Vampires Dead Ahead

THIRTY-SEVEN



“If they sing ‘one hundred mugs of ale on the bus’ one more time I’m going to go bust some skulls.” Olivia had her eyes narrowed at the back of the bus, where twenty Drow warriors and a king were being led in a rowdy rendition.

I, on the other hand, was laughing so hard my sides hurt. To see my father and his warriors singing along with other Trackers was almost too much. For Olivia it apparently was.

“Why don’t you take a nap?” Nadia turned to Olivia. “You could use one.”

“Listen, fish brain,” Olivia glared at Nadia, “if I want your opinion I’ll … come to think of it, I’ll never want your opinion.”

Nadia gave Olivia a sly look and her sea-green eyes glittered. “From what I hear, whips are your thing. They’re not mine.”

Olivia glanced at me. I raised my hands in an I-have-no-idea-how-she-found-out gesture.

In the back, they started the next round at forty-nine mugs of ale on the bus.

“I have an idea.” Olivia looked immeasurably pleased with herself as she gave Nadia a wicked grin. “Green gills, why don’t you sing them to sleep?”

Nadia brightened. “I would love to.”

“No.” I stood in the aisle and blocked her. “Nooo singing.”

“Bummer.” Nadia flopped back into her seat. “But it would be soooo much fun.”

“Come on,” Olivia said. “It’ll be great.”

“Sirens know one song when it comes to men, and it always means death for the males.” I glared at them both. “We need them for this assignment.”

Nadia and Olivia looked at each other. “Then we’ll do it after,” Olivia said and she and Nadia shook on it.

“Forty-eight mugs of ale” floated up from the back and I almost said, Go for it.

But no, Nadia would not get to sing. The last time I’d heard her, she’d almost killed two Shifter males at the Pit who’d made some sexist remarks about her.

Sirens hate lewd males. And Sirens from the Bermuda Triangle do not know the meaning of restraint.

She flipped her luscious long red hair over her shoulder. “I think I’ll take a nap. Must rest up my voice for the trip back.” She covered her mouth in a pretty little yawn and curled up.

Nadia and I had been close friends since I’d arrived in New York City. She’d been one of the first Trackers to ask me out on a girls’ night. She adored the opera, and I went with her when I could. The last one we’d gone to was a few weeks ago, Pelléas et Mélisande at the Met. She had a lovely singing voice when males weren’t around.

Those in the back got even more rowdy at “forty-five mugs of ale on the wall.”

Olivia banged her head on the seat in front of her. “I should have gone in the SUV with Armand, even if it meant sitting next to stinky Penrod.”

Sprites smell like burned broccoli, so I couldn’t blame her. “Desmond cast a spell on everyone,” I said. “If you’ll notice, you can’t smell any odors. It’ll keep us from being smelled by Vampires.”

“Damn.” Olivia banged her head again. “On the way back I am so riding in the SUV.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Ice and Cindy, who were seated a couple of rows behind me. I’d never, ever seen Ice act like he did around her—a gentleman instead of a wisecracking jerk. It was amazing. I wanted to ask them if they enjoyed each other more in the form of mice or as they were now.

Megan, the Witch, sat with Bruce, the pit bull, on the cushion beside her. The falcon, Tate, perched on the back of her seat.

I ran my gaze over the other Trackers from Armand’s bunch as well as some of the Trackers from states across the continent, in addition to our own from New York City. The fact that we’d all pulled together and were ready to go to war against Volod made me shiver.

Colin made his way from the back of the bus to where I was still standing. With the blacked-out windows and the double-black curtains blocking out the light from the front of the bus, it was dim inside, but I enjoyed the view of the Dragon.

When he reached me, he placed one hand on my hip and kissed me. It was a kiss filled with warmth and restrained passion, one that made me feel all melty and gooey inside.

“Are we there yet?” Kelly flopped back in her seat with a scowl on her usually pretty face. She crossed her arms over her chest. “We’ve been driving forever and we can’t even see out. They’re so loud back there. I’m hungry.”

Olivia snickered. “I say we stick her under the bus with all of the weapons.”

Now, there was a thought with merit.

“Better yet,” Olivia said, “since Kelly is a Doppler bunny, she can be our lucky rabbit’s foot. We just need to remove one.”

I held back a laugh and shook my head instead.

Earlier we’d played a game of twenty questions—Colin did the Otherworld version and Dave did the Earth Otherworld version.

The hardest part for me was being around all those paranorms in a confined space … hearing all of those heartbeats … smelling all of that rich blood pumping through their veins … It was a good thing Colin had insisted I drink from him earlier or I might have gone crazy.





When we finally reached our destination the Drow warriors and my father stayed on the bus while the rest of us piled out into the afternoon sunlight. My skin reddened immediately. Fortunately I could handle it well enough to be outside without turning into a Drow-human-Vampire blowtorch.

A strong wind bowed the tops of the trees, reminding me of the sound of a rushing river.

“What is this place?” Kelly had her hands on her hips as she looked around. We were surrounded by forest, forest, and oh, more forest. “Where can we go for dinner?”

Megan and Rachel, a Shifter Tracker from Boston, brought up an ice chest and opened it. It was filled with sandwiches. “We have turkey, ham, egg salad, roast beef, and veggie,” Rachel announced. “They’re wicked good.”

Kelly screwed up her face. “There must be a McDonald’s nearby. McDonald’s are everywhere.”

I was surprised she wasn’t too good for Mickey D’s.

My stomach rumbled and Megan leaned in close to hand me a wrapped package. “Brought a steak sandwich for you. Rare.”

“Thanks, Megan.” I took it from her and smiled, suddenly wishing I had a pint of blood to wash down the steak.

“How’s the ‘gift’ working for you these days?” she asked as I bit into my sandwich.

I chewed and swallowed. “It helped me a lot and then it stopped.” I smiled. “Thank you. It was a special gift.”

“I was meant to give it to you.” Megan smiled back. “I’m glad it gave you what you needed.”

After I finished eating, it was time to get into position.

Volod’s mansion sprawled across a huge clearing in the woods. No other homes or buildings were closer than five miles in any direction. According to our recon team, during the day the entire place was locked down with retractable metal shutters and barred entrances.

The buses parked a good two miles away. As various beings got out their bows and arrows and assorted other weapons, Olivia looked at me and shook her head. “How did this happen? A bus full of grunts on the way to fight a Vampire war. This is as bizarre as it gets.”

I laughed. “I doubt that. These are paranorms we’re talking about. Bizarre is the norm.”

Olivia shook her head. “Anyone passes by here now and sees this group will think a Halloween-in-May bus broke down.”

With another laugh I walked over to Colin and Armand.

“So you feel pretty comfortable with the recon team’s assessment?” I said to Armand.

“Yes.” He looked in the distance, in the direction of the mansion. “I sent the best Trackers I have.”

I glanced up at Colin. He looked so good to me. His long blond hair lifted away from his face in the wind as his warm burnished-gold eyes focused on me. He was heavily armed with two swords strapped to his back, as well as daggers and stakes on his weapons belt.

For a moment I thought the scaled serpent tattoo on his arm moved, but it was only a trick of the waning light.

We broke into eleven teams with an average of ten paranorms each. My team comprised Colin, Ice, Nadia, Robert, Olivia, Mandisa, Penrod, Desmond, and—I had drawn the short straw—Kelly. We would all be in the assembly hall, waiting for Volod and his Vampires and Vampire paranorms to leave the mansion. The first step was getting to the building without being found out.

Human guards were posted around the perimeter of a great wooden spiked fence. I thought about how nice it would be to see a Vampire impaled on each spike.

When the sun started to set, I slipped into the forest and shifted to Drow. Colin came with me. He didn’t like the idea of me being alone, and I didn’t mind letting him watch me shift. He said he found it rather sexual, but this was no time to have my thoughts drift there.

Shifting is always difficult when I can’t stretch and move into the change, but as a Vampire it seemed to be a little easier. Who’d have thought?

Colin and I moved back to our team. I slipped in the earpiece that Olivia had secured for the leaders. We were in a good location where we could see through the gate to the front of the mansion.

The sun slowly settled over the mountain range. The sky grew completely dark.

It was time.