Aeromancist (Seven Forbidden Arts 3)

“Got it.” Clelia zipped up her leather jacket and secured knife holsters around her thighs.

“Try not to be nervous. They can smell your fear.”

“I’ll just focus on the gift hunter then. It’s not hard to be pissed at the coward.”

“Let’s go.”

Bono entered the hangar with a key dangling from a chain with a Dracula charm. “Your ride.” He handed the key to Lann.

Lann held the charm up to the light. “Evil sense of humor.”

Bono laughed. “I’ll be ready. Let me know when I need to start spinning the blades.”

Lann nodded.

Clelia patted Bono’s shoulder. “Thanks.”

He winked. “Take care, little one.”

An SUV waited outside.

Lann took the driver seat and activated the GPS. “Ready for vamp valley?”

Clelia shuddered.

“That’s what I thought,” he said.

They were quiet as they drove to the heart of the old city. They passed the tourist districts and entered an area that was eerily void of people. The buildings were dilapidated.

“Where’s everyone?” Clelia asked.

Lann glanced up at the sky. “Sunlight. There’s not much else living here but vamps. They’ll come soon enough.” There was little time left before nightfall.

He parked at the back of a bar. “Let’s check it out before the light’s gone.”

The windows of the bar were painted black. They walked around the building until they were back where they’d started.

Shuffling noises came from the inside.

“They know we’re here.” Concern for Clelia dampened Lann’s need to hunt. “This is where we split.”

She smiled. “I’ll be fine, Lann.”

“You better be.” He motioned at the front of the building. “They’re going to open the door as soon as the sun sets. I’ll walk inside and ask for David. He’s expecting me, and if he carries the authority he’s supposed to, I should be able to enter unharmed. We’ll be connected to ground base via the comm system, but if, for whatever reason, I’m eliminated or the system’s dead, you run for it, you hear me? Take the car.” He removed the spare key from the chain and handed it to her. “Burn anyone who threatens you. Can you pull up a firewall against bullets if they shoot at you?”

“Yes.”

“If all goes according to plan, we’ll let David take us. Once we’re out of vamp valley, I’ll find a way of getting the upper hand. Keep your eyes open.”

“Where are we taking him for questioning?”

“To the hangar. It’s reinforced and armed with smell diverters.”

“Do you think he’ll talk?” she asked.

“I’ll make him. Quiet now,” he said as he inched forward. “These fuckers have a good sense of hearing.”

When he was close to the front, Clelia motioned that she was going around the back. He waited another five minutes and checked the sun. The shadows were long. They stretched over the building and covered the parking. Another minute, and then they were gone.

It was time.

He knocked on the door, two hard raps. A second later, the bolt moved and a vamp in a bouncer suit, his arms bulging in the jacket, opened the door. His fangs showed when he pulled his face into a grimace.

He looked Lann up and down. “What are you, take-out?”

Lann glanced over the vamp’s shoulder. The inside was crammed with bodies. This hole was the worst of them all. The ones who came here wanted cocktails of a specific substance—human blood mixed with neuroenhancers. The vamps who favored the joint claimed the drug heightened their sexual euphoria when they fed.

“I have a date with David,” Lann said.

The man stepped aside, his nostrils flaring as Lann passed. He bolted the door, and led the way to the back. The music was a loud assault of disharmonious instruments. The smell of aromatic smoke hardly masked the musky odor of sex and the metallic tang of blood that hung in the air. Willing human donors were lined up behind the bar for the vamps to take their pick. Normally the selection process would lead to a few bar brawls, which was why all the chairs had been removed. The last time one broke, a vamp used the leg to stake a rival’s heart. The dump was a far cry from the glamorous vamp clubs on the southern side of the city. All of this Lann knew from Cain’s weekly reports. Cain had informants everywhere. He liked to keep a close tab on paranormal news.

A naked girl lay on the bar counter, making low moaning sounds. A vamp was feeding from her neck while another fucked her. Some vamps watched, one of the spectators masturbating. Couples were fornicating in all corners, some pressed up against the walls, others bent over in front of an audience. When Lann and the bouncer passed, the vamps turned their heads. Lann didn’t stop at the counter where pale vamps with red eyes stared back at him, but passed through a flap the bouncer lifted, and through a door next to cooling shelves stacked with jars of blood where more humans queued.