2. Delilah

2

DELILAH

W e walk through the front door of our brownstone, and I can smell his presence before he even emerges from the shadows. Male human, not powerful, about forty to forty five years old with a O positive blood type. A smoker with high blood pressure, and someone who eats a lot of fast food. His blood smells gross, like overused french fry oil.

"Dad, someone is here," I warn him. He has a better sense of smell than I do, especially because he's over 500 years old, but I can't help myself once I get into predator mode.

"Well whoever you are, come on out. Find out what happens if you fuck around." After a few moments of silence, he calls out again. "Come out, come out, whoever you are, so I can give you some gnarly scars!" His teeth pop out, and his eyes turn pitch black, ready to tear this fucker to shreds.

The intruder steps out from the shadow at the bottom of the staircase. He's wearing a sharp, black suit, his brown hair is combed back, and a creepy smile sits on his gaunt, angular face. His eyes are unfocused, and he's in a daze. Something isn't right with him… Somehow this human walked right into our lion's den, despite how insanely tight our security is. He may know who we are if he broke in, but he doesn't seem scared… And everyone is scared of us . We have a reputation for being brutal.

I fly at him, tackling him to the floor and catching him in a stranglehold as I straddle him to hold him down. "Who sent you?!"

He doesn't answer. He doesn't move, or blink. He just lays there smiling at me. I wait for him to say something, but he seems determined to stay silent, with that toothy, sinister grin on his face.

"I asked you a question…" I punch him in the mouth, to wipe that creepy as fuck smile off his face, but it stays firmly in place. What in the actual fuck is going on right now?

"Lemme try something." Dad walks over to us, then backhands him. He's still smiling. Actually, he's smiling even wider…like he enjoyed it. "He seems to be under some kind of spell or manipulation. This human is doing someone's dirty work."

I get off him, but he doesn't spring up. He just stays there, and it's making me uncomfortable. I know he's human, because I hear his heartbeat, and the blood rushing around in his veins. He has a scent. But he's not moving or responding to danger, and that's a huge-ass red flag. I start to pace around the foyer while Dad keeps an eye on him. I tend to think kinetically, whereas Dad is a more stoic thinker.

"Self-destruct mode, activated." A robotic, medium pitched voice blares from the silent man, as if he were a radio walkie-talkie.

Self destruct…

Seconds before the dots connect for me, the nameless, creepy as fuck robot man explodes, knocking me flat on my ass. Straight up explodes like a fucking bomb. The entire room is covered in blood, guts, organ shrapnel, and nastiness.

I feel… Oh my gods. I'm covered in human stew… It's in my hair. In my boobie crack… It's on my lips… Drinking blood to survive is one thing. It tastes good. But the rest of the human body is disgusting.

I jump up from the ground, and realize it's all over my jeans, too.

"This can't be real…" I sigh, leaning against the foyer wall. Blood soaks through the back of my V neck shirt and I cringe. It was the only dry part of me… I hate the feeling of wet fabric against my skin.

What the fuck is happening right now? Who is this man?! Why is he here? The whole room reeks of guts, menthol cigarettes, and this foul smell I can't place, which is disturbing because I'm near a ton of dead bodies on the regular. I know what I'm talking about when it comes to dead body smells.

"Girlie, look…" Dad says, pointing to the mess of body-pulp stuck to the hardwood, where the man laid before he self-destructed. I start to move toward it, but he waves me away. "No, let me get it, in case it's dangerous."

Dad pulls a black envelope with red lettering. Despite the mess all around us, it's clean, not a drop or smear on it. I can clearly see my full name, Delilah Storm Sangre, on it in a fancy script. His face immediately falls and he drops the invite like it bit him. His face is whiter than Keith Winton-Dumbass' was before we ended his life. I pick it up, and it vibrates with dark, promising energy, completely terrifying me as much as it excites me.

"No… not again…" he cries. Tears stream down his ivory skin, and his black irises go to a light gray. Something is wrong. Dad's eyes have never changed color…except the morning after Mom left.

"What do you mean not again ? Are you okay?"

Open meeeee. Open me, Delilah, a sweet voice whispers to me inside my mind in a mischievous voice. It's almost like it's coming from the envelope.

Freaky . Someone really wants me to open this…

"Hun, you're spacing out…" Dad says, breaking me from my thoughts. He stares at me, then at the envelope on the floor with a suspicious expression, as if it's a second bomb that's about to go off.

At this point in the evening I wouldn't be surprised.

"You obviously know something, so while we wait for the cleaners, please tell me what is going on," I calmly ask him while texting the cleaning team we use on our messier jobs.

Usually, I'd do it myself, but our home's location is already compromised and I'm exhausted. I'd like nothing better than to crawl into bed, ball myself up, and doom scream into a pillow.

"Dahlia got an envelope just like that before she left. Black with her name in red script on the front. We went out for a date night, and it was floating above the kitchen table when we got back. She told me it was nothing to worry about, and wouldn't let me read it before we went to bed. Two days later she was gone."

"You never told me about her getting an envelope like this. That could have changed everything!" I shout.

How could he keep something like this from me? I spent months asking around, trying to find a shred of a clue as to where she went. Some people pitied me, while others laughed in my face, telling me to give up and let her go if she didn't want to be here. I burnt some bridges in my quest to find her.

"The people who sent this to Mom are powerful enough to make her leave us and disappear—they're probably dangerous. I didn't want you looking for trouble. She's a strong woman, and whatever mess she got herself into, she can get out of. I can't lose you too, girlie. I just can't." He wraps me in a bear hug, lifting me off the ground and almost crushing me.

"But what if she can't. This envelope may be my only way of making sure she's safe and bringing her home. I have to at least open it, Dad," I say with a thick voice, blinking back my own tears.

Open me… I hear that same saccharine voice inside my mind. Find out what's inside…

I read it silently to myself, twice. Femme Fatale Freakshow? I haven't heard of them before. They seem like a big deal, given their method of delivering their invite and the fact they found our home in the first place. It's not like assassins go to an annual convention. We don't hold networking nights at the local bar, either. We tend to be a solitary group, lone wolves, unless you're in a family like mine or a guild. Despite that, we tend to at least know of each other because it's a small industry.

I show Dad the invite, and he squints at it. He takes it from me and flips it over to the other side, the same expression lingering on his face.

"Why is it blank?" he asks.

"No, there's a whole letter. You don't see the text?" It must be spelled to only work for the reader.

"No. I don't. What does it say?" Dad's voice is cautious, his jaw tense. He runs a hand through his black hair. It's curly like mine and loose around his shoulders, with a small white-gray streak in the front.

"There's this assassin's guild, the Femme Fatale Freakshow. They want me to join. It's a life membership… I think they know where Mom is."

"Then you have to join," he says with an air of resignation. "I know how badly you want to find her, and I'll be fine on my own."

"No you won't. I know you pretend that everything is fine, but it has to hurt not having your fated mate around. I see the moments where your mask drops, Dad."

"Girlie, I survived hundreds of years without her. I know she's out there—I feel it. But you're right. She'd never go silent on us like this. Something is wrong, and you have this golden opportunity to find her. Take it. Don't worry about me."

"I'll think about it," I promise him.

The invitation did say to consider the offer carefully. This is the kind of club where you're in it for life. And even though I'm technically immortal, I'm sure they can find a silver bullet somewhere if they need to get rid of me.

I lay awake in bed for hours, tossing and turning. Researching the Femme Fatale Freakshow online gives me nothing. None of the dark web sources have anything concrete—just rumors and horror stories about their supposed targets—but there's no proof. There is a thread about how someone thinks they may be based on the east coast of the United States, but it abruptly ends there, with no further comments.

Mom got the same invite and left. I know she's in the guild. Joining them is the only lead I have to find her. Every other lead has been a dead end, and I know deep in my cold black heart that something isn't right. She may be alive like Dad said, but she would never disappear like this, even if she was a part of some lethal assassin's guild.

At six, I finally give up on sleeping. It's mostly a habit anyway, because I don't have to get as much of it as some paranormals do. A perk of being half vampire. I take the invitation to the kitchen, then grab my favorite hot sauce, Caliente Fuego, drizzling it all over. Then I get creative and sprinkle some cheese on it and roll it up like a taquito. The texture and taste are awful, and not even my ride or die sauce can make this palatable. Every bite feels like I'm one step closer to making an ominous, life changing decision that I may regret.

Please, help me find my mother, I pray to the gods as I swallow the last bite.

When I'm done, I belch. Not a normal one, but one that feels as if my entire chest is burning. Black smoke billows out of my mouth, and a business card materializes from it and drops onto the floor. When I pick it up, there's the name of a target on it.

Mario Conti.

Are they for real? They want me to kill the leader of the largest vampire mafia clan in New York City? A man who stakes his enemies alive for poetic justice and leaves their corpses all over the city to send a message? The organization that has the entire police force and government officials on every level in their pocket?

The gods' hope , go big or go home I guess.

On the back of the card, there's a handwritten note.

His nephew Vincenzo is the weakest link. Use him to find who you're looking for.

Does the guild know… Are they actually helping me find Mom?

Researching Vincenzo on the web doesn't give me a ton of useful information. The results tell me he's the CFO of Conti Construction & Real Estate, the legal face of the Conti family, and detailing his involvement in some charities here and there. The dark web is barren too. No surprise there. The vampire mafia most likely has its own tech team who cleans up their online presence. His socials show me some pictures of him. All staged instead of organic, of course.

He's handsome, with thick, wavy dark hair slicked back and black eyes. He has a strong, square jaw, and full lips. GQ can feature him in a full page spread if they wanted to do a segment on business moguls.

If I'm going to use this guy to get to his uncle, I need more information. I call my best contact, Favian. He's a wolf shifter who knows everything about everyone and has no issue sharing that information for a hefty price, which is why I use his services sparingly. He's a huge flirt, despite the amount of time I've made it clear that I am not interested in him. But any price is worth finding Mom, even if I have to endure Favian's nastiness.

"Delilah, the most beautiful, precious flower in the garden! Have you decided to take me up on my dinner invitation?" he answers. No greeting, just straight to his usual bullshit. "There's a new sushi place down the block from my pack's compound, and I can get us a reservation."

I hold back my wretch at his tacky, over the top compliment. It's not my style at all. "I'd rather get left out in the sun with no amulet protection and die a slow, painful death than go to dinner with you. I'm calling for some information."

His wistful sigh echoes down the line. "That'll cost you one dinner with me."

"You either take cash, or I will come find you and extract the information my way. Just because I'm an assassin doesn't mean I can't order my own hits."

"Ooo la la, don't threaten me with a good time. Roleplaying is my jam. There's a full moon this Friday… We can do some primal play, pretend it's Bacchanalia. I'm not into toxic masculinity baby, I'd let you chase me all over the woods and kill me when you find me. I just want to feel those curves, take a bite of your juice peach."

This time I can't keep my dry heaving to myself. Gross. If being skeevy was an Olympic event, Favian would win gold every time.

"If you don't knock it the fuck off, I'll come after your entire fucking pack one by one and slit their throats. Don't fuck with me, this is important," I growl down the line in my most alpha voice.

He whines a sharp, piercing keen. "Fine. $3K for information, $1k for confidentiality. And a $500 fee for hurting my feelings."

Fuck you, bro.

"Deal, $4.5K plus a $500 tip should land in your account within a few seconds." I snap my fingers, magically transferring the money into his account. "I need information on Vincenzo Conti. Everything you have. Deliver it to my email."

"You'll get it within the hour. If you ever change your mind, I'll always be here, my little flower."

"And I'll always have my wolfsbane infused knife in my holster, fuckface." I end the call, because I reached my max on nauseating, unwanted sexual advances for the day.

Twenty minutes later, I sit on the couch and scroll through the file he sent me. Vincenzo joined a matchmaking service a few months ago called Magical Matches. Their website promises clients true love and an eternity of happiness.

Mom and Dad have that, but I don't think I'll ever find it. Vincenzo must be searching for it though, or else he wouldn't have signed up for such an obvious scam. True love comes in its own time. Dad always says destiny can't be forced to bend to anyone's whim.

I call the service, and use my manipulation powers to bypass the secretary and go straight to the head honcho, a siren named Melina Monroe. According to my research, she's an entrepreneur, a Virgo, and a wine connoisseur. A total boss. In another life, we may have been friends.

"Hello Dana!" She makes my fake name sound so chipper. "I hear you're ready to find true love."

Vampire manipulation is a true art, especially when being used over the phone on a paranormal species with high empathy, like sirens. I need to get this right the first time. Lowering my tone, I give my voice a sultry edge. Slowly, I repeat my order, so it sinks into her psyche.

"You will match me with Vincenzo Conti right away. I am his one true love. You will match me with Vincenzo Conti right away. I am his one true love. You will match me with Vincenzo Conti right away. I am his one true love."

I can feel my magic sinking in, even over the phone. Melina hums, and when she responds, her voice is softer, more subdued. A sure sign my magic took.

"I'll let him know and have him arrange a meeting with you asap. Can you fill out a contact sheet? It's on the website under forms."

"Of course. Thank you Melina! Have a wonderful day."

I end the call and put my phone away. I run into Dad at the kitchen table, eyeing me with a quizzical expression.

"So you're going through with it? You'll bring Mom back to us?" The hope in his voice breaks my heart. I knew he missed her, but he always hides his sadness behind a smile.

"Yes, you'll be okay without me for a bit?"

"I'll make do. Please don't fall into whatever trap caught your mom. I can't bear to lose both of you."

"I promise. We're both coming home soon."

Whatever it takes, I will save my mom. Even if it means pretending to fall in love with Vincenzo Conti and murdering the most high profile member of the Conti Vampire Mafia.