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Dante fingered the stainless steel combat rosary in his pocket nervously the whole way to City Center DC. Rick had insisted on driving, probably so Dante didn’t attempt to ditch him again, which gave Dante too much time to revisit the last case he had worked with Wesley Azusa.
Wes, a self-proclaimed “holy roller” had adapted quickly to PNI and what Rick had referred to as ‘weirdness.’ He’d struggled more so with Dante’s first resurrection a year and a half after they’d been paired together, accusing Dante of being possessed and attempting to perform an exorcism. The next time had occurred nearly three years later and their relationship was established well enough not to elicit the same extreme response. Still, Wes had never learned to accept Dante’s nature and attempted to preserve Dante’s life as passionately as if Dante had been a mere human.
That was the flaw in their partnership that had led to Wes’s death. They’d tracked a rogue coven of vampires to a nightclub in Georgetown where they were luring college kids with promises of thrills and fun, then “proselytizing” them.
Dante’s appearance was enough to allow him to go undercover as a freshman at Georgetown University with Wes operating as his handler. Dante had gotten a job as a salesman at the makeup counter at the department store Laysha worked for and had quickly drawn the attention of other vampires for his flawless style and easy grace.
“Dang, Dante. What are you wearing? It smells like you got caught in my middle school Sunday School class body spray war.” Wes had teased when he’d picked Dante up from work. It’d been easier to age him up a bit to look like he could be Dante’s dad than down to play the college kid.
“The resurrection fire in my blood is noxious to vampires. I needed to mask my scent.” The cheap perfume was noxious to Dante, especially compared to the custom blend cologne he usually wore, as were the unwashed black jeans and turtleneck he'd borrowed from Charles's teenaged son, but for this to work he needed there to be no hint that he was anything other than a normal human college kid. He glared down at the fourth cup of crushed ice he'd eaten in the last hour to bring his core temperature closer to normal human range. “Deke invited me to The Black Bat Lounge to hang out with them tonight. I think this might be it.”
"I don't like this at all. What if they figure you out? What if they bite you?” Wes’s knuckles grew white as he tightened them on the steering wheel. “I told you I should have been the one undercover.”
“If they discover me, the worst that can happen is I die, which they will regret more than I will. And there are far worse things than death, especially where vampires are concerned.” Dante had reminded him. "Remember, the entire point of this operation is that we're trying to catch them turning a human. Me. Their bite can't hurt me, so your focus needs ro be on the case, and limiting collateral damage if they happen to get me down."
Wes had simply grunted his disagreement as he had parked at the all night diner down the street from the club. “I’ll be here if you need me.” He’d passed Dante an earwig microphone, then gone in to check out the all day breakfast menu.
Dante had walked to the club – a black painted brick building with no windows and gaudy signage with a heavy goth aesthetic. He curled his lip and hoped fervently the lack of windows simply hinted to the vampire goth motif and not a more lascivious occupation.
The interior was dimly lit and a mixture of vampires and humans dressed as vampires milled around the large, open area. He paid the cover charge and scanned the room for Deke or one of his other coworkers.
“Dan! You came!” Deke crossed to him with open arms. His coworker had changed from the khaki and polo uniform they wore at the mall, to black jeans, a black silk button-down shirt, and markedly less makeup than he wore to work. His face was pale and his blood red lips framed perfect and too-sharp teeth. He also wore too much cologne, to mask the smell of blood and decay inherent to vampires. "What do you think? Wild, right?"
"When you told me about this club, I was a little nervous, honestly." Dante skillfully masked his revulsion at the vampire's icy touch with feigned youthful awe. "It's really nothing like I expected."
"Come on, I'll introduce you to a few friends." Deke placed his arm across Dante’s shoulders and led him to a group of people at the bar. Three were vampiresses – one that Dante recognized from the mall – and the last a human girl with a glazed expression. All five had glasses of what could have been a Bloody Mary. Or given the context, something else far less innocuous. “Dan, this is Elvira, Chiara, Chastity, and Ron. That’s Molly.”
“Mmm, Deke, is this the guy you’ve been telling us about?” The vampiress Deke had addressed as Elvira set her glass down and stood. She wore a cheap black dress that hugged her curves and exposed about as much as she could get away with publicly. She pressed her body to Dante’s, rested her chin on his shoulder and reached her arm around to stroke his neck on his opposite side. “Surely a handsome young man like you isn’t here alone.”
“Uh, yeah. I’m currently single.” Dante stammered a bit in what he hoped would be taken as the nerves of an inexperienced young man being courted by an older woman. Reality was that he was put off by the closeness of her fangs to his throat and the way she had begun toying with the collar of his shirt. He'd intentionally neglected to tell Wes that vampire bites made him violently ill, because it was better for him to be sick in bed for a week than for his human partner to be turned or killed. It still didn't make him look forward to receiving one.
“Well, we can take care of that, for tonight at least,” she whispered in his ear, then caught the lobe lightly between her teeth. She pulled away from him and motioned to the bartender as the vampiress Deke had called Chiara stood and wrapped her arm around him on the other side. She wore black as well, but her dress was long and flowing, with an impossibly high slit up her left leg and a ridiculously low neckline.
“We’re alone tonight, too.” She giggled and pressed her blood red lips to his neck where his pulse throbbed beneath the skin.
Dante pulled back. This was going too fast, and far too openly for his liking. Once they realized what he was, everyone in the room was in danger. “Wow, you girls sure are friendly. I’m, uh, not sure I’m the kind of guy who goes that fast on a first date. Maybe we could get a couple drinks and get to know each other?”
“Exactly what I had in mind.” Chastity moved over to make room for him at the bar, and set a glass identical to the others in front of him. “House special. I promise you’ll be ready for anything after this.”
That wasn’t exactly an encouraging promise. Dante picked up the glass and sniffed it. In order to turn a human into a vampire, the human had to drink the blood of the vampire enslaving him, as well as being the vampire’s victim. The strong-smelling beverage would be the easiest way to do that. He pretended to sip at the drink as he cast a sideways glance at the human girl Molly. Ron and Deke were paying her the same kind of attention the vampiresses were paying Dante, but she was already lethargic and her glass was nearly empty.
Elvira, Chiara, and Chastity were all looking at him expectantly, clearly waiting for him to actually finish the drink. Bile rose in Dante’s throat and he barely managed to swallow it down. He’d never actually had to drink vampire blood before, but he was pretty certain he wasn’t going to react well to it. Lord Jesus Christ, holy Son of God, may the virtue that you have blessed me with cover even this. He knocked back the revolting drink, slammed the glass back on the counter, and grinned at them ridiculously.
His stupid grin froze on his face as he recognized the man sitting at the booth across the lounge from them. Wes sat with a matching glass in hand as he chatted up a vampiress dressed like a waitress. Pain clenched Dante’s stomach, whether from the foul drink he’d just downed or the fear for his partner was impossible to tell. Wes, you fool. I say things for a reason.
For a brief moment, Dante’s attention was diverted from the group he was with as he desperately racked his brain for a way to eject his partner from the club without exposing himself, sacrificing the case, and placing Wes in even more danger. His distraction was taken as submission, and sharp teeth piercing his carotid artery snapped him back to focus with a shout.
Elvira pulled back immediately, grabbing at her mouth as she fell to her knees with a scream of agony. Dante winced as he pressed a hand to his neck. The wound itself was inconsequential, but the combined venom from the bite and the vampire blood he ingested would make him worthless to defend the innocents around him in a few short moments if he didn’t clear the room.
Deke rushed to her side and tilted her face up to look at her. “Her mouth and throat are burned.” Anger contorted his face as he stood and advanced on Dante. “What kind of demon are you?”
With a sigh, Dante made the sign of the cross and pulled his gloves free. “I am not a demon. I am opposite of you in every possible way. You and this establishment are in violation of the Mythic Code of Conduct. You must all answer to the Council for your crimes.”
“You’re that phoenix, Brand.” Deke swore colorfully. “I can’t believe I thought you were my friend.”
“You brought me here to turn me into a vile creature and had your coven attack me. I am not the one who violated our ‘friendship.’” Dante scoffed. The nausea from the toxic drink was becoming unbearable and searing pain spread outward from the bite. He raised his voice. “Wes, clear the room!”
Wes didn’t move.
Deke, Ron, and the vampiresses did. They attacked Dante as one, clawing at him and attacking him with whatever weapons they could find. Elvira came at him with a butcher knife, but Dante caught her by the wrist and burned her to ash before she could land the blow. That cleared the room as effectively as if Wes had done his job. Dante would have been worried about his partner, but Ron picked up a barstool and hit Dante hard enough to drive him to his hands and knees. Dante held one arm to his stomach as the vampires piled on him. Wes would have to fend for himself.
He resurrected with a gasp, scrambling like always to gather his scattered thoughts. He’d died, clearly. How was unclear. Where was his partner? The intense heat from his resurrection fire had left a ring of ash, what appeared to be human remains, and spreading flames within the room where he stood. He couldn’t remember the last time he saw Wes, and what little remained of the bodies was burned beyond recognition. Lord Jesus, please grant Wes survived the blast. Still, the fact that Wes was nowhere to be seen didn’t bode well for his partner’s survival.
Dante bent to pick up his gloves from the ash, irritated that Wes wasn’t around to give him something to wear, while desperately hoping his partner survived so he could yell at him. He was halfway up when someone hit him hard enough to knock him on his back. Dante instinctively pulled his bare hands up and away so he didn’t incinerate his attacker before he could assess the situation.
“Wes? What are you–” Dante broke off with an angry cry. The man on top of him wore Wes’s clothes, but his blood red lips stood out from his white face and his teeth were unnaturally sharp.
“God have mercy.” Dante groaned as grief and deep horror gripped him. “Wes! For heaven’s sake, man, stop.” Perhaps it was not too late. Perhaps his friend had not fully turned.
Wes had grabbed him by the shoulders and gone for his throat.
With a sharp gasp, Dante shook off the terrible flashback. His hands trembled and the metal beads of his rosary bit into his palm in spite of his glove. He’d hadn’t had a choice. Sometime between when he’d seen Wes at the table and when he’d resurrected, the vampires had taken Wes out of revenge. He tried to tell himself that the Wes he’d known was already gone, or that it was Wes’s fault for not following protocol, but the truth was that Wes had been there to back him up, had been taken for the sole reason of punishing Dante, and had ultimately been burned to ash by Dante’s own hand. Rick’s face replaced Wes’s in Dante’s mind’s eye, and Dante bit back a low sob. He couldn’t handle it if it happened again.
“I’m sorry.” Rick’s voice broke his reverie. “I hadn’t considered how difficult this would be for you. Not that it means I’m heading back to the office,” his partner added hastily, “just that I’m sorry for hassling you about it.”
“Wes mistrusted me and my ‘rules.’” Dante quietly tucked the rosary back into his pocket. “If you are going in with me, I need to know that you trust me even when you don’t understand or believe what I tell you.”
“I don’t understand ninety percent of what’s happened since I walked into the director’s office, and believe even less than that.” Rick barked a sharp laugh. “But I have seen for myself that you’re a capable agent, and I can trust you. Just remember, you’re not the only one who lost a partner recently. You’re not going solo and I will have your back, no matter how dangerous you think it is. Vampires, werewolves, or jackalopes, we face them together. Those are my terms, got it?”
“Those terms are acceptable.” Dante grinned as he pointed to an empty parking spot near the mall entrance. “But, Rick, jackalopes aren’t real.”
“Oh, come on!”