Asil’s Fifth Date Scheherazade #9
The west lot of the Woodland Park Zoo was as deserted as it had been when he was last here.
The big signs advertising WildLanterns (no space), the zoo’s holiday season light show, surrounded him, but this late the lights were long dimmed.
Though the steady rain washed out most of the odors—including his own—the fishy smell from the penguin exhibit was stronger than it had been when he had been here last.
He climbed the fence with little trouble, though his landing wasn’t completed with his usual grace. The vampire’s call affected his balance. He hoped that the creature couldn’t continue that while they fought.
He remembered the path to the lion’s exhibit without losing his way in the deliberate maze of trails.
The zoo animals were used to visitors and mostly stayed in their shelters, out of the rain.
The distressed call of a peacock echoed in the storm, but that, too, was something the animals were used to.
If there were human guards on duty at night, he did not come close enough to one to sense them.
Assuming he survived, he would have a talk with the keeper who’d helped with the lioness intake and explain why whatever camera footage he appeared in should be wiped.
If he did not survive, he supposed he wouldn’t care about fallout from tonight.
He had to break the lock on the door that led into the private area where the big cats were kept when not on exhibit. This night, all three of the zoo’s lions were inside. Asil let himself into the inner compound where the females were kept, latching the door behind him.
Red safety lights kept the area from being as dark as a cave, but it was still full of shadows. It smelled of cat.
Even Asil’s eyes couldn’t pierce the shadows to find the predators who watched him walk into their territory. From his separate territory, the young male lion chuffed uneasily.
Asil dropped to his knees, then put his forehead to the ground. They did not have much time. He did not have time to explain what he needed from her.
This vampire was so old. As old as or older than Bonarata, if not quite as powerful.
He was so old that his blood still made Asil’s body vibrate with the echo of his power.
So old that Asil did not believe that even a goddess of the Serengeti would survive a battle with him given how her magic had worn down with time.
He could not, would not be responsible for her death.
He explained what he had done. Why he had done it. And then asked her for a favor.
“Leave them to me, Lady,” he whispered.
She did not agree with him. And told him so with her silence.
He slapped his hands down twelve times twelve on the cool stone floor while her unhappy growl parted the hair on the back of his neck.
He had no idea if the number meant anything to her.
Or if his posture was the proper protocol at all.
But he’d once seen a Nubian priestess call upon her gods in such a way.
It was the only thing he could think of to do.
“If you do not agree,” he said finally, hands stinging, heart sore, “I will lead him to the heart of the city and fight them there. Damned be the consequences.”
I am dying anyway. She spoke to him for the first time since he’d entered her territory.
“I do not care,” Asil assured her. “I will not be responsible for bringing the means of your death upon you. Promise me you will stay out of it.”
She roared, the sound larger than it should have been, making his bones ache and his hands curl into fists. All around them the animals cried out in response.
He did not allow his wolf to drive him to his feet. He kept his forehead on the ground. “Please.”
She stalked off, and he was forced to take that as his answer.
“Thank you, Lady,” he said.
The younger lioness escorted him to the entrance.
“Nor you, either,” he told her, and made her stay inside as he let himself out.
Asil returned to the place where he’d entered the zoo, a large open meadow without animal exhibits.
Just now it was effectively fenced with the WildLantern figures—large wire and fabric constructs of improbable creatures, plants, and a nearly full-sized old-fashioned train that ran most of the length of the meadow.
He judged the lanterns more effective in keeping the fighting within their bounds than a more solid fence would be.
A fence could be destroyed, jumped, or climbed.
The near-invisible wires that powered or stabilized the fanciful creatures were more difficult to get through and guaranteed to slow anyone down.
Something that could be a very bad thing when your enemy was Asil.
The north end of the meadow was capped by the building that housed the zoo’s carousel and the south end by a construction project protected by improbably tall walls. Asil had done what he could to keep tonight’s damage manageable.
Stripping out of his clothes, he tucked them next to the wall of the carousel building where the ground was dry under the overhang of the roof. Then he called upon his wolf and let the change take him.
VI
Ruby found herself tucked into the old Victorian’s reception room with Alan, Asil’s date for the evening, and a fourth person who turned out to be the driver, who introduced himself as Bobby and Asil’s date as Mari-Brigid.
They left the lights off so as not to make themselves targets—and to let them see outside. Hopefully, Angus had said before he went off to command his troops, the vampires would be too distracted by the werewolves to search for the vulnerable humans.
Alan had been tasked with guarding the entrance to the room, though he said that the mansion was a home and that the vampires, at least, wouldn’t be able to get inside. He thought that was why Asil had chosen to bring Bobby and Mari-Brigid here. Ruby thought so, too.
As soon as Angus had left, Bobby pulled a gun out of his ankle holster and held it as though he’d been born with a gun in his hand. Ruby moved him from “drives cars in traffic” to “bodyguard,” which fit him better.
“Who are you?” asked Mari-Brigid. She was an absolute bombshell. Thick mahogany hair, honey skin, and sloe-dark eyes, all wrapped up in an ice-blue, formfitting, floor-length gown that had probably cost more than Ruby made in a year.
Ruby had already introduced herself, so she figured that Mari-Brigid Alvarez—who spoke with a French accent though her features and last name were Spanish and her first name sounded Irish—hadn’t meant her name.
“I’m the fourth date,” Ruby told her. “Like you are his fifth.”
Mari-Brigid didn’t like her answer. “How long have you known him?”
Yep. Asil made a big impression. Ruby wondered uneasily if she was making more of their date than had been real. Like she thought Mari-Brigid was. She gave the other woman the truth, which served to remind herself how little she knew him.
“About three hours the day before yesterday—wait, we’re into the wee hours of the morning now. So about three hours two days ago. On Wednesday,” Ruby told her. “One phone call, four texts. Oh, and a drive-by. Just now. You were here for that one.”
The woman relaxed, just a little. Alan made a sound that might have been a groan. The driver looked out the window into the rain, as if he thought that would hide how he felt about his charge.
“Alvarez has people he can call upon who aren’t vampires,” Bobby told the room.
Ruby was pretty sure he was trying to change the subject.
“Hold up,” Alan said. “Let me get some of those in charge so you can tell them, too.”
He came back with a dangerous-looking man who had a scar down his face and a police badge hanging from his belt loop. Oddly, he looked at Ruby first, an examining look that ended in a crooked smile.
“Police?” Bobby sounded astonished.
“Day job,” the scarred man said. “But I thought if things go wrong, a badge isn’t a bad thing to have. I’m Tom Franklin, second of the Emerald City Pack. Tell me about other guests we might expect.”
“Alvarez has his hooks deep into a few humans,” Bobby said.
“My dad, for one, hasn’t had a thought that was his own for four years.
My cousin Rich. A couple more like him. Zombies.
And there’s a witch, I think. Though I’ve only heard talk of her.
I’ve never seen her. One of the fae sort of comes and goes.
Any one of those can make it through unreinforced threshold magic. ”
“Asil told me he didn’t think we’d see a planned attack,” Ruby offered. When Tom turned to her and raised an eyebrow, she understood that this was information Tom didn’t have.
“What else did he tell you?” Alan asked.
She didn’t know exactly what Asil had told everyone else, so she told them everything that might be useful.
“He said he was going to make sure this vampire was mad enough that he wouldn’t be thinking clearly.
Would aim his primary attack at Asil and figure he could come after Mari-Brigid and Bobby afterward.
He said that there were at least ten vampires at the ball, and he figured we’d get maybe half of those here.
That Bobby—sorry if this is news to you—that Bobby has been bitten by several of Alvarez’s other vampires and that those would be sent here.
He was pretty sure if we stayed in the house, we’d be safe. ”
Bobby put a hand to his neck and looked a little sick.
“If it helps”—Ruby wasn’t sure it would—“Asil didn’t think any of them would be able to control you except Alvarez—apparently those kinds of vampire powers mean a victim only has to worry about one vampire.
But if they’ve bitten you recently, they can track you.
Which is why when Asil dropped the two of you off here, he made sure the werewolves would be here to protect you. ”
“How long were those texts he sent you?” asked Alan, sounding fascinated.