Raven Walks (25 page)

“That begs the assumption that they are safe
anywhere.”

“Who are they?” Sebastian asked as he walked
around the bar. “What’s going on?”

“The Creature,” Raven explained. “It’s after
those I possess. To punish me.”

“The only thing it does right,” Hunter
growled as he grabbed a glass of whiskey from the bar.

“Is that what you think?” Raven asked him.
“At least I leave them alive.”

“Alive but damaged. Like Abigail.”

“Ah, yes. Abigail. And you did your part to
save her, didn’t you?”

Hunter glared at him. “For your information,
I love Abigail.”

“As much as Gina?” Raven wanted to know. “Is
that why she ran off to face this Creature on her own? Curious as
how you didn’t see fit to save her.”

Hunter was off the bar stool in a second,
grabbing Raven’s jacket and bringing them nose to nose. “I already
saved her from the likes of you before.”

Raven just smiled as he remembered Gina’s
vampire lover whom she reminisced about just the night before. “Or
maybe you didn’t save her at all,” he mused, “Maybe you just
postponed the inevitable. And that’s why you’re so scared she
left.”

Hunter released him in impotent anger. Deep
down he knew that Raven spoke the truth.

Raven straightened his jacket and then drank
from the bottle of water Sebastian had provided. “Maybe if you calm
down and stop treating me like the enemy, we can actually save her
now.”

“What’s in it for you?” asked Hunter
suspiciously.

Raven was still figuring that out. “Nothing
else to do on a Friday night,” he quipped.

Sebastian poured his own drink. “So what does
this Creature have against you?” he asked Raven.

“Not sure,” he sighed. “I’ve been around a
long time, I’m sure I made some enemies along the way.”

“Think back to Greece,” Hunter suggested.
“That’s where this Creature began his bloody journey.”

Raven took a deep breath. “Greece is where I
turned Constantine all those years ago. He was terminally ill and
had fallen in love with his brother’s wife.” He glanced at Hunter
and saw the remark had hit home. “Constantine decided he wanted to
live with her forever in a strong, immortal body. When he found out
I was a vampire, he begged for me to turn him.”

Sebastian nodded. He’d heard this story
before on the many nights he had counseled Raven on how to deal
with his rogue protégé.

“Problem was, Nina was so distraught by his
death she decided to raise him from the dead herself. But she
didn’t come to me for that. She went to a man named Argos, a man
the village suspected of being a warlock.”

Hunter had to fight the urge to roll his
eyes. First vampires. Now witches. What was next? A couple of
werewolves and a killer Leprechaun?

“Turns out Constantine wasn’t the only one
who loved fair Nina, or wanted her for his own. Argos gave her some
spells he never expected to work, and thought maybe she’d come back
to him as a consolation prize. The cemetery gatekeeper found her at
Constantine’s grave with all the spells and offerings and so he
alerted the town. She was burned at the stake by morning.” Off of
Hunter’s look, “It was a superstitious kind of time. Kill first and
ask questions later.” He took a breath and continued. “Needless to
say I took Constantine and fled before his brother Demetri, a known
hunter, would be forced to destroy him.”

“And never told him about Argos,” Sebastian
supplied, “because he knew that Constantine would go back to Greece
for his vengeance.”

“And that would be a mistake?” Hunter
asked.

Both vampires nodded. “Argos was an old
warlock, centuries older than me. With his advanced age and his
advanced knowledge of witchcraft, the only way to survive him would
have been to turn him into a vampire like me. As his master,
killing me would have meant killing himself.”

Sebastian sipped his drink. “But never the
two shall meet,” he said. “A mutant such as that would be a plague
on the planet with no allegiance to either cursed side of
himself.”

Hunter’s eyes widened. “So you think this
Creature is Argos?” he deduced.

Raven took another drink of his water. “It’s
certainly possible. After I took Constantine and left Greece I
heard that the town figured out that both of us were vampires.
Maybe he figured out what had happened and blames me for Nina’s
death, not knowing that Constantine had done it to be with her
forever.”

“But how would he have turned into a
vampire?” Hunter asked, confused.

“Not sure,” Raven told him. “Any number of
scenarios apply. If he was tracking me down by my victims, he might
have found one of our victims who converted him along the way.”

Hunter took a moment to let it all sink
in.

“So you see, we have to find Gina before she
tries to face this thing on her own. If she’s attacking it as a
vampire, she is going into the battle half-prepared.”

“And Abi?” Hunter finally asked.

“She’s safe with Constantine,” Raven told
him. “If this creature is Argos, he is not attacking or going after
Constantine’s conquests, only mine.”

“That’s not necessarily true,” Sebastian
pointed out.

“What do you mean?”

“All the victims this thing has targeted are
people who have been the obsession of both of you. It attacked
Abigail in an alley after Constantine had brought her to the bar.
It killed my Sonja, after both of you had taken her in the back
room. It went after Lillith, who has known you both in the carnal
sense.”

Hunter and Raven shared a scared glance.
“That means that Abigail, not Gina, is the one he will go after,”
Hunter decided.

Both he and Raven bolted for the door.

***

Abigail floated somewhere between a dream and
reality, heaven and hell. She felt her body drift along on the
coolest breeze as clouds caressed her skin as she drifted by. Her
body tingled all over, as the most powerful orgasm of her entire
existence slowly ebbed from her body and carried her gently back to
earth.

As her eyelids fluttered open she realized
she still lay on top of the satin bed covers, now soaked with sweat
and blood. She dragged herself up into a sitting position, so weak
from the blood loss but still, inexplicably, alive. She glanced
down at the black and blue marks around the puncture wounds in her
groin. He had obviously meant to take her life but had stopped
short for some reason.

“Constantine,” she called out for him in a
hoarse voice.

“Constantine is unavailable,” a raspy voice
said in return.

Abigail looked up to find the Creature
standing over her, paper-thin skin stretched over ancient bones and
remnants of muscle. It wore tattered old clothing that hung from
its frame like a hanger. Its eyes glowed red like hot coals. She
tried to scream but was way too weak, which only made the Creature
laugh at her. “Save your strength,” it told her. “You will need
it.”

A groan came from another part of the room
and Abi turned to find Constantine tied up in a chair, blood on his
head where he had been struck – probably while feeding on Abi.

She had been too near death to notice.

“Abi,” he mumbled as he tried to gather his
wits.

The Creature went over to where he had
Constantine bound. “Yes, Abi,” it said through yellowed teeth and
long fangs. “Not as pretty as Nina, but she’ll have to do.”

Constantine’s eyes widened. “Who the hell are
you?”

“You’ll see,” the Creature promised.

It tore the silk sheet into strips with its
bony fingers and before Abi could find her strength to dart away it
was pinning her to the bed and tying her wrists to the headboard of
the bed. “Please, no,” she begged.

The Creature merely laughed as it tugged the
knots securely. “What’s the matter, human? I thought you had a
taste for vampires.”

She sobbed quietly as she shook her head.
“Please, I beg you...”

“Yes,” the Creature assured. “You will.”

“You touch her and I will kill you!”
Constantine promised as he struggled against the restraints that
had him bound. It was just a simple rope, he realized. Why couldn’t
he break free?

“You could try,” the Creature told him. “But
you would fail.”

Abi was crying in earnest when the Creature
bound her feet, one to each foot post. She laid spread eagle, naked
and vulnerable for this despicable creature and the only person who
could save her was strapped to a chair.

The Creature ran a fingernail from its claw
of a hand along her skin from her shoulder down over her breasts,
her stomach and then between her legs. She struggled against the
silk ties but still was robbed of all strength from Constantine’s
feeding.

“Why do you fight?” the Creature asked. “I
watched you allow this monster to touch you, to kiss you, to taste
you.” It ran its tongue over sharp teeth.

She screamed as it drew closer to her. “No!
Please! God, no!”

“God?” it mocked. “I am your god now.” It
stood at the foot of the bed and looked at her spread out before
it. “But I understand your reluctance to fuck a real vampire. You
think there’s something more acceptable when we wear a human
suit.”

It walked over to where Constantine fought
against the ropes that bound him. “You want someone who looks like
a man but fucks like a god. Invincible. At least...almost,” it
amended as he dove into Constantine’s neck.

The younger vampire fought and struggled
under the powerful jaws of the Creature as it drained him of all
the blood he’d taken from Abigail. She watched in horror as
Constantine gradually slumped, unconscious in the chair.

She stopped screaming as she watched the
Creature transform right in front of her. Muscle and fat filled out
under skin, as blood brought life to his ancient veins. Skin spread
out and covered gaps over bone, muscle and flesh that seemed to
grow younger and more alive by the second. Gray hair grew out into
a dark brown mane that cascaded in waves over his now flesh and
bones shoulders.

His eyes went from red to brown, and his face
turned youthful and even beautiful – like a statue of a Greek god.
His voice deepened and turned to silk as he gave her a smile full
of white even teeth except for two prominent fangs. “Is this
better?” he asked as he approached her again.

He removed his clothing as he knelt at the
edge of the bed, his cock rigid as it flung free from the fabric
that held it bound, a silent statement of intent on what he fully
intended to do to her.

Despite his less frightening appearance, she
still shook her head and struggled against her restraints as he
moved closer. “No, please!”

He just laughed held himself over her. “Don’t
worry, darling,” he crooned. “It will all be over soon.” He bent
down for a hard kiss against unwilling lips.

“Get away from her, Argos!” a male voice
bellowed from the other side of the room.

Instead of being fearful, the Creature just
smiled as he turned to find Raven standing there with Hunter in the
doorway.

“How cute,” he mocked without moving a hair.
“The vampire and the hunter come to save the damsel in
distress.”

“Hunter!” Abi cried and tried to scoot away
as the Creature used his knees to spread her legs wide. She
screamed as he tried to impale her with his cock with a deliberate,
forceful stroke.

Hunter growled as he flew across the room and
tried to tackle the Creature from where he had mounted Abi. He
broke their embrace, which made Argos turn on him with angry red
eyes. With a roar he reached back and swung at Hunter, his punch
sending him across the room and against the other wall. Hunter slid
down to the floor in a heap.

His eyes still glowed red as he resumed his
position over Abi. “Where were we?”

“Nowhere,” Raven informed, holding a bottle
of water in his hand.

Argos just laughed. “You think that will work
on me?”

Raven just shrugged. “Worth a shot,” he said
and then flung the contents of the water on Argos. His renewed skin
burned like acid under Hunter’s and Gina’s “Vampire-B-Gone”. He
howled with pain as he stumbled off the bed and away from where Abi
sobbed uncontrollably.

“You are no match for me, Raven Crowe,” Argos
vowed.

“We’ll see about that,” Raven told him as he
grabbed another bottle of water from the backpack he held .

Argos just smiled, half of his face exposed
to the bone by the holy water. He turned to Abigail. “Till we meet
again.” He glanced back at Raven. “Because we will.”

And then he exploded in a bloody red mist and
was gone.

Raven ran to the bed and gently untied Abi,
but she was far too traumatized to do anything but weep. Her body
was sore, weak... invaded. She could still feel the Creature’s
claws as they roamed over her like she belonged to him.

This had been far too close a call. She had
been attacked in the place they felt was safe, with the people
meant to protect her.

Everything had changed, and it seemed no one
could save her.

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
Constantine asked Raven as he rubbed his bruised wrists and glared
at Raven. His neck still hurt from the insatiable hunger of Argos
as he drank from him to restore his human appearance, and he still
didn’t know exactly why he couldn’t break free from the ropes that
had held him bound. Only Hunter had been able to set him free –
which meant that whatever Argos was, vampires weren’t really that
much of a threat.

“I told you,” Raven repeated quietly. “I
thought it was best.”

Constantine glanced over to where Abi laid on
the sofa, a cool cloth over her eyes as Hunter stroked her hair.
“Best for whom?”

“Nina was gone,” Raven reasoned. “If we had
stayed – or gone back – we would have been pile of ashes at the end
of a stake just like she was.”