Blood Magic by Laken Cane

Chapter Nine

When we reached Long Shadow, it was dark. The cemetery was reasonably well-lit, and both of us took flashlights. Joe pulled a shovel from his trunk, then tossed me a spade. “Do you know how deep we’re digging?” he asked.

I slung my kill kit over my shoulder. “Not a clue, but because this is a punishment and not meant to last forever, probably not all that deep.”

“This isn’t something I thought I’d find myself doing when Mayor Hedrick hired me to work for you,” he said, as we walked. “Looking for a golden tree in a graveyard so I can dig up a…vampire.”

I smiled. “You still don’t believe there are vampires, do you?”

“No.” He returned my smile. “But I believe that you do.”

We found the golden tree in fifteen minutes. It was gorgeous, with a carpet of yellow leaves spread out around it, and it was the only yellow tree amidst some bright orange and green. “That’s beautiful,” I said. “Too bad there’s so much suffering beneath it.”

“Maidenhair tree,” he murmured, stabbing the yellow carpet with his shovel. “Shall we begin?”

“Absolutely,” I said. “But be careful. We don’t know how far down he is or what he’s buried in. Don’t want you cutting his head off just yet.”

He laughed, and he didn’t begin to look nervous until his shovel cleared the first layer of dark green tarp the vampire was likely wrapped in. “Vampire?” he asked.

I nodded. “Vampire.”

“Or,” he said, wiping sweat from his brow and then gesturing around us, “dead man in a cemetery.”

“Sure.” I used my spade to clear more dirt off the vampire. “Let’s get him out of there.”

When he was finally dug from his shallow grave, we stood back and stared down at the heavy tarp with its thin silver chains and the small wooden cross secured atop it.

Joe pulled his knife, a large, serrated monster that could have gutted a whale. “I’ll cut him out of there.”

“Wait.” I dropped my spade and picked up my kill kit. “You need some protection.”

He only lifted a disbelieving eyebrow when I handed him a necklace. The chain was thin but long, and a small cross dangled from it. He dropped it over his head. “What else you got?” he asked dryly. “Some holy water and a wooden stake?”

“Absolutely, but I’ll handle that part,” I said, sticking a couple of stakes and a larger vial of holy water into my pocket. I should have put on my belts and sheaths, but I didn’t plan on chasing and killing the vampire—just talking to him. “If he’s insane and I start to fight him, I’m going to need you to run and leave me to it.” I was dead serious, but I forgot who I was talking to.

He narrowed his eyes. “There is no way in hell I’d run and leave you to fight a madman alone. Get that shit out of your head right now.”

“He’s not a man, Joe. He’s a vampire. And not even you can kick feral vampire ass.”

He was growing angrier by the second. “But you can?”

I realized a little too late that I’d gone into hunter mode and had hurt the big man’s feelings. I only nodded. “It’s what I do.”

He squeezed the handle of his blade. “I guess I’ll prove what I can do when I’m sawing off this bastard’s head. The mayor didn’t hire me because of my good looks. I can fight, Kait. I’ve been doing it all my life.”

I smiled, and something different entered his eyes. Maybe the realization that I wasn’t exactly who he’d thought I was. “So have I,” I told him.

“Let’s do this,” he growled. He leaned over and sliced the tarp up the middle before grabbing the cut edges and yanking them open.

The vampire twitched.

“Shit,” Joe whispered, reflexively recoiling.

Before they’d wrapped him in the tarp, they’d forced a black hood over his head. Two small silver disks had been placed atop the fabric, right over his eyes. Most likely, he’d be blind for a while when the hood was removed. The silver wouldn’t cause burn marks or melt through his flesh, but the debilitating magic of it would sink deep inside him and cause unbearable pain and weakness. The silver would steal and hold his energy, and even with it removed, I doubted he would come leaping out of his grave. He’d have to recover first. At least a little.

Still, I was careful, because you just never knew what might happen when it came to the vampires. They were sneaky bastards.

A long, black cloak hid his body, but I imagined he was naked beneath it. The vampire master would have wanted him naked, helpless, and hurting.

Holding a stake in one hand and my demon blade in the other, I gave Joe a nod. “Cut off the hood but hold the disks in your hand. If he happens to come at you, the silver will repulse him and give your fists a little extra power.”

He didn’t argue. And when he cut away the hood and we finally saw the vampire, we both quietly stared, just a little horrified. I never got used to seeing the proof of what people could do to each other.

His face was skeletal, with jutting cheekbones, sunken eyes, and dry, colorless lips. He was a white man, but that was about all I could tell. I couldn’t guess the age he’d been when he died. The flesh around his eyes, despite the fabric that had stood between him and the silver, was purple and red, as though someone had beat the hell out of him before they’d buried him alive.

He was starving, and even though I hated the vampires and knew what he would be starving for, I wasn’t a monster. I pitied him greatly. His suffering was huge.

“Fuck,” I whispered.

Joe nodded. His face was pale, his eyes a little too wide, and I knew that he would never quite be the same. No one was after they’d witnessed the unimaginable horror of vampires. “I’ve seen a lot,” he said finally, his voice hoarse, “but this is…”

“I know,” I told him. “And you don’t get used to it.”

“What do we do to…” He swallowed. “To help him?”

“He needs some blood.” And despite the pitifulness of the creature in the grave, when I spoke the words there was still contempt in my voice.

“You’re going to let him bite you?” Joe no longer believed vampires were purely fictional.

I recoiled. “Of course not. I bought a syringe of donor blood. I’ll shoot him up with enough to get him moving. Once he’s stronger, I’m sure he’ll find some food.” I curled my lip—I couldn’t help it. My disdain for vampires was innate, as was my disgust.

He stared at me. “We must shop in very different places.”

I snorted and pulled the syringe from my bag. “I’m a hunter. We know where to find items we need, and we always come prepared.”

“A hunter,” he said, slowly. “I knew you did the psychic ghost shit, but this is…” He shook his head. “This is hard to take in. I feel like I’ve either lost my mind or am dreaming.”

“More like a nightmare,” I muttered, then sighed. “Get ready. Don’t kill him unless he has me down with his fangs in my throat. I need to talk to him.”

And I lifted the syringe and plunged it into the starving vampire’s body.