Chapter Twenty-One

Raymond leaned impatiently on hiswalking stick, his double-breasted camel hair topcoat buttoned tight against the evening's brassy weather, a pair of Aspinal leather gloves covering his hands like a second skin. Murk and Ren were standing off to his right, Ren's incessant gum-chewing near driving him around the bend, and Teer was kneeling on the weedy earth in front of an opening into the rocky cliff. They were all clandestinely gathered behind The Cave Store on Coast Boulevard in La Jolla Cove, so close to the Pacific Ocean that Raymond could hear the boom of the surf and feel the occasional mist of sea spray.

He glanced irritably at his Rolex, visible by virtue of the security lighting attached to the back of the store. It was after midnight. "Best you haven't called us out here for naught, son." Raymond had just been about to get a leg over with a lush sort from his polo club when he'd received Teer's message.

Teer gestured at the machine on the ground in front of him. "Subterranean vibrations are registerin' on the meter, so the elevator should be movin'."

Hidden just inside the cliff face were elevator doors – supposedly one of the secret passageways of the Underground Om R?u. So, yes, fancy that, the creatures did exist. It'd been quite the kerfuffle getting that information out of the demonic mother of his children; Yavell apparently feared being reacquired by some chap named Lorke, a demon she'd escaped from some years back.

It'd been another scrap persuading the old gal to reveal the whereabouts of the doorways into the Om R?u's underground den. His leg was still feeling a bit out of sorts from that violent confrontation. ‘Struth, he found fisticuffs to be dreadfully barbaric, but Yavell's pure Om R?u bloodlines lent her a certain immunity to his power. However, that was neither here nor there. The information had been acquired; it just remained to be seen if it was outdated or not. Teer had been watching this entrance for twelve days and nights, and had seen no comings and goings.

Teer wearily scratched the black flame tattoo on his left jaw with the backs of his fingers, his young face looking knackered from his long stint of vigilant camping out. "They're probably just comin' from really deep in the –"

There was a metallic clank of an elevator coming to a stop, then the shish of doors sliding open.

Teer hopped to his feet and moved to Raymond's left side.

Two men stepped through the rocky doorway, both of them tall, muscled, wretchedly soiled, and dressed in ill-fitting dark clothing. One had fiery red hair and several safety pins stuck through his earlobes. The other had black hair and black teeth tattoos surrounding his enormous biceps à la Yavell, and like the tattoos of the men who'd kidnapped Toni, apparently. Both had the black eyes which marked them as definitely Om R?u.

Well, bully for Yavell. The old broad had been correct.

"Tally-ho, mates," Raymond greeted them.

The two came to a dead halt, their surprise at finding four strangers standing there turning into shock when they noted the black flame tribal tattoos on Murk, Ren, and Teer.

"Who the fuck are you?" Red Hair demanded, flashing a steel tongue stud in the process. "And how the fuck do you know about this portal?"

"A little Om R?u birdie told us." Raymond smiled, sorely tempted to pull out his handkerchief and press it over his nose; the two smelled atrocious.

Red Hair slitted his lids. "What the fuck do you want?"

"Such language, lad." Raymond tushed. "But, yes, let's crack on with matters." He planted his walking stick firmly in front of him and leaned on it with overlapped hands. "Nearly a fortnight ago some of you blokes nicked a Dragon female from Scripps Memorial Hospital. Strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes, height about five-five."

Red Hair scratched his crotch. "She got big titties?"

Ren stepped forward, a hot, territorial aggression boiling off him.

Toni was Ren's by right of him being Boian's eldest son, and the lad evidently didn't care to hear his woman's attributes being discussed. Perhaps from this Om R?u's personal knowledge of them? Raymond nearly sighed. Ren's temper could be quite annoying at times. If Raymond had his druthers he'd pair Toni with Murk instead, but the genetic muck-up such a coupling would produce made that impossible.

Raymond held up a staying hand to Ren. "She would be the one, yes."

"So." Red Hair drew a battered flask out of his jacket pocket. "What about her?"

"You blokes took her erroneously, old tosspot. She's ours." Raymond let another smile curve his lips. "And we want her back."

Red Hair shrugged. "Shit happens, Pops. 'Fraid you're gonna hafta live with the screw up." He took a pull on his flask. "That girl's too much of a fuckable twinkie to give her up."

Ren snarled.

The black-haired Om R?u sniggered and reached for his buddy's flask.

Red Hair jerked it out of his reach.

"Or," Raymond countered in a steely tone, "you and I could negotiate a trade for her."

The black-haired Om R?u tried to take the flask again. A shoving-slapping-hitting match ensued, which ended in Black giving Red a hard purler to the face and then seizing the coveted flask.

Growling, Red swiped a hand across his bloody mouth. "No way a cum-chugger like you has anything I'd want to trade for."

"No?" Raymond raised his hand, palm out. He generally didn't use such theatrics when activating his power, but he wanted to make right certain these two gobbins understood who had the true negotiating power here. "How about your continued good health?" He blasted a shock of energy off his hand.

The two Om R?u shot backward, hit the rocky cliff, and rebounded. Stumbling forward, they convulsed for several moments, then stood in place, blinking and twitching. The supernatural red light in Black's eyes pulsed in and out steadily, while Red, who Raymond was beginning to discern was more humanoid, tamped down the glow in his own eyes.

"You psychotic dickend," Red hissed, "back the fuck off. We don't have her. It's the Varcolac who took her. I just seen her."

"Varcolac?" Raymond snapped his brows down. "Are you under the assumption I'm soft in the head, boy? Vampires have been extinct for centuries."

"Well, then, you've been misinformed." Without warning, Red caught Black a perishing smacker on the jaw.

The poor sod, still unsteady on his feet, crashed to the dirt, his arms and legs sprawling.

Red snatched the flask out of Black's hand. "They live underground, same as us, but in their own part. They're just real good at keeping themselves hidden from people up here, is all."

"That's a load o' shite," Ren bit out. "I saw the man at the hospital who took our woman. He had black eyes and the same kind of tattoos on his forearms that your knobber friend here has on his arms. That makes him an Om R?u."

"I ain't lying, jizzbeard, so you can go plow yourself up the ass. The cocksucker you saw at the hospital was a Brun, and he's Varcolac, sure enough. Just a Half-R?u."

Half-R?u? Raymond deepened his frown. How was that possible? "Varcolac and Om R?u can't interbreed."

Red shrugged. "Guess it's what you'd call an amolly … animally …."

"An anomaly," Raymond provided drolly.

"That's it." Red chugged the rest of whatever was in the flask.

Raymond compressed his lips, his patience growing thin under this convoluted run of turnabouts. His own progeny were Half-R?u, but a mixture of Fey and Om R?u. He knew what to expect from that combination, but didn't have the foggiest notion what sort of creature would come from pairing an Om R?u with a vampire. "Will they negotiate with us?" he pressed.

Red dragged his sleeve across his mouth. "No way, Pops. Those Varcolac ain't givin' up their pussy for nuttin. They protect their women good, too. Seven Dragons those bloodsuckers have gotten ahold of, and we've only been able to steal one."

Raymond stiffened. These ruddy Varcolac had succeeded in obtaining seven Dragon females? How in botheration had he missed this? He gripped his walking stick in a rigid fist. Well, shame on him for not paying sufficient attention to the possibility of competitors while waiting for the two eldest boys to come of age. His full attention was engaged now, however. "You wouldn't happen to be privy to where the Varcolac's portals are, would you, dear boy?"

Red stepped warily to the side as Black finally managed to hoist himself to his feet. "Naw, not topside. But there's a way into the Varcolac side from our town. If you wanted to try and snatch the twinkie yourselves, I could take your dickfucks here" – Red gestured at Ren, Murk and Teer – "down into O??rat. That is," he hooded his eyes, "for a price."

"Dare I ask what that might be?" Raymond drawled.

"Ten Dragon females."

"Exorbitant," Raymond countered. "Ten Dragon females for only one in exchange. That wouldn't make sound business sense on my part, would it?"

Red showed his dirty teeth in a smug smile. "But, see, the big tittie one's special to you." He tapped two fingers to his temple, presumably indicating his mind. "My own little birdie told me that."

It seemed that Red's more human lucidity had the potential to be a proper pain in the posterior, too. "Very well," Raymond agreed. Not the best of all situations, but he didn't exactly have an alternative, not short of outright war. These Underground Om R?u controlled the only access to Toni. "We have an accord, lad, save that ten Dragons will take some time to procure, and I want my woman now."

"You wanna pay in installments, okay, but no welshing, Pops." Red shoved the empty flask back into his jacket pocket. "And you pay whether you manage to swipe your bitch or not. You don't, and it's Lorke and Josnic who'll be coming after you, and your so-called bionic hand there won't do nuttin but make them laugh."

"I'm a man of my word," Raymond returned icily. "No need to tender threats."

"Come back in five days, then," Red said, "things are whack downstairs right now. Be here at midnight. And no guns. Bullets bounce off the walls down there and end up pegging the wrong guy in the uglies." Red turned to smirk at Murk, Ren, and Teer. "Hope you ass-pounders like the heat." Cackling, he started off.

Raymond's voice stopped them. "What's your name, boy?"

"I'm Tollar." He smacked Black on the shoulder. "This is Ejohn. Oh, and in case you get any ideas about going it alone." Tollar jerked his chin at the opening in the cliff face. "That elevator will blow a guy's Beaver Cleaver off in nine different directions, he operates it wrong." Tollar grabbed the black-haired Ejohn and pulled him toward the street, more of his maddening cackling floating back to them.

"Wretched creatures," Raymond murmured as he watched the two Underground Om R?u saunter off.

Murk crossed his thick arms over his chest. "They're goin' to try and snuff us down there, you know that."

"Let 'em fuckin' try," Ren bristled. "They can't."

"Yeah, but it'll make for one ballache of a mission."

Raymond fingered the lion's head on his walking stick. "I'd hardly send you three to deal with those blighters without some of my choicer enchantments to aid your endeavors." He glanced at Ren. "You, in fact, will be using one of my most powerful concoctions on Toni. She'll be an obedient and devoted piece under the influence of it, lad. You just make bloody well certain she looks at you, and only you, right after you inject her with it. Do you hear?" The lion's head bit into his gloved palm. "By God, if you bugger up this part, Ren, the entire plan will go all to cock."