Fred sighed. “I can’t, Mercy.”
“You can’t, or you won’t?”
Fred shook his head. “Does it matter?”
“I used to know a vampire. He was strikingly good looking and rich. Fed on the wealthy and powerful. But I think Frederick died a long time ago.”
“I’m still Frederick.”
“Then prove it,” I said. “We need more vampires out there looking for other vampires. Finding those who might be afflicted. Those already possessed. That way we can find them and liberate them.”
Fred bit his lip. “Is that… a quest?”
“Sure,” I said, cocking my head. “I suppose so.”
“Then you have my services. At night, anyway. During the day, I still belong to my guild.”
“Do what you want when the sun is up.”
Fred nodded. “Just let me know how to begin.”
“Go where vampires go,” I said. “And let us know what you find. Simple enough?”
“I won’t let you down!”
“Good. And Fred?”
“Yes, Mercy?”
“I don’t know what the hell you’ve been doing. But try to lose that gut.”
Fred chuckled as he grabbed one of his belly rolls and shook it. “I call it a blood belly!”
Chapter Two
Fred was one of about a dozen vampires we’d “saved” so far who we now had on the lookout for demon possessions. We were especially concerned about Legion rising up again—if he did, we had to nab him before he started multiplying himself. We could try the werewolf approach again, but chances were the demon would be prepared for that, one way or another. We’d rather take Legion out quickly, after possessing just one or maybe a couple vampires, rather than have a whole horde on our hands.
We also were on the lookout for Moll. She wasn’t merely possessed by Lucifer. The way the prophecy had described it, she and Lucifer were one in flesh, even as God and man were supposed to have been one in the person of the Nazarene. Water, it seemed, loosened the devil’s hold on her. Or at least vanquished her access to his power for a time. Was it for good, or would they be back? We didn’t know the answer to that, either.
In both cases, we suspected we’d merely bought ourselves some time. We’d given ourselves a chance, an opportunity, to get ahead of the situation. Staying ahead was going to be the challenge. And while we’d worked together with Dennis—the leader of the area’s new chapter of the Order of the Morning Dawn, a group dedicated to eliminating vampires and witches—we knew better than to think he was a friend. Unless he thought he needed us to deal with a bigger threat—like the Antichrist, as the case might be—he’d have his target fixed on us, too.
Demons, devils, and dickheads, oh my!
On top of that, I had an appointment with Cain. I was supposed to give him an answer about whether I would agree to form a new Vampire Council. The council had been mostly decimated by the demons—some of them killed outright, others possessed. My sire, the late Niccolo the Damned, had formed the council at some point in the Middle Ages as a way of keeping the vampire population under control. Since we depended on humans to feed, and since humans didn’t particularly like being preyed upon by a superior species, the council has mostly dictated hunting habits, made sure younglings who got out of control or were orphaned were staked, and kept a registry of the vampires who existed worldwide. They were the closest thing the vampire world had to a regulatory agency, a police force meant to guard the wellbeing of all of us by ensuring a few rogues didn’t draw too much negative attention to our kind. It was the last thing I was especially interested in doing. Cain, while not a vampire at all but a werewolf, had been a sort of proxy member of the council shortly before it was decimated. There was a movement, apparently, on the part of the council to try and expand its jurisdiction to all supernaturals, not just vampires. By recruiting the world’s original werewolf—and also the world’s first murderer—to the council, they thought it would go a long way toward establishing the council as the indisputable authority of all magical and mystical creatures. Obviously, being the only surviving member of the council, it didn't make sense for Cain to remain in his role. The vampires still thought of it as the “Vampire Council,” and Cain wasn’t a vampire. And most other magical creatures never bought into the universal vision that the council of recent memory had embraced.
I wasn’t particularly thrilled by the prospect of becoming a politician and a bureaucrat. And truth be told, I was conflicted over whether such a council was necessary. Still, I’d promised Cain I’d give it consideration. I set an appointment to give him my answer. He still had the council’s regalia—a bunch of relics—along with a number of deeds to properties the council controlled around the world. They were mine, he said, if I was of a mind to lead the new council.
Yeah, I told him I’d have an answer today. I didn’t have one. I figured our appointment would be short and sweet.
I approached the front desk. Nurse Rutherford was at the reception desk, as it seemed she always was when I came to visit Cain at the Vilokan Asylum for the Magically and Mentally Deranged. She and I had something of a past. She didn’t like me. I didn’t like her. Granted, it was largely my fault. When I was committed there, I cast a love spell on her to make her think I was her one and only… just to seduce her into removing the sunlight-emitting collar they’d strapped on my neck so I could escape. A lot of shit hit the fan after that, to put it mildly, and she never really forgave me for toying with her emotions that way.
“I need to see Cain,” I said. “And before you ask: yes, I have an appointment.”
“Your appointment isn’t for five minutes.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah. Because I’m respectful and try to be early rather than late.”
“You’re respectful?” Rutherford asked, an incredulous expression on her face.
I bit my lip. The last time I’d been there, I kicked in their security door because Rutherford said I had to wait fifteen minutes. I suppose she had a point. “Nice door,” I said. “That’s what my five hundred bucks bought you?”
“I’m pretty sure it cost us more than that, Mercy.”
“It’s just a fucking door. And it isn’t even that secure, given the nature of your patient population. I mean, if I could break through…”
“If you were a patient still, Mercy, you’d have a sunlight collar on and you’d never reach the door.”
I shrugged. “Maybe. There are ways around that. I mean, when you’re the love of your favorite nurse’s life…”
“Screw you, Mercy.”
“You wanted to, once.”
“Fuc… ugh. Never mind. Just go to hell.”
“Been there, done that. Should have gotten the t-shirt.”
“Bite me.”
“Been there, done that, too.”
“Do you always have to be a smartass?”
“Smart? I mean, I suppose that’s a compliment. Not the adjective you used to use with respect to my ass. But I’ll take it.”