Pandora: An Urban Fantasy Anthology Page 6

Siobhan could understand their caution. Sometimes the victims of a vampire's bite could go quietly. And sometimes it could get messy. But this wasn't a vampire bite. "I need some time. Come on. Professional courtesy."

  "Sio, I can give you twenty-four hours before they're beating down my door for justice. But you'll have to leave the shop. It's a crime scene." He pointed at Abyssinian. "And you stay out of this."

  Aby backed up, his hands in the air.

  "Twenty-four hours? Oberon, I can't do any amount of investigating in that amount of time. Christ, I can't go out in the sun for nearly thirteen of those hours." She glanced at her watch. "And it's nearly three in the morning now."

  "That's what you have me for." Aby smiled.

  Oberon moved Siobhan out of the way with a shove as he rounded on his brother. "So help me, Abyssinian Geld, if I hear you've had anything to do with this case, I'll slap cold iron manacles on you and throw you into a dark room."

  But Abyssinian only smiled. "Thanks bro. I'll tell Mom and Dad you said hi."

  "Hey Captain," the burly officer stepped in close but knew better than to get involved in a family tiff. "The Last Rites team is ready."

  Oberon glared at his brother before looking down at Siobhan. "Twenty-four hours, Siobhan. My own detectives will be working as well."

  Yeah. Right. She took in a deep breath—dispelling the idea that vampires didn't breathe—turned and left the shop through the back door with Abyssinian right behind her.

  "Would he really put you in manacles?" Siobhan asked as they walked down the Miracle Mile sidewalk, the store lights illuminating the entire strip before morning came.

  "He already did." Abyssinian stopped and pulled up the left sleeve of his jacket, revealing the white bandage. He peeled back the wrapping to reveal a nasty, puckered band of burned flesh around his wrist. "It only takes one manacle of cold iron to pretty much disable an UnSeleighe."

  "My God," she touched the damaged flesh. "That's where you've been."

  She caught the sideways grin he flashed her. "You miss me?"

  Siobhan reached up and thumped the side of his head and turned her attention back to the wound. "This is wrong, Aby. He can't legally kidnap you and torture you in his house. That's breaking the law. You can press charges."

  "That would be true if he'd held me here. But he didn't. I was in his castle back home. So the rules don't apply. There he can do anything he wants to do."

  "Bastard." She stared at the wound. "I guess that hurt."

  "Ever stepped into sunlight?" he asked as he re-wrapped it and pulled his sleeve back down. When she nodded, he nodded. "Then you pretty much know what it feels like. The sun pins you to the ground like a butterfly on a piece of board. And we can't get the manacle off."

  "Why did he do that?"

  "Because he's a sadistic creep who has always hated me. I keep telling you that. I told you that while you were dating him." He started walking and gestured for her to follow. "And you finally came to your senses."

  "How did you get it off?"

  "My brother has a very interesting set of friends. All women.” He beamed. "So I flirted. And nothing melts a woman's heart more than a wounded man in pain, am I right?"

  She glared at him, and decided if she ever saw Aby in pain, she'd ignore him.

  He glanced back at her again. "You got your gun?"

  Siobhan reached behind her, beneath her pea-coat, and pulled out her weapon. As a vampire she never felt cold or heat—the coat was there purely to hide the gun. "Where are we going?"

  "To Sacred Harvest."

  "The blood bank?" She reached out and pulled at his coat. He stopped and looked at her. "Aby, what's going on? And don't say you don't know, 'cause you're a terrible liar."

  "Melissa Broden bought a mirror from you."

  "Yes. You overheard me tell Oberon that."

  Abyssinian shook his head. "I already knew that because I asked her to buy it. Melissa was a friend of mine. And now she's dead, and the killer is trying to frame you."

  "Wait," she shook her head. "Why did you ask her to buy a mirror?"

  "Because I wanted to know what was really happening in Sacred Harvest. I've been watching it for weeks. A lot of vans go in and out of the back alley, and the other night I got a call from an UnSeleighe friend. Said she met a really nice vampire and was rendezvousing with him over at Chimeras. Well, then she vanished. Nothing. No body. No remains.

  "Melissa got a job there and planted the mirror. My guess is that whoever is responsible for her death discovered the mirror—" he held up a finger. "And noticed it wasn't a normal mirror."

  Nodding slowly, Siobhan was catching on. "So we need to check out and see if the mirror is still there. I can't remember if she got the video option or not."

  Abyssinian shrugged. "I don't know. She vanished before I could get the specifics and the record of what she bought would be in your shop—which my brother has kicked us out of."

  "You think this has something to do with the missing UnSeleighe?"

  Abyssinian's expression hardened. "I don't know. And I don't like things I can't puzzle out." He grabbed her hand. "Let's go. We've got about an hour and a half till sunrise."

  Sacred Harvest was two blocks down from the Enchantment Place shopping center. The closer they got, the fewer people they came in contact with.

  Abyssinian paused at the door. A small sign to the right read "Sacred Harvest Hours" and there were times posted below. "Do you hear anyone inside?"

  Siobhan shook her head. There was no other heartbeat. "No."

  He opened his right hand, splaying his long fingers wide, and held it over the knob. A soft red glow surrounded the door, and then a familiar click echoed in the alley.

  "Neat trick," Siobhan followed him inside.

  The place looked like any other doctor's office, with industrial stainless steel sinks, sterile white counter tops, and aged vinyl couches where donors rested and made money while giving their life's blood to sustain the docile life of a vampire. Apparently elves could move easily in the dark as Abyssinian moved with a grace she'd only noticed once or twice with Oberon.

  "Why did you break up with him?"

  The question was totally unexpected in the dark. Siobhan paused. "What?"

  Her companion stopped and looked at her. "Why did you leave him? What—what did he do?"

  "Oberon? What did he do?" She gave him a stilted laugh as she held her gun at her thigh, the barrel facing the floor. It was easy to laugh now, but two years ago when she and the elven king were partners in fighting crime as well as in the bedroom, she had —for the first time—feared another living creature. "In truth, Aby, I didn't love him. It's hard to love a man—a mortal, vampire or elf—when they're so in love with themselves."

  "I like you, Siobhan O'Donnell. You see the truth in most people, and you acknowledge it, no matter how ugly it is. That's rare these days—no matter who or what you are."

  He glanced at the front window before leading her into another room. This one was much smaller and filled with shelves and cabinets. The elf had his right hand out, and a small ball of light formed. It grew to the size of a baseball before he tossed it into the air. Sparkling light filled the room's tall ceiling and cast a glow over the two of them. "That'll give us light to see, but it won't alert any sensors."

  But Siobhan caught the smell of something else. Something…

  Citric.

  She had smelled it before—an hour or so earlier. And now she recognized it.

  Elven blood.

  She put a hand on his shoulder.

  "What's wrong?"

  "I smell blood. A lot of it."

  "This is a blood bank."

  "I smell elven blood." She spied a door on the opposite side of the room. Siobhan moved to it and found it was locked. Two powerful jerks and the mechanism broke under her strength.

  The lemony smell of the blood assaulted her when she opened the door. The ball of light started to follow them inside but hesitated and m
oved away. She could still see with her preternatural sight. In the center of the room lay an examination table, complete with restraining straps. It was smeared with blood. Buckets of it sat in the far corner. Thick, coagulated, black dead blood. Elven blood died quickly once it left the body and became a thick, unpalatable porridge.

  "What the hell is this?" Siobhan took a step inside. "Is this someone draining elves? What the hell for?"

  "Siobhan," Abyssinian said behind her. She turned to see him kneeling down over a pile of broken glass. She recognized the crystal shards she used in her mirrors and the busted golden frame. He looked up at her. "I think we need to get out of here. Whoever it is found the mirror, and they probably took the recording."

  "No," she moved to stand beside him. "The AV transmits packets directly to my FTP. But they're encrypted with a code set by the sender. That way the information is safe."

  "Does Oberon know that?"

  Siobhan threw him a hard stare. "What has Oberon got to do with this?"

  "Nothing. Do you have a way of accessing the packet?"

  "Yeah, from the computer in my shop. But I'd need to know what Melissa's code might be."

  Abyssinian swallowed. "Try the note—the one Oberon found on the body."

  She stared at him. "The danger note?"

  "It was for me." Abyssinian said. "Melissa called me a week ago. She was sure she was being followed. And she was certain the people doing this knew I was watching them—"

  "Why are you in danger? Is it because of the mirror?"

  "Yes and now. I already know what that recording is going to show, Siobhan. Like I said—I've been looking into this for a while. And let's just say I've pissed off the wrong people. I probably shouldn't have shown up at Mirror, Mirror, but I needed to draw my suspect out. Right now we need to get to your shop and get that packet to a safer place before the murderer does. He's not going to want this kind of evidence out."

  Abyssinian turned abruptly as he stood, his eyes narrowing, his sword suddenly in his hand.

  Siobhan listened as well, "Someone's coming."

  "We tripped an alarm," he moved back out of the secret room. "And I'd say there are a lots of someones."

  She followed him out, and the two of them made their way to the back door. Only now three humans blocked it. Two brandished swords, the other one a large book.

  "Magicians," Abyssinian hissed, indicating the man with the book, and held his sword at the ready in front of him. He leaned back toward her. "That gun's going to be useless. Can you shift?"

  "With pleasure."

  In an instant Siobhan slipped into her wolf form, a beast with gray fur and bright silver eyes. Her clothing fell away in pieces as she snarled at the men. They attacked—one sword after Abyssinian, the other after her. It was easy to dodge the sharpened blade in such a small space and as the attacker tried to recover, she twisted around and sank her teeth into his left thigh. He screamed as he fell and tried to twist around to hack at the wolf with his sword.

  Another lunge back and Siobhan was able to duck beneath the sword again and sink her fangs into the man's soft side. He lurched and was still.

  The clang of swords told her Abyssinian was also engaged in a fight. The air buzzed around her as she felt the tingle of a spell and realized the magician was bringing the dead swordsman back to life beside her.

  She moved away from the soon-to-be zombie and charged at the magician, but something kicked her back, slamming her into the wall. Dazed, she reverted back to her human form and sat blinking, nude and vulnerable. Abyssinian parried several moves by his attacker and thrust up, then down, before bringing the sword up in a stroke that cut through the man from his left thigh to his right shoulder.

  The new zombie charged the elf, but Aby twisted and cleanly sliced off the monster's head.

  The magician began to chant again, and the two attackers came back to life, completely whole.

  "That is not sanctioned magic," Siobhan mumbled as Abyssinian bent down to help her. He removed his jacket and handed it to her. It barely covered her enough to avoid public decency laws. She saw he was bleeding along his neck where the attacker's sword had struck. It wasn't fatal, but it could cost him strength if he lost too much blood.

  "Are you surprised?" he muttered as he grabbed her arm and pulled her in the opposite direction of the undead.

  They found two more swordsmen and another magician at the front and another set in the filing room. With a curse, Siobhan took off toward the only unguarded room.

  It was a back office, with an uncovered window facing the eastern sky. The dark was nearly gone, the dawn's colors quickly pushing aside the night's shade. There was no sign of a door or anything else save a single desk and chair. No closet.

  "We're trapped."

  Siobhan shook her head. "I am, you aren't." She nodded to the window. "In a few minutes I'm going to be a little less than toast. You can break that window and get away."

  But Abyssinian was locking the door. "I'm not leaving you."

  "Why not?"

  "Because you have to know a secret. You have to know what it is these people are trying to do." He went to the window and braced himself against the pane. "If the murderer finds the files, if he destroys them, he'll come after you. You're vulnerable during the day, and he's a powerful mage in his own right. " He looked out the window. "There aren't any attackers out there."

  "Because they know I won't make it past sunrise."

  "But I will." He lowered his sword and leaned against the window. He looked pale in the rising sunlight. "Unless they know I was wounded."

  Then she saw the second hit—a wound in his lower left side. "Abyssinian…" she moved to him, careful not to get her hands in the direct light from the window. He moved closer to her, staggering just a bit. She could only assume the adrenaline that had been pushing him was wearing off, and now his body was reacting to the damage.

  The cut on his shoulder was deep, and it looked as if it had nicked the collarbone. Her hand sought out the wound in his side and she gasped when she realized how deep the attacker's sword had cut. He was going to need serious elven medical attention and quickly—and he was going to need to rest. "You're right—once I'm ash, you'll be at their mercy."

  "I'm sorry," he said and pressed his back against the wall, away from the sun beginning to stream inside. The sword fell to the ground with a clash as he slid down the wall, leaving a garish red smear. "I'm not strong enough. I was manacled…for too long."

  "Abyssinian…" she touched his face. His indigo eyes focused on her. "I'm sorry I'm not much help either. Vampires are always painted as invincible and powerful. I wasn't those things even when I was a detective."

  He leaned his head back against the wall. The light from the sun illuminated his features. Oberon was beautiful—she would admit that. But it was stagnant beauty, with no character or emotion.

  But not his brother. Abyssinian's features were much harsher. Rougher, and yet, kinder. Abyssinian wasn't just beautiful, he was exquisite. He touched her face with his hand. "Do you trust me?"

  "Trust you?" She shrugged. "Yes, I trust you."

  "Then kiss me."

  She blinked at him, aware of the heat radiating from the quickly encroaching sun. "What? "

  "Kiss me, Siobhan." He smiled. "Please."

  She wanted to kiss him. Had wanted to since she first met him, years ago, a victim of a drug bust gone bad. He'd come from the shadows and cut down her attackers. She'd seen his hair like flame, his eyes the color of amethyst, and he'd introduced himself as the King's nuisance.

  Even now as he lost blood, she wanted to kiss him. And before she died…it would be nice to hold him. To be held.

  Just once.

  But as she came closer to him, she felt his right hand caress the back of her head, and then as she neared his face, he forced her head down, shoving her open mouth onto the wound at his neck and shoulder. "Drink!"

  No! She struggled against him, pushing herself away
. But he was strong—stronger than he appeared and she felt her stomach growl as her lips and tongue tasted his life's precious nectar.

  I can't drink! An elf's blood is poison! He's trying to kill me like this—to save me from a burning death! No!

  The thick liquid filled her mouth, and she drank deeply, filling her belly even as the first morning's rays touched her bare hands, and then her arms, warming them. She drank…and drank…

  "I loved…you…"

  Too late she realized what she was doing—

  Abyssinian!

  She wrenched her mouth away from his neck. He was bone white, his eyes closed, dark circles beneath them. Siobhan pressed her fingers to his neck. There was no pulse. She yelled out to him, shook him, but his head lolled to one side, his life…gone…

  Backing away, she left him on the floor and stood in the full sunlight.

  And froze.

  Slapping her hands to her face, she waited for the burning to begin as she stood in the light. She expected the agonizing pain as her flesh would sizzle and melt. She promised herself she wouldn't scream for those whose heartbeats she still heard outside the office door. Of all they ways she'd thought of True Death, this had never come into her mind.

  Siobhan waited for all of it to happen.

  But…it didn't. Instead of feeling it burn, the sun's rays were warm against her skin. Tingling. She looked down as the sun slowly crept from her left side to her right, illuminating her flawless skin. Fascinated, she watched the rays as tiny dust motes floated inside of them until finally, she looked directly into the sun as it came full on through the window.

  Siobhan closed her eyes.

  Laughter welled from deep inside her chest as she spread her arms wide and drank in a different power. The sun.

  Abyssinian…he'd known. He'd known this would happen! How was this possible? Everyone knew that an elf's blood was poison…but was that a lie? Was this the thing that would happen if a vampire drank from an elf?

  What a dark and dangerous secret.

  Aby had given her a gift—but how long would it last? She had to use it well. She had to reveal Melissa and Abyssinian's killer.