Ironic Sacrifice (20 page)

“I can’t believe they’re going to a strip club,” Akasha growled, slapping a wrench on her palm. “But what pisses me off more is that they didn’t tell us. I swear, if some skank gets all over my man…”

“We’ll take it up with them if we survive this,” Jayden said. Her eyes darted back and forth from the service doors to the grimy windows.

From the vision she received from touching Michael’s note, Jayden learned that Selena had organized the meeting with her head goon, Michael, as a distraction to get Silas and Razvan out of the city so Lionel could return to Resurrection Wrenches and take Akasha and Jayden.

They’d decided to keep that information from the men and go to the shop to offer themselves as bait. Akasha was eager to reap her revenge upon Max’s murderer.

Jayden was now unsure of the plan. So much could go wrong.

Before she could worry anymore, she sensed the vampire’s approach. Lionel’s thirst for their blood and his lust to strike terror in their hearts rivaled his fervent desire to please his mistress.

He was close.

Too close for them to get away.

“He’s coming!” Jayden cried. Her heart hammered in fear.

They were all alone. Silas and Razvan couldn’t protect them.

“How long?” Akasha was all business, her voice cold and eager.

“Any minute,” Jayden said.

A cylindrical object was thrust into her hand. She looked at her friend questioningly.

“Take this and get onto the alignment rack.” Akasha commanded. “When I say go, turn the knob.”

Jayden got on the rack and crouched as Akasha headed to the lifting lever, still blinking at the odd tool she held. “What is this thing?”

The mechanic explained. “It’s an oxyacetylene torch. If he gets too close, blast him in the face with it.”

She showed her how to work it, blasting blue flame.

“What about you?” Jayden wasn’t sure if she liked where this was going.

Apparently she was to be the bait.

Akasha’s smile was terrifying to behold. Her eyes were twin lavender pyres of hatred. “Oh, I can’t wait to take him down.”

Akasha pulled the hydraulic lever and pressed the lift button. As the rack shuddered and rose, Jayden wobbled for a second and caught her balance. The lift shuddered to a stop at about eight feet in the air.

“What if he can fly?” Her voice quivered with growing terror.

“Then we’ll have to be faster,” Akasha replied, unconcerned.

The door slammed open so hard that Jayden nearly dropped the torch. The bell crashed to the floor with a demented clang.

The lanky vampire who’d murdered Max came into view. “Turn over the Seeress, General, and I’ll leave you unharmed.”

“Fuck off and die, prick,” Akasha hissed and flicked her cigarette into his face.

The burning ember struck him on the cheek. Lionel howled in enraged agony before charging.

The tiny mechanic was ready and caught him with an uppercut that sent him flying backwards. His ankles caught the lift arm behind him and he was knocked to the ground. Lionel’s head struck the concrete floor. For a second he lay stunned.

Jayden blinked and saw that the vampire had regained his footing. He struck Akasha’s face with a swift backhand.

“Go!” she shouted as she flew through the air and slammed against a car.

The vampire moved too fast for Jayden to see. Frantically, she turned the knob and gasped as the torch came to life with blue flame. The moment Lionel came into range, she scorched him in the face.

He screamed and darted back and forth below her perch. Jayden swung the torch in a frantic arc, trying to catch him with the flames.

Akasha threw a jack stand at his back and he crumpled… for a second.

“You and I have unfinished business,” she said. “So ignore the damsel and fight like a man… unless you’re too much of a pussy.”

“I’ll kill you slow, bitch.” Lionel hissed, and leapt at her.

The vampire was fast, but Akasha nearly kept up with him in a blur of inhuman speed, punching kicking, ducking…

Jayden winced at every blow Akasha took, and gasped every time she retaliated. Though the fight seemed to go on for ages, Jayden knew only seconds passed.

Akasha thrust her torque wrench through his chest and through the cinderblock wall. Lionel’s shriek shattered glass and popped Jayden’s eardrums.

“I told you, you’d pay,” Akasha told him as his breath slowed to thirty-second pants.

The vampire writhed against the wall, struggling to pull the wrench from his chest.

He whimpered in agony for what felt like hours, though Jayden’s glance at the clock confirmed that the dying throes only lasted about five minutes.

At last Lionel’s muddy eyes stared at nothing and his body slumped against the wall. The hand gripping the torque wrench handle slid off to dangle alongside the dead form.

“Should I get down?” Jayden asked, turning off the torch.

“No, I’m not done yet.” The doll-like girl got into a car and drove it into the wall, squishing the body into the concrete.

She picked lit another cigarette and rummaged through her toolbox until she pulled out a hacksaw.

The torch fell from Jayden’s hand through bloodless fingers as she realized Akasha’s intention.

“This is for Max, you asshole.” Akasha put the saw against Lionel’s neck and began to cut.

Jayden turned away with a gag.

In minutes the crunching and sawing noises ended. She chanced a glance.

Akasha carried the vampire’s severed head to her cylinder head straightening oven. A trail of blood splattered the concrete with every step.

“I think two hours at four seventy five should do,” Akasha said. “At least I hope so, since that’s as hot as that bitch gets.”

That was enough for Jayden. She leaned over the lift and puked all over the floor.

When Jayden was reduced to dry heaves, Akasha lowered the alignment rack back to the ground.

“Don’t worry about the mess, Jayden. I got a pressure washer.” Akasha told her before running to the bathroom and throwing up as well.

The smell of burning hair and baking flesh permeated the shop.

Jayden stepped off the lift with rubbery legs. Willing herself not to look at the corpse, she headed over to turn off the “Open” sign.

Akasha emerged from the bathroom, lighting another cigarette. “Good call. I should have done that sooner. I can’t even imagine what would have happened if a customer walked in.”

“Thanks,” Jayden said, voice still shaking from the unreality of it all.

“Does that new phone Razvan bought for you have a camera?” The mechanic asked as she headed over to the industrial size sink to wash the blood from her hands.

Jayden nodded carefully. Her head still spun. “I think so.”

Akasha giggled. “Excellent. Then I’ve got something to send to Selena.”

Jayden’s gasp seemed to echo off the cinderblock walls. “You have her number?”

“Yup,” Akasha replied, grinning like a lunatic. “I got it from Razvan’s phone when I was getting the trash can for you. He leaves that thing lying around all the time. I’m surprised he hasn’t lost it yet.”

Jayden handed over her phone and watched in morbid fascination as Akasha snapped pictures of the headless corpse of the vampire impaled against the shop wall.

“This will show you, you psycho bitch,” Akasha muttered as she uploaded the picture and pressed the send button.

Just then, the bells on the front door jangled.

“Fuck! I forgot to lock the door! Still, can’t the dumbass read?” Akasha said, “Stall em, Jayden so I can cover up the body.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Razvan’s form darkened the doorway. He didn’t sound happy.

Selena’s brows rose at the unrecognized address on her phone. Who would send her a picture at this hour?

She almost deleted it but then a sudden thought made a thrill rush through her breast.

Perhaps Lionel had confiscated Akasha’s phone and used it to photograph her dead body.

She licked her lips and pushed the button to open the file.

At first the image was just a jumble of shapes and colors that made no sense. But then she blinked and the details became apparent.

A headless corpse was impaled on a cinderblock wall with a metal tool. Its legs were pinned by a smashed car. Blood soaked the clothing, making the body unrecognizable…until she noticed the ruby on the pinky finger of one dangling hand. She had given it to Lionel when he became her apostle.

A shriek built up in her throat, escaping at the same moment she tore another hank of hair from her bleeding scalp. Footsteps sounded on the stairs, but she hardly noticed.

Selena continued to scream. Her lips trembled as she struggled to form coherent words to justify her fury.

The door flung open and her faithful followers filled the room.

“What is it, my lord?” Their voices formed a perfect echo.

A few looked away when she met their gazes and her eyes burned at the sight. Yet more were thinking of betraying her.

“Lionel is dead.” She shifted her gaze over all of them.

She allowed them to murmur comforting words to her, whether genuine or feigned she was past caring.

When her flock grew carried away with their condolences and questions Selena rounded on the vampires.

“Which one of you told them? Which one of you is a traitor?”

Every single one of her followers shrank away and cowered in abject submission. The sight usually pleased her, but tonight she was implacable. One of them had betrayed her. Perhaps more than one… she paced back and forth in front of the vampires like a caged animal. She struggled to read their minds, but their thoughts were an endless cacophony, each one drowning out the other.

Were her powers weakening? Or were
they
doing it on purpose?

Selena tugged a lock of hair, welcoming the surge of pain as she looked at the terrified faces of her order. She stopped with a frown. A few were missing.

“Where are Adam and Collette?”

The answering silence was like pressure on her skull. They looked back and forth at each other and then to her as if they were characters in a comical play. Selena scrutinized each of them, bile rising in her throat at she noted that terror seemed to outweigh devotion in their expressions.

Though perhaps fear could be more useful.

She seized a vampire who appeared to be on the verge of wetting himself, he was trembling so much. Was his name Jeffery or Justin? Her hand reached up for her hair, then fell back at her side. His name didn’t matter. Getting information and setting an example was what was important.

“Where are they?” She grabbed him by the hair and threw him on down on his stomach.

The sound of his breath being knocked out of his body gave her a tingling satisfaction.

“I-Aaaargh!” Jeffery/Justin wailed as she yanked his head back and stomped on his spine. It crunched like pieces of dried wood beneath her feet.

Selena breathed in his pain as if it were an elixir. It felt so good, but she would have to stop before she was unable to glean any information from him.

She removed her foot and knelt beside him to whisper in his ear. “Where are Adam and Colette?”

His eyes glazed over as if he were delirious with fever. “R-ran…a-away…,” he whispered before he lost consciousness.

“Mephistopheles damn them!” she roared before turning back to the others. “Find a doctor! The Lord of Coeur d’Alene has one, why don’t I?”

Her audience froze.

“Does anyone here have any medical experience?” Selena’s eyes searched the terrified faces of her subjects.

If anyone lied, they would get more than a few broken bones. She reached up and gave a lock of her hair a satisfying tug.

A young female raised her hand. “I was a nurse in my mortal days,” Jessica said with a quavering voice.

After a moment, Selena remembered her name. “Very well, Jessica. Tend him.”

As the female and a male carried Jeffrey or Justin off, a voice called from the doorway. “What has happened, my lord?”

Selena’s heart leapt at Michael’s beloved form and she ran into the welcoming circle of his arms.

“Michael, oh, Michael,” she murmured, stroking his hair. “They killed Lionel!”

He growled at the news and a thrill ran through her as the sound reverberated against her ear. “Impossible! They couldn’t have gotten back in time.”

With a shaking hand she pulled her phone from her pocket and showed him the image of the apostle’s corpse. Michael’s eyes narrowed as he dialed the number from which the picture came from. Selena felt a wave of fury and self-loathing that she had not thought of it.

A tinny, unmistakable feminine voice came on. “Hello?”

“To whom am I speaking?” Michael demanded.

Frantic whispering could be heard over the phone before another woman came on the line. “Hello, Michael. Did you and Selena enjoy the picture? I think your turn is next.”

Michael hissed. “Oh, no, Akasha. It is your death that will be soon, and it will be slow.”

The low laughter was like shards of glass. “Funny, Lionel said the same thing shortly before I staked his ass. Broke my good torque wrench, but it was worth it.”

Selena couldn’t hold back a shriek of outrage. “How dare you! You mutant abomination!”

“Oh hi, Selena.” Akasha’s dripped venom. “Fuck off and die, you crazy bitch.”

The phone went silent.

Silas’s pet mutant had killed her dear apostle. She should have known.

That little monster was more than capable of such an atrocity. She turned back to Michael.

“Find them,” she hissed, quivering in rage.

The apostle flinched. “But if Silas or Razvan catches me, they will kill me. Please, my lord, you’ve lost Lionel, do you want to lose us both?”

“Do you dare question my orders?” Selena flexed hands that were eager to tear flesh and draw blood.

He shook his head fervently. “No, my lord, I merely—”

“Surely you can handle two mortal females?” she said silkily, toying with the lapel of his jacket.

“Akasha isn’t your typical mortal,” Michael protested.

Selena backhanded him, sending him crashing into the mass of vampires, still on their knees. She blinked at them in surprise, having forgotten about them completely.

“I will tolerate no more of your insolence, Michael!” she screamed. “Now get out of here and don’t return without the freak, Akasha, or the Seeress!” She paused and adjusted her skirt. “You can bring me Akasha’s dead body if you so desire, but I need the Seeress alive! Do you understand?”

Michael sat up and wiped the blood from his lip. “Yes, my lord.”

After he bowed and left the room, Selena turned to regard the rest of her followers. They were cringing on the floor trying to make themselves look as small as possible. Pathetic.

“What are you looking at?” she demanded. “Get out, all of you! In the name of Mephistopheles, give me some peace!”

When at last she was alone, Selena collapsed on her knees and seized her hair. “Oh Mephistopheles, creator of us all, please help me regain control!”

Control of what, precisely?
A little voice in her head asked.
Over her people or herself?
She didn’t know. Selena gasped as another lock of hair tore free.

***

For the longest time, Razvan stood before Lionel’s body, his hands clasped behind his back as if he were viewing an art exhibit.

“Very good work, Akasha.” He seemed to mean it, though there was something off in his tone.

“Hey,” Jayden protested. “I helped too.”

He turned to her, and his smile dimmed. For a moment she thought she said something wrong.

Then he put his arm around her and pulled her close. “I am so sorry I wasn’t here to protect you, Jayden. Were you frightened?”

The feel of his touch and the gentle comfort was almost enough to undo the horror of the past hour. Jayden leaned into him, eager to express her gratitude but before she could reply, the door banged open.

Silas burst into the shop. “Akasha, are you alright?”

Akasha launched herself into her husband’s arms just as he saw Lionel’s headless body pinned against the wall.

Silas managed a weak laugh. “I should have known you could handle things on your own. Still, I wish we had been here.” His expression sobered. “The guards are dead.”

Razvan interrupted. “Dear God, what is that smell?”

Silas frowned and wrinkled his nose. The odor of burning flesh and hair was getting stronger.

Akasha smiled. “I put the head in my cylinder head straightening oven. Gotta make sure he stays dead.”

Her husband smiled and shook his head. “That was likely more than necessary, but very creative all the same.” His eyes turned more serious. “Were you hurt?”

“No,” she replied. “I had it all planned out.” Her eyes widened and her mouth snapped shut.

Jayden met Akasha’s apologetic gaze and cringed, but it was too late. The truth was out.

Silas froze and his head swiveled on his shoulders to look at Jayden.

Razvan gripped her arm and pulled her around to face him. “Oh, really?” he said silkily. His gaze wasn’t so soft and kind anymore.

Akasha’s husband stalked toward Jayden, his eyes beginning to glow green fire. “I presume you were responsible for the foreknowledge of Lionel’s attack?”

Jayden swallowed and nodded. Her stomach seemed to be sinking into her feet. She was surrounded by two angry vampires. This was bad.

Razvan seized her shoulders, his eyes gleaming like molten obsidian. “Why didn’t you tell us? What in the name of heaven were you thinking to put yourself in such danger?”

Akasha stomped forward. “If we’d told you, Lionel would have been called off and I wouldn’t have had my shot at him!”

Both vampires rounded on her. “You risked yourself and Jayden for revenge?” Silas said incredulously. “Dear God, woman, what possessed you to do such a foolish thing?”

“It was my idea!” Jayden blurted and cringed as the censure was back on her.

“I am not so certain I believe that,” Razvan said with a raised brow.

His skeptical tone infuriated her. He’d been practically ignoring her for the last few months and he thought he knew her?

“Why are you so surprised?” she asked. “Did you think I was some weak damsel that would be content to wait for Prince Charming’s rescue?” She couldn’t keep the sarcasm from her voice any more than she could hold back the bitterness in her heart as she realized that was exactly how she’d been acting since she met him.

Razvan sighed. “Actually, I did,” he said quietly.

Before she could attempt to decipher his tone, Akasha leapt back into the fray.

“What about you two?” she demanded. “Why didn’t you think to tell us that you would be off getting lap dances from skanky whores during your meeting with the enemy?”

Silas stepped back and held up his hands. “Now, lass, we did not…”

Jayden didn’t hear the rest of his protest. She was looking at Razvan’s face, which had colored bright red. He was hiding something. In a flash, she seized his hand and speared his mind before he could throw up a mental shield.

She saw an incredibly beautiful dancer swaying hypnotically, she heard the thumping music. Then she saw Razvan’s hand reach out to caress the woman’s breast.

“No!” she gasped, thrown from the vision. “How c-could you,” she choked, feeling like she swallowed a stone. The smell of baking flesh was suddenly overpowering and she fought not to gag.

“Jayden, I—” he began.

“Don’t bother lying to me. I saw you!” She swallowed burning tears. “I-I saw you touching her.”

The pain and humiliation threatened to drop her where she stood. What was worse was that she had no real justification for it. Razvan hadn’t made any commitment to her. But it still felt like she’d been stabbed through the chest.

Before Akasha or Silas could say anything to further her mortification, Jayden fled the shop, thanking the fates above that she had taken her car.

***

Razvan moved to go after Jayden but Akasha blocked him.

“What the fuck did you do?” she demanded, voice trembling with suppressed fury.

He sighed. “It wasn’t what she thought.”

Silas nodded. “I have a guess on what Jayden saw,” he explained to Akasha. “Michael was using the dancer as a shield. Razvan touched her, but only to trick her into thinking that Michael was the culprit so that he would be thrown out and we could deal with him.”

“Ah,” Akasha said, satisfied with the explanation. “And did you deal with him?”