Chapter 8

I pressed my hands against Zylas's sides as though holding on to him would steady the swirl of confusion and fear in my head. What were more vampires doing in Claude's destroyed townhome?

The taller vampire cocked his head. "Recognize the girl?"

His comrade nodded. "The niece, right?"

"Seems so. We should take her alive. Might be useful."

"Fine with me." The shorter vampire ran his tongue across his teeth, the pink tip resting against one curved fang. "Don't want that demon vanishing on us before we get a taste."

Zylas stiffened.

The short vampire swung the sledgehammer off his shoulder like it weighed nothing. "This is going to be good."

Zylas stepped sideways, pulling me with him, then pushed me toward the hall with one hand. I understood. He wanted me to get clear.

The short vampire gave the sledgehammer one more swing, then launched across the kitchen. Zylas sprang to meet the charge, sliding past the sledgehammer's heavy metal head. His claws caught the vampire's chest, tearing through clothes and flesh. The man twisted frantically away.

Zylas spun on the tile floor, slashing at the stumbling vampire. Halfway through the motion, the demon ducked and the other vamp's talon-like fingers just missed his head.

The three combatants whirled through the tiny kitchen in a confusing blur of limbs. Zora had warned that vampires were faster than humans, but these two were almost as fast as Zylas.

He dove away from another sledgehammer swing. Landing on his hands, he kicked backward, catching the vampire in the jaw and nearly snapping his neck. Zylas pivoted in a handstand and his spinning kick smashed into the second vampire. With a flip, he was on his feet again, claws shredding the tall vampire's arm.

But flesh wounds had no effect on vampires.

Zylas leaped sideways to evade the sledgehammer—and hit the kitchen table. Thrusting his arm up, he caught a vampire's fangs on his metal armguard, then rammed his fist into the vamp's ribs, bones snapping loudly.

The sledgehammer swung again. Zylas darted away, and the sledgehammer split the table in half.

The other vampire tackled Zylas to the floor. Straddling the demon's chest, the vamp grabbed Zylas's wrists and pushed. The demon's muscles bunched with power as he pushed back—and neither creature moved. Zylas's eyes widened with shock that the vampire could match his strength.

Grinning, the shorter vamp pulled his sledgehammer out of the floor and prepared to swing it down onto Zylas while he was pinned.

I ran out of the hallway. As the vampire raised the sledgehammer over his head, I grabbed the end with both hands. The sudden addition of my weight tore the tool out of the vampire's grasp. I dropped to the floor, the sledgehammer smashing the tiles between my feet.

The vampire whirled on me. I stumbled backward. My heel caught on the trim where the tile floor transitioned to the hallway carpet and I fell on my butt. The vampire stood over me, smirking hungrily.

Zylas!

He was across the room, pinned under a vampire. He'd never reach me in time—not without teleporting to my side. The vampire reached down, grabbed my jaw, and wrenched me toward its fangs.

Daimon, hesychaze!I screamed in my head.

Zylas's body turned to crimson light and shot out from under the other vampire. The blaze flashed across the kitchen, hit the infernus on my chest, and rebounded.

Zylas reformed from the light, claws flashing as he lunged. Glowing talons sprouted off his fingers and he rammed them deep into the vampire's chest. As the vamp fell back, Zylas tore his claws free. The other vampire was still scrambling to his feet as Zylas slashed his hand sideways. Crimson runes blazed up his arm and a blade of power flashed out. It whipped across the kitchen and hit the cabinets, shearing through the wood.

The second vampire's severed head tumbled off its body and both fell to the floor with sickening thuds.

I panted for air, still sprawled on my butt, a dead vampire lying just beyond my toes.

Zylas's crimson eyes swept over me. "So helpless, drādah."

Great. A new insult. I wondered what this one meant.

"I helped," I said stiffly. "Or didn't you notice while that vampire was holding you down?"

His tail snapped side to side. "The female hh'ainun said vampires are not strong."

"She did." I winced as I pushed to my feet, fighting my squirming stomach as blood pooled across the broken tiles. "These vampires looked pretty strong."

The stairs creaked and I whirled around, stepping sharply backward and bumping into Zylas. Amalia peered around the corner, her face white.

"Is it over?" she asked.

"Yeah. Thanks for your help."

"Like I would've been of any use." She sniffed, descending the last few steps. "Robin, did you hear what they said? They recognized you as ‘the niece.'"

"Wait, as in Uncle Jack's niece? How do they know Uncle Jack? Unless—"

"Unless they're also looking for my dad. There was a vampire at our house too. They're searching for him. They beat us here and—"

I glanced at the sledgehammer. "They searched this house for clues about Uncle Jack's location, just like we wanted to. But what would vampires want with a demon summoner?"

"I don't know," she said quietly. "But there's a real good chance they might find my dad before we do."

* * *

Perched on a stool at the Crow and Hammer's bar, I sipped my glass of water. Why did it feel like we were further from finding Uncle Jack and the Athanas Grimoire than when we'd started?

Uncle Jack's disappearance. My mother's letter and the unknown danger she'd feared. Claude, who was missing as well, and his illegal demon. And now vampires.

Vampires.It didn't make any sense.

Zylas was, in my biased opinion, nearly unstoppable. With his speed, the only opponents who presented a real threat were unbound demons like him, and even if an enemy could neutralize that advantage, Zylas had demonic strength that far outstripped any human's.

But what happened if Zylas's adversaries were almost as fast and almost as strong as he was?

That was a big problem, especially if they outnumbered him. As he'd shown at the townhouse, his magic could tip the scales, but he had to be very careful about using it. If anyone witnessed his magic, it would mean a death sentence for us both.

I pulled my glasses off and rubbed my face.

"Want to talk about it?"

Lowering my hands, I peeked at the bartender. I'd seen him before—a tall, thin man in his late twenties with dyed black hair that hung over one side of his face, hiding one dark-lined eye. He smiled in a friendly way as he set a bowl of limes beside his station.

"I'm Ramsey," he added.

I blushed as I slid my glasses back on. "Sorry. I couldn't remember."

"I figured," he replied good-naturedly. He picked up a knife and sliced a lime in half. "Don't worry about it. You have lots of new names to learn."

"Are you the bartender?" I asked hesitantly. "Or is Tori…?"

"Tori is the all-mighty overlord of the bar. I'm just the cook."

"Overlady," I corrected with a shy smile.

"That too." He chopped a few more limes. "She's off for Christmas. Went to Vancouver Island with the guys, so Cooper, Clara, and I are taking turns covering the bar for the next two weeks."

Tori was gone? Well, that was one less thing to worry about, though I couldn't help but feel a prickle of disappointment too. She might be alarmingly suspicious of me, but she'd also defended me from other guild members.

My mind turned to the paper folded in my pocket. I wanted to ask about Ezra Rowe, the mage from Claude's printout, but I needed to be careful. "How long has Tori been a member here?"

"Six months—wait, no, seven. She's the next newest member besides you and Amalia."

"What about the three mages? How long have they been members?"

"Aaron and Kai, almost seven years now, I think. Ezra, not as long. He—"

A bell jingled as the pub door opened and closed. Outside, rain fell in fitful sheets, whipped sideways by the wind.

"Hey!" Ramsey greeted the new arrival. "How's it going?"

Zora swung onto the stool beside me and unzipped her rain-splattered coat. "The weather is a nightmare today."

"It's December, so that's nothing new."

She scrubbed her short hair, making the damp locks stand on end. "Hey Robin."

"Hi Zora," I murmured, nervousness lightening my stomach.

"Want anything, Zora?" When she shook her head, Ramsey scooped his halved limes into the bowl. "I need to juice these suckers. Holler if you change your mind."

He pushed through the saloon doors behind the bar, leaving Zora and me alone. The pub was empty, too late for lunch and too early for dinner. I swirled my straw through the ice in my glass, wishing Amalia were here to do the talking.

"So." Zora planted her elbow on the bar and faced me, her brown eyes bright with curiosity. "What can I help you with?"

I forced a smile, trying not to look terrified. After my vampire encounter this morning, I'd looked up her number in the guild directory and asked her to meet me. Now that she was here, I didn't know how to broach the topic.

"I, uh, well… I have questions about… vampires."

She blinked, then laughed. "I was expecting something more urgent."

I cringed. "Sorry, but—I mean—yes, it kind of is. I think vampires are involved in the Demonica rumor I'm… investigating."

It felt weird to describe my fumbling search as an investigation.

"Oh, hmm. Now that's interesting. What makes you suspect vampires?"

"Well, the, um…" I pulled myself together, shrugging off my nervousness. Amalia and I had gone over what we would reveal. I knew what to say. "The house I was searching on Sunday is the location where the unbound demon on Halloween was summoned. You uncovered a vampire on the neighboring property."

She nodded slowly.

"A clue Amalia and I found there led us to another address, where three more vampires attacked us."

"Three? You handled them all right with your demon?"

"Yes, but they were much faster and stronger than we expected. And more… human."

"Their mental competency depends on what stage of the transformation they're in. Over time, their humanity erodes until you get beasts like the one we tagged. Until then, they can pass as human, though the scent or sight of blood can send them into a frenzy."

I described how the vampires had searched the house and stolen Claude's computer and documents. "Do you know why vampires would be interested in a demon summoner?"

"Hmm." She crossed her legs at the knee. "How familiar are you with the process of vampirization?"

"Uh… all I know is vampires are created by parasitic fae spirits that infect people."

I'd never seen a fae, but I'd read about them. Any story about the elusive creatures, who existed somewhere between our world and their own demesne, was an automatic favorite for me; they were so fascinating and mysterious, as were the Spiritalis mythics who dealt with them.

The fae we were talking about right now, however, were an unpleasant subset. They were spirits that preferred human hosts—which wasn't a good thing for the human.

"A newly infected person," Zora explained, "what we call a new vamp, usually has no idea what happened to them. The spirit will drive them to start biting victims, but they can control the blood cravings and continue on with their lives for a while—months or sometimes years, depending on the person.

"Eventually, the new vamp can't keep up the act anymore and they have to ditch their regular life. They usually join a nest. Safety in numbers, right? Nested vampires hunt nightly and hide during the day. They can blend in with the masses, usually to make hunting easier, and they'll live like that for a long time. Old vamps are easy to find and exterminate because they've lost all ability to reason, but nested vamps are problematic. Hard to identify, difficult to catch."

"Do you think the ones I fought this morning were nested vampires?"

"I guarantee it. Thing is… their behavior is weird. Going out during the day, for starters. They're weaker in daylight. Why take that risk? But what really bothers me is their methodical search of the house. Nested vamps care about three things: survival, comfort, and their next blood fix. They aren't long-term thinkers."

I shifted in my chair. "So you don't know why they'd be involved in Demonica?"

She braced her elbows on the bar, hands fisted under her chin. "This is the weirdest occurrence yet in a string of weird vampire occurrences over the last four or five weeks. I've never been as busy with exterminations as I have this past month. Increased vampire activity throughout downtown, and way more new vamps than I've ever seen before." Her expression closed. "I really hate exterminating new vamps."

"Do vampires have any interest in… money?"

"Money?"

"Like, acquiring something very valuable to sell."

She gave me an odd look. "Nested vampires are still human enough to see a profitable opportunity and take it, but like I said, I've never known them to plan more than a few days in advance."

Searching for Uncle Jack in order to claim the Athanas Grimoire and sell it was a lot of steps to take for creatures that didn't plan ahead.

"Clearly, there's something interesting happening." Zora's eyes flashed with excitement. "I think it might be time to go scouting."

Interestingwas not the word I'd choose. "What do you mean, scouting?"

"There are only so many places where a large vampire nest can settle in for an extended stay. The guilds around here routinely flush them out, but I think we might be overdue for the next round. You in?"

"In? In for what?"

"In for some vampire hunting!" She grinned like she'd just offered me a basket of delicious goodies. "You and your demon are more than a match for a few bloodsuckers."

"Uh…"

She laughed. "Don't worry, I'll get a good team together. Do you have a champion?"

I'd told the Grand Grimoire that Amalia was my champion, but we'd abandoned that farce when we joined the Crow and Hammer. "No…"

"I've never championed for a contractor before. We can partner up."

"But—" My shoulders drooped at her eager expression. "Sure. That'd be great."

"Awesome. I'll schedule a team and send you a message with the details." She hopped to her feet. "A contractor on a vamp hunt! I can't wait to see you in action."

I grabbed her wrist as she stepped away. "Zora, I'm not—"

With a flash of chagrin, I cut myself off. How could I tell her I wasn't combat experienced? She'd never believe it, especially since Zylas and I were semi-famous now for killing the unbound demon on Halloween.

My hand slipped off her arm and I smiled weakly. "Keep me posted."

"You bet." She strolled across the bar, calling a loud farewell to Ramsey on her way out.

I slumped in despair. Vampires like that first one? Sure, no problem. Or even like the second one. We could handle that.

But what if we found an entire nest of super-strong, super-fast vampires like the last two?

I puffed out a breath. Did I really have a choice? If I didn't go, I'd have no chance of finding out why the vampires were searching for Uncle Jack—and no chance to stop them from reaching my uncle, and my grimoire, before I did.