Chapter Twenty-Two

The closer we got to my place, the more space I put between us emotionally. I needed to be ready for battle, despite still being able to feel Carma’s fingerprints all over my body.

She glanced over at me then reached over and squeezed my thigh. “What do you need? Me to come with you or to just drop you off?”

I pressed my lips together, resisting the urge to pick up her hand. “If I say drop off—”

“Then I’ll drop you off.” She stopped in front of the building. “Call me later?”

“Promise.” I leapt out of the car and took off running, shoving down the guilt of not giving her a proper goodbye.

When I ripped open the front door, Reggie and his crush, Clint, were pacing in front of the staircase. “Jake’s here, getting Sydney.”

I looked up at the sound of work boots and a cane hitting the stairs. Jake. Our gazes met, and I knew our fight was over for now. He slipped me my piece as he reached the landing, then we moved simultaneously to the Andrews’s door. A group of ghosts had gathered, and we walked through them.

Sebastian materialized as I used my key to let us in. “Hurry.”

“Amber? George?” Jake called.

“Patio!” Sebastian directed.

The apartments on the main floor had patios that led to a common lawn area, which was surrounded by a four-foot fence, or at least it used to be. A section of the wooden planks had been smashed to the ground. My steps faltered at the sight of Belphegor launching a vampire into an intact section of the fence, before he rushed and scooped up another one racing toward us and did the same thing.

“Took you long enough!” he grunted.

Jake and I leveled our guns at the attackers. “Try to keep them alive for questioning!” Jake ordered.

“Don’t think you’ll get far. These motherfuckers are feral!”

My partner shot me a look. Feral? Feral vampires were rare, since vampires were usually made with intent, but it would explain several of the most recent attacks. Sometimes, if a vampire changed without a guide to help them through the transition, their animal urges took over. It took serious work to tame a feral creature.

“Shoot if one gets too close,” I told Jake as I side-stepped toward Amber and George, who were hunched in wicker chairs. Amber pressed a half-finished sweater with knitting needles still attached against George’s neck. The yarn was covered in blood.

With a roar, Belphegor threw the female vampire down and put her in a chokehold. “How’s George?” he called. The vampire tried to push him off, but he tightened his grip.

I gently brushed Amber aside and inspected George’s neck. Two puncture wounds. “Seb?”

“Here!” He appeared next to me.

“Go see if you can find puncture wounds on the new vamps.”

He disappeared. I replaced the ruined pillowcase against George’s neck and held it firmly trying to slow the bleeding, ignoring his grumbling. “Got a single bite, right side of neck,” I called. “Still bleeding, which is a good sign.” If it was still bleeding, it meant we might be able to counteract the venom in time.

The male vampire charged us again and Jake didn’t hesitate to shoot his leg. He didn’t slow down. “Don’t make me kill you!” Jake warned.

The vamp didn’t care. In the light of the patio string lights and nearly full moon, I could see his crazed stare and dried blood on his lips. The vamp didn’t slow. Jake hit him hard with his cane, trying to redirect him as I palmed my cell in one hand and my gun in the other.

As soon as dispatch picked up, I rattled off the info. “Agent Summers. I need medics for vampire attack. We have multiple ferals…”

I tucked the phone between my ear and shoulder and watched the vamp launch himself at my partner, grabbing his waist and taking him to the ground. Not on my watch. With two precise shots in the head from my gun, the vampire slumped to the ground.

Jake stood with a groan and wiped blood and goo from his face with this shirt then looked back at me, face unreadable. The second vamp screamed at the sight of her partner, then tried to fight her way out of Belphegor’s arms.

“Jake! Get out of there.” If she broke Belphegor’s grip, there was no doubt she’d try to rip my partner’s throat out.

Sebastian appeared at my side. “Neither have puncture wounds.”

“Of course they don’t. Because why would this be easy?”

Realizing she was losing the fight, the vamp opened her mouth and bit the demon’s arm. He roared loud enough to cover my shout. Demon blood was poisonous to vampires.

I threw my hands up in the air. “Who made you?” I cried, running over and grabbing the vamp by the shoulders. Her mouth dripped with black blood, her eyes already rolling into the back of her head. “Who made you?” I asked again, shaking her.

It was too late. She went limp and slumped to the side.

I shook my head and stood, my brain trying to piece it all together. Belphegor laid her down gently on the grass, then hoisted himself up and moved toward George. “Prognosis?”

Jake stared at us for a beat before answering, his face blank. “We’ll take him to headquarters and do a blood transfusion. They’ll probably keep him for a few days to monitor, but the sooner the transfusion happens after a bite, the more successful we are at eradicating vampire venom.”

The demon nodded and, strangely, looked relieved. “Good, good. When Amber summoned me, I thought she was playing a prank.” Red eyes stared into mine. “You told you me you had it under control.”

“I told you we’re working on it,” I snapped.

“Work faster.” He shook his arm, which had healed on its own. “Or we’ll come work on it for you.”

“Quiet!” Jake ordered. “Stressing a body out just makes the virus in the venom work faster.”

Belphegor went to sit with George and Amber, taking over care of George. Jake and I laid out the vampires, taking pictures of them and the scene. As soon as the SHAP medics arrived, Belphegor departed before he “was attacked by another crazy townie.”

I helped Amber pack an overnight bag for her and George while the SHAP agents loaded the dead vampires into a van. We watched them drive away, then locked up their apartment. How strange that nothing except the bloody sweater, which Amber took with her, was out of place.

We pushed through concerned neighbors, headed by Doris of course, and ghosts crowded into the hallway. “A stray dog got into the apartment,” Jake explained, “and it bit George.”

“He’s staying at the hospital overnight as a precaution, but he and Amber are in good spirits,” I added.

The regular humans filed off in a cloud of murmurs, while the SHAP set heard the real story from Sebastian. My phone vibrated before I even hit the first stair.

“Hi, Dad.”

“Vamps had IDs. Thinner members.”

I looked at Jake and mouthed vamps from Thinner. His eyes went wide.

“Demon?”

Shit. I purposefully didn’t put my interactions with Belphegor in reports for this exact reason. “Hold on.”

Jake moved around me, jaw tight, and opened my door. We went through, and I kicked it closed before putting my phone on speaker. “Okay. Yes, a demon. He wasn’t a threat.”

“Demons go against—”

“Ordinance 37B, I’m aware. But we were dealing with two feral vamps, and he was on our side.”

“He wasn’t apprehended.”

“Because he’s not a threat.” I shot Jake a frustrated glance. “We were concentrating on the vamps.” Demon? I mouthed at him. I certainly hadn’t mentioned it. Had George or Amber?

“International is going to ask questions about why there was a demon attacking humans alongside two feral vampires.”

“He wasn’t attacking the humans; he was attacking the vampires.” My god, was I actually defending Belphegor?

Jake held my gaze for a long moment. “If we report that the vampires trace back to Thinner and that there was a demon fighting with them, then we’d have enough to issue a cease-and-desist order until we get answers. Then we can work to clear Belphegor’s name.”

He was right, of course. Demons were considered “heavy weights” in a supernatural case because of their power and temperament. Ultimately, this would probably be no more than a blip on Belphegor’s radar. With his help, we’d be able to shut down all Thinner operations until we found the answers we needed.

So then why did I feel like my chest was caving in at the thought of this all ending?

Cease and desist orders were hard to get, since they exposed SHAP legally and literally. When humans were involved, the orders had to be supported by the human police, too. They were only used in circumstances where unexplained supernatural events escalated at an uncontrollable rate.

“Forty-eight hours, tops,” Dad promised.

“Roger,” Jake replied.

I stared at my phone as the screen went black. Forty-eight hours, tops. Why wasn’t I happy this was almost over? Why was the looming deadline pressing on my chest and making it hard to breathe?

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Nothing. Just, a lot happened today.”

He looked me over, finally taking in the clothes that were clearly not mine. I crossed my arms in return, afraid he could see right through me to where Carma’s lip prints lingered under my skin. “Where were you?”

“Helping Carma and her friends finish the gift bags for tomorrow night.”

He didn’t respond for a long moment. I held my breath so I didn’t fidget under his gaze. “Do I need to be worried?”

“It’ll all be over in forty-eight hours.”

His eyes narrowed. “I’m going home. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He opened the door and then paused. “You’d tell me, if there was something I needed to know?”

I dropped my arms. “You’re my partner.” It wasn’t really a yes.

He closed the door behind him, and I stared after him, guilt pulsing through me. I was in over my head and I wasn’t sure how I was going to keep it all together. I just needed to get through tomorrow, then I’d figure it out.