armor of magic 02 - rising light (9 page)

“What?”

“Filming Vampire Weekend in the very alley we’re picking up some silver to trap one.”

“Yes!” Julian held up his hand to give me a high-five, and I half-heartedly obliged.

Rocco was being unusually pensive, which might’ve been adding to my uncertainty. Normally, the detective strutted with confidence, but he was looking over his shoulder and taking each step with way too much caution.

“We’ve got the Armor and the Logos. We’ll be fine,” Julian reassured us.

“I’m fine. Don’t you worry ’bout me,” he grumbled. “Come on, we’re here.”

We banged on the dented metal door, and a bulky Asian man wearing a red velour tracksuit opened it and let us in.

“We’re here to see Allen,” I said. “I called earlier. It’s about a silver pick-up.”

He nodded and pointed toward a door down a narrow hallway with one flickering bulb overhead. Nothing about that looked grim …

As the three of us made our way to the door, Julian tapped my shoulder. “You sure about this, Fiona?”

“I did my research. Silver won’t kill Lucius, but it’ll slow him down. And no matter how strong he is, he won’t be able to break through any silver chains. Allen’s the guy to go to if you have a vampire problem. He can make anything out of silver.”

Rocco reached for the door handle and looked over his shoulder. “It’s not the silver I’m worried about. It’s getting it on Diamond that will be the tough part.”

“Yeah, but we’re Protectors of Light, we’ll figure it out. Besides, maybe Allen has some tips.” I sounded a lot more hopeful than I felt, but if I wanted to wake up Charlotte from that wretched spell Lucius had her under, I needed to believe in the impossible.

Besides, how hard could it be to capture a vampire?

sixteen

At dawn, we went down to The Palm Court restaurant at the hotel to wait for our meeting with Lucius Diamond. The entire place was empty because Rocco had told them we had police business. We stood near the round bar in the center of the elegant room and waited. I stared up at the stained-glass dome, clearing my head while Rocco and Julian chatted quietly.

When Lucius Diamond entered restaurant at 6 a.m., he stood at the entrance while his security guards—all wearing sunglasses and suits—began inspecting the perimeter for any “traps” we might’ve set. He stood in the center of an entourage of five vampires who acted as a barricade. They didn’t have guns; vampires didn’t need weapons.

After one of the security guards gave the thumbs-up, Lucius stepped out from the center of his crew and walked right up to us. A sudden pressure gripped my mind as though my helmet had tightened against my skull. Diamond was most definitely trying to squeeze his way into my head. I eased back, hoping the pressure would lessen. Whenever my Guide, Ezra, had entered my thoughts it never felt painful. This was like a clamp around my skull.

The strikingly handsome vampire peered at me only, his pale green eyes luring me in. After a moment, he smiled and said, “Very well, Miss Farrow. I’ve thought about your deal and here’s what’s going to happen. We have a few options. We can duke it out and see how that transpires … I imagine intensely vicious and messy.” He gestured to his vampire entourage. In the blink of an eye, all five of them, plus the three that had been scoping out the place, had encircled us. “Or I can dictate the terms of agreement.”

“I never go to battle before donuts and coffee,” Rocco grunted.

“I was speaking with Miss Farrow. She’s the one negotiating this deal. After all, it’s her story she’s trying to leverage.”

I glanced at Rocco and Julian; the three of us might’ve
appeared
insufficiently prepared to go to battle with a team of high-power vampires, but we had our silver and a plan.

“I’ll take your silence as a pass on the death match,” Lucius said. “So here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to take you, Miss Farrow, to decipher the remainder of the Sacred Scroll. And I’ll let the other two Protectors live. But before we make any exchanges, I’d like to say I’m quite impressed that you were able to find three sets of silver handcuffs on such short notice. Very resourceful. Please hand them to my associate.”

Without warning, one of the vampires seized Julian’s throat, choking him. Rocco lunged forward, but I blocked his path. “Don’t,” I said.

Rocco eased back and shouted at Lucius, “Tell your bloodsuckin’ minions to back the fuck off. If you hurt him, you’ll get nothing from us.”

“You know how leverage works, Detective. I hold all the cards. I know your plan. I can see into your minds.”

I stepped forward. “Then you must know how badly I want to crush you right about now.”

Lucius instructed his associate to accelerate the pressure around Julian’s neck by lifting him up a few feet. Julian gasped for air.

“Fine! Stop. Just stop. I’ll give you the handcuffs,” I yelled.

The vampire set Julian down and he collapsed to the floor, choking and rubbing his bruised neck. Rocco started to move forward, but another vampire slammed him to the ground before I could say a word. These vampires were way faster than any other I had ever seen.

I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out all three sets of silver cuffs, looking like a kid who had been caught pilfering a few bucks from her mom’s purse.

“Easy, Miss Farrow. Very easy. Put them into the case.”

A crew-cut-sporting vampire in a trench coat who looked like he had fought every war since perhaps the revolutionary war, but had not aged a day, stepped forward. The war-hardened vampire held open a high-end polypropylene hard-shell case. I carefully dropped all three sets of cuffs inside. He slammed it shut and went to stand behind Lucius.

Another wave of pressure hit my brain. “I wish you’d stop poking around in my head.”
Asshole,
I thought.

“Language, Miss Farrow. If you don’t cooperate, I’ll eventually dig deep enough into your mind to rip out the remaining code to unlock the rest of the Scroll. We can do this the easy way, or the brain-scorching way.”

“Screw—” Rocco summoned his sword.

“Let’s not finish that sentence, Detective Rocco. It’s best if you just cooperate. Come, Miss Farrow. We have some work to do.” Lucius came forward, stretching out his hand.

I held his hand, squeezing tightly, then smiled. His pale green eyes widened as he realized what was happening just a second too late. With my other hand, I had yanked out a small canister of mace. I sprayed a silver mist into his perfectly symmetrical and gorgeous face. He choked and dropped to his knees, wheezing and hacking.

Rocco and Julian pulled tear gas canisters from their coat pockets and removed the pins. Aerosol-silver showered the area like a mushroom cloud. The pack of vampires folded over, weakened by the barrage of silver. Julian and Rocco called on their swords and began decapitating each one of them, while I sliced open the hard-shell case with my sword and pulled out the cuffs. Lucius was now curled up in a ball, slipping into unconsciousness. I slapped two pairs of cuffs around his wrists. Just in case.

After we had taken out the entourage, Rocco ran down to housekeeping and snagged one of those big laundry carts. He dropped Lucius’ limp body into it, and we wheeled the vampire up to the suite. Julian wasn’t too happy about staying behind for clean-up duty, but the bodies and severed heads needed to be burned. Rocco had quarantined off a part of the alley behind the hotel for Julian to make the unholy bonfire.

Upstairs in the suite, Rocco dumped Lucius out onto the balcony and used the last set of handcuffs to chain him to the iron bars. As I patted him down for the Scroll, he mumbled incoherently. The silver cuffs had burned his skin and his wrists were blistered and red. Deep within a hidden inside pocket, I found a cigar-shaped tube made of some unbreakable material. The second my fingers grazed over it, I knew I had found the Sacred Scroll. I pulled out the case and twisted off the top. The Scroll emitted brilliant white rays of light, almost blinding me. I put the top back on the case and tossed it to Rocco. He slipped it into the inside pocket of his leather jacket where it’d be safe.

Lucius was so ghastly pale, I was worried he might die on us. Since I needed to keep him alive for the trade-off with Cosby later that evening, I removed one pair of cuffs to ease back on the silver poisoning.

“I need blood,” Lucius moaned.

“Sorry, can’t help you there.” I sat in one of the chairs and stared off toward Central Park. The trees were lovely that time of year. The spectacular bursts of gold, orange and red leaves made the place look like an enchanted forest.

“Why don’t you just kill me?” he murmured.

Though he was in a highly weakened state, I didn’t want to look into his eyes and find out how much influence remained in him.

“Why didn’t you just cooperate with us? What do you need the Scroll for anyway? You already have more than enough power.”

“No such thing … if you let me go, I promise to let you keep the Scroll. I’ll have your friend Charlotte returned safely to you.”

He was using some lingering charm to influence me. I couldn’t trust the vampire to give me Charlotte. Not after I had seen the spell he had cast over her. I kept my gaze turned toward the colorful trees. “No deal, vampire.”

“Then just put me out of my misery,” he groaned.

“What were you saying about leverage earlier? These are your consequences. Sorry.”

I stood up, realizing being in close proximity to Lucius Diamond was still too dangerous. He was an extremely powerful creature with millennia worth of training and practice in the art of manipulation. Before I went back inside, I put the other set of cuffs around his ankles for extra precaution, and left the balcony.

Since we weren’t meeting with Cosby until later that evening to do the trade, I went to my bedroom to work on my outline for the IP Montgomery exposé. Regardless of what happened to Lucius—who was about to have a very shitty week—I planned to send the story to Somer Barrett at
Lifting the Fog
as soon as possible. I wasn’t letting IP Montgomery get away with defrauding state funds and using Diamond Escorts as a money laundering front and prostitution ring. Whether or not Diamond would be around to be sentenced didn’t matter. As long as his operation was dismantled and the monies returned to their rightful owners, I could rest knowing I had done my part.

seventeen

Sometime in the late morning, I had finished my outline and sent it off to Somer Barrett. It explicitly detailed all the information I had overheard Lucius discussing with his CFO, Deandra. Since Lucius would most likely be out of the picture, I said to use Deandra as the point of contact at IP Montgomery. Besides, I needed to focus my attention on supernatural things, so I was fine with Somer sending one of her senior journalists to handle the official interview. As far as I was concerned, I had done my job well, putting together the pieces of the entire conspiracy, starting with the string of Southwest murders that led back to Diamond Escorts and IP Montgomery. Somer was going to have an orgasm over this scoop.

Within minutes, she texted back:
On it!
And included a happy-face emoji blowing a heart-kiss. It felt good to be respected by such a highly reputable journalist. Soon, things would go back to normal. We would break the spell over Charlotte, secure the Scroll, then head back to San Francisco. Charlotte could move into my newly remodeled home, and the two of us could hang out all the time. Eventually Asher would return and everything was going to be perfect.

When Julian got back to the suite, we went over our plan for the ten o’clock exchange with Cosby in the alley behind The Graveyard. Julian would be in charge of the Scroll. Rocco would scope the perimeter, scanning for any supernatural interference, and I’d handle Lucius Diamond.

We had borrowed a wheelchair from the hotel and chained Lucius securely. Not that he could’ve escaped the silver handcuffs, which had burned his wrists and ankles. He was in bad shape. The majority of his energy had been drained away and he was a shell of the grandiose vampire I had met the previous day. Wrinkles and brown age spots were beginning to appear along his once firm and radiant skin, and his breathing was heavy and laden.

“How’s it feel?” Rocco grunted, tossing Diamond into the backseat of the sedan. “Not much fun having the life drained from ya, huh?”

The vampire kept quiet, most likely conserving the little amount of energy he had left. Julian sat up front with Rocco, and I sat next to Diamond in the back, keeping watch.

“Miss Farrow, I implore you to let me go. This is a mistake for everyone involved,” Lucius begged, which was entirely out of character and made me feel icky and weird.

“Don’t fret, this’ll be over very soon,” I told the vampire.

“But you have the Scroll already. If it’s your friend Charlotte you want, I’ll give you the location of the escort service and we can call it even.” His gravelly voice pulled on my heartstrings. For some reason it pained me to see him hurting.

Wait! What was I doing?! Even though he was losing power with every passing minute, he was still able to charm me. I had to remember that Lucius Diamond wasn’t an innocent human, he was the most powerful vampire in the world. No wonder his allure and influence had such a strong effect on me. I had to tune him out and stop listening to him altogether. Why would giving me the location of Diamond Escorts matter anyhow? Charlotte would still be under that heinous spell. I didn’t trust Lucius to break it, nor did I want to give him any leverage over me. Cosby would be easier to handle.

“I’m being set up,” he said.

“Shut your pie hole, Diamond!” Rocco shouted.

“Miss Farrow?” Lucius whispered in a frail voice.

“I’m out, Diamond. Save your energy for someone who cares.” I pushed up against the door and rolled down the window, letting the crisp autumn air blast against my face. I shivered from the chill, but at least I was able to block out the vampire’s incredibly strong pull. I breathed in the scent of rain, and looked to see a billow of dark clouds looming in the fading twilight. A storm was coming.