“Help,” came a soft, feminine voice.

  Distressed females were catnip to the Devil. Lucifer came up beside me.

  “Should I answer it?” I asked.

  “Why don’t they just come in?” Landry questioned.

  “Good point,” Lucifer said.

  A soft scratching noise sounded against it. Confused, I looked at my mother. Lilith stared at the door, rapt with attention. When she felt me staring, she looked at me and shrugged, basically telling me it was my call.

  My curiosity won. I opened the door.

  chapter three

  A woman, or at least I thought it might be female, lay there, one bloody hand lying where the door used to be. Dark hair splayed across a pale back, shredded to ribbons.

  A curse exploded from me, and I reached for her.

  Lucifer’s hand gripped mine. “Wait,” he commanded.

  “She’s dying!” I stared at him incredulously.

  The figure moved, a soft moan escaping her lips. “Help me.”

  “If Violet lets you in, it is under guest laws, Clara.” Lucifer’s impassive gaze held no sympathy for the wounded creature.

  I blinked. “Who?” I blurted.

  Landry sighed. “The Vampire Queen.” Shaking his head, he headed back inside.

  The female breathed an affirmative. Without waiting for any more approval, I reached under her arms and pulled her inside the bar.

  The door slammed behind us. I reached for my belt and uncorked a healing potion. “Here,” I said, holding it to her lips. “Drink.”

  Pale hands trembled as they reached for it. I gently lifted her head, wincing at her groan of pain as she slowly sipped.

  “She needs blood,” my mother said.

  My brows lifted. I slowly shook my head. Blood told a story. One I didn’t want to tell. Mom grimaced in realization. “Anyone?” she called to the room.

  A younger demon came up. “I’ll allow it.” He looked vaguely familiar but wasn’t a regular.

  “Free drinks for a week,” I said. Easy enough to do since it was Lucifer’s money.

  The demon’s eyes lit up. “Done.” He pushed his sleeve back, revealing a surprisingly smooth forearm. He was one of the more human-looking demons.

  Lilith gestured for him to kneel beside the wounded vampire and guided his wrist to her lips. The potion bottle fell as the vampire latched greedily onto his wrist and drank.

  The demon winced in pain, but it faded a second later, morphing into a dreamy, dazed look.

  “Is he okay?” I mouthed to Mom.

  “Pheromones,” she said. “He’s fine. Just a little high. It immobilizes her victims and frees them from the pain of the…withdrawal.”

  I snorted. Withdrawal was such a mundane way to explain sucking blood through teeth.

  Teeth straws if you wanted to get technical about it.

  Lucifer clamped his hand around my elbow and pulled me closer to him. “Stay here,” he said quietly. “Demon blood will make her stronger than normal.”

  “She doesn’t look like she’s in any shape to attack,” I murmured back.

  “You can never trust a vampire,” was all he said.

  A shiver ran down my spine. Technically, I shouldn’t be trusting any of these mofos and yet here I was, running a bar that straddled the line between Hell and Earth, preparing for a potential world ending battle, and I hadn’t died yet.

  Gary shut the music off a few seconds later leaving only the sound of quiet breathing and murmured conversations. The volunteer demon still had the Vampire Queen latched to his wrist, but he didn’t seem too bothered by it. The complete opposite, in fact.

  A moment later, the snick of retracting teeth snapped in the air. The demon paled, swayed and promptly keeled over into a dead faint.

  The Vampire Queen sat up, shook blood out of her hair, and peered up at us. “I’m looking for the angel spawn.”

  I froze, Lucifer’s hand tightening on my arm in warning.

  “Found him,” the Devil said. “How may I assist the vampires today?”

  Clara narrowed her eyes. “Not you, demon. You know who I’m talking about.” To her credit, she didn’t zero in on me, though I had an awful feeling she knew who I was.

  And how could that be?

  “Out,” Lucifer boomed, his voice carrying throughout the bar. Without a word, the others turned around and headed to the portal, two stopping to scoop up their unconscious teammate.

  Aww. Teamwork makes the dream work.

  When it was only us in the room, I opened my mouth, then snapped it shut.

  “Lucifer,” I said.

  He turned, a quizzical expression on his face.

  I jerked my head back to the fae who still sat at the table, his attention homed in on us. Lucifer’s eyes darkened with annoyance. With one flip of his hand, a shining black wall appeared between us and Lachlan. Well. That would work, I guess.

  “Soundproof?” I asked.

  Lucifer rolled his eyes.

  “What do you want, Clara?” His voice held a threat.

  The vampire snorted. “No need to get your panties in a wad. I’m here because rumors are flying around about a half breed and a prophecy.”

  Lucifer went deathly still.

  Prophecies. I hated prophecies. Half the time they were bullshit, and the other half no one could decipher what the hell they meant before it was too late.

  Clara rolled her eyes and stood in one graceful move. The vampire moved her neck around and stretched, letting out a long groan. “Demon blood. I forgot how good it was,” she said mostly to herself.

  She was covered in so much blood and gore I couldn’t really tell what she looked like. Her hair was long and dark, similar to Mom’s, but her eyes were dark and fathomless. The little skin not covered in blood was the color of pale cream, and she wore surprisingly modern clothing—jeans and what used to be a white tank top.

  “Our seers are in a tizzy.” Her eyes lingered on me. “Care to explain why?”

  Mom leaned over and spoke in a low voice. “Vampires staff more seers than any other paranorms. They like knowing the future, but it’s mostly because they’re the most paranoid of us all.”

  The Vampire Queen shot finger guns at my mom. “Right in one. We’re all paranoid as shit, but it’s kept us alive this long, so I don’t see the problem.” She finally looked around, her eyes lighting in appreciation. “Is this a weird library? Bookstore?” Clara turned toward the bar. “With drinks? Cool.”

  “Why don’t you tell us what happened,” I said before Lucifer spoke. He looked spitting mad. My curiosity was piqued. While Clara seemed weird, I didn’t feel like she was about to rip my head off.

  “Not much to tell.” Clara pointed at the bar. “Mind if I have a drink? It’s been a day.”

  “Erm. Sure,” I said, shaking my head at the weirdness of it. “What do you want?”

  “Bartender surprise,” she said. “I’ll take anything.”

  Vampires could drink things other than blood? Cool. Could they eat too?

  I made her a dirty martini. Her eyes lit up when I put the last olive in and slid it over. “My favorite. No one makes them like I like them, though.” She took a sip, her eyes widening slightly. “Ah,” she breathed. “Except for you. I should have come here ages ago.” Clara lifted a ragged fingernail and pointed at me. “You and I are going to be friends. Get used to it. No take backsies.”

  Lucifer looked like he’d rather nail her to the wall and let her rot, so I held my tongue. I had reservations about being bffs with someone who almost died on my front stoop, but I guess I’d withhold judgment until she told me what happened to put her there.

  “What happened?” I probed.

  She held up a finger and took another sip, her eyes rolling heavenward in bliss. “I’m going to need you to make these for me for the rest of my life.”

  Vamps, like every single one of us, were immortal. She grinned, exposing sharp, bloody teeth. At my blank look, she sighed. “Fine. You all might want to gather around because I’m not telling this story more than once.”

  Mom and Storm pulled up seats. Lucifer leaned against the counter. Landry had disappeared somewhere in the bar, and the massive wall of black still stood between us and the fae.

  Clara’s eyes lingered on it. “Who’s behind the wall?”

  “A guest,” I said. “No one important.”

  “Important enough to hide this from,” she murmured, one eyebrow rising.

  Ignoring her, I pulled drinks for everyone else and mixed myself a strong blueberry martini. When we were all sprawled around Clara like elementary freak show story time, she spoke.

  “Your brothers and sisters are to thank for this,” she said, one hand moving up and down her body like she was a macabre Vanna White.

  Lucifer’s hand froze in the middle of a sip. “Who?”

  He didn’t deny it, which was telling. Az, my foster dad, kept me sheltered from most of the angel bullshit while growing up. Every once in a while, he’d tell me stories about them that inevitably turned into chaos, so I wasn’t surprised either.

  The easiest way to think of angels was to find a rich family whose father just died. Although money didn’t mean much to them, power did, and that’s what you got. Bickering siblings fighting over power left by an absent father.

  So here we were. Facing human extinction due to daddy issues.

  And my daddy was driving the out-of-control car.

  The vampire waved a hand. “I don’t deal in your kind, so I can’t tell you. One was blonde.”

  It was hard not to roll my eyes. She could be describing any angel.

  “And the other had curly dark hair.”

  Lucifer’s eyes lit at that one. I didn’t know a curly, dark-haired angel, but if I jogged my memory, I’m sure I could come up with someone.

  “They accosted me on the way out of Clyde’s.”

  I blinked. Clyde’s was a notorious biker bar situated at the end of Bourbon St. Not a bar for humans but one for the worst of the paranorms.

  My mother snorted. Clara grinned at her. “They’ve got the best chicken wings,” she said. “To die for.”

  Lucifer sighed. “Clara.”

  “Hold your horses. I’m remembering the garlic parm.” She closed her eyes for a moment, a smile drifting onto her blood-covered lips.

  This chick needed a serious shower.

  “Anyway. They grabbed me right as I stepped out of the bar, and I was like not today, Satan!” She pointed at me. “Never let them move you to another location. That means you’re going to die.”

  “Um. Okay,” I said. Were all vampires like this?

  “So we’re fighting in the street, and the angels are pissed. One of them was all, ‘I thought you said this would be easy!’ and the other was like ‘it should be,’ and I was all ‘Haha motherfuckers, you got yourself the queen!’ and then they were all like ‘oh shit,’ but they didn’t give up, and so here I am.”

  Storm looked bewildered. Lucifer looked annoyed. I just felt confused. Very confused. She’d told us just enough to aggravate us.

  “Clara,” Lucifer said slowly. “How did you wind up here?”

  “Oh!” she said cheerfully. “I led them here, and when they realized it, they took off like a rocket.” Clara winked at him. “Apparently, you’re a scary dude.” She shrugged and took another sip of her martini.

  “Tell us about the seers,” Storm said, sensing we wouldn’t get much more out of her about why she’d showed up here covered in blood and gore.

  “Wait,” I said, sending Storm an apologetic look. “Did they say what they wanted?”

  She shook her head. “But other angels were waiting around. They wouldn’t get involved. It was almost like they were waiting to see how it would go.”

  “Was Michael there?” Lucifer asked, his voice low and deadly.

  The Vampire Queen chuckled. “So that’s what this is. Michael’s at it again?” She shook her head. “I didn’t see him there. Everyone except the two who attacked me seemed low level.”

  I glanced at Lucifer. How often exactly, I wondered, did Michael get ‘at it again’?

  Clara polished off her martini. “Now tell me why my seers have been in a near constant panic over the last couple of weeks.” She grinned a bloodstained smile. I took an involuntary step back, bumping into someone standing behind me. A strong hand rested on my shoulder as Jude’s familiar scent washed over me.

  “Clara,” he said with a nod.

  “Ooh,” she crooned. “All the fun people are here! So something naughty is going on.” Clara winked at me. “I want in on the fun.”

  I thought twice about it but decided if I were in Clara’s shoes, the first thing I’d want is a shower. She, and her people, were still in danger from the angels. “I have an apartment upstairs, and we’re around the same size. Would you like a shower?”

  Clara blinked in surprise, her brow furrowing. “You’d—you’d invite me inside?”

  This part of the vampire myth was true. A business was a little different from a home, but I had ways of keeping her out if she turned out to be an enemy. Despite myself, I kind of liked her neurotic ADD ways.

  “It’s a shower,” I said. “Not an invite to move in.”

  She slid off the stool in a liquid motion. “Not yet,” she said cheerfully. “Soon enough, we’re going to be braiding our hair during our tri-weekly sleepovers!”

  Mom looked a little worried, but she also knew I could take care of myself. “Come on,” I said, gesturing for me to follow her.

  “Violet,” Lucifer warned.

  Clara turned to look at him. “She’s perfectly safe, demon. I’m juiced up on angel and demon blood.”

  A shiver rolled down my spine when she winked at me. “Lead the way,” Clara said.

  I shoved down my foreboding and led her up the stairs.

  chapter four

  Twenty minutes later, Clara came out drying her hair with my good towel. “Great water pressure,” she mused. “Way better than at the compound.”

  The Vampire Queen looked like a sorority girl. She was short, lean, and girl next door pretty. The perfect combo for biting people. Now that all the blood was washed away, I could tell her hair stayed naturally dark. It was still wet, so I couldn’t tell if it was really black or more of a darker brown. Her eyes were a dark brown, deep against her pale, creamy skin tone. I’d given her a pair of old joggers and a tank top. The result felt a little startling.

  She grinned at me.

  “Not what you expected?”

  “You don’t look old enough to drink,” I blurted.

  She laughed. “I assure you. I get all the drinks I want.” Her eyebrows wiggled. “Mesmerizing gets me in pretty much everywhere.”

  I bet it did.

  She plopped down on the couch. “Now that we’re alone, tell me what a girl like you is doing in a place like this.”

  Clara had a trustworthy way about her. I wanted to make margaritas and confide my secrets in her. But…she was also a vampire. The Queen of Vampires. The thought gave me serious pause. I was resistant to allure magic, so I didn’t think she was trying to mesmerize me, but how would I know.

  Her low chuckle made me pause. “Relax, Violet. I’m old as dirt. And I’m very choosy about who I bite.” She tucked her bare feet under her and turned to face me. “Sit,” she gestured. “And tell me why Michael’s daughter is hiding out with Lucifer.”

  My jaw dropped. Magic burst into my palms.

  The vamp stared at me calmly. “It’s going to take more than that to kill me,” she said mildly.

  I did not sit down. Instead, I leaned against the wall and watched her, magic still pooling in my hands.

  She smiled. “It’s the blood,” she explained. “I’m the oldest of our kind. With it comes certain…gifts. You’re lucky we haven’t crossed paths before. I pegged you as soon as you let me come in.” Clara craned her neck to investigate my kitchen. “Got any wine?”

  I blinked. “Um. Yes. In the pantry.” It still boggled my mind she could drink booze.

  She unfolded herself from the couch and rose. “Good. I think we’re both going to need it.”

  Clara came back holding a bottle of good red wine and two glasses. She plunked back onto the couch and poured us each a glass.

  “Now,” she said, after we’d both taken a sip. “Start at the beginning.”

  I stared at her for a long beat. Did she actually expect me to open up like this was toddler story time?

  One of her dark eyebrows rose. “I’m waiting.”

  My head tilted in curiosity. I’m like a baby bird staring at a juicy worm wondering if it’s actually a snake. “I’ve known you for all of five minutes,” I said slowly.

  “And?” Clara said, grinning as she took another sip of her wine. Her lips gleamed red. I know it’s from the Pinot Noir we’re drinking, but it still sent a shiver down my spine.

  I’m sitting in front of a cold, calculating predator. Why was she so interested in me?

  She nodded. “Good. I’m glad you understand what I am. But you have my word, no harm will come to you. I’m more interested in how you’re caught up in this.” Clara waved a hand. “A war of gods and angels and demons.” Clara snorted. “It’s been an age since a world-ending threat has come around.”

  “You sound like you’re pleased.” Clara lounged like a cat who’d eaten the canary. I’d been a walking bundle of nerves for months now, but the queen seemed totally comfortable with the potential of the world imploding.

  Her lips curved in a rueful smile. “Pleased? No. I wouldn’t put it that way. But life does get boring when you’re immortal.” Clara’s eyes sparkled. “But you would know that too, wouldn’t you?”

  “What do you want from me?” I’d invited a predator into my home. I wasn’t powerless, but if this evolved into a fight, we’d both take substantial damage before it was over.

  She curled her feet under her and set her wine glass on the coffee table. “What’s coming is a war that could destroy the world. My seers told me far more than I told your handler.”

  My lips thinned. No one handled me, especially not Lucifer.

 

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