“What is this interruption?” An angry gaze turned towards Serena. “Can you not control your own servants?”
He was about to say something more, but a wave of shock rolled through every vampire still in the room. They all jumped to their feet, alert and wary.
It must be the smell of his freshly spilled blood, Eva thought. Unliving though the blood was, it was still blood to her sixth sense. It probably still counted as blood to their sixth sense as well.
Dropping pretense, Eva stepped towards Kuvon. Nel still hung off her arm–if she were pressed any closer, she would fuse with Eva’s skin.
She ignored it and tried to look as dignified as she could with a grown woman pressed into her.
“Are you aware that one of your vampires just attempted to contact our target?”
“What are you talking about, servant?” His eyes narrowed in a glare. “Have you no respect for your betters?” His head snapped to one of the door guards behind Eva. “Wedge,” he said with a snap of his fingers, “find out what that smell is.”
“No need,” Eva said. “It is the smell of one of your vampires, dead in the bathroom.”
Serena moved next to Eva, placing a hand on her shoulder. “There may be more vampires in this coven,” she whispered, her cold lips so close that they brushed against Eva’s ear, “ones not present that are lacking your blood. Be careful, we do not need more enemies.”
“Treachery,” Kuvon snarled, looking around the room. “Lucas? Where is Lucas–”
He kicked the table in front of him.
Serena had to grab hold of both Eva and Nel to jerk them out of the way.
It was a good thing she had done so. With how nauseous Eva felt, there was no way she would have done anything on her own. The heavy wooden table would have crashed straight into her.
The bartender pulled something out from beneath the counter. Judging by the clicking sound and how he was holding it, it was a shotgun. The guard who had not been ordered to search around walked up behind the group while the other seated vampire moved up as well.
Some of the thralls joined their masters in encircling Eva, Serena, and Nel. The rest fell back to give them more room to fight.
“Lucas is dead, boss!” the absent guard said. “Torn in two!”
Kuvon gnashed his teeth. “What did you shits do?” he growled out.
“We met you out of courtesy, Lord Kuvon,” Serena said, keeping her voice neutral. “If you are allied with our enemy, you are our enemy.”
“No one here would dare–”
“Your deceased vampire,” Eva cut in. “He dared. He slipped away to call his real master and inform him of our presence. Sawyer did not answer, but I imagine it won’t be long before he tries to call back.
“Why else would a vampire be in the bathroom, alone and with a cellphone lying near his corpse?”
She hoped that she was right in that vampires did not use bathrooms. It would help cast more suspicion on the dead vampire.
Not that she really cared. All the posturing and hidden politics during their meeting tonight was tedious. If they wound up helping out against Sawyer, that would be excellent. Yet, she would not shed a tear if she clapped her hands together and obliterated the lot of them.
Serena was alright on her own, but if she never had to interact with a group of vampires again, it would be too soon.
“You killed him. How? You didn’t–” His eyes widened mid sentence. “The blood. You’ve done something to the blood.”
Eva shook her head. “The blood is perfectly normal. For its source, anyway. It will not harm you… so long as you do not betray us.”
“Betray you?” he shouted. “You are the ones who have betrayed us! Violating the sanctity of the dwelling you were invited into?”
Serena winced. Perhaps some sort of unwritten rules for vampires. It was probably a big deal, but then, Eva wasn’t a vampire.
Maybe it was time to reveal that fact.
Pulling off her gloves, Eva stretched her fingers out before removing her blindfold.
Lord Kuvon was a great deal less impressive now that she could see him with her actual eyes. Between his wrinkled face, a scraggly beard that Devon would be jealous of, a denim jacket with torn off sleeves, and jeans underneath a set of motorcycle chaps, he really wasn’t deserving of his title. She had been expecting something along the lines of a suit and tie.
With a slight sigh, Eva just shook her head. Seeing with her own eyes had started the double-vision up again. She tried to keep the nausea from showing on her face as she spoke.
“I am no vampire. Your rules are beneath me. My only concern is the necromancer.”
“You’re a demon.”
Eva smiled, licking her lips with her tongue. It was another inhuman part of her. She might as well show it off for the intimidation factor.
Kuvon glowered, but his fists were no longer clenched in fury. The vampires around him didn’t look quite so sure of how to act. The bartender still held his shotgun, pointing it at them. Both guards glanced at each other after the second walked up. The extra vampire just shifted, one foot moving backwards but still looking ready to fight at a single word from Kuvon.
“Here is my question to you, the one that will determine who leaves here alive. Were you lying earlier, when you said that necromancers were ‘bad business’?”
“I was not,” he said in a slow, calm voice.
“Excellent. We can all be friends.”
“You killed Lucas,” he said, fists clenched again.
“I did. And I will kill anyone else who attempts to warn my mark of our presence. This necromancer is slippery enough without extra help.” Eva narrowed her eyes, glancing between Kuvon, the bartender, and the other vampire. She didn’t bother turning around for the guards. “Believe me, I will know the moment he is warned.
“That said,” Eva smiled again, “if anyone wants to help attack the necromancer, we do have more stores of that blood as payment.”
Chapter 012
“I can’t believe scum like that tasted your blood before me,” Serena sulked once they were back in their room.
“I can’t believe that we’re working with those monsters,” Nel said, gripping her hands into fists. “They should be exterminated, not bartered with.”
“Hey! I’ll have you know that I would very much resent being exterminated.”
Eva moved past the bickering idiots and slumped straight into one of the beds. At this point, she wasn’t sure if she would care about them murdering each other.
Her head was hammering, Sawyer’s actions were just as nauseating as they had been earlier, and now she had Nel and Serena talking far too loudly. Casting a darkness spell around Serena to get her safely back into the room had taken its toll. All she wanted to do was to sleep for the next thirty-six or so hours. Then, the ritual would have worn off.
They would have to move fast once it ended if they didn’t want all the knowledge she had learned to become useless.
Sawyer had worked through about half of the bodies. The light from sunrise was not making their appearance any better. Though she could actually stomach their appearance. It was still the smell that got to her the most.
If only Sawyer would go around and open the caskets before he got to them. Something to let them air out.
At no point in moving between caskets had Sawyer pulled out his cellphone. Perhaps because the sun had risen and most vampires slept through the day. Or maybe he knew that his minion had perished. Eva really didn’t care what he thought so long as he didn’t flee.
On the plus side of everything that had happened with the vampires, Eva now had a cellphone. At least until the phone company didn’t get payments from the dead vampire. Maybe she’d be lucky and he would have some bank account set up to automatically make payments.