“Thanks.”
“I mean, Niccolo the Damned. He was a legend.”
I cocked my head. “Oh yeah. He was. Sorry, I thought you were talking about Ramon.”
Fred dropped his bag of chocolate-covered clots. “Ramon’s dead, too?”
I nodded. “Yup.”
“I didn’t know. I’m so sorry. I just figured he was out… you know… doing what he does.”
I shook my head. “We lost him to the demons.”
Fred nodded and looked at me as if I was a puppy dog just taken from its litter. Wide eyes, empathy, emotions more human than I was accustomed to expressing myself.
My eyes started to well up a little, but I took a deep breath and turned away. One thing I couldn’t let anyone see, especially not another vampire, was me crying. “It’s why we saved you, Fred. Because we need your help. This is a serious threat to all of us.”
“I understand,” Fred said. “I’m sorry I came over like this. I just hadn’t seen anyone in so long, and when you guys saved me out in the marsh, I just figured… you know… maybe I could make some friends?”
I turned back around. “What really happened to you Fred? I mean, what happened to the Frederick I used to know? Debonair. Confident. I mean, you used to be like the James Bond of vampires.”
“I don’t know,” Fred said. “I guess I just got tired of maintaining it all. Eventually I just said ‘fuck it’ and let myself go. Escaped into the world of digital gaming.”
“You did more than let yourself go, Fred. You know as well as I do that it’s not easy for a vampire to put on weight like that. You were intentionally doing this to yourself.”
Fred shrugged. “Long story, Mercy. But we all have our own stories.”
“I’m not going to make you talk about it,” I said. “I fucking hate therapists, and I’m not going to pretend to be one. But dude. Whatever it is, stop punishing yourself for it. You’re a vampire. You used to be badass. You could be again.”
Fred nodded and stepped toward the front door. “I’m sorry for bothering you girls.”
“No Fred, wait!” Julie exclaimed. “I can’t figure out how to get the mine carts to move.”
“Are you going to take your gaming system with you?” I asked.
Fred shook his head. “You guys can keep it in case you get bored. Whatever.” He walked out the door, his head hung low.
I wasn’t sure what to make of what Fred had become, and I felt a little bad. Whatever I’d said to him, it was like I forced him to remember some kind of bad memory. It was like by even asking him why he’d become like he became, I’d ripped open a wound that had never totally healed.
“Mercy,” Hailey said, “was that really necessary?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I mean, the guy’s barely left his house in more than two decades. I just wondered what happened.”
“And now he might go back to his house for another two decades and not come out to see anyone again.”
“That’s not what I was trying to do,” I said. “But he just showed up uninvited. He came bringing… whatever that nasty shit is you guys were eating… and he brought video games. This isn’t his home.”
“But we could be his friends.”
I nodded. “Maybe you’re right.”
“Damnit!” Julie threw her controller at the television screen. “I keep pressing the button it says, but it isn’t doing anything.”
Hailey looked at Julie. “Your controller died. It needs to be charged.”
“What the hell does ‘being charged’ mean?”
I shook my head. “You’ve got this one, Hailey. I don’t play video games.”
The doorbell rang. I was standing right there, so didn’t even think to check the cam. It was probably Fred; I was sure he forgot something.
I pulled the door open, and Fred fell through the doorway with a stake in his chest. There was a note attached to the stake. I ripped it off and opened it. It was a symbol: a circle with a crescent moon over it. The concave side of the moon rested atop the circle. “What the hell?”
Hailey looked over my shoulder and took the paper out of my hand. “That’s the sigil for the great Horned God.”
I cocked my head. “The Horned God did this?”
Hailey shook her head. “Not likely. But possibly other witches who think they’re doing his bidding. Who think we’re a threat.”
“Well, whoever they are, they don’t realize that staking a vampire is temporary.” I yanked the stake out of Fred’s chest.
He immediately gasped for air. “Oh thank you! That place… the vampire hell…”
“It’s hell, isn’t it?” I asked.
Fred nodded quickly.
I shrugged. “Apparently you get used to it eventually. But glad you’re with us. Did you happen to see who staked you?”
Fred shook his head. “They came at me from behind. I wasn’t expecting it. And they just reached around me and plunged it into my chest.”
“I could check the doorbell camera,” Hailey said.
“That thing records, too?” I asked.
“Of course,” Hailey said, scrolling through her phone. She saw something. Her expression changed the second she did. And, no offense to Julie, but she looked like she’d just seen a ghost.
“What is it, Hailey?”
“Um, Mercy… you should see this.”
I grabbed Hailey’s phone from her. My jaw dropped. How was this possible? It was two faces, both of whom I recognized, who had propped Fred’s body against the door. Both of their bodies had been burned to ash.
I rubbed my eyes. It had to be an illusion.
“Hailey, please tell me this is some kind of prank. That you photoshopped this image or some shit.”
“It’s not a prank, Mercy.”
“But Nico and Ramon… they’re dead. I saw their bodies burn.”
“Necromancy?” Hailey asked.
I nodded. It had to be. And there was only one witch I knew of who could do something like this. Only one witch who also had a vendetta to settle against us. She used to revere the Horned God. Apparently, Moll did again.
Chapter Five
Something didn’t add up. It had to be Moll. Somehow, she’d brought back Nico and Ramon. But they weren’t the Nico and Ramon I used to know. They never would have done Moll’s bidding. They never would have threatened me, which was exactly what they meant to do when they staked Fred and left his body leaning on our door. It was meant to be a warning. Not like I was afraid of stakes. Without a heart, they didn’t do much to me. Staking me was sort of like giving me a bad splinter. Didn’t feel great, but didn’t do much damage, either.
What concerned me was the notion that the Horned God was somehow involved. Moll knew we’d summoned the Morrigan. That she was our “secret weapon,” if you will, that we’d relied on to eliminate the demons. It was her power that helped us break whatever connection she had to Lucifer. But why would the Horned God even work with her or lend her his power? She used to revere him, but it seemed she’d focused all her energies as of late on trying to nurture the infernal power in me, using me like an incubator so she could harvest the power and use it to become the Antichrist she’d fixed to be before we stopped her.