Welcome to Tales from the GrimVerse: Grim & Bare It – Killion’s POV, an urban fantasy novel I’m republishing with scenes from the original story but told from the Master Vampire’s point of view.
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I made it to my limo, idling a few blocks away. My second in command, Simone, waited along with Moss, my driver. Vampire opposites, she was tall and slender; he was as wide as he was tall. He opened the backseat door for me, and she motioned for me to get in. “Death is at the church. He said he needs to speak to you immediately.”
“He can wait. I’ve picked up the scent. I need to follow it.”
“He said to leave the girl alone.”
She didn’t know I’d sensed her watching me earlier. After all our years together, it disappointed me that she was considering challenging me for head of the nest. Power was power, and along with blood, it was the most compelling thing in a vampire’s life. I didn’t blame her for seeking it; only damned her for thinking I’d let her take any of it from me.
I’d deal with her another time. “What girl?”
Her eyes narrowed, sizing me up. She’d watched my exchange with Chloe, but she couldn’t admit to it. “How would I know? I’m simply relaying his orders.”
Hmm. Perhaps. “I don’t take orders from him.”
“You do from Soul Management Group.”
I accepted jobs, yes. Not orders. I softened my voice, lacing it with steel. “Tread carefully, Simone.”
Being who I was—what I was—held magic within it. The power she schemed and manipulated for came easily to me, and every word I said held it when I so wished. The command hit her with force and she stepped back. “As I said, I’m only relaying his…”—she chose a new phrase—“request.”
And costing me precious minutes in my hunt. If Death had issued the directive, why? Was he referring to Darcy or Chloe? I knew the answer to that, but not the reason. My mind, my instincts, nudged me to find out. Stay on the track of the serial killer or uncover the truth about this young human who’d gotten under my skin? “Fine.” I waved her off. “Let’s go.”
We were moving at a fast clip when I sensed danger. Simone was updating me on a vampire bar and the trouble that had been brewing there when a scream echoed inside my head. “Stop,” I ordered the driver. “Go back.”
Moss glanced at me in the rearview. “But boss, I thought—”
“Turn around.”
The command vibrated the windows. Both he and Simone went rigid from its innate power. “Yes, master,” he said and did as told.
Trepidation rippled under my skin. Outside, thunder boomed. Simone’s thin brows dipped. “What is it?”
The girl. The tug I’d felt earlier yanked hard. Get to her. My internal tracking system kicked in, and I felt her. Felt her fear, her struggle. “Faster,” I told Moss. I gripped the door handle. “Turn here.”
He did and we came to a screeching halt. The parade was in full swing, cutting us off from the alley I sensed her in. I bolted from the car and ran.
While the rain was keeping normal citizens inside, the college students and tourists were thick as vampires at a blood feast. I willed myself to become invisible, leaping over those in my way, knocking others aside.
I slowed when the scent of blood filled my nose. Vampire blood.
The reaper-turned-serial-killer was a vampire.
So much made sense now—his ability to lure and capture his prey. His lust for their blood. His ability to outwit and avoid law enforcement.
The rain fell steady, thick fog and gray shadows dancing at the entrance to the alley. As I slowed to a cautious walk, the scent became stronger, and—
No. That unique perfume of Chloe’s blood mixed with the vampire’s.
I pulled up short at what lay before me between the buildings. A headless man lay side by side with Chloe’s unmoving body. A frozen tableau in the dirty, dripping alley.
The cat hid under an empty wooden crate near the dumpster. A headlamp, flashlight, and pepper spray were scattered nearby. A scythe lay to her left, trembling and bloody.
My heart sank. I was too late.
“No, no, no.” The voice was nothing but an echo in my ears. “This can’t be happening.”
A ghost floated off the ground. Chloe’s spirit. The tugging inside me grew more insistent. What should I do?
My ears roared with anger. I wanted to strike out, yet the culprit was already dead. A vampire right under my nose, working for SMG and causing the deaths of innocents. Blind rage filled me.
I heard Chloe’s spirit call for her mother. The insistent tugging drew me forward, through the mist and rain.
“Darcy?” she said, her ethereal form turning awkwardly toward me.
Her spirit was hanging on and the blood pounding in my ears whispered a solution. My gaze dropped to her lifeless form, and I cursed under my breath, wiping rain out of my eyes. “Doamne.” My Romanian heritage surfaced when I was confronted by such an incredibly disturbing state of affairs. “We have quite the situation, don’t we?”
“Wait.” She tried to propel herself toward me and ended up facing the wall. She placed her hands on the wall, but they went through the bricks. She grimaced over my shoulder. “You can see me?”
I didn’t answer, examining the grim’s beheaded corpse.
“It was you, wasn’t it? I heard you tell me Darcy’s name.”
I sized up the alley, the decapitated entity, and shook my head. “You are fearless, I’ll give you that. Foolish, but brave.”
“Foolish? I just saved my friend.”
“And caused your own demise,” I countered.
“Wait… I’m…” She struggled to say the word. “Dead?”
“Close enough.”
The blade on the ground tremored and she blinked. “Who are you? Are you a doctor?” It was too easy to read her mind—she had no mental shields at all. Please be a doctor.
“No, but I will save you.” As she watched in horror, I bit my wrist. Blood welled.
“Gross!” Her uncooperative form floated a few feet away. I dripped the red substance onto her blue lips, forcing her slack mouth open. “Dude, not cool!”
“This will sustain you.”
No good deed goes unpunished, she told herself around her disgust. This is what I get for helping Vera.
Sirens echoed in the night, drawing close. “We must hurry.” I placed my other hand over her damaged larynx. The link between us caused her to feel the tugging in her chest, her hand going to her heart.
I closed my eyes, blood continuing to drip into her mouth. A faint glow enveloped both of us.
“Stop,” she demanded, attempting to push me away. Her hand went through my shoulder, a chilly phantom pain. “The police are coming. They’ll give me CPR and call an ambulance.”
“They cannot resurrect you. Now, be quiet. I need to concentrate.”
All her pushing and shoving did no good. “Look, I don’t know who you are or what kind of aberrant stuff you’re into…”
“Aberrant?” The corner of my mouth twitched. I removed my hand and she watched as my cut wrist stopped bleeding and instantaneously healed itself. “Get in your body.”
She blinked a couple of times and shook her head. “I really wish I hadn’t taken those supplements.” This has to be a drug-induced trip. Has. To. Be. “I’ve already tried that,” she told me. “It didn’t work.”
“You’re stronger now.” I stood and pointed at her prone form. “Do it.”
Her temper flared. Her ghostly back straightened and her chin lifted.
Her spirit moved closer to her physical form. I sensed her intense concentration. Staring down at her broken shell, she willed myself to merge with it. “Come on,” she muttered.
Nothing happened.
She squeezed my eyes shut and tried again.
“You have to want it,” I told her.
“I do!” She peeked open a lid. Something inside her shifted. The vaguest memory of her parents drifted through my mind. “I want to live,” she shouted.
A silvery cord, running from her physical chest to her ghostly one appeared. “I think it’s working.”
The siren was nearly on top of us. “Hurry.”
She squeezed her eyes shut again, her brow scrunching in determination. She began moving toward her lifeless self and her eyes flew open. “It’s working!” At the same time, the dead vampire shuddered, as if he, too, were coming back to life. “What’s happening?”
As we both watched, his corpse made a slight popping sound and turned to a cloud of thick dust. Chloe stared, and I felt her fear that she might do the same. With a second, distinct pop, his head followed.
“Holy moly.” A second later, her spirit snapped, rather than popped, back into her body.
As her blue-green eyes opened, the grim’s cloak rose as though draped on a ghost, and hovered near her. The weapon slid onto her chest, the handle slipping into her hand.
“This is unprecedented,” I said, at a loss for what was happening.
The handle trembled in her fingers. “What is?”
The cloak fell on her, covering her from my view. A searing white light followed, as her spirit and body reconnected completely. She gasped for oxygen.
I’m alive!
I felt the rush of joy shoot through her, heady and thick.
And then she fainted.
Death was going to kill me when he found out what I’d done. Not only had I not left the girl alone, I’d resurrected her.
She’d obviously been meant to die. Her soul contract was up.
So why did I smile for the first time in decades as I lifted her from the wet pavement and used my magic to pass through the locked door of the florist? Why would I risk everything to keep her out of the clutches of law enforcement?
Because she was a mystery. An anomaly. I needed to know why I felt a tug in my chest to protect her at all odds.
Death would come calling, there was no doubt, but I’d be ready.
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Next up, Episode 3 – Waking up to a new reality