1305 & 1306 The Oracle & the Vampire (The 13th Floor) (8 page)

“Then after running around, trying to find something to hold on to, I came home and met Harriet in the stairwell. I was at my lowest, and she offered herself to me.” Kiral’s small laugh lacked humor. “I was immediately addicted. You can’t believe what I suffer now. The mania. How much I want to drink from her again.”

He shook his head. “But I won’t. She’s my ultimate temptation. My supreme torment. Through facing it, I will be saved.”

The old woman’s heart was beating so loud it was as clear in his ears as his own voice. What did she think of his revelation? She didn’t appear afraid, but she also didn’t offer an encouraging smile. Perhaps she thought him ridiculous, but no, not with her wisdom. She knew of as many other worldly things as he did.

She stopped and turned to him to speak. Kiral knew he must hear these words.

Yet they never came. The echoing sound of applause interrupted them.

One person clapping.

Harriet startled and twisted as Kiral turned with her and slid in front of her.

“What a lovely fairy tale. You missed your calling as a bard, friend.” A man stepped from the shadows of the trees across the road. No. Not a man. It was that bloody dealer. The prick survived his encounter with Marc.

Kiral hissed, corralling Harriet behind him. She didn’t resist.

This couldn’t be happening. Not now. What the hell was the guy doing here anyway?

“I’m sorry to inform you, though, it won’t be your Al Basti or fairy or whatever saving you. No one’s going to save you now.” The dealer clapped once more, and as his hands drew apart, flames erupted between them.

CHAPTER 13

“You again.” Kiral snarled as his hands closed into fists. Without looking back, he said one word to Harriet. “Run.”

Her knees wobbled, but she wouldn’t run even if she could. Frightening as the last monsters were, this guy was different. He looked like any other street thug with the leather jacket, ripped jeans, and cocky grin. But he was something more. Even if she had the shotgun, she didn’t think it would hurt him.

“Yes, me again. I thought you’d be happier to see me since I brought you such a lovely treat last time we met.” The flames danced between the stranger’s fingers. He continued forward, one slow step at a time. “And who’s your friend? Trying to earn your merit badge helping the elderly?” He smiled at Harriet as his eyes flashed red. Then he laughed, wilder than the west wind. “A pretty little white witch, tormented with a curse that would make any demon proud. And here I thought my night couldn’t get any more entertaining.”

Demon. The word chilled Harriet to the bone. Blackness surrounded him. No, not surrounded. He oozed darkness as if he alone created the night.

And the fire. He was the one that would kill Kiral.

Never taking his eyes off the demon, Kiral nudged her with his elbow. “Go. Please.”

“I won’t leave you.” Harriet rasped. Especially not after his tale. Perhaps she was behaving a bit like a silly schoolgirl, but it’d made her giddy. She was his angel. She wasn’t going to leave him to this vile creature.

“How touching.” The demon fluttered his eyes as if he had tears in them. His feigned pout couldn’t win against his maniacal grin. “You can go, witch. Really. I only want the vamp. He and I have some unfinished business.”

“We have no business. I don’t want what you’re selling.” Kiral’s body was rigid, like a statue of a lost god. Even his soiled clothes didn’t take away from his magnificence.

Selling? Harriet didn’t know what that was about, but business with a demon could only mean a few things.

“I’m not selling anything anymore. I still can’t believe you passed up that tasty dog treat. I had picked him just for you.” The demon played with the fire, lazily swirling it around his hands.

Selling. Dog treat. Was this the dealer Kiral mentioned earlier? And Marc saved the vampire from him. This didn’t bode well for Marc or them.

A dozen visions pounded into her mind at the same time. The horrific images brought her to her knees, and she let out a strangled cry. A strong hand was tugging her to her feet even before she stopped screaming.

“Lots of dying going on tonight, isn’t there, witch? And you have your own personal TV screen to view them all. I must say I’m a bit jealous.” The demon chuckled and then lowered his voice. “Does it turn you on? Their futile struggling, the blood, the light winking out in their eyes. I’m getting hard just thinking about it.”

Bile rose in Harriet’s throat. Beside her, Kiral growled.

“As much fun as it would be to share a moment with you, I really need to gather up your undead protector. My, he’s being much braver than the last time I met him. Just putting on a front for you. Trying to impress the ladies.”

Clearly this demon liked to hear himself talk. He wasn’t rushing in and leaving them as ashes in his path. That meant he wanted Kiral alive. Did he have some other purpose for the vampire? No, it was getting too close to dawn.

“What do you want?” Kiral snapped.

Harriet scrambled for a plan, any plan. She had nothing with which to fight a demon. Nothing of this scope came to mind when she had her vision of Kiral’s death. She really thought she could just sweep in, unchain him, and save him from the sun. Foolish didn’t even begin to describe her childish daydream of rescuing him.

“I want you.” The demon pointed at Kiral and then waved his fiery fingers in the air. “Not like that. You’re too pretty for my tastes. I want you to come with me. It’s as simple as that. I won’t force another treat on you or harm a hair on your head. Promise.” With one finger, he drew a cross over his chest.

“And if I don’t?” Kiral’s voice was flat.

“I burn you crispy, but leave you alive so you can kiss the morning sun.” The demon grinned, and when his eyes turned red this time, they stayed that way.

“No!” Harriet pushed Kiral aside and stumbled forward. “You can’t have him.”

“Grandmother.” Kiral reached for her, and she moved away from his hand.

“Go. Find Harriet. She needs you more than I do.” Harriet disliked playing on his obsession, but it would keep Kiral safe. If he was racing around looking for her, the demon wouldn’t catch him. “Please go find my granddaughter.”

Kiral’s face twitched. Cheeks, mouth, eyes. Finally his mouth set in a firm, thin line. “I will not leave you.”

“But she needs you—”

“I will not leave you.” Kiral repeated more firmly.

Her heart fluttered as her cheeks warmed. He was going to stay with her. She was close to swooning when she remembered what she was trying to do.

“Wait, wait, wait.” The demon walked closer. “Let me get this straight. The witch is trying to save the vampire. The vampire who was earlier rescued by another demon. The vampire who drains the life from people, murders them. The soulless creature within a pretty package.”

Beside her, Kiral cringed at the last bit. Did he truly believe he was without a soul? Harriet could see his aura clearly. A soulless being wouldn’t have one. She was going to tell him so when the demon continued on.

“And she’s sending him after her granddaughter. She’s not even old enough to have a grandkid!” He laughed, flames licking at his arms.

No! This wasn’t the way she wanted Kiral to find out. However much the demon knew, she couldn’t let him be the one to tell Kiral the truth. She scurried forward, ignoring the heat from the fire. “Enough. Let him go.”

“Grandmother!” Kiral lurched forward to be stopped as the demon held up a ball of flame.

“Why should I let him go? You don’t frighten me. My minions told me what you did with the wisps earlier. I’d eat those sparkly buggers for breakfast.”

“We both know there’s nothing I can do to stop you. But I do have one thing you might be interested in.” Unintentionally, her voice dropped to a whisper. “My soul. Freely given in exchange for his life.”

“No!” Kiral roared and nabbed her by the back of her sweater, yanking her away from the demon. “Take me! I’ll come freely.”

“Now, now.” The demon waggled a finger. “I do like what’s happening here. You’ve a mighty bright soul, witch. A heavy curse, but it does nothing to hide your light. I would have such a fun time with you.”

“No!” Kiral shouted again.

“Mine for his.” Harriet offered, ignoring the vampire’s protests. She’d save him one way or another.

“But alas, we can’t deal tonight.” The demon tossed back his head in an overly dramatic rock star manner and slammed a ball of fire into Kiral’s chest.

Harriet screamed as Kiral did. She grabbed him when he started to fall, but she couldn’t hold his weight. They toppled to the ground, and she wrapped her arms around him. He shuddered with his pain. His blackened chest still sizzled even though the flames had been extinguished.

“I have a much bigger fish to catch than you or your undead boy toy.” The demon walked over and snatched one of Kiral’s ankles. The vampire kicked at him, but he was slipping in and out of consciousness. “Maybe another night,
Grandmother
.”

Harriet hung on to Kiral as long as she could. The remnants of his shirt tore off as the demon dragged him away from her. She screamed again and crawled after them.

“Kiral.” She breathed out his name. “I will save you.”

The demon’s manic laugh filled the street. He threw a huge fireball onto the ground and jumped into it with Kiral in tow. The flames flared and flickered down to nothing. They were gone, and Harriet was left kneeling on the pavement feeling as if the bastard had truly taken her soul.

CHAPTER 14

As soon as Kiral healed enough to start fighting back with more than wild kicks and punches, the demon rammed another fireball into his chest. Every cell in his body sizzled and screamed. The fire may not have kept burning, but it was agony in its purest form.

He thought he might be crying, or it could’ve been the demon laughing. Sounds blurred. The stench of burnt flesh—
his
flesh—filled his nostrils and sickened him as much as the pain. The taste of it coated his tongue and churned his stomach. Kiral didn’t even notice the shackles until the bastard dropped him. The chains rattled as Kiral collapsed onto the rough floor.

Pushing himself over, Kiral rolled onto his back. Not a floor. There was the late night sky. Glancing from side to side, he tried to gather some control to make sense of his surroundings.

A rooftop. He was on a building somewhere.

Chained to a rooftop. No. Dawn was too close. Harriet was out there.

Kiral yanked at one chain and then the other. Metal bit into his flesh. Thoughts of gnawing off his hands to escape zipped through his mind.

Cement anchors attached the chains to a roof. He should be able to get free of them. Why weren’t they breaking?

“Try as you will, vamp, but you’ll find you’re quite stuck.” The demon chuckled and strolled into view before sitting on the ledge. He twirled a cigarette, tossed it up, and caught the butt with his mouth. The end flared bright on its own as he puffed on it. “I’ve strengthened the chains with spells. I don’t think I could even break them if I were so inclined.”

Kiral spit out a few choice Turkish curse words and continued to test the power of his bonds. Harriet was somewhere in Carmine. He’d find her. Nothing would stop him.

The demon watched him struggle for a few minutes, finished his cigarette, and tossed it over his shoulder. Standing, the prick held his hands out, palms up. “Aren’t you even going to ask why I’m doing this? Don’t you want to know who is responsible? I didn’t expect you to beg or any of that wussy crap, but you must be curious. You want to know.”

“It doesn’t matter. When I break free, I will rip you limb from limb.” Kiral growled and lunged at the demon. The chains held him back, nearly pulling his arms out of their sockets, but that pain was nothing. It melted into the dreadful song of his burns.

Harriet. She was all that mattered.

And her grandmother. Kiral would find her too.

The crone offered her soul for his. Did he remember that right? The old woman pushed past him and faced a demon. No minor demon either. Why? For her granddaughter? No, surely Harriet would be more devastated by the loss of her grandmother than him.

She wasn’t old enough to be a grandmother, though. Demon trickery?

“You’re thinking too much, and it isn’t about what I want you to think about.” The demon snapped his fingers to bring Kiral’s attention back to him. “Come on now. Focus. You want to know who is responsible for this. You want to know why I brought Hell to this city.”

Kiral hissed as the demon snatched a handful of his hair and made him nod. Snapping at the bastard made Kiral feel like a rabid dog smacked with a newspaper.

“That’s better. See? You want to know.” The fiend clapped his hands together with a creepy titter. “You’re here because Marc tried to take you away from me. I don’t share very well. He’s put on a good show. All blustery and hulky and furry. What do you think of his beard? It doesn’t suit him, right?”

The bastard was insane. And Kiral knew what that felt like. The craving had made him do crazy things, but this was beyond mad.

Marc saved him from making a horrible mistake. He’d never purposely bring such a nightmare onto Carmine. Was this demon really that petty?

“Anyway,” the demon said and twirled his hand in big circles. “He helped you, and then he wouldn’t lie down and die. All I wanted was his head. It would’ve been so much easier that way. But now I have you and his pretty lady. Don’t worry. I still think you’re pretty too. I’ll have him choose between the two of you, and I’m so sorry, but he really likes this broad.” He shook his head and rolled his eyes. “So while he’s trying to save her, you’re going to fry, I’m afraid.”

Kiral blinked. It didn’t make a lick of sense other than the part where he dies. He pulled at the chains again. The manacles cutting deeper into his flesh. Blood smeared both his wrists.

“Yes, I know. The things guys do for a bit of tail. Ridiculous.” The demon snorted.

“No! Wait.” Reason with him. Surely a bargain could be struck. “You have Marc’s woman. That will surely be enough. And you’re right. He’d save the lady before me. So why keep me? Seems like a lot of trouble you don’t need. Maybe we can work something out.”