Gorgon Read online

  “He can only come across in the same form he’s always had on this side, if anyone living remembers him,” Kelly said.

  “Ten out of ten,” Heath said. “You did well in your little angel exams, didn’t you?”

  “We don’t have exams,” Kelly said, again off balance.

  “So if a human remembers you, you can’t change how you look?” Jason asked.

  “Nope,” Heath said. “I’ve had this face for about three hundred years now.”

  “How many times have you been ashed in that time?” Jason asked.

  “Never,” Heath said.

  “That’s not true,” Kelly said. Heath grinned.

  “I’m a demon. I can’t just offer up the truth on a platter, now can I?”

  “So you’ve been ashed,” Jason said.

  “Apparently,” Heath answered with a playful look. Kelly felt a bit sick.

  “Still,” Jason said. “Why vampire?”

  Heath looked out over the dance floor for a moment, then at Kara.

  “What I can’t figure out,” the vampire finally said, “is why there aren’t more of us running around.”

  “Because Sam won’t stand for it,” Kelly said darkly. And neither would he, he thought.

  Heath tipped his head to the side.

  “Who is Sam?”

  “Technically, I’m one of them,” Jason said. Kelly knew it was true, and he also knew that Samantha was about the only one of ‘her’ people that Kelly respected - lionized, actually - but he still didn’t think Jason deserved it. No matter how well Jason had treated him, Kelly found it hard to respect him as a crusader of sorts against the darkness.

  The world streamed with gray. Kelly didn’t know how to claim an allegiance anywhere.

  “Doesn’t answer my question,” Heath said, still watching Kelly.

  “Does the name Carter mean anything to you?” Jason asked. Heath’s eyebrows went up.

  “You’ve been in the company of Renouch,” he said. Kelly all but hissed.

  “Her name is Anadidd’na Anu’dd,” he said, raising what appeared to be an equal reaction from the demon. They stared at each other for a long moment.

  “Awk-ward,” Jason said. “Yeah, we know her.”

  “How very interesting,” Heath said. “I’ve never had the opportunity, but you hear such interesting things.”

  “How do you know Sammycat?” Kara asked.

  Heath looked at her again.

  “She would ash me at a breath for that term, wouldn’t she?” he asked. Kara grinned.

  “Probably.”

  He shook his head.

  “Everyone knows Renouch. The one who came back. She causes problems wherever she goes, doesn’t she?”

  “Sounds like her,” Jason said. “I met an art vampire, once.”

  “I haven’t got a clue what that means,” Heath said.

  “Seriously,” Jason said. “He bought art. That was his demon thing.”

  “Not very bathing-in-the-blood-of-babies, really,” Kara said.

  “I’ve never heard of that,” Heath said. “Wouldn’t have thought of it.”

  “Sam let him live,” Jason said. “Said he wasn’t hurting anything.”

  “I don’t understand her tolerance,” Kelly said. “How can she stand them?”

  Jason motioned at Heath.

  “Hard to get that worked up, actually. Guy doesn’t come at me with an axe or something, I have a hard time being that eager to off him.”

  “Thank you, I guess,” Heath said, curling the corner of his mouth. Kelly found he was shaking his head back and forth, unable to contain it any more.

  He couldn’t sit here.

  He couldn’t.

  He wouldn’t.

  It was like pushing two ends of a magnet too close together. He couldn’t take it.

  “We’re just going to sit here?” he asked. “You were complaining that he would just want to sit and drink, and here you sit, doing the same,” he accused Kara. She shook her hair out.

  “This is how we do this one, kid. I was warning Jason that we aren’t going to an after hours bar after this.”

  Heath blinked at him, daring him to get upset.

  Kelly stood.

  “Name your battle field. I will meet you on the dunes of the Sahara, on the ice of the arctic, in the deep woods of the northern Rockies,” he said. “But I will not sit here with you any longer and pretend we aren’t mortal enemies.”

  “Isn’t the arctic dark, this time of night?” Heath asked. Kara looked up at the ceiling with a frown.

  “I would think so,” she said.

  There was giggling, and a pair of girls in shorts and combat boots approached the table.

  “Aren’t you the vampire?” one of them asked. Heath turned to them with a warm smile.

  “I am,” he said, “but I’m afraid I have company tonight.”

  “It will just take a minute,” the other girl said.

  “I want to see your teeth,” the first one said. Heath looked at the table and Kelly saw Jason shake his head subtly.

  “Sorry, girls,” Heath said. “Check back tomorrow night.”

  They stayed for another moment, hoping he’d change his mind, but he ignored them. Finally they left.

  “They’re here on fake IDs,” Kara observed.

  “The young ones taste the best,” Heath said, then motioned to Jason with his glass. “You could have considered it a last meal.”

  “Sorry, man,” Jason said. “You know I can’t.”

  Heath shrugged.

  “Doesn’t hurt to ask.”

  The evening wore on, and half a dozen more times someone approached Heath. He sent all of them away, promising he would see them tomorrow. Each time, Kelly grew more determined that he wouldn’t.

  Finally, the club began to empty.

  “You have the pull here to let us stay?” Jason asked. Heath shook his head.

  “No, but we might be able to sneak into the basement. Don’t think anyone goes down there again before tomorrow morning.”

  “This place isn’t the basement?” Jason asked, and Heath laughed.

  “Believe it or not.”

  “Lead the way,” Jason said.

  The DJ was shutting down the lights, and the last groups of dark-clad dancers were talking, rather than dancing, presumably winding down and getting ready to go. Heath stood, and a young man appeared out of nowhere.

  “Are you going?” he asked.

  “Um,” Heath said.

  “Get lost, kid,” Jason said. “Not tonight.”

  “I waited…” the kid said.

  “We’re just going downstairs,” Heath said. “You’re welcome to join us.”

  The young man brightened, and Kelly saw Heath stiffen. With a dawning realization, he saw the strange angle of Kara’s arm, that it would have given her the ability to put a short blade against the vampire’s side without anyone being able to see it.

  Enemies closer. He might be able to learn something from that.

  “Let me go get my girlfriend,” he said. “You remember us, don’t you? You bit her last week.”

  “He’s busy tonight,” Jason said.

  “But he said…” the kid started.

  “Sorry,” Kara said. “We don’t play well with others.”

  “I’m going to go get Ellie,” the kid said. “Just wait a minute.”

  “Move,” Jason said.

  “They’re perfectly nice kids,” Heath said. “You’d like them.”

  “Actually, I doubt it,” Jason said. “I’ve never seen the allure of letting someone else bite you.”

  “Liar,” Kara said.

  Jason grinned at her, and they started forward again.

  “You sure you don’t want to meet them?” Heath asked, edging away from Kara. She slid right along with him.

  “Maybe later,” she said. “Let’s see this basement.”

  “It’s really pretty boring,” Heath said. “I know a great bar down t
he street.”

  “Not this time,” Kara said.

  “I don’t know what you’re implying,” Heath said, standing taller.

  “That door?” Jason asked, going ahead and opening the door. Kelly trailed along behind, confused, but relieved to see some antagonism finally showing up.

  “Heath,” someone called. “Wait up.”

  They were through the door and starting down the cement stairs when the kid and his black-haired girlfriend started down after them.

  “What’s down here?” the girl asked. “I’ve never been down here.”

  “Dark corners, my dear,” Heath called back up the stairs. “Dark corners.”

  The girl giggled, and Kelly turned.

  They weren’t involved. It didn’t matter how much he wanted to yell at them, to tell them to run, to flee, he couldn’t speak to them. All he could do was stand as the two of them split to go past him on either side, continuing down the stairs.

  “Told you this was a private party,” Kara said, staying close to Heath.

  “Oh, come on, Heath says we can come,” the boy said. Jason came back up the stairs, edging past Kara and Heath to hold his hands up in an effort to stop the kids.

  “Not tonight, guys,” he said. “All right?”

  “Is he going to bite both of you?” the boy asked. “He’d only do her, last time.”

  That didn’t make sense to Kelly. With all of these people offering themselves to him, why would the demon turn any of them away?

  “He isn’t biting anyone,” Kara called.

  The couple paused, then the girl whispered to the boy.

  “We’re down for anything,” he said. “We’ve been to these places before.”

  “Go home,” Jason said.

  “Don’t treat us like kids,” the boy said. “We do this stuff all the time.”

  “I bet,” Jason said, looking back down the stairs. Kara and Heath had very nearly reached the bottom of the stairs, ready to turn. “Kelly, stay with her.”

  Kelly woke up, stalled for a moment trying to get past the pair in front of him without touching either one of them, then, getting past, ran past Jason, getting to Kara and Heath just as they made it to the dark room at the bottom of the stairs.

  They stood and listened to Jason argue with them for several more minutes, Kelly itching to draw his blade and get to work, but something in Kara’s expression holding him back.

  Something about innocents. The uninitiated.

  He couldn’t trigger knowledge that they didn’t have.

  It wasn’t his place.

  He waited.

  Finally, Jason appeared.

  “They make it hard to believe that we’re here defending them, really,” he said. Heath sighed.

  “Very well,” he said, twisting very rapidly in toward Kara and stretching his mouth open, his canine teeth stretching into long, pointed fangs.

  <><><>

  Kara’s footwork was perfect. She twisted away from the vampire as he made his last-ditch effort to power up, the short dagger in her hand finding air as the vampire skirted away. Kelly had a sword out, the blade catching the small amount of ambient light and glinting white.

  This was always the trickiest part of the vampire thing. They’d gotten him away from all of the willing blood bags, but they were still exposed and disorganized, and he was certainly going to try to capitalize on it.

  Jason bent time, watching carefully as Kara spun, avoiding hands, feet, and teeth as the vampire tried to get an advantage over her.

  He was fast. Faster than Jason had ever seen one. He wondered if they held back with people who didn’t know they were demons, to avoid tipping their hands. He didn’t know if he would have ever put it together, without Samantha being so blunt about it.

  He had his hand tangled in Kara’s hair, pulling her over backwards, her back arching, trying to stay on balance, and he stretched his mouth again, moving in for her shoulder.

  She put her hand up, touching his face, and he froze. She bent her knees, grabbing his arm to hold herself up and pulled her hair free, springing away as he tried to work his jaw closed again.

  Well, the vampire stuff still worked.

  Both Kara and Jason carried bottles of garlic oil, and she’d have coated her hands with it on the way down the stairs. As Jason watched, the scent of it finally made it to him.

  Kara was away, and Heath had his hands up on his face, trying to force his jaw closed. Kelly was moving in, angel blade moving in an arc that would meet with the demon’s skull, if nothing changed. Jason was still waiting, weight up off of his heels, arms out slightly, ready to draw if he needed to. As usual, no one had noticed he was carrying the dragonsword on his back - part of its magic.

  Heath put a hand up, twisting on quick feet to get out of the way of Kelly’s blade, and Jason watched as Kara made the far wall, standing with her back just off of it, fully out of the way and ready to react to what happened next.

  Sometimes it was just that easy.

  And sometimes it wasn’t.

  There were voices on the stairs again and Jason cursed, trying to make it to the doorway before Heath did.

  The vampire was faster than he was.

  At the sound of human voices, Kelly had frozen, and Jason reached for Anadidd’na to draw her as he ran.

  The sound of metal versus metal as she drew clear of her sheath was comforting and familiar to him, like a song.

  Heath pulled the girl down into the room, his jaw popping loose, and he bit her. The girl screamed in surprise, her hands flying up to find Heath’s head, but she didn’t fight.

  Dammit, why didn’t they ever fight?

  The boy came into view, passive, watching.

  Damned idiots.

  Heath tossed the girl aside as Jason got there, grabbing the boy to bit him. The kid’s face lit up as his girlfriend hit the floor, inanimate. Jason wouldn’t know if she were unconscious or dead until it was all over. The young man went limp and Heath dropped him, snarling at Jason.

  Four seconds, maybe five.

  The instant the boy hit the ground, Kelly was back in action, glitching behind the demon and continuing the swing he had started before he’d glitched. The demon grabbed the angel’s wrist, throwing him across the room. He’d been fast, before. He was a blur, now.

  The blood.

  It didn’t always have this effect, but it was the vampire thing. When they got angry, if you gave them access to blood, they got lethal. Jason hoped Kara had the good sense to stay out of it, from here. He stood in front of the vampire, Anadidd’na ready, feeling his weight, his space, his balance.

  Just like any other fight.

  Kelly would be back.

  Heath hissed.

  “Kha’shing,” Jason murmured, feeling the surge of power as the sword flared with orange flame. Before the flame had opportunity to die, he spun the dragonsword, Anadidd’na, over his head and brought her down, driving Heath back a step. Kelly was, indeed, back, and Heath disappeared as Kelly tried to corner him. Jason, holding time at a hard bend, heard the air behind him move, and he ducked, spinning as he did it and slashing Anadidd’na along the floor. Heath jumped, coming down in a squat and trying to grab Jason’s shoulder. Jason was only fractionally too fast, and he saw the realization hit the vampire.

  Jason was too fast.

  But Kara wouldn’t be.

  He glitched, and Jason spun, finding Kara fighting Heath with a pair of daggers.

  She was good, but he was fast, angry, strong, and cornered.

  Kelly glitched across the room as Jason charged, but even the angel was too slow. Heath caught hold of Kara, a vicious grip under her armpit, and dragged her in, standing with his back against the wall and Kara as a human shield for a fraction of a second as Jason and Kelly stood, momentarily frozen. He didn’t take the dramatic pause, this time, sinking his teeth into the flesh where Kara’s neck met her shoulders. Jason’s mouth tasted sour as Kara’s eyes flew open. Pain. Her hands were on
their way up, trying to find a way to defend herself, to use the garlic to fend him off, but the effect was too fast. He drew her blood and her eyes rolled up into her head and she was gone. He dropped her to the floor and looked up at Kelly and Jason with open smugness.

  “Three down,” he said, glitching away again.

  “Take care of her,” Kelly growled, turning in the dim to face the shadow that was the vampire. Jason backed quickly to where Kara had fallen, dropping to a knee and putting his fingers to Kara’s jaw, looking for a pulse.

  There it was.

  He breathed again, watching from the floor as Kelly and Heath came together, Heath now holding a short blade not unlike the daggers Kara had used to try to defend herself. The vampire was fast and he was angry, glitching several times a second, but Kelly had trained with the best, and he kept up, matching motion for motion.

  And then he opened his mouth to speak, but what came out was a sound more like wind than words. It sounded like angeltongue, but it didn’t have the distinct words the way it did when Samantha used it.

  The vampire enraged, coming at Kelly with renewed fury and intensity, but something had changed. Kelly was calm, collected, fending off Heath’s flurry like you would a younger sibling. Jason wished Kara had been awake to see it.

  Not long after, the vampire glitched and didn’t reappear. Kelly froze, waiting, but Heath didn’t come back. Kelly closed his eyes, focusing, and then he disappeared as well. Jason tried not to let his guard down, but he took the moment of quiet to roll Kara onto her side and look down at her carefully.

  Her skin was pale, paler than usual, and her lips were barely shaded compared to her face, but she was breathing.

  “Come on, honey,” he said. “Wake up for me.”

  He checked her shoulder but, as he had known would be the case, there was no hole there. Something about vampires made the wounds they inflicted heal immediately. Jason figured it was the only way they ever got repeat customers.

  He checked Kara’s pulse again, wishing he knew more about how to tell whether it was good or bad, but at least it was.

  There was a footstep, and Jason jerked his head.

  “It’s done,” Kelly said, brushing ash off his clothes.

  “Good job, kid,” Jason said.

  “Is she okay?” Kelly asked.

  “I think so,” Jason said, standing to go over and check on the couple.