Dread Nemesis of Mine

chapter 13

My head throbbed. Every heartbeat sent a dagger straight into my brain. I'd had a horrible hangover before. In fact, the day I'd started down the disastrous road of incubus puberty had been the day of my first and, so far, last hangover. Seriously, one had been enough to make me swear off drinking for life.

"Nyuh," I croaked through chapped lips and a parched throat.

"You are alive," said my roommate in his usual monotone voice.

"Water." My voice rasped like sand across pebbles.

"The guard installed a watering device for you."

I blinked the crust out of my eyes and saw a metal tube just above my face, a drop of water hanging at its tip. I craned my neck up, lips grasping for the precious drop, but couldn't reach it. The droplet hung at the tip of the metal tube, suspended as though by black magic, torturing me with its close but unreachable proximity. As a last resort, I stuck my tongue out. It touched the tip. Sweet water trickled into my dry throat.

Laying back and panting with the effort, I savored the tiny drop. It didn't sate me by any stretch of the imagination, though. I forced my head back up, though the tight strap around my neck choked me. Lapping at the tube with my tongue, I released another trickle of water, but soon had to lean back to rest my throat and neck.

After repeating the process more times than I could remember, I finally conquered some of my thirst. I longed to close my lips around that tube and draw a long gulp of water down my parched throat. No matter how hard I tried, only my tongue could reach it. As I lay gasping from my last effort, I abruptly realized exactly where I'd seen a water dispenser like this—in a hamster cage.

"That bitch," I said, gritting my teeth. Amanda had installed it so I'd have to lick it. On purpose. My incubus hunger growled from its cage. Great. One more thing to worry about.

I heard a giggle. Amanda, her phone camera trained on me, came from outside the door.

"You're so pathetic," she said. "Oh no, the big bad spawn is turning into a demon!" She held her hands up and opened her mouth in mock horror. "Please save me!" A nasty grin curled her lips. "Guess what, moron? Even you can't break diamond fiber."

"Must be hard being you," I croaked. "Your life obviously sucks so bad you have to torture someone who can't fight back to feel good about yourself." I forced a grin and glanced at the bird nest she called hair. "Maybe if you owned a hairbrush you could get a date."

Her fist lashed out. My head rocked sideways and fireworks exploded behind my eyes. "Shut up. Shut up! I'll make you sorry you ever opened your mouth."

"Your breath is already making me sorry," I said.

All the air exploded from my lungs as she pounded a fist into my stomach. I opened my eyes and would have shouted had any breath remained in my chest. I saw her face an inch from mine. Her breath smelled of fresh blood. Her eyes gleamed bright with menace and anger. Pissing her off had probably been a bad idea.

"Amanda, what the hell are you doing?" said a familiar voice. "Maximus isn't going to be happy with you beating on his pet spawn."

The guard whirled, hands crooked like claws. Her yellowed fingernails lengthened by an inch. She panted and seemed on the verge of attacking the newcomer.

"Get a hold of yourself," said the voice again.

I knew that voice. It wasn't Felicia, though. My mind was too wrapped up in the drama of the moment to run a database search and make a match.

Amanda lowered her hands and growled. "I should suck you dry and blame his bruises on you."

"Yeah, right. As if I was strong enough to hurt a spawn." The owner of the voice stepped around the angry vampire and my jaw went slack.

Katie?

The vampire turned and saw my shocked expression. She laughed. "Guess I punched him too hard." She glanced at the tray of food in Katie's hand. "If he tries to get inside your head, let me know so I can clock him in the face again."

Katie stuck her tongue out at the vampire's back as Amanda turned and left the room, slamming the door shut behind her. Loud music sprang up from somewhere outside the door. Amanda shouted in fury, her voice fading down the hall as she demanded the instigator turn it off.

"What in the hell—no, how in the hell did you get here?" So many words, mostly curses sprang to my head, I had trouble speaking. "Are you effin' crazy?" Somehow, I remembered to whisper my questions, though Amanda probably couldn't hear them over the music. I remembered I was in my underwear with adult diapers beneath, and felt a hot blush creep from my head to my toes.

Tears pooled in my former crush's eyes. Her pretty green eyes. I couldn't believe how much I'd wanted this girl, back when I'd been a hopeless nerd. And then I'd met Elyssa. Katie had stumbled into my world—the Overworld—when she'd come to my house just as hellhounds had attacked. This was far more than stumbling in, however. Had Katie decided to become a vampire?

"Oh, Justin, I can't believe what they've done to you." She kissed my forehead. "I've got to get you out of here." Her eyes wandered across my scantily clothed body.

"Water?" I asked, too thirsty to worry about such trivial things as clothes any longer.

Her eyes brightened, and she nodded, bringing out a bottle of water with a flexible straw. I gulped so fast, I choked and broke into a violent coughing fit. Katie pulled out a phone and looked at it.

"Justin, just keep calm. In a few hours, I'm going to break you out of here."

I gave her a crazy look. "You?" I checked her eyes again to be sure they weren't vampire red. "Are you here to join Maximus's vampire army?"

She shook her head. "No, absolutely not. Something terrible happened, though."

Chewing on a chunk of cheese she put to my mouth, I raised my eyebrows to prompt her to continue.

"I tried to call you. I texted you and left messages, but you never replied."

"Yeah, I was in southern Colombia. No reception."

"I can't even being to understand how or why you ended up down here. I have so many questions." She glanced over her shoulder. Took a deep breath. "Ever since you vanished, I tried to find out where you went and if you were okay. I got ahold of Shelton and your dad talked to me and told me you were fine. Anyway, since you were gone, I started hanging out with Nyte and Ash."

"You hung out with them? As in friends?"

She nodded. "I was lonely. You were gone, and things at school could never be the same after running from those hellhounds, and almost dying and—well, Annie and Jenny would never understand, even if I could tell them."

The demonic hunger in me twisted my insides. My eyes closed. When they reopened, I saw Katie's delicious aura hovering around her. No! I squeezed my eyes shut and slammed the door on the ravenous feeling. With some effort, I picked up the trail of the conversation again. "Please tell me you didn't talk to Ash and Nyte about the Overworld."

She shook her head. "No. In fact, Ash and I started hanging out more. He's really smart, and cute without all that nasty Goth makeup."

I let out a sigh of relief. "Thank god you didn't tell them anything."

"I didn't, but someone else did. Right after Coach Burgundy and Brad and all those others were killed—" she shuddered. "It was so horrible. Then the huge garbage truck slammed into the police car you were in, and everything happened so fast. You and Elyssa vanished and Ash and Nyte were worried sick about you."

I felt terrible. Not that I'd had much of a chance to call anyone and let them know I was okay, but I knew exactly what it was like to have someone you care about vanish from your life. "Are they okay?"

A fresh tear sparkled in her eye. "These new people showed up at school. I didn't trust them one bit after knowing what you told me about vampire recruiters. They held after-school club meetings, supposedly about finding your true self and the meaning of life, or some crap like that. Ash and Nyte went to one, thinking it would be a big joke. Somewhere along the way, they found out these people were vampires recruiting for Maximus."

My heart sank. Apparently, my attempt at stamping out Maximus's recruiters from my high school hadn't paid off. "Please tell me you stopped them from going."

"At first they laughed about it. Then one of the vampires grew out his fangs and punched a hole through a desk. Most of the people there were like Ash and Nyte—you know, the ones Nathan and his goons call nerds and losers. The ones who want a miracle to make them look cool."

"Oh, god." A sick feeling ballooned in my stomach. "What happened?"

"The vampire told them there was a serum they could take, but it was in limited supply. He took them all on a tour of the Grotto and then down to Colombia."

"And you came with them."

Katie grasped one of my hands and shook her head. Amanda's yelling echoed down the hall. The raucous music still hadn't stopped.

"I let them go, Justin." She sobbed. "I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen. And the worst part is—" she hiccupped and wiped at the tears rolling down her cheeks. "I really like Ash. We sort of went out on a date. He told me I shouldn't settle for a weakling like him. He told me that when he came back, he'd be super strong and immortal. And then he'd be worthy of dating me."

I groaned. "I know, I know." She leaned down and whispered. "Then the strangest thing ever happened. Mr. Turpin, the English teacher, came to me and offered me a chance to save them. He said he could get me to Colombia, but that I'd have to spy on Maximus for him all while pretending to be one of his recruits."

"Son of a bitch!" I wormed against my restraints.

"His real name is really weird. Underborn, or something like that." She looked over her shoulder and turned back to me. "He has other people here working for him too."

"You can't trust him," I said. "The man is an assassin." Underborn wouldn't stick out his own neck to rescue anyone. He obviously intended for Katie to be one of his sacrificial lambs should anything go wrong.

The music in the hall switched from pop to Beethoven's Fifth. Katie's eyes widened. "I don't have much more time."

"Is Felicia helping you?"

She quirked an eyebrow. "Who?"

"A vampire—likes to dress geek chic."

Katie shook her head. "No. Another girl is helping me. She's a magician." Her lip curved up at the corner. "She's the one making the music."

"How many of you are there?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Underborn said he couldn't tell me everything."

I growled. "Don't trust him. Get out while you can. Besides, you can't free me from these straps—not unless you have some of Maximus's blood."

"I'm not leaving you." Her eyes went hard and resolute. "I'll need you to talk Ash and Nyte out of this idiocy, too."

This was spiraling out of control. Scratch that. Events had already spiraled out of control. I wanted to grab Katie by the shoulders and give her a stern look. "I'm not giving you an option, Katie. Go now. Don't look back." My stomach growled again. I refused to feed on Katie. I needed her strong and healthy, and able to get the hell out of this place.

She touched my cheek and smoothed my oily, unwashed hair back from my face. "You didn't leave me when the hellhounds came. You could have tossed me away and left me. But you didn't. You saved my life, and now I'm going to save yours."

The music abruptly ended. Katie jerked and tugged on the hamster water bottle until the thin bracket holding it onto the table bent, lowering the tube an inch—just enough for me to suck from it. She kissed my forehead and smiled. "I'll be back soon."

Amanda returned a few minutes after Katie left, her face purple with rage, hair even more frizzed than usual. She leaned down until our noses nearly touched. "Don't think I've forgotten about what you said." She pressed long, yellowed claws against my chest and raked them down the skin, just hard enough to draw blood.

I clenched my teeth and groaned, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of bursting into tears. The sound of approaching voices jerked her upright. Her eyes widened with worry and she dashed off, returning a moment later with a towel and wiped the blood from my chest. My supernatural healing made short work of the light wounds, but I didn't have much juice left for anything else. Hunger clawed again at my incubus stomach. I wished I could drain this spiteful bitch dry.

Surely, Maximus knew he had to feed me essence at some point. Otherwise, I'd descend into madness and probably die. I couldn't remember if anyone had actually told me I could starve to death if I didn't feed the demon inside, but considering how awful it felt to go hungry, common sense told me it would be a painful way to go.

As the voices grew closer, I knew why Amanda looked so worried. The voices belonged to Maximus and another male.

"Greetings Lord Maximus," Amanda said as the lead vampire's voice grew closer.

Maximus replied. "What was your name again?"

"Amanda, my Lord."

I imagined her curtseying and swooning like a lovesick puppy. Lord Maximus?

"Guard the door at the top of the stairs and make sure no one enters until I return."

"Yes, yes, Lord Maximus. And if I can do anything for you—I mean anything at all, please let me know."

"I believe I just did."

"I'm so sorry, sir!" Her feet scrambled away.

Maximus and another man chuckled.

"I daresay she would pluck her own eyes out and stew them for you, Maximus," said a man in the kind of British accent I associated with royalty.

"As would most of my followers." Maximus, as usual, had zero self-doubt in his voice, maintaining his perfect one-hundred percent douche bag average.

"That's the spawn?" said someone else, a third man.

Footsteps tread closer until I saw Maximus and a tall, thin man with an oiled mustache and monocle over his right eye look down at me. A chunky guy, young looking despite a head of unnaturally white hair, appeared at the end of the table. He alternatively studied me and scribbled with his stylus on the tablet computer in his hand—an arctablet, I figured, or maybe just an arcphone expanded to tablet size.

"Showing me off to your best buds?" I said to Maximus.

"I'll need some samples," the white-haired nerd said.

Maximus nodded. "Take what you need, Dash."

"Dash?" I said with a laugh. "What kind of name is that?"

Dash rolled his eyes and walked away. When he returned, he held something in his fleshy hands. Before I could make another smart remark, he jammed a ball gag in my mouth and strapped it around my head. I bit down, thinking I'd crush it with my preternatural strength, but it was apparently made of diamond fiber because I nearly broke a tooth.

"Don't be too rough on the poor chap," the man with the monocle said. "I wouldn't want to spoil him with too much stress. Cortisone levels and all that rubbish, you know."

"Would you like a taste, Master?" Maximus said.

The other man raised an eyebrow and looked at me. "He looks a bit unwashed."

Master? The word caught me off guard. I'd never heard Maximus defer to anyone. Could this be the mystery vampire helping him turn people?

Dash came around to my neck and squeezed hand sanitizer from a bottle. I felt the cold gel as he rubbed it against my neck. "There you go, sir. All clean."

The Master took off his monocle, leaned down and sniffed. "I daresay he's a tad ripe, Maximus, but his blood practically sings, doesn't it?"

"Exactly, sir. And that's why I think he's the solution to our supply problems."

The needle prick of fangs pressed into my skin. I jerked, but the Master gripped my head tight and held it. Either I'd already lost a great deal of strength, or he was much stronger than most vampires I'd fought. Probably both. I thrashed with my body to no avail. My breaths came in rapid pants through my nose. Despite my horror, a rush of pleasure flooded through me like a drug.

I'd never done hard drugs, but I imagined they would feel a lot like this. And it scared the hell out of me, because I never wanted the euphoria to end.

The Master pulled back and wiped daintily at his red lips with a handkerchief. "Marvelous. Magnificent." He looked with amazement at Maximus. "You didn't tell me he was so much better than other Daemos."

The rogue leader gave a feral grin. "At first, I thought it was just me. But there's definitely something about this kid, isn't there?"

"Night and day, young man."

"Give me time and I'll quantify and qualify the differences," Dash said, holding a slim wand to my wrist. He twirled it once, and drew it away. Blood squeezed from a pore in my skin until a globule the size of a quarter hovered in the air. Another spin from the wand caused the sphere to rotate faster and faster until the plasma separated from the red blood cells. A separate layer of glowing blue liquid formed. Dash held out a vial and pointed into it with his wand. The blue liquid drained from the sphere. He filled two more vials with the remaining fluids.

"What is that?" Maximus asked, looking at the glowing blue.

A slow grin spread across the Arcane's face. "If I'm right—and I usually am—this is the answer to our problems."

The Master cleared his throat. "Meaning what, exactly?"

"I can advance Maximus's blood potency and increase the amount of blood serum we're producing. Soon we'll have enough to turn thousands of mortals into vampires."