Bloody merry, p.7
Bloody Merry, page 7
No longer in hell, I found myself chained in a stone chamber, moonlight filtering through a high window. My limbs were bound by silver, preventing me from moving.
A robed figure stood over me, pale hands tracing the length of my body. Cold, sharp nails left stinging trails along my skin. Icy fear flooded my veins. Whoever this was, they had me at a disadvantage. Never a good position for a vampire to be in.
“Who the fuck are you?” I demanded, trying to sound braver than I felt.
The figure pulled back her hood, revealing a cascade of pink hair and facial piercings. My heart sank. Of course. The one person who hated me enough to go through all this trouble.
“Jinx,” I said flatly.
She smiled, showing pointed fangs. “Hello, Mercy. I’m surprised you know who I am.”
There was no sense explaining it. Like she’d believe I’d met her in another reality. My first thought? This was bad. Very bad. Jinx might look like a punk kid, but she was older and stronger than she appeared. If she was working with Jector, I was well and truly screwed. My second thought? Now that she had me in a vulnerable position, it might incline her to tell me a little about herself. Villain types like her can’t resist the chance to talk about themselves. To boast a little. Comes with the territory.
If I ever got out of this mess and back to my world, I could use whatever I learned now.
I licked my lips, stalling as I tried to figure a way out of this mess. “I’ve heard of you. Nice to finally meet.”
Jinx laughed. “No it isn’t. But I appreciate you saying so.”
“Any time,” I grunted. “Now, how about you cut me loose? It’s girls’ night! We can go out on the town, you and me. What do you say?”
Jinx traced a nail down my cheek, the sensation like a razor blade. “Maybe I’ll do that, if you cooperate. Jector wants you to join us. Says a powerful witch would be useful to have around. Not to mention, you’re his sister. You could be a valuable ally.”
I rolled my eyes. Of course, he wanted me to join him. Just like before. “And if I don’t join?”
“Then I get to play with you.” Her eyes gleamed with malicious glee. “Rumor has it you’re a real bitch to kill. Many people have tried—vampire and human alike. I really hope you don’t disappoint. I could use a challenge.”
I forced a sneer. “Good luck with that.”
Jinx laughed, the sound echoing oddly in the stone chamber. “We have all the time in the world, Mercy. You’ll find my Jector is a patient lord.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Your Jector?”
Jinx’s eyes flashed. “Always has been. Always will be.” She traced a nail down my cheek again, slowly, deliberately. “We shared many nights together, Jector and I. Sowed chaos through the streets of London, painted them red under cover of darkness. We were… inseparable.”
Her gaze grew distant, nostalgic. I frowned, doing the math in my head. Jector was Jack the Ripper. If Jector had turned Jinx a century and a half ago, and she’d been with him through those early nights in London...
“He’s your sire?” I asked, realization dawning.
Jinx’s eyes refocused on me, hard and cold. “And my lover. After Nico killed him... can you imagine being killed by your own sire? Don’t answer that. You were Nico’s favorite pet. Whatever. The point is, after that, I had no choice but to hide. I’m tough, but I couldn’t stand up to Nico. But when my sweet Jector escaped hell, when his wraith siphoned enough blood to forge a new body, I sensed his resurrection and came to find him. We have a second chance, Jector and I. And we’ve nearly conquered the entire world! Just a few rogue nations left, and a few places stuck in perpetual sunlight this time of the year. But we’ll get there, eventually.”
I snorted. “You’re insane. My brother is a psychopath, and you’re just as bad!”
Jinx backhanded me, the force of the blow nearly breaking my jaw. Blood filled my mouth as I spit a tooth onto the stone floor. It would grow back. Eventually.
“Watch your tongue,” she hissed, “or I’ll rip it from your mouth.”
I glared up at her, vision swimming. Best I resist the urge to speak my mind. I had to survive this. Just long enough to find that damn djinn again. And now I knew who I was dealing with.
It all made sense. Too much sense. In my timeline, Jinx was pissed that I’d killed Jector. She’d found him, just as she had in this reality. But after I killed him, she went into hiding again. She waited, bided her time, until she found a chance for revenge. Abandoned vampire younglings looking for an older, stronger vampire to guide them? That was the opportunity she was looking for.
She tried to kill me once. That’s why she went straight after me and let the others distract my team. For Jinx, this was personal. I knew we’d fight again. If not in this reality, then in mine. Once I got home. If I got home. Either way, Jinx and I would throw down.
But in this reality? She didn’t hold a grudge against me. Not yet. Perhaps I could use that to my advantage. If I played along, if I let her and Jector believe I was considering joining them, maybe I’d exist long enough to find the djinn.
Not the best move. Demeter was dead. Again. Ladinas was out there somewhere. But none of that would matter if I found the djinn. The big question was why hadn’t he shown himself since he sent me here? What the hell was he waiting for?
And there was till more to learn about Jinx. I knew her motive now. But what of all the things that youngling said about her? Did she really drink vampire blood? Was she really a vampire, or was she something else? Had she become what she is before, or after I killed Jector? All questions I had to learn the answers to. All things I could only find out if I sucked it up—terrible pun for a vampire, I know—and pretended to join their side.
Not like I could just up and agree. They wouldn’t believe me if I turned to their side too easily. I’d have to resist a little. Play along, but give them enough hope that I was considering their proposal that they didn’t kill me outright. It was a balancing act, but one way or another, I had to see it through.
This world was already fucked. But if I got back to my world, well, I still had a chance to save it from whatever Jinx was planning.
I doubted this was what the djinn intended. But I finally had a way to learn what I could about Jinx. If I made it back to my reality, I’d be able to use it. If not, well, it would come in handy here, too. I had to know who I was dealing with. A fortuitous coincidence, perhaps, that I encountered Jinx here and now. Merry Christmas to me. Not what I asked for, but maybe, just maybe, it was what I needed.
Chapter 9
I didn’t always know the etymology of brown nosing. Not until a few years ago when I put two and two together. I knew it was like ass kissing. I just didn’t realize the connection between the two phrases. That you get a little brown on your nose when you have your lips buried in someone’s backside. Gross, right? Who even comes up with phrases like that? And why is ass kissing, or brown nosing, supposed to earn someone’s favor?
It’s not like if you put your lips on my ass or your nose in my anus, I’ll suddenly think more highly of you. Quite the opposite, in fact. Language is weird. Just like people who literally kiss butts.
I say all that to make it clear than when I say I had to do a lot of brown nosing in the weeks that followed, I’m speaking metaphorically.
I didn’t see Jector much. He didn’t have time to pay me many visits. Come to find out, world domination and inaugurating the apocalypse really fills your night planner.
Because vampires don’t have day planners—for obvious reasons. Most days involve a lot of ass sitting and television. Sometimes, we read books. Things like that. But Jector was occupied even when the sun was up. I suspected he’d left town, was rallying vampires who’d bought what he was selling, and taking over small nations.
That left me with Jinx. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed. It was weeks or months. Less than a year. Long enough, though, I was starting to fear that I’d never see the djinn again.
If I didn’t see him, I’d never see Mel or Muggs, either. In this world, they were dead.
Thanks to Jector. The nerve for him to think I’d ever bend my knee to his rule after he killed my progenies. Jector’s ego was as big as his aquiline nose. It obstructed his eyes to the point he was blind to what should have been obvious. I’d never be on his side. Not really.
But I’d play along as long as I had to. What other choice did I have? This world was shit already. My only real hope was that if I ever got back to my reality, I’d come back with gifts. Just in time for the holidays. Presents, in the form of knowledge about Jinx, that we could use to take her down.
Ho, ho, ho. That’s what I’d say when I got home. No, not to wish anyone a Merry Christmas. That’s just what I’d call Alice when I saw her again.
But damn it if I didn’t even miss her, the bible-thumping, man-stealing bitch and my former nemesis. She was dead in this world—and as much as I hated to admit it, the world was a better place with Alice in it. Even if it was a slightly more annoying and infuriating place. It was better, nonetheless.
Jinx didn’t trust me with my wand. But they didn’t keep me in silver anymore, so there was that. And from time to time, she brought me a handsome fellow for a bite. Blood tasted just as great in every reality. Even if my company was ass.
But I learned a few things. Jinx never drank from the humans she brought. Was it true? Did she really drink vampire blood? If so, why? What had happened to her that changed her essential dietary requirements?
I also learned that Jinx wasn’t her real name. I know. Shocker of the century. Jector called her Juliet. Coughs and gags.
But she didn’t change her name because she didn’t like it, or because she didn’t really fit the Shakespearean trope of a desirable but unattainable woman. She assumed the “Jinx” persona to hide away for fear that someone would recognize her as the onetime companion of Jack the Ripper.
That also explained the pink hair and piercings.
All fascinating shit. It still didn’t get to the core of what I needed to learn. What was she? If Jinx was still a vampire, but fed solely on other vampires, what had changed? Why didn’t she bite me once? Probably because I was Jector’s sister, he probably forbade it. They were trying to earn my trust so they could use my gifts to their advantage. But when it came to the crucial information I needed if I was ever going to defeat her—in this reality or mine—Jinx remained a mystery.
Jinx stormed into my cell, pink hair swaying and combat boots thumping. Her piercing scowl betrayed an annoyance I hadn’t seen since we first met.
I leaned against the wall, feigning nonchalance. “Trouble in paradise?”
She growled, clenching her fists. “That bastard’s too busy for me again. After years of waiting, thinking he was gone forever, he finally returns just to ignore me.”
I shrugged, suppressing a smirk. “Can’t say I’m surprised. You really think a power-hungry megalomaniac like Jector has room in his undead heart for anything but world domination?”
“You shut your mouth!” She lunged at me, pinning me to the wall. Her fangs glinted as she hissed in my face, rancid breath assaulting my senses. “You know nothing about our love!”
I snorted. “Please. The only thing Jector loves is chaos and corpses.”
She slammed me into the wall, cracking the stone. My skull reverberated with the impact as I struggled against her grip.
Finally, I gasped, “Alright, alright. I’ll stop.”
She released me with a snarl, chest heaving. I rubbed the back of my head, glaring at her.
After a long moment, she sighed, features softening. “I’m sorry. It’s just… we had plans. A future together, you know?” She slumped against the opposite wall. “How did it come to this?”
I hesitated, then sat beside her. “Jector was always cruel, Jinx. You just didn’t want to see it.” I sighed, memories flickering through my mind. “Love makes fools of us all.”
She glanced at me, eyes glimmering. “Even you?”
I stiffened, looking away. Some wounds cut too deep. “Especially me.”
Jinx rested her head on my shoulder. A fragile moment of intimacy between sworn enemies.
“You’re the only one who understands,” she whispered.
I tensed but didn’t pull away. A moment of vulnerability. If I wasn’t her prisoner, I might have even felt bad about taking advantage of her in that moment. But I needed answers.
I cleared my throat. “You never told me how you two met.”
She smiled, gaze distant. “It was a dark and stormy night.” She chuckled at the cliche. “I was working the streets, desperate to make enough coin for a hot meal and a bed at the inn. The rain was pouring down in icy sheets, chasing away even the most dedicated of customers.”
She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. “And then I saw him. Tall, pale, otherworldly. Like a prince from a fairytale. I called out to him, offered a discount, a package deal on a suck and a fuck on account of the weather, but he just… looked at me. His eyes were crimson, as you know. They reflected the glare of the street lamps.”
“He grabbed me then, fingers like steel around my arm. I screamed, but no one came. The streets were deserted.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “He sank his teeth into my neck. The pain was… exquisite. I’d never felt so alive as in that moment, balanced between life and death, agony and ecstasy.”
A blush stained her cheeks as she glanced at me. “And then I woke up. The hunger was unbearable, a gnawing pit inside me that nothing could satisfy. All I could think about was finding him again.”
“You revived? Someone healed you and completed your turn?”
Jinx nodded. “Not sure who or how. It remains a mystery to me still to this day. Not even Jector knew who did it.”
I shook my head. “A witch, perhaps.”
“Or it was fate. Divine chance. It’s not unheard of. Maybe one in a thousand vampire victims will turn without some kind of medical or magical intervention. But whatever the case, when I woke, I needed him. I was his, and he was mine.”
I swallowed the urge to vomit. I mean, what kind of screwed up love story was this? But Jinx clearly believed in it. “So you tracked him down? You used your connection to him as your progeny to draw you to him?”
She smiled softly. “It took weeks. I didn’t know how to do any of that. Instead, I followed the trail of corpses left in his wake. I smelled the blood and came running, but he was always gone before I arrived. I finished his leftovers. But finally, I tracked him down to a dilapidated townhouse, feasting on the remains of his latest victim.” Her eyes glowed with remembered delight. “Our eyes met across the bloody ruin of that room, and I knew we were meant to be.”
I grimaced. “How sweet.”
Jinx glared at me. “You don’t understand. What we have, it transcends petty romance. We are eternal, bound together by blood and death for as long as we both shall live.” Her eyes flashed silver. “Which will be forever. Especially now that he’s back. Not even the true vampire death could keep us apart!”
A chill ran down my spine at the fanatic gleam in her eyes. There’s nothing quite so dangerous as blind love. If you could call it that. It was more like an obsession and infatuation, a serious case of Stockholm syndrome. Though, with vampires and their progenies, it was more common than you’d think.
I schooled my expression into one of rapt interest. “Fascinating. But you still haven’t told me why you don’t drink human blood.”
Jinx looked away, a hint of color in her pale cheeks. “Jector and I used to feed together. Then, over time, he tempted me to feed secondhand, to allow him to feed first, then I’d feed from his veins. It was intoxicating!”
I snorted. “I bet. You aren’t the first vampire to experience that.”
She nodded. “I’ve developed a taste for secondhand blood. The blood of other vampires, filled with the power and vitality of their recent kills. It’s like nothing you could imagine. I just can’t stomach human blood straight from the source anymore.” Her eyes gleamed. “The strength, the energy thrumming in my veins. For a few moments, I can match even the most ancient ones in power.”
“I see.” An idea was forming in my mind, dangerous but with the potential for escape. I licked my lips and gazed at Jinx through half-lidded eyes. “Have you ever considered branching out on your own? You’re clearly not getting what you need from Jector anymore.”
Jinx bristled. “How dare you! Jector is my sire, my mate, the love of my eternal life. I will never leave him.”
“I don’t mean leave him,” I said hastily. “Just... supplement your diet. You said it yourself, other vampires’ blood gives you strength and power. Don’t you want more of that? Maybe if you were stronger in his absence, if you did something he’d notice that he had to notice, he’d stick around a little more.”
If I could lure her, I knew a spell. It wasn’t one I’d often practiced, but I’d learned it from Hailey, who dabbled more in blood witchery than I was keen to. If my blood was in her, I could use it to control her, to manipulate her, even for just a time. I didn’t have my wand, but if I focused my mind enough, if I reached out from blood to blood, my blood within my flesh to that in hers, I could influence her in ways she might not even realize.
I’d never tried the spell myself, but I knew the mechanics of it. It was the best chance I had given my predicament. And Jinx had given me an opportunity.
She hesitated, gaze turning inward as she considered it. I pressed my advantage. “You could overpower me easily, force me to give you my blood. But how much more satisfying would it be if I gave it willingly?” I tilted my head to the side in offering, exposing the vulnerable curve of my neck.
Jinx stared at me, eyes like flames fixed on my flesh. “I can’t. He forbids it!”
“Because I’m his sister?” I tilted my head. “I think Jector only fears that if you bite me against my will it will poison his attempt to win me over to his cause. But I’m not objecting. You have my consent, Juliet.”
