Black Heart: Coeur de Sade (Black Heart Series) (36 page)

            "Are you sure?"

            "No."

            "Shit."

            The bats all started screeching insanely and loudly.  I saw Bat Man borne by his pets descend from the sky like some evil gothic god of death, all pale skin and black leather.  He hit the ground running, and smashed through the window five feet to my right.

            "Dane!" I cried, and raced inside.  Inside, I shouted with all I had, "Dane!  Heidi!  There's a vampire after you!  Run!"

            Everyone within sight just froze, gawking at me, then at Bat Man.  They weren't mesmerized.  They were more confused than anything, with fear starting to bubble up.

            "Vampire!" Desiree cried.  "Oh God, he's killing everyone!"

            He obviously wasn't hurting anyone.  Didn't matter.  He looked scary, and that was all they needed to ignite primal fears.  Men shouted, women screamed, and everyone scattered and ran.  It was chaos, and I darted through that disaster scene on my way to the back classrooms where Dane taught self defense and Krav Maga.

            "Heidi!" Bat Man bellowed.  "I am going to eat your soul!"

            I thought he was an idiot for warning her like that.  If there was any doubt in her mind he was after her, it was gone now.  But then I felt a single person's tension and terror spike, and recognized Heidi's "feel."  Dane's fear ramped up a second later, when he realized it was his Heidi being threatened.  Bat Man laughed, having marked his prey successfully.

            "Kill him!" I cried, then seized a fifty pound weight and hurled it at him.  I missed, but got his attention.  "Back off.  Council sent me to collect the talisman."

            "Antoinette will not be denied."

            "Want to bet on that?" another man said.  He was naked as the day he was born.  Vietnamese and young, he looked supremely confident and dangerous.  He was a vampire.  "Nguyen Giáp Tan will have the talisman."

            The memory of that sixty something looking Vietnamese vampire at council flashed.  Was he Nguyen Giáp Tan?  Or was there another player involved.  Then I spotted Lolita leading her sister through the front doors.  Was everyone following me?

            "The Coeur de Sade is ours!" Lolita said.  They at least were dressed in jeans and t-shirts.  So they didn't come in as a bat or wolf.  "It took our Family's Sire, so we claim it."

            "You have no claim," the Vietnamese man sneered.  "Be gone!"

            "Screw yourself, Nguyen," Lolita said.

            He was Nguyen?  Nguyen Giáp Tan?  I was getting confused.

            Lorelei began to whisper a chant and the temperature plummeted.  I scowled to see magic wielded, and with no idea how to fend against it.  Nguyen charged them.  Bat Man laughed and headed for his prey.

            I reached for my pistol and realized I left it in my pack at Brandon's house.  There was no time for hesitation or even thinking.  It was battle.  Live or die.  I threw myself at him.

            "Desiree, hurry!" I cried.  "Go warn them!"

            "Warn who?" Dane said.  His eyes locked on Bat Man, racing towards them.  "Oh shit!"

            "No!" I cried, too late.  Heidi was standing beside him, in workout clothes under the pads and helmet students wore while sparring.  "Close your eyes!"

            Once again, I was too late.  Both Dane and Heidi were mesmerized by Bat Man.

            "Where is the Coeur de Sade?" he demanded.

            "In my purse," Heidi said.

            "Get it."

            "Dane!" I cried, gaining his attention.  I caught his eyes, and took over from Bat Man.  "Stop Heidi!"

            "No," Bat Man said, and his bats swarmed Dane seconds later.  I tackled Bat Man.  I thought I did good, until he morphed into a bat.  He flew away a few feet, and was a fully dressed man again.  "Fools.  You are no match for me."

            "I shot you with silver!"

            "I removed it on the way over," he said.

            Looking past him, I spotted Desiree slipping up to the women's locker room door.  She reached for the door, and it opened.  It was Heidi returning, still in helmet and pads, but with that pink designer purse in hand.

            "Hey, Bat-crap-for-brains," I snarled, catching Bat Man's attention.  "I'm more than a match for Antoinette's stupid
punk
."

            His crazy eyes narrowed and he bared his fangs.  Nothing scarier than a crazy vampire.  But I noticed Desiree seize Heidi's by the face mask, and drag her back into the locker room.  I prayed Desiree was smart enough to take the talisman and run.

            Countless bats suddenly wheeled and headed for me.  I morphed into a bat, and exploded out of my clothes.  He saw, and prepared to slap me aside.  A second later I was a wolf, and clamped vicious teeth on his right forearm.

            Bat Man shriek, and hurled me across the room to smash into the wall between the men's and women's locker room doors.  I was lucky.  The water cooler broke my fall.  I only think seven or eight ribs were broken.

            I collapsed to hands and knees, gasping and already feeling the tickly feel of knitting bones.  Lorelei's magic exploded around Bat Man a second later, sending both Lolita and Nguyen flying as well.  Exercise machines were ripped up from the floor and flung at the crazed vampire.

            All I could do was stare as Lorelei stalked towards me.  She just pointed at something, clenched her fist and then threw her hand at whoever had her attention.  That piece of equipment would fly at that person.  Mostly she threw the stuff at Bat Man and Nguyen.

            Standing up, I assumed a fighting stance and considered my option.  The unpleasant thought that she was about to put some hurt on me crossed my mind.  No helping it.  She had to be held up long enough for Desiree to escape.

            "This is your fault," Heidi snarled behind me.

            "Ooff!" I cried, a wooden stake thrust through my back and erupting from my belly just below the breastbone.  Bare wood.  It was incredibly painful.  I could barely think through the pain.  "Heidi...no..."

            "Crap, I missed the heart," she said, and jerked it out.

            It hurt more leaving my body than it did piercing it.  No doubt in my mind she was about to thrust it back into me, and probably wouldn't miss the heart the second time.  Dane was training her, after all.

            Mustering all my strength, I whirled around to confront her.  The helmet was gone and she was all scratched up, but otherwise looked fine.  I couldn't help but wonder how Desiree did against her.  At least her attack had broken Heidi out of her trance, though that wasn't doing me any good.

            Heidi smashed the bloody stake across my mouth before dropping into a fighting stance.  Then she brought the butt end of it straight up into my chin, straightening me up and stumbling back.  I saw her pull the stake back, aiming for my heart.

            Great bat wings erupted from my back, startling Heidi.  I screamed.  She only hesitated a second.  That was enough.  I thrust the eight inch spiky talons at the first joint of my wings straight down into her shoulders.

            "Uuugghhhh!" she wailed.

            Heidi thrust the stake at my heart.  I blocked it aside, my fury erupting and I sank my fangs deep into her throat, then whipped my face to the side to rip open a terrible wound.  Hot blood spewed all over.  She wailed pitiably.  What I had done struck me, and I was filled with fear and shame.

            A second later my wings vanished back into my body as she staggered back, the look on her face like a knife in the heart.  Heidi knew she was about to die.  I had to heal her fast, before she lost too much blood.  Before it was too late.

            Something big and heavy smashed into my back.  Lorelei laughed as I watched Heidi fall back through the women's locker room door.  The impact of that exercise machine to my back sent me tumbling away.

            “I don’t know who did your hair, but you should bite him,” Lorelei said.

            “I did,” I said, thinking of Heidi dying in the locker room.  I had to get to her before it was too late.  “Don’t make me bite you.”

            That amused her.  I was still struggling to get out from under that weight machine pinning one leg down just above the knee.  Her eyes narrowed as her lips curled into a smile.  The temperature dropped as she started a chant.

            "Lorelei!" Lolita cried.  "Run!"

            Lorelei and I looked back towards Lolita.  More vampires were arriving as Lorelei’s forgotten spell collapsed and the temperature rose.  I recognized faces from council, but didn't have names to put to those faces.  There were vampires of every race arriving, all wary of each other.  I did recognize Jeff, Tara, and Antoinette.

            "Council's not playing by the rules," I said.

            Lorelei didn’t hang around.  She turned and ran away.  Lolita was already gone.  So it seemed I was the only one left for the big baddies to lock on.

            “About time the cavalry showed up,” I said, finally slipping from under that heavy steel machine.  Standing, I stretched and looked them all over.  Half were naked.  “I guess the cavalry’s night shift doesn’t have a dress code.”

            Only Antoinette and Jeff seemed to be amused.  Jeff grinned, a tiny smile flickered across Antoinette’s face.

            “Where’s Alfred?” Antoinette said, suddenly not looking so amused.

            “Who?”

            “Bat Man,” Jeff said.  “He was just here.”

            The bats were all gone, too.  I reached out my senses, and found Desiree far away.  I almost smiled and sighed with relief.  She wasn’t stressed out or worried.  That was odd.  In fact, she seemed quite pleased and excited.

            “Where is Heidi?” Antoinette demanded.

            “Sable, what does she want with Heidi?” Dane said, his fear spiking.  He was backed in a corner by three vampires.  I recognized Nguyen, Apollonia, and unknown Latino vamp.

            “Heidi has the Coeur de Sade,” I said.  “She found it at Victory Square and didn’t tell anyone.”

            “Bullshit,” he said.

            “No, she had it.  Heidi used it on me earlier today,” I said, and grimaced at the memory.  Would I ever get the taste of pine scented floor wax out of my mouth?  “It was not pleasant.”  I shrugged at his surprised look.  “That was my motorcycle in front of your house.  Heidi was doing really bad things to me while you were gone.”

            His face flamed up brightest red.  That kinda made me feel better.  He did care.

            “Oh my God!” Dane cried.  “Bat Man was after her, and now both of them are gone.”

            The vampires all froze.  Dane and I both looked at the locker room door, and then a tall Chinese vampire in a red silk dress, decorated with golden dragons, pushed past me and flung open the locker room door.  There was an enormous pool of blood just inside, but no Heidi.  Dane's blood pressure really hit the roof at that sight.  She led four other vampires searching the locker room.

            I knew Heidi’s “feel” and I couldn’t find her.  That only meant one thing.  Heidi was dead.  Gone.  Confirmation that I killed Dane’s new girlfriend hit me like a bolt out of the blue.

            “She’s gone,” the Chinese woman said.  “No sign of her or Bat Man.”

            While they all scowled and growled about, casting angry looks at Antoinette, I wondered if Bat Man was looking for Desiree.  Did he know she took the talisman from Heidi?  But why did he take Heidi's body?

            I had to contact Desiree as soon as possible.

            "Back to square one," I said.  Giving them all a dark look, I acted as disgusted as possible.  "You are all so hot to get your power hungry hands on that talisman.  I hope you realize that it was all of your appearances here tonight that disrupted everything, and allowed the talisman to slip between our fingers again."  I shook my head woefully.  "Do you really want me looking for it?  I'm not so sure anymore.  If you are going to do your own thing anyway, why should I bother?"

            They had nothing to say to that.  I didn't think they would.  So I casually walked over to my pile of clothes.  They watched as I morphed into a bat for a fraction of a second to clean off all that blood, and then tried to get dressed in public with as much dignity as possible.  Really, it's not possible to wiggle into snug latex pants with anything approaching dignity.

            "Come, Dane, let's get out of here," I said.

            "No one said the hunter could leave," Nguyen said.

            "I just did," I said.

            "You're no one," he said.

            Apollonia and the unknown vampire with them smiled darkly.  I could play that game, too.  So I slowly sauntered over to stand before him, way too close.  Nguyen stood straighter, clearly wanting more space between us.  I was taller in my heels.

            Leaning in so close my lips brushed his cheek when I spoke, "How many vampires have you killed?"

            "What does that matter?"

            "How many werewolves?" I said.  "How many alpha werewolves?"

            "That means nothing."

            "Did council ask
you
to find the talisman?" I said.  "Now tell me why you think you're better than me, punk."  He tensed up.  "Do it.  Try me.  And
die
that last death."

            He cut his eyes up into mine.  I locked eyes with him, giving him my best steely eyed killer.

            Nguyen backed up a step.

            His retreat knocked the wind out of Apollonia's sails, too.  I took Dane by hand and led him out of that room, through the front door and out to my Ninja.  I climbed on, started her up and patted the seat behind me.

            "Mount up, lover," I said.  I was still in killer vampire mode, so he gave me a wary look before settling in behind me.  "Good boy."