Conflux, p.5
Conflux, page 5
He hung up and I scrambled to my feet. Aurora and I had been just about to launch into a game after eating dinner, but our plans would have to be put on hold. “Can I call your mom and ask her if I can come and visit her?” my roomie asked. She’d slept in my bed last night, but had spent a couple of hours in her new apartment to get used to it earlier.
“Sure,” I said, frantically trying to choose something that would be appropriate to hunt down a bunch of vultures. I settled on red leather pants and a black corset style top. “How do I look?” I asked, modeling it for her.
“You look hot,” Aurora said in admiration. “And cool,” she added when I turned in a slow circle. “You should wear boots with a flat heel, just in case you need to chase after the birds.”
I had no intention of running anywhere, but chose flat boots like she’d suggested. Although I had a cache of weapons in Ruen’s trunk, I grabbed my twin guns and my favorite mini crossbow from my scuffed brown trunk next to the door. The vamp honked his horn and I crossed to the window to wave at him. While we could hear what was going on outside, no one could hear anything inside our apartments.
“Have a safe drive to mom’s place and Ruen will no doubt let you know when we’re done,” I said as I hurried to the door. Aurora had her phone to her ear, already calling my mother. She gave me the thumbs up as I let myself out into the hall. I didn’t mind having to pay for her phone, clothes, food and everything else she needed. The demon didn’t require much and she wasn’t the demanding type. Her friendship meant far more to me than money. Besides, I was getting enough jobs to afford to pay our bills.
Just to be different, Ruen was wearing a black suit and a scowl. “Why did I even bother to tell you to wear something appropriate?” he whined when I climbed into his car.
“What’s wrong with this outfit?” I demanded.
“Your breasts are overflowing your shirt in a most unbecoming manner,” he said primly, refusing to look at my chest.
I looked down at my cleavage and did my best to squash my boobs into my top as he slowly motored out of the lot. “There. Are you happy now?” I asked sarcastically.
Glancing over at me, my undead sidekick shuddered and snapped his gaze back to the road. “You look ridiculous,” he muttered.
I took a deep breath and my boobs oozed back out of my top. My nipples were covered, so at least I was decent. Checking the silver-tipped bolts in my quiver, I had more than enough ammunition to take down a group of crazed bird shifters. “What did the vultures do to deserve death?” I asked as he made his way towards the rogues’ nest.
“They snatched two children off the street right in front of their parents yesterday,” he replied grimly. “The parents were able to give the police an accurate description of them, since they were in their human forms. One of our spies on the force recognized them. She knew they were shapeshifters and passed the information on to us.”
“Do werevultures usually kidnap kids so brazenly?”
He shook his head. “They’re carrion eaters, so it’s rare for them to take live victims. They usually feed on corpses they find around the city.”
“Gross,” I muttered in distaste. “Why the hell would they snatch a couple of kids?”
“Why do any of the rogues commit murder?” he said philosophically. I didn’t have an answer to that question and we subsided into a morose silence.
Hugh and Theo had beaten us to the job. Their silver pickup was parked half a block away from the address we’d been given. Ruen glided to a stop behind them and we climbed out. The werelions were both tall, blond, muscular and handsome. They were holding hands and Hugh was whispering something in his partner’s ear when we reached them. Knives were strapped to their thighs and they both carried machetes.
Theo gave Hugh a heated look before turning his attention to us. “I love your top, Saige,” he said.
It was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic or not, since he was usually quiet and reserved. I decided to take it as a compliment. “Thanks.” They were wearing jeans and t-shirts, so there wasn’t much to compliment them on in return. “Your hair looks awesome, guys,” I said lamely.
Hugh snickered and tossed his thick mane dramatically. “We know,” he said smugly.
Ruen ignored our chatter and studied the area around us. “The targets are in the building with the crooked satellite dish,” he whispered.
“We know,” Theo replied. “We heard them squabbling over their food a couple of minutes ago.”
I shuddered to think about the meal they were chowing down on. “Let’s get in there and wipe these creeps out,” I said. We were keeping our voices down so we wouldn’t tip off our quarry.
“I can smell them from here,” Hugh said, wrinkling his nose. “They’re keeping rotting carcasses in their nest.”
“Can you sense them?” Ruen asked.
I reached for the building and nodded. “There’s ten of them. They’re all boils.”
“Boils?” Hugh asked in confusion.
“That’s level two out of ten on Saige’s monster radar,” the vampire explained.
“What’s a ten?” Theo asked in fascination.
“Gangrene,” I said. “I haven’t met anything at that level yet, but I’m sure it’s out there somewhere.”
The lions snickered even though I was being deadly serious. This was our first time working together, so it would be interesting to see them in action.
“I’ll wait here and keep watch for any targets that might try to escape,” Ruen said. We all knew he couldn’t help us in the coming fight, so we nodded.
“Theo will take the back,” Hugh whispered. “Saige and I will take the front.”
His partner nodded and loped away with silent grace and skill that I envied. I was tall enough not to have to run to keep up with Hugh as he started towards the decrepit apartment building.
Our targets were on the top floor and the elevator was out of order when we entered the foyer. “Typical,” I complained in annoyance. I would be huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf from the fairytale by the time we reached the top of the stairs. “You go on ahead,” I said. “I’ll just slow you down.”
Hugh cracked a smile and flashed his pearly white teeth at me. “I thought you were a badass bounty hunter.”
“I am,” I said belligerently. “But I never said I was a fit badass bounty hunter.”
Laughing beneath his breath, he surprised me by hooking his arm through mine. “I knew you were going to be an asset to the team from the moment you threw me across Lord Gilden’s office,” he said, then he broke into a mad dash.
My feet left the ground and didn’t touch back down again until he reached the fifth floor a few seconds later. All shifters were strong, yet he had to have more strength than usual to carry my weight so easily. Then I noticed he was breathing deeply and looked a little winded. “Theo is on the roof,” I whispered while I waited for him to catch his breath.
“How can you tell?” he asked.
“I can sense him. There’s a couple of vultures up there, so he’s probably hiding out of sight.” Now that I was so close to their nest, I could smell rotting meat. Humans would have called the cops by now if any of them had been living in the building.
Hugh sent a quick text to his partner and received a reply a couple of seconds later. Their phones were on silent just like mine. “He’s ready to go when we are,” he said.
“They’re in the third apartment down the hall,” I said. “Do you want to go in first, or do you want me to take the lead?”
“Ladies first,” he invited me, sweeping his hand towards the hallway.
I knew this was going to be a test and I was determined not to make a fool of myself. I sensed the two vultures on the roof were no longer with us and felt Theo go on the move. Once he was in position and I was standing in front of the door, I nodded to Hugh that I was ready. Taking a deep breath, I let it out, then kicked the door open.
Chapter Ten
REELING BACK SLIGHTLY from the smell of rotting meat that assailed me, at first, all I saw was a seething mass of black and gray feathers. The shifters were in their full vulture forms. Six of them were hunkered over the remains of the children they’d kidnapped. Their beaks were stained red as they greedily devoured their meal.
“Good God, they’re ugly,” I muttered as Hugh gave me a shove to get me moving.
Too caught up in feeding to pay any attention to us, the werebirds snapped at each other as they fought for the last scraps of meat. I shot one of them in the eye and killed it instantly. It was impossible to tell what their genders were. They all looked the same in this form. Their heads whipped around at the loud gunshot and they realized their nest had been invaded.
Theo dropped down from the roof and deftly caught hold of the windowsill in the living room. He smashed the glass with his fist, then pushed the window up as the vultures squawked in rage. Hugh leaped at a bird and lopped its head off with his machete. His partner climbed through the window, fending off one of the targets with his arm when it tried to peck him in the face.
Shooting the vulture who was attacking Theo, I was clawed from behind by one of the shifters when it emerged from a bedroom. Its talons tore my corset top apart and my shirt fell to the floor. I spun around and shot the creature pointblank in the face, enraged that it had ruined my top.
My eyes were watering from the overpowering smell of dead humans. I was glad my sense of smell wasn’t as acute as the lions’. Both wore expressions of profound disgust as we fought our foes.
The rogues had gone berserk at having their nest invaded by intruders. Squawking loudly, they used their beaks and talons to fight us. I switched to using my knives now that I was battling them up close. A beak tore through my pants and dug into my thigh, but it couldn’t penetrate my tough skin.
“These pants cost me five hundred bucks!” I snarled and stabbed the offending shifter in the neck. It let out a garbled screech and my next swing decapitated it.
Our battle was short, but intense. Feathers, blood and other bodily fluids covered all three of us by the time the final werebird was slain. Hugh and Theo sported cuts and bruises, but they were already healing. The fight would have been a lot harder if we’d been outside. They hadn’t had a chance to divebomb us from above.
“Do you have tatts everywhere?” Hugh asked, examining my bra clad upper body.
“Pretty much,” I said as I picked up my ruined shirt.
“You can borrow my belt to hold your shirt together,” Theo offered.
“Good idea,” I said ruefully, taking it from him when he stripped it off. The lions helped me cobble my shirt back together, tying the belt tightly beneath my boobs so it wouldn’t fall off.
“You missed your true calling, babe,” Hugh said. “You should have been a clothing designer.”
“What can I say?” Theo joked. “I’m a talented guy.” They were in high spirits despite the mess we were in. Werelions loved to hunt, but I was glad they hadn’t gotten carried away.
“I’d hate to be the body disposal team,” I said as I took in the carnage.
“They’ll have to torch the place,” Hugh said. I couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not until he grinned. “Just kidding. But they’ll have their work cut out for them.”
“There’s more than just two bodies,” I said, peering around at the bones that were scattered all around. Plucking feathers from my chest and arms, I skirted around the dead shifters to check the other rooms.
“I’ve found two carcasses in the bathroom!” Theo called out for my benefit.
“There are three more in the smaller bedroom!” Hugh said.
I was in the master bedroom and was dismayed by what I found. “There are six bodies here,” I said without raising my voice. “I think they were all kids.”
The lions joined me, standing at my back to peer over my shoulders. “Yep, they were all children,” Hugh confirmed grimly.
“The vultures must have turned rogue weeks ago,” Theo mused. “Why would they suddenly turn against the humans after all this time?”
“Did you know them?” I asked as we made our way to the exit. Ruen would be on the phone to the body disposal team by now. His hearing was sharp enough to have heard the entire battle.
“I knew of them,” Theo replied. “They were a craven bunch of creeps,” he added as we stepped out into the hall. “I’m surprised they had the guts to attack anyone who was actually alive, even if they were just children.”
“Snatching them in front of their parents was stupid,” Hugh said darkly. “It’s like they all went nuts.”
Something one of my targets had said came back to me as we trudged down the stairs. The wereskunk had told me something had come over him and he hadn’t been able to resist killing the humans he’d then robbed. We’d been getting more and more missions to take down rogues. I’d have to talk to Ruen about it once we were alone.
Speaking of my reluctant partner, his face screwed up in disgust when we joined him. “I told you to wear something appropriate,” he said in a nagging tone. “When will you learn?”
“I’ll wear a suit of armor next time,” I said sarcastically.
“At least I wouldn’t be subjected to your overabundance of flesh,” he said nastily.
“Ruen,” Hugh said chidingly. “That’s no way to speak to your partner.”
“He’s hungry, which makes him grumpy,” I deduced. “We’re all covered in blood and it’s making him crave it even more.”
“I hope he doesn’t try to lick it off us,” Theo said with a frown and Ruen’s gaze snapped to me in betrayal. “That happened to me after a hunt once a few years ago,” the lion added. “Some starving fledglings begged me to let them lick me clean and I didn’t have the heart to say no.”
“That’s happened to me, too,” I said sympathetically, giving Ruen a significant look. He had the grace to look abashed that he’d thought I’d broken our deal. He’d bribed me with a thousand bucks not to tell anyone about the time he’d gone into a trance and had licked blood off me.
“When did it happen to you?” Hugh asked as he opened the back door of his truck to grab a pack of disposable wipes.
“Not long after I became a bounty hunter,” I said, taking a wet wipe and rubbing my face clean of blood and makeup. “I ran into some belligerent humans and had a fight with them. I was splattered with their blood when I visited the Den. Four hungry vampires asked me if they could lick the blood off.”
“It was kind of you to say yes,” Hugh said, wiping Theo’s face clean for him.
“They just looked so pathetic,” I said, darting a look at Ruen’s sour face. “Their master must be a douchebag not to let them feed often enough.”
My partner’s lips pinched together, since he couldn’t defend Drake without them finding out that he’d once fallen prey to his weakness for blood. We were the only two people who knew about him clinging to my back, licking blood off me as I’d fled from Sector G of the sewers. Just the thought of it was almost enough to make me break into snickers.
“Did I get it all?” I asked, turning to Ruen to show him my face.
“You missed a spot,” he said dolefully and plucked the wet wipe from me. He delicately dabbed at some blood on my forehead.
“Are you going to make me ride in the trunk again?” I asked, taking it back when he handed it to me. I went to work on cleaning my hands and arms next. The lions’ heads whipped towards us to see if I was joking.
“Not this time,” the leech said. “I brought a blanket for you to sit on.”
“You made her ride in the trunk?” Theo said incredulously. “What the hell for?”
“Have you ever been sprayed by a wereskunk?” I asked.
“No,” Theo said, blanching slightly. “I can see why Ruen wouldn’t let you sit in his car if you were sprayed by one of them.”
“It reeked for two weeks,” my undead assistant said mournfully. “No amount of air freshener or cleaning products could get rid of that stench.”
“No one ever said bounty hunting was a glamorous job,” Hugh figured with a shrug. “We’ll follow you to Lord Gilden’s office.” Their weapons were clean, so he stashed them in a duffle bag.
I held my breath to see if Ruen was going to come up with an excuse for me not to go with them. He merely nodded and I did a mental fist pump. My glee that I’d get to see Drake in the flesh waned a bit when we climbed into his car. I owed him for giving Aurora her own place and for furnishing it as well.
It only occurred to me that he might not want payment from me when we reached his silver tower. Instead, he might insist on Aurora giving him his due. Jealousy rose inside me when I remembered his reaction to her when I’d brought her through the gate to our world. Was the dragon secretly harboring a crush on my roomie? It was a prospect I didn’t even want to think about for reasons I refused to dwell on.
Chapter Eleven
“IS IT JUST ME, OR HAVE there been a lot more rogues cropping up lately?” I asked Ruen as he set his car into motion.
“There are always rogues killing humans,” he replied in a distracted tone.
“Yeah, but there seems to be more than usual,” I insisted.
“If you have a point, I’d appreciate it if you’d get to it,” the vamp said peevishly.
“It just seems strange that previously stable monsters are suddenly turning to the dark side,” I said, mustering up some patience. His craving for blood was making him difficult to deal with.
“Most creatures from the underworld struggle to control their basest instincts,” he replied. He clearly wasn’t willing to listen to me, so I dropped the subject.
Hugh and Theo followed us to the parking garage beneath Lord Gilden’s skyscraper. We’d cleaned ourselves up as best we could, but disposable wipes could only do so much. Glad I didn’t smell as bad as when the skunk had sprayed me, I plucked a stray feather from my torn leather pants and stuffed it into my kill-bag.
