“What fresh hell is this now?” I said. “I fucking knew Heinsite was a terrible idea.”
And we’d proven that theory, what, how many times over, now? Getting attacked by Sterling, getting abducted and murdered by Thea, and most recently, the appearance of the Overthroat’s portal.
“Just a rabbit,” Sterling said, his voice unusually hard. “Maybe.”
I threw my hands up and hissed. “California. The middle of the city. You really think bunnies just hide out in the bushes here?”
The blow came too suddenly. A force socked me upside the chin, and I was only too lucky that my mouth was fully closed at the time or I would have bitten part of my tongue off. The pain was still there, though, and all too real, radiating dully throughout my jawbone. I clutched my face, stumbling.
“Jesus, ouch,” I yelped. “Sterling, there’s something here, and it’s – ”
Whap. Another blow, to the side of my head this time, hard enough to make me see stars. I spun on my heels, as if the world wasn’t already spinning from the inside of my skull, desperately trying to seek out our – rather, my assailant. Sterling hadn’t been hit yet, but he was whirling in place cautiously, Banjo running a circle around his legs, yapping his little head off.
“Invisible,” I cried out.
“Maybe,” Sterling said. “Or camouflaged. Whoever the fuck you are, show yourself. Coward.”
Sterling sometimes liked to keep his hair gelled in place, but strands of it dislodged from his scalp as some unseen force slammed into his face. This blow was the hardest, meant to actually make Sterling’s vampire physiology take notice. And clearly this invisible attacker was pulling its punches on me. Whoever was attacking us knew who we were.
“Very uncool,” Sterling said, spitting a mouthful of blood gone black in the dark of the night. And gross as it was, he made an effort not to just hawk it out, but to spray his own blood into a mist in the air in front of him.
It worked. Someone – our attacker – cried out in disgust, and as the drops of Sterling’s spit and blood settled, they traced the vague outline of a humanoid. It was dark enough in Heinsite that it was still hard to make out specks of blood floating in midair, but at least now we had an advantage. We could actually see the next hit coming.
Sterling aimed a kick at what looked like thin air. Kind of impressive, considering he still had Banjo, who was still barking madly, leashed in one hand. Sterling’s boot made a loud crunch as it collided with the invisible something or someone.
“That’s right,” Sterling said. “Hurts, doesn’t it? Dust. Roast the fucker. I gotta deal with the dog.”
Whatever that meant, I thought, my mouth agape as Sterling ran away, until I realized that he was only retreating for Banjo’s sake. Within moments he had the corgi tied up safely to a lamppost.
The droplets of Sterling’s blood had dried somewhat on the unseen creature’s body, but that was still a good enough guideline for what I could contribute to the fight. I twisted from the hip as I lobbed a ball of molten flame straight for our stalker’s torso.
The thing yelped, this time in a voice that was distinctly male, and, as far as I could tell, human. Or again, humanoid – at least it sort of a sounded like a person. It leapt out of the way, my fireball sailing through the air, then landing in a distant pond. Lucky I didn’t set anything on fire. The flames hissed as they struck the water, dissipating. Feathers fluttered as some angry ducks abandoned their pond, taking flight.
“Sorry,” I called after the ducks. “But not sorry about whoever the fuck you are,” I added, addressing Sterling’s blood. “Show yourself so I can burn you to cinders.”
“Not an incentive,” the disembodied voice said. Cocky. Definitely male. Made my hackles rise. I bared my teeth as I clenched my fingers around a bigger, hotter ball of fire.
But the droplets of drying blood disappeared. I choked as something struck the back of my head, and this time I definitely did end up biting down on my tongue. The taste of blood spread across my tongue. The fucker. Time was when I would be able to use my own injuries to summon the Dark Room. Not anymore.
At least, not unless I wanted to start another apocalypse.
Sharp pain was radiating through my skull, but the night was only going to get worse. Our unidentified fighting object had attached itself to my back, appendages that felt very much like human arms clamped over my throat in an attempt to choke me out. I could feel its body sweating and hot against mine. I could feel its breath in my ear, smell it, even.
Peppermint. Freshly brushed teeth. What the hell?
“Get this thing off me!” I yelled at Sterling.
“How?” he shouted back. “I smash the wrong part and miss and I could punch a hole right through you.”
Sterling wasn’t bragging, either. I was very afraid that his vampiric strength would be able to do just that. I’d seen him punch through doors with a single fist in the past. I didn’t want to know what he could do to a human body.
The thing on top of me grunted, squeezing at me with a wiry, horrible strength. “Submit,” it whispered. “Surrender.”
I barely had breath left to speak, but it felt appropriate to do so in that moment. “Like fuck am I going to,” I growled.
“We know about the Dark Room.”
My blood ran cold. Who was “we?” What did they want from me?