Page 9 of Nexus
Six silver stakes rested in my belt and I kept hold of the final one. I held the can of holy water up, ready to spray the crap out of anything with fangs as I entered the dark stairwell. My night vision was barely good enough for me to make my way down to the ground floor. Dozens of footprints in the dust led the way to the door to the basement. It stood open a couple of inches, so I wouldn’t have to kick it down.
I put my ear to the gap and heard music, laughter and a muffled noise of pain. “Please, let me go!” someone called out and I realized the leeches had a victim down there. He sounded weak and he probably didn’t have much time left.
“You can do this, Saige,” I whispered to pump myself up, then I slipped through the door and into the stairwell.
Wan light flickered from candles as I descended on my tippytoes to reduce my noise. A door had once barred the way at the bottom of the stairs, but it had been removed. The basement was a large, open area with concrete columns supporting the building above it. The coven had been living here for at least a few months, going by the blankets, piles of empty alcohol bottles and other junk scattered around.
A glance at the coven of seven vampires told me my job had just expanded. They were all feeding on the rapidly fading human. He was naked and was lying on his back on the cold concrete floor. His already pale skin had turned ghostly white from blood loss. He turned and saw me, then opened his mouth to plead for help, but it was too late. The last drops of blood were drained from his veins and he let out a final breath before expiring.
“He tasted sooo good,” one of the bloodsuckers said, half-drunk from her meal. I could barely hear her over the loud music. They all wore black, which seemed to be the unofficial vampire uniform. Their clothing was cheap and filthy, which meant they were one of the many poverty-stricken covens in the city.
“I love it when they’ve just fed on something fatty,” another one said. “It gives their blood extra flavor.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed your meal,” I said grimly, striding forward to step into the light. “Because it’s the last one you’ll ever have.”
They turned to gape at me, then became a blur of motion. Anger gave me the fuel I needed to take on all seven psychotic monsters. One of them leaped at me and I sprayed her with holy water. She shrieked, clawing at her bubbling eyes and stumbled away. While running wasn’t my strong suit, I had lightning reflexes that I could call on at will. I rammed my stake into a vamp’s chest, instantly killing him. He froze in momentary agony, then fell to the floor in a clump of ash and clothing. Hands moving so fast that a human wouldn’t be able to track me, I staked three more foes before they realized how dangerous I was.
The female I’d sprayed leaped on my back and tried to sink her fangs into my shoulder. I retaliated by blasting her with holy water again. Screaming in fresh pain, she fell off me and landed on her back, rolling around on the ground as smoke rose from her scalded skin.
One of the vampires felt stronger than the other two remaining fledglings, which made her the master of the coven. Her gaze flicked to the doorway and I knew she was going to make a run for it. I couldn’t let her escape to create more murderous fiends and threw a stake at her. It hit her in the heart before she could dodge it. She had enough time to wail in dread before the silver extinguished her unnatural life.
Both minions screeched in loss and rage when their master turned to ash before their eyes. The male rushed at me and wrapped his arms around my middle. I didn’t budge as he unsuccessfully tried to pick me up. The female was beyond reason and once again jumped at me. I sprayed her with holy water for a third time, then staked her companion in the back as he futilely tried to lift me off my feet and slam me to the ground.
“No! Please!” the female begged when I rounded on her. Her eyes were red and swollen from being repeatedly dowsed with holy water. “Our master made us kill the humans! We were powerless to resist her!”
“Sorry, this isn’t personal,” I said, grabbing hold of her when she lurched to her feet to try to run. “It’s my job to hunt down rogues,” I explained, then stabbed her with my last stake.
She turned to ash and I stepped back before her remains could land on my boots. Crossing to the battery-operated radio that was blasting out music, I silenced it, then examined the basement. The dead guy had evacuated his bowels, but there was hardly any blood staining the ground.
The bloodsucker who had killed the woman must have kidnapped this guy on their way back to the lair. They’d murdered two people in one night and I’d just saved countless lives by taking them down. I took photos to show mom when I got home, knowing she’d be proud of me. Collecting my stakes, I wiped them clean on a shirt that had belonged to one of the vamps.
“You can come in now, Ruen,” I said without bothering to raise my voice.
He appeared in the doorway a moment later. “Lord Gilden will be pleased that you’ve eradicated this rogue coven,” he said, eyeing the remains. “I’ll advise him that you’ve accomplished your task and ask for a car to be sent to pick us up.”
Hitching a ride would be quicker than hoofing it all the way back to the nightclub, so I nodded in agreement. “Will he send a team to clean up this mess?” I asked, gesturing at the body and the ashes.
“Of course,” he replied and took his phone out of his pocket to make the call. He spoke too quietly for me to make out what he was saying, then slipped the phone back into his jacket. “A car will be arriving soon,” he said, then headed for the exit.
There was no need for me to stick around now that my job was done. I cast a final pitying look at the dead human, wishing I’d gotten here sooner so I could have saved his life. Anger churned inside me that so many supernatural creatures felt they could commit murder whenever they wanted to. Originating from the underworld must have instilled them with the instinct to kill.
Mom hadn’t told me much about the nine dimensions that ran parallel to ours. All I knew was that there were portals to the underworld on every continent and on most large islands. They were all guarded now and few were allowed to pass through them without good reason. Monsters had become myth and that was how we preferred it. Panic would erupt and war would break out between us and the humans if our presence became known. Even the dumbest monster was aware of that, so most of them took pains to hide their crimes.
Bounty hunters like me had sprung up over the centuries to hunt down the rogues who defied our laws. Most of them were supernatural, but a few were humans who’d discovered our existence. I sneered as I climbed the stairs in Ruen’s wake. Humans were pathetically weak compared to my kind. Most would die within seconds going after the rogues. Lord Gilden apparently had a couple of humans on his payroll. I hoped I’d get to meet them so I could try to figure out why he’d bothered to hire them.
Chapter Eight
MY HUNT HADN’T TAKEN as long as I’d expected, even with the extra fiends I’d eradicated. Dawn was still hours away, which would give me plenty of time to meet with Lord Gilden. Ruen was standing on the sidewalk when I joined him. “I’ve never seen anyone decimate an entire vampire coven so quickly on their own before,” he said. His tone was neutral, but I could tell he was impressed.
“Did you sneak inside and watch me?” I asked. I hadn’t felt him, then remembered he didn’t show up on my radar as being dangerous. I had to be close to him before I could even sense that he wasn’t human.
“I didn’t need to be inside the room, Ms. Sterling,” he said and almost rolled his eyes. “I heard everything and deduced what had happened. Lord Gilden will expect a full report. Try to make it short and coherent,” he advised me.
Since my goal was to impress his boss, I took his advice to heart. A dark gray SUV pulled up a couple of minutes later with a werelion behind the wheel. He nodded in greeting when we climbed into the back. We nodded back, then I returned to composing my report in my head.
I was pretty sure my mom hadn’t ever had to give a formal report of her bounty hunting jobs before. Then again, her boss hadn’t been a weredragon. He’d been a werebear who’d had a more laidback style of leadership.
Our driver headed to the center of Nexus and drove to the tallest building in the city. Windows on nearly every floor glittered with lights like bright jewels flashing in the moonlight as we approached the twenty-story building. The next tallest structure was only ten stories high and was dwarfed by the silver edifice.