Chapter 36: Women Problems

“You are mine. I am Odin’s Chosen, Nökkvi, reborn. You are Mardöll, sorceress of the First Lands. Odin gave you to me, as payment for killing a rogue jötunn, at the end of my last life, to keep you from soul-death as you grieved the loss of your last soulmate, but you ran from me—”

“Gee,” Shannon interrupted, “wonder why.”

The barghest made an irritated rumble, but remained on the floor. “This life is our first together. Odin commanded we learn each other. I’ve had many years to plan this. You are to learn how to please the great champion of Odin and I will learn to take your comfort to ease the pain of my duties to the gods.”

Batshit. The barghest was absolutely batshit.

“So get down here, woman, so I can stake my claim before someone else does.”

Oh, yeah, like that was incentive. “Tempting,” Shannon said. “But you know, I’m still having a problem with, oh, I dunno, the whole sex thing. It sounds like you want sex. Am I right? You want sex?”

“I want your complete submission to me, body and soul, as I take what is rightfully mine, whenever I want it, however I want it, as hard as I want it, as many times as I want it.”

Shannon’s brow went up. “Yeah, that’s some soul-mate incentive right there, buddy. Here, just let me come on down and start that with you.”

The barghest waited, clearly expecting her to do just that. When she didn’t he snarled and started to get up. “You have no right to deny me!”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure I do,” Sunny said. “This America, not the twelfth century. What is it with you dickcheeses and thinking you’re back in the twelfth century? I mean, that vampire lord that tried to kill me is more with it than you and Masaaki. At least he isn’t a douche.”

The barghest made an animal rumble in his throat. “I will drag you down here and fuck you until you bleed and beg for mercy, slave.”

Wow. Masaaki was right. Barghest were the bad guys. Check. “So yeah,” Shannon said, “Here’s the deal. You keep your dick to yourself and I won’t have to kick it off before Masaaki gets here to take you to the looney bin, okay?”

Dead silence hovered in the hallway between them before the barghest said, “You have to eat sometime, vampire. When you come crawling out of your hole, I’ll be waiting.”

Shannon felt a pang of fear, remembering that both of her food sources had skipped town on her. Already, the pressure was building in her chest, under her heart. The barghest was right. If recent history was any judge, she was going to come crawling out of her hole in about twelve hours.

Shannon picked up the phone again to call Theo.

#

“Okay, look,” Theo said, opening the driver’s door of the truck. Outside, the smell of ocean air swept into the cab on the breeze. “You aren’t a part of this, so I’m leaving you with the truck. Can you drive? You could go get some sushi or something.” He offered the keys to the yatagarasu.

Masaaki, predictably, was covered in sweat, looking like he wanted nothing more than to crawl out Theo’s open door and follow him along the shoreline to the vampire nest, several miles down the beach. He didn’t answer his question. Theo frowned. “Did you hear me?”

“Please don’t go,” the samurai said in a strangled voice. His hands were bony white fists on his swords, and his face was contorted with that unmistakable look like he wanted to sink his katana through Theo’s brainpan.

“I have to,” Theo said. “I know the sick little douchebag who’s running the show. He’s gonna kill Mandi if I don’t show up on time.”

“Can I go with you?” Masaaki whimpered. “Please?”

Theo gave Masaaki an irritated look. “We talked about this. We talked about this the whole way here. You can’t go with me. It’s filled with vampires. You’re scared of vampires, remember? With good reason. If they somehow got the upper hand and took you…”

“I can blast them. My hikari.”

While that was a highly tempting offer, Theo didn’t feel comfortable having someone he had enthralled fighting his battles for him. That was bordering on abuse of power, in his book. Besides. The upstarts were just children, most barely older than Shannon. None of them had the strength or the control or the experience in blood-magic to stop him. Theo would just do what he always did—knock a few heads together, rip off a few more, and rescue the damsel. In and out. Nothing to it.

“You need to stay here, bud,” Theo said. “I’m gonna be fighting vampires. My own kind. We’re strong enough to rip you apart, and you know it.”

“I’ve got swords and my hikari,” he said stubbornly. “And I’m fast.”

Theo groaned and dropped his face into his hand. “Listen. We already had this discussion. Like twelve times. I’m a vampire. An old vampire. I’m going to go kill a few young vampires. Hell. I might even wipe out the nest. Depends on how generous I’m feeling. Anyway, I don’t want you to see it. I’m trying to help you, not scare the crap out of you. Get me?”

The samurai swallowed, and it was obvious to Theo that Masaaki, given the choice, would have been back in Eagle River with his self-avowed warlord, not scampering out to Kenai with Theo, but that Theo’s venom was warring with his mind. “What if you don’t come back?” Masaaki whimpered.

Theo glanced at the beach, even then being lapped by waves, then back at Masaaki. “You’re not going to stay here if I leave, are you?”

The grimace on Masaaki’s face was all Theo needed to know. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Masaaki. You said you could handle this!”

The samurai’s face purpled. Spittle flew as he shouted, “It was you who knowingly poisoned me with your venom, vampire!”

Theo rolled his eyes. Not once had Masaaki so much as thanked him for saving his life, after the fool had let the queen sap his life-force until it was flickering out. “Tell ya what. When we’re done with this, I’ll just tie you to a tree out in the woods somewhere and leave you there to get over it for a couple weeks. Until then, I need you to promise you’re not going to try to come after me, or I’m going to have to hold you down and drain you until you cannot move.”

Masaaki’s face went sheet-ass white.

“Okay,” Theo said. “Good. We’re getting somewhere. Read those books you brought along. I’ll leave you with my cell-phone. There’s some fun games on there. Don’t follow me. If you do, I’m serious. I’m gonna hold you down, drain you until you pass out, then leave you on the beach until I come back. Not a good place for you to be, considering someone might wander off with one of those pretty swords of yours. Or your virginity.”

The samurai’s face darkened as Theo dropped the cell phone on the seat. “By my ancestors’ kami, I will make you pay for this, vampire.”

Theo sighed. As if he hadn’t heard that one a thousand times already. “Okay. Whatever. But later. I’m running out of time. Stay here. I’ll be back soon.” He slammed the door of his pickup truck and started out onto the sand, towards the soft brownish beach. He paused once, just out of sight of the truck, and watched the yatagarasu’s blood-web for a moment through the sand dunes to make sure that Masaaki didn’t intend to follow. Then, satisfied that Masaaki had picked up a book and was going to stay in the truck, Theo turned and jogged down the beach until he was far enough from the parking-lot that he could slip into the forest and run.

The last few miles to the vampire pups’ lair took only a few minutes, running. Theo used the last couple minutes to wrap himself in spellwork, something that the yatagarasu’s blood had proven less than ideal for. While the yatagarasu’s blood allowed him the previously-unimaginable feat of stepping out into the sunlight unharmed, vampire blood magics were more or less a product of the Third Realm, and while the yatagarasu’s energy was divine, sun-magics of the First Realm tended to fizzle on, say, spells of concealment and shadow.

Still, Theo managed to get enough of a spell together to hide his blood-signature, at least, then made the final approach to the vampire nest, pausing in the alder thicket to survey the situation. Inside the three-story mansion, sprawled in various positions of relaxation—or, in the case of the dozen or so unwilling captives in the basement, fear—human chattel lay poised over what had to be couches, pillows, and beds. Enthralled vampires lay in various states of unconsciousness in the main room, the normal lifelessness of their blood pumping with a dull silvery-pink. The vampire lord—the only vampire whose blood glowed vibrantly to Theo’s second sight—lay near the center of the living-room, an arm around two different relaxed human blood-webs, his blood a shimmery pink-silver. Theo could see Mandi’s soft lavender web at the man’s feet, still alive and well, but weak. She’d obviously been drained already. And, judging by the silver flowing in her veins, probably enthralled.

Theo sighed. Just like last time. He would have to kill the lord, of course. The kid was just too careless, and that stupidity was going to get a lot of people killed, if Theo didn’t stop it. Hell, the kid had kidnapped a girl from Theo’s own stable, then called to brag about it, and the over-confident dumbass hadn’t even posted a guard—

“Hello, Baron Hjörr.”

Theo froze at the voice, so close it caught him off-guard. Indeed, a moment later, the air shimmered, and a vampire in stiff black Third-Lander robes appeared a couple yards off, his blood a vivid silver-green, buoyed by a soft yellow glow. Theo felt his heart begin to pound, recognizing the last place he had seen that blood-web.

“So,” the Duke of the Nightlands said, with a sigh, “I was tasked with subduing you. Apparently, you made an enemy out of the little shit, and he would like to add you to his collection.”

“Fuck,” Theo said.

“Yes,” Svartr Buðlungr said, giving Theo a flat look. “Fuck.”

“He summoned you?” Theo asked, taking an unconscious step backwards. “How?”

“If you ever figure it out,” Svartr Buðlungr, the Duke of the Nightlands, said, “I would very much like to know. Until then…” He gestured lazily, and Theo watched the magic bleed down his arm, pooling in his fangs in preparation for spellwork. “Shall we?”