Vengeance of the Demons (2 page)

“Please, Evan. I need to speak to you. And we need to go somewhere that no one will overhear. The bedrooms in the barracks are cement blocks. They’re practically soundproof.”

She stared at him for a moment and then her posture relaxed. “Fine. But you better not try anything.”

“I would never think of it.” Well, he might think of it, but he certainly wouldn’t act on it.

He followed Evan toward the front of the barracks. When he was human, she was the kind of girl who wouldn’t have given him a second glance. The hot ones never wanted the geeks, no matter what the movies used to portray.

She threw open the door while looking straight ahead. A group of guys were in the kitchen making popcorn. They stopped when she walked in, but she ignored them and headed up the stairs. The humans stared at William and nodded but didn’t speak.

It was one of the things William actually appreciated about being a vampyr. The respect. As a human, he’d never been respected, not even very well liked. No matter how hard he’d tried.

He’d headed for the stairs when he heard whispers from the kitchen.

“Lord Danika really turned that guy?” asked one.

“Do you think he wanted to be turned?” asked another.

“I heard he saved her life and in return she made him a vampyr as some sort of honor,” said another.

“What a traitor to humankind. To want to sell out and be one of them.”

“Shut up. You’d do it too if someone offered, Matthew.”

He continued up the stairs, his gut clenched tight. A traitor? Is that how humans saw him? As a traitor to his kind? Little did they know that his turning was an accident. All he’d done was try to save Danika’s life by taking a bullet for her. In return, she’d tried to heal him with her blood.

He shook his head and sighed. He’d been wrong. Even now, humans didn’t respect him.

He reached the upstairs hallway and walked down to the open door. Evan sat on her bed and waited.

He closed the door quietly.

“I need your help,” he said without pretense.

“What?” Suspicion clouded her voice. Her eyes narrowed. “What kind of help?”

“Can I trust you to keep something quiet?”

She put on a pageant queen smile. “Of course you can, because we’re BFFs.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I. Can we braid each other’s hair and paint nails too while we—”

“Will you shut up?” William hated losing his temper.

Her mouth snapped closed and she stared at him for a moment.

William pinched the bridge of his nose and blew out a breath. Why did he think this would be easy? In the past six months that he’d known her, she’d not made one single thing easy.

“Okay, what?” Her voice no longer held the mocking tone it had a moment before.

Their gazes met. After he told her, there was no going back. If he brought her into the circle of trust…

“Seriously, either tell me or let me get something to eat.”

“You know Mason, Lord Danika’s mate?”

She sat forward. “Dude, is it me or is that guy enormous?”

“He seriously is the biggest guy I’ve ever met.”

They laughed together for a moment, and in that instant William saw Evan for who she really was. But in a flash the girl was gone.

“Okay, so what about him?”

“You know he’s not human, right?”

“He’s a Vampire?” Her eyebrows raised. “Man that explains a lot.”

“No, no. He’s not a Vampire or a vampyr. He’s something else.”

Her eyebrows drew together. “Something else?”

“He’s a demon.”

She snorted and then laughed. “A demon. Like, angels and demons and heaven and hell? That’s a good one.”

“I’m not joking.”

Her smile fell and she leapt to her feet. “You’re serious?”

“Yes. And Selene is his half sister.”

“So she’s a demon as well?”

“Half demon, half fae.”

She grabbed her hair with both hands and pulled on it. “There are fairy people as well?”

The tension in the air thickened. He was going about this all wrong. The worry and horror that now etched her features was bound to explode.

“Okay, why don’t you sit down?” he offered.

“I’m fine. I can handle it. Just tell me. Are there tortoise ninjas too?”

“A month or so back, before you returned to us, there was an explosion.” William shoved his hands in his pockets.

“At the tracker compound, yeah I heard.”

“Well that was caused by a group of demons.”

She closed her eyes and rubbed at them for a moment. He observed her quietly, waiting to gauge her reaction.

“Where did they come from?” she asked. “Have they always been here?”

At least she didn’t explode. “No. The point is—and this is the point that I need you to promise to keep to yourself—there are more coming, and we can’t fend them off alone. We need help. We want you to take us to the humans.”

“No. No way. Are you out of your friggin’ mind?” She stared at him as if he’d sprouted a set of horns.

“We’re out of options here. We’re sending emissaries out to all the covens to try and get them to side with us, but who knows if they will. And I overheard you saying to Selene that you knew of an enclave that had weapons—”

“Nope.” She shook her head. “I’m not going to take you anywhere. For all I know you’re trying to get in there so you can get more slaves.”

“Humans aren’t slaves here anymore. You know that.”

“Come on, William, I’m not an idiot. You bloodsuckers are going to run out of blood some time. You’re going to run out of humans unless you allow us to have families. But if you do that, then you won’t have a free-for-all blood-buffet at your beck and call. Do you really think Sue would come running back to you every time you snapped your fingers after she drives carpool and picks up her husband’s dry cleaning?”

“This isn’t about blood.”

“Yeah, you say that, but how do I know?”

“I’m not lying to you.”

“All bloodsuckers lie. It’s what you’re good at.”

He moved to her in a blur of speed. “I don’t.” Anger and frustration rolled off him. “You can accuse me of many things, but being a liar isn’t one of them.”

She blinked rapidly several times, and, in their close proximity, her eyes changed. Heat wafted off her skin as did the scent of lust. For as much as she protested to hate him, she was attracted to him.

She laid her hand on his chest and the warmth of her fingers spread through his sweater. His gut tightened as for a moment he thought she might kiss him. To taste her sweet lips on his was a feeling he’d dreamt about. She pushed him away and stepped back herself.

“You say you don’t lie, but you told me outside that you wouldn’t try anything. Yet here you are inches from me. I see the way you look at me. Watch me. You think I’m naïve? I know what you really want and you’ll never get it. And that, William, is not a lie.”

“You know what? Forget it. But believe me when I say if you utter a word of this to anyone, Danika will kill you.” He left without another word.

She couldn’t be trusted. As much as he wanted to believe there was good in her, she wasn’t the one.

William jogged down to the first floor.

The human men had gathered around a television to watch a movie. They eyed him as he passed. His entire life he’d wanted to be included in a group the way they were. Sitting around watching a movie. Throwing jabs at each other. He’d never known that kind of camaraderie as a human. But now, because of Danika, he’d found a place he belonged. In the vampire society.

“Did you get her to put out?” asked one of them. “That one is a ball buster.”

William stopped and clenched his fists. He turned to the group where Matthew stared at him a smirk on his face.

“If I were you, Matthew, I’d keep my comments to myself. I know for a fact that there are two males in the coven house who’d like any excuse to rip you limb from limb because of what you’ve done with their mates.”

Matthew’s smirk fell as his eyes did. The other guys snickered. As William pushed out into the yard, the men burst into laughter, jibing at Matthew.

It was obvious to William now more than ever. He was no longer human. And he was fine with that.

Evan watched William’s firm backside as he walked out. She tried not to, but she couldn’t help it. For as much as she hated what he was, she couldn’t deny the way his expensive sweater fit his trim, athletic physique.

She shook her head. No. She refused to be taken in by him. All their kind did was take and kill and throw away. She’d witnessed it firsthand.

He’d said he needed help, but she was pretty sure that all the Vampires really wanted was sex and blood. A handsome face floated into view, and Evan swallowed hard, pushing the memory away.

She threw her hands over her face. What if it wasn’t a lie? What if they really were in trouble, facing an army of demons? Her stomach growled. It didn’t matter. It wasn’t her problem.

She headed to the door. Pulling it open, she peeked into the hall to make sure William was gone. The sounds of laughter taunted her from the downstairs common room. How could all these humans be so stupid? So complacent?

She walked down to the kitchen dreading having to interact with them. All she wanted was to get back to her home and family. And just because the people she shared the barracks with were the same species, it didn’t mean they were family. She’d tried to tell them there were places they could go. Enclaves that would take them in and protect them. But none of them seemed to care. In all the households of all the Vampires that had bought and returned her, she’d only ever had a handful of humans be interested in what she had to say.

A group of guys lounged on the sofa watching some sci-fi movie and eating popcorn. Several females chatted in the kitchen. Soft, they’d all become so soft. They’d forgotten the struggles of those who still tried to remain free from the Vampire slave markets.

“Hey, Evan, why don’t you come sit with us?” asked Matthew.

He always tried to be nice to her, but she couldn’t abide humans who actually liked being bitten.

“Not on your life.”

The men burst into laughter and one held his hand out to the others. “Pay up! I told you she wouldn’t do it.”

“Dicks.” She shook her head and strode into the kitchen.

The females scattered around her. She didn’t care that no one liked her. She’d be gone as soon as the situation presented itself.

She opened the fridge, and then pulled out a plate of food and a bottle of water.

She laughed to herself. Bottled water. Something so simple yet so elusive to those humans still out there in most enclaves. The one she’d come from, though large, had scraped to provide fresh water until their last move. The new setup had all the water they could handle. If the others would listen to her, they’d see how happy they could be in the enclave she’d come from.

She walked up to the second floor past the pasty white walls void of decoration to the last room on the right. She pushed open her door and then stepped out of her sneakers. Setting the plate on her large white bed, she plopped down and then pulled her hair from its band and stripped down to her underwear.

Her mission, if she’d ever gotten captured, was to get as many humans as she was able out of the slave houses and back with their own kind. To that end, she was failing miserably. Perhaps if she was nicer to people, they’d listen.

She sighed. Being raised by her uncle and two male cousins hadn’t taught her much in the way of manners.

Dawn was only a couple hours off. She turned on the stereo while she ate, listening to music that she didn’t care for, but at least it broke the silence. Back in her enclave, she’d collected CDs over the years. She sure wished she had some with her now.

As a love song came on the radio, her mind drifted to places she didn’t allow. A handsome man in a tailored suit. A cold night huddled with other survivors in a cave. Staring into the eyes of her little sister as she took her last breath. Memories. So many memories. And lastly, a tiny pink hand, clutching her thumb.

She shoved the plate onto her nightstand, no longer hungry, and turned off the light. She had to get out of here. She had to get back to her people. It wasn’t optional.

* * * *

William knocked on the door to Danika’s den and then entered. Roth, Neeman, Selene, Sinya, Danika, and Mason were already present.

“Well?” asked Danika.

William shook his head. “I don’t trust her.”

“But you’re the one who vouched for her in the first place,” said Neeman.

“I know. But I was wrong. She won’t help us. We’ll have to figure something else out,” said William. He hated that he’d been wrong about her.

“Do you think she’ll talk?” asked Mason.

“Sooner or later she’s bound to tell the others, or worse, bolt.” William slid into a seat and rubbed his temples. Why did she have to be so damned rebellious?

“So what do we do now?” asked Roth. “We’ve recruited all the trackers we can. Even now, we only have about sixty of us. The demons are going to strike again. It’s been weeks since their last real attack.”

“And those weren’t even real attacks,” said Mason. “We need more bodies if we’re going to survive.”

“Maybe we should tell the humans and vamps,” Sinya suggested.

Mason shook his head. “No. That would be chaos.”

“Maybe, but you’re going to have that soon enough with the demons coming. You know father isn’t going to need much more time to gather his army.” Selene stared at Mason.

“Why don’t we give Evan what she wants?” asked Roth.

All gazes traveled to him.

“She wants to leave,” said William.

“Let her go?” asked Danika.

Roth shrugged. “Yes. Let her go and monitor her. Follow her.”

“Why?”

“What does she want more than anything?” he asked.

“To go home.” Though William couldn’t understand why.

“Exactly. We plant a car with a tracking device and follow where she leads. She is going to make a run for it sooner or later, why not have it be on our terms?”

“I don’t think that’s exactly the best way to gain the humans’ friendship.” Sinya chuckled.