Part 3 (1/2)
I had fought Susan twice before. Both times I had been lucky to escape with my life. She was a Master vampire, strongest of all the undead. The first time we had squared off she had taken a twenty-second burst from a flamethrower and a direct hit with a grenade, and had walked away. The second time she had only been turned aside by the faith of Milo Anderson. Compared to Milo, my faith sucked. She could move faster than the human eye could track, tear a man's head off with her pinky finger, and I had personally put half a dozen silver shotgun slugs through her skull with no effect. If Susan wanted to kill me, there wasn't a d.a.m.n thing that I could do about it.
Steve began to flick the lighter.
”What, you want an encore or something?” Ray laughed. ”'Freebird'! Whoo!”
”If you've come for me, I'm not going down without a fight,” I snarled.
”You've got cojones cojones, kid,” Ray said. ”I'll give you that. See, dear, I told you he was a good match for Julie. She always had the best killer instinct of our kids.” He gestured at me. I had only known Ray for a brief time, and that had been after I had sprung him from an insane asylum. The last time that I had seen Ray he had still been human, barely alive, and rapidly bleeding to death from the savage wound Susan had inflicted on him, so I had to admit that he looked a lot better now. ”If we wanted to off you, we would've done it already.”
”Wrong. You can't come into a home if you aren't invited. And this is currently my home,” I said as I gestured around my cell. Though many of their limitations were a mystery, I knew that at least some of the vampire legends were true. ”So back off!” I ordered with a lot more confidence than I felt.
Susan sighed. She approached the bars and leaned against them. It was shocking how much she looked like her daughter, only Susan was inhumanly perfect. Her fingernails were painted bright red and showed up like beacons in the dark. I took an involuntary step back. ”Owen, honey, don't lawyer up on me now.” She absently flicked one finger towards Jorge. Her piercing eyes didn't waver from mine. ”Can I come in?”
The prisoner gasped as she invaded his mind with all the subtlety of a battering ram. His eyes rolled back into his head and he began to convulse violently. I started toward him, but I was too late. ”Si!” he sputtered, then toppled over, dead.
”See? If you weren't so d.a.m.n obstinate he'd still be alive. No great loss, weak mind, easily controlled, and so disease ridden I wouldn't have drunk him if I was starving.” She drew her long fingers away from the bars, and then slowly pushed her face against the iron. She seemed to compress into the s.p.a.ce. The gap was only a few inches across, but Susan slid through easily. She stepped into the cell and then casually brushed the dust from her skin-tight dress.
One Ear screamed like a little girl.
I waited for her to make her move, though realistically if I even saw her coming it was only because she wanted to play with her food. Susan looked down at one of the cots in disgust, shrugged, then sat on it. She crossed her legs, briefly showing off entirely too much thigh, and placed her hands on her knees. Ray frowned.
”Sit. We need to talk.”
I looked at her stupidly.
She gestured at the other cot. ”I ain't here to hurt you. I'm here with a business proposition.”
”You've got to be kidding me...” I said.
Susan's gaze did not waver. ”Ray, you told me he was smarter than he looks.” She began to absently drum her fingers on her knee, impatient.
”He is, but it takes him a minute to warm up.” Ray folded his arms and leaned against one of the other cells. The hardened prisoners huddled in the far corner. Ray a.s.sessed them like I would size up steaks in the meat department. ”Hey, honey, how about Mexican for dinner?”
”Sure, just pick a good one...Look, Owen, I promised a truce, and I'm good for it. You didn't come looking for me, and I can respect that. I'm prepared to leave you and my precious daughter alone, just like I said before. That isn't why I'm here. Please sit. We don't have much time before their reinforcements arrive and you don't want to force me to kill a bunch more innocents. Do you?”
I backed up and slowly sat, careful to keep my eyes on her the whole time. Susan Shackleford emanated predatory danger. Every instinct in my body screamed for me to fight or flee. I tried to steady my voice. ”Okay...”
”So how've you been?” she asked, trying to sound casual. Was it possible that this was awkward for her too? I never really wondered if the undead had societal niceties. Apparently Southern politeness really did die hard. ”Wedding still on for August?”
”Yep. We're fine. So how are you guys? Still dead and evil? Ray still insane?”
”No, he's much better now.” She uncrossed her long legs and leaned forward, pouting. ”So much for being pleasant.”
”Pleasant would be you doing us all a favor and going for a long walk on a sunny day.”
”Kid,” Ray growled. ”Your terminal smart-a.s.situde is starting to p.i.s.s me off. You better show a little more respect.”
He had a point. ”It isn't anything personal. We don't want anything to do with you. Leave me alone.”
Susan sighed. ”Fine. Let's cut to the chase. I want to hire MHI. I've got a job for you to do.”
My mouth dropped open. ”Serious?”
”Duh. You think I came to this s.h.i.+t hole for fun? I'm serious. Not hiring MHI as much as hiring you in particular. And this is a mutually beneficial arrangement. The man, or used-to-be-a-man, that attacked you yesterday, I want to help you destroy him.”
That didn't make sense. ”Why?”
”He's your enemy. He's trying to suck up to the Old Ones, so he means to deliver you to the Dread Overlord itself.”
I licked my lips. ”Susan, last time we met,you were a servant of the Old Ones.” were a servant of the Old Ones.”
”Wrong. I owe no loyalty to those things. Jaeger forced me to serve Lord Machado. I was as much of a p.a.w.n as you were. When you killed Jaeger and his boss, I was freed from their servitude. I serve only myself now. I hated those crusty ancient b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.”
”Right...You're no ordinary vamp, Susan. We both know that. You're too young to be a Master, but you are. Somehow you became way stronger than you should be, and I think I know how.” From my own experience with the Old Ones' magic, I knew the kind of gifts and curses that they could bestow.
”Owen, you're an idiot. Don't strain yourself thinking so hard.” Just for a moment, the turn of her head, the sound of her voice, it was almost as if I was speaking with Julie, but with a hiss, it was gone. She waved her hands dismissively. ”Sure, I'm powerful, more powerful than the dusty old vampires that came before me. The decrepit coots should never have turned a Monster Hunter into a vampire. The source of my power is my business, but I give you my word that I'm not with the Old Ones. My offer is to help you...and in so doing, help myself.”
”Why? What's in it for you?”
”That guy after you? He's a necromancer, a wizard with powers over the undead,” Susan said.
”Even you?”
”Perhaps, but I'm not in a particular hurry to find out. I've been a slave before, and I don't intend to let that happen again. He's building an army, and I don't feel like getting drafted. Basically, this necromancer is a threat to me, to all the independent dead.”
I snorted. ”Even more than MHI? If I recall correctly, we kicked your a.s.s pretty good last time.”
”Wrong again. Goody-two-shoes Milo banished me last time. If we tangle again, I'm taking him out first, and he won't see me coming. So don't push it unless you want his blood on your hands too.”
That made me furious. I clenched my teeth.n.o.body threatens my friends. threatens my friends.
”Just so you know, when you get angry, you broadcast your thoughts like you had a loudspeaker. Try anything stupid and I'll just kill you and save the necromancer the trouble. Relax, Ray,” Susan said soothingly to her husband. Ray must have heard my thoughts, as he had silently moved up to the bars. He moved just on the other side, like a lion at the zoo. He didn't look as disheveled and crazy as when he was human, but now his square face was drawn, angry, and extremely dangerous. He was as protective of his wife in death as he had been in life. Whereas Susan was cold and calculating, the newly undead and far-less-powerful Ray was barely restrained crazy bottled in room-temperature flesh. I forced myself to calm down before Ray pulled me through the bars like the earlier prisoner.
”That's better. Now listen close,” Susan ordered. ”After our little altercation last summer, you drew the attention of the boss king of the Old Ones itself. That's quite a feat for a mere blood bag. You're a marked man now. This guy trying to kill you? He thinks popping you will score him big points. If he brings you in, he'll be rewarded with all sorts of power. And that's bad news.”
She's scared of him.”For you and me both.”
”As much as it pains me to admit it, yeah.”
This whole thing was unsettling. Only a fool would trust a vampire. Ray was still glowering at me. The other prisoners were whimpering and trying to hide. What she was saying made sense in a way. If she was working with the shadow man, it wasn't like she needed any elaborate hoax to catch me. ”How about you tell me who he is and where to find him?”
Susan shook her head. ”I'm still working on that. I've got some suspicions, and you'll be the first to know if I'm right. But you ain't ready to face him yet. His magic makes him untouchable.”
”So how do I beat him? I'm all about killing stuff.”
”What? I'm supposed to do all the work?” Susan's sultry laugh was creepy. ”I don't know exactly. You'll need to figure that out yourself.”