Make Me (10 page)

Several sharp intakes of breath alerted me to the fact that something significant had just happened. Unfortunately, I had no idea what it was. From the puzzled expression on his face, Jack didn’t seem to have a clue, either.

I THINK IT MEANS AUSTIN OWES YOU A FAVOR IN RETURN, Fang said.

Okay, having Austin owe me a favor couldn’t be a bad thing. “All right then, you have a deal. I’ll even throw in tracking down your missing vamps for free.” After all, if it was the last thing I was forced to do for Alejandro, it was worth it.

“Sure, but I can’t exactly go out in public.”

Oh, yeah. Sometimes I forgot his swirliness kept him limited. If it wasn’t for other demons providing a space where he could be his own swirly self, he’d never be able to get out. “Okay, how about I grab some food and bring it to you? Is there a place there where we can sit and eat?” Besides, I should probably meet the Underground here, too, especially after what David had said about there being something a little off with them.

Fang perked up at the mention of food and wagged his tail. DINNER?

“Yeah,” Shade said. “They have a staff-only section we can use. It’s quieter. I’ll let the guy at the door know you’re coming.”

“Will they let Fang in?”

“I don’t think so.”

I looked down at the hellhound.

NO BIGGIE, he assured me. GET ME A PIZZA AND I’LL BE HAPPY. I COULD USE A NAP.

“Okay, thanks.” We compared notes and figured out the Underground was within walking distance, so I didn’t need the car, even though Austin had given me the keys.

A card on the nightstand gave instructions on how to have food delivered, so I made arrangements with the concierge to have a pizza delivered to the room, telling him to open the door and leave the box on the floor.

DOES THIS MEAN YOU FORGIVE ME? Fang asked.

“Somewhat. It’s just that pizza is the easiest thing to order right now.” I tried not to think of what else the concierge would order in.

Jack tapped on the door and stuck his head in, looking hopeful. “Some dinner would go down mighty fine right now.”

I grinned at him. “I just ordered something for Fang, but I’m planning on getting some food to take to Shade. Want to come?”

“Of course.”

I started to walk out the door, then paused for a moment, considering. We were in vamp territory and I had to leave the room unlocked so Fang could get out. I didn’t care about any of my stuff, but… “I should probably take the books with me.”

Jack nodded. “Yes, you should.”

So, I slung the backpack over my shoulder and headed toward Sixth Street. We located a take-out Mexican restaurant, then found the seven-block party that was Sixth Street. There weren’t as many people as I expected, but that could be due to students going home for Christmas break.

This Club Purgatory was right in the middle of the nightlife. I nodded to the guy at the door who was dressed like a Goth version of Santa Claus, with black and gray where red and white should be, and fake blood trickling down from one of his “fangs” into his scraggly beard. Ick. Some things were just in poor taste.

I raised my voice above the music so I could be heard. “Shade told you we were coming?”

Dark Santa nodded and gave us directions to get downstairs. The basement at this club seemed bigger than the one in San Antonio, and thankfully none of the
Purgatory
theme showed up here. Instead, there was a bright, clean break room where Shade was waiting for us. I kissed him, feeling kind of shy in front of Jack, and since no one else was there, we grabbed a corner table in the large room. We ate, then I pulled out the books and thumbed through the first volume.

“What are you looking for?” Jack asked.

“I want to see if there’s any mention of chupacabras in the listing of demons, see what we can find out.” I checked and even had Jack double-check, but there was no mention of them anywhere.

“I’m not surprised,” Shade said. I touched his hand so I could see his features and he added, “I looked them up on my cell while I was waiting for you. I don’t think they’re real. The first sighting was in the midnineties and seems to have come from a woman who watched too many horror movies.”

I nodded. “So, if they’re not real, the goat-sucker is either a vamp or some other demon we’re not familiar with.”

Shade grinned. “I’m going with vamp.”

“Yeah, Lisette said a few were missing. She didn’t seem to think any of them would go rogue and suck on livestock though.”

“It could be rogues who aren’t affiliated with the Movement,” Jack said.

Could be. We’d had some trouble with them in San Antonio. “That’s what I thought at first, but rogues would more likely snack on people. I hear they taste better.”

“Maybe Lisette’s people drank some demon blood?” Shade suggested. “That made some of Alejandro’s people go crazy.”

“Maybe,” I said doubtfully. “But if the blood banks were tainted, Lisette would know by now. I don’t know of any demons who would volunteer to be dinner for a vamp, and the members of the Movement wouldn’t take it from anyone who is unwilling.”

“Are you sure about that?” Jack asked, looking skeptical.

I thought about it for a moment. “No, not really. Lily rose to become a trusted lieutenant in the New Blood Movement, and she didn’t think ‘willing’ was a necessary adjective for a snack.”

“Who?” Jack asked.

“Lily Armstrong. She was Dan’s ex-fiancée who turned vamp and tried to take over Alejandro’s organization by leading the rogues.”

“What happened to her?” Jack asked.

Shade grinned. “She lost her head. Literally.”

Decapitations-R-Us. I shrugged. “She was holding Dan, Fang, my stepfather and my sister captive and was going to kill one or more of them. I had to stop her.”

Jack nodded as if it were a completely reasonable thing to do. Thank goodness for demons who understood the world I lived in. “We cleaned out most of the rogues from the Movement in San Antonio,” I added, “but there could be some in Austin. So, no, I wouldn’t trust Lisette’s judgment on this.”

“Okay,” Shade said, tapping the screen on his smartphone. “Let me see what I can find out about these sightings so we can track them down.”

I pretty much used my phone for talking and texting only, but Shade used all its capabilities. This was the kind of stuff he loved—playing with electronics and researching stuff. Yep, he was totally hot
and
a geek. Who said they couldn’t coexist in one body?

While Shade surfed the Internet and took notes, I asked Jack to tell me more about being a keeper.

“What do you want to know?” he hedged.

“Tell me more about these powers the books gave you. How does it work?”

“You know they can’t actually talk? The voice you heard was me when I was trapped inside, and the voice urging others to do evil was the mage demon I’d imprisoned with me.”

I nodded impatiently. “But can you communicate with them?”

“I can’t anymore, but you can, since you’re the new keeper. The books know what you’re thinking, so you can ask them for certain abilities.”

“So I could get my strength and fast healing back?” I asked eagerly.

“Maybe, if the books want you to have it.” He shook his head. “But remember, those abilities are no longer part of you, so if you are granted those and use them, your succubus abilities will weaken.”

Would that be a bad thing? Sure, I’d come to rely on Lola, but the thought of never again having to keep my distance from men, or fend off advances from those who got too close and got sucked into Lola’s lustful energy field… well, it was very appealing. I had always yearned to be normal, but was it even possible now? Everyone in the vamp and demon communities knew me as the Slayer, and many wanted to kill me because of it. Giving up the best defensive weapon I had to gain more strength didn’t seem like a good idea.

Besides, having a normal life was little more than a pipe dream. The only way I could possibly lead a normal life was to go far away from everything I knew and everyone I loved
and
lose all my special abilities. I wasn’t desperate enough for that. Not yet.

But one thing I did want, was out of the contract with Alejandro. And to do that, I had to find this so-called chupacabra.
If the books could offer help with that, I needed to use them. “Okay, the books know what I’m thinking, but how do they communicate back to me if they can’t talk?”

“Like that,” Jack said, nodding at the table.

The second volume of the
Encyclopedia Magicka
was actually
glowing.
“Whoa, I didn’t know it could do that.”

The book started vibrating like a cell on mute. “Go ahead,” Jack said. “Open it. It’s all right.”

What was this? A cosmic telephone? Tentatively, I opened the glowing book. It trembled in my hand, then flipped pages rapidly on its own until it came to rest on one page where words seemed to burn themselves in fire across the paper.

Wow. Cool. When they dimmed to glow softly, I started to read them. “It says—”

“No, don’t read it aloud,” Jack cautioned. “It’s a spell that will give you a new ability, so don’t voice it unless you really want it.”

“You mean I’d lose part of Lola right away?”

“No, you wouldn’t lose any of your current abilities until you actually say the activating words of the spell with intent to use it,” Jack explained.

“What is it?” Shade asked, trying to read the book upside down.