Chapter 9 #2
A wave of bitter anger crosses his face before he continues.
“They tore through us as we slept, and in mere minutes, the former monk was able to turn all my dearest friends into monsters. I was the last to fall, but he got careless. His clothing was torn and, just as he finished turning me, he allowed the amulet he wore to touch my bare skin. It immediately restored my senses, so I ripped the stone from his neck to distract him and plunged the wooden stake still in my grip directly into his heart.”
He smoothly tucks the amulet back under his shirt with a satisfied smile and shrugs.
“I was going to stab the same stake through my own heart. I couldn’t allow myself to fall into madness and risk hurting…
those I loved.” His eyes fall on Rafa, who he has very much hurt.
The Hunter meets his father’s eyes, but I can’t read his expression.
Valiente gazes back with a twisted look of affection.
“But then I realized that because of the amulet in my hand, I was still myself. That I had no desire to cause harm to anyone. And that the friends I lost that day, and there were many”—he gestures again at the undead Hunters around the room—“that they all could be restored. If I had the right tools. The right magic.”
I squint, deeply skeptical. “Wait. So you’re saying what you’ve done”—like him, I gesture to the children and armed vampires that surround us—“kidnapping little kids for some ritual to summon an ancient god—it’s all just to get your buddies back?”
He huffs, bitterly. “Not just my buddies. My wife. The love of my life. And Rafa’s mother.
They turned her, too.” He looks to his right and a raven-haired Hunter in her thirties lowers her gun and steps forward, leaving the slight teen boy she was holding to tremble behind her.
Her eyes are both cold and wild—and completely devoid of humanity.
She stands there like a ravenous, hate-filled robot.
Rafa twists his head to see her, and his lips part with shock.
“Oh, God,” he whispers, tears welling up. Just like with his dad, it looks like he didn’t know about her, either.
“The amulet lets me control them. But that’s all.
She doesn’t recognize me. I can’t talk to her.
” Mr. Valiente’s voice hitches. “She’s gone, completely.
” He returns his gaze to me. “But with a little more of Ah Puch’s power, Rafa and I could have her back.
” He blinks back his own tears, tinged pink with blood, but his face fills with hope. “And we could have her back forever.”
He motions for her to return with a wave of his hand, and she resumes her position with her double-action Beretta raised to the boy’s temple.
When I check, I realize she’s surrounded by that ozone-flavored magic.
It’s all over this room. Around Valiente.
Around each of the vamps. Sprawling clouds of chlorine stink. That must be how he’s controlling them.
Not like I can do anything with that information, though.
Valiente’s voice rises. He’s become as fired up as a church pastor.
“And not just my wife. All of them. There are tens of thousands of vampires now, all around the globe, each one a rabid killer. But if we could restore them, they would no longer be monsters. They would think like humans again. Like the mothers and fathers and sons and daughters they used to be. Hell, humanity might even choose to embrace vampirism! This could be the start of a world without disease or death. Of never losing a loved one again. You’re young, and I won’t pretend the path would be easy, but surely you can see the benefit of such a tremendous chance for redemption and healing! ”
He finishes with a grin, standing tall, hand extended toward me, practically glowing with the possibilities.
I’m beginning to get a good idea why he built himself a stage.
When I walked in here, all I felt from him was bitter, superior cynicism—but he really seems to believe what he’s saying.
And it’s not like he doesn’t have a point.
If the minds of vampires could be completely restored to them, it’s not unreasonable to think they might be less dangerous than other paranormals.
They aren’t demons—they were born human.
And there are probably lots of ways they could get the blood they need.
I should know better than anyone that labeling someone a monster and calling it a day isn’t right.
But there are a few minor details he’s leaving out.
This guy has abducted kids, locked them up, fed on them, and currently has them at gunpoint.
He also tortured Collin, ceaselessly, mercilessly, for years.
And he clearly didn’t have a problem with beating up his own son and using him as bait.
Maybe he does have his intelligence back, but he’s still been acting an awful lot like a soulless monster.
If he truly were restored, you’d expect this former Monster Hunter to behave a bit better, no?
I glance up at Rafa to see if he’s buying any of this. He’s pressed his lips into a thin line, and his eyes dart from his father to the raven-haired vampire, clearly conflicted. What exactly that conflict is, I can’t tell.
I look to Collin. He wanted time to figure out what Valiente wanted, and I managed to trigger a full supervillain monologue. The Avatar of Knowledge is supposedly the smartest being in the universe. Surely, he has some answer for me by now!
It turns out he does—it’s just the last thing I’d ever expect him to say.
“Alvin, you should take the deal.”
I jerk my head to him. “What?!”
Mr. Valiente raises a curious eyebrow.
I nervously scrub a nonexistent itch on the back of my head with my knuckles. “I’m, uh, going to need a minute.”
The Vampire King’s expression flattens to a glower. “I am not a patient man.”
I let out a quick exhale. “Right. I just… You’ve given me a ton to think about. I want to consult with the Avatar about it. He says I should take your deal.”
“Really?” The corner of his lip curves. “Well, then, by all means. Take all sixty seconds, if you’d like.” Malice fills his eyes. “But one second longer, and I start painting the walls of this cavern with the blood of children. I’d hate to think you weren’t taking me seriously.”
He sweeps a pointed glance at the magic-leashed vampires, and I hear a series of clicks circle the room. It’s the hammer of each Beretta being cocked.
Crap.
I quickly nod, take a step back, pointlessly turn my back on Valiente, and glare at Collin. My voice is a harsh whisper, deep in the back of my throat. “You honestly want me to give you up to this dude? He’s clearly nuts.”
His lips purse. “No, of course I don’t. But I can read the room.
” He eyes the vamps blocking the exit. “He’s not going to let you walk out of here without a fight, and these aren’t the only vampires in the building.
I don’t know how long your juice will last, and if it comes to that, those kids are as good as dead. ”
I glance over my shoulder. Valiente is less than fifty feet away. “What if I were to use my super-speed to grab the amulet? That took down the last Vampire King or whatever the amulet makes him.”
“That was a distracted, untrained monk. Valiente is a born warrior. And even if you could snatch the necklace before he gave the order to kill, the only thing that’s keeping those vampires from feeding on the children is his control.
You’re fast right now, but not fast enough to stop more than a few from tearing those kids apart.
Making a deal is the only way you even get a chance to save all of them. ”
“And you really think I can trust him to hold up his end of the bargain?”
“That’s why I think you should agree. He won’t have any choice.
The fae don’t have a monopoly on supernatural pacts.
‘The covenant’ is a concept that underlies all magic, and since he’s been preparing to contact a great power, he’ll be well familiar with it.
If he promises you something in exchange for giving him control of the watch, he has to honor it.
If he doesn’t, it will be as if you never gave it up in the first place.
It would be no different than if he killed you for it while it was in your possession—it’ll be less than useless to him or anyone he’s associated with. ”
I clench my jaw, trying to keep up. “All right. Let’s say this does let me save the kids and Rafa, summoning an evil god of corpses still seems to me like a pretty bad idea.”
“It is. But breaking through the barrier between our world and where the Old Gods are trapped is something that will take serious time. At a minimum, he’d need a full night. And that’s only if he still has access to humans with magical potential.”
I glance back at Emma, whose breath is coming out in shallow puffs. But her desperate eyes never move from where I’m standing.
“And the kids should all want to come with me…” I touch his shoulder, picturing the gory torture Valiente put Collin through. “But he’ll still have you!”
He rests his hand on mine. “And I’ll still have you. Out there, safe, and doing everything you can to get me back. I told you I believed in you, and I meant it.” His eyes light up with affection and faith. “If anyone will figure out a way to save me from this monster, it’ll be my Alvin.”
His Alvin.
My whole life, I’ve wanted someone to believe in me, and now that it’s happening, I would do anything to have this on someone else’s shoulders. I’m in way over my head. Even with my unused incubus power, everything I’ve done so far has been with Collin’s help, and without him—
“Time’s up,” Mr. Valiente says. “You ready to deal, or do I need to prove my resolve?”
Collin steps back and nods encouragingly. It’s clear what he thinks I should do.
“The watch for Rafa and all the kids…” I drag out my words, trying to buy a few more seconds. But for what, I don’t know.
“The agreement is that you give me the watch and in exchange, anyone who wants to leave may do so and I promise to not come after them again.” He rests his hand on his son’s shoulder. “But if anyone chooses to stay, it will not void our arrangement.”
Rafa glares up at his father, but his eyes continue to slip toward his mother.
Who knows? Maybe it’s not unreasonable for Valiente to think Rafa might want to stick around.
Hell, he might even agree to do it just so he can help me rescue Collin later and foil his dad’s plans.
That sounds like the kind of stupid, heroic thing he’d try.
Still…
“I can’t help noticing you’re still being awfully specific, Mr. Valiente. I get why you think your son might choose to stay—maybe—but do you really think the children you kidnapped would want to?”
“I do,” he says. And that same crazy self-belief is back in his eyes. “The ritual won’t kill them, what I’m doing is righteous, and I’ve offered them a reward!”
“What reward?”
“Training they can’t get anywhere else, among other things. You’re stalling.”
He gestures at the muscular, bearded vampire holding Emma.
“On the count of three,” Valiente begins. “One…”
Nicole’s daughter struggles in the iron grip of the undead Hunter who looks like freaking Bluto from Popeye. Her eyes bulge at me like she’s trapped in a burning building and I’m the last firefighter on Earth.
Valiente must have noticed that I kept looking at her. That’s why he chose her!
“Two…”
Crap. This whole “exchange” he’s offering is feeling more and more like one big red flag.
It’s some kind of magical contract, and Valiente is insisting on specific language like a fae.
He’s rushing me, refusing to negotiate or give me time to think.
And Collin is just standing there, gently smiling at me, like a lamb willing to be led to the slaughter—like when the elf wanted to take him from me in my apartment, and he didn’t want me to get hurt.
But this time, stomping my feet and refusing to hand the watch over will just get a bunch of kids killed.
And if I choose to attack Valiente instead, same thing.
If this were Ms. Stryker, she’d surely know some way to turn this to her advantage, but I finally have real power, and I have absolutely no idea what to do with it! I’m out of time, out of options, and just not smart enough—
“Thr—”
“I’ll make the deal!” I cry out.