Eternal Ever After (13 page)

My apartment was in shambles, with books, compact discs, and DVDs strewn about. Elf and fairy figurines that had lined the shadow box on the living room wall were smashed to bits. Plates from my kitchen cabinets were shattered in pieces scattered across the floor.

Walking through the kitchen, my shoes crunched the remains of dishes into the cheap linoleum. I inspected the damage while clutching the pepper spray. Looking back into the living room where I had just come from, I noticed for the first time the bold red lettering scrawled across the wall. The three-letter word sickened me: DIE.

Suddenly, I heard a scraping sound and turned on my heel. Mystic was using the molding around the pantry door as a scratching post. My shoulders slumped in momentary relief, until I heard the distinct creaky sound of the hinges on my front door.

“Hello,” I called out. Only the resounding silence answered me. Holding my breath, I rounded the corner.

“Holly?”

“Arie,” I said, lowering the pepper spray. “You scared me half to death.”

“Are you okay? What happened?”

“I’m fine. My apartment has been broken into again. I’m just glad I wasn’t home when it happened.”

His penetrating eyes scrutinized the scene and the threatening message on the wall. He stepped forward, brushing a stray strand of hair framing my face behind my ear. His gentleness made me want to step into his arms. I relaxed slightly.

“Has anything been taken?” I heard rawness in his voice.

I looked around the apartment, as if seeing it for the first time. I bit my lip before regarding Arie. “I don’t see anything missing. Not that I have anything really worth taking. Except my laptop, which is still here. I think the threat on the wall pretty much says it all. Don’t you think?”

“I don’t like this.” He gestured to the ugly three-letter word on the wall.

“Yeah, you and me both.”

Arie regarded the threat with renewed interest. It felt reassuring to have him there, even though his presence always made my stomach do flip-flops. But right now my stomach was doing flip-flops for an entirely different reason.

“I should call the police,” I said.

“Call. Don’t call. It doesn’t really matter. If nothing has been taken, there’s not much they can do other than take a report in the event something more serious happens. You said you don’t have anything of value, and unless you have insurance to cover the damages there’s no need to have them take a report,” Arie said, pragmatic as ever. “Besides, we know the cause of this.”

Taking in the depressing chaos of my apartment, I let out a heavy sigh. “I have to clean this up and get some paint at the hardware store to cover that up.” I pointed to the word DIE spray-painted in red on my wall.

Abruptly, Arie did his time-bending trick and whizzed around the room, cleaning up the mess in moments instead of what would have taken me hours.

“Thanks. You didn’t have to do that.”

Arie shrugged. “It was either that or wait for you to do it. I need some information. We should go to the club. This is not a childish prank.”

“But I have to paint.”

“Leave it.”

“Why am I going with you?”

“You’re safer with me than staying here.”

I couldn’t argue with his logic. I grabbed my brown suede coat, feeling very underdressed for where we were going.

CHAPTER 8

We were going to the Hellfire Club to see Tessa. I couldn’t block out the sick feeling in my stomach. I looked over at Arie as we walked to his black Venom GT.
It’s disgusting how unfazed he is. Does anything ever bother him?
Arie tossed me the keys.

“You drive.”

“If you’re trying to get my mind off my apartment getting trashed by letting me drive it’s working, at least a little,” I said with a grin.

The engine purred to life like a stunning cheetah, which could almost rival the Venom in exotic speed. I couldn’t deny that driving her gave me a rush unlike any I’d felt from driving. I couldn’t believe I passed up the chance when he offered before.

Arie pulled a cell phone from his pocket and dialed a number. “Is Tessa at the club? Tell her I’m on the way there now.” There was a pause and someone answered, but I couldn’t hear their response. “It’s urgent that I speak with her. Be sure to relay my message.” I’m not sure if he waited to hear an answer before he hung up. But then people tended to do what Arie told them to.

We careened through rush hour traffic until we reached the South Side neighborhood. I snaked through side streets until we came to the entrance of the underground garage at the Hellfire Club. I drove through the deserted arcade and pulled the Venom into an empty space. The club had not yet opened.

Just keep cool. Keep it together.

We walked through the double swinging doors made with art glass to the lobby and I could see Victoria’s petite figure seated behind an ornate table. She looked up from the laptop in front of her. A bohemian silk tunic dress clung to her willowy frame. It seemed to suit her better than the Cigarette Girl outfit, which I assumed to be a uniform of sorts. She nodded at Arie as we approached.

Arie stopped at the table only briefly. “Victoria, we’re here to see Tessa. She’s expecting us.”

She gestured toward the stairs and returned her attention to her laptop.

I followed Arie across the black marble floor of the club to the elevators. When we reached the third floor, Arie walked past the door that led to her office and stopped instead a few paces down the hall in front of a large steel door. I looked at the door, unsure whether I wanted to see what stood on the other side.

“Why aren’t we meeting Tessa in her office?”

“When I called they said she had a meeting prior to ours in here. Depending on the nature of the meeting sometimes she prefers a more intimidating environment.”

Arie opened the heavy door without hesitation, to a room that left me staring in stunned disbelief. The volume ceiling had steel-beam rafters where several pairs of chains hung. Suspended from each chain were heavy steel cuffs. Both walls to the right and left were mirrored.

Oh God, anyone dangling from above gets to see exactly how they’re being tortured.

On the far wall at the front of the room were all manner of weapons mounted—including a bastard sword, battle-axe, mace, katar, swallow, scythe, and halberd. I’m an avid reader and had read enough epic fantasy to have some clue as to what these weapons were. The only one I wasn’t sure of was a club-like weapon that looked like a mace. It had a round head with a long spike protruding from the one end and several smaller spikes surrounding it.

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

In front of the vast weaponry stood a Judas chair with countless sharp spikes that covered the back, arm-rests, seat, leg-rests, and foot-rests. As I moved closer the metallic smell of old blood drifted through air thick with tension. Or maybe my tension resonated through the room.

Tessa stood smiling in front of the wall of weapons, motioning for us to approach. She had stopped speaking to the Hispanic man who stood beside her. He had a tattoo on his upper arm of a Playboy bunny with the right ear bent and alphanumeric font beneath it that read G264.

He strode past us, exiting the room and aiming a polite nod at Tessa on his way out.
I should not be here.
I couldn’t deny the implications of the precarious situation, and tried to steady my breathing.

-
Do you like my interrogation room? It’s sound proof, unlike my office.-

The telepathic message Tessa projected to me left me with the sensation of my heart plunging to meet my stomach. Tessa looked incongruent in the medieval questioning room in a Louis Vuitton seventies-inspired midi-dress. It made her appear more threatening than if she had been wearing her gauntlets.

“I have a dungeon meant for pleasure and pain. This is meant only for pain,” she said aloud, gesturing to the surrounding space. “You caught me in the middle of a meeting.”

The dangling chains clanked together from my slight movement as fear stopped me dead center beneath them. For the first time I noticed a small square table next to the Judas chair. On top of the table were various knives and instruments. I had no idea what they were. The only one I could identify looked like a scalpel.

“Arie, I’m glad you called. I have some important developments to share with you,” Tessa said.

“As do I. Her apartment has been broken into again, and I have a feeling I know who’s behind it whether you agree with me or not.”

I had forgotten Arie the moment we set foot in the interrogation room. I felt grateful for his presence now. Somehow it made me feel safer.

“Then shall we proceed to my office? My meeting ran over. You may bring your pet,” Tessa said.

Every fiber of my being screamed for me to run from this Medieval nightmare. The pepper spray in my army satchel would do me little good. Tessa acknowledged a soft knock at the door. Victoria entered the interrogation chamber, her silk dress billowing around her thin frame. “Mistress, phone for you,” she announced.

“I’ll take it in my apartment in just a moment. I have business to discuss with Arie. Could you meet me in my office in ten?” she asked.

He nodded.

Tessa left in a blur. I followed Arie to her office, glad to be leaving the place where I’m sure countless people who had crossed Tessa had been tortured.

***

Arie and I waited for Tessa in her lavish office. We didn’t have to wait long. She entered swiftly, her wedge heels squeaking on the floor. Sitting in the damask wing chair at the desk, she eyed the plate on its opulent surface. The plate contained red raspberries, purple grapes, and plums. She popped a raspberry in her mouth, taking a sip of water before acknowledging Arie.

“The man I met with in my interrogation room is the leader of Gangsta Two Six Four. He came here to report that some prostitutes have been found drained of their blood.”

“Despite the decrees these infractions are tolerated as long as it doesn’t affect our exposure. And I assume with G264 on our payroll that it will be covered up. You are offering a payoff as compensation, I presume?” Arie asked.

I fidgeted with my locket as I listened to them talk.

“Unfortunately, whoever is behind this is an equal opportunist. A young girl went missing and he found blood near her home. The girl was his niece. When he found her body it had been drained and dumped a few blocks from where he found the blood. The police are not involved because he suspects the same one who drained the prostitutes is responsible. Our business dealings are far more important than seeking retribution. He expects us to handle it in-house. I will make sure the family receives generous compensation for their loss.”

“Of course, I assume that with G246 involvement, this has already escalated to the Legacy.”

“I had no choice, and Arie… I believe this implicates a certain vampire. We both know that she has a taste for young girls. I would not think it’s possible but since you told me of the presence, I put a call in to François. And I think we both know its source. He returned my call just now.”

“And?”

“Anna and Katalin passed through his Court a few months ago. Anna let it slip that she had been staying with them. She’s looking for you. You had to suspect someone was protecting her. You know her history with the sisters and her loyalty to them.”

Arie sighed in defeat. I tried to piece together what they were saying as I listened.

“Despite my efforts to protect her there is nothing I can do to save her this time,” he said, in a voice that sounded strained. “Society has changed. It’s lucky that she hasn’t killed downtown or in the suburbs where major crimes make the five o’clock news. If it has to end I should be the one to end it.”

“I will give you that. But it must be taken care of quickly.”

“I understand.”

Arie stood and I gave Tessa a curt nod as I followed him out.

“I didn’t understand half of that,” I said as we walked through the parking garage. Arie grabbed my arm. He closed his eyes and looked deep in concentration. “What are you doing?”

Arie released me and continued the brisk pace to his car. “Scanning for Katarina’s aura, but all I hear are the voices of humans hurrying home from work.” He stopped walking and turned to me. It looked like he struggled with some decision. “Come with me. I’ll drive you home. I want you to pack anything you might need and as many clothes as you can.”

“Where are you taking me? And who is Katarina?”

“It’s not safe at your apartment. She can get to you there.”

“Who? Who am I running from?”

Arie paused. “Katarina is very old and very strong. It is
my
fault that she is here. She’s the one killing prostitutes, and I suspect she’s responsible for breaking in to your apartment. You heard Tessa. She came looking for me but found you instead. Whether she was attracted to your aura first, or I was and then she tracked you through me, is irrelevant. What’s important is that I keep you safe until all this is over.”

“Twice. She broke into my apartment twice. I don’t know how I’ll feel safe there.”I thought about questioning him further and bit my lip. I wanted to know what her connection was to Arie. But now didn’t seem the best time to press the issue.

“When will it be safe to go home?”

“I’m sorry for this. As long it takes until the threat has been eliminated.”

“Listen, wherever you’re taking me, we have to take my cat. I can’t leave him if I’m going to be gone for more than one night.” I didn’t want to think about what Arie meant by eliminated.

“That won’t be an issue.”

Within minutes we pulled up in front of my darkened apartment. I stepped out of the car and walked to the front door, glancing over my shoulder at Arie who waited for me to unlock it. I flipped on a light and grabbed a large blue duffle bag from the hall closet, ignoring the threat still on the wall.

I headed to my bedroom. Several minutes passed, and I startled when Arie stood in the doorway to my bedroom. I didn’t even hear him behind me as I rifled through a massive pile of clothing I’d dumped on my bed.