First Drop of Crimson

The stranger laughed. “Wrong. Insulting, too, but interesting. What do you know about vampires?”

Her gun was on the table six feet away. Denise sagged in his arms, hoping he’d let her go. Maybe if he did, she could make it to the gun.

“Answer me,” the stranger said again, jerking her around to face him. His eyes burned with red highlights, but aside from that—and the faint smell coming from him, like he’d just set fire to something—he looked like a college student. His hair was a lighter brown than hers and pulled back into a ponytail. With his flared jeans and tie-dye T-shirt, he could have doubled as a young hippie.

But he wasn’t human. Red eyes. She’d never seen that before. He wasn’t a ghoul or a vampire, so what was he?

“I know vampires exist,” Denise got out, breathing a little easier as that crushing pain in her chest lessened into a throbbing ache.

“Any Goth wannabe could have silver mace on a key chain and believe in vampires,” the man said dismissively. “You’ll have to do better than that.”

Another blast of pain accompanied his statement, almost doubling Denise over. When she could see again through the pain, the man was smiling. Denise thought of this monster’s face being the last thing her aunt and cousins had seen, and anger stiffened her spine.

“Vampires originated from Cain after God cursed him to forever drink blood as a reminder that he’d spilled his brother, Abel’s. They’re immune to crosses, wooden stakes, and sunlight. Only silver through the heart or decapitation can kill them—and decapitation is the only way to kill a ghoul. Is that good enough?” she growled.

He laughed as if delighted, letting Denise go. She fell as expected, but made sure to pitch forward, closer to the table and the gun.

“Very good. Are you someone’s property?”

“No,” Denise said, knowing property referred to humans kept by vampires for feeding purposes. Like TV dinners, only with pulses.

“Ah.” The stranger’s eyes gleamed. “A more romantic arrangement?”

“Hell no,” Denise replied, edging closer to the table under the guise of fixing her robe back around her. She’d been naked underneath it, but modesty wasn’t her goal. Reaching the gun was. No matter what this creature was, bullets might hurt it. Maybe enough to give her a chance to run away.

“Don’t mention that place,” the man remarked, wincing. “Brings back bad memories.”

That made Denise pause. She studied the stranger more closely. Red eyes. Smelled like sulfur. Not human, vampire, or ghoul.

“Demon,” she said.

He bowed. “Call me Raum.”

Denise wracked her brain to come up with what she knew about demons, but most of her knowledge consisted of watching The Exorcist. Even if she had holy water, which she didn’t, would flinging it on a demon, chanting, “The power of Christ compels you!” as in the movie do any real damage?

“This Spade you were talking to on the phone before,” Raum went on. “Is he a vampire, or a ghoul?”

Dread swept over her. Even though she and Spade weren’t friends, she didn’t want to put him in danger.

“He’s human,” she said.

The demon arched a brow. “But you told him what you saw, so he must know about vampires and ghouls. If you’re not property or a girlfriend, what’s your association with those walking corpses?”

Denise was careful not to say anything that could come back to hurt Cat. “I, um, survived a vampire attack a few years ago, so I tried to find out as much about them as I could. Along the way, I met other people like me. We share information. Look out for each other.”

Raum considered this. “You’re saying you have no real connections to the undead world or anyone in it?”

She nodded. “That’s right.”

He sighed. “Then you’re of no use to me.”

Agony slammed into her chest, as sudden as if she’d been shot through the heart. Amid the paralyzing pain, Denise managed to gasp out a sentence.

“Wait! I do…have connections…”

Just as abruptly, the pain stopped. Raum smiled in satisfaction.

“I thought you might. You know too much not to.”

“What do you want from me?” Fear unlike any she’d ever known slithered up her spine. She was at the mercy of a demon. There was no worse position to be in.

Raum knelt next to her even as she edged back. “I’ll show you.”

His hand pressed to her forehead. Light burst inside her mind, then images followed. Raum inside a pentagram, a red-haired man on the other side. “Give me power like yours,” the red-haired man said, “and you can have anything you want.” Raum put his hands on the man, who fell back screaming.

Another flash and the images changed. Raum standing in front of the man, holding out his hand. The man shaking his head and backing away. Raum advancing, then howling in rage as a pentagram appeared all around him. Flames rose from the star, the bottom fell out, and Raum disappeared from sight. Nothing but fire for a long while, then a slew of horrifying, blood-soaked images. Finally a sense of freedom. Then dozens more images of people dying, until at last, her aunt Rose, then Amber, Paul…and herself.

“Your ancestor Nathanial backed out of a bargain with me.” Raum’s voice felt like phantoms in her ear. “He managed to lock me away for quite some time, but I’m back and I want my payment.”

Denise shook her head to clear the awful images from it. “How can I do anything about that?”

“Because he must be hiding with vampires or ghouls,” Raum purred. “I can’t go into their world, but you can. Find him for me. Bring him to me, and I’ll leave you and the rest of his spawn alone.”

The rest of his spawn. Her parents’ faces flashed in Denise’s mind. One of them had to be a descendant of Nathanial’s, since she and her cousins obviously were, and Raum meant to kill all Nathanial’s remaining family in his quest to find him.

She couldn’t let that happen. “I’ll find him,” Denise said. I don’t know how, but I will.

Raum traced his fingers along her arms. Her skin crawled in revulsion.

“I believe you mean that. But as extra incentive…”

His hands tightened around her while a ferocious new pain erupted inside her. She could hear herself screaming, but over that was Raum’s careless laughter.

“Try not to die, will you? I’ve only just started.”

Spade wrinkled his nose as he turned down Denise’s street. Something foul reached him even through the ventilation system of his car. His eyes swept the road, expecting to see a car with a smoking engine or a roof being tarred, but there was nothing. The smell worsened as he pulled into Denise’s driveway.

Spade reached into his satchel, pulling out two long silver blades that he concealed in each sleeve. Then he got out and walked up to the front door. Once there, he inhaled deeply near the frame.

The stench of sulfur filled his lungs, enough to choke him if he were human. Spade expelled his breath with a curse. Only one creature could leave such a smell in its wake.

Denise MacGregor wasn’t imagining things after all, but she might not be alive for Spade to tell her that.

He leveled the door in one kick and then burst through, rolling at once to avoid any attack. Denise was crumpled on the floor near a couch, but Spade didn’t rush to check on her. He glanced around the room, assuring himself no one else was there. Nothing but the sounds of her breathing and heartbeat.

He checked every room and closet upstairs and downstairs, but found nothing. Satisfied that he wasn’t walking into a trap, Spade went to check on Denise.