Page 4 of Nexus
“Clearly, I don’t,” I refuted and kept going. She’d tried to compel me with her vampire mojo, but mind control never worked on me. She grabbed my arm and tried to stop me with sheer force. Flicking her off like lint, I sensed a mob of supernatural creatures swarming towards me from behind.
Turning to face them, I kicked a wereboar in the gut when he lunged at me. His breath whooshed out and he knocked half of the group down as he flew backwards. Another leech leaped over the mob and I caught him by the face and tossed him over the railing onto the dancefloor below. A few people screamed when he landed on them.
“What is she?” someone asked in frustration that none of them could stop me.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” I muttered, holding my fists up threateningly. “Does anyone else want to try to stop me from doing my job?” I asked.
“Get her out of here!” a man with a raspy voice called out from the bottom of the stairs. He wore a bright yellow shirt with ugly brown patterns on it and brown trousers. He had short messy brown hair, one brown eye and one milky eye. His left ear and a couple of his fingers were missing, but he was otherwise well preserved. I assumed he was Lenny, the zombie in charge of the Den.
“We’re trying!” one of the shifters said.
A fresh group came towards me. I spent a few minutes kicking and punching them away until the wave ebbed. A final vamp landed on my back when I turned to resume my climb. He futilely tried to bite me on the neck, but his fangs couldn’t penetrate my skin. I peeled him off like the scab he was and threw him down the stairs, shaking my head at their pathetic attempts to impede me.
“A crazy woman is on her way upstairs, boss,” I heard Lenny say loudly into his phone. “We can’t stop her. I don’t know what she is, but she’s strong and she can ignore vampires’ commands.”
I couldn’t hear the response, but no one tried to stop me from completing my mission. Once the boss of the bounty hunters heard about the lengths I’d gone to tonight, he was bound to offer me a position on his team.
Anticipation fueled me as I followed the vaporous trail up to the third floor. Bouncers let me pass without a word when I reached the top floor. Their expressions were wary as they stepped aside to let me pass.
“The boss is waiting for you in the first room on the left,” one of the employees said. Another bloodsucker, he eyed me in puzzlement, probably trying to figure out what sort of creature I was.
The trail stopped at the first door on the left of the hallway. I took the can of holy water out of my purse, along with a metal stake. The silver burned my skin slightly, but it wasn’t deadly to me like it was to shifters and vampires. I paused with my hand on the doorknob when I realized I couldn’t sense anything in the room. “A spell must be masking them,” I murmured and hesitated in indecision.
For all I knew, the room beyond the door could be jam packed with the deadliest beings in Nexus. I was strong and tough, but I wasn’t invincible, or so I assumed. I’d never really been hurt before. Mom was almost as strong as I was and she’d bruised me during training a few times by accident. I’d never suffered a broken bone or a serious cut. So far, I hadn’t been shot, so I didn’t know if bullets could penetrate my skin.
It was tempting to call mom and ask for her advice. The glory of becoming the best bounty hunter in the city won out over my momentary concern. Staking a rogue vampire in a club full of supernatural beings would be the perfect way to make a name for myself.
“Here goes nothing,” I said to encourage myself, then I turned the doorhandle.
Chapter Four
BARGING THROUGH THE door brandishing holy water and a metal stake, it took me a second to register the scene. I skidded to a stop on the polished wooden floor and realized I’d just gatecrashed a swanky party of some kind.
The room took up half of the third floor and was large enough to contain hundreds of guests. Classical music was playing from hidden speakers. Uniformed waiters carried trays of champagne around. A table full of delectable finger food sat against one wall. The men all wore tuxedos and the women wore cocktail dresses. From their classy clothes and jewelry, they were the elite of the supernatural world in Nexus. All eyes turned to me with varying degrees of amusement and disdain.
“Is this part of the entertainment, Lord Gilden?” a snobby looking vampire asked. Skeletally thin, her dress was an ugly eggplant color and was short enough to show her bony thighs. Her hair was done in an elegant chignon and she looked like she’d been turned in her late forties or so. I felt like a grubby, badly dressed child standing among these sophisticated people.
The crowd parted and the hottest man I’d ever seen strode towards me. Six-foot four, his wide shoulders filled out his tux impressively. More than merely handsome, he was flawless. His eyes were a deep, burnished gold that would be easy to become lost in. His hair was dark brown, but lightened to golden blond on the top. Short on the sides and back, the top was gelled so it stood straight upwards in the latest trend the humans wore. He had a meticulously trimmed beard that gave him a debonair appearance.
“I’m Drake Gilden,” he said, voice silky smooth and with a hint of amusement in his tone. “You are?”
“Hunting a rogue vamp who murdered a woman in cold blood,” I said. “I followed him here and I’m not leaving until he’s a pile of ashes.” Gasps of outrage sounded from the bloodsuckers in the crowd. “That’s the price leeches pay for killing humans in Nexus,” I reminded them.
“Who appointed you judge, jury and executioner?” someone muttered.
“I’m a bounty hunter. Hunting rogue monsters is my job,” I retorted.
“I know all of the bounty hunters in Nexus,” Lord Gilden said, studying me like I was a puzzle that needed to be solved. “I don’t recall meeting you before.”
“I’m working freelance right now,” I said, craning my head to peer through the crowd. “There he is!” I said in triumph when I spotted a haze of holy water hovering over a man standing with his back to me. “Excuse me for a second. I need to off that bloodsucker before he makes another run for it.”
“You will do no such thing,” Drake Gilden said in a commanding voice.
“It’ll just take a second,” I assured him and stepped around him when he didn’t move.
His eyes widened in shock that his command hadn’t instantly halted me in my tracks. Mutters of alarm sounded as I strode towards my target. He peeked over his shoulder, saw me coming for him and bolted.
“Oh, no you don’t!” I snarled and threw my stake at him. He slammed into someone who didn’t move out of his way fast enough and lost his balance. The stake became lodged in his shoulder rather than spearing through his back and into his heart. He tripped over his own feet and sprawled to the floor.