Chapter Twenty-Five
KATIE WENT WITH me to the Coffee Spot. She took a seat near the door where she could watch a crew of Weres in Day-Glo yellow spread asphalt around. She laid herself across the chair in a slouch that defied gravity. She showed a lot of interest in a very tall Were that looked a lot like Gravel.
“Did you have to bring her?” Sally said as I joined her at a table covered with paperwork. “I tried to keep her at my place, but she insisted you needed her. I didn’t want to order her to stay like a dog.”
“I had a run in with Raoul and Izumi.” I said and leaned forward on the table. “I think I understand what’s going on.”
“Oh yeah?” Sally said. “So lay it on me.”
“I think the Vampire Fredric didn’t lose his head that night.” I said and saw the nod of agreement from Sally. “Carlo is a cold blooded bastard, but even the hardest Sires feel something when a Fledgling dies.”
“The rumor is Fredric started acting odd a couple of weeks before the body was found in his office.” Sally said and shuffled a few bits of paper around. “About the time a group of locals made a trip to Mexico. Not that anyone keeps detailed records of vampires, if you need to know who they are, you know. Vampires, fucking with law enforcement for a thousand years.”
“Maybe longer.” I said and leaned back in the chair. “What do you think was in the bag Kilestra took from the club?”
“I’m not ruling out Fredric head.” Sally said and looked over at Katie. “Someone robbed an Ancient living in Monterrey, Mexico a few weeks back. The report says they took an ancient vase of some kind and a number of magical items. And a box of rings made by some alchemist out of Damascus steel. ”
Sally reached over, took my left hand and looked at the ring on my finger.
“You know.” Sally said and narrowed her eyes. “Kind of like this.”
“You think Fredric was dealing in talismans?” I said and recalled Billy’s sudden wealth and just as sudden poverty.
“I’m no expert.” Sally said and let go of my hand. “Maybe.”
“And Kilestra?” I said. “What was she doing there?”
“Fedor hired her to get the magical goodies. He also wanted that Book. I think he knows more than he was saying there.” Sally said and signed a couple of the pieces of paper and reached for more. “Only it was a bag full of trinkets with no magic and no value. Carlo was none too happy about being robbed. I guess he thinks Kilestra might have switched the bags and kept the real goodies for herself. Just as well as far as I’m concerned. Why give either vampire any more power?”
“I think I can add an old oil painting to the list of missing magical items.” I said, letting my thoughts roll over the facts. “And I have a good idea where the Book is. I think it all goes beyond money. We’re dealing with something larger here. Like end of the world larger.”
“You know that for sure?” Sally said and looked up at me. “Jake showed me that painting. Of course, he’s perfectly happy to see the world end.”
“Maybe it is all about drugs?” I said without much hope.
“Sure.” Sally said and ticked off some boxes on her paperwork. “It’s not like a death Goddess is sleeping under your roof.”
I told her the story of Beth and Tyler and Curtis. Sally stopped doing paperwork and looked at me. She leaned back in her chair and tossed her pen down.
“The van was empty when we found it.” Sally said and shook her head. “Well, except for a dead vampire. You think Curtis or Beth had something to do with his death?”
“Curtis claimed the stolen paintings were his.” I said and nodded slowly. “But I think they belonged to someone else. Like maybe Carlo or Fredric.”
“Were they worth killing for?” Sally said and ran a hand through her hair. “I’m not really up on the prices of old masters.”
“I think I’ll be going now.” I said and stood up.
“Did Victoria really ask for permission to look at property?” Sally said and turned her attention back to her papers.
“Yeah, it was kind of odd.” I said.
“Really odd.” Sally said. “Word is she’s heading back East tomorrow, which means Carlo is likely leaving about the same time. He doesn’t seem all that happy to be here anymore.”
“I’ll miss those two.” I said and headed for the door. “Be careful.”
“Yeah. Try not to blow anything up.” Sally said and yelled at Katie. “Keep him safe, Elf.”
MY NEW PHONE buzzed. It displayed a text message from Mother. It said: Come Home Now. I drove as fast as I could.
Katie went in first and looked around the basement’s main room. She nodded that it was safe to come in and I followed her with Andy’s Smith and Wesson 500 in my hand.
The first thing I saw upon entering the Common Room was the painting of Desiara. It stood on a large ornate easel and dominated one end of the room. In the relative dimness, the golden filigree shone with its magical aura. The power seemed to have grown since the last time I saw it. Maybe it was exerting its exquisite beauty more because Katie was nearby. The eyes seemed to be glowing more and I could swear I saw a smile form on the ruby red lips as I watched.
Something else was here. I could just feel a hint of their presence, they were good at shielding, but not quite good enough. I turned and found Katie with her arms around the waist of someone I didn’t really recognize. He was short and muscular and had Carlo’s energy about him.
“Fredric, I assume?” I said and leveled the gun at his head. I looked at Katie, who was smiling at me as she rested her head against the man’s chest. A flash of green light was in her eyes.
“Fredric’s dead.” The man said. “I thought you’d heard. But you can call me Fredric if you like.”
The man’s eyes twinkled in a way that showed his mind had taken a trip and might not be making the return journey. He was heavy for a vampire and looked like he needed a shave. There was something off about him. My head hurt just looking at him. He caught my look at Katie.
“Yeah, Desiara here has always been mine.” Fredric reached out and stroked Katie’s shoulder, she leaned into him as if she lived to be touched by him. “Your witch is good, but she wasn’t really trying to keep you two apart.”
“Step away from her.” I said and pulled back the hammer on the large gun.
“You were right about him.” Katie said in that cold voice of the Goddess. “He’s so just a man.”
Katie stepped away from Fredric and walked toward me. She raised an eyebrow. She bit her lower lip and gave me one of her sexy looks. Then she sucker punched me in the solar plexus and yanked the gun out of my hand. I doubled over in pain and when I looked up at Katie, she was holding a small silver game piece as well as the gun.
“We thought Carlo was the big boss around here.” Desiara said and licked her lips. “That’s why I was with him. Then we thought maybe it was Fedor.”
“That’s why I sent that package to the Consulate.” Fredric said and shrugged his hands. “Before I realized your importance.”
“We were afraid of you.” Desiara said as she sat the figurine on the coffee table and considered the handgun. “He thought you would see him for what he really was. You’re the Master of Fort Worth, a vampire to be reckoned with. And you’re standing in our way. He had some vision about what a big power you are. I’m not seeing it.”
Desiara held the Smith & Wesson 500 in both hands. Her eyes flashed an emerald green as she bent the metal with the strength of a Goddess. She tossed the twisted weapon away and looked at me coldly.
“He put me in your life.” Desiara said and looked me up and down. “After he lost me in a card game to Carlo.”
I looked at the man and could see something like an Elven God shimmer behind the man that looked like Fredric. I was sure I had seen his picture in that book on Elven Gods. Or maybe not. A moment later, the air returned to normal and there was a just a man standing before me.
“Your father lost you in a card game.” I said a
nd swallowed at a dryness in my throat. “Desiara’s father.”
“That’s the one.” Desiara said and smiled. “He told me to listen to your plans.”
“What plans?” I said and looked at Fredric, who stared at me as if he wasn’t sure what he was seeing.
“Yeah.” Desiara said and rolled her eyes. “What plans?”
Fredric pulled out a silver dagger. He walked over and held the blade in front of my face. He turned it so the light reflected off its flat surface.
“You didn’t know it.” Fredric said and a light flashed in his eyes. “But you saved my life, not too long ago.”
“Oh?” I said and heard a sound like a distant bell in my head. “Someone mentioned it to me. How did I do it?”
“Indirectly, of course.” The man who wasn’t Fredric said. “Like you do everything else.”
“I was going to kill him.” Desiara said and smiled with a twinkle in her eye. “Kind of takes a God to a kill a God. But then I saw that painting. The one you didn’t want me to see. The one with your photo in my hand.”
“I should have thought it through a bit more.” Fredric said and waved the silver dagger in front of me. “Once she saw you... well, she got distracted.”
“Isn’t she a prisoner?” I said and stared at Desiara. “Bound in Katie’s body?”
“Desiara is allowed visitors.” Fredric said and smiled. “From people she loves. At those times, the Goddess can exercise a bit of her power. Remember a bit of who she is. She knew what the painting was when she saw it.”
“There’s only one reason I would be holding that portrait.” Desiara said and laid a small hand on my chest. “Beloved.”
“There is something about you.” Fredric said and licked his lips. “Even while you wear one of my rings, you still manage to baffle me.”
“Maybe you just have too many of them.” I said and looked at the ring. “Even Gods must have limits.”
“That’s why I wanted the painting.” Desiara said and pushed away from me. “To be free. To do what I was born to do. But I needed the vampire in that painting as well.”
“That’s a shame.” Fredric said and pulled Katie back by his side. He passed his hand in front of her face and she went still. “You know that Katie the Elf is just a shell. One that can be replaced, if need be.”
“Why did you want her to kill you?” I said and thought about my odds in a battle with two Gods.
“I’ve been a bit depressed.” Fredric said. “You have no idea how tedious life can get when it is never ending. You might have lived long enough to find out. I’m thinking you won’t live much longer now.”
Fredric smiled as he pulled the dagger back and then drove it into Desiara’s shoulder. She shuddered with pain and her eyes flashed, but she didn’t cry out. I cried out instead and gripped my shoulder. The pain made me stumble and I saw white spots before my eyes. Desiara looked at me and her lips curled back in a smile.
“It’s all those bonds we share.” Desiara said through clenched teeth. “He’s using them.”
Fredric slapped Katie and she went quiet as the pain went through my skull.
“She’s a tough little thing.” Fredric said and winked at me. “I think I could stab her over and over again before it killed her. I wonder if you’ve picked up any of her healing skills from feeding on her? Let’s say we find out, eh?”
Fredric held up a hand and rubbed his thumb across a Damascus steel ring that was a twin to the one I wore. I felt a twinge in my finger and an electric shock ran up my arm. Desiara stared at me as a look of pain rippled across her face. She raised her chin and clamped her teeth as blood flowed freely from her arm. Fredric smiled at me and nodded.
“It’s kind of a two way street.” Fredric said into my frozen face. “I mean the connection between you and Desiara. She’s disappointed me as well.”
I was trembling with rage. I couldn’t move. Fredric walked up to me. When he was close enough, he slashed the blade across my chest leaving a deep gash. Fredric roared and drove the blade at my arm. I wanted to dodge out of the way and held perfectly still instead. The blade drove into muscles and membrane. It burned as he pulled it back out. I screamed in my head, but made no outward sound. I saw a mirror of pain ripple across Desiara’s face.
I struggled to get free, to move, to do anything. Fredric was inside my head, looking through my eyes, moving my limbs. He handed the knife over to me and I took it with the hand that still worked.
Desiara stood before me and looked into my face. She blinked her eyes and she was my Katie again, a look of pain and fear fighting for control. A tear formed in the corner of her eye and then rolled down her cheek. She pulled her hair out of the way and offered me her throat as she had so many times before. I raised the silver blade and put the edge to her neck.
“Too bad you don’t have what it takes to save the world.” Katie said and closed her eyes. “Master.”
“She is something.” Fredric said and stood next to me and whispered in my ear. “Isn’t she? I can only imagine the bond the two of you had. Past tense. I think I prefer her as a God, how about you?”
“You can’t do this.” I said and looked at the knife that was oh so close to Katie’s neck and yet I was unable to strike. And unable to pull back.
“I’d like to give you something.” Katie said and took off her headphones. She hung them on my arm. “As Tribute. The only thing that’s mine.”
Fredric moved behind Katie and smiled at me. He made me hand the knife over to Katie. Her eyes flashed green and she took the dagger. Fredric rested his hand on Desiara’s shoulder and shared power with her. Her wounded arm healed before my eyes. She looked at me and raised the knife for a killing blow knowing that our connection wasn’t going to hurt her now. They were standing with their backs to the shadowy entrance to my crypt room. Over Desiara’s head, I saw a shadow shifting into a solid shape. Kilestra materialized out of nowhere with a long sword in her hand.
“I’ll see you in hell.” I said and felt the blade touch my throat and slide into my skin. Desiara pulled the blade deeper, dragging it across my neck. The pain was shocking. Blood spilled down across my chest.
“Who should be next?” Fredric said and laughed. “Mother? Father?”
Kilestra’s eyes flashed cobalt blue as she laid her hand on the back of Fredric’s neck. A crackle of power filled the air and Fredric’s limbs went limp. Desiara dropped the knife and cried out as Kilestra kicked her from behind. Kilestra tightened her fist and Fredric’s head fell back, his mouth a silent scream of agony. Fredric lost his hold over me. I put my hand over my neck and felt the last of my life seep away. Both Desiara and I were covered in my blood. Kilestra’s sword drove into Fredric’s chest and he cried out as he slid off the blade and fell.
“Say the word, Wil.” Kilestra breathed in an icy whisper. “I will take his head and then hers.”
‘No.’ I said in her mind since I could no longer talk. ‘I don’t think you can.’
Kilestra snorted and looked at Desiara where she lay with her hands over her head. “I’m not sure you’re thinking clearly about Katie.”
‘I could use some help here.’ I thought to her and fell to my knees.
Kilestra flashed to me and put her mouth to my neck. She poured her power into me and my head filled with light as she knitted my flesh back together. She pulled back and spit some blood out.
“That’s the best I can do for now.” Kilestra said and laid her hand on my neck. “Silver wounds are a bitch.”
I watched as Kilestra flashed back to Fredric. She ripped off Fredric’s finger and took the Damascus steel ring. Katie tightened her jaw as she watched Kilestra toss the bloody finger aside. She reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out a few silver items of her own. Kilestra put silver plated shackles on Fredric’s hands and feet and finished binding him with a length of silver chain around his chest. Fredric gritted his teeth and tried to say something, but Kilestra laid a hand on his forehead an
d he cried out in pain before his eyes fluttered shut.
Kilestra looked at the magic statue and knocked it away with a throwing star from her belt. I felt better with the talisman on the far side of the room, but I was still weak.
Kilestra gave Katie a kick that made her cry out as she walked by. She bit her wrist and took the blood into her mouth. She pressed her mouth over the wound on my shoulder and smeared her blood across my chest. There was a lot of pain as the blood worked its way into me and Kilestra used her power to heal me.
“Are you yourself, Wilhem?” Kilestra said and held me down as she stared into my eyes.
“Fredric could speak through the people he controlled.” I said and a crowd of faces he had possessed floated before my eyes. “But I think I’m myself.”
Kilestra nodded and helped me up. I ran my hand over the wound in my arm. It hurt a lot. I looked at the wound. I could see a thin white scar weaving its way over my formerly perfect skin. I ran a finger along the similar scars on my neck and chest. It was surprisingly disturbing to have my two-century-old flesh marred like this. I ground my teeth and stared down at Fredric.
“It’s not too late to change your mind.” Kilestra said and walked around Fredric’s still form. “About both of them.”
“They aren’t what they appear to be.” I said and didn’t bother trying to stand up. “You can’t kill them with a sword.”
Desiara, formerly known as Katie, stood up and faced us. Green fire was in her eyes and a whirlwind of magic flew around her. Her hair floated up and electricity crackled in green lightning bolts. She looked exactly like the painting. She raised a hand and pushed it through the air at Kilestra. A bolt of emerald lighting an inch thick smashed into Kilestra and she flew into the bare stone wall behind me. She crashed to the floor and stopped moving.
Desiara rose a few inches into the air and floated toward me. She showed me her too wide grin with it’s too many sharp and pointed teeth. She raised a graceful hand and I found myself rising in the air. A green band formed around me and held my arms pinned to my sides. I looked at Desiara as she closed her lips and gave me one of her shy little smiles. She closed her fist and the power around me began to compress. In a moment I was frozen. In another, I was being crushed like a beer can in a drunken jock’s fist.
‘Please stop.’ I pushed a thought at Desiara. ‘You don’t have to do this.’
“Of course I don’t have to do this.” Desiara said and released the pressure on my body just a bit. “Just as you didn’t have to make me sleep on the floor. Or threaten to hand me to mad vampires for use as a plaything. Or stand by and watch as that Werebear drug me away. But you still did those things. Didn’t you?”
“What are your plans now?” I said and tried to push against my prison. “Are you really going to destroy the world?”
“It’s kind of my destiny.” Desiara said and took a deep breath. “Kind of like our meeting was my destiny.”
“So.” I said and looked toward Fredric. “I guess he’s not hurt, then?”
“No.” She said and turned around in time to see Fredric stand up and shake the silver chains off like morning dew. “Not so much.”
Fredric took a few steps closer and looked at Kilestra sprawled on the floor and nodded. Then he looked up at me. He picked up the silver blade and brought it to my face. I could see the madness in him, written so clearly I don’t know how he kept it hidden before.
“The great Wilhem Walengrave.” Fredric said and squinted at me as if I were too small to see. He laid the tip of the silver knife against my skin. “The face the ladies find so appealing. I don’t think we need this face any more.”
Fredric moved the blade until it was under my right eye and drew the point down. Steam, blood, and pain became one for me as the flesh opened up. He sliced my skin down to my jaw and let the blade slip off the bone with a metallic ping.
“We were going to kill you sooner or later.” Fredric said and stepped forward. “We need the blood of a Master Vampire. One in love with her to break Desiara’s binding spell. That’s the kind of touch Elves like to put in their magic. A little bit dramatic. A little bit enigmatic. I wouldn’t have known what to do without that book.”
“There are other things in there as well. Spells of power and destruction.” Desiara said in a sweet voice that drew my attention. “Where is my Book?”
She poured power into me. I’ve enthralled people for centuries, but I’ve never gotten used to being enthralled myself. My thoughts were no longer my own and they soon enough found out that I had last seen the book in Kilestra’s hands. I was pushed to one side.
Desiara moved her hand in Kilestra’s direction and pulled her to her feet. Fredric used his magic to wrap her in the silver chains that held no power over him. The metal brought a fine smoke from her skin and her eyes flew open as she struggled against her bonds. She looked at Fredric and Desiara. Fredric twisted a hand and tightened the rope until Kilestra winced in pain.