the enticing way she spoke with that thick Trinidadian accent.
But she was a bruja with strong magic that was available to the highest bidder. It wasn’t usually for rainbows and kittens type magic. No one knew her real age, though Bella could tell she was more immortal than human at that point. Abeona Diablo was beautiful, with exquisite bronze skin and dark, wide eyes. Hell, that even drew Bella in if she stared long enough.
That was another part of the bruja power, her sexuality, and it was well known Abeona took lovers from both sexes, together, apart, and of various supernatural natures. All except ghouls, and did anyone really want to share a bed with one of those things? Abeona didn’t hide the fact that she would love Bella in her bed. She considered them a power couple in the making. Bella tried very hard not to incur favors from a powerful bruja who was also known to be vicious in her jealously or if she felt betrayed.
Samson, her very large guard, well, one of them, opened the door without a word and Bella stepped inside. She took the stairs to Abeona’s inner sanctum that practically hummed with the magical energy within it and knocked on the door. The barrier was opened by one of her body guards, and where one might expect spices and incense, draped curtains and all things associated with the home of a powerful witch. She liked a clean, contemporary look to her home, rich darker shades of green, blue and brown that matched nature’s hues.
Bella stood in the middle of the large room waiting for Abeona to make her presence known. She came though set of doors in an animal print dress that hugged her body, and a matching silk kimono-type cloak swirled around her.
“Nightshade, what do you think?” Abeona asked and did a model’s turn as she came into the room. She was the only one that called Bella. Nightshade, loving the darker meaning of her name.
“Gorgeous.” Bella shoved her hands in the pockets of her jeans. “Makes me look like some slovenly woman next to you.”
Abeona laughed. “Give me a chance, I can straighten your hair and with some new clothes, you’ll be fucking amazing.”
“I’m good like this.” Bella moved further into the room. “I’m sure you didn’t call me to give me fashion tips.”
Abeona nodded, the smile leaving her lips. “Yes, to the matter at hand.”
She went into another room without even turning on the light and held her hand out to someone. A small hand reached out of the darkness and took Abeona’s hand, and when this being stepped into the light, shock rolled through Bella. A boy no more than twelve or thirteen, thin and pale. It was obvious he’d been turned by a vampire and at his age it was illegal to do so.
No coven leader would allow a child to become one that walked in the night. Anger flowed through her, because now this life was lost and someone had to pay. But looking in his frightened eyes, she knew in her heart killing this boy would break her even more than she was now.
She licked her lips and her gaze darted to Abeona. “I can’t do what you want me to.”
“That’s not what I want,” Abeona said gently. “I fear neither of us could bear doing that. We need to find out why this happened. The night creatures have become strange, even the werewolves are quick to fight in the bar until their alpha takes control. The pure-born can show their second nature at will, and now the moon-bound can as well. Vampires are more hungry, greedy, killing without finesse and taking those who are off limits. Something is happening, Nightshade, and I do not know what.”
“We can’t just let him be like a feral cat and run amok as a child vamp,” Bella pointed out.
Abeona ushered the boy back into the room and closed the door before speaking. “Find his maker and kill him, that will release the boy from his blood hold. It has to be a newly created vampire because the poor child’s neck was almost ripped open. Maybe you can find out what is happening if you find and interrogate the perpetrator.”
“Watching cop shows again, I see,” Bella was amused. “I have to ask, have demons been out of sorts as well or have you seen any of our white-winged friends slumming it? Lumia escaped Hell and I almost had to send her back the hard way.”
“Lumia very rarely leaves, why was she on our plane of existence?” Abeona sat down and invited her to do so as well before one of her manservants pushed a cart out to the living room. “Refreshment?”
Bella sat down. “I think not...”
“Nightshade, while I want you and your power sitting on a throne next to me, it is not my way to use spell work to do so. The heart must be willing and I see you as a friend.” Abeona told her dryly and handed her a glass of light orange liquid. “Besides, I invited you here with no pretense. I swear to you on all I believe, any drink from my home will not cause you harm.”
Bella took a tentative sip and found the juice sweet and refreshing. “Interesting, what is it?”
Abeona balked. “You don’t know papaya juice? What exactly is in your ice box at home?”
It was words like ice box that made Bella question how old the bruja truly was.
She shrugged. “Meats for sandwiches, an assortment of sodas and a freezer full of vodka. I was thinking this would taste great with a peach vodka I have.”
“You, sweetling, need caring for,” Abeona said firmly. “Back to Lumia, even if she was summoned, unless a door was opened, she could not enter.”
“She said it has been cracked, just enough that some things can come through,” Bella told Abeona.
“It seems very coincidental to what has been occurring with the unnaturals,” Abeona murmured. “Something dark is coming, not sanctioned by Heaven or Hell, that I know for certain. And I want no part of it.”
“Somehow I’m thinking it won’t be that easy for me to say that,” Bella murmured. “But first things first, I need to find that fanged fucker who thought it wise to turn a kid. I’ll need to see him for a minute... you know why.”
Abeona nodded. “I know.”
“What will happen to him after I get his heart beating again?” she asked the bruja.
“I’ve raised more than one child,” Abeona’s voice gentled. “There is a price to pay for power such as mine and to bear children from my own body was my cost. Taking in another will not be a hardship.”
Bella nodded. “Bring him out then.”
Abeona got up and brought the boy out of the room again. He stood in front of Bella and she took his hand.
“I won’t hurt you, I promise,” Bella reassured him. God knew she wanted comfort when she was his age and didn’t understand who or what she was becoming. “I need a little bit of blood, okay?”
“Its okay, I don’t feel anything anymore,” the boy said.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
He shrugged and didn’t answer, and she saw the distrust in his eyes.
“Where are your parents?” Bella tried to warm his cold flesh with her own energy.
“Didn’t have those, Mom left me with her friend and she let me do whatever until she picked up and left. I lived on the streets after that. Got good at it too.”
His voice was deadpan, eyes sallow, and she could tell he wasn’t loved or cared for in life or immortal death. It broke her heart, as did anything where children were given a raw deal. The empathy of both sides of her nature, could be a curse.
Taking her knife from her book, she made a small cut in his palm and watched the dark red blood pearl to the surface. Bella put her mouth to the blood and felt the coppery taste on her tongue. That was all she needed, one drop, and she closed her eyes, seeing everything, how he was turned, his maker, his maker’s life and then the one who created him.
She knew exactly where to go from there, she could track his blood like it was her own, and because of her half angelic nature, vampire blood could do nothing to her. She took a drink of her papaya juice to take the taste of blood from her mouth.
“One of Zeke’s children made him.” Bella felt the anger simmering within her.
“He has a large coven, maybe one went rogue,” Abeona frowned. “He would not be so irresponsible...”
“As you said, something is coming, unnaturals are acting feral, this could just be another manifestation of it,” she countered. “I’ll get back to you when it’s done, see if you can find out anything else from your patrons.”
A wide smile crossed Abeona’s face. “It seems we are a team, Nightshade, like you’re my partner on a hot case.”
Bella shook her head. “You take it however you want to.”
“I will watch the demons and angels and find out what they know. I’ll put my best girls on it, the ones they favor when they come in.”
“Thanks, somehow I think they’ll be in the muck of this,” Bella murmured. “Call me when he’s got a heartbeat again. It should happen before the night is over.”
“Is it wise to hunt at night with vampires who are not being their customary selves?” Abeona voiced her concerns.
“I’m still the Nephilim everyone hates, babe,” Bella grinned. “I’mma be fine.”
“Until the day you’re not,” Abeona gave her a sad smile. “Go, Nightshade, for some reason, I am very overprotective of you and sometimes it bothers me.”
She nodded. “Understood, but hell, even though I might not always trust your intentions or your clientele, I’d burn a bitch for you.”
Abeona’s rich laugh went with her through the door and Bella walked back into the main room of the club.
“Fucking Nephilim,” someone murmured and put a hand on her shoulder.
Bella grabbed their wrist and the energy raised to her fingertips as easy as breathing. A cry escaped whoever grabbed her and when she let go of their wrist the skin was already bubbled and peeling.
“Don’t be stupid.”
She didn’t even turn around to see who or what it was that grabbed her, she’d made enough of an impression that the other patrons stepped back. Outside she got on her bike again and merged into traffic with one direction in mind. Beacon Hill was one of the not-so-nice neighborhoods in town. It was also where in an old two-story house sat in the center of a cul-de-sac with a tall brick wall built after purchase to keep people out. Not that people chose to go around it in the first place.
On Everly Street, no kids played outside but chose to go another street over for their games. They were home by the time the streetlight came on and the blinds of each house were pulled so none could see outside or in. Maybe they didn’t know what about that house, and its residents gave them the heebie-jeebies. Bella knew which of the neighbors had the clues that vampires lived on their street. The silver crosses over the doors were a big giveaway, that piece of folklore always came first.
The garlic hung from the patio was another clue. Neither would work, of course, unless the vampire was staked with a silver tip through the heart. And the crosses and garlic surely just amused them. But Bella knew how to protect the humans and went around each house one night, burying pieces of obsidian with a carved sigil at the center. She buried one at each corner of every house, taking the whole night to do so, then sat back to watch the vampires wonder why they couldn’t walk on the sidewalk in front of each house.
Bella wasn’t afraid of Zeke or his vampire crew that was at about thirty members. She would speak to him, of course, and hope that he gave up his errant vampire children. With how everyone was acting lately, she wondered if he too would be difficult to work with. She parked her bike on the sidewalk outside the brick wall.
“You don’t want to go in there,” a neighbor called out. “A pretty girl like you definitely does not want to go in there.”
Bella lifted her hand in a wave. “I’ll be good, thanks.”
She scaled the wall easy enough. Bella knew she wouldn’t be allowed entry so why even bother knocking? Her silver daggers were in her boots of course, but they feared Bella’s power more. The front door wouldn’t be locked, so she stepped right in to the shock of some of Zeke’s children.
“Where’s Zeke?” Bella asked in lieu of hello.
“How dare you enter...”
She cut off the vampire’s words with a raised hand that glowed enough that the bones were easily seen through flesh and tissue.
“You really do not want to fuck with me,” Bella snapped. “Where is your maker?”
“Upstairs in the master suite.”
“Thanks,” Bella started up the stairs.
“He will not open the door to you, abomination.” The sneer in the vampire’s voice was evident.
Bella looked back at him with a laugh. “Pot, kettle, black... unless like Zeke you were blood-born, then you’re worse than me. You’re a parasite.”
“Fuck you!”
“It seems everyone wants to, since yesterday,” she murmured to herself.
It was obvious Zeke was expecting her. At the top of the stairs, she turned left to wide-open double doors. Inside was Zeke’s throne room, with throne and all. He sat with two female vampires at his feet, both in some form of undress. Others milled around in velvet chairs and loveseats. Zeke made sure to fulfill every stereotype of vampire lore down to the black dinner jacket and golden ascot.
He was cute in that bad boy angsty vampire lost boy type of way. If you read about them, just picture Zeke as one of them. His long hair was slicked back and the scar that ran from his eyebrow to his right cheek was paler than his already grayish pallor. While the movies made vampires look sexy and enigmatic, they never wrote about how their pallor made them stand out. Vampires had no real blood, they were dead and no amount of glittery looks on the television would change the fact of what Bella was looking at now.
“The Nephilim, in my home, I should say this is an honor,” Zeke spoke in mild conversational tone, but his eyes darted nervously around. He knew.
“Cut the bullshit, Zeke, you know one of yours went out ‘creating,” Bella snapped. “One, I told you, the humans here are under my protection, and two, he turned a twelve-year-old boy.”
“You have no proof of this...”
Bella held up her hand. “I tasted it from the boy, one drop of blood on my tongue and I could see it all. It was your lineage, one of yours who turned him. I can tell you now who it was and you can tell me where he is, give him to me. You’re going against your own people’s laws.”
Zeke laughed, his fangs clearly visible and pristine white. “Haven’t you heard, there are no longer rules. We can do what we want because a new power is on the rise.”
“Huh, well, that’s new to me,” Bella tapped her chin with a finger. “Pray tell, where did you get this information, was it a flyer that I didn’t get?”
He smirked. “You’ll see, abomination, you will see.”
Bella shook her head amused. “Why do unnaturals think that abomination is an insult to me? I know what I am. I wear it like a badge. Now I’m here for your son, fledgling or whatever cool name you want to use.”
“How are you going to take him?” Zeke stood and so did the rest of his coven in the room. Behind her, she felt the presences of more of his kind, the unspoken word to come to their leader sent along their bloodlines.
“I will kill every last one of you,” Bella crouched slowly and pulled her sliver blades from her boots, and gave Zeke a deadly smile. “Sanctified by an Archangel himself, and when I’m done I will torch this place, I don’t even need a match.”
Two vampires attacked from behind her. Not only had her father protected her, but he’d trained her and when he was gone, Sachiel came to take his place teaching her to protect herself and others. It was important and she kept going when they were gone, because she would need it every day she existed. Bella grabbed hand that was placed on her shoulder by the wrist and wrenched it in the opposite direction, the way the elbow doesn’t bend.
Her vampire assailant screamed in pain, and she had him on the floor in seconds, the blade slicing through his neck and disconnecting his head from his body. The other one Bella used to make an example of what would happen to them all. He ran towards her and she caught him around the neck. The energy rose to her fingertips easily and she saw the vampire’s eye widen when he felt the first hints of heat.
“No, no!”
But it was already too late. The fire crept along his veins, like some cracked mosaic being put back together with molten metal. His screams became high-pitched and he turned to ash slowly in front of her eyes and the rest of the coven’s. Bella dusted the ash from her fingers and turned in a slow circle to face Zeke and the other vampires in the coven.
“I will burn this place down to the foundation with all of you in it,” she repeated. “Where is the one who turned a child into a vampire?”
“You’ll have to kill him to break the connection,” Zeke snarled. “I refuse to let that happen.”
“Or I can kill you, the creator of the new creator,” Bella retorted. “Then all these little fake goth babies you have draped all over the place like slut blankets will have to go back to their pathetic little lives. They will be back in human form, stripping or tricking to get by, or they’ll have to find another blood-daddy coven to join. Make your choice.”
“I promise you, I’ll get my revenge,” the coven leader said, choosing his own neck over one of his so-called children’s.
“You can try,” Bella said dryly. “I seem to be on everyone’s hit list lately. But I can’t let him live, turning such a young one... What was he thinking?”
“I was lonely, I missed my brother.” A vampire stepped into the light.
He was young too, no more than nineteen, and Bella had no doubt he was regretting his decision to join a life of immortality. His dark curls seemed even more stark against his pale skin and he lifted his head almost defiantly.
“I would like to end this, please,” the vampire almost begged.
“You’re so young....” Zeke cried out. “I made you to heal you!”
“You should’ve let me die, I’m not meant for this life.”
“Rocco... Please,” Zeke pleaded.
Well damn, I might actually start to believe he cares about his fledgling vamps. The thought ran through her mind.
“Seventy years of this is enough for me. I dream of my brother, my family, and feel they are waiting,” the vampire responded and faced Bella. “I bear no ill will against you for what you have to do.”
Bella nodded. “We can go...”
“Here,” Zeke demanded, his voice cracked with emotion. “I created him and I will watch his end.”
“Rocco, I’m sorry I have to do this,” Bella softened her tone.
She expected to find some rabid vampire who was blood-crazed, not some young boy that had watched everyone he loved die. He looked forlorn and heartbroken, beaten down by a world that evolved past what he knew, and he didn’t embrace living forever.
“Don’t be sorry, I want this,” he answered in a determined voice.
“I can’t promise this won’t hurt,” Bella told him as she cupped his cheek.
“You are part angel, do you now where I’ll go, if I’ll see my family?” Rocco asked hopefully.
Bella shook her head. “I’m not privy to that information. They don’t like me or any other unnatural to know. But I hope you find what—who—you are looking for.”
The heat made her fingers twitch on his cold face and a sigh escaped him while she watched the fire race through his veins from her touch. He didn’t scream, he just fell apart slowly into ash, until there was nothing more.
“You cry for a vampire?” Zeke’s low tone hold a note of surprise.
Bella put her hand on her cheek and felt the wetness of her tears.
“I cry for what you took from him,” Bella shot back and shored up her walls the best she could to push emotion aside. “Don’t make me come back here, Zeke, handle your children or I’ll handle them for you.”
She didn’t wait for his answer. She turned on her heels and as she left, the vampires called to attacked her stepped aside. Bella didn’t drive directly back home. After that episode in Zeke’s coven, she needed to clear her head. The cool air whipped across her face as her Ninja cut through the night and her mind wandered from one question to the next.
It was then she noted that the angels had been quiet, there were no whispers or conversations. She frowned. Not since the last time Sach came to her house. When she reached her home on the hill, there was a wooden crate on her doorstep and in the box were six large bottles of papaya juice still chilled to her touch. It was a thank you from Abeona, one that could be mixed with vodka.
Bella stepped inside and kicked the door closed behind her, she chose to put all questions aside for the night. Honestly, things were strange enough without adding angelic silence to the list. Making dinner and mixing a drink were as much as Bella wanted to deal with for now.