Rotten Luck, page 13
Complete with scratching, clawing, and hair pulling.
Ivan settled into a booth in the back to watch the show. He chose the one positioned across from where Joannie lay dying on the floor the night one of his rogues walked into the donut shop. I wondered if it was a coincidence or if he chose that spot intentionally. Of course, that would mean Joannie would have had some significance to Ivan. From what little time I’d spent with him, I knew the only thing significant to Ivan was Ivan. He didn’t care about anything but himself and his plans to upend the vampire world. Joannie was just a casualty of Ivan’s secret war within his own community. Her death didn’t matter to him. She didn’t mean anything to him.
But she mattered to me.
The rage and determination I felt was nothing like the movies depicted. There was no flash of red, no blind fury or berserker rush. It came in like a flood, building steadily until there was nothing left to hold it back. I was cool and fluid rather than overheated and out of control. Hyper-focused, in tune with every movement, and every movement had a purpose. I stopped fighting like a crazed high schooler and relied on the skills I’d gained at the Benandanti.
After all, Chelsey taught them to me.
I stayed on the defense, preferring blocks and counter strikes until the right moment presented itself. Chelsey was good, better than good. She had a seventy percent accuracy, breaking through my guard enough to bust my lip, bloody my nose, and swell my left eye almost shut. But she wasn’t the only one connecting. I cast off the doubts of the clumsy, awkward, and accident-prone Desmona Jones and let the new and improved version of me take over.
A version of me Chelsey wasn’t prepared for.
Collin and Van continued to fight their own battles behind and beside me. Vampires tossed them around like ragdolls, but they refused to stay down, and neither of them turned over all their weapons. The vampires were too confident for their own good. I guess that happens when you’re at the top of the food chain for so long. Still, they should have frisked us. Collin smashed one rogue in the face with a vial of holy water, while Van drove an impalement stake home through the heart of another. The staked vampire erupted into a cloud of ash and dust. The dust drifted our way, sending Chelsey into a sneezing fit. Ironic she seemed to be allergic to vampire dust when she’d been working for Ivan the whole time.
I didn’t give any reprieve or chance for Chelsey to recover. Lunging forward, I hit her with a wild haymaker to her right temple. She hit the floor like a sack of flour. I rushed over to Collin, jumping into the fray when another vampire took the place of the one who’d been doused with holy water. They were the supernatural equivalent of cockroaches, coming out of the woodworks. One dropped out of the duct work, two more came in from the kitchen and several more surrounded the exterior of the building, pressing their faces against the window panes.
Ivan must have grown tired of playing with his food. He rose from his seat at the back booth and snapped his fingers again. “Enough.” His small army of rogues scurried back, forming a semi-circle around the three of us. Four if you count the still unconscious Chelsey. “We have you outnumbered, Collin. This is ridiculous and a complete waste of time. Which is saying something, considering.” He looked at me while gesturing to himself with a hand on his chest. “Immortals. We have a lot of time on our hands, you see.”
“Yeah, I got it.” I couldn’t help rolling my eyes. “It sort of ruins the joke when you explain it.”
Ivan’s expression darkened. It was a subtle shift, noticeable only if you were paying attention, and he had my full attention. He ran a hand over his lapel, smoothing nonexistent wrinkles from his jacket and, in the process, his features smoothed out as well. “You speak your mind. I’m not used to that.”
“Well, you better get used to it. If the night ends the way I think it’s going to, I’ll be speaking my mind a lot.” I rested a hand on my hip, cocking it to one side and tilted my head to the other. “It’ll be fun. A great way to spend all that time you’ve got on your hands.”
Ivan laughed. The first genuine emotion I’d seen him express in either confrontation I’d had with him. Deep and rolling, the sound of his amusement filled the small donut shop. He looked at Collin and Van. “You’ve had your hands full with this one, yes?”
Van glanced in my direction before speaking up. “You have no idea.” His dry, sarcastic remark sent Ivan into another fit of laughter.
The rogue vampires missed the hilarity Ivan found in the situation. A rumbling noise built within the crowd of monsters surrounding the master vamp. I was only halfway through the vampire biology book Collin gave me but, based on what I had read, that sound wasn’t coming from their mouths.
It was coming from their stomachs.
They were hungry and, as far as they were concerned, the three surviving members of the Benandanti were on the menu. Things were going from bad to worse and my new-found outlook on life and luck was deteriorating almost as fast as the situation.
Chapter Twenty-One
Van, Collin, and I were battered and bruised. Blood trickled from various cuts and scrapes. More than one vampire licked their lips. Some of the newbies struggled with protruding fangs in their way, but they all sized us up like someone rang the dinner bell and offered up three tenderized slabs of meat. The crowd pressed forward, pushing us back against the counter.
Ivan tsked. “It’s like running a daycare center.” He pulled a small dagger from his inner coat pocket and drew the blade across his wrist.
The master vampire’s blood, more powerful and alluring than ours to any rogue under his command, drew the attention of his flock away from us. The cloying smell of rotting flowers hung in the air as Ivan’s blood hit the floor one drop at a time. The only sounds were the soft rumbles of the rogues’ stomachs, and the slow drip of the tap Ivan opened on his wrist hitting the linoleum.
And then the frenzy began.
The rogues swarmed in, a gnarled mass of limbs and fangs fighting for position and access to the blood Ivan spilled to distract and feed them. We underestimated their strength and abilities, but if the way they lapped at the cooling pools of blood like a pack of rabid dogs was any indication, Ivan greatly underestimated their thirst.
We were about to find out just how bad a mistake that had been.
If you drain your victim dry but don’t eat them, is it still cannibalism? That’s debatable, but I could have lived my entire life with never having witnessed it firsthand. It starts off slow. A pair of fangs punctures the skin. The first bite. The first sip. But others follow. Others want to be fed, to be powerful like their master and before they realize what they’ve done, he’s gone. A withered husk on the floor until the sun destroys what remains and the ashes are scattered.
Or in this case, swept up with a broom and dustpan. Followed by a thorough mopping for good measure.
Unfortunately, cleaning would have to wait. We still had the rogue vampires to contend with. Ivan left them, wild and unbidden until he had a use for them. The puppet master pulling strings, waiting for the vampire hierarchy to fall. All the while enjoying the riches and comforts he’d acquired being a part of it for centuries. For all his plotting and planning, he never saw this coming. The rogues were untethered for the first time since Ivan turned them and they were still hungry.
According to Volume V of Kresnik’s journals, vampires don’t feed off one another. They exchange power and strength, but their thirst remains unquenched. Not the best combination when facing a bunch of vampires who have no impulse control.
“Collin?” I spoke in hushed tones, worried I’d draw the attention of a rogue before they realized the buffet was back open. “You’re supposed to be the man with the plan. What do we do?”
“I have UV light traps and silver mesh netting set in the kitchen. If we can lure them back there...” Collin looked at Van, the most experienced hunter out of all of us.
Van took a deep breath before rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck. He reached inside his coat and drew yet another stake he’d failed to surrender. “The two of you fall back to the kitchen now.”
“Where’d you get your jacket?” I couldn’t help myself. The question popped out before my brain had a chance to reel the thought back in. Van arched a brow, a puzzled expression on his face. “I mean, I like it. It has a lot of pockets.”
Collin rested a hand on my shoulder to help guide my steps backward. “This really isn’t the time to trade fashion tips.”
“If men’s pockets were designed like women’s pockets, you’d understand.” I took another step backward.
“Ah, but then there’d be no controversy or pocket envy,” Collin chuckled. The vinyl seals around the door swooshed as he pushed it open with his backside.
Van twirled the stake between his fingers like a drummer in a rock-n-roll band. “I’ll slow them down a little. Give you a chance to check the lights, make sure they’re working.” He drove a stake through the heart of the first vampire to rush him without even taking his eyes off us. “Go.”
Collin and I didn’t need to be told a third time. He hurried over to check the closest set of UV lights before the door even swung closed behind me.
“How’s it going in there?” Van called from the other side of the door.
“Desmona, check that one. Make sure we’ve got a connection.” Collin pointed toward the rack of chocolate frosted donuts waiting to be restocked.
“And how am I supposed to tell if it is or isn’t?” I didn’t know the first thing about any of Collin’s equipment.
“Do you see a blue light flashing?” Collin called my name when I didn’t answer fast enough. “Desmona?”
“Any time now,” Van shouted over the thumps and thuds coming from his side of the wall. A small cloud of dust erupted, blocking the view of the seating area through the circle of glass in the center of the door. I recognized the cloud formation having made a similar mess in the donut shop. Except mine was with cake flour and not vampires.
“One more minute,” Collin called back. “Do you see it?”
“Blue light? Blue light?” I squatted down and peered behind the steel work table to check the signal light on the connectors. “Blue light. Got it!”
“Times up.” Van hollered. “My friends and I are coming in.”
“Shit.” In my rush to stand up, I scraped my back on the table and smacked my head on a shelf just as Van rushed through the swing door. My luck may have improved, but my coordination? Let’s just say it was still a work in progress.
“Collin?” Van wielded the stake with his right hand while shoving a vampire back with his left. One of the rogues used the two vampires fighting with Van to catapult himself closer past the bottleneck at the door and into the kitchen. Van spun around, exposing his back to a horde of hungry vampires to stake the one making his way over to me.
“Thanks. Van, watch out!” I tried to warn him, but it was too late. One of the rogues jumped on his back and sank their fangs into his neck. “Oh my god. Collin, Vans’ bitten. What do we do? What do we do?”
I’d spent so much time being angry, frustrated, and disappointed I couldn’t see a good thing until it was too late. Feelings I’d denied since Van revealed his true nature to me welled up. Why did it matter before and not now when faced with the possibility of losing him forever? Learning the truth hadn’t changed who he was or why I was attracted to him in the first place. It hadn’t changed the fact that despite being clumsy or difficult and constantly screwing up, Van saw through it. He saw something else, something worthy of being loved and having someone to love in return.
He saved me. In more than one way and more than once.
“Collin, turn on the fucking lights.” Van reached around and grabbed the vampire clinging to his back to yank him off, but the vamp was stuck like glue.
“Wait, Collin, don’t.” What would the lights do to Van? I couldn’t watch him suffer from the exposure or worse die.
“Ready or not...” Collin pressed the button on the remote in his hand.
I managed to keep my head together when facing down Chelsey and even Ivan but watching Van burn like the rest of the vampires was enough to make me lose my mind.
The UV lights never came on.
Collin broke out into a string of expletives that would have made any sailor proud. "My wiring never fails." More swearing. I thought I heard my name in there somewhere.
The curse of Desmona Jones struck again. Or did it? Collin may have thought my bad luck was to blame, but once again it felt like my luck was turning. I picked up a wooden kitchen stool and smashed it against the metal work table. One of the legs splintered off. It wasn't Ashwood, but it would get the job done. I tossed the rest of the stool, knocking over several plastic tubs in the process. My makeshift stake was buried under a pile of rainbow sprinkles. If Collin got his contraption working the vampires and Van were toast. Without a second to spare, I reached down, swiping at the sprinkles until my fingers brushed across the chunk of wood. I grabbed hold of my stake, targeted one of the vampires and lunged forward.
I needed to work on my aim. The vamp had several inches height advantage and a leather biker vest which made things more difficult. Rather than hit the heart, I impaled him in the stomach. The vampire staggered backward. Stunned I'd managed to injure him at all, he looked down at the wound that had already begun to heal around the splintered wood protruding from his belly. His lips peeled back in a snarl exposing his left fang. Widening my stance, I positioned my body into a fight stance. The vampire mimicked my moves. I braced for impact.
None came.
The vampire's brown eyes widened, a look of terror on his face as my homemade stake was pulled through the other side of his body. The impalement that followed was faster than the extraction and dead on balls accurate. Half the stake burst through the vampire's chest, right where his heart would be. The rogue fell forward, collapsing in a heap on the floor. Rainbow sprinkles skirted across the room once he made impact with the floor and seconds later, he exploded in a cloud of dust.
Ash and tiny specks of colored wax covered the kitchen.
Van didn’t stop to relish in his victory. He grabbed what was left of the stool and broke off another piece of wood. He was ready to slay another vampire while I was still trying to figure out how he hadn’t become one. I assumed the process would be accelerated, given he was already halfway there. Van turned, poised to drive his stake in the vampire closest to him.
Except none were.
The vampires scattered about the kitchen. Some on their hands and knees, examining the floor.
“What are they doing?” My first question should probably have been “Are you okay,” but Van was still standing, and he wasn’t trying to eat me. That was a good sign and allowed a few minutes to focus on the ones that were.
Or focus on why they weren’t.
“I’ll be damned. They’re counting.” Van scratched along his jaw. “It’s in Volume V. I’ve just actually never seen it.”
“You mean the amazing Van Kresnik never tried?” I asked, unable to hide my surprise.
“Would you?” He took in the vampires around him and shook his head. “I’d take stakes over sprinkles any day.
“Your choice, hunter.” My mouth turned up in a mischievous smirk. “I’m adding it to my arsenal. Probably some chocolate jimmies, too.”
“Then God said, ‘Let there be light.’” Collin said in a booming, triumphant voice.
Van and I turned our attention to the leader and techno genius of our group in time to see him press the button on his remote. With the hum of a bug zapper in action, several shop lamps clamped to various surfaces flickered to life, illuminating the room in electric blue light. A faint sizzling sound started, building to a pop like too much bacon in a pan until it drowned out the buzz of the lights. Still enamored by the rainbow sprinkles, the vampires clawed at their skin but did little else to prevent their deaths. One by one, they succumbed to Collin’s UV lights.
Van did not.
“How are you not dead? Or undead or whatever?” I asked, waving a cloud of dust and ash away from my face.
“Dhampyres can’t be fully turned,” Van said as if that cleared everything up.
“It’s like a genetic mutation.” Collin clicked the button on his remote again, shutting down the UV lights. “Van has increased speed, strength, and agility without the aversion to sunlight or the thirst for blood.”
“Dhampyre, huh?” I wanted to do more research, to better understand Van’s condition, but it didn’t change my feelings for him. Not anymore. “So, are you immortal, too?”
“Nope. Immortality isn’t one of the perks.” He looked around the kitchen. “I guess it isn’t for them, either.”
Piles of ash were all that remained of Ivan’s rogues and his plan to expose vampires to the world.
“Gross!” I brushed away the vampire dust caked up on my arms. “Mr. Al bitched about the health inspector before. Wait till he has to scrub ashes of the undead out of every nook and cranny.”
Collin found the mop and bucket. He grabbed hold of the handle and gave a little shove, sending the wheeled bucket careening across the room. “He’s not the one scrubbing anything.”
I let out a groan loud enough to drown out Van’s laughter.
“The idea is to prevent anyone from discovering we were here.” Van grabbed a roll of paper towels and a spray bottle filled with cleaning solution from under the compartment sink. “I’ll start out front with what’s left of Chelsey.”
I shuddered at the thought of what her last moments had been like, bleeding out from her injuries, too weak to defend herself, and becoming food for the very rogues she helped unleash. It was a fitting end, but that didn’t make it less horrible.
“Leave it better than you found it,” Collin said. “That’s our motto.”
