Demon Lord 3: Blue Star Priestess (21 page)

Our prisoner smiled, happy with Izumi’s disbelief.

I sighed. “Well, after I’ve tortured her a few months, I expect I’ll know all I need to.”

Looking her pale-gray stare on me, the assassin spoke English, “Ask for ransom. In good condition, you’ll be given a lot for me. I’m the second daughter of the Storm Lord.”

“Hmmm, not a hired killer after all.”

“So, what does your clan have against me?”

“You are an usurper, an outlander. Your defiled blood should not be able to claim land among us, let alone a kingdom. I can only imagine you have employed the darkest magic to steal a heritage among us.”

“Is that the story going around?” I asked.

She clamped her lips shut and didn’t answer.

“You really are going to make me rip the answers out of you.” I gave her my coldest stare. “Don’t you know I enjoy that kind of thing?”

Izumi folded her arms across my chest, still leaning into my back. She said, “What good will it do you to resist? Everyone breaks under enough pressure. Tell us what we want to know, and we’ll let you go.”

“Go rot in your human hell,” the assassin said.

“You first,” I said.

“Very well.” All passion left her face. Her eyes went flat. She rubbed the side of her face absently, then reached under her collar. Her hand tugged a silver chain into view. On the chain was a smoke-quartz crystal the size of her thumb. She wrapped her fingers around it. Her knuckles went white. A flash of shadow dimmed the air around her fist. Her body went smoky, translucent, the same vanishing trick she’d pulled before. I didn’t see how that would help her since her boots were still trapped in ice.

She wasn’t going anywhere.

Her body stiffened, not as invisible to my perceptions as she hoped. The trick would have worked better in deeper shadow. Her hand fell away from the crystal necklace. She slumped and sprawled, only her knees still poking up. The smoky effect on her flesh bled away—along with the rest of her. Her empty clothing slumped to the ice. That was all that remained of her except for two boots still in the pond.

My sword shrieked.
Where’s my meal?

I stared at the empty clothing. “Gone to shadow. They who sent her made sure they wouldn’t be betrayed.”

“Ruthless,” Izumi said.

“Makes the fight interesting,” I said.

TWENTY-ONE

“Roses are red, my balls are blue.

Come, sweet bitch, I have plans for you.”

                                      —Caine Deathwalker

With evening setting in, Izumi dropped me off at my Malibu home, next to the bar so I could get a drink. 
She knows me so well
.  Her ice-blue portal dwindled away, as she continued on to the clan house.  I poured a glass of rum and coke from the magical obsidian bottle that the Red Lady once gave me.  The bottle never ran out, but it also didn’t like me sharing booze with other people; the bottle tended to explode when I did that.  I drank and had a second glass before heading to my bedroom.

I found Vivian on my bed, sleeping, fully dressed in combat leathers left over from when she’d been a slayer.  Her grandfather no
longer ran the local chapter of Vampire-Killers Я Us.  He’d retired and the new leader had kicked Vivian out because of being dhampyr: half human, half vampire.  It hadn’t mattered that she hated vampires more than anyone and that she was a better slayer than any full-human—politics had prevailed.  That was all right with me; it gave me first dibs on her services.

Her boots were piled at the foot of the bed, on the floor.  She lay face down, where she’d fallen, offering me her profile.  Her skin was sun-bleached-bone white.  Her hair midnight black, braided into a scorpion’s tail.  Her full, luscious mouth was crimson with lipstick.   She had a long sword still strapped to her back, knives strapped to her thighs, and wore black leather gloves with spikes over the knuckles.   Those spikes were slightly fouled with someone else’s blood. 

She’d been out having fun during the invasion of the city.

I don’t know what it is about violent women that get me hard, but the fact that he was hotter than hell wasn’t helping.  I adjusted the crotch of my pants for comfort, still watching her face.  The one eye I could see opened to reveal an iris of black ice.  Even asleep, she’d sensed me, rousing enough to gauge the danger.

“No,” her eye closed, “you can’t have a blow job.”

“Like I was going to ask.”  I had been, actually.

“What do you want, Caine?  I’m tired.”

“That’s the thanks I get for hunting you down with a job offer.”

Her eye opened again, though nothing else moved.  “Job?  How much?”

Her mercenary greed was so attractive.  I said, “Really, you ought to be paying me for this privilege.”

“How much?” she repeated.

“Twenty-five thousand a hit.”

She was silent as the cogs of her brain spun faster.  She sat up, turning to face me on the bed, tucking her feet under her.  From this position, I had an excellent view of cleavage, and the throwing stars attached to the front of her leathers, on the slopes of her breasts.  “How many and what are they?”

“Vampires,” I said, “six of them, but you’ll have help fighting them from the woman who they’re targeting.”

“I only ever count on me.  And if these were ordinary vamps, they wouldn’t be worth so much.”

“They are a legendary group of warriors.  You might have heard of them; the Sparta Six.”

Her eyes bugged out a moment as her jaw dropped.  “Bat shit!  No joking?”

I smiled. “Quite a challenge, huh?  When the slayers hear you took out the vamp heavy-hitters, they’ll be sorry they turned on you.”  I figured rubbing a little salt in her wound, and offering a bit of revenge, might lock her into the deal.

“Six of them at twenty-five thousand a head is a hundred and fifty thousand dollars.  I’ll want half up front.”

“No way, you won’t be killing all of them, not with Gloria around.  I’ll give you the twenty-thousand for each one you actually kill, and if you die, I’ll throw in a free funeral.” 
I’ll put your body in a row boat, set it adrift, and fire flaming arrows into it.  I’ve always wanted to conduct a Viking funeral.

“Why is Gloria involved in killing her own kind?”

“The leader of the Spartans want to force her into being his bitch.  She doesn’t want to spread her legs on command.  They’ll be going after her to force the issue.  Even Gloria can use some help against that bunch.”

I could see the war in Vivian’s eyes.  Doing something to help a vamp had to rankle the ex-slayer’s soul.  But a paying job was a paying job.  Besides, Vivian’s mom had been the plaything of a vampire.  I didn’t think she could let another woman—even a vamp—suffer the same way.  Vivian growled low in resignation.  “Fine.  I’ll take the job, with fifty-thousand up front.”

“Fine.  You know where to start your stake out right?”

She smiled.  “’Stake out’ for vamps, that’s funny.  Yes, everyone in L.A. knows about the Velvet Door.  I’ll have some coffee and head right out.”

“Thanks.”  I stood there, lingering, imagining her body peeled out of the cat suit.

“Something else?”

“About that blow job…”

“Is sex all you think about?”

“Pretty much.”

Her smile turned nasty, cruel even.  “Whip it out, and I’ll cut it off.”

I felt my cock twitch in horror.  “Never mind.  I need to go next door and check in with

William.  I want to know what his wolves are doing to help out the city during this crisis.  Hear anything from Angie?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing.  I’ve been calling her and only getting voice mail,
and no texts back, she
always
texts me back.”

I made a stop in my walk-in closet and traded out the ammo in my PPKs for magazines with hallow-point silver ammo.  William was not a big fan of mine though he lived in my territory under my suffrage.  There was no evidence he’d sold me out, but his silence was ominous.  I left the closet and found Vivian sitting on the edge of the bed, her head bent forward as she pulled her boots on.

I walked past her, heading for the hallway.  She called out, stopping me at the door.  “Caine?”

I looked back.  “Yeah?”

“Be careful out there.  If you get yourself killed, I won’t forgive you.”

I gave her a grin. 
“It’ll piss me off, too.”

I went down the hall, into the living room, and crossed to the front door.  I saw no sign of Leona anywhere.  She was either sulking about everyone going off without her, or out killing things, blaming it on the enemy.  Spirit leopards have a cruel streak they never mind indulging.  I liked them for that.

I went out the door and crossed the lawn toward the next door property.   The house there wasn’t as nice as mine, but was big enough for a small pack of werewolves.  It still being early morning in this part of the time-space continuum, I expected to smell the presence of wolves more than men.  A low hanging moon was crescent.   That meant William’s pack had options.  On nights of the full moon, the moon decided in favor of four, not two feet.  

Unlike other shifters, the wolves’ condition was the product of a lunar curse, bound to its cycles.  It was also the source of the lethal allergy they had to silver.  Only William had escaped that weakness due to a brush with dark magic.  If it ever came to it, I intended to put him down
with dragon fire.

I kicked the door so William could hear me from anywhere in the house, but I addressed myself to the pack lawyer, “Angie
, we need to talk.”

I waited and heard nothing, but I could smell her faintly through the door.  The smell was too faint.  Something was muffling my senses, trying to push me away. 
Pack magic.
 

“I’m not going away until I talk to someone.”

I waited a minute, arms crossed across my chest.

Finally, William’s voice came through the closed door.  “What do you want, Caine?”

I could hear anger in his tone and a hint of fear.  He might not be able to die—thanks to his granddaughter once having resurrected him with a dangerous necromantic spell—but he knew I had no problem killing his wolves to hurt him.  It was the only reason he’d answered.

I kicked the door again.  “You know what the fuck I want.  Send her out.”

“I don’t think so, Caine.  You’ll want to drag her off into your little war.  I need her here to help train the young wolves so they can keep control.  I have to think of my pack first.”

I leaned in, almost touching the door knob.  An unseen wall stopped me short.   I pulled back, withdrawing my hand.   I understood.  An untrained wolf is a danger to his pack and to the public at large, but they couldn’t spare one warm body to help sniff out the enemy?  “You’re taking an awful lot on yourself,” I said.  “Let’s not forget you asked to stay here under my protection.  That means you stand with the city when problems come into town, hiding in here like a bunch of yellow bitches demeans wolves everywhere.”

Angie’s voice came through the door, “That’s what I told him.”

“Shut up,” William told her.  His voice was followed by the sound of a hand slapping a check.  I heard a body fall heavily.

I heard Sarah’s voice next.  “Granddad, leave her alone.  That’s just mean.”

“We’re in lockdown,” William bellowed, “freakin’ lockdown!  Doesn’t anybody know what that means?  No one moves a muscle until I say so.”

The door swung open.  Sarah had pushed past William to open it.  She looked up at me with pleading eyes.  “Can’t you just come back later when we can sit down and talk about all this?”

I stared past her, down a short foyer.  William stood over Angie.  She shuddered, trying to get up off the floor, but her muscles wouldn’t obey her. 

William gave her an order as her Alpha.  She needed his permission to do anything more than breathe.

William growled down at her.  “Mutt, you need to remember your place.  You may not like my methods, but I am protecting my people.  You are going to help me do that—and to keep Sarah safe.”

“Sarah’s not pack,” I said.  “She just lives with you.  How about letting her make up her own mind if she wants to fight for her city, or not?”

“No.”

I let my voice get as cold as my stare.  “You’re in my territory, telling me what you will and won’t do.  You should have asked me to let you off the hook.  I can’t tolerate direct defiance.”

William’s eyes swung toward me.  They were yellow coins of light.  His inner wolf was very close to bursting out of his skin and taking control.  His voice coarsened, “I will not her fight.  Her mother’s lost to me.  I won’t risk Sarah too.”

William stepped up to the door and pulled Sarah back.  He smelled of growing rage.   His body tensed, but he didn’t cross the doorway where the pack magic held me off.  I could see in his face he wasn’t going to change his mind.  He said, “Angie is my wolf and will stay with the pack.  And Sarah will stay here until thing quiet down.  Then if she wants to leave, she can.  I’ll at least know I didn’t let you get her killed.”

My phone was going off: text after text was causing it to vibrate in my pocket.  I’d already wasted too much time here.  William publicly turning his back on the city would make the courts angry.  Once it became known, I’d have to make an example of William so the city wouldn’t think the demons had gone soft.  

I held William’s wolf stare.  “You’re not worthy of Angie.  Next time we meet, I’m taking her away from you, even if I have to do it over your dead body.”

“You can try.”  He slammed the door in my face.

I’ll do more than try.