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  Benjamin looked pretty ticked off as he watched Jeremiah. I could never tell if Benjamin actually liked him or not. They had been working together for lifetimes, so I had to imagine they tolerated each other. Then again, I didn’t think he got just anyone a glass of water, I thought, smiling, to myself.

  Jeremiah ran his hand through his hair. “The search for the demon woman is getting out of control. The king doesn’t care if your world is torn to shreds. He only wants the woman found. I was hoping that your sweeps of the city would eventually draw her out. Damn it,” he yelled, slamming his fist on the table. “And that I’d find her first.”

  Jeremiah hung his head. I reached my hand across the table and snapped my fingers. “Hey, guess what? Now is the perfect time for you to come clean. Why is it so important that you find this demon? What is she to you?”

  “She’s my betrothed,” he said, lifting his head up. He leaned back against the chair and folded his arms across his chest. “If the king’s legion finds her first, they will kill her.”

  “Can you tell me what happened?” I asked. “Maybe we can help locate her somehow.”

  Benjamin stood up, knocking the dining room chair out of his way. It went tumbling into the wall and burst into numerous pieces.

  “Sure, I didn’t like that chair anyway,” I said.

  “I’ve been helping you all this time over a woman?” Benjamin asked incredulously. His hands were in fists at his sides, opening and closing in rhythm.

  “Benjamin, can’t we just hear him out?” I suggested.

  “I don’t have to stay here and listen to a love story.”

  “Wait, old friend,” Jeremiah said. “You’re going to want to hear this.”

  The demon’s name is Thana. Well, it was, before she was given a soul and banished from the underworld. Thana was the heir to the underworld throne and was supposed to marry Jeremiah, a powerful man in the king’s inner circle.

  Like a lot of women, Thana didn’t want the future that awaited her. She rejected a live of limited freedoms. So, naturally, growing restless, she came to this world, in search of a diversion.

  What she found was a man. But not just any man. She found an immortal.

  “Aren’t we all immortals?” I asked, interrupting Jeremiah’s story.

  “Yes,” Benjamin said, “but we can all be killed.”

  “This man cannot be killed,” Jeremiah said. “He possesses abilities that are unlike anything any of us have ever seen.”

  I locked eyes with Benjamin. Could it have been one of these immortals that I encountered on the street?

  “Thana,” Jeremiah said, “ instantly fell in love with this being.” His face was hard with pent-up anger. Jeremiah had harbored these feelings of resentment for a thousand years.

  But they could not be together. Thana, a being of the underworld, could not stay in this realm for longer than days at a time; and she knew that if she returned to the underworld, she’d be forbidden to come back to the living.

  The nameless, immortal being could not die; and was unable to join her in the underworld. Desperate to remain with her immortal lover, Thana sought advice from a powerful witch. The witch convinced Thana that if she drank the blood of the immortal being, she’d be able to remain in the land of the living.

  Thana went to her lover and told him of the plan. The immortal being, willing to do anything for the princess, cut his wrist open and allowed Thana to drink his blood.

  “You can assume that the story does not end well,” Jeremiah said.

  Benjamin was pacing the distance between the dining room and the kitchen. He turned now and froze in place. “Finish the story,” he said through clenched teeth.

  “Thana, drank the immortal being’s blood and it drove her mad. She tore through the countryside on a murderous, bloodthirsty rage.”

  “Tearing into the necks of any human she passed,” Benjamin said, finishing Jeremiah’s story. “Dooming them to a life caught between the living and the dead.”

  “She created vampires?” I asked, finally catching on.

  “Yes,” Jeremiah said.

  I saw Benjamin in an entirely new light. He was one of the first, or maybe, the first vampire. Talk about being the ultimate bad-ass.

  “So, there’s a woman out there that doesn’t know she’s the heir to the underworld throne, much less that she created the vampire race?”

  “Correct.”

  “And you just want to make sure they don’t kill her?”

  “Correct.”

  “And who provides you with blood? How do you survive in this realm for so long?”

  “Thomas provides him with enough blood, but the others don’t know that,” Benjamin explained.

  “Got it—don’t tell any of the creepy vampires.” Meowser hopped off my lap and wrapped himself around Benjamin’s legs. Surprisingly, Benjamin picked the cat up and scratched the top of his head, holding the fur-ball in his arms.

  “Also, I go back and forth to the underworld, always making sure that Thana’s followers know that I’m still looking for her. If Thana were to return to the underworld, unharmed, she would have every right to take the throne. Most of the beings would support her,” Jeremiah said.

  I nodded, pleased that for once, there was some transparency. “What does the underworld look like?”

  Jeremiah stretched and his muscles moved under the black t-shirt he always seemed to be wearing. “It’s different from here. It’s dark and gray, surrounded by inky black waters.”

  “Sounds charming,” I said. “So, how are you going to find this lady before anyone else does?”

  Jeremiah laughed—a desperate sound. “That’s the crux of it, isn’t it?”

  “Would you know her if you saw her?” I asked.

  “I’ve seen her a couple of times before—in her past lives.”

  “Wait, Ben, you’re not going to try and kill her, right? If we find her? No payback’s a bitch? Or anything like that?” Because if that’s your plan, we should stop looking for her immediately. Wait. Was it better for Benjamin to kill her than the underworld king? I’d have to revisit that question at a later time.

  “It was not my intention,” Benjamin said, his voice cold. He looked like the Godfather, all straight-faced, petting the cat.

  “Good, then continue, my friend. You were saying that you’d know her just by seeing her?”

  “She looks the same as she always has. She doesn’t look like the rest of us demons, though. When she drank the immortal’s blood, her hair turned so black, it’s almost blue and her eyes are purple. Some would call them blue, but if you look closely, if one is able to get that close, they are purple.”

  “Do we have any idea on her age?”

  “No, but from what information I was able to gather from the other demons, they seem to think that she’s an adult.”

  “She could be eighty, for all we know?” Benjamin asked, placing the cat on the floor.

  “Yes.”

  The front door opened and Thomas walked in. It was only an hour since he left. He looked fresh, so he’d obviously had enough time to feed. Which reminded me… “Jeremiah, are you hungry?”

  “No, thank you.”

  “Suit yourself,” I said.

  “That was fast,” Benjamin said.

  Thomas dropped the keys to his car on the dining room table. “Honestly, I grabbed the first people I saw on the street.”

  “Thomas,” I whined.

  “And they are perfectly fine and healthy, Olivia, dear. I wouldn’t do anything to your precious humans that a couple of pain relievers couldn’t fix. I left Sean at my home to recuperate.”

  “Sean is the vampire they found at the demon hellhole,” I told Jeremiah.

  “What happened there?” Thomas asked, tipping his head in the direction of the broken chair. He sat at the head of table, which was on my left. He turned to me and smiled. “So, where are we?”

  “Well, shit’s getting crazy out there. We have a new mi
ssion though. We need to find the demon princess who created vampires. The thing is: she doesn’t even know who or what she is. She’s living out a thousand-year sentence which has nearly expired and we want to get to her first, before the other demons have a chance to kill her. And, if we do find her, then hopefully, the demon legion won’t have further reasons to tear through our city anymore. Everybody following?”

  “Yes, I think we follow,” Benjamin said, standing behind me.

  As he rubbed my shoulders, I got the distinct feeling that he was staring daggers at Thomas. Yikes! Talk about being claimed in front of the other men. I saw Jeremiah’s eyes shift back and forth from Benjamin to Thomas; and then back to Benjamin again. What? I’d been on like one date with Thomas. There was no need for things to be awkward.

  “You gotta help me out, Jeremiah. Anything that can help me track this woman down would be great. Other than the purple eyes, which is a good clue, is there anything else that we should know?”

  Jeremiah sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. Maybe he needed a shoulder rub too, because I was feeling great after my own little mini-massage. Shoulder rubs for everyone!

  “Under the terms of her sentence she is bound to serve the dead.”

  “Like vampires?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “Zombies? Oh, God, please don’t tell me there are zombies. Oh, and by the way, can I get like a list or something? For example, werewolves? I feel like I haven’t gotten a clear answer on that.”

  “Ghosts, Olivia. She is bound to serve ghosts.”

  “Elaborate and elucidate, please,” Benjamin said.

  “Seriously, man, it’s like pulling teeth over here. Spill it!”

  “I’m not sure. She can communicate with ghosts and they probably visit her. They can sense it when someone is attuned to spirits.”

  “So she’s like the little boy from that movie? The ghosts probably follow her everywhere. That’s terrible.”

  Jeremiah clasped his hands together. “That’s the point.”

  “Man, you demons don’t play around. A girl accidentally creates a race of vampires, and she’s doomed to roam the earth as the ghost whisperer for a thousand years. A little harsh if you ask me.”

  “As far as I can tell, there are several more of these demon dens around the city. We’re going to need reinforcements if we plan to shut them all down,” Thomas said, snapping his fingers together to get the cat to come to him.

  “Except the other vampire leaders aren’t that interested in helping.”

  “I miss drinking whiskey,” I said, feeling a little hopeless. “It’s alright, everyone. You have me now. It is officially my mission to find the Mother Vampire. I just need to clear my head and figure out how the hell I’m going to accomplish that.”

  I looked between Thomas and Jeremiah and back up at Benjamin. “I’m going for a run,” I said, pushing my chair away from the table and standing up.

  Twelve

  Yes, a good old-fashioned midnight run was just what I needed. In the past, I would never have gone out on the streets, on foot, so late at night, but life was different now as a vampire. I could kill practically anyone that would dare attack me. Well, almost anyone. Suddenly, I was worried that I might run into the immortal being again. Apparently, I couldn’t kill him. I felt like he wouldn’t be as intimidating, if I just knew his name.

  Desmond, maybe. Wait. What are the oldest names in recorded history? Maybe he doesn’t even have a name. He’s just, Man. The air was thick with humidity. I’ll live for eternity, but I’ll probably never overcome frizzy hair in Miami. There were still a lot of cars on the streets, so I had to run at a human pace. Which, was fine, I needed some time to clear my head.

  I headed west, finding sidewalks as I went along. It was nice not to feel so thirsty all the time. Benjamin’s blood seemed to have done the trick; and the best part was that I didn’t have to feed every night. His blood was unlike anything else. Pretty soon, I’d be stronger than he at the rate things were going. Was that even possible?

  I tried to wrap my head around the fact that Benjamin was quite possibly the first vampire ever. In the end, it all came down to lust, and sometimes love, I guess. Benjamin was turned into a vampire because of a love between two beings who just couldn’t say no; and I was turned into a vampire because Benjamin was a little too attracted to me. In the end, I guess life’s a bitch.

  I turned up another block and headed south. I’d been in this area before, I thought. It wasn’t until I was five blocks up that I recognized Madame Lucia’s place. The same year Laura moved to Miami, I took her to a fortune teller as a birthday gift. It was terrible; the fortune teller didn’t tell us anything at all. All of her divinations were based on generalities that any average person could have guessed. But it had me thinking. If I remembered correctly, Madame Lucia also claimed to hold séances. And even if she couldn’t actually speak to ghosts, our mystery demon lady might be able to.

  I decided it was worth doing some investigating. Madame Lucia’s office, if you wanted to call it that, was a single-family home converted into a business. This was actually fairly common in the area. The whole stretch for about ten blocks consisted of homes converted into business offices. The street had gotten so busy that it just made sense. People didn’t want to live smack-dab in the middle of all that traffic, and there was so much traffic that if you put a big enough sign out on the lawn, customers would always exist. The demon lady had to make money right? She was plagued by ghosts. What would be the best kind of job for someone like that?

  I started running back toward the Miracle Mile, past the lit restaurants and bars. There was a part of me that missed all the fun. Everything seemed so serious now. Couldn’t we all just have fun and go out dancing? Something told me that if I had ended up with someone like Thomas, I’d be having a lot more fun. But I was with Benjamin; and maybe because he was older, he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

  It would always be Benjamin and me against the world, and I could live with that. But I did miss just going out and having a good time every once in a while. As I passed one of the bars facing the street, I heard one of my favorite songs. I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and looked down at what I was wearing. For running clothes, it didn’t look that bad. The black leggings and hot pink tank top looked almost stylish, in a way. And who cared if I was wearing sneakers?

  I walked into the bar, having to snake in between the crowd of people. They were spilling out of the door and onto the street. What day was it anyway? I’d completely lost track of time, now that I was a nightwalker. There wasn’t an empty barstool in sight, but one guy, wearing a white baseball cap, gave me the use of his barstool once he saw me looking.

  I thanked him and told him that I wasn’t interested. I was as commanding as possible. I didn’t mean to stay more than ten minutes, but I still didn’t want him hitting on me. Not that he would though; I was looking pretty messy after my run. My hair was probably sticking up all over the place.

  I sat at the bar, enjoying the popping beat and dancing a little in my seat. It wasn’t until the song ended that I started looking around at the people surrounding the bar. There were a lot of patrons with that petroleum-grayish-black hair so common with the demons; except, they were dressed in popular clothing. Skinny jeans and sequined tops galore. What was happening to the demons? It was like they loved it here with the humans and were trying to blend in. From my observation, they were doing a good job of it. Who needed demon dens when the demons were having a great time out here on the dance floor?

  I caught one of the demon men, who was trying to look respectable with his hair combed back into a low ponytail, coaxing a woman into following him to the parking lot out back. These demons didn’t even need to hypnotize people. No, they just needed to find the most insecure, drunken girl or guy and verbally convince them to leave the bar.

  I started to follow them outside, but something gave me pause. I had to remind myself why vam
pires were any better than demons. Both beings preyed on the innocent humans. The difference was, as far as I knew, the vampires didn’t kill the humans—most of the time. Also, vampires took what they needed to survive. Didn’t Benjamin mention something about humans eating cows before? That made sense. The demons preyed on humans, however, purely for pleasure. They got high on human souls for the hell of it.

  With my mind set back on track, I trailed the demon out of the bar. He worked faster than I anticipated. They were hiding in the side alley, and ponytail guy had the petite woman up against a green dumpster. I looked around quickly to make sure no one could see and poked the demon in between his shoulder blades, using my index finger.

  “Hi there! Can you stop that for a second?” I asked as I watched the woman’s soul drifting precariously between her body and the demon’s mouth.

  The demon’s head twitched, but he was too engrossed in his act to respond properly to me. Well, I’d just have to get his attention, then. I jumped up on his back and twisted his neck in one swift movement. If Mom could only see me now! Yikes, I felt like the Terminator.

  I caught the woman’s body before she hit the ground. Her soul was still attached to her body by just a thread. I positioned my hands above her exposed soul and focused my mind on returning it to the woman’s body. Slowly, the soul retreated back into her chest.

  Shit, what was I going to do with all these soul-salvaged bodies I kept saving? At least, she didn’t look damaged. But, seriously. Was I expected to go around calling an ambulance all the time? I picked the girl up and took her back into the bar with me. At the very least, maybe someone would recognize her and take over babysitting. This is an opportunity to learn more. I sat her up in the bathroom and waited to see how long it took for her to regain consciousness. I even timed it with my watch, like a lab experiment.

  It took nine minutes for the woman to wake up. She seemed perfectly fine and I was pleased with myself. When her eyes opened, I pretended to be washing my hands in the sink. I don’t even think she remembered going outside with the demon, judging by how she reeked of cheap vodka.