Blood Tally

Chapter 7

It was after ten at night, but the Valkyrie parking was still lit by a dozen overhead lights. There were two cars present as I pulled in. One was the familiar Crown Vic with Security written down the side that belonged to our rent-a-cop, Ted. Ted raised an eyebrow to me, glancing significantly toward the Camry parked over in the corner. Boris leaned against the Camry, wearing a scowl. I sighed and waved Ted off, throwing my truck in park and stepping out with a word of greeting on my lips as Boris flicked his cigarette away and approached.

The word of greeting never got out. I blinked once and Boris was halfway across the parking lot. I blinked again and he was looming large in my vision, red lips snarling, teeth jutting. I felt something connect with my jaw and my head snapped back, everything exploding in a cascade of stars. Another fist connected with my stomach once, then a second time.

Everything happened so fast that I didn’t have even any time to react. Blindly, I managed to catch another punch and wrenched hard, jerking Boris around and throwing him against the side of my truck. I could barely think, let alone speak, but I managed to get out, “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

I’m a strong guy. With my blood up, I’m worth three normal humans. Boris, however, was something beyond me. He shoved against my truck, pushing us both back and away and spun out of my grip. He retreated to a half dozen paces and lifted his fists like a boxer, baring his teeth. I licked my lips, tasting blood, only now feeling the pain of my tusks jutting out through my gums. I spat out blood on the concrete and snarled at him. I was hurt and I was angry, and I could feel that red mist descending over my vision. It took a concentrated effort not to use the power of my tattoos – it wouldn’t look good to kill a client, after all.

Boris took advantage of my hesitation. He darted in, smashing fists against my stomach and ribs at an astonishing speed, snatching the breath out of me. I tried grabbing for his arms, but he didn’t fall for that again. He was suddenly up close, snatching me by my shirt and baring those damned fangs again. He snapped at my neck. I felt his hot breath, then the needlelike jabs just above my collarbone.

Fuck that, Maggie suddenly said. I felt something hot flare from my right hand and, in a moment of clarity, I slapped Boris in the back of the head. The world exploded once again, this time in a fire that hurled me backward, head over heels, slamming against my own truck. Boris and I were separated, and I didn’t even waste time to breathe before I was scrambling to my feet, looking everywhere for him.

He’d landed a couple dozen feet away and was writhing in pain, slapping at the flames still smoldering on the back of his head. Despite the hit Maggie had given him, he managed to get the fire out and stand. Though most of his hair and the skin on the back of his head was missing, he looked more angry than in pain. I reached for my endless wallet again, wondering if silver bullets would even put this guy down, when there was a loud bang and Boris jerked sideways. He howled, turning to his left, where Ted the rent-a-cop now stood outside his cruiser with a romance novel lying on the hood and an automatic shotgun held to his shoulder.

“You so much as twitch toward me with those teeth,” Ted warned, “and I’ll switch from rubber bullets to silver ones.”

Boris stiffened up but didn’t move. I let out a long sigh of relief and took a long walk around the perimeter of the parking lot to cool myself down. By the time I got back to stand beside Ted, the red mist was gone and I’d managed to retract my tusks.

“Thanks,” I told him.

“No problem. You want me to put this fucker down?”

“He’s a client, unfortunately.”

“No kidding?” Ted didn’t sound impressed. “Since when does Ada allow this kind of bullshit from a client?”

I didn’t answer, walking gingerly over to where Boris stood, still looking furious but with his hands held slightly out front. He must have gotten that preternatural sense that Ted wasn’t quite human, because he didn’t seem ready to test Ted’s resolve. Boris glared at me, then glared at my ring.

Hope you didn’t give yourself away there, I told Maggie.

Me too. But hell if I was gonna let him bite you, even if he wasn’t biting to kill.

He wasn’t?

Don’t think so. Not even he is that stupid. He is incredibly powerful, though. That blast I gave him should have taken his head off.

“You want to explain yourself?” I asked him.

He snorted and touched the burnt crispiness that used to be the back of his skull. “You stole my property.”

“I don’t have the slightest idea what you’re talking about,” I retorted. Eddie, I swore to Maggie. I resisted the urge to glance toward my truck where, as far as I knew, Eddie was still snoring away.

“You came to my lair without permission. You tricked my thrall into letting you have access to my inner sanctum. Then, just to insult me, you allowed the sphinx to go free.”

I looked briefly toward Ted. I wasn’t sure if he could hear us. I wasn’t sure if he really cared what we said, but he was still eyeballing Boris as if he wanted to put a silver bullet in his head. “You have a sphinx?” I asked, feigning ignorance, “because I understand that they’re rare – and they’re very expensive.”

“That little shit cost me two hundred thousand dollars. You will find him and return him, or I will …”

“You will what?” I cut him off. “Try to kill me? Because you better believe this attack is going in your file, and if I wind up dead you’re going to have an OtherOps sweeper team kick in your front door, and I don’t think Sam is gonna do much to protect you.” I could feel myself getting angrier as I spoke, my voice rising. “And go ahead and report the missing sphinx to OtherOps. You know that keeping an intelligent Other captive is against the Rules, right? Are you that dumb?” I shook my head, continuing before he could retort. “No, you’re going to write the whole thing off. I’m going to pretend to my boss that this wasn’t as big of a deal as it sounds, and you’re going to never, ever accuse me of stealing from a client again. Or next time, I will take your fucking head off. You understand?”

He glanced warily at Maggie’s ring. He might or might not have guessed what was in it, but he certainly knew where the sorcery had come from. “Fucking rockskin.”

“There’s the Boris I know. Angry slurs. Unhelpful and shitty. Ted, thanks for the help, but you can go. I think we’ve got an understanding.” Behind me, Ted yawned loudly and got back into his cruiser. I didn’t take my eyes off Boris, watching for any sign that he might try for me again. I said, “Look, I don’t really give a shit what’s considered ‘rude’ in vampire culture. I went to your house to talk to your thralls because you’ve been expecting me to do this job without any information whatsoever. If you don’t want Michael found” – I spread my hands – “then feel free to fire me right now. I don’t give a shit.”

Boris stared at the ground. He’d gone from furious to sulking. It wasn’t a pretty picture, and for a moment I could imagine Dracula weeping into Maggie’s arms. Without looking up at me, he said, “An example must be made.”

“Oh, I get it. But I’m not one of your thralls. I’m a goddamned professional. You punch me and I punch back.”

Am I getting through to him at all? I asked Maggie.

Hell if I know.

“How much?” Boris suddenly asked.

“How much for what?” I asked, taken aback.

He glanced toward Ted’s cruiser, then at me. “You find Michael, you kill him.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“He has … stolen property from me. Valuable books.”

I felt my head jerk back. “What, like grimoires?”

Boris hesitated for a moment, choosing his words. “Do you know of the blood tally?”

I shook my head.

“It’s a collection of documents. Very valuable,” he said. “And an example must be made. Kill him and return the books to me, and I’ll pay you an extra four hundred dollars.”

“A junior reaper makes that in an afternoon,” I told him. My veins had gone cold. Under normal circumstances, Boris’s attack on me would allow me to void the contract without even asking Ada. Under normal circumstances, I could call OtherOps right now and report this whole conversation and have Boris locked up. But I already knew that Jacques wasn’t going to care two cents about this. In fact, this only proved his point that Boris was dangerous. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t ask me that. Get the fuck out of here.”

Without waiting for an answer, I returned to my truck and sat behind the wheel. “You still in here?” I asked out loud.

A few moments passed, then a timid voice came from beneath the bench seat. “Is he gone?”

“He’s leaving,” I said, watching Boris. The vampire stared at the concrete for a minute or two, then finally walked over to his Camry and left, avoiding my gaze as he pulled out of the parking lot. Another minute passed, and then a fluffy head poked out from underneath the passenger seat. “He’s gone,” I confirmed. Eddie slid out of his hiding spot and jumped onto the passenger seat, sitting regal and straight-backed, head high as if he hadn’t been hiding a moment ago. He blinked slowly at me, then began to groom himself.

When no thank-you was forthcoming, I just shook my head and resisted the urge to make a comment to Maggie. Eddie could hear us, after all. I sank into my seat, the adrenaline finally wearing off, letting myself feel all the little aches and pains from being manhandled by a vampire and then tossed across the parking lot by Maggie’s sorcery. The only reason I wasn’t more beat up was because of my troll heritage.

I realized I should check my truck for dents but dismissed the thought. I didn’t want to know.

“I think he cracked one of my ribs. You know, the one that was just starting to heal from that damned ghoul.”

Breathe in deep, Maggie instructed.

I did so, feeling a sharp pain down my left side. “Maybe?”

Just bruised.

I touched my neck, searching for the source of the blood trickling down my chest. Boris had managed to get me pretty deep before Maggie tagged him, but he’d missed my jugular. Probably what Maggie meant when she said he wasn’t biting to kill. I found an old T-shirt under the seat and pressed it against the wound, then searched my face and arms in the rearview mirror for more scrapes and scratches. All told I had seven or eight, and my chest and stomach were going to look like I got kicked by a horse later in the week.

My head cleared enough to think about what Boris had actually told me. Michael has stolen something valuable from him, and it explained Sam’s story about Michael’s disappearance. Boris must have initially written it off as a normal runaway. It wasn’t until after he discovered this blood tally missing that he got truly pissed. I dug the phone out of my pocket and dialed a number. “Jacques, it’s Alek,” I said when he answered.

“Yes?”

“Boris just tried to hire me to kill Michael. Is that good enough evidence for your needs?”

There was a long pause. “I see. Unsurprising, though I suppose that proves that he hasn’t killed him himself yet.”

“Well?”

“No. Unfortunately, that’s not enough for us to act against him. We need proof of him breaking the Rules.”

“Isn’t that conspiracy to murder?”

“In the human world, yes. Among our kind … well, it’s just wishful thinking.”

“Of course it is.” I closed my eyes, pressing the old T-shirt harder against my neck. I took a few calming breaths, then said, “He claims that Michael stole something called a blood tally. What is that?”

Jacques inhaled sharply. “You’re sure that’s what he called it?”

“Yeah.”

“I see.” There was a long, thoughtful pause. “Every vampire has a blood tally. It is a collection of documents outlining every debt owed to and from the vampire, and all past payments. It’ll contain everything from their bloodbags to interactions with other vampires. It’s not necessarily valuable to anyone but the vampire himself, but …” He trailed off. “When you find Michael, bring me Boris’s blood tally.”

“That’s theft,” I pointed out. “I’m not going to steal from a client.”

Jacques’s voice was clipped, professional. “The blood tally may give us evidence that we need to act against him. Bring it to me and I’ll pay you sixty thousand dollars in cash.”

“Oh.” Plenty of people have tried to bribe me. Mostly debtors, but the occasional client. But never for that much money.

“Do we have an agreement?”

“I … uh …”

“Good. Keep up the good work, Agent Fitz.” Jacques hung up.

“Nobody ever says goodbye anymore,” I muttered. I blinked at my steering wheel, then glanced over toward Ted’s cruiser. Ted was back to reading his romance novel. “That was weird,” I told Maggie.

That was beyond weird. You’ve got some wonky shit going on here, Alek.

“Yeah …” I chewed on that for a moment. Sixty thousand dollars was a lot of money. Especially to someone like me, who lives on the bare minimum income afforded to me by my master. Tossing my phone next to Eddie, I gave him a scratch. “I hope you’re worth it, bud.” Eddie shifted around, leaning into my scratching hand but continuing to groom himself. I leaned forward to turn up the radio, whistling along with Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” and headed home.

I live in a run-down old servant’s quarters off one of the big estates in Gates Mills. It’s not much – just a bungalow that belonged to one of Ada’s rich friends – but it was a place to lay my head between jobs. I walked in, leaving the door open behind me so Eddie could follow. He entered hesitantly, slowly, the cat equivalent of a scowl on his face. He kept that look on his face as he did a circuit of the small house, spending a few minutes examining each room until he returned to the front door where I had waited, watching him during his exploration.

“This is not a very big temple.”

“Sorry,” I spread my hands. “It’s all I’ve got.”

“A small temple is easier to guard, I suppose. And I have to admit, the locale is stunning.” He padded over to the window and jumped into the sill, looking out into the deep darkness of the forest outside. “I miss the desert, but these forests are so full of life. I will enjoy exploring. I can sense a river nearby?”

“Yep.”

“Excellent. I shall fish when you are gone too long.” He settled on the sill, fluttering his wings before folding them back along his sides and starting to groom one leg, pausing only to say, “I shall consecrate this as my temple tonight.”

“If you pee on anything, I’m taking you back to Boris.”

Eddie lifted his head, glaring at me. He seemed about ready to snap back when my phone rang. It was a restricted number. I almost didn’t answer it, but I knew I had plenty of informants with unlisted contact information, so I took a deep sigh and answered. “This is Alek Fitz.”

“Hi Alek,” a male voice said.

Is that who I think it is? Maggie asked.

Hell if I know. “Hello? Who am I speaking to?”

“It’s Nick.”

“Nick … ?”

“Nick Dempkin.”

“Doesn’t ring a bell.”

The man on the other end made an exasperated sound. “Nick the Necromancer.”

Fucking hell, Maggie groaned.

“Nick, aren’t you in prison?”

“I am.”

I looked at the clock on my phone. “What are you doing making a call at this hour?”

“Never mind about that,” he said. “I’ve only got thirty seconds. You need to come see me tomorrow at the OtherOps prison in Medina. Visiting hours are between ten and two. Be there at ten.”

I rubbed my eyes with one hand. “Nick, I don’t have time to drive down to Medina tomorrow. What the hell is this about?” I did have time, actually. But I didn’t want to deal with his shit. He’d tried to kill me, after all. I could feel Maggie fuming in her ring, the very sound of Nick’s voice setting her off.

Should have let me kill him when I had the chance, she grunted.

Nick said, “Kimberly Donavon is dead. That means that the spell keeping me from talking about why she hired me is gone, which means that I can make a deal with OtherOps now. I’m either going to talk to them, or I’m going to talk to you. Make the choice. I’m out of time.” He hung up.

I stared at my phone. “Seriously. No goodbyes. You okay, Mags?”

She was silent for a few moments. I could feel her sudden trepidation. This is bad.

“Should I call Justin and confirm that Kimberly is dead?”

No, Nick was telling the truth. We need to shut him up, and do it fast.

I nodded. I guess I was driving to the prison in the morning. I had no idea what I could offer Nick that OtherOps couldn’t, but I had better find out quickly.