Pool of Crimson

chapter 13



I pushed Jade out the door of Voisinage Café, a bistro on the corner of 3 and Grandview, only a few blocks from my house. Music blared from the band playing for a private party on the second floor. I’d agreed to meet Jade for drinks to discuss her research. I had to tell her. I couldn’t let her wander around the city, with me, and not tell her what kind of danger she was in.

After a few minutes, it was clear to me she just wanted to hang out. I hadn’t slept in the last 72 hours. I’d barely had time to shower and get to work on time after dragging my sorry ass off that roof, and when I’d tried to warn her about the Marlboro Man, Patrick and Candace, she laughed my warnings off.

“Everyone knows that vampires aren’t real, Dahlia.”

“I’m telling you they are.”

“Stop pulling my leg. I know you want to go. You don’t have to make up stories to get your point across.” Her tone was harsh and didn’t hide her hurt as well as she’d probably hoped. She didn’t believe me and I wasn’t sure how to make her believe without putting her at risk.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for a few more minutes?” Jade asked.

“No,” I snapped in frustration. I breathed deeply and re-centered. I didn’t want to snap at her. “I have to get some sleep. I’m exhausted.”

“All right.”

I’d make it up to her, and the funny thing was I wanted to make it up to her. We turned the corner at the side of the restaurant and walked the half block to her car.

“I see your father’s gift arrived,” I said in disbelief as the alarm sounded and the lights flashed on a brand new Maserati Gran Turismo S. The sleek body and shiny black paint looked like the wind itself had shaped the sport car.

“Yeah, it arrived yesterday,” she said with no fanfare.

I was under the impression that a Maserati required a little more hoopla than what she gave it. I ran my fingers along the hood in obvious car lust. She popped open the door and threw her bag across to the passenger seat.

“You know that this car has a top speed of around 180 miles per hour and can go from 0 to 60 in a little under four seconds,” I said, sounding like a gear head. I couldn’t help it. It was love at first sight. The cold metal of perfection glided underneath my fingertips like silk. I was momentarily hypnotized by the sheer beauty of the machine.

“You want it?” she snapped back at me, scorn making her voice brittle and angry.

“Don’t even joke about giving it away,” I said, my voice crackling with the first sounds of laughter. She looked way too serious.

“I’ll take it if she doesn’t want it,” a raspy male voice said from the shadows behind me. A strong slender hand clasped tightly around my neck, pressing delicate strong fingertips into the soft flesh of my throat, yanking me back and off balance. I slammed into what felt like a brick wall.

Jade’s eyes grew wide and bulged slightly as the woman’s grip tightened around my body like a serpent. Jade froze in fear. That wasn’t the response I’d hoped for from her. Her reactions were definitely something to keep in mind for next time.

Smarmy stepped out of the shadows, a smile on his smug rounded face. His smile made my skin crawl, like he wished he could lick the flesh from my bones.

Is that a gold tooth? Sweet Jesus. I rolled my eyes and struggled against the vampire’s incredibly strong hold.

“I don’t think she wants to give it away anymore,” the woman behind me sneered in a familiar feminine voice. As her breath pushed past my ear, I knew there was a long wave of Ebony black hair I could grip if I needed to. Her hand tightened around my throat. If she squeezed much tighter, Jade would be on her own. I was having a hard time focusing as my lungs fought for air. I had to get her hand off my throat.

“No,” I managed to growl. She relaxed her fingers just a hair, but it was enough for me to take in a short, shallow breath. “She’s not giving it away, you stupid shit”. I tugged at her fingers, wrapped like a vice around my neck. I knew I couldn’t pry them away from my skin, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try. Something about knowing Marlboro Man didn’t want to kill me gave me enough confidence I’d get out of this alive, this time. If she wanted me dead, I’d already be dead. But I also didn’t want to end up in a cage.

“Listen to her, Dominique, she thinks she can tell us what to do,” Smarmy said, closing the distance between us. His hot, garlic-scented breath huffed in my face. He wore a rayon pink- and blue-vertical-striped shirt. The view of chest hair I had down his shirt and the thick layer of grease he’d plastered onto his head to hold back his jet black hair repulsed me. Bile rose in my throat, and I fought to hold it back.

“Could you take a step back?” I begged in a revolted tone. “I’m getting nauseous just looking at you. Not to mention your breath,” I added with a sneer.

Ebony Goddess jerked my head to the side with her free hand and tightened her grip on my throat, twisting and tugging my skin. The muscles in my neck ached as I struggled for air, burning my trachea with each intake of air and stretching my jaw painfully out of joint. If she weren’t careful, she’d crush my throat.

Smarmy retreated three steps, and I braced for the violence shimmering in his eyes. He raised his arm high above his head, then brought it down hard, striking me across the face with the back of his hand. I felt each one of his fat fingers strike my face as the inside of my cheek slammed against my teeth, breaking the skin. Blood flooded my mouth.

Jade gasped, hugging the side of the Maserati. “What the hell are you doing?” she screamed, fear quaked through her voice.

“Whatever I want,” Smarmy said, his smile filled with malice. He sneered at Jade back over his shoulder, his gold tooth fully visible. The vampire behind me chuckled, her hand still firmly planted on my throat.

I spit the blood from my mouth. The thick, viscous liquid slid down Smarmy’s rayon striped shirt without actually soaking into the horrible fabric.

“Cheap bastard,” I spat out. I slid my hand beneath my shirt and pulled an oak stake from the band I wore around my waist.

He brought his arm up to hit me again.

I anchored against the vampire’s hold behind me and kicked out, planting my foot dead center in Smarmy’s hairy chest before he could bring his hand back down across my cheek. He groaned as the wind left his lungs. He stumbled back.

The vampire and I tumbled backward from the force of my kick until her back hit the brick wall of a nearby liquor store. I slammed the back of my head into her face, forcing her head into the unforgiving wall behind her. Her fingers slacked on my throat for only a moment. It was enough. I took advantage of it and spun quickly. I pushed her to my left, then plunged the stake into her, missing her heart by inches as it sank into her shoulder.

I glared down at the Ebony Goddess with hatred. If I killed her, I’d have hell to pay, a mess to clean up and the general public to deal with quicker than I’d want. I stepped back and grabbed Smarmy instead.

He almost slipped out of my grasp as my fingers struggled to grip the rayon fabric of his shirt. I managed to grasp his ridiculously large lapels and slammed him against the building. Adrenaline flooded my system, and I spit out a second mouthful of blood.

I wanted to beat his smug face to a pulp, but I had to get Jade out of danger before I could do anything. I’d been lucky. They weren’t ready for me to fight back. They wouldn’t make that mistake a second time. I had to be smart, not cocky.

I slipped my bowie knife from my boot, then pressed the blade against Smarmy’s throat. The friction from his stubble scraped against the sharp edge. The temptation to slice just a little deeper was almost too much to resist.

“Jade,” I called without taking my eyes from Smarmy’s dark pools of depravity. They narrowed in on me as I spoke. He trembled just a fraction as I angled the knife against his jawline and pressed harder. I felt it, his gulp of terror move through the blade. He tilted his head away from the knife, but didn’t dare move. “Get in the car and drive away,” I ordered, enunciating each and every word so there would be no mistake.

“But-”

“Go!” I ordered sharply. My voice came out three octaves lower than my usual tone. Smarmy flinched slightly as I spoke, not much, but I noticed. I felt a delicious, dangerous smile crest my lips. My breathing evened out and my heart rate slowed until I no longer felt it pounding against my skull. My brain was quiet.

I could kill him.

I rolled that thought around my mind for a second or two and realized I was right. He was human, but I could kill him and walk away. As that realization spread over my being, Smarmy shrank from me. No doubt, he read the silence and the cold acceptance of his death in my eyes.

Jade’s car door closed behind me. The soft rumble of the Italian engine came to life behind me.

I yanked Smarmy from the wall and turned him quickly in my grasp. I pulled his back against me as I pressed the knife to his throat. The Ebony Goddess took a pensive step toward me as she plucked the stake from her shoulder like it was a splinter.

“You don’t want to do that,” Ebony Goddess said, as if talking a crazy person back from the ledge.

“I really do,” I responded through clenched teeth. I took another step back, tugging Smarmy with me at knifepoint. If I could get into the public eye, I could avoid blood. The breeze of Jade’s car flowed over us as I took another step toward civilization. The street noise got closer, and the soft yellow light from the street lamps made the night seem less daunting. I was almost there.

“We can talk about this,” Ebony Goddess said with a placating smile that set my teeth on edge. I pushed the knife against Smarmy’s flesh just a bit harder, just as she’d done to me. He gasped as the blade broke his greasy skin. A small stream of warm blood oozed down the blade, dripping from the hilt to the ground.

“STOP!” Smarmy screamed frantically at the Ebony Goddess, who froze at his plea. She must have heard the fear quivering in his voice. “She’ll do it, Dom. Please stop.”

“Don’t. . .” The Ebony Goddess froze, palms out.

The first twitch of a smile pulled the corners of my mouth up. I was in control. One more step and I could see the stop light at the corner. I grabbed a handful of his greasy hair in my hand and yanked his head back, exposing more of his neck to my blade.

“UGH,” he grunted as I dragged him with me another step toward freedom. Just one more step, and I’d be out of the shadows.

“Another night, another time,” I whispered against his ear. I pushed him as hard as I could into the Ebony Goddess, dragging my blade against his skin and drawing more blood. I stepped back into the light of the street lamp and the safety of the bustling street and watched as the Ebony Goddess examined Smarmy’s wound.

Smarmy pressed his hand against his neck to staunch the bleeding while I slipped the knife back in my boot. I didn’t want anyone to catch a glance of my weapon. Ebony Goddess glared back at me with hatred in her eyes and the promise of vengeance in her scowl.

I smirked back at her with contempt. It was two and a half blocks to my front door. I ran without looking back.

I rounded the corner of my street and saw a familiar car parked out in front of my house. There were several Volvos, a couple of SUVs and an Audi or two but nothing as rich as the Maserati, looking horribly out of place in front of my modest two-story Arts & Crafts home. I stepped onto my walk, and Jade rose from the wicker sofa on my front porch.

“Took your sweet time, didn’t you?” she asked, accusation ringing in her words. She crossed her arms over her chest and shifted her weight to her left side. She was mad. Fuming actually, and her eyes burned into me like green fire.

“I ran into some problems,” I said as I climbed the four stairs to the porch. I dug in my bag for my keys and heard a distant jingle from the bottom of my bag as I rooted around.

“I’ll say.”

I fished my keys out and fumbled with them as I spoke. “You have no idea.” I turned the key in the lock and pushed the door open as the shrill beeping from the alarm sounded from the kitchen. Jade followed me in and waited until I’d hit the code before she said anything else.

“You stabbed that woman with a stick,” she said, eyes wide in lingering disbelief, her hands planted firmly on her hips.

“Technically, yes,” I said as I threw my bag on the couch and started checking the windows and doors in my usual nightly routine. Lock everything down. I didn’t want anything getting in my house that didn’t already belong there.

“You pulled a knife from your boot and held that guy at knife point.” Tears hitched her voice as her words caught in the back of her throat.

“Yes,” I said flatly as I turned to her and waited.

“That woman, had fangs,” she said finally as the first tear streamed down her bronzed cheek, followed by another, and then another. It was like watching her entire world collapse around her and a new one being born. Everything she thought she knew was wrong. Everything she thought didn’t exist, did, and she was trying her damnedest to come to grips with that.

“Yes, she did,” I said finally.

“What’s going on here?” she asked, defeated, as she plopped down on my sofa and dropped her head in her hands.

“She was a vampire,” I said in a clear, unquestioning voice. “As I said.”

Jade turned appalled vibrant green eyes up to meet mine with horror etched on her face. “You’re joking,” she accused as she grimaced and placed her head back in her hands.

“What you saw was no joke. They would’ve killed me and you, too.” I added, mostly for dramatic effect. It worked. The look she gave me was filled with terror. “Researching demons didn’t seem to bother you,” I said.

“I thought it was about some group of wackos worshiping this thing, not that it was real,” she said, almost screaming at me.

“It’s all real. All those things that we believed as children, vampires, werewolves, witches, demons, ghosts and ghouls. They’re all real,” I said with conviction. I’d never known a time when the preternatural world didn’t exist. I’d always known that there were other things out there that could hurt me.

“Shit,” she said with a heavy exhale.

“I know this is a lot to take in. If you want to back out, I understand,” I said, moving toward my front door. I liked her; she’d become a friend without my realizing it, and she was a damned good researcher. I didn’t want to lose her, but I would let her walk away to keep her safe. It was the least I could do.

“Hold on a sec,” she said quickly. “Just let me get my head around this.”

The smallest sliver of a hopeful smile turned the corners of my mouth up. She wanted to stay.

“Okay,” I said cautiously, waiting for her to say something.

“What about you?” she said finally.

I looked at her, surprised. “What about me?”

“What are you?”

“Well, that’s the $64,000 question at the moment. I don’t know,” I said with a quick shrug of my shoulders. “No one seems to know. Danny told me I smelled like old magic, but I don’t know what that means. Neither did he.”

“Danny? Do I want to know?” she asked, dread in her voice.

“Werewolf,” I said flatly.

“Right.” She shook her head in the same manner a child would clear an etch-a-sketch. “So what do we do now?”

“We keep looking,” I said. “The vampires don’t want me dead anymore. Which I suppose is a bonus. They do, however, want me for something else. That frightens me more than the dead part,” I said, sarcasm filling my tone. “At least dead, I know what I’m in for.”

“Maybe they want your hot body,” Jade said with the faintest hint of a smile.

“A*shole,” I said stiffly. She didn’t know how close she’d come to the mark with at least one vampires.

“I have to do what I’m good at,” she said, finally smiling at me fully.

“You’re good at research. Let’s get down to that,” I said sharply.

“If you say so.” she said, wiping the remnants of the tears from her cheeks. “Let’s get to work.”

A sigh of relief escaped my lips. I wasn’t sure I could trust myself anymore. I was glad that there was someone I could trust who would look out for me.

No matter how attracted I was to him, Patrick was a vampire.

He was Dead. D. E. A. D. An abomination of God.

I couldn’t let him touch me again. No matter how much I wanted him to.

“Let’s get started.”