Grimm: A Novel In The Nate Temple Supernatural Thriller Series (The Temple Chronicles Book 3) (19 page)

Ever.

He wore trendy black slacks with the stereotypical loose-fitting white dress shirt of vampires from every movie ever made. A tailored coat hugged his torso before flaring out at the hips like a Steampunk piece, complete with oversized buttons and crisscrossing straps, reminding me of a 1700’s era Colonial Pirate or Privateer. His hair was pulled back in a ponytail and a pair of heavy leather boots covered his feet, completing the look. His skin was naturally pale, but he had acquired a light tan somehow.

It seemed this vampire was willing to risk instant incineration along with sun cancer in order to obtain that perfect tan. Talk about priorities. He was also not one of the vampires from the sewer. Which was both good and bad.

“Aye aye, Captain.” I sneered at his costume-like outfit.

He answered in a lazy New Orleans drawl. I noticed he was cleaning his teeth with some kind of toothpick. “Name’s Alucard. You may have heard of me, Little Brother.”

I didn’t like vampires, but I
especially
didn’t like one addressing me with an affectionate pet name. “Someone might have mentioned your name yesterday, but then they went and disappeared on me. Made quite the mess on their way out.”

He nodded without taking immediate offense at me obliquely admitting to murdering his flunkies. “Yes. Glad you brought that up. Put me in a bit of a conundrum…”

He propped the umbrella against the tree beside him, but otherwise didn’t shift his weight. He held up both hands, mimicking a scale as he left the toothpick in his mouth. “On one hand, you took care of some rogue associates of mine who had taken it upon themselves to open up a… snack bar without my express permission.” He lowered one of his hands as if it were weighted down. “On the other hand, you killed my compatriots, Little Brother. Men – for better or worse – who were under my
Aegis
. My protection.” His other hand shifted to more or less balance out the scales. I squinted, confused. Was he thanking me or threatening me?

“So I came here for two reasons…” He waited patiently for me to speak. Instead I nodded, motioning with a wave of my hand for him to continue.

He tipped his imaginary hat again. I imagined it as a vintage Captain’s hat for aesthetic reasons. “Obliged. First, to thank you for killing the vermin.” He watched me, not speaking further.

I stared back in slight disbelief, waiting for a surprise attack of some kind, but nothing happened.

Apparently I was quiet too long.

“Well, Little Brother. What do you say?”

“Um. You’re welcome?”

He nodded, holding his hand to his stomach as he dipped his head politely. I found myself rather liking the guy, despite him being a blood-sucking parasite. I had dealt with many monsters over the years, and none of them had ever thanked me. Especially not for killing their men. “Next, I came here to kill you. For two offenses.”

And my brief flicker of hope at gaining a new bestie died in a mental jet plane crash. He continued on, voice and tone even, despite the words that passed his lips. “One, because you slaughtered the several men that represented my entire St. Louis coven. Lowlife, greedy, treacherous bastards, but still. They were
mine
. And one must keep their…
street cred
intact. Now, I’m not particularly inclined to call in my other soldiers from down south to make your life a mess.” He began ticking off fingers as he continued. “Logistics, required lodging, travel expenses, lot of additional death and collateral damage.” He dropped his hand, meeting my eyes. He was very lucky that he hadn’t glanced at Ashley and Mallory or I would have killed him on the spot. “My boys are a hungry sort, you see. I’d rather do it myself. One death. Clean. Neat. Professional. Respectful.” He paused, plucking the toothpick out of his mouth with a wet
smacking
sound.

It was a finger bone.

He had been using a freaking metacarpal to clean his teeth. Yuck. And I had thought we could be friends. I really wasn’t sure how to take this conversation. I mean, here he was threatening to kill me, yet he was being so freaking polite about it. It almost made me smile. It was a very old school way of handling things. No shadowy revenge plots lurking over your shoulder for months or years, but an honorable, direct invitation to a duel. Brutal, yes. But
also
honorable.

He continued speaking, satisfied his teeth were clean. “Second reason I came here to kill you is that I’m being coerced to do so. If I don’t, my New Orleans coven will be razed to the ground by a group that has the brass to do it. Reckon they been doing it for years. So. That about sums it up, Little Brother. Any last words?”

I stared back in masked disbelief. The Grimms? I turned my head to glance back at Mallory and Ashley. They looked just as surprised to hear that the Grimms had subcontracted my death, when the day before they had been adamant about leaving me unharmed.

A whir of fabric suddenly rustled past me and Ashley disappeared out from under my gaze. I spun with a snarl to find Alucard casually leaning against the tree in the same position as before except Ashley now knelt at his feet, and the tip of the umbrella – now a razor sharp sword blade – was pressed gently into the back of her neck. “I asked you if you had anything to say and you turned your back on me. Can’t really cry foul on that one, can ya’, Little Brother? I stated my intent, no room for obfus… obfis…”

“Obfuscation,” I offered in a snarl. He snapped his fingers together in agreement.

“That’s the one, Little Brother. Obfuscation. So, you ready? Or does she die first? Either way we will fight. Here. Now. To the death.”

I heard Mallory mutter a curse.

Chapter 18

A
lucard remained casually leaning against the tree, but I knew even a slight motion would kill Ashley. His glittering dark eyes watched me patiently, ready to react. I could sense that he didn’t particularly want to kill Ashley, but that he would if I didn’t give him the answer he sought.

“Leave her out of it and you have my word. We’ll throw down within five minutes, Dracula.”

He shivered at the name, shaking his head in amusement as he lowered the blade from her neck. I sighed in relief, but Ashley still knelt dangerously close to the blade for my comfort. She looked alert, ready to bolt at the first opening. But vampires were fast, so bad idea. I discreetly shook my head at her as Alucard continued. “Not my name. Parents thought it would keep the devil away to name me
Alucard
. Named my sister
Neveah
, of all things.
Heaven
spelled backwards. Now
she
was an evil little bint.” He chuckled.

I didn’t find anything funny. Threatening my friends did that to me for some reason. “Those are pretty elaborate names for little kids.” I replied, thinking furiously.

He slapped his knees, shaking his head, which caused Ashley to flinch. “That’s not even all of it! My middle name is Morningstar.
Morningstar
! It’s almost like they
wanted
to set me up for failure. Not only was my first name associated with
Dracula…
my middle name was even
more
notorious! Bloody Lucifer’s last name! Two men who fell from Greatness.” He shook his head, chuckling harder now. “Parents meant well, I suppose, but they obviously hadn’t ever heard the phrase,
curiosity killed the cat
. It only made me want to learn more, so I did some…
research
. Imagine what my eight-year-old self discovered about those names, and what that did to my impressionable, naïve self image! I felt like a
god
. I was already an odd boy, interested in all sorts of mystical whatnots. Living in New Orleans with
voodoo
on every corner will do that to you. And being terrorized by larger kids for the formative years of your life put what some might call a
chip
on my shoulder. So I hunted the vamps down, earned their respect, and joined up. Slowly but surely, I realized that the fangers were rather lazy. Regulars had heard all the stories, but thanks to Hollywood, no one believed them to be true. So we could pretty much feast openly, which made the top fangs fat, rich, and apathetic. I built my powerbase, recruited new fangs, and used a little book to build a solid following behind me. The rest was inevitable.”

“What book?” I asked, still formulating a plan to get Ashley to safety so we could conclude our duel without collateral damage.

“
The Prince
. Machiavelli,” he grinned. “You like books, wizard?”

“A bit.” I answered. This guy obviously didn’t know much about me if he hadn’t heard of
Plato’s Cave
. It was mentioned in almost every news article about me. And that wasn’t even considering the supernatural community to which I catered on a regular basis. “Alright, Alucard. Let her go and we’ll settle this right now. I win – meaning you die – I get to put another set of fangs up on the fridge.” His lips tightened a bit at that. After all, he had been exceedingly polite so far. But a thought was churning in my head as I realized where we stood. “You win, you owe me a favor, no questions asked.” I folded my arms. He blinked in disbelief, opening his mouth to ask why I got something in return whether I won or lost, but I forestalled him. “I should correct you on one thing. Now that you told me your intention, I won’t be letting you walk away without a fight. What kind of gentleman would I be to deny such an honest and polite duel? But I want you to know that I am no wizard.” He frowned at both the threat and the statement, reading between the lines.

“Is that so, Little Brother?” He replied softly, like a dagger across velvet.

“Yep. I’m a Maker. Ever heard of that?”

His shoulders stiffened and his hand lifted up the umbrella faster than I could follow. It suddenly occupied the space between us, held in an upright defensive position. Ashley chose that moment to kick his ankle and roll to safety. Mallory snatched up her arm and yanked her to safety behind him, not letting her go even after she was safe. Alucard didn’t even register the blow, other than a flicker of his eyes at her escape. He eyed me warily, thinking about my words.

“It’s true?” He answered in a soft, curious voice.

I nodded.

He grunted. “Well, Little Brother. Can’t claim as I believed that when I heard it. Thought it was a farce, a ruse, a legend spread by your own lips to keep your celebrity status going across the supernatural world. Heirs usually do such things.”

I shook my head, sliced my mind with an imagined blade, tapping into the roaring torrent below, and spoke. “I swear on my power that I’m a Maker.”

An invisible shockwave knocked everyone but me to a knee. Alucard was first to stand, assuming it had been an attack. But I stood neutrally with my arms hanging at my sides. He watched me for a few seconds. “Well, looks like you get something whether you win or lose, but I become a legend if I win. Agreed.” He looked up at the sky and the bright ball of light that was the sun. Then at me. “Might have a bit of an advantage over me.” He observed, not backing out, but simply stating a fact.

I looked up. Then back at him. Then off to the burnt out field. Having him mention his disadvantage made what I had been about to propose even better. I smiled as I turned back to him, nodding. “I may have a solution. I’ll give you at least a one-minute warning before I attack you. But until then I’m going to need you to trust me. Follow me step by step with no questions. I won’t betray you or trap you anywhere. I know a place where the sun won’t affect you. In fact,
you
will likely gain a slight advantage over
me
.”

He frowned a bit at that. “Why would you do that? Why not take me here where I challenged you, Little Brother? Machiavelli would groan in his grave, he would.”

I shrugged. “Usually I would do exactly that, but I’m not one for unfair fights when someone openly tells me exactly what they want to do. You’ve earned a fair… no, an
advantage
over me in a fair fight because of your honesty. Consider it a token of gratitude for not wasting my time with abductions and sneaky attacks over the next few days. I’ve got enough on my plate already.”

He nodded in thoughtful thanks, and then motioned for me to lead on with a shrug.

Ashley and Mallory quickly laid into me. “Just what the hell do ye’ think ‘yer doing? We have more important things to do! Now! You can’t go throwing ‘yer life around for every punk thug that wants a scrap, Laddie.”

A veil of transparent blue silk seemed to settle over my vision as I tapped into my smoldering frustration and anger, using it to toss up a dome of power over my two friends, eliminating the possibility for sound to travel beyond us. Vampires had impeccable senses. I saw Alucard rub his arms idly as he watched me. I spoke to my friends. “Trust me. This is best. This way we aren’t facing the Grimms while the vampire and his crew of bloodthirsty, hungry fangs sneaks up behind us. Remember, he also hinted that this was out of his hands, and that he was being extorted to kill me to save his coven from annihilation. Sounds like the Grimms. This way I can remove a player off the board. And I’m taking
no
risks to do so.” They looked doubtful of that. “I want you two to leave. Now. Head to
Chateau Falco
. I’ll be along shortly. Get Gunnar, Indie, and Raego to meet me there ready for war. I swear I will meet you there.” It was hard not to gloat about my plan, but I didn’t want to risk Alucard somehow overhearing. That was, if my crazy plan worked. “I’ll explain later.” I handed Ashley the satchel with the books, my eyes a silent warning to keep it safe. She nodded.