Mistwalker (13 page)

She finished dressing and piled the weapons on the kitchen counter beside her hessian bag and the crossbow that Vinnie left. She smiled, intending to find out what happened to her mother tonight. The vampires who attacked them twenty years ago had preyed on a child, and she was no longer that vulnerable girl.

After a quick trip to the cave to stash the rest of her weapons, she sharpened the legs of the chair into proper stakes and then faded to hide in the shelter of the alley beside the shops near
Player’s Pint
. She quickly bought a pair of jeans, t-shirt, leather jacket, and boots, and then flashed back to the cave to get dressed again. Funny how now as a vampire she saw it as shelter, whereas to a human under attack, the secluded spot screamed danger.

Back in town, she stalked in the shadows around the clustered houses and apartments until a cab pulled alongside her.

The driver leaned across the passenger seat. “Need a cab, love? Jump on in.” He sat back and punched a few numbers into a computer screen above the wheel.

She opened the passenger door and settled into the seat. “Thanks. You know the club over on Plymouth?”

“There’s a few that way, love. Which one are you after?”

She wanted to smack herself on the head. Vinnie hadn’t said. She shrugged. “I don’t know the name. Drop me off at the most popular, and I’ll go from there.”

“Sure.” The cabbie swung away from the side of the road and joined in the stream of traffic. “How’s your day been?”

“So far, so good.
Hope it shapes up to be an even better night.”

“That’s the way.”

“You get many fares in this direction?”

A car ran a red light, and the cabbie clucked his tongue.
“Bleeding lunatics. Weekends are non-stop around here.”

“Any cute fellas come out this way on a Friday night?”

He shot her a smiling glance. “A girl with your looks should have no problem at all. That hair ain’t dyed, is it?”

“No.” She fluffed the strands a little, shooting him a sideways glance.

“I’m partial to redheads myself. You’ll knock ‘em dead, mark my words,” he said. “Although, you can never be too careful.”

She looked out the window.
“How so?”

“Ah, you know.
Lots of fellas and the crowds.” The car slowed down as it turned a corner. “You best find someone to go with. You’ll be safer.”

“Oh, I’m meeting friends. They told me to go to the most popular,” she repeated.

He smacked his lips together. “That’d be
The Python
, then. Yep, that’s it.”

Simone smiled. “Thank you.”

The driver changed lanes and turned left. “If you ask me the owner of that place must be in quids.”

“Why’s that?”

“Not everyone gets in you know. Hundreds are turned away. A few celebrities caused a ruckus a while ago. Doesn’t bother me much, a bunch of toffee-nosed movie stars who never had to do a day’s real work in their life.”

“A select clientele?”
She pretended to think over that.

“Sure, but if your friend’s a regular, then you’ll have a good time.”

“Is it close?”

“Around the corner,” he said.

“Drop me off here, please. They said they’d meet me outside farther away from the club.”

The cabbie didn’t take the hint and pulled up in line with all the other taxis. She wanted to slam her foot on the brakes. How to hide her face from all the passers-by on the sidewalk? “Back there would have been fine.”

“Dropping you off at the front means you’ll get in safely.”

She couldn’t fault his logic; he was only doing his job. Did she look so vulnerable that he felt the need to protect her? She paid her fare and left a tip. Then she sunk into the shadows, away from the curious glances and hurried around to the back of
The Python
, one hand curled around the stake beneath her jacket.

*You don’t have to call anybody. You’re coming home with us.*

She halted at the soft words entering her mind, thinking she’d gone mad. Her fingers slipped from the blunt end of the wooden stake and inched to the handle of the .44. She wasn’t going anywhere with anybody.

A man and woman in city casual dress closed in on a red telephone booth. The female guarded the side with her hands splayed against the glass. The male blocked the exit. The woman inside the booth had her back to them.

She was mortal and safe for the time being, but the receiver slipped from her hand and crashed against the glass. The woman spun around with a blank face and wide, empty eyes.

Simone recalled Tammy with the same expression.

The male opened the door.
*Come out, and take my hand. You want to come home with us.*
His lips didn’t move.

Unbelievably, they could apply force without even speaking. Simone caught a direct spear of communication between the male and female vampire outside the booth. How they smiled, and their telepathy formed a picture of them drinking.

*I cannot wait to drink her. She looks lush.*

The female vampire laughed, her gaze stuck on the victim.
*This should be fun.*

No doubt.
Simone’s heart thudded as she slipped into the shadows cast by the alleyway between the nightclub and a small shop. Was this the same kind of control Juliun and Lars had used on her? Did every vampire want to hurt humans, and would she eventually feel the same way?

The .44 would bring too much attention and defeat the purpose of coming here tonight. What did it take to use their quieter methods? If all she needed was intent and skill, then she was more than ready to try.

The woman appeared zoned out as she stepped out the booth and grasped the male vampire’s hand. She fell into step beside them on the sidewalk. The trio slinked past Simone, their heads close together.

Simone released the gun, fluffed her hair, came up behind them and tapped the male on the shoulder. “Hey, buddy.”

He spun around and stared at her insolently. “Go away.”

Life force swamped her mind with so much strength she swayed.
*You don’t want her.*

Oh Lord, that was her power. Where had it come from? She let the energy push through her boundaries. Either that or she’d break. The male’s eyes glazed over, and a smile settled on his face. The expression looked permanent—toothy and goofy. She might have waltzed a thousand humans under his nose and achieved the same effect.

“Larry, get over here,” the female vampire snapped. She hurried back with the transfixed woman in tow. “What are you doing?”

*Look at me,*
Simone said with her mind. That sweet darkness rolled forth, roiling against the shore of all she believed possible. Her mind expanded.
*You can’t see anything else.*

Her gaze caught both vampires, and she smiled sweetly.
*Tell me about the vampire named Juliun. The one who can turn into black mist.*

*He is the prince of vampires.
Sole heir to the mist. He can kill you with a single thought if he has you in his sights.*

She scanned their faces and didn’t feel a twinge of remorse for what she was about to do.
*Take your control from the woman, and go swim in the river.*

Both vampires turned to the woman, then crossed the street and headed for the river that split the town into east and west. It would take them directly into the North Sea.

Simone reached out and gripped the woman’s shoulder, then gave her a gentle shake. “Where do you live?”

The woman blinked. “What?
Sixty-four, St. Paul Road.” Her gaze darted around. “Oh! What happened? I feel like…I…I blacked out!” Her face slackened. “I...I live next to the bakery. Opposite the park. What happened?”

“Nothing.”
Simone walked out into the road and hailed a cab. “This time. Here’s some cash for the trip.” She pushed notes into the woman’s shaking hand and guided her into the open door of a taxi. “Do yourself a favour and stay away from this part of town at night.”

“But…but what about you?”

I’m one of them
. “I won’t be staying long. Don’t worry about me.” Simone gave her one last mental push.
*Forget you ever saw me, but remember the warning.*
Then she strode down the alley behind
The Python
, scouting for windows or another entry.

She would have used the mist to take her directly inside the club without seeing the interior, but she realised she couldn’t do that. That was obvious when she’d thought of Tammy and disappeared, but then she landed back in her original room at the hospital. Simone figured she could only reappear in places she’d seen or visited herself. Otherwise, she would have appeared beside her friend.

Overflowing rubbish bins tumbled in the narrow passage, and dripping overhead gutters fed into puddles on the dark cement. Stray newspaper sheets stuck to the ground. Discarded barrels and beer kegs lined the alley, and through a window, a faint green light pulsed in a narrow passageway inside the nightclub. The colour faded and then glowed, plunging the corridor into darkness every two minutes.

Her skin burned at the first thought to be in the shadows. However, the sight from the corner of the passageway into the nightclub left her flabbergasted. She smoothed her hands down her jacket to her gun and snuck a second look.

Whitby had officially gone crazy with vampire mania. She thought it a bit of a lark to be in fancy dress for New Year’s Eve, but obviously it was a regular thing around here.
And why not?
The place was overrun.

People dressed in Goth costumes hovered at the bar. Simone pulled back into the darkness to get her bearings. A disco ball flashed multi-coloured squares of light across the dance floor and rap music thumped out from massive speakers. She held her hands over her ears to ease her sense of disorientation, afraid she’d go deaf. With her back against the wall, she positioned the gun and the stake so she could grab them both at a moment’s notice. But her real weapon was the mist—she could disappear with a single thought.

Hiding in the shadows wouldn’t accomplish anything. She needed information.

She crept around the corner, trying to merge into the shadows. The place reeked of blood. It was the one thing she couldn’t escape. She didn’t mean to breathe so deeply with her body weakened from hunger, but her stomach growled a stern protest. She needed to feed, although she wouldn’t prey on some poor human because she couldn’t control herself.

She stiffened in realisation.

How long would it take to hold on to that opinion of right and wrong when it was either drink or die? She couldn’t ever imagine a time when her survival instincts might be her downfall.

There were the mob vampires, the lonely hearts staring into their chalices, the bad asses in leathers and chains with a barely dressed female gyrating on their laps. Hands disappearing up skirts and wild passionate kissing. Maybe even…no…her eyebrows rose. She didn’t want to look
that
close.

Crackling and fierce, energy spread throughout the club, from the groups of female vampires with cunning eyes and hard smiles with some poor sap in their midst, to the young ones in the latest fashions, sporting knowing smiles and hungry stares.

Predators.

Simone crossed the scarlet carpet and rounded a corner where the music wasn’t quite so loud. An earthy and animalistic scent swamped her senses, and she stared, her nostrils flaring.

A group of men with tight shirts and thick dark hair on their arms faced her. They didn’t smell human or vampire.

She couldn’t quite decide what they were.

A screech made her jump and turn around.

Small creatures with green roundish heads and long spindly fingers sat at another table along a wall. Their chests barely came up to the top of the table. They looked pissed and talked fast—in a dialect she couldn’t understand. The nastiest looking one glanced up with a vicious snarl. Its green eyes narrowed into slits, the fine white hairs spiking up on its back.

Her hand closed over the butt of the gun under her jacket, and she kept walking.
Don’t turn around. Don’t turn around or stare.
She wouldn’t have enough bullets to take them all, and she didn’t want to start shooting up in the club.

Great way to keep a low profile, Simone.
Gawping at the first odd thing you see.

Someone tapped her on the shoulder, and she stiffened.
Hell.
Wait, those things were too short to reach her shoulders. She cocked the .44. If exploding rounds didn’t work, she’d disappear.

“Excuse me. You’re Simone, aren’t you?” A blond man stood in front of her with both his hands shoved inside the pockets of his pants. He smiled. “Can I offer you a drink? You must be thirsty.”

She frowned, her gaze roaming over his pale skin and iridescent blue eyes.
Vampire
. “Who are you?” she asked coolly.

“Willem.
How about a chat then? It’ll be something normal at least.” He cast a sidelong glance at the little table with the green creatures. “And we can get away from this part of the club. You’ll be more comfortable somewhere else no doubt.”