Chapter 6
SIX
REGAN
“Catch me if you can,” Zuriel read the note out loud, sounding as bored as he looked. He held the paper out toward me to take it back. “So?”
“So . . . we need to get this guy. Now.” I wasn’t a fan of cockiness, nor was I a fan of being taunted by a criminal.
“I’m sure you will.” He stood so still, as though nothing bothered him. As though the note wasn’t a huge pain in the ass.
“I like your confidence.” Chanel winked at him. “We’ll definitely get him.”
“Oh I know we will. But that—” I pointed toward the note “—is rude as hell.”
Zuriel crumpled the note into a ball and threw it over his shoulder. I threw my magic out and set the stupid thing on fire.
Zuriel gave an exasperated sigh. “Don’t you have a job to do?”
“I literally just brought that note to you—”
“Your other job,” he cut me off. “And the idiots in the cell to deal with.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, pop star life calls.”
“The tour is coming up in a few days, but we still have tonight.” Chanel wagged her eyebrows at me.
I smirked. “So much room for activities.”
“All the activities.” She turned back to Zuriel, about to say something, but he was gone, and her face fell. “I hate when he does that.”
“It’s both annoying and cool at the same time.”
We moved down the hallway in The Emerald and headed for the elevator—the regular one that didn’t lead to portals or other realms. One of our songs came on in the background instead of regular elevator music.
“We sound gooodddd.” Chanel nodded to the beat, and the corner of her mouth pulled up in a half-smirk.
“If you do say so yourself.” It was true. The song was a good one and only took us an hour to write.
It was easy to come up with good songs when we had access to the best musicians in the world.
It was both a responsibility and privilege to be able to do what we did.
But the truth was, I liked the hunt even more.
The elevator came to a jerking halt and the bell dinged.
We stepped out into a long dark hallway.
The walls and floor were covered in black marble that showed our own reflection back at us.
Our boots clicked on the floor and echoed off the walls.
When we approached a thick black door with silver bolts running through it, the bolts slid back one by one and the door swung open for us.
Most dungeons were archaic, with rusty bars and damp cells, but The Emerald was state of the art.
We sauntered through the door, and metal cranked as the door slammed shut behind us.
Cells lined both walls. Each cell had a metal cot, bathroom facilities, and nothing else.
They were sparse but served our purposes.
All were empty except for the one way at the back.
We stopped in front of the last cell. Its bars gleamed like polished stainless steel.
Two younger vampires sat side by side on one of the metal cots.
They were dressed similarly in posh knitted sweaters, jeans that were a touch too tight, and pristine white sneakers. I glanced at Chanel, and I knew her thoughts were mirroring my own . . . They were like mini douchebags.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “What the hell were you two thinking?”
“We weren't.” The one on the left in the red sweater shrugged. “Just havin’ some fun.”
“Fun?” Chanel rolled her eyes. “You're kind of lacking in intelligence, aren’t you?”
The one on the right in a yellow sweater nodded. “We were just joy ridin’.”
Their harsh accents grated on me. There was the smoother New York accent that I was used to, but Staten Island accents were like watching Jersey Shore on repeat.
“What’s your name?” I pointed at the one in red, then held my hand up, stopping him before he spoke. “Never mind. I don’t care. I’m gonna call you Tweedledee.”
Chanel pointed at the one in yellow. “And you’re Tweedledum.”
“Hey, I resent that.” Tweedledee crossed his arms.
“Yeaaaah, we don’t care.” Chanel sighed. “Do you know what happens when you get three strikes in First Realm?"
“Yeah, yeah, yeah . . .” Tweedledum sat back on the cot and leaned against the wall. “We were gonna call those guys that helped Benny, but we didn’t have their number.”
“Helped Benny do what?”
Benny was a low-life vampire who liked to hang out in strip clubs. He had a few strikes against him for his little kinky habit of biting humans who liked it. We’d run into him a time or two, but the best part about Benny was that he was a snitch.
Tweedledee smacked Tweedledum in the arm with the back of his hand. “So check this out. Me and my friend here were trying to get in the game—”
“The game?” Chanel’s brows furrowed.
“Yeah, you know. The game where people call to help erase their dirty little deeds before yous guys find out.” Tweedledee licked his lips and nodded at us as though this was supposed to be impressive.
It felt like there was more to this story than what he was saying. “Is that a real thing?”
Could some kind of powerful supernatural hide the misdeed of others from us? Could they hide them from Zuriel’s watchful eye? No way. There was no way that was possible.
Tweedledum nodded. “Oh yeah, these guys are straight professionals, and they make all things go away for a huge profit.”
“Those guys are making bank.” Tweedledee nodded like a bobblehead.
I tilted my head to the side. “Are you for real?”
“People pay criminals to hide from us?” Chanel crossed her arms and wrinkled her nose.
“Yes,” they spoke at the same time.
“That’s terrible.”
“That’s sick.” I shot Chanel a look and she shrugged. “What?”
“You’re right. It’s kind of sick.” I chuckled. “People pay real money to hide from us.”
“Rightttt.” She turned away from the cell and covered her mouth, hiding her own laughter.
I shook my head and turned back to the two Tweedles. “So, who are these guys that can hide all the dirty deeds?”
Tweedledum shrugged. “No idea. They were just these old ass vampires.”
“Yea, old school like.” Tweedledee fidgeted in his seat. “Mobster style.”
“Yeah, some real Al Capone shit,” the other added.
Chanel froze by my side, but I didn’t want to draw attention to it. An old vampire who looked like a mobster all kinds of alarm bells were going off in my head. She shook herself. “And you don’t know his name?”
“Nah, they were too good to give names. But Benny might.” Tweedledum rubbed his elbow against his friend’s. “Am I right?”
“Man, you’re such a rat.” Dee shoved him in the shoulder, knocking him sideways on the bed.
He sat up and shoved Dum back. “You’re the one who opened up your big yap.”
“You’re the one who stole the car and got us locked up.” Dee motioned to us. “And now we got Virtues in front of us.”
“Me? You’re the one who drove.” They both started shoving each other, never actually getting to their feet. It was like watching two toddlers fight over a chicken nugget while sitting at a toddler table.
“Hey, Tweedles!” My voice stopped them in their tracks. “Why don’t both of you admit you’re idiots and need to get your shit together.”
“Yeah, neither one of you will survive Fourth Realm or Clementine’s rule.” Chanel wagged her eyebrows. “Or Riven’s.”
They both shuddered and sat up straighter. Somehow, I knew this wouldn’t be the last time we came across these two. But Zuriel asked us to talk some sense into them. I wasn’t sure either had any sense at all though.
“So is this the last time we’re going to see either of you?”
They both nodded with those stupid blank looks on their faces. “Yeah, oh, yeah.”
“Good.” We both turned in unison and began to walk away from the cells back down the hall.
One of the Tweedles called out. “Hey, aren’t you gonna let us out.”
“Maybe,” Chanel called out.
“Eventually,” I added.
They whined and called after us, but it was easy for us to tune out stupid. Chanel bit her bottom lip and her eyes darted.
I said what we both knew she was thinking. “So, your bad boy . . . Wasn’t he mobster chic?”
“He’s not my bad boy.” She paused. “But yeah.”
I chuckled. “Man, you know how to pick ‘em.”
“You mean, I know how to pick hot,” she corrected.
“Fair enough.” We turned down the hall and headed back to the elevator. “Wanna go visit Benny?”
“Obviously.”
We didn’t speak as we made our way to the roof and took off flying across the night sky.
Benny’s place wasn’t far from The Emerald.
We could get there in less than an hour by train, but if we flew it would be only minutes.
I glanced toward Chanel, waiting for her to say something .
. . anything. Instead, an odd tension rolled off her.
I cleared my throat to get her attention. “There’s a disturbance in the force here, Chanel. What’s in your head?”
“It couldn’t be him, could it?” Her eyes roamed over the glowing streets below. “I mean, he was standing right in front of me, and I didn’t even sense who, or what, he was.”
“If these guys are as good as they say they are, then how could you? It’s not like he was draining some human dry in front of you.” There was no way she could know. “Plus, we meet so many people.”
She gave a tentative nod. “True, true.”
We were out of the city and landing on the roof of Benny’s strip club in moments.
When I landed, I just kept walking. I moved to the edge of the roof and stepped right off, landing outside the front door.
Chanel was right beside me as we walked through the door.
Thriller blasted from the speakers, and the whole place was covered in cheap dollar store decorations.
Plastic masks were stapled to the walls and thin, glittery, black and orange garland was affixed to the wall with scotch tape.
The lights above the stage shined down on three separate poles—one orange, one green, and one purple.
The girls were dressed up in costumes: a nurse, a sexy witch, and a little devil.
I lowered my voice and leaned into Chanel. “Is it Halloween?”