Black Heart: Coeur de Sade (Black Heart Series) (38 page)

            “You will try,” I said.  I pulled the Coeur de Sade out, shook it into my palm and they all looked.  The fools.  “Now that you are all my absolute slaves, you understand the power of the talisman.  Tell council.  Make sure they understand my determination to get those promises, and the money.”

            I might negotiate the amount of “reward” I received, but not the promises of safety.  My primary concern was protecting my family and friends.  I would kill them all if necessary to achieve that.

            “Go.”

            As one they all turned and left.  I smiled as I stuffed the talisman back into my watch pocket, then folded up the handkerchief and stuffed it back in my back pocket.  Thunder in the distance made me look up.  I could see the flashes of lightning.  A front was rolling through Dallas and bringing rain.  Everyone was excited to see the rain since we were in a drought.

            I headed back to my bike.  It was time to take a painfully circuitous route back to Kale's house.  I doubted any other members of council were spying on us, but why take chances.  I'd already been followed a couple times in the past week or so, to disastrous results.

            A bat screeched, swooping down straight at me from above.  Before I could react she morphed to human form, and Lolita slammed into my chest feet first.  I hit the ground and rolled, and Lolita was charging me with a look of wild glee on her face.  She was having way too much fun.

            I swung my left arm down, across my body, up and around to block her follow-up kick at my face.  My block was paired with a vicious punch in the throat that sent her reeling back.  I was so waiting for her attack.  The Giorgi Girls couldn't stay away, and I knew they'd make another try for the talisman.

            A roundhouse to the face sent her spinning away from me.  Now smiling, I followed eagerly.  Yeah, I was starting to enjoy myself.  And when she turned to face me again, I kicked straight up into her chin.

            Lolita lay spread eagle before me, unmoving.

            "About time," I said, then dropped to one knee beside her to riffle through her pockets.

            "Fool," she said, and grabbed me.  A second later I was face down on the ground, my arm twisted up behind my back.  "Ha, you ain't shit, Black Heart."

            I morphed into a bat and was free.  She gasped, then growled with frustration.  I would've laughed, but bat throats and mouths were not equipped for that.  Instead I just flew up to the nearest tree and landed on a limb.  I found I couldn't just perch on a limb like a bird, so I had to sprawl atop it.

            "Forget her," Lorelei said, walking up under an umbrella.  "She is such a loser wannabe."

            She tossed Lolita a plastic shopping bag of clothes.  The sexy little witch was decked out in party clothes: white midriff baring top, short denim skirt and black pumps.  She accessorized with wide black belt, half a dozen necklaces of varying lengths, big silver hoops and matching bangles.  I swear the earrings and bangles were mine.

            But I forgot all about that when Lolita reached down and plucked the handkerchief out of my abandoned jeans.  Then both turned mischievous looks up at me and laughed.

            "Thanks for the talisman, babe," Lorelei said.

            "Thanks for
everything
," Lolita said.

            "No, thank you," Antoinette said.  The ancient French vampire's power swept over the Giorgi Girls.  Lorelei gasped, and I believe immediately climaxed.  She had that look in her eyes.  Lolita put up a bit more fight, but within seconds her defenses collapsed and she belonged to Antoinette as well.  "So sweet of you to find the talisman for me."

            Antoinette pulled the folded handkerchief from Lolita's hand, and caressed her cheek with the back of her free hand.  Then she cupped a naked breast and smiled wickedly.

            "You will make a great vampire call girl," Antoinette said.  She stepped past the helpless vampire and up to her sister.  "And you will be my new witch."

            Boney and Angelique stepped out of the shadows and joined her.  Angelique immediately shoved a six inch spike of sanctified silver into Lolita' neck, to keep her from morphing.  Then she bounded the entranced vampire's wrist behind her back and forced her to kneel.

            Boney handcuffed Lorelei while Antoinette was kissing her.  Then he fastened a diamond choker around her throat.  As soon as he fastened it the magic came alive.  I could feel it.  Lorelei's body stiffened, then relaxed.  I noticed Angelique was fastening a similar magical object around Lolita's throat.

            "Take them away," Antoinette said, smiling smugly.

            "Did Sable get away?" Angelique said, looking around.

            Antoinette frowned as she looked around.  Boney looked right at me, then quickly looked away.

            "It appears she slipped through your fingers again, Mistress," Boney said.

            "You don't have to sound so pleased," Antoinette said, eyeing him evilly.

            "Forgive me, Mistress," he said, then snapped his fingers at the Giorgi Sisters.  "You!  Follow me."

            Boney led them into the darkness, heading away from me.  Antoinette and Angelique turned to watch them go.  Then Antoinette started unfolding the handkerchief, to unwrap her prize.  I pushed out the branch and spread my wings as Antoinette was absorbed with the handkerchief and Angelique was watching Boney leading their prisoners away.

            I didn't flap my wings or even breathe.  There could be no noise as I glided down to land atop my discarded clothes.  Within seconds I pulled the talisman out of the small watch pocket with my mouth.

            "What?  It's empty!" Antoinette cried.  "Where is the talisman?"  When Angelique turned to my clothes and started to bend over, Antoinette cried out.  "No!  I will get it."

            If Angelique touched it, she would own her mistress.  Antoinette understood that.  But it didn't matter, because both women were looking down at my clothes.  Looking down at a small black bat.  Yeah, both as a wolf and as a bat I have black fur.  Same color as my human hair.

            Clutching the talisman in my feet, I leapt into the air and beat a hasty retreat.  Suddenly the night was filled with bats.  My first thought was Bat Man had arrived.  But there weren't that many bats.

            "No!" Antoinette cried.  "Leave her alone!  The Coeur de Sade is mine!"

            I realized the other bat were competing vampires.  They were all after the talisman, so after me.  Seeing them so discombobulated me I almost dropped the talisman.  Instead, I veered hard right, flew between Angelique's legs and skirted the ground as I flew as fast as I could.  Dallas's vampire leadership was in close pursuit.

            Somehow I didn't think they'd smile upon me if they took the talisman away from me.  Oh no.

            The chase was on, so I beat a fast retreat.  Can't say I liked being the one chased.  Chaser was a much better position.  There were lots of big trees to weave through.  It slowed everyone down, including me.

            Unfortunately, the park wasn't that large and they were very determined.  They chased me right out of the park and northward.  I could drop the talisman and they would all go for it.  That would ensure I escaped, but only for that night.  The council seemed to have a boner for me.  It was probably all that post death vampire hunting and killing that got their goat.

            If nothing else, this proved I couldn't give the Coeur de Sade to anyone on council.  They were all power hungry monsters.  Whoever got the talisman would use it with ruthlessness.  That vampire would quickly become king of the vampires in Dallas, and exercise absolute control.  Not a prospect I savored.

            Up ahead something was lit up big time.  So bright even my bat eyes could discern it.  I headed that way, since no other direction offered anything.  Maybe if it was a big outdoor event with tons of people I could transform to human and get lost in the crowd.  Of course, I'd have to find clothes fast.  Naked people in public tended to draw attention.

            A dozen or more vampire bats were spread out behind me.  They weren't giving me any other course.  It was straight ahead or quick capture.  Veering to left or right gave them easy intercept angles.  So forward I went, praying I wasn't being herded into a trap.

            The big light turned out to be a construction site, so no place for me to escape in a crowd.  The site was a large hole with construction workers moving quickly to beat the coming storm.  There were seven concrete mixer trucks lined up.  They were dumping their thick contents into a hopper, and that was feeding a long tube thing.  The workers had the other end of that tube and were filling up shafts sunk deep into the ground.

            I recalled something on the news about how they found the ground there too unstable, and were being forced to sink supports pillars down to bedrock to make it stable enough.  The whole thing was causing a big brouhaha since some public money was involved and the costs were skyrocketing.

            What was a public tragedy turned into opportunity for me.  I squealed with delight as I angled down into that big hole.  About half of the deep shafts were already filled with drying concrete.  They were in the process of filling three more as I was followed by more than a dozen bats down into that brightly lit site.

            I didn't want the vampires to know what I was doing, or even see me do it.  So I started weaving all through the equipment and men.  The workers cried out as bats surrounded them.  Within seconds I had two bats upon me, all savage teeth and tearing claws.  It was exceedingly painful.  With the talisman clutched in my feet I couldn't fight back without dropping it first.

            One bat sank his teeth into my throat, another raked at my belly and a third smashed into us and ripped my left wing to shreds.  I shriek in agony as we began to fall.  We couldn't fly like that.

            I morphed into a human.  The bats were flung away from me, and I crashed into the rocky ground a second later.

            "Ooff!" landing butt first.  The talisman was next to my right foot, so I snatched it up.

            "Shit fire!  A naked woman!" a worker cried.

            They all turned to stare at me.  I think they were too surprised to enjoy the sight.  Bats wheeled towards me.  I held up the talisman.

            "Halt!"

            Nothing.  Apparently they were immune to its affect as bats.  Or, their eyes were not good enough to see it properly.  Didn't matter, that idea crashed and burned all around me.  So I shoved the talisman into my mouth and morphed into a wolf.

            "Werewolf!" another man cried.

            I started weaving all through the workers around the open shafts.  Up close, and with better wolf eyes, I saw the deep shafts were filled with a lattice work of steel rods.  They were in the process of filling them with concrete.

            Morphing into a bat just as I reached one shaft they were filling, I opened my mouth and released the talisman.  I hesitated only long enough to ensure it fell straight down that filling shaft, then tore out of there.  But I did pass over each of the shafts they were filling, just to confuse the issue.

            The chase started all over again.  As best as I could tell, all of the vampires were still with me.  If I wasn't a bat, I would've smiled.  So I led them a merry chase up to the High Fives.  It started to rain at that time.  I headed up Central to Collin Creek Mall in Plano as the rainfall grew heavier, then over to Preston and down to Valley View Mall.

            There was no straight shot, either.  It was the most meandering bat chase in history.  The rain slowed us down more than I thought it would.  We were all over the place between those points of interest.  I could tell they were getting frustrated by it all.  Time was running out.

            As the sky began to lighten with the coming dawn, I dropped to the ground and morphed to human.  Seconds later I was surrounded by every member of council, and some of their minions.  Antoinette, Yuan Kwang, and Vanessa Mancera were fully clothed, the rest naked as me.

            "I don't have it anymore.  But if I did have it, I’d
own
you all right now," I said.  I showed them my empty hands.  The rain was pretty heavy at that time.  "I haven't had it for hours.”

            "The construction site!" Vanessa said, and all eyes turned that direction.  We could see the glow still.  "Oh no."

            "Oh yes," I said.  "It is at the bottom of one of those many concrete filled shafts.  Never to be seen or used again."

            "You vile little fool," Antoinette hissed, eyes blazing.

            "Not me," I said.  "You.  All of you."

            "You threw away immeasurable power," Jeff Howell said.

            "Y'all made me do it," I said.  "I was willing to give it to council, until y'all came after me tonight.  Each of you wanted it for yourself.  Each of you wants to take over Dallas.  I realized I couldn't let anyone have it, some fool vampire would take over and ruin it for us all."

            "It wouldn't have been like that," Yuan Kwang said.  He was furious with me, but still managed to look calm and rational.  None of the others weren’t managing that.  "I just wanted to safeguard it, so someone like Antoinette didn't use it for evil."

            For a second I thought Antoinette would attack Yuan.

            "Dammit," Tara snarled.  She looked up at the twilight sky and scowled.  "It's too late now.  Dammit."

            She changed into a bat and flew away.  One by one they gave me hateful looks, and vanished in a flurry of wings.  Antoinette was the last to leave.

            "We're not finished yet," she said, then she and Angelique turned into bats and flew away.

            "Eat me," I said to her retreating shape.

            My little bravado helped a bit.  But I was in big trouble.  Not council trouble, but sunshine on my shoulders kinda trouble.  I wasn't sure I could fly all the way back to Kale's house before sunrise.