Night Owls (29 page)

Hell,
Val
didn’t like the plan. She didn’t regret being what she was. After forty years of being a vampire, the novelty had yet to wear off.

That didn’t mean she thought a kid who only last spring had been deemed old enough to legally buy booze was old enough to be a vampire. Justin still had a human life to live, things that drinking blood and sleeping during the day sort of ruled out. Give him another ten years and she might not have argued.

But he didn’t have another ten years. He might not even have ten hours before the spell in his head made him a full Jackal. Sometimes, life snatched your good choices away and left you with a set of new, shitty ones.

She’d have to explain herself to Ivanov later—new vampires normally weren’t made without wading through the bloodsucker equivalent of a sea of red tape first—but Val set that aside, too. This wasn’t the time to fret over politics.

“This is going to hurt,” she said. “I’m sorry.” She said it for Justin, but she meant it for Chaz, too. He nodded, once, and there was no use stalling any longer.

Val drove her claws into her chest. Her ribs and breastbone splintered beneath the force of the blow, and for a moment she thought she’d black out from the pain. She breathed in once, twice. The oxygen was utterly useless to her but the act itself was calming. Then she squeezed and felt her claws pierce the sac around her heart. The muscle spasmed wildly as she impaled herself. She held on, flinging her other hand forward to clutch onto Chaz’ shoulder so she could stay upright. Justin sat sandwiched between them, his amber eyes wide as saucers.

After a moment, her body seemed to figure out that she was being struck with neither pine, nor cedar, nor dogwood, and her heartbeat settled to its normal rhythm beneath her claws. Val felt blood pooling in her palm, gave it another count of three, and withdrew her hand. Her chest made a sucking sound as the claws came free.

She stood swaying a moment, holding Chaz’ gaze as the gaping wound in her chest closed. Skin first, bones later. She could feel them shifting around inside. When she was steady, she looked to Chaz. “Ready?” He’d gone ashen, but his jaw was set, his knees locked. His grip on Justin’s shoulders tightened.

She dipped down low, coming up from Justin’s solar plexus rather than smashing straight through his sternum. He grunted as she reached up through his chest. He might have tried to scream, but her fist was inside him, her knuckles brushing his lungs. Her clawed fingers found his heart. It fluttered and jerked as she closed her hand around it. Justin’s eyes had rolled up in his head.
Good. Better not to be awake for this.

Val squeezed, her claws puncturing atria and ventricles. Justin bucked beneath her, but Chaz held him as still as he could. Val leaned on Justin’s legs with her free arm, keeping him from thrashing off the chair. He groaned, long and low, his heart pulsing rapidly in Val’s grip.

As her heartsblood mingled with his, Justin’s struggles subsided. He took one last, shuddering breath, his eyes fluttering open once more. Clear, focused, awake.

Then he died.

Val pulled her hand from his ruined chest and sat back. With one of her clean claws, she opened a vein at her bloodied wrist and brought it up to Justin’s mouth. He lay there, slack against the chair, as she dribbled blood over his tongue. He didn’t move. She rubbed her wrist over his lips like a mother encouraging her baby to nurse.

“Is he . . . ?” Chaz asked, in the hushed tone you heard at wakes.

“Give him a minute,” Val said.
I did it right, didn’t I?

Didn’t I?

Just as doubt was getting a solid hold, Justin’s eyelids fluttered, then Val felt the twin stabs of his fangs sliding into her skin. She winced as the flesh tore even further, but she didn’t pull back. Chaz let his shoulders go, and Justin surged up, clutching her wrist to his mouth and swallowing every few seconds. At last he stopped, pushing her wrist away. He panted, glancing down at the fist-sized hole in his stomach.

It was closing, but slowly, new flesh spreading like ice crystals along a pond’s surface.

“You’re new,” Val said. “It’ll take some time.” She held up her wrist: the wound had already closed. She was bloody from the base of her hand to the tips of her fingers, and from the middle of her forearm to her elbow, but the spot Justin had been drinking from was completely clean. “I guess you were thirsty,” she said.

“So that’s it?” Justin stopped staring at his knitting flesh and looked around the room. “I’m a vampire now? I don’t feel very different.” He paused, then poked at his stomach again. “. . . okay, I guess that should hurt a lot more.”

“You still have some changing to do, but for all intents and purposes, yes.” She caught his chin. His eyes were no longer dog-like, but the irises had gone back to yellow instead of brown. Val sniffed, sorting past the scent of her own blood and the Jackals’ scent clogging the air from outside. He definitely smelled like a vampire now; there was a heaviness that hadn’t been there before. But there was more—not the putrid meat smell of the Jackals that had clung to him when he’d arrived with Cavale and Elly earlier, but something dry and hot that made her think of wide-open grasslands beneath a relentless sun.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know. But I think you’re okay. Do you still feel like your face is too short?”

He touched his nose, his lips, his chin. “No.”

Chaz grinned. “Better question. Do you still want to bite Elly?”

Justin twisted around to look at her. She ducked her head into the room and eyed him, the silver spike held loosely in her grip. “Um. No.”

“Good.” Val pushed herself up out of her crouch and gave Justin a hand up. “Lean on me and we’ll go have a word with our friends out front.”

29

B
Y THE TIME
they got to the front of the store, there were only a handful of Jackals left outside. Chaz took over acting as Justin’s crutch so Val could make a stop at the register. Elly’s short-term remedy was just about up. As they limped down the aisle together, the pain returned. He felt like his chest was on fire. Still, the hole in Justin’s middle trumped a few cracked ribs. Chaz gritted his teeth and kept going.

“Thanks,” said Justin. He still had the fangs out, so it made his speech come out a little funny. Chaz got the sense he didn’t know how to retract them yet. “Hey.” He crinkled his nose, in what Chaz had learned over the years was his thinky-face. “Are we cool?”

It was a question Chaz had figured he’d deal with later, but now it was right there, in the open: Val had made someone else a vampire, and not him. Katya’s offer had repulsed him, but when Val was turning Justin—even the part where she’d reached into his fucking chest—he’d felt jealousy wrapping its fingers around his throat.
Why, though? Because I secretly want to be a vampire? Or because now I have to share her?

He looked at Justin. The kid hadn’t asked for all this shit to happen in the first place.
Not his fault. Not Val’s, either.
“Yeah, man. We’re cool.”

And he realized it was true.

“Hey.”
Val shouted over the din of the fighting outside. She was waving around a piece of white cloth that Chaz recognized as the dust rag they kept under the register. “We’re ready to talk.”

It took a bit more shouting before the battle crawled to a stop. Cavale trotted over to stand with them, Elly trying to be subtle about it as she inspected his injuries. Even after Ivanov’s crew and the Jackals all stood down, Katya and Bitch kept trading blows. Neither of them seemed to be trying to land a killing blow, really. From their grins, they were
enjoying
beating the shit out of one another.

Finally, Lia stepped over beside Val and stuck her fingers in her mouth. She let out a shrill whistle that would’ve done a gym teacher proud. The women stopped smacking each other around and looked toward the store.

“Valerie?” Katya looked pouty. “I hope we’re not surrendering.”

“Not exactly.” Val gestured to Chaz and Justin. They picked their way forward to her, glass grinding beneath their feet. “Circumstances have changed. Bring her over here.”

“Gladly.” Katya reached out, snake-like, and collared Bitch. The Jackal woman cried out in surprise. Chaz snickered.
She didn’t know Katya was playing with her this whole time.

When they got close, Bitch began sniffing. She was all Jackal-ed out, so she tilted her pointed snout into the air and snuffled. At a nod from Val, Katya released her hold. Bitch circled them warily, sniff-sniff-sniffing the whole way around. At one point, she sneezed and her whole body shook, like a dog with a noseful of pepper. She kept at it for almost a minute. Chaz half expected her to shove her face in Justin’s butt in doggy-greeting.

Instead she stepped back, horrified. She didn’t protest when Katya clamped a hand on her arm once more. “What did you do to him?”

Val smiled, letting her fangs show. “He’s mine now. He was before, too, but even more so now.”

“The spell. Does he still have it?”

“Let’s find out.” In addition to the dust rag, Val had grabbed a pad of paper and a pen from beside the register. “Justin? Want to try writing for us?”

Chaz took the paper so Justin didn’t have to unlatch. He held it up and watched as words crawled across the page:

JUSTIN KENNEDY. NOW LEAVE US THE FUCK ALONE.

He held it up for all of them to see. Bitch groaned. Sunny and Lia clapped and cheered. Chaz might’ve been tempted to appreciate the jiggling bits if it weren’t for their knives leaving ominous smoke trails.

“Call them off,” said Val. “We’re done here.”

Bitch turned around and gave an order in the Jackals’ speech. At Chaz’ side, Justin frowned, but didn’t comment.

The Jackals wavered a moment, uncertain whether they should obey. Bitch barked another command at them—literally—and one by one, they slunk away into the night.

The vampires stood their ground, waiting on Katya. “Go home,” she said, sounding bored. “Tell Ivanov I’m on my way.” Unlike the Jackals, the vampires dispersed as soon as she was finished giving the order. Katya stood there, holding on to Bitch. “If you don’t mind, Valerie, I think I’ll bring her home as a present for Ivanov. I’ll say you chipped in.”

“I don’t care what you do with her. Far as I’m concerned, it’s over.”

“It’s a bad idea,” said Bitch.

Katya shook her hard enough to make her teeth rattle. “Shut up. No one asked you.”

“I’m just saying. My alpha’s going to be upset enough as it is that we don’t have the boy. If I don’t come home, either, he’ll take it out on the undeserving.” She looked at Chaz as she said it, unblinking even after a cuff on the head from Katya.

“Wait,” said Chaz. He looked at her for signs of a bluff, but he had no idea how to spot a lying Jackal. “The kids?”

“Mm-hm. Among other . . . associates.”

Marian. Or her husband. Probably both.
“We have to let her go.”

“We should kill her,” said Elly. She gripped the spike like she might just go ahead and do it. Though, at a warning look from Katya of all people, she lowered it to her side once more.

Katya rolled her eyes. “Charles. Look at what she did to you. Your poor face. You can’t mean it.”

Bitch watched the exchange, looking smug. She might have been lying. She probably
was
, but he couldn’t take that chance. Those kids weren’t bad, they were desperate. And he’d promised Marian he’d help her. What sort of help was it if he got her husband punished, or worse, killed? “I do. There are people there. Humans. They weren’t hostages like me, but they don’t deserve to be hurt, either.”

Katya looked to Val. “Valerie, are you allowing this?”

Val tilted her head, trying to puzzle him out.
We really need to work out some sort of secret code.
“Yeah,” she said at last. “I am.”

Katya’s pout deepened. She gave Bitch a shove to get her moving. “Go. If I can still see you in ten seconds, I’m coming after you.” She started counting.

The woman smirked. “You’ve gone soft, Leech,” she said to Val. “Not that I’m complaining.” Then she flipped them all off and took off up Main Street at an easy lope. She blended into the shadows before Katya got to six.

“Well,” Katya sighed, then unwound a long strand of black hair from around her fingers. She passed it to Cavale. “I assume you can use this to track her.”

He took it and held it up to the light. “It’ll do.”

“Good.” Katya sketched a bow. “Then I think I’ll get home. Ivanov will be in touch.” She looked at them all, her eyes lingering for a bit on Chaz and Justin before she showed Val a mouthful of fangs. “With all of you.” Then she was gone, heading off in the direction Bitch had run.

Justin let out a sigh that was more of a wheeze. “Holy crap. I think I’ve been holding my breath all this time.”

“You have.” Chaz hadn’t felt him breathe since Val had handed him off. “You’re kind of done needing as much air as you used to. Well, outside of using it to talk.”

“Huh. Neat.”

Elly came bustling over. If she was upset about letting Bitch go, she was saving the argument for now. She reached up to touch Chaz’ face, her fingers cool and steady. “My kit’s in with Cavale’s stuff,” she said. “I can help with the—oh, hello.” She took his left hand and turned it over. Her palm was still leaking a bit, so she dipped her pinky in it and spread a line of blood on Chaz’ wrist. The rune Marian had drawn with oil earlier flared. “Someone was protecting you.”

“Really? Because I still feel like I got hit by a truck.”

“It could have been worse. When Twitch was hitting you, I was sure he was going to puncture a lung.” She said it absently, concentrating more on the sigil than on him. Then she looked up, and it hit him.

He knew why Marian had looked familiar.

“Elly? Uh. Do you have family? In the Brotherhood?”

Her face closed up; the tentative smile she’d been trying on fled. “No.” Cavale cleared his throat and she relented. “Okay, maybe. I never knew my parents, but they were in it. Why?”

She was still cradling his hand. He turned it over carefully, giving her fingers a gentle squeeze. “I met a woman today who looked enough like you to be your mom. She’s one of the people the Jackals have a hold over.”

Elly squirmed away. “That’s her problem,” she said after a moment. “She hasn’t given a shit about me for twenty years. If it’s even her. Why should I go running off to the rescue?” Her voice was flat.

Chaz looked to the others for help, but no one seemed interested in talking sense to her—Sunny and Lia had disappeared; Val spread her hands, at a loss; Cavale shook his head and mouthed, “Let it drop.”

So he did, for the time being. He had plenty of other things to worry about. There’d been enough fighting for one night, and Elly looked like she wasn’t sure she was done with the stabby-stabby just yet.

Justin looked around, self-consciously. “I want to learn how to Hunt,” he blurted. He seemed to be getting some of his strength back, was no longer leaning on Chaz quite as heavily. When everyone turned to look at him, he flinched. “They killed the Clearwaters. I can’t just let that go.” He turned a shy smile on Elly. “I sort of hoped you’d be willing to teach me.”

Elly stared at him, agape, then looked to Val and Cavale. They were about as helpful to her as they’d been to Chaz a moment ago.

“It’s up to you two,” said Val. “I’m done with Hunting. I meant that.”

Cavale grinned. “All you, kid.”

She stared out at the empty street, considering. Chaz got ready to haul Justin backward in case she decided the proper response to this was an attempted staking. At last, she turned back to Justin. “Fine. Now can I do my job?” She stalked off into the store, ducking down behind the register to retrieve her kit.

Justin unhooked his arm from around Chaz, testing his ability to stand on his own. He was a little wobbly, but otherwise fine. A thought struck him, and he leaned in, keeping his voice low. “Think she’d be my Renfield?”

Chaz clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t push it.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

Sunny came shuffling out from the back of the store. She’d donned a fluffy white bathrobe and her bunny slippers. Her face had reverted back to her everyday look. The curved knives were gone, too. In their place, she held push brooms and mops. “We’ve got a lot of cleaning up to do,” she said, handing one of the brooms to Cavale.

The store lights flicked on, row by row. Lia must have found the breakers. The front half of the store was in utter chaos. Val groaned and held her hand out for one of the other brooms just as the first splashes of blue and red flashed across the storefront. Whatever had been holding Edgewood’s finest away from Main Street had finally worn off.

Chaz headed over to Val, catching her before she could go and meet the officer climbing out of his car. “You’re covered in blood,” he said. “I’ll handle this.”

“You look like shit.”

“Yeah, but I don’t look like someone punched a hole in my chest.”

She grimaced but had to concede the point. “Fine. I’ll get Justin to come out back, too.”

He caught her arm as she turned to go. “Hey. We need to talk.”

She covered his hand with hers. “I know.”

 • • • 

T
HEY GOT BACK
to Val’s house an hour before sunrise. Chaz had, through some combination of smooth talking and bullshitting, managed to convince the officers that the damage had been done as part of a drunken drive-by, no idea who the culprits might be. He’d needed help from Sunny and Lia—a “tiny bit of a mind-whammy,” as he’d put it to Val—to get the officer to overlook his battered face and the pile of Jackal corpses lining the sidewalk.

They’d swept up the glass and ash and washed away as much of the blood as they could for one night. Chaz would be meeting with the window people in the afternoon about replacing the plate glass.

Justin had crashed out almost as soon as Val got him settled in her bed. He still had changing to do, and tonight she’d have to teach him how to find blood, but for now, he needed sleep more than anything. Elly and Cavale had gone back to Crow’s Neck, dropping Sunny and Lia off at home on their way.