Overworld Chronicles Books 1-2: Sweet Blood of Mine & Dark Light of Mine (35 page)

"Believe me, if I go against an oath like that, I'll incur so much negative karma that it'd wreck me."

"I thought things were complicated enough using computers and magic. Now you're saying karma is involved too?"

He grinned. "Karma is a magic all unto its own. It's like a piggy-bank we carry around indirectly affecting everything we do."

"Great," I said. "One more thing to worry about." I caught motion from the corner of my eye. Nightliss was batting around the string of the blinds to the kitchen window. "How does Nightliss feel about prowling around a den full of vampires?" I asked.

Stacey regarded me with those vertically slit pupils of hers. "She thinks it will be rather exciting."

I thought of something nobody had mentioned. "How are we going to prevent the vampires from sensing us? I can sense people once I get within a few yards of them."

"Vampires can smell spilled blood," Elyssa said. "They can hear the pulse of a beating heart from ten feet away." She gave me a direct look that told me she spoke from experience. And yet she spoke of vampires as if they were in no way related to her.

"Why didn't anyone mention this before?" I said. "How in the hell can we sneak through a building full of vampires if they can hear our heartbeats?"

"When I am stalking something, nothing can sense me," Stacey said.

"I have a masking spell I use," Shelton said.

"Templars learn to block others from sensing us," Elyssa said. "I'm sure spawn have defensive measures as well. I had just assumed you knew how to do it."

"No," I said. "I'm still a newb. Dad never told me anything about hiding myself."

Elyssa pulled out her smartphone and started punching keys. Shelton did the same.

"Please tell me you're not Googling for an answer," I said.

Elyssa gave me a guilty look.

"Well, my spell might work," Shelton said. "But I can't just use it on you. I'd have to stay within a few feet of you for it to remain effective. However—" He pulled out a pouch and rummaged through it. After a moment he pulled out a gold chain and stared at it. "Ah, damn. No, this won't work. I thought I'd programmed one of these with the correct enchantment, but it's gone stale."

"Stale?"

"Yeah, you gotta keep renewing enchantments or they wear off over time."

"Can you freshen it up?"

"Not without a few hours to do it in."

I groaned. "What am I supposed to do then?"

"There's a simple version of this spell you might be able to do. Mine is one-way, meaning they can't detect me, but I can detect them with the proper spells. The simple version is like throwing up a wall of insulation between you and them, but you won't be able to sense them as well."

"He can't do magic," Elyssa said. "He's demon spawn."

"There are demon spawn who can do magic," Shelton said. "But usually only if they've been around a long time."

"He hasn't been around long at all."

"Actually," Shelton said, giving me the same look he'd given me after letting me hold his wand a day earlier, "I think he can. Can't hurt to try."

"Fine," she said. "Waste your time. But I think we're going to have to keep you closer to us than we'd planned so you can keep him masked."

"We need some quiet," he said. "Let's step outside."

We stepped on the back porch. I nearly had a heart attack as two large shadows in the back yard shifted. Then I remembered the moggies.

Shelton pulled out some chalk. "First you need to draw a container, like a circle, around you and close it."

I sketched a circle which more closely resembled a warped oval.

"Now you need to close it by pressing your thumb against it and willing it closed."

"How do I will it closed?"

"Just think about the circle around you and wish for it to be closed."

I pressed my thumb against the chalk and wished for the circle to be closed. Nothing happened.

"Think 'circle close'," Shelton said.

This whole exercise seemed pointless and silly, but I kept thinking that phrase over and over again. The air around me crackled faintly.

"Nice job," he said with a big smile. "You just did your first magic act."

"Seems pointless," I said.

"Believe me, it's not. There are a lot of different ways you can close a container, but this is all you need for this spell. After a minute or two, you should feel a slight buildup of pressure in your ears."

I nodded. "I feel it."

"Okay, that's what magic feels like when it can't escape your container. Now you need to focus on what you want it to do."

"Like put up a wall?"

"Exactly. But we need to be careful here. We want you to block out your heartbeat and psychic emanations without blocking all sound. Otherwise you'll be deaf and possibly blind to what's happening around you."

My stomach fluttered nervously. I didn't want to render myself senseless by accident. "How do I block things selectively?"

"Listen to your own heart and imagine it as being silent to everyone."

I closed my eyes and listened. The moggies purred nearby. Car engines and tires sounded from the streets. I heard indistinct talking from the kitchen and the sound of Nightliss batting around the cord to the blinds. I filtered those noises one by one until I heard my heart thudding in my chest. It sounded rather panicked and I couldn't blame it. Things were about to get real.

After a few moments, the sound of my heart was the only noise I heard. I imagined it being shielded from the rest of the world. Buffered by my will. I concentrated on it for what seemed an hour when I realized I could no longer hear my own heartbeat. I opened my eyes. Shelton gave me a thumbs up.

"I did it?"

"Yes you did."

"Is your hearing sensitive enough to hear my heart beating?"

"I was using a little bit of magic to eavesdrop."

"Oh yeah. Guess you would be."

"Now we need to do the same with your psychic emanations."

I remembered something Dad had told me while learning how to feed. I evened out my psychic hook, as he called it, just as I would before sneaking into someone else's psyche. Making it neutral, he had termed it. Then it would be no more noticeable than background noise.

"That was quick," Shelton said.

"I didn't need magic for that one," I said.

He compressed his lips and nodded. "After this is over, I was wondering if you might like to learn some real magic."

I cocked an eyebrow. "You think I'm capable?"

"You seem to be a natural at it."

I wondered if that might have to do with my mother's side. I rubbed away the chalk line with my foot and felt a release of pressure from my ears as the magical energy dissipated into the air around me. We went inside. Stacey and Elyssa looked at me for a moment. Stacey clapped her hands and laughed with glee.

"You did it," Elyssa said. She cast a questioning gaze on Shelton. "How is this possible?"

"He's got potential."

She grabbed my arm and put a head to my chest. I wanted to press her entire body against me. I drew in her scent: sword-cleaning oil and leather underneath the sweet smell of a spring day. Just her warmth against my chest made my pulse quicken. She pulled away, a hint of softness in her eyes, and shook her head. "I've never heard of demon spawn who could do this."

"He's a special case."

"Special in the head maybe."

"Hey," I said and playfully punched Elyssa in the arm. "That's not nice."

Elyssa smiled a sad little smile. "We're all special in the head for going through with this crazy plan." She sighed. "Lock and load time."

Everyone nodded their assent and their faces tightened. I felt an intense urge to visit the bathroom. Instead, I grabbed the keys to the van.

"Let's roll."

Chapter 32

We drove southeast to a part of Edgewood bordering between ghetto and hipster. The rogues had taken over an old school, gutted and turned into large luxury lofts years ago. According to Elyssa's information, beneath the school lay an expanded basement where a boiler room used to be. Now it consisted of a large sleeping chamber. The resulting building looked oddly out of place, as the original designer had an obvious enthusiasm for all things gothic. The retrofit only enhanced the design. Points and spires adorned the roof. The windows were ornate affairs with gargoyle faces and symbols carved into the marble. A large dark-stained wooden door guarded the main entrance with all the effectiveness of a drawbridge.

In short, it looked like the perfect place to find vampires.

Foot traffic was light this time of night, although plenty of non-vampiric revelers were drinking at a bar across the street and sounds from an indie band at another venue down the way echoed in the cool night air. Stacey took her pack or pride or whatever the term was for a group of mismatched feline creatures to a dark adjacent lot. She'd help Nightliss into the building so the little cat could scout it for us. I parallel-parked the van on the street.

Shelton poked his head out the sliding door on the side and whispered something that sounded like "fizzle" while flicking his fingers. The closest street lamp made a faint pop and went out, leaving the van hidden in darkness.

Elyssa stared hard at the rogue compound and scribbled on a notepad. She was probably doing something important like mapping out alternate routes or maybe even writing a goodbye letter to her parents in case we all died. I felt pretty useless so I leaned over her shoulder. She was drawing her name with little hearts around it.

"Seriously?" I said.

She flinched and gave me a dirty look. "I'm waiting to hear back from the felycan."

"She has a name, you know."

"You're becoming kind of attached to your little cat woman, aren't you?"

"I'm getting really tired of people judging others just because they're not pure human."

She turned away from me and drew a crooked heart next to her name. "Oh, I'm sorry. I hope
Stacey
comes back with some good intel."

"That's a lot of vamps," Shelton said, pointing up the slight rise to the gothic structure.

A gaggle of vampires, all dressed to kill, or at the very least to drink blood, waltzed toward a waiting stretched Hummer. I had to admit the vamps knew how to style. I peered at them with my enhanced eyesight to see if I might recognize any of the ones who'd attacked me and Dad, but they were too clustered together to get a good look. Then I noticed the little boy vampire that had been in on the attack looking mournfully on from the front door. Poor kid would never
look
old enough to drink alcohol no matter how old he really was. And forget faking a driver's license.

The sliding door on the street side of the van opened and my heart froze. Stacey climbed in. Nightliss followed and jumped on her shoulder. The little cat rubbed his cheek against hers and meowed happily.

I took a deep breath and uttered a few choice curse words at her surprise entry.

"Less than twenty vampires remain in the compound," she said, her face more serious and composed than I'd ever seen it. "My little one was able to go into the basement which is now one cavernous room filled with beds and partitions. A locked door at the back of this area blocked her way, but one of the resident cats told her he had hunted rats down there before. The vampires only recently locked that door. I would bet my tea and crumpets on your father being somewhere down there."

Elyssa crossed her arms and gave Nightliss a pointed look. "When you say 'down there', do you mean that door goes to more stairs?"

"Indeed. Apparently the building was once an old church. There's a crypt beneath the basement."

"Stupid vampires and their flair for the dramatic," Elyssa said.

Stacey gave her a toothy grin. "Why, my dear, you
are
speaking of vampires. Why do anything at all if you cannot do it in style?"

I gave Stacey a funny look. She hardly sounded like a seductress when she broke into the Queen's English. And the incongruity of her attire only added to the bizarre vibe I got from her. Really, she should have been born French.

"How do we get into the door?" I asked.

"More importantly, what kind of door and how is it locked?" Elyssa said.

Stacey smiled sheepishly. "While my kin could detail a mouse down to the number of his whiskers, they are not so very good at detailing mechanical things such as locks. Nightliss said the door seemed quite sturdy, though admittedly most do for one of her delicate stature."

Elyssa dug through her pouch. "I guess I can handle it." She pulled out what looked like a lock-pick kit.

"Nightliss also says that one of the vampires accessed it while she was there and was jabbing his finger at something on the wall next to it."

"An electronic lock?" Elyssa tossed the lock picks back into her pouch. "Just great."

"It could've been an intercom." Shelton gave me a look. "If it's magnetic, a hex ought to do the trick, though."

"So you'll need to come?" I asked.

"Unless you're up to it."

"Even if he can do it," Elyssa said evenly, "it might take him too long."

"Yeah, well dragging around an extra person is gonna be even tougher to hide." Shelton handed me a bit of chalk. "An experienced caster wouldn't need a container, but you don't know how to create your own internal well. Just make a circle and close it like before. When you feel a little pressure in your ears, you should have enough juice. Concentrate on the keypad and imagine throwing that built-up energy at it. It might help to use a word to focus your effort."

"Like fizzle?"

He chuckled. "Exactly. The magnetic lock should die at least temporarily."

My stomach flip-flopped a couple of times. Every time we got closer to the objective, we found another snag. Except this one was pretty major. "Maybe I should practice on a street lamp."

"That's a brilliant idea," Elyssa said. "Let's go into the middle of the street, draw a big chalk circle, and blow out some light bulbs right in front of the place we're about to invade."