The Last of the Red-Hot Vampires

blue orb between my palms.

'Knock on the door,' I told Sarah, my attention focused on holding the charge where I wanted it.

'Portia—'

'Please, Sarah. I don't know what will happen if I stop focusing on this.'

'I hope to god you know what you're doing,' she said, shaking her head, but knocking on the door.

It took about sixty seconds, but the door finally opened up a few inches, with Carol Lee's white, expressionless face visible. 'What do you want?' she asked.

'The truth,' I told her, flinging the electrical charge directly at her. Her eyes widened for a moment before the charge zapped her, knocking her backward a few feet.

'I knew it! You've killed her!' Sarah pronounced as I pushed open the door and knelt down by Carol's supine figure. My hands were shaking as I checked her pulse.

'No, she's alive. Her pulse is a bit rocky, but fine.' Carol's eyes were open, unblinking, and flat. 'Go get the car. We'll get her into it and restrained before she comes out of this.'

Sarah stood above me, her hands on her hips, a warning note clearly evident in her voice. 'Portia, I never thought the day would come when I'd find you, the most passive of pacifists, disabling and kidnapping an unarmed, innocent woman—'

'Innocent, my ass. Get the car quick,' I said, hurrying into the kitchen to look for some twine or duct tape I could use to bind her arms.

To my relief, we managed to get Milo's wife securely bound and bundled into the rental car before she came out of her shocked state. After five minutes of non-stop abuse hurled from where she lay on the backseat, the noise abated once we applied a scarf in the form of a gag. She continued to mumble behind the gag, but, thankfully, it was subdued enough to ignore.

'Where are we going?' Sarah asked as I returned to my seat after gagging our victim.

'The Court of Divine Blood.'

Sarah made a soundless whistle, saying nothing more but shooting me frequent questioning glances. Silence and occasional outraged gurgles from the backseat filled the car as we drove to the castle. I knew Sarah was as uneasy as I was over the potentially damning act of kidnapping, but I saw no other solution available to me. The silence bore down heavily on me as I ran over a mental checklist, hoping that I hadn't missed anything important.

'You don't think anyone is going to notice this?' Sarah said twenty minutes later as a huge billow of fog filled the courtyard of the castle.

I prodded Milo's wife forward, ignoring her glare of pure venom, keeping one hand on her wrists bound behind her back. 'I'm sure someone will notice the localized fog, but I don't really care. It's difficult enough kidnapping someone—getting them where you want them to go without interference from the public is tantamount to impossible. I'm just taking the easiest way out.'

The fog, my lack of familiarity with the castle, and Carol Lee's repeated, abortive attempts at escape made it take a good three times the normal amount of time it would have taken to find the room that opened into the portal to the Court, but at last we arrived at our goal.

I saw Carol eyeing the windows and grabbed onto her shoulders with both hands, shoving her toward the entrance to the Court.

'Portia, are you sure—' Sarah started to say, doubt evident on her face as we approached the fuzzy portal.

'Reasonably sure. I've examined the evidence and can't come to any other conclusion. Deep breath, everyone. It's showtime!'

'I can't believe the only time I'm visiting heaven is in the pursuit of some crime or other,' Sarah grumbled as we marched to the center of the town square. The usual business prevailed: people talking in small groups around the center well, the shops doing their brisk trade, other people busily hurrying hither and yon. At the sight of us materializing in the center of their activities, everyone froze.

'Hello, again,' I said, recognizing a few (albeit startled) faces from the hearing. Theo?

An equally startled silence filled my head. Portia? What are you doing in the Court?

Doing what you asked—resolving one of our problems. Where are you? I think I'm going to need a little help in getting my prisoner to the mare. The people in the square seem to be stunned into some sort of a fugue state.

Theo seemed to share their reaction, at least for a few seconds. Prisoner?

Yes. I kidnapped Milo Lee's wife and brought her here.

A soft sigh echoed in my head. Portia, do you have any idea how the Court is going to react to you kidnapping a mortal and bringing her here? As if we weren't in enough trouble—

Carol Lee took advantage of my distraction with Theo to twist herself out of my grip, racing toward the doorway that led back to the land of reality.

'Oh, no you don't!' I took a leap that would do a broad jumper proud, flinging myself at Carol, just catching the heel of her shoe as I fell. She went down just as my head cracked the cobblestones, but I didn't let go of her despite the stars that seemed to weave around in front of me.

'Such an entrance you apparently desire to make,' a male voice drawled as I got to my knees, shaking my head but keeping a firm grip on Carol's kicking foot. 'I could almost imagine you were trying to get my attention.'

'Think again,' I ground out as I got to my feet, hauling up my still-struggling prisoner.

Gabriel the cherub pursed his lips as he eyed first the woman bound with silver-grey duct tape, then me. I blew back a strand of hair that was sticking to my lip, and lifted my chin, trying to look poised and in charge of the situation.

'I see you've added abduction to your resume,' he said, the corners of his mouth crooking upward. 'As if murder wasn't enough?'

'Portia didn't murder anyone,' Sarah said, coming forward to give me a hand with Carol as she continued to fight her bonds, her eyes wild. 'If you knew her, you'd realize that she's incapable of something so immoral.'

Carol flung herself backward, her head knocking into mine as she tried to kick my legs out from under me. I sidestepped the back kick, yanking her bound arms up and hissing in her ear in as mean a voice as possible, 'You try that again, and I'll break both your arms.'

Gabriel's eyebrows rose.

'There are, naturally, different interpretations on the word 'immoral',' Sarah said, looking as if she was about to explain the whole circumstance to Gabriel.

'Don't bother trying to make him understand,' I interrupted. 'Gabriel has his mind already made up about me.'

'Gabriel?' Sarah's face took on an awe-struck cast. 'Gabriel?'

'Not that Gabriel,' he said, looking annoyed. 'What is it with you mortals? Is there only one Gabriel you know?'

Sarah nodded, disappointment rife in her eyes.

'This Gabriel is a cherub,' I said, catching sight of a familiar form skulking along the edge of a building, staying well into the shadows. 'And not a particularly nice one. Come on, Carol, we have a little business with some friends of yours.'

'I could make a comment about your niceness as well, virtue,' Gabriel called after us as we left him. 'But I am too much a cherub to do so!'

'What's his problem?' Sarah asked in a whisper, glancing over her shoulder at him.

'He's a bit pissed that I refused to let him seduce me. Or so I gather—honestly, it could be just about anything. I may have breached some sort of Court etiquette or something, and offended him. I've never felt so out of my depths in my life.'

'I wouldn't worry about it.' Sarah gave me a reassuring pat on the arm. 'Gabriel may be a handsome devil, but he's no Theo.'

'Indeed he isn't.'