I shivered beside Zenon, who stood like a statue, watching the apartment building across the road.
“It’s so unfair,” I grumbled. “We should be there.”
“No, you just want to fight.”
“No, I want to ask that vampire questions before Léon destroys him.”
Zenon side-eyed me.
“Fine, I also want to fight,” I said, grinning up at him like a cat who ate the bird.
“You’re terrible.”
“Incorrigible,” I corrected.
“Let’s go look,” Zenon said mischievously and crossed the road.
I ran after him, giddy with excitement.
“Come, child, but be quiet.”
I slapped his shoulder. “I’m not a child.”
“Whatever, move it and be quiet. Your shoes are loud on the tiles.”
Zenon opened the door to the apartment building, and I tiptoed in behind him. I padded quietly across the tiled floor and metaphorically patted myself on the back. “See, soft,” I whispered and pointed at my sneakers.
Zenon rolled his eyes and headed left instead of to the right and up the stairs. He placed his index finger on his lips to shush me and pointed, mouthing the words ‘other stairs’.
I gave him a thumbs up.
As we turned the corner, a kiss of vampires stood in a circle ravaging their newly purchased blood bags. They stopped sucking on the plastic, raising their heads and sniffed. Their eyes bled over into a savage red and their fangs elongated further.
There had to be something in Zenon’s scent because they didn’t bat an eyelash at him; they all gazed hungrily at me.
“We’re under Léon’s protection, boys,” Zenon said, thinking quick on his feet. “If anyone touches a hair on her head, he will destroy you.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me to his right-hand side as we passed them.
“We’ll see about that,” said the vampire closest to us and the other two hissed; red spittle dripping down their chins.
“Ask him yourself,” Zenon said, pointing upstairs, “he’s over there.”
“Why?” the vampire farthest from us said. “He never comes here himself.”
“One of you pissed him off,” I said, a little too smugly. “Who knows, maybe you’re next?”
Zenon squeezed my hand a little too hard, and pulled me along behind him as we traversed up the other set of stairs to the first floor. The three vampires continued sucking on their blood bags, but I felt their dark gaze on me like I was dessert.
“Must you tease them?” Zenon said, letting go of my hand once we reached the first floor.
“What?” I shrugged and pointed. “Look, there’s Léon with your daddy.” The square-shaped apartment building had a courtyard in the middle with glass railings. We could see clearly what was happening there from this side.
He elbowed me in the ribs. “Let’s get closer.”
“…but Léon, I did nothing wrong,” the occupant of apartment 85 said. He didn’t sound as confident now as he did earlier. I suspected any vampire living in Sterling Meadow had to submit to Léon.
“That’s not what we’re hearing,” Léon said. His tone was deep and throaty, with an edge of warning to his words.
The vampire from apartment 85 was so enormous his frame filled the doorjamb. He reminded me of a demon pro wrestler. He wore low cut dark jeans with no shoes. Sinister tattoos with red flames and naked women filled his chest with more down each arm. His face was smooth and youthful, but that was misleading; the cloud of death surrounding him set off all my alarm bells.
I grabbed Zenon’s arm to stop him from getting closer. When he glanced over his shoulder at me, I shook my head. “Don’t,” I whispered. “Dangerous.”
The lines between Zenon’s eyes deepened, but he didn’t question me. I was serious. Apartment 85 was powerful and even though Léon was there with his brother Sebastian, I feared for their lives.
“There are stories going around about the Mask of Immortality. Do you know where it is?” Léon said, standing straighter, even though he had to crane his head up to see the other demon’s face.
Sebastian was bigger than Léon and stronger, but with this demon, I wasn’t so sure who would win the fight.
“No, this is the first time I’m hearing about any mask,” the vampire demon said, folding his arms across his broad chest and leaned against the doorjamb, feigning boredom.
“Clarke,” Léon said his name with so much venom it made my skin crawl. “I’ve given you a chance. In fact, I’ve given you many. The information I’ve received is true, and I’m only here to hear your side of the story. And more importantly, I need to know who you truly work for.”
Two men traversed up the stairs and joined Léon and Sebastian. I’d never seen them before and thought they could be their shifter back up; possibly were-leopards from Sebastian’s leap.
Clarke pushed away from the doorjamb and stood straight, the muscles in his jaw ticking. “You know I’m a hard worker, Léon, and I’ve done nothing to anyone. Yes, I work for someone else, but please believe me, if you want to keep this town, you won’t ask me again. Because right now, he is already listening to our conversation and he’s livid.”
Bloody sweat peppered Clarke’s forehead as he glanced nervously over his shoulder. Warm wind blew through my hair, and I shivered. Clarke swallowed hard and looked inside his dark apartment again as if someone had arrived.
The darkness that I’d first seen swirling around Clarke’s body had dissipated, but it was still there, only now it was farther inside his apartment. Clarke was a vampire, yet he seemed more like a demon from the Underworld; a demon who worked for Victor. Although I’d never seen Clarke in the Underworld before, it was possible he was stationed in Sterling Meadow, being the eyes and ears of the Underworld.
I pinched Zenon’s forearm gently. When he glanced down at me, I widened my eyes and mouthed ‘dangerous’ again.
A nervousness I didn’t feel before washed over me like a cold shower. I glanced over my shoulder as if the dreaded dark shadow was behind me. When I turned to look at Clarke and Léon, the darkness had spread, becoming thicker. Shouting erupted, followed by screaming.
“No! Wait! I said nothing… I swear I said nothing,” Clarke screamed to the nothingness inside his apartment. Then the darkness wrapped its tentacles around his neck, shoulders, and waist like an evil octopus and yanked his body inside, slamming the door shut.
Léon, Sebastian, and the two shifters broke the door down and darted inside the apartment. When fighting erupted, Zenon was about to dash off when I grabbed his forearm and shook my head.
“It’s not worth it, brother. And besides, you can’t die now and here. Not in this time,” I said gravely. “We’ll find another way to get the answers we seek. I doubt Clarke would’ve told us, anyway. Léon asked him questions, and he still said nothing. So, as much as I love my father, I’m not risking your life for his.”
“Ah,” Zenon said. “That’s the sweetest thing you’ve said to me in a long time,” he pulled me in for a hug, “now let’s get out of here before Léon knows we were close to the action. They are more equipped to sort this out while we wait patiently for them outside.”
“Let’s use those stairs though,” I said, pointing at the other stairs. “I don’t feel like bumping into the hungry three downstairs again.”
We made it down the stairs while apartment 85 was alive with yelling and fighting. We made it down the stairs unscathed, and just as I was about to open the door after Zenon, when a hand grabbed my right arm.
I yelped in surprise when two glowing red eyes stared hungrily at me. Before I could call out Zenon’s name, the vampire yanked me back inside the building. His friend closed the door, leaning against it, and keeping Zenon outside.
“Well, well, well, she’s all alone,” hissed the first vampire who had spoken with us. He licked his lips and smiled, revealing his fangs.
“Just leave some for us, Mikey,” said his friend.
Mikey pushed me against the door and closed the gap. His blood stench breath assaulted my senses and his dark soul begged for me to play with him. It was a misconception that vampires didn’t have souls, because they did. They were the undead. Their hearts had stopped beating and they no longer needed air to breathe, but their souls were still fully intact with their bodies.
So when I grinned at Mikey. His expression changed when I gently pushed my hands into his chest and his soul vibrated a little out of his body. Then when I shoved my palms harder into his chest. Mikey jerked backward as his soul tore halfway out of his body, then popped back in.
“What the fuck was that?” Mikey scowled, shoving me back into the wall beside his friend, my head hitting the hard surface. He kept his hands on my shoulders to keep me in place and squeezed. I cried out in pain, but that seemed to fuel his desire to taste me.
“Much better,” Mikey said in a gentle purr, and leaned in. “I love it when human’s cry out.”
“Luckily I’m not that human,” I said, and Mikey cocked his head to one side, his mouth parted in a surprised O while the lines between his eyes deepened.
This time, I gripped his throat and pushed. I screamed as I shoved harder, but Mikey’s soul was a stubborn sonofabitch. “Why won’t you leave, dammit,” I said through gritted teeth.
The more I pushed, the more Mikey leaned into me, snapping his toothy vampire jaw. He stuck his tongue out as if to taste me. Grossed out by his behavior, it fueled my desire to send him to the Underworld in the worst way imaginable. I thought of Dad’s power and my hands morphed into talons then back to my human hands. I stifled my smile as I squeezed harder, digging my fingernails into his flesh. His bone snapped as my now powerful fingers pierced his larynx, and his head lulled to one side.
“What the hell?” Mikey stammered, his eyes glaring at me from one side of his neck. “Boys, what the fuck is she doing to me?”
“Ah, we got to go,” said the other vampires, and I watched them run off in my peripheral vision.
“Seems like they’re not good friends,” I said sinisterly.
Knocking sounded behind me, with Zenon yelling.
“I’m okay,” I yelled. “I’m just sorting this one out quickly.” The knocking died down. “Now for you,” I said, squeezing Mikey’s neck harder, and another bone snapped, pushing his head farther off his shoulder.
Mikey’s left eye bulged and stared more to the left as his eyes squinted. His soul edged out of his body and clawed its way back, but I continued pushing.
“You’re not a nice vampire, are you, Mikey?” Another bone snapped and Mikey’s head was off his shoulder, dangling.
Mikey continued clawing at my shoulders, but he wasn’t doing any damage to me. I shoved my fingernails through Mikey’s larynx and yanked it out with my right hand while my left hand continued pushing Mikey’s soul out of his body.
One part of Victor’s power I was grateful for was strength; I wasn’t a vampire or a were-animal, but I was my father’s child. I had some of his power coursing through my veins, and I used it now to defend myself. My sharp fingernails continued digging into Mikey’s neck, tearing his flesh apart. To ensure a vampire was truly dead, his head had to be removed.
Once I tore off Mikey’s head, his soul flew out of his body, but before he could return, the Ferryman snapped him up and bolted his soul in his boat. I waved a bloody hand at the Ferryman and smiled.
Mikey’s hands let go of my shoulders, then poof, he sparked into a cloud of fire and ash, finally mixing with his blood on the floor.
A loud explosion sounded upstairs, followed by Léon and Sebastian bolting down the stairs. As they came around the corner, they stopped in their tracks, only to find a bloody mess and me in the middle of it.
Léon smiled while Sebastian stared at me like I was a lunatic.
“Hi,” I said, waving the same bloodied hand. When a drop of blood fell onto my cheek, I lowered my hand. “Mikey was pestering me,” I said, pointing at his blood covered ash on the floor. “He wasn’t a nice vampire.”
Léon chuckled. “No, Mikey was one of our troublemakers. Thank you for doing us a service. I owe you one.” He winked wickedly and grinned.
“How did it go?” I asked, opening the door to find Zenon standing there with his arms folded over his chest and a surprised look on his face when he saw me covered in blood.
“Unfortunately, we don’t know who had sent Clarke, but we know it’s a demon. They destroyed Clarke before we could ask more questions. So, whoever it was doing this was there in the Underworld. You should ask Victor more questions about this. He may have heard something down there while you’ve been away.”
“Thanks, Léon, we appreciate your help,” I said, pulling a wet wipe out of my bag to clean my hands. It was times like these when I wished I had my gloves. The adrenaline was wearing off and my stomach turned. I swallowed the bile in my throat and shuddered.
“Any time,” Léon said, closing the gap. Before I could exit, Léon turned to me, blocking me from leaving. “How do I meet your mother?” he whispered near the shell of my left ear, ensuring nobody else had heard. When he came into my vision once more, his blue eyes were swimming in curiosity.
I grabbed his left shoulder and leaned in near his left ear and whispered how they met and what he and Sebastian did to save her life.
Léon beamed with pride and nodded in satisfaction. He glanced at Sebastian, who shrugged; the desperation on his face needing to know what he and I had spoken about, but I doubted Léon would ever tell him.
“I guess we’ll see you two in the future,” Léon said, holding the door open for me.
As Zenon and I traversed down the stairs and onto the sidewalk, Sebastian asked who we were and what our discussion was about. I grinned when Léon nonchalantly told him it was none of his business. Brothers…