Kissed by Darkness (7 page)

The hall emptied into a living room that was, if possible, even more jammed with stuff than the hall had been. I was only slightly startled to see a pair of golden cat eyes glaring at me from under a mound of multicolored pillows. I hadn’t known cats liked to burrow. Apparently this one did. It closed its eyes in a haughty manner and went back to sleep. Obviously, I was beneath its notice.

Cordelia waved me to the couch half lost under pillows, throws and books. I shoved a few things aside. The cat eyes opened and glared at me some more, before drifting closed again. I noticed there were already two cups and a teapot steaming away on the coffee table.

I raised an eyebrow. “Expecting someone?”

She laughed, that bright music spilling its way up and down the scales. “Of course. You.”

“You said it was a pleasant surprise.”

“Well, of course I did. And it was. Until about ten minutes ago.”

Ten minutes. Just about the time I decided to go see her. I’d heard of the talent, but it was rare. “So that’s how your gift works. You can’t actually
see
anything until somebody makes a decision that sets them on a particular course. Then you can see the outcome of
that
decision.” If she was really talented, she might be able to see possible outcomes of other decisions, as well, but her gift was rare enough as it was.

She flashed me a brilliant smile. “Yes exactly!” I forced a smile back. I was used to Inigo’s gift, of course, but this was a whole new ball of wax for me. “The minute you made the decision to visit me, I knew it was time to put the kettle on. You’re worried about the Sunwalker.” It was a statement, not a question.

I blinked at the abrupt change of subject. Creepy how she did that, read my mind or whatever it was she did. “Well,” I hesitated, “not about him so much as how to find him. I’m not really sure what I should be doing. I feel like I should be doing
something
, but I just can’t come up with anything clever. I think I’m a little lost.” That was the understatement of the century.

She poured a cup of tea and dropped in two lumps of raw sugar and a splash of milk, just as I liked it. She handed it to me and poured another for herself. “You seem quite capable to me.”

I laughed wryly. “Well, sure. I mean, vampires are pretty straightforward, you know. They’ve got patterns. They’re not exactly subtle.”

“So you follow the pattern to find the vampire you’re hunting,” she said with a nod, sending a swath of dark hair tumbling out of its binding and swishing around her face. “Like reading animal tracks in the wild.”

“Exactly, then you stake it, take its head if it doesn’t dust right away, and you move on to the next one. Easy.” It seemed so weird to be chatting about killing monsters while sitting in her bright, cheery living room with Igor the Cat glaring at me. Seriously, he was creeping me out.

“She.”

I blinked again. “Excuse me?” I was starting to think she really was a mind reader.

Cordelia smiled gently at me. “The cat is a she. And her name is Bastet.”

Of course. Who else to name a cat after but the Egyptian goddess of war? Granted, Cordelia had struck me as more the pacifist type, but then I supposed it had more to do with Bast being a goddess in cat form than anything else. And, heck, it was no weirder than Cordelia reading my mind. “OK. Bastet. She is creeping me out.”

“She likes you.” Cordelia’s smile was warm. “I knew she would. She’s very particular, but she always knows a good person when she meets one. She especially likes your kind.”

I could only assume that by ‘my kind’ she meant hunters. I couldn’t imagine she met many of us, but you never knew. “Uh, yeah, right.” I could so totally tell. You know, what with the evil cat eye and the glaring and all. She’d pretty much done everything but hiss at me. “So about the Sunwalker?”

“Relax.” Cordelia waved her left hand around, coming dangerously close to dislodging a stack of tarot cards from their precarious perch on the desk behind her chair. “Everything is in motion. You’ll meet soon enough, when the time is right. Now enjoy your tea and tell me all about vampire hunting. It’s so fascinating.”

***

I met Kabita in front of Central Library as planned.

“You bring extra salt?”

I nodded. I was armed to the teeth with holy water, salt and a machete. Contrary to popular myth, holy water didn’t do a thing to vampires. It did, however, cause Zagan demons some serious grief. It was more or less the equivalent of pouring sulfuric acid on human skin. It was nasty, but effective.

Kabita had her thick black hair pulled back in a ponytail tight enough that not a single curl dared escape. She was in her demon hunting uniform of black cargo pants, a black long sleeve tee, and black steel toe boots. She was nothing if not eminently practical.

“The nest is down there,” Kabita whispered, nodding toward the alleyway that ran behind the library. “You stand guard while I cast the circle.”

“Got it.”

The alley was weakly lit by a streetlight half a block away and littered with empty boxes and sacks of garbage. The tang of old urine stung my nose and sent my gag reflexes into overdrive. I struggled to ignore the stench as I scanned the shadows for anything that moved. Nothing did, not even a rat. Smart rats.

The nest was tucked away at the back of the alley. The old cardboard box looked like any other makeshift shelter the homeless erected around the city. Only this box housed something a little less harmless than an old man needing a bath and a run of good luck.

While I stood by with machete and holy water at the ready, Kabita cast a circle with the salt. She was better at spell casting than me. My vampiric abilities wreaked havoc with the magic, but she was a natural born witch.

“Salam kepada penjaga,” she whispered as she walked the circle around the nest mumbling a few words under her breath. It sounded like Hindi or something, but then I wasn’t very good with Asian languages and she was multilingual, so it could have been just about anything.

The minute Kabita finished casting the circle, the young Zagans felt the spell hit and spilled out of the nest, snarling for all they were worth. They were so young they weren’t even secreting slime yet, though they were fortunately old enough that the adult demon that spawned them had already left them to their own devices. If mama had still been around, we’d have been in serious trouble.

A single swipe and Kabita took the heads off two, while I went after a third. Machetes worked wonders on young Zagan demons, their slimy hides not having completely hardened yet. I felt the blade as it slid into the soft tissue behind the skull, then scraped through spine, parting it like a knife through hot butter. Its head popped off and rolled across the alley.

We were done in less than ten minutes and I didn’t even get spattered. I pulled out my bottle of holy water, sprinkled some on the bodies and watched them melt. In seconds there was nothing left but smoking stains among the multitude of other stains on the grimy cement.

“Well.” Kabita smiled, wiping demon goo off her machete. “That was a good night’s work. Creepy little things.”

I wrinkled my nose at the foul stench from what little was left of the Zagans. “Yeah, I definitely prefer vampires. Not nearly as messy.”

“Just be thankful they weren’t spitting slime all over the place. That stuff stings when it hits skin. You want a ride home?” She waved at her pride and joy, a vintage 1941 Harley Davidson.

I shuddered. I was not a big fan of motorcycles. Plus she drove like a bat out of hell. “Thanks, but I think I’ll walk.”

She shrugged. “Sure. Be sure to drop by the office tomorrow morning. We need to send Darroch an update on your Sunwalker adventures.”

“Yeah, sure thing.” Right, my non-existent Sunwalker adventures. Oh, the joy.

The moon was bright, nearly full, and the night air had just an edge of crispness to it. I loved walking at night. Sometimes in the dark and quiet it felt like I was the only one left in the whole world.

I turned down 10th, which was a little darker than the main street. A high, stone wall ran along the sidewalk. I could smell the roses and honeysuckle in the garden behind the wall. I stopped for a minute, just to breathe in the heady scent and let the night seep into my soul.

That’s when it happened.

He came out of nowhere, slamming me up against the wall with enough force to rattle my teeth. I didn’t even feel him coming. I was not exactly a lightweight, yet he picked me up like I was no more than a child. I went for my stiletto, but he snagged my wrist in a vise-like grip. Oh, damn, but I was in trouble.

Chapter Six

He leaned forward, slowly. His eyes were aquamarine, like the Pacific Ocean on a hot summer afternoon. Little gold lights flickered in their depths, dancing like dust motes in the sun. For half a second, I forgot I was in mortal danger. His eyes were that mesmerizing. His scent, a heady mix of spice and sun and man, swirled around me, sending my already overactive libido into overdrive.

My heart beat hard in my chest, my blood hot and thick. Desire pooled low in my belly. All I wanted to do was breathe in his scent, wrap myself up in it until I drowned.

I swallowed hard and tried to distract myself by staring at his mouth. Bad move. He had the most delicious mouth I’d ever seen: full lips, soft as velvet, absolutely perfect for all sorts of naughty things. I gave myself a mental head slap. Obsessing over the enemy’s mouth was so not a good idea.

Then he leaned even closer. Shit. He was going for my throat and I couldn’t even move. Didn’t want to move. Vampires weren’t supposed to posses that kind of power. Vampiric mind control was another myth Hollywood drummed up. Vamps didn’t need mind control to subdue their victims. The only power they needed was strength and speed. They just grabbed and bit.

But he didn’t bite. Instead, his breath caressed my ear, my neck. Was he? He was! He was
sniffing
me. Then I felt his lips move gently back and forth over my skin, just above my carotid artery. Heck, he was
tasting
me, for crying out loud. Those lips of his were made for sin and they were most definitely doing really sinful things against my throat. My legs went a little rubbery and I actually had to grab on to his rather impressive biceps in order not to end up on my ass.

This was ridiculous. Badass vampire hunters did not go all gooey over a vampire no matter how sexy he was, which was a weird concept since vampires were, by nature, not at all sexy.

When he spoke, his voice was melted chocolate with the faintest hint of an accent I couldn’t quite place running like caramel ribbons all through it. “Little girl,” he breathed, sending shivers up and down my spine. Vin Diesel had nothing on this guy. “You do not know who you are messing with.”

I struggled to maintain some sense of decorum, but I was pretty sure I squeaked. I cleared my throat and tried again. Badass vampire hunters did not squeak.

Damn, those eyes, that voice! He was turning me into a big puddle of melted goo without even breaking a sweat. My fingers itched to explore places other than his biceps. Not good.

“Sure, I do. You’re just another pathetic vampire hopped up on junkie blood.” Vampires were strong and fast, but not as strong or as fast as this one. Junkie blood was the only thing that explained it. Vamps couldn’t get high off drugs like humans, but they could get high if they took the blood of someone who was on drugs.

He pressed that rock hard body of his up against me and laughed softly in my ear. His laugh did things to me down low and my thighs clenched. My libido did a happy dance. Something it was definitely
not
supposed to do in the presence of a vampire. Come to think of it, my vampire radar wasn’t going off at all. What in blazes was this guy?

I thrust my chin out, hoping I looked tough and macho instead of the quivering mass of Jell-O I actually was. “You’re no vamp. Who are you?” My eyes narrowed. “
What
are you?”

He grinned in a way that I was pretty sure was illegal in at least 14 different states then leaned forward to sniff me again before whispering in my ear, “Darlin’.” His rich voice was the stuff of dreams. “You’ve just found your Sunwalker.”

Well, hot damn.

***

After making me promise not to try killing him until we’d had a chance to talk, he led me to the nearest coffee shop. Common Grounds was a uniquely Portland experience and one of my favorite places to relax with a cup of coffee. It was stuffed full of comfy couches and mismatched mugs and smelled of roasted coffee beans and fresh grilled toast. Best of all, it was open from 5 a.m. to midnight. It would have been even better if it was a twenty-four hour place, but sometimes you just had to take what you could get.

Fortunately the place was nearly empty and we found a table far enough away from everyone that we wouldn’t be overheard. I couldn’t imagine what the other patrons would think of our conversation. Though it
was
the Hawthorne District. Creative weirdness was the norm. They’d probably think we were rehearsing for a play.

I was pretty sure the Sunwalker was humoring me with that whole promising-not-to-kill-him thing, since I was beginning to doubt my original plan to get the amulet and dust him was going to work. In fact, I wasn’t sure I
could
dust him. He was far too strong and fast, and that weird mind control thingy had me worried.

Nothing about this guy was anything like I expected. I’d imagined him as another run of the mill bloodsucker. Only one who could walk around in daylight. This guy was
nothing
like any vampire I’d ever seen.

The Sunwalker wasn’t a creepy monster that hung around in dark corners. No, this guy
owned
his space. I eyed his broad shoulders, muscular frame and seriously tight backside as he paced the room in front of the bank of windows overlooking the street.

Oh, yeah, I bet he owned anything he wanted to. An opinion no doubt shared by the barista who was ogling his butt as eagerly as I was. Poor girl was practically salivating. I surreptitiously checked to make sure I wasn’t doing the same.