First Drop of Crimson

The knife fell from her fingers and Denise folded up her arms, holding them to her chest to stem the bleeding.

When she glanced back at Nathanial, someone stood in her line of vision.

"Why hello, Denise," Raum purred.

Spade circled the skies over Monaco, focusing his vision on every vehicle that even remotely resembled an SUV. He'd flown over the whole bloody principality twice and yet still hadn't found it.

What if Denise ditched the SUV and took another car? She had a gun, after all; it would be easy for her to force someone out of their vehicle. What if looking for the SUV was a waste of time that might cost Denise her life?

Crispin flew as well. Cat searched on the ground with Oliver, as neither of them was able to fly. It had been almost half an hour and there was no sign of Denise or Nathanial.

Could she have gotten out of Monaco that fast? Which direction would she have gone in? Dammit, why had she done this? That demon-dodging sod wasn't worth it!

"Mencheres!" Spade suddenly said out loud. He aimed for the nearest rooftop, dialing on his mobile on the way down.

"Did you find her?" were his sire's first words.

"No," Spade said shortly. "But can't you track her another way? A few months ago, your visions of the future weren't coming to you anymore, but have they returned since then? Or can you use your power to see where Denise is now?"

It sounded like Mencheres sighed. "My visions haven't returned. I see nothing anymore...and neither can I use my power to pinpoint Denise's location. That, too, is gone from me."

"Why the bloody hell haven't you found a way to fix that!" Spade almost shouted into the mobile, fear making him irrational. "I've never once asked you to use your power for me before. Why now, when I need you the most, are you of no use to me?"

He hung up before Mencheres could reply, wanting to keep his line free in case Denise called. She still had the mobile he'd given her. It had been in the backseat along with the gun. Spade tried to calm the rising panic in him as he took to the skies again. Fate couldn't be so cruel as to do this to him twice, could it?

Or perhaps Fate was exactly this cruel, letting him fall in love with another human, only to once again have death snatch her from him.

Raum faced Denise, his black eyes lit with red embers and his light brown hair blowing in the cold breeze coming off the water. He wore jeans and a T-shirt with "Got Brimstone?" emblazoned across the front of it. If she didn't know what he was, Raum's bizarrely normal appearance wouldn't make her look at him twice. But she did know what he was, and the smell of sulfur enveloped her like an unwanted embrace.

"You dare call me here, so close to salt water? You think that makes you safe? I'm very, very disappointed in you," Raum bit out, advancing a step toward her. "You took advantage of my kindness, broke our agreement - "

"Raum," Denise interrupted. "Look behind you."

The demon did a slow circle and then his laugh echoed out. He bounded over to Nathanial and seized him in a gleeful grip, swinging him around with the same sort of uninhibited exuberance that Spade had twirled her with just the other night.

"Nathanial, my long lost protege, how happy I am to see you again!" Raum exclaimed. He even kissed Nathanial full on the mouth, with a loud smacking sound. "Ah, you taste so despairingly sweet. I intend to have such fun with you, you know that."

Nathanial cried out at something the demon did. Denise couldn't see what it was through Raum's back, but whatever it had been, it was painful.

"You think that hurts?" Raum hissed, his tone changing from ringingly cheerful to something so low, Denise could barely hear him. "You have no idea what agony is, you deceitful little filth, but you will. Forever."

No matter what happened later, right then, Denise was glad for everything she'd done in the past two hours. She couldn't have lived with sending anyone to what Raum had planned for Nathanial. Yes, Nathanial had made the bargain with the demon, but dammit, he'd already paid enough for that during his time with Web. He'd been a stupid kid who made a terrible mistake, but he shouldn't have to be eternally punished for it.

And if she lived through what she did next, she'd stop punishing herself, too. For letting Randy get killed, for the miscarriage...all of it. It's time for both of us to be forgiven, Denise realized. More than time.

"Raum," she said, raising her voice. "I want to get out of here, but first I want you to prove that you can give me my payment."

The demon swung around, still cradling Nathanial in an embrace tighter than a lover would use. "Oh, really?" Raum drew out. "And how do you think you'll have me prove that?"

The dangerous challenge in the demon's voice would have made Denise back away shivering five weeks ago, but not tonight. She met that red-tinged gaze without blinking.

"You promised me if I brought Nathanial to you, you'd leave my family alone forever. And that you'd take these brands off and your essence out of me, returning me to a normal human. You might say I'm a little leery of you after everything I've been through, so why don't you show me first that I'll survive getting these brands off. Or I run as fast as I can back to the vampires, and you can try to chase me while toting Nathanial."

A smile played around Raum's lips. "Quite the little firecracker now, aren't you? I like this side of you, Denise. It's very attractive."

The way he emphasized that last word made Denise's flesh crawl, but she knew that was why he'd done it. Raum wanted her to be cowering and frightened, but if she let him rattle her even once, she wouldn't have the nerve to follow through on the rest of it.

"Take the brands off Nathanial. Let me see that he's normal again. Then take off mine and we can go our separate ways, me alone and you with him. Like you agreed."

"Don't do it, please," Nathanial begged. Tears leaked out of his eyes, and the desperation on his face was palpable. "That's too quick. Don't you want to torture me when I'll be able to heal over and over? Haven't you wanted to make me scream for a long time, Raum? You can't do that if I'm human!"

Clever ploy, Denise thought. The demon's expression had been skeptical when Denise finished talking, but after hearing Nathanial, he smiled with such malevolent anticipation that part of her wanted to run away from the mere sight of it. Don't you dare, she ordered herself. You can beat him. He'll never expect you to fight back.

"Why, Nathanial, you have smartened up these past long decades, haven't you? You know no matter what I do to you, it's better than what will happen once you're human and I can kill you. I did plan to take my time playing with you first, but - "

"Yes, yes, play with me!" Nathanial shouted. More tears poured. "I deserve it, you've earned it..."

"But this will be even more fun!" Raum said, his voice turning into a feral roar.

Then Raum seized Nathanial's forearms, the demon's hands covering those intricate tattoos, before he plunged his fingertips inside Nathanial's skin.

Nathanial screamed, high-pitched and piercing. That smell of sulfur increased while a hazy buzzing seemed to fill the air.

"Feel that?" Raum snarled. "It's the end of your immortality, boy!"

Now, Denise told herself.

She scratched gouges into her legs with her clawed hands, bringing a fresh spurt of pain. In her mind, she focused on the image of one of the creatures from that New Year's Eve. Creatures so foul, so powerful, they didn't exist anywhere but in the darkest realms of the most forbidden black magic.

That feeling of blind chaos spread through her body, the same one she'd felt when she transformed on the boat. This time, however, Denise didn't try to fight it. She fed the wildness, expanding it with all the horrible images from that night. Focusing on all the details of the creature that months of antidepressants, therapy, and distance from the undead world still hadn't let her forget.

Her skin felt like it burst, waves of pain and energy wracking her entire body in lightning-fast blasts. Only a small part of her was aware that Raum turned around to give her almost a quizzical glance.

"What the hell?" he muttered.

A howl came out of her throat, as hideous and loud as the sounds that had haunted her nightmares. Then Denise bent and pulled the bone knife from the sand.

She'd show the demon what the hell.

With another unearthly bellow, Denise charged at Raum.

Chapter Thirty-six

Spade felt the vibration in his pocket even over the wind ruffling his clothes. He snatched out his mobile, hope leaping in him when he saw the call numbers.

"Denise!" he shouted as he answered it. "Where are you?"

An awful, bone-chilling howl came over the background before Spade heard Nathanial's weak voice.

"Hurry. I can't help her. I can't even tell which one she is..."

"Where is she?" Spade thundered. He'd kill that rotten sod if anything had happened to her. He'd rip the flesh from his bones -

"Under one of the two commercial piers in Vieux Port, Marseille. Hurry."

Spade cursed as he hung up. Marseille was more than an hour and a half away, even at his fastest speed. Could Denise hold off the demon that long?

He aimed his body like a bullet northward even as he dialed Crispin. He picked up on the first ring.

"She's under one of the two commercial piers in Vieux Port, Marseille. The demon is there. Where are you?"

"I'm still in La Condamine, almost two hours away," Crispin replied with open frustration.

And Mencheres was even farther away in Genoa. "Get there as quick as you can," Spade said, hanging up.

He channeled all his energy not into his body, but on a point southwest in the distance. He had to be there. Not here, there. Now. Denise needed him. Go faster.

Flashes of Giselda's crumpled body at the bottom of the ravine filled his mind - her hair reddened from blood, face frozen in pain, body still warmer than the snow around her. She'd been dead only a couple of hours before he arrived on that day. The knowledge of how short a time had elapsed between his arrival and her death had haunted him for over a century, but now would he lose Denise by mere minutes?

He would not fail. He could not. Go. Faster.

The ground blurred into nothingness beneath him. Only the expanse of the water on the horizon mattered, beckoning him with the whisper, She is here. If he concentrated enough, he thought he could almost feel Denise, could taste her struggles against the demon like acid on his tongue.

Go. Faster.

Time passed. That dark water in the distance became more than a hazy smudge low in the sky. Buildings lining the seashore crystallized into more than misshapen, indistinct lumps. After another few minutes, he could make out the basilica landmark, with its golden statue of the Virgin Mary as if she were peering over Marseille. He changed direction ever so slightly to hone in on Vieux Port. Not much longer now. Come on, Denise. Keep fighting.

A few minutes later, the outline of the piers came into view. Spade streamlined his body more, trying to avoid even the slightest resistance to the wind, his power capacity at its zenith. Still, he couldn't see what was underneath the piers. He wasn't at the right angle yet, he was still too high...

Spade dipped as low as he could go without risking crashing into any of the structures between him and his goal. Even with the wind roaring by, the first of the howls reached his acute hearing. They sounded like the baying of the damned. Were those the sounds of Denise still battling with the demon, or Raum chortling over his victory?

Go. FASTER.

He sighted the underbelly of the piers in the next several seconds, which seemed to stretch out like a warp in time. The sounds came from the one nearest him. Spade focused on that, seeing a male lump that had to be Nathanial lying on the sand. But ahead of him in knee-deep water, two forms clashed in violent combat.

Two forms. Spade's heart felt like it exploded in his chest. Denise was still alive.

And yet he knew his strength was deteriorating. Blood loss from the fight, combined with the expulsion of all his power to reach her as quickly as he had, left Spade almost dizzy from encroaching weakness. He'd arrived in time to fight the demon, but he had almost no energy left.

All I need to do is hold him off until Crispin gets here, Spade thought grimly. He only needed to keep Denise alive that long. He could do it. The demon might not have any silver, after all.

The figures locked in a death match became clearer with each passing second. Spade had never seen the demon before, but even this far away, it was obvious neither of them was in human form. Two equally horrendous monsters grappled each other in the surf.

Smart girl, the thought flashed across his mind. Denise must have dragged the demon into the salt water, knowing how it would hurt him. Another few seconds showed that one of the creatures held a pale, bony knife. Spade couldn't tell which was Denise. One of the creatures had bulbous muscles, an enormous, misshapen head, and a powerful body covered in skin that seemed to be blistered. The other was just as large, with an appearance that seemed to be derived from the most grotesque version of the grave -

Spade zeroed in on them, moving his arms in front to hold his fists out in a straight line. With the fierceness of their battle, neither was aware of his zooming approach. Their snarls and howls of fury rang in his ears, one of them now so very familiar.

He plowed into the enormous blistered-skinned creature with all his speed, knocking it away from the other one. Slamming both of them into the soft sand floor, covering the creature with seawater and his own body. The tremendous impact stunned Spade as well, but he forced his body to twist, holding the creature on top of him. His arms lashed around the struggling figure, fighting to keep its head locked into position. The creature bucked and flailed so powerfully, Spade knew that if he didn't let go soon, his arms would be ripped from their sockets.