Owl and the Japanese Circus (19 page)

He smiled. “Tell me first and you have my word I’ll let it go.”

I stopped myself from snorting. Yeah right. Alexander would “let” Captain go, and then proceed to shoot him. Then turn me into a vampire junkie like Sabine’s poor flunkie who’d been killed back at the Japanese Circus.

Anyways, I didn’t plan on telling Alexander anything. Even dead I had a reputation to maintain.

One of my hands slipped the ropes. As soon as it did, I aimed the UV laser right at his face.

Shock, then pain shot across it as he screamed and clutched his eye. It wouldn’t kill him, probably wouldn’t even blind him, but man, would it hurt like a son of a bitch for the next few days. Miraculously, the other two vampires didn’t hit me. I think they were too shocked I’d managed to cause yet another problem.

No one ever accused vampires of being smart.

While Alexander rolled on the floor clutching his eyes, I hit the three remaining vampires in the face, making sure to give the one holding Captain a third-degree burn. That one shrieked as he dropped my cat.

I scrambled up onto all fours. It hurt, but I did it. I was weak and had trouble seeing straight, but I reached Captain before any of the vampires got up. I didn’t know how long it would take before the pheromones were out of my system, but I could still make a run for it.

There were two exits to the cave, each leading in the opposite direction. Damn it, I kind of wished I’d stayed conscious for the trip down. I opted for the nearest—and the one that didn’t involve going around the downed vampires.

I couldn’t run yet, but I stumbled away as fast as I could. If the vampires caught up to us, I had no illusions about my chances of surviving a third encounter.

I almost tripped in a puddle as the catacomb tunnel wound like a snake downward. I couldn’t remember seeing a section like this on my way in or on my map. Alexander had dragged me into the unmapped tunnels. I just hoped I was headed out and not headed deeper into the mountain. I swore as I slammed into a wall, and I cursed myself for not hiding a better flashlight than my penlight; in fact, my night-vision glasses would have been damn useful right about now.
If
I got out of here alive, I was sewing a pair in my jacket lining.

Five, maybe ten minutes later, I needed to catch my breath—and take a look at Captain. Up ahead was dim light. I slowed down and felt where I placed each footstep, careful not to disturb any rocks. As I neared the lit area, I relaxed. It was sunlight filtering in from the
catacombs above. I ducked into an alcove and surveyed Captain’s limp body for damage.

I drew in a sharp breath. It was worse than I’d expected, and mentally I’d readied myself for pretty bad. First I undid the headgear, careful not to rub the small, pinlike spikes in any more than Alexander and his goons already had. As I cleaned him up, my emotions spun like a pinwheel in a windstorm: fear, sadness, anger. Anger was so good, I kept spinning back to that one.

What kind of sick bastard designs a torture device for a cat? I mean, I know vampires are sadistic, but even for Alexander this was pushing it. My heart dropped a little as I found two spots of red-stained fur on Captain’s back where one of the vampires had bitten him. Captain opened his eyes and tried to twist around. I wiped away my tears—they sure as hell wouldn’t help—and zipped him into my jacket.

“I should have given him more than third-degree burns,” I said when Captain mewed at me.

I pulled my thoughts off the vampires and studied the network of tunnels overhead. They went a long way up and resembled an uneven spiderweb. On top of that, even from down here I could tell it was a lattice of volcanic rock. I’d have to be careful. And slow. And quiet.

I cleared my head and let out a long breath, trying to shake the pheromones. Either Captain and I would crawl out, or Alexander would catch up and accidently kill me in a fit of rage . . . or we’d fall to our deaths onto the cavern floor.

Any way I looked at it, dead was still better than being turned.

I sure hope Rynn had escaped.

I made sure Captain was secured under my jacket, then surveyed the lattice above me. All the branches within arm’s reach looked brittle. I grabbed the first branch and eased myself up, careful not to make too much noise or hold the lava rock too tight. I felt naked without my backpack.

The branch held, and I was on to the second when I heard the rock scuff below me. A tall silhouette stepped out of the shadows.

Red. In all his scruffy, grad student glory.

What with Alexander and Captain, I’d forgotten all about him. He’d lost the worn red baseball cap, but his pickax hung loosely at his side.

Just great.

He sneered and set the pickax in a lazy swing. I was already out of his reach.

“Listen, Red, I don’t know what these guys are paying you, but trust me, it isn’t worth it. They’re bad news—”

“Funny, that’s exactly what Benji said about you,” he said, taking a step towards the wall. He let the pickax fly on the lower branch, and I felt the reverberation in the lattice I was standing on. Shit.

Numbness, that’s the best way I can describe what raced through my chest. “What do you mean?”

Red laughed. “Benji said, and I quote, ‘If you want to be neck-deep in supernatural crap for the rest of your life, go right on ahead and let her wander around. Hell, she’ll probably ruin your career as a freebie.’ ”

I shook my head and tried to focus. The pheromone was starting to work itself out of my head, but it would still be a few hours until I was back to good old, respectable me. “You’re lying. I saved Benji’s career—”

“He said if he knew you’d hold it over his head for the rest of his life, he’d have pushed you off a cliff in the Andes when he had the chance.”

I’d thought better of Benji than this—not that I haven’t been screwed over before. I should have known . . . Was I upset, betrayed? Hell yeah. Funny how when people’s lives are in ruins, they’re more than happy to associate with the likes of me. It’s after I fix everything that they suddenly recall I’m treacherous, unconscionable me.

I shook my head. “No good deed goes unpunished,” I said more to myself than Red. No sense being pissed off about it now—Benji would get what was coming to him . . . if I survived. “Did you even send me into the right cavern?” I snapped.

Red laughed. “Of course not. You think I’d let Owl run loose in a real archaeological site if I could help it? I’m not letting you steal anything.”

“I’m not here to steal anything—”

He nodded behind me. I heard the first growl, a cross between a man and a rabid dog. “That’s not what they say—and they’re funding my project for the next three years.” He let the axe fly again. The lattice I was on cracked down its length. The whole thing was so fragile that one more hit would send the entire branch crashing to the floor. I was really starting to hate Red’s pickax.

The inhuman growl was followed by a second. The vampires were recovering and starting to move out. What little lead I’d had was gone. I readied my UV penlight. No way in hell was I in any condition for round two . . .

Red angled himself away from me so that even if I dropped right down in front of him, my foot-to-the-nuts trick wouldn’t work a second time. I tried one last time to reason with him. “You have no idea what you’re dealing with. Do yourself a favor and get the hell out.”

He hefted the pickax over his shoulder and readied to swing. “You’re not the only one of us who deals with the supernatural. Difference is, the rest of us know where the line is.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I snorted. “There is no way you’re that stupid . . .” I hadn’t paid much attention before to the bags under his eyes, writing them off to grad student lifestyle. But he was an addict. Worse, he probably didn’t even know it and wouldn’t realize until it was too late.

If I dodged at the right time, I might get by—or get my head smashed in. Unless . . .

I palmed my UV laser pointer. Wouldn’t burn him like the vampires, but it’d blind him for a few seconds at least. “Red, you’ve got no idea where the line is. If you run now and get on a plane, you can still make it out—make up some story about looters. Hell, tell them you ran into Owl. Just run now—I promise I won’t stop you.”

Red smiled and readied the pickax. “I’m not letting you ruin my career.”

I shook my head. “Buddy, you don’t need my help—you’re doing that all on your own.” I aimed the laser pointer at his eyes. It surprised him enough that he froze with the pickax raised. It was all the time I needed. I dropped down and slammed my fist into his nose.

“Ahh!” He dropped the axe and doubled over, covering his eyes.

I looked overhead. I didn’t have enough time to climb up again, not with the fractures Red had caused. I shoved him into the wall, and while he was on the ground I wrapped him in a choke hold, cutting off blood flow to his brain. I held it until he shuddered and passed out. After that I bolted.

I could feel Captain stir inside my jacket. He chirped and pushed his head out of my collar, blocking my view of the tunnel and putting me off-balance. I skidded to a stop.

“Watch it, I can’t see!” I pushed him right back in; with this many vampires floating around, I wasn’t about to let him out.

One of Alexander’s goons stepped out and blocked the tunnel up ahead. Captain started clawing at my jacket. I swore as I battled to keep him under wraps and the vampire in my line of sight.

Growling and hissing, Captain pushed off my chest. I dove to catch him and grazed the fur on his tail.

Shit.

In three bounds he reached the vampire, who was smiling with his arms wide, as if readying to catch a football. Clearly he’d never met Captain before; I almost felt sorry for him.

Captain launched at the vampire’s throat, and I wasn’t sure which guttural growl was whose. The vampire snatched Captain midleap, holding him out as he hissed and slashed, a furry ball of fury.

Alexander’s goon smiled. He wasn’t the one I’d burned badly; he’d probably hidden in the corner.

“Anything you want to say, Owl, before I eat your cat?” the goon said.

“Yeah. Now I have a flashlight.” I pulled the UV flashlight out of my jacket and inched forward, keeping the beam on his face. He sizzled and edged down to his knees, but he wasn’t old enough for the light to set him on fire. I should have grabbed Red’s pickax while I’d had the chance. Captain hissed and went for the vampire’s throat before I grabbed the scruff of his neck. “Come on, you stupid cat, let go.” He growled, but let go. I placed my boot on the vampire’s neck and pressed down just so he wouldn’t get any ideas.

The vampire snarled as I passed the beam over his face again. “Sabine is going to have your throat for this,” he said.

“The only throat at risk right now is yours. What the hell do Sabine and the Paris Contingency want with Mr. Kurosawa’s artifact?”

He sneered, giving me a good look at his tiny yellowed canines. “Who says it’s just the artifact?”

I frowned and put more weight on his throat. “Kurosawa brokered a truce. I don’t care what your boss says, the vendetta against me is over.”

His sneer widened. “You should be more careful who you piss off. Maybe steer clear of the supernatural for a while—”

Before he could say anything else, his eyes fluttered and rolled up.

Shit, I’d overdone the UV light. I kneeled down and pulled up his eyelids. Nothing. Damn it.

“Well, there are other ways to get information,” I said to Captain, and started to rifle through his jacket. Wallet, no ID, a couple hundred bucks—I pocketed that, no sense letting good, hard cash go to waste—a piece of paper with a Stateside number scribbled on it . . . I pocketed that too . . . and, last but not least, a cell phone. I flipped it open to check recent calls when an ice-cold hand reached under the cuff of my cargo pants and snaked around my ankle. I glanced back down at Alexander’s vampire. Faded gray eyes stared back at me.

“Boo,” he whispered.

Then the pheromones hit me. Breathing them is bad enough, but skin-to-skin contact? It’s a wonder I didn’t pass out right then and there. As it was, my arms and legs turned to jelly and everything started to spin. I dropped my flashlight.

The vampire moved fast, grabbing me by the throat and lifting me off the ground. I barely registered more than a warm, fuzzy feeling as he slammed my back into the pumice wall. Captain growled and readied to pounce. The vampire’s neck wound was turning an angry purple, which was probably why he was bent on killing me now and either didn’t hear Captain or didn’t care. Yeah, well, his mistake. I tensed what muscles I still had control over and braced myself for the fall. As soon as Captain hit him, that would be my last chance.

The vampire leaned in and smelled the skin on my neck. “Sabine never did say what condition she wanted you in.”

She’d have to wait a little longer.

Captain shuffled his hind end one last time before launching onto the vampire’s back. He screamed and let go of my neck in favor of getting my cat off him. My knees caught the brunt of my fall. I found my flashlight nearby and used the tunnel wall to stand. Captain still rode the vampire’s back, and more purple welts were appearing where Captain hit his mark.

OK, Owl, you need a plan. Use the flashlight, grab your cat, and stumble out of here as fast as your motor skills can handle.

My hand wavered as I aimed the flashlight.
Come on, Owl, focus
 . . . I braced my arms and got ready to turn it on. One good shot was all I needed . . .

I registered the thwack against the wall somewhere from behind my vampire-induced haze. I searched the wall for the source until I registered the flickering blue LED light attached to a thin, silver tube lodged in the wall a few feet above me. It took me another few seconds to register that the light was speeding up, like a strobe light . . . shit . . . that couldn’t be good. Well, there went my flashlight-cat-grab plan. I closed my eyes, covered my face, and clenched my teeth. I had a sinking suspicion this was going to hurt.

Even with my eyes closed, I registered the UV flash—or my retinas did. And it hurt. I think I screamed, but I couldn’t be sure if it was me or the vampire. The flash just about knocked me out cold. I slid down the wall to the floor, forcing myself to keep conscious.
Chances were only fifty-fifty I’d wake up from a second concussion in one day.