Twice Cursed (37 page)

Sean just stared at her, giving
nothing away.

“
You mean angels and
demons, right?” she asked, looking from one to the
other.

Jack shook his head slowly. “How did
you work that out so quickly, or is it a psychic thing?”

Sean didn’t give her the chance to
answer. “Did Terry say something to you about this before she moved
on?”

The question took her by surprise, and
her satisfaction at solving the riddle evaporated. “No, of course
not. Why would you think that?” Her eyes searched his, trying to
get a bead on where he was headed. “The reason Terry was here, had
everything to do with helping me get over…well, me. You know that.
It had nothing to do with supes and their interrelationships. If
she earned angelic brownie points, or was downgraded to demon for
breaking some spiritual protocol, I haven’t a clue. You were there,
she didn’t exactly say much once she went into the
light.”

Concern flooded her, and she shifted
her body to the side, to eye Sean straight on. “Why are you asking
this? Are you hoping to intimidate the vampires with the threat of
a celestial sword?”

“
Don’t be that way, Lily.
It was a legitimate question,” Jack shot back in Sean’s defense.
“You’re the only frame of reference we have, when it comes to
contact with other planes of existence. It’s not like we can walk
and talk with the dead. You’re the one that’s tuned into that
channel.”

“
I’m not tuned in! It’s not
like I can control it or anything. It just happens.”

“
Okay, enough. This is why
I didn’t want to get into this. Yes, vampires are afraid of both
angels and demons, for much the same reason. Neither can be
controlled, and they are untouchable. It’s been that way since God
said,
‘Let there be light.’

“
Angels aren’t exactly the
benevolent creatures history paints them to be. They are warlike,
hence why they are referred to as legion. It has as much to do with
their nature as their number.

“
Demons, on the other hand,
are exactly as they are depicted. The only difference between the
two, is that angels do aim for the greater good, although they
don’t always see things the way we do. Demons love to play ‘let’s
make a deal’, but no matter how you slice it, you always end up
owing them something, and they love nothing more than to take their
pound of flesh. Literally.”

“
And I suppose they don’t
care if the flesh is living or dead, right?” Lily asked.

“
Yup.”

“
Great. This evening just
keeps getting better and better. Can we go home, yet?” She sighed,
slumping against the soft damask of her seat.

Sean clasped her fingers in his,
bringing them to his lips. “Nope.”

Jack leaned his elbows on the table
and crossed both arms “It’s settled then. Since we’re forced to
wait, let’s get another round and shake this off. I know you only
said one round, Sean, but this one is medicinal.” He snorted.
“There isn’t anything we can do at this point to trace the
telepathic threat you both felt, and since Terry isn’t likely to
swoop down in a blaze of celestial kickass, who cares if harp music
leaves the vamps shaking in their shoes? The tables inside seem to
be clearing out, so dinner must be coming to a close. At least up
here, anyway.”

“
Jack…”

“
You just love saying my
name, don’t you Sweetheart?” he asked, sucking the beer soaked lime
from his bottle, and holding it between his teeth. “Better keep an
eye on this one, Sean. I think she likes me.”

Laughing quietly, Sean raised one
finger to signal for the waitress, then, slid his gaze sideways
toward Lily. “What is it you always say, babe?

A slow smirk slanted across her mouth.
“In your dreams, wolfboy.”

Chapter Fifteen

***

“
I think it’s finally show
time, people.” Sean’s gaze tracked past Jack’s shoulder to an
extremely thin, extremely pale beauty walking across the bar in
their direction.

“
About time. I can’t make
myself swallow any more of these wood chips,” Jack replied,
smacking his lips like he’d just eaten dirt.

Lily gave him a smile with her lips
closed. She was usually the restless one, and though they had only
been waiting an hour, Jack was right, however silly his comment.
Waiting around like this sucked, especially considering what lay in
the balance.

Her eyes darted past his shoulder as
well, and her smile faded. After the maître d’ thing, there was no
doubt in her mind which side of the coffin this chick preferred.
The woman fast approaching was undeniably a vampire, and from her
carriage and demeanor, one of some age and importance.

Not sure what to expect,
Lily uncrossed her legs beneath the table and set both feet on the
floor, scooting herself back in her seat, muscles tensed for
anything. “Something evil
definitely
this way comes,” she
murmured, catching Jack’s eyes.

The vampire was
sophisticated, to say the least. From the top of her coiffed head
to the bottom of her 1940s-style sling back heels, she was an
undead version of Jackie Kennedy. In this instance, claiming the
‘Devil wears Prada’ wasn’t too far of a stretch, except this devil
was dressed in a vintage Chanel. The pale woman carried herself
with grace, but beneath the classic elegance was an underlying
current of
‘don’t fuck with me or I’ll eat
you.’

She stopped just a foot short of their
table, her eyes assessing them without as much as a blink. “Mr.
Leighton?” she inquired, though her mien indicated she knew exactly
who was who.

“
Yes, and who might you
be?” Sean replied, his answer polite but wary.

The woman raised a perfectly arched
eyebrow, hesitating as if weighing whether or not to answer the
question. “Abigail,” she replied with a quick nod, her gaze clearly
reassessing Sean’s standing. “I’ve been asked to escort you
downstairs.”

Sean glanced quickly at
both Jack and Lily, but the vampire raised a manicured hand before
he could say a word. “My apologies.” She smiled sparingly. “What I
meant, is you have
all
been summoned. If you will follow me, the counsel awaits you
downstairs.”

Her voice may have flowed like silk,
but Lily’s senses perked up at the tacit trace of resentment hidden
beneath her courteous manner. Undoubtedly, she took exception to
being told to go fetch.

Steady but still wary, Sean nodded,
and the three of them pushed up from their seats to follow her
toward the door. The vampire smelled honey sweet, and her tone as
she made small talk was both dulcet and intoxicating.

Lily hung back, her attentions divided
between watching the woman for any sudden moves, and trying to keep
up with Jack’s erratic mood swings. The boy’s temperament was still
bordering on bipolar, and she made a mental note to talk to Sean
about it later.

In the meantime, she waited, taking in
as much as she could, fascinated by how much the vampire’s presence
held sway in the bar. Men nearby all but unseated themselves as she
walked past. At the door, she excused herself for a moment to speak
with the bartender, and every man in the bar gazed after her
adoringly. Lily couldn’t shake the feeling the woman’s voice and
scent were some sort of siren’s song, a vampiric ploy used to lure
her victims in. She glanced at both Sean and Jack to see if either
was affected, but thank God, neither was. Maybe her mastery only
worked on humans.

With a single nod, the bartender went
back to his customers, and the woman glided toward the doorway,
gesturing for them to follow. Lily half expected the men from the
bar to trail after her, like rats following the pied piper, but
thankfully they didn’t. The vampire smiled, giving them a glimpse
of her small but deadly fangs as she directed them toward a narrow
corridor off to the right of the bar’s double doors.

Their footsteps echoed,
despite the dull noise from the restaurant, until they stopped in
front of a doorway that looked like a cross between an elevator and
the entrance to the bridge on
Star Trek’s
U.S.S. Enterprise.
The woman slid her long
tapered fingers into the front pocket of her boutique jacket and
pulled out a hotel style keycard. One quick swipe through a
concealed electronic eye, and the silver gray door slid apart from
its center seam.

“
Victorian Era meets
Sci-Fi,” Jack commented under his breath. “Guess someone likes
steampunk.”

The woman’s eyebrows lifted, and the
younger wolf blushed. Was he more embarrassed that she’d heard him,
or that he knew about steampunk?

The vampire stepped aside for them to
pass. On the other side of the threshold was another reception
area, only this one was meat locker cold and resembled a demonic
version of the Oval Office.

Lily’s breath fanned out ahead of her
as she walked with the others toward the center of the anteroom.
The curved walls were covered in a thin layer of black leather that
ran from the ebony hardwood floor to the base of the white domed
ceiling. A thick circular area rug offered the only softness to the
décor. There were no windows and no doors, and dim recessed
lighting gleamed, illuminating the dome, and the streamlined chrome
and glass reception desk at the center of the room.

The vampire extended her arm,
indicating they should wait by the mirrored elevator bank recessed
into the wall to the right of reception.

Behind the desk sat a human girl. She
couldn’t have been more than twenty years old, and Lily gave her a
quiet assessment while the vampire instructed the girl to announce
their arrival.

Still curious about a human stationed
at the threshold of the undead inner sanctum, Lily gave her and her
secretarial surroundings a gentle probe.

“
Lily…” Sean didn’t even
bother with telepathy.

Lily winced, pulling back immediately.
Hot searing pain exploded behind her eyes forcing her to break
contact.

The girl tsked, shaking her head. Her
thoughts had been booby trapped against prying minds, and she
issued an evil smile as Lily winced again against the fading
pain.

She shot the girl a dirty look,
squeezing the inner corners of her eyes between her thumb and
forefinger. Lily hadn’t caught much, but what she had seen bordered
on unreal, as she tried to reconcile the girl’s ‘pearls around the
neck’ prep school appearance with the twisted beyond hope workings
she’d touched upon inside her mind.

Smoothing her braid, she avoided
Sean’s ‘I told you so’ stare, and redirected her attention to the
wall and its unusual patterning. “I didn’t know they made leather
wallpaper,” she said to no one in particular, ignoring Jack’s
mental chuckle at her expense.

The vampire brushed past, bumping
Lily’s shoulder as she ran her fingertips across the smooth black.
The woman inserted her same keycard into an electronic eye to the
side of the elevator’s silver frame. “They don’t,” she answered,
barely acknowledging that Lily had spoken. “But we do.”

Lily jerked her hand back, staring at
the woman’s profile as her words and their implication hung in the
air between them. We do? She swallowed hard, not wanting to think
about where they got their raw materials.

At that moment, the elevator pinged.
“Guests first,” the vampire said, as the doors slid
open.

Sean entered the elevator car first,
followed by Lily, then Jack. The vampire stepped in, positioning
herself with her back to the others. Sean shot Lily another warning
as the doors slid closed, his meaning clear. Loose cannon, strike
one.

“
Identification,” an
automated voice necessitated over the elevator’s
intercom.

The vampire punched a numbered code
into a keyboard panel next to the door.

“
Voice
Analysis.”

The woman fixed her eyes on Lily.
“2141767, Abigail Bigly.”

Waves of hostility poured from the
vampire as if her name should mean something. Lily stared back,
refusing to blink, even though an unspoken challenge had been
dropped at her feet for no apparent reason.

“
Verification
completed.”

The woman broke eye contact, and
turned again to face forward.

Sean raised an eyebrow at
her, but Lily shook her head innocently.
“Don’t look at me, I have no idea what that one was all
about,”
she defended across their shared
mind path.

He exhaled quietly.
“I knew I should have left you home.”

The elevator lurched, then started its
descent. It only took minutes for them to reach the bottom floor,
but the claustrophobic atmosphere made it seem like hours. Either
Abigail had a score to settle, or she liked to play head games. Big
deal. Hadn’t they anticipated as much from at least one
bloodsucker? Lily just needed to keep it cool.

The elevator doors slid open, and Lily
stepped out into the club behind Sean and Jack. Garage grunge and
acid punk set the tone for the place, and she glanced around,
unfazed by the raw feel that emanated in waves from all
sides.