Crimson Sword Stalker Read online

  I knew I was right when I heard outside sounds of automatic fire.

  And to think, ignorant fools say an AR-15 has no place in home defense.

  I slipped between the girls, the werekitties following. We headed toward Kain and Vivian. They were just ahead, engaged in deep conversation. Kain nodded, “I believe an alternative to a human’s-only slayer organization a worthy goal. I must commend you on not letting your hatred of rogue vampires turn you against those of us with honor.”

  “I’m willing to trust any vampire far as I can throw one, which is pretty far.” Vivian smiled with habitual threat while sinking deep in the vampire lord’s charm.

  She’ll be on a shelf in his museum if she’s not careful. Time to break up this budding friendship.

  I said, “Kain, werejackals, remember? Do you think your men might need to be reinforced?”

  He considered. “They ought to be able to put down a bunch of dogs.”

  “Bunch of mangy ill-bred, butt-sniffin’ mutts,” Cleo clarified.

  “With fleas,” Teri added.

  “Never a dog catcher around when you need one,” Dani finished.

  “Demon-dogs?” Red Centipede Rider asked.

  “Not that simple,” I said. “After you kill them, they keep coming as zombies. By all means, let your security deal with them, but I suspect there’s a rogue sorcerer or fey lord behind this that I want to catch.”

  “Could be a her,” Gloria said. “A sorceress or witch.”

  “I don’t care,” I said. “Long as I catch them so Kat and Josh can bring the Pride back to Sacramento. In the absence of their stabilizing power, a territorial war will erupt that could reflect badly on me as the lord and master of the known universe.”

  Kain stared at me. “This might be a good time to impose stability. I could declare Sacramento temporarily closed to vampire incursion, holding the territory out as a prize to win political allies.”

  “Or I could just stake you.” Vivian smiled but not in a good way. “Sacramento has a strong dhampyr community that I wouldn’t want to see encroached upon.”

  Not so much under his charm after all, I decided.

  “The Sacramento wolves would be unhappy with you as well,” I said.

  “We’ll talk about it later,” Kain said. “Let’s have a magic-user hunt. Having a new ghost in my service that can raise the dead might prove valuable.”

  There were more bursts of gunfire outside the mansion.

  “Gotta get past the minions first,” Teri said.

  “Gotta catch him or her,” Cleo added.

  “And watch out for demons. Necromancers always play with demons,” Dani finished. “That’s why they’re so icky.”

  The Rider nodded, face hyper-serious. “Icky death magic and dog-men, got it.”

  I looked around for Selene and saw her raiding the buffet table. I called over to her. “Selene, can you portal the red centipede from the Clan House and bring it here? It might still be hungry.”

  Eating for two, she turned with a loaded plate in her hands. “I’ll drop it off in front.” A short-lived pyre blossomed. A shimmer of crimson stars danced in the blaze and dropped to the floor as she willed herself elsewhere. The pyre died in her absence.

  Vivian settled a sudden glare on me. “Caine, this is your business. If I’m going to help you out, I need to get paid, my usual rates.”

  I couldn’t believe such rampant greed. “Paid! What? You think demon lords are made of money?”

  “She has a point,” Teri said. “We’d be working for free, too.”

  “Fine,” I said. “I’ll put up a valuable prize for whoever takes out the magic-user first.”

  If that’s me, everyone will still wind up working for free and I won’t be out anything.

  I smiled. “I’ll throw in medical care for anyone wounded.”

  One doesn’t let one’s friends bleed to death or they become useless possessions.

  “One minute in your personal armory and I keep whatever I can carry out,” Kain offered.

  “Great idea,” Vivian said. “I’ve seen what he has; top grade stuff.”

  Oh, stabbed in the back!

  I shot her a hard stare. “Hey, I didn’t agree to that!”

  The machine gun fire fell silent.

  Better divert attention from my armory.

  “We’ll talk about later,” I said. “We need to hurry. The zombies will be rising soon.”

  Kain gave me a long look. “You had best not disappoint us.” For a moment, the jovial host façade dropped and I saw into the eyes of an immortal vampire who’d been around since the word was young, a man who was one of the secret rulers of the planet. Hellfire burned in his merciless eyes, then the smiling mask went back on.

  Outside, I heard a few concussion grenades going off as automatic fire resumed.

  Kain took out his phone and made a call. “It’s me. Check the perimeter cameras, look for suspicious vehicles on the cul-de-sac. The attack might be originating from a mobile command center.”

  He waited, listening, then turned to me. “The visible cars all belong in the area.” He put his phone away. “I’ll send out my ghosts to see what they can find.”

  A phantom butler faded in. “My Lord?”

  He spoke to the spirit. “Have the staff sweep the neighborhood. We’re looking for a necromantic presence.”

  “Yes, Sir. Right away.” Gramps faded.

  The Rider strolled up to me. “Hey, Caine, can I go and do some killing now. I’m bored.”

  I glanced at her. “Sure, just don’t get bitten. All I need is a zombie-goddess running amok, too.”

  She kissed me on the cheek. “Thanks for caring.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Vivian said.

  Massive sword balanced over her shoulder, the Rider and her new sidekick strolled off.

  Gloria said something I missed as I watched the pair sashay toward the hallway door.

  “Caine?” Gloria touched my arm.

  I shifted my attention to her. “Yeah?”

  “I asked if she’s really a goddess?”

  “War goddess. She was born in a hell-dimension and has spent most of her life battling monsters and protecting the human-like locals as their legendary warrior-mascot. If she has a weakness, it’s her unsophistication. She kills things. Subtle machinations are out of her wheelhouse.”

  Gloria lowered her voice—as if that was going to give us privacy in a room with shifters and a vampire. “Caine, we haven’t talked about what Kain wants. Are you okay with a political marriage?”

  Though useless, I lowered my voice as well. “I’m out to conquer the multiverse. I can’t fight everybody. I need allies. Marriages of convenience are a necessity going forward. We both know that. Selene and Izumi do, too. What you want to know is, if you and I will be okay together, with a change in our relationship.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  Glancing around, I noticed that nobody else was talking, making a point to look somewhere else—as if they weren’t hanging on every word. Kain already knew what was going on, but this was news to the werekitties. Give it twenty-four hours, and I knew word would spread throughout my harem. The only one out of the loop was going to be Julia, my adopted daughter, and Izumi, my ice queen back in Fairy, now the reigning queen of my Dragon Lands.

  I leaned in and gave Gloria a chaste—unlike me—kiss on the cheek. “Friends forever. One thing though, your son Adrian, the self-proclaimed Master Vampire of L.A., he’s going to have to accept me as a permanent fixture in your life. And he’s going to hate the idea that I stand above him in vampire hierarchy; and I’m not even a vampire. He’s bound to go wild and provoke me to some kind of duel in a misguided attempt to save you from my bed.”

  I could see Kain and the werekitties nodding their heads in silent agreement.

  I heard more gunfire and the savage battle scream of an enraged centipede and knew the Red Centipede Rider was on the job.

  I said
, “It’s too bad Kain can’t find some foreign diplomatic mission for him. If he thinks his talents are finally catching notice, Adriene might miss a lot of what’s flying below the radar. But we’ll want the engagement ball sooner rather than later, with the actual ceremony close behind. Whoever Adriene’s is sent to negotiate with should be in the loop, knowing the need to keep him diverted until it’s way too late to object and get himself killed—permanently.”

  “You’ve put some thought into this,” Gloria said.

  I shrugged. “The Old Man told me long ago I’d need you if I had any chance of aligning with the ‘blood-sucking fiends’, his words, not mine.”

  “When will the Old Man get back from his honeymoon with your Cousin Kinsey?” Gloria asked.

  “Well, I’m not sure if he’s had sex in the last two-thousand years so…”

  “So, we may have to send him a message if we expect him at the wedding. It wouldn’t look convincing if we got married and he wasn’t there. Besides, I’ve always liked the Old Man. He’s the only one Kain is half afraid of.”

  Kain murmured to himself. My dragon hearing caught it all. “Not afraid, just cautious. The demon lord sank Atlantis in his callow youth. And that city-wide spell that saved L.A. from the tidal wave—beautifully executed.”

  It was my necromantically powered spell. Gloria had helped me with it, but I wasn’t going to claim credit; too many bodies had volunteered their souls to power it. And I wasn’t done with my private conversation yet.

  “Gloria.” I stared deep into her eyes despite the greater allure of her cheerleader figure and oversized tits.

  “Yes, Caine?”

  “You do realize that you will be asked about my performance after we comeback from our own supposed honeymoon. I can’t imagine that the lady vamps aren’t going to want confirmation of my celebrated sexual prowess.”

  “You say this because you don’t know if I can lie convincingly to vampires that can hear my heartbeat.”

  “Right. You can simply not answer, but then, someone might start rumors that the relationship isn’t valid since it hasn’t been consummated. That would work against the stability of your powerbase.”

  Her red eyes grew brighter. She smiled, baring fangs. “You can’t fool me, Caine. You’re just wondering if you’re going to get some.”

  The werekitties nod agreement.

  Everyone thinks they know me.

  “Hey!” I protested. “You can’t say these aren’t legitimate concerns.”

  Kain nodded to that.

  Gloria dropped her smile. “Caine, without a doubt, I know whenever you make a point of not string at my tits or ass, that’s all you want. I’ve known you too many years to be fooled.”

  “Which is why this plan will work,” Kain said.

  A hazy grey cloud solidified next to him, one of his ghosts. The spirit spoke, bowed, and faded. Kain turned to us and smiled the way a wolf does seeing a family of cute little bunnies hopping out from cover. “The stench of death is heavy over one of the neighboring estates. My ghost tried to investigate further, but a spiritual barrier has been erected to keep out visitors.”

  I smiled. “In other words, we’ve pinned the tail to the mastermind. What’s the address?”

  “Not so fast,” Kain said. “You haven’t named the prize yet for whoever gets the necromancer first. You know what I want.”

  I paused, wincing, displaying the supposed agony of my sacrifice. The truth was; I could always move out all my weapons before giving anyone unfettered access to my arsenal. “Fine.” I all but growled the word. “One-minute access to my arsenal, and they can keep whatever they can carry out in their two hands.”

  “Swear it on your life,” Kain said. “Swear it on our common soul.”

  “No,” Gloria said. “Have him swear by something he values; his vain-glorious cock.”

  Aghast, cut to the quick, betrayed with a double-twist of the knife, I gaped at her. “Gloria!”

  Her flaming eyes narrowed. “Like I said. I know you. Swear by your third leg. And no tricks. The weapons have to be in the arsenal to start with, you fey-smelling son of a dragon.”

  I lifted a trembling hand and glared back. “I swear as High King of Fairy to honor my word or deliver a severed pound of select penis.”

  “Your own flesh,” Dani said. “Not sausage from the deli.”

  I shot her a cold, killing stare. “Et tu, Bitch?”

  She hopped behind Teri for cover.

  Cleo waved fingertips at me, a get-on-with-it gesture.

  “Good point,” Gloria said.

  Damn it! They’re treating me likesome weasel-wording fey!

  “Torn from my own body,” I promised.

  The shivery sound of mission bells pealed over the estate, the magic of Fairy bearing witness to her king’s given word.

  “Now give me that damned address. I’ve gotta kill something now and get it out of my system or I’ll be anger-fucking a lot of people over the next few months.”

  I shot my werekitties a glance that let them know who I had in mind.

  They didn’t look worried.

  SEVEN

  “A sword has one purpose; bringing out what’s

  inside a person, usually in a spray of blood.”

  —Caine Deathwalker

  Time to remind everyone who the general is.

  “Listen up,” I yelled. “Gloria, werekitties, go down and hook up with whatever guards can be spared. Fight your way to the neighboring mansion, but not too fast. Keep the eyes of necromancer on you. Let the Rider and her centipede nail down the zombie incursion here.” I swung my stare to our host. “Kain!”

  He gave me a mock-serious salute that made me want to stab him.

  “To the roof,” I said.

  He lifted an eyebrow for an explanation.

  “I’m going to turn dragon. We’re going to swoop down on the estate. We might not catch the bad guy unaware, but we should get there fast enough to limit his responses.”

  He turned all smiles. “I’ve always wanted to ride a dragon.”

  Gloria and the werekitties hurried toward the hall. Kain and I followed, our footfalls loud as we ran.

  I continued with Kain. “No saddle. You better be able to hang on tight.”

  “About that,” he said. “I just happen to have a fine mole-skin saddle that ought to fit you.”

  I gave him a savage grin. “I’ve recently had a massive growing spurt. Whatever dragon-riding saddle you’ve got squirreled away isn’t going to fit. Tough luck.” My inner child bubbled over.

  Hee-hee-hee!

  “I should have been told!” he said.

  He got to the hall door, catching it before it swung shut. He held it open for me, ever courteous. I went through. He followed. The girls were on the stairs, going down. We diverged from them, rounding the corner to the other wing, heading for the security tower which would give us roof access.

  “Told?” I said. “You had ghosts in Sacramento taking pictures.”

  He caught up to me and kept pace. “I haven’t looked at them yet.”

  “I may want copies.”

  We saved our breath for running. At the tower, we caught the elevator and headed up to the monitor room. One of the inside guards opened the door for us. I noticed Kain expected it; he never slowed or hesitated.

  Man’s got good help.

  He ignored the roof door to swing past the monitors, leaning over one of the vamp guards. “Show me the front of the estate.” The images flickered. The screens caught multiple views: the front door, the drive, and the gate at the street. I counted a good forty werejackal zombies. They lurched around like a movie scene in progress, too fresh to have gone blind yet from not being able to blink and keep their eyes moist.

  Vamps stayed on the flanks of the attackers, picking them off with automatic fire, concentrating on head shots.

  Having a hell of a happy time, the Red Centipede Rider guided her undulating beast right through the zombies. Th
e centipede bit them in half, swallowing large chunks of carrion. Its legs were razor-sharp swords, mincing those that didn’t go down its maw. The giant insect had all the finesse of a chainsaw.

  Kain stared at the carnage and the monster bug. “I’ve got to get me one of those.”

  “The girls should have no problem getting out,” I said.

  “Right. Let’s go.” Kain hurried past me, his sword still in his hand.

  “Don’t you need a sheath for that while we’re flying?” I asked.

  He threw a smile at me. “I’ll manage.”

  I followed him outside. We ran to the area over the foyer where I had maximum space for my dragon to stretch out. The change went fast. I still couldn’t get used to the absence of pain in the shift—not that I minded. Kain dwindled in front of me as I expanded.

  He stared, greed in his eyes, like I needed to be in his personal petting zoo.

  My emerged dragon stared back, like this was a tasty morsel that only needed ketchup and flame broiling.

  My Villager-self stood in darkness, in my dragon’s mind—staring at a giant movie screen I’d summoned by thought. That screen reflected everything my dragon saw. I mentally added surround-sound speakers.

  Perfect.

  Before lowering his throat into sword-range, my dragon held out a scaly paw, a silent demand for the sword.

  Kain hesitated to disarm himself but finally passed the blade over; the prospect of a dragon ride too irresistible.

  My front right claw gripped the sword but not tight enough to bleed myself. My knees grounded on the roof, I stretched out my long neck. I left it to his judgment to find a comfortable place to sit. He chose my spine, at the base of my neck, and used his legs to anchor himself. I felt his hands gripping the edges of two large scales—gingerly—my scale edges were like swords.

  “Set!” he bellowed.

  I beat wings, building up speed, rushing toward the front edge of the roof. I sensed my dragon grinning.

  What? I asked.