Decatur the Vampire (6 page)

“You did not have permission.”

She had heard this so many times over the past week that she was tired of it. “I had to act or risk an innocent suffering.” That they could not see that through their rules maddened her.

“You are not God, Sumerian. Your arrogance to think you can change or manipulate circumstances to suit yourself is not the behavior of an angel. This is not the first time you have been warned and this time you shed blood.”

Like Gabriel himself had never done this. He had been a wild card long before she had come on the scene. “For a good cause.”

“That was not the decree of God so it was murder.”

Why do I bother?
Yet Sumerian could not help but respond. She was already lost. There was no point trying to save herself. “I see, so God can kill and it’s righteous but when I do it’s murder.” Sumerian regretted nothing. The human had to die so others could live. If she had left it up to the will of heaven, two innocent souls would be standing in heaven wondering why God had let them suffer. At least Sumerian would have. The human world was out of control and God and his cronies like Gabriel seemed to be doing very little to help.

“Yes. God can do whatever he wants. He is in charge.”

“So we’re a cult now, Gabriel?”

“There is no ‘we’ anymore, Sumerian. There is ‘us’ and ‘you’.”

Just to drive the point home. It was typical of Gabriel. “I stand by what I did.” Not that she suspected he would care. The precious rules had been bent because someone took a stand and thought for themselves.

“That you have no remorse is not the belief of a true angel.”

“Maybe I never was one of those. Maybe I was a ring-in.”

Gabriel shook his head. “You were meant to be here but you chose to leave by your actions.”

“So the whole ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’ thing is only fine if you are in charge?”

“When we cast you down you can never come back.”

“Because it’s a rule, Gabriel?”

His smile was thin. “You make this harder on yourself than it has to be. You could always ask for forgiveness.”

“I would rather stick a needle in my eye.”

“You need to leave now, Sumerian. There is nothing left for you here.”

She took once last look around the place that had once been her home.
Funny, I feel nothing.
Sumerian thought she might have. But only emptiness sat within her. “There is nothing for me here anyway. I do not belong. I don’t think I ever did.”

* * * * *

“Why the hell am I here with these idiots?” Morphos roared in anger. There was no one to hear him and even if there had been he couldn’t care less. Their opinions meant nothing to him. “I am not like them. I will never be like them.” That he had been caught like a rat annoyed him. And by Archimedes? How galling. He was a pretentious prick of a demon who Morphos would normally never have given the time of day to. “Now I am stuck with a fucking angel and two wannabe bad guys.”

Morphos had a hundred plans in his head about getting out and getting revenge. Problem was he required help and he never asked anyone for that. He was a demon. They walked alone. Besides, who could he ask? The other three had their own agendas and he wanted to be beholden to no one. Morphos had thought about doing a deal with Vulcan but that would be like kissing a cobra. While Morphos was a risk taker, Vulcan was too sly even for him. The angel? A woman? No way. The vampire? Too pretty and petulant. The warlock? They were too honorable for their own good.

“So that just leaves Archimedes. How do I screw him as he is trying to screw me?”

Chapter Four

“This is Vulcan—sorry, what did you say your surname was again?” Wayne Palowski, human resources manager, looked at the man beside him.

“Smith, Vulcan Smith.” His smile was friendly, his eyes watchful.

Wayne smiled back. “That’s right, Vulcan Smith, he’s starting here in accounts payable today, Marduk.”

Marduk shook his hand. “That’s an unusual name. Was your mother a
Star Trek
fan?”
And what the hell is going on here?
Why in the midst of economic doom and chaos were they employing someone new? Hadn’t they just spent money on a farewell gift for Mandy who left accounts payable last week? Who was this guy? He was hardly the bland and boring type of person who was expected in accounts payable. Why him and why now? Marduk looked at Wayne. He was an amiable twit who just smiled, probably only happy in the knowledge that a new employee had filled out the tax declaration properly. It was pointless asking Wayne questions. The man only understood forms with official numbers on them. People were a foreign concept to him.

“
Star Trek
? No, she wasn’t.”

“Family name?” There was something about those bright, piercing blue eyes that didn’t match the rest of his tall, lean form. They were too strong and intense for the bland body they were in.

“Sort of.” Vulcan was vague yet polite, his interest fixed on Marduk.

“I see.” She didn’t. There was something not right about this picture. They were letting staff go yet employing him. He looked boring and innocuous yet his eyes told a different story. There was just something about him that made her skin tingle with suspicions and rarely did she ignore those feelings.

“I’ll leave you in Marduk’s capable hands.”

Vulcan turned to her. “Are you capable?”

Oh yeah, there was a story here.
The air around him crackled with strange electricity or was she just imagining it? “When I have to be.”

“You look somewhat surprised, Marduk.”

There was no point beating around the bush. Besides, that was not her nature. “I am. We’re downsizing yet you were employed today to do a job another woman was terminated from due to lack of work and dollars to spend on staff.”

“Do you think I’m sleeping with someone to get the job?”

“Are you?” That wouldn’t be the first time that had happened even at Danby. “Or you’re related to someone.” Nepotism abounded in the company. Cousins, sisters, brothers. There were times that the business was bordering on inbred.

Vulcan was unperturbed by her words. “Maybe I got the job on charm and skills alone.”

That he had both did not surprise Marduk. Besides, it wasn’t the issue. Why employ him now? “You didn’t answer the question.”

“I don’t kiss and tell.” Vulcan was amused and delighted by Marduk. There was something about a spit-in-your-eye, straight-to-the-point woman that always attracted him. His eyes ran over her full breasts then back up to her strong-featured face. Marduk was not beautiful but she was someone who made a man keep looking and wondering about her. Vulcan much preferred that to pretty—pretty was vacuous and he saw this woman was anything but.
Shame she belongs to the vampire.
Vulcan was tempted to have a taste of her himself. But that wasn’t why he was here. He needed to make sure that the vampire and Marduk got together. It would be one less immortal to deal with. Vampires could be perverse individuals who only did what they chose to do. Normally that wouldn’t have been a character flaw that Vulcan would care about. However, Archimedes was not the only one who knew about the children of the ankh.

Vulcan already had the power of life and death. Few people knew or were aware of what he was responsible for in both the mortal and immortal worlds. He did what he did for reasons of his own and never advertised that fact as it was his business and no one else’s why he acted as he did. Getting Marduk and Decatur together was important. While it helped Archimedes with his insane desire for world domination, it also helped Vulcan. If Archimedes thought he was getting what he wanted then it made him less inclined to look with suspicion at those around him. Vulcan’s plan was to hit Archimedes when he least expected it.

Vulcan planned to destroy Archimedes. He had insinuated himself into the megalomaniac’s world in order to do it. There was a bounty on Archimedes’ head. And, while normally Vulcan would not have gotten involved in one of the many and varied coups within the demon world, this one had interested him. This one would give him the one thing Vulcan craved but could not do. The chance to go back in time and change the past. The angel Gabriel had offered him that power.
For only I know what you would change, Vulcan. Destroy Archimedes and I will give you that power.
Problem was, other than killing Archimedes, Vulcan needed three more things to do it. One of them was purity. It was not a characteristic he possessed. He looked at the woman before him.
But this one has it and one day she will call on me for help.
How, Vulcan did not know. He just did.

“Smarty-pants,” Marduk told him point-blank, hands on her hips and eyes narrowed in doubt.

Oh yes, this one was most interesting.
Great hips. If only…
“Possibly.”

“What sort of an answer is that?”

It was one designed to make her think and wonder. Vulcan enjoyed teasing women with words. “So, lovely Marduk, what are my duties?”

“Changing subjects always indicates something to hide.”

“What do you hide, Marduk?” The widening of her eyes made him wonder what lay beyond the surface.
Pity the vampire would have her.

“Nothing.”

“Everyone does.” Vulcan had hidden so much over the centuries he had forgotten, deliberately so, most of it. There was no point leaving wounds open.

“You don’t look like an accounts payable person to me.”

“Ah, now you’re changing the subject.” He smiled at her scowl. “How do they look?”

“Usually cranky like their underwear is too tight.”

“And you are? Other than delightful of course?”

“Accounts receivable.” Marduk was unfazed by his charm. “We’re ruthless people who take money from others so we don’t have their issues.”

“I see. So you have loose underwear. Good to know.” Ah, the woman was blushing. How sweet in this day and age.
Damn shame she belonged to Decatur.

If Marduk was out of kilter, she did not show it. “Probably best to introduce you to Maxine. She’s a total, anal, backstabbing bitch who’ll eat you alive.”

“You sound pleased at that thought.” Vulcan had never met a woman he could not control and he doubted this Maxine would be any different. “I like that you speak your mind.”

“Life is short.”

“For some,” Vulcan responded without thinking.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Vulcan knew the minute the vampire entered the room. It was instinctual but it was also the fact that the woman beside him jumped as if shocked by electricity. Excellent. This was going to be so much easier than he anticipated. He wanted to be at this ridiculous little office to meet Marduk and to make sure everything went according to plan. That she was interested in the vampire helped. Vulcan now just needed Decatur to do his part.

Marduk’s eyes went from the photocopier guy to Vulcan. She noticed Vulcan was trying to look like he wasn’t looking at the man. Hmm…what was that about? Men generally did not pay much attention to another unless… “You’re gay.”
Oh crap.
Did that mean the photocopier guy was too? Was it true that gay guys could recognize each other on sight? Chrissie had told her that, but then Chrissie had told her bikini waxes weren’t painful. What did she know? “He’s pretty hot.”

Vulcan looked at Marduk as if he was mad. “Oh hell no, I’m not gay.”

Interesting. An honest reaction from the man. “I just wondered. Your attention seemed diverted somewhat.”

“Do you like him?” Vulcan’s eyes were back on hers. “I was not the only one looking.”

Correct. “Good looks are deceiving. He could be a homicidal maniac.” She could almost hear her mother’s voice now,
You never bring nice boys home to meet us. Only the crazy ones.
“But then I only meet the crazy ones,” Marduk murmured to herself.

“He attracts you.”

It was then that the photocopier guy turned and locked eyes on Vulcan. Marduk felt a chill run down her spine. The look was one of sheer contempt. “Do you know him?”

“I have never seen him before in my life.”

Marduk had no idea what was going on but she knew a lie when she heard one. This just added to her suspicions as to why Vulcan was suddenly at Danby. “Uh-huh.” Marduk turned from Vulcan. “Maxine,” she called out to her colleague sitting at the far end of the room. “Fresh meat for you.”
Let’s see how he handles Maxine.
Grown men had been known to flee under her icy stare and waspish tongue. It would be interesting to see Mr. “Smith” deal with her.

“You’re just going to pass me over like a virgin sacrifice?”

“I don’t think you’re a virgin, and I believe you will probably charm the starched bloomers off Maxine.”

Vulcan chuckled. “You’re a cynic.”

“I’m a realist.”

“Marduk,” Chrissie called to her. She was standing next to the photocopier man. “Please come and tell this gentleman about the problems we are having with this beast.”

Marduk refrained from wincing at Chrissie’s obvious tactic. She glanced at Vulcan who smiled. Who was he? This was not some guy off the street. Was he from the head office checking them out to see who should be shown the door next? “Excuse me.”

“But of course, Marduk.”

She turned and looked at him. “Who are you?” Marduk could not help but ask.

“Interested?”

“Wary.” Marduk moved on before he could say more. Instinctively she knew she could get into trouble sparring with this man. Chrissie passed her by and winked. Marduk rolled her eyes.

“So what’s wrong with this ‘beast’ now?” the blond man asked.

The sound of his voice made her stiffen.
He sounds like my lover. Mental head slap. You have no actual lover, you have a recurring dream and a case of wishful thinking. So snap out of it.
She cleared her throat. “It’s a piece of crap,” Marduk responded coolly.
Maybe it’s that the ass-looking incident is still fresh in my mind that makes me think about the other man…lover…ghost… Oh crap, I don’t know.

He nodded in agreement. “Yes it is.”

“So your company should replace it.”
But then I would never see you again so maybe not.
However the chances that he would be interested in her were slim to none so maybe it was worth pushing for the new machine. It was at least realistic.