Moonlight and Diamonds & The Vampire's Fall (33 page)

Chapter 13

B
lade charged up the stairs before the mansion. With every step he took the demon scent grew stronger. At his side, Trouble growled, and he sensed his brother's need to shift. Trouble was a smash-and-bang kind of guy. He reacted before looking. And that reaction was always accompanied by fists.

Blade preferred the stealthier approach. But he already sensed that what lay behind the tall black doors was not going to be the party either of them had expected.

“You said that some stranger invited her here?” Trouble asked.

“Yeah. Stopped her in the parking lot and told her about the club.”

“Think the invite came from a demon?”

“I'm betting on it. Zen has no sense of the paranormal. She couldn't have known.” He clamped a hand on his brother's shoulder. “We go in and look around. Don't start beating in skulls until we're sure there's clear danger. Got that?”

Trouble strode up to the door, clenching his fists at his sides.

“Trouble.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He bounced from foot to foot, a boxer move he employed whenever he was pumped for a fight. “Wait for danger. Do we need some kind of bat signal, too, boss?”

His brother's cocky attitude could never annoy him. Trouble was what he was. All wolf, and itching for a fight. Always.

Blade pushed the doors open and strode in, but was stopped by a wall of a man with arms crossed high over his chest. Leather and silver studs wrapped his biceps and his block of a body.

“No admittance,” the wall said in a gravelly voice.

“We're looking for a friend,” Trouble said. “She just walked in. Tall, copper hair, flowers on her skirt?”

The wall's eyes glowed red.

“She doesn't belong here,” Blade tried. He sniffed, but the air was tainted with incense or some odd, sweet scent. “We'll just find her and leave. No trouble, eh?”

“She's exactly where she needs to be,” the wall said.

“So you have seen her. And you're stopping us from going in to find her?”

The wall nodded.

“She's in danger,” Blade said.

The wall shook its head. Neon club lights glinted in the curl of silver spikes that stuck out along his earlobes.

“Yeah, I think she is.”

Swinging the angel halo before him, Blade caught the wall across the chest, cutting through leather, chains and skin and bone. The beast let out a yowl before disintegrating into obsidian ash indicative of the demonic nature.

“Wait for danger?” Trouble said. “Right. You just wanted to be the first one to draw demon blood. I'll give you that, bro. You're owed, that's for sure.
Now
can I bash in some heads?”

“Whatever gets your rocks off, Trouble. What's that?”

Blade pushed toward the edge of the dance floor, where, peopled with hundreds, the flashing glass floor opened in the center. A bright red oval or some kind of portal loomed amidst the dancers. They danced around it but not closer than twenty feet in all directions.

And standing before the weird portal was Zen, looking upon it as if it were a marvel. She reached out to touch...

“Zen, no!”

Blade charged through the crowd, but as he did, every head turned to growl and gnash at him. Human faces shifted to demon. Scales, horns and red eyes replaced the human glamour. Talons clawed at his arms and hair. Sulfur formed a sickening miasma in the air.

Slashing the halo took out two who stood between Blade and Zen. He leaped over the demon ash and managed to grab her before she could step into the glowing portal.

Stumbling against his body, she shook her head and blinked, as if coming out of a trance. “Blade? What are you— Watch out!”

Struck from behind, a demonic talon cut through his shirt and opened his skin in searing pain. Wincing, and swinging around, Blade cut the halo through two demon heads—both attached to the same body. A cloud of demon ash formed and he dodged to avoid inhaling the noxious dust.

Grabbing Zen, he shoved her through the crowd and she landed in Trouble's arms. “Get her out of here!”

Trouble took Zen by the arm.

Blade hadn't time to follow their retreat. A diminutive demon missing a lower jaw jumped onto his chest and when it snarled at him, hot spit spattered across his face. Elbowing the clinging miscreant, he couldn't quite get him off.

“If you're not going to kill me,” he muttered to any who would listen, “then I suggest you run.”

With that warning, Blade shifted to faery. The demon shrieked and sprang away from him. Faery ichor was poisonous to demons. Blade's bones stretched and muscles pulled to reshape into the powerful winged creature. Wings unfurling, he snapped a flying demon out from above and flung it toward the red glowing portal.

The music thumped hard, pounding in his eardrums. Demons screeched, fleeing the entity that could prove their death.

Trouble appeared before Blade. Black demon blood dripped from his cheek. “Good call, man. Bringing out the big guns. She's safe in the truck. No demons out in the parking lot. Weird. Anyway. Time to party!”

Trouble shifted into a big black werewolf. Two heads taller than his human form, he was half-furred with a head like a wolf and a long toothy maw.

The brothers stood at the center of the dance floor, werewolf shouldered next to vamp-faery, and welcomed the melee that aimed for them. Fangs descending, Blade opened his mouth. He had craved demon blood for months.

Time to party, indeed.

* * *

Zen did as Trouble demanded after he'd roughly shoved her into the pickup.
Sit. Do not come out. No matter what.

Demons had been everywhere inside the club. But they'd initially all appeared human to her. No horns. No glowing red eyes. She was glad to be out of there, and hugged herself as she pulled her legs up and settled into the truck seat. Hitting the door lock provided added security. Felt like it anyway.

And yet, when she had spied the fiery red oval glowing in the middle of the dance floor she had been compelled to walk up to it. It had pulsed. Hummed, actually, a tune that had felt more to her like heartbeats than the raucous dance music that had boomed from the speakers. It had also felt warm, as if it was a sun. Or even a hug. She'd wanted to walk through to see what would happen. To answer the silvery whispers slithering through her veins that had beckoned her forth.

Now, removed from the craziness inside, her senses reset and she wondered: If she had walked through the red glow might she have never returned?

“Oh, no.” The marks on the inside of her elbows had brightened to a creamy glow against her light brown skin. And she felt them pulse, and realized that must have been what she'd felt when inside. Was it a calling? From demons?

So what did that mean?

She rubbed her skin. The marks were definitely not something she had put there herself, nor were they going to fade. They glowed. Demonic? Surely there must be someone who could tell her about them. Wasn't there a friendly demon in the area?

Her arm felt warm, and that warmth moved through her blood, softening her muscles and relaxing her tension. And Zen felt...wanted. Needed, actually.

“I should go back inside. They need me.”

Just as she opened the truck door, a black wolf raced up to the door and yipped at her. She retreated, and then saw the winged man. His black-and-silver wings were immense, and tipped in deadly points. Demonic in appearance. Yet she knew better. He was vampire with faery blood coursing through his veins.

She glanced toward the mansion. It was dark, as it had been when they'd first arrived. None of the demons had followed their retreat outside.

The wolf propped his front legs on the truck frame and sniffed toward the backpack that was shoved behind the seat. Zen pulled it out and shuffled through it. Men's clothing inside.

“I get it. If you shift back to your human form, you'll be naked.” She tossed the backpack out onto the ground.

Blade held vigil twenty feet away, observing the mansion, his wings erect and ready as if he expected the rage of demons within to come at them any moment.

Zen rubbed her arms and shivered. “Blade?”

“Turn away,” he said, nodding toward his brother. “He'll shift with you watching, but I'd prefer you not.”

She nodded, and shuffled back into the passenger seat, focusing on the mansion. “Right. I won't look.” But knowing that the strapping man was shifting, totally naked, just outside the truck, made it very difficult not to twist her head and peek.

Of course, she had no interest in Trouble. It was Blade, who apparently had but to put away his wings to shift back to the regular form, who enticed her. But he no longer stood in view. Had he gone back into the mansion?

The driver's door opened and Blade slid in, sans wings. He wore jeans and no shirt, though he stuffed a wad of gray shirt between his thigh and the seat. Bringing out the wings must be hell on his wardrobe. She didn't even want to consider how many torn seams occurred when shifting to werewolf.

“You okay?” He didn't look at her, but fired up the engine. “Hurry, Trouble!”

The other brother popped in with a pair of jeans on and no shirt. “You are a size smaller than me, bro.” He sat awkwardly on the seat, plucking unsuccessfully at the denim wrapping his thigh. “These suckers are tight.”

“Be thankful I had an extra pair.” He turned the truck around and spun out onto the dark gravel road. “That was a trap, I'm sure of it. Why the hell do demons want you?”

Zen realized he'd asked her that. The tension in the cab was tight, and she felt as if she dangled by her fingers from a tightrope between the two brothers.

“You didn't notice the demons?” Trouble asked as he eased a hand over his crotch.

“Not until you two arrived,” she said. “Everyone looked human when I walked in. And I was distracted by the...”

“The portal?” Blade asked.

“You think that's what it was? Where do you think it leads to?”

“Hell if I know. You were going to step into it.”

“I was,” she said softly, then sank against the seat and pulled up her legs before her chest. She felt so small, being rescued from something that could have been disastrous to both men. They could have been hurt. And she may very well have entered a portal to a place even her curiosity couldn't have fathomed.

She'd sought a night of dancing and mindless fun. Instead, she'd gotten something far more dangerous.

“I'm sorry,” she muttered. “I should have stayed at the inn. Or found a quiet place in town to distract me. Like more shopping.”

“Not your fault,” Blade said briskly. “The guy who told you about the club. He was in on it, I'm sure.”

“He said I was cool and only the cool people were invited.”

“Ha! Remember when you wanted to be cool in high school?” Trouble asked Blade.

“I was cool.”

“No way, man. I was the cool one. The rest of you guys were pussies. But what was that portal thing?” Trouble asked. “And since when do demons gather in Tangle Lake?”

“Since never,” Blade said on a hiss. “The last time was...” He shifted roughly, and the truck stirred them into a rumble down the road.

“The last time?” Zen asked.

“Never mind,” Blade muttered.

They passed her parked car on the road and Trouble promised he'd drive out with their brother Kelyn and a gas can in the morning. Kelyn could drive the Mini back to the big red cock. He chuckled and rapped his knuckles on the door window.

Zen could but smirk. The brothers did like to work that joke.

“Thank you,” she said to Trouble when Blade pulled up to his house and he hopped out.

“You just stay out of demon clubs,” Trouble said. “And give my brother a break. He's skittish,” he said. “About women and, uh, demons in general.”

“Trouble!” Blade growled.

“See ya!” The elder brother winked at Zen and loped off.

Blade pulled away and drove back toward town. He drove past the inn, and Zen didn't bother to ask him why. She recognized the road he was taking. It led to the highway and eventually his place.

He must feel he had to protect her. And in truth, she felt in need of that protection. If he would allow her to stay with him tonight, she would be grateful. Because who knew if she might wake to find a pair of red eyes staring at her?

“Your cat will be pissed,” she said after he'd parked and they strode up to the barn.

“He'll survive,” Blade offered. “You can sleep in my bed. Oogie and I will take the couch.”

“I don't want to put you out. Oh.” Even in the darkness, she noticed the cut on his neck. It had scabbed and had probably bled quite a bit for the dried blood crusted on his skin. “Your faery is so valiant. And the wings.”

“I'm all vampire even when my wings come out. The faery is sort of...seasoning.”

“Okay.” Was there something about his faery he didn't like to claim? She wouldn't press.

“I don't like to kill, Zen.” And with that he strode inside, leaving the door open for her to enter if she wished.

He'd had to kill to protect her. That had been her fault. It cut into her heart to know she'd been the cause of his angst. Probably even pain. What man could kill so freely and not take some of the consequences of such a terrible act into his soul with every swing of blade or halo?

Squeezing her arm, she remembered the glowing design.

Zen rushed after Blade and only caught up to him at the top of the stairs. “I think you should see this.” She thrust out her arms, inner elbows facing upward. “I only noticed it after Trouble brought me out to the truck.”

He hissed when he saw the still-glowing marks. “They're getting brighter, more defined.”

She nodded. “Do you think they are demon marks?”

“Demonic marks are usually darker. And like I said, they don't look like my brother Kelyn's marks.”