Chapter 23 #2
“Oh wonderful, they’re here, too,” Tati muttered under her breath.
“We’re doing this again?” Roxy asked, folding her arms in front of her chest.
“Yes,” Kit confirmed. “We needed to get in touch with you, but Conroy wasn’t amenable to our polite request.”
“So you resorted to attempted murder?” Xavier asked, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
Kit shrugged. “It seemed the quickest way to get your attention.”
“If you wanted my attention, little one, all you had to do was ask,” Xavier said.
“Stop flirting with my boy,” Quin said. There was an underlying threat in the words that got Kit hot under the collar.
Xavier chuckled, but dipped his head in agreement.
Roxy rolled her eyes. “Will the new vampires please let Conroy go?”
Shaun’s gaze flitted to Kit’s. He pursed his lips, then nodded. Shaun jumped up and, once he was out of reach, Rake and DJ let go of Conroy’s arms. The second he was free, Conroy cursed and blurred after them.
“No,” Roxy snapped. “Stand down.”
Conroy ignored her, advancing on Shaun with a snarl.
Kit couldn’t do anything but watch as Conroy caught up to Shaun, dodging between Rake and DJ as they attempted to block him.
The two grappled, Conroy’s height giving him the advantage.
He flung Shaun halfway across the room before DJ barrelled into him, throwing him to the ground.
Kit wanted to check on Shaun, but he couldn’t leave Quin standing alone as an easy target.
Seeing their leader was no longer at immediate risk of being beheaded, the other vampires sprang into action.
Kezia and Tati seized the opportunity to go for Rake, who hissed like a feral cat and lashed out at them with his claws.
They didn’t land, however. Rake’s fingers moved through the air as if he was swimming through a thick pool of oil. Kezia let out an oddly truncated shriek, and Tati’s attack ceased before it truly began, her legs seeming to root to the spot.
The slow-motion wasn’t Kit’s imagination. He looked up slowly, his eyes taking a while to fix on Roxy, who had both hands raised in front of her and was chanting words that made no sense to him. Kit tried to speak but found himself unable to move.
“You will all stand down,” Roxy intoned.
Everyone dropped to the floor, dancing puppets with their strings cut. Once Kit got over the shock, he flexed his fingers and realised he could move again. He rose to a crouch, tension coiling in his gut. Quin groaned as he shuffled onto his knees.
Conroy was the first one back on his feet. “Roxy, you cannot deny me the pleasure of killing the ones who dared to attack me in my territory,” he boomed.
“It wouldn’t have happened if you’d just let them speak to us,” Roxy said.
“That’s victim blaming!” one of Conroy’s creations said, their chin-length hair bouncing around their face.
“Conroy, tell your creations to go upstairs, or we’ll make them,” Xavier said.
Conroy clenched his jaw hard, but threw a hand towards the stairs.
“Go. Now,” he said. “And take the humans with you.” It was a command layered with compulsion, and half of his vampires seemed to be affected.
The other half heeded his word anyway, muttering compulsions to the humans and staring daggers at Roxy and Xavier as they went past them.
“But, Master—” Kezia started.
“You and Tati keep an eye on them all,” Conroy said. “I’m trustin’ you with that.”
Kezia nodded and walked to the stairs. Tati looked like she wanted to argue, but Kezia grasped her arm and pulled her along.
The vampire who’d spoken previously dragged their feet, glancing back at the rest of them.
Kit stood to watch them go as Xavier raised a finger and said something incomprehensible.
A small fire burst into existence under the vampire’s arse, speeding them along.
Kit couldn’t cover his mouth fast enough to stop his laugh. Xavier caught his eye and winked.
Quin coughed pointedly, coming up behind Kit and throwing a possessive arm around him, pulling Kit’s back to his front. It was over the top and unwarranted, but Kit liked it.
“Xavier, stop winding the werewolf up,” Roxy said.
“But it’s so fun.”
Roxy let out a sigh. “So, what’s all this about, then?”
Kit swallowed. “We’re being haunted. I don’t suppose there’s anything you can do about that?”
“‘Haunted’?” Roxy repeated. “By what?”
“A…ghost?” Kit tried.
She cocked her head. “Really?”
“You think I staged a murder attempt to tell you a made-up story about seeing ghosts?” Kit bit out.
“That wouldn’t make much sense now, would it?” Quin added. “The ghost of Kit’s creator possessed me.”
“Huh,” DJ said. “I’ve just realised it’s like paranormal turducken.”
“Paranormal what now?” Shaun asked.
“That’s a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken. This is like a…werewolf stuffed with the ghost of a vampire,” DJ said slowly.
“A vampire ghost. Right,” Roxy said, contemplative. “I haven’t encountered one of those before.”
Kit’s hope, which had been rising with each successful step of their plan, fell right into the pit of his stomach. “You haven’t? Do vampires not come back as ghosts often?”
Roxy’s face screwed up. “As cliché as it is, ghosts stick around because they’ve got something they need to do. Vampires live so long that they tend to achieve everything they want to across their multiple lifetimes. Your creator must have a good reason to hold on.”
“Wait, unfinished business is a thing?” Shaun asked. He was standing with Rake and DJ flanking him, all of them facing Roxy and Xavier. Conroy had slunk over to a sofa and was watching the back-and-forth with a scowl.
“It certainly is,” Roxy said.
“We killed him,” Kit admitted, one hand reaching out and grabbing hold of Quin’s arm. “I’m guessing that Lawrence’s unfinished business involves killing all of us in revenge.”
“And before you say anything about us taking him out, Conroy,” Shaun said, “I had the permission of the Brighton territory leader to take such action.”
“That mess with Lynette was y’all’s doing?” Conroy asked, a deep frown furrowing his brow.
“Yes. Keep that in mind the next time you try to kill any of us,” Rake said mildly.
“I can’t say for certain what your creator’s unfinished business is,” Roxy said, putting an abrupt stop to the back and forth. “But revenge sounds likely.”
“Damn, so we can’t just help him satisfy his unfinished business to banish him, can we?” DJ asked.
“Not unless you all plan on offing yourselves,” Roxy agreed.
“I’d not oppose that option,” Conroy muttered.
“Fuck off, Conroy,” Kit and Quin said in unison.
“Aw, you guys are so in sync,” DJ said, clasping his hands in front of him and looking at them both with eyes so large he looked like he belonged in an anime. “But yeah, fuck off, Conroy,” he added, breaking the illusion.
“So, do you know how to get rid of him?” Kit asked.
Roxy exchanged a glance with Xavier before speaking. “We can trap him inside an object. How long has he been dead?”
“A few years,” Shaun said.
Roxy hummed contemplatively. “Long enough to gain a proper foothold, I’ll wager.
We’ll need an item that belonged to him—a talisman, an anchor, something that meant a lot.
Gems, stones and metals are the best for this kind of spell.
Plus,” she added with a grin, “those items are easy to drop into the middle of the ocean.”
“Couldn’t you trap Lawrence in a frisbee?” DJ asked. “That would be even better for chucking him away. You could just”—he mimed tossing a frisbee—“yeet him into the sea.”
“Did Lawrence have any emotional attachment to a specific frisbee?” Roxy asked, so deadpan that Kit wasn’t sure if she was humouring DJ or not.
“Funnily enough,” Kit said, eager to stop this avenue of discussion, “no, he didn’t.”
“Ah,” she said. “No frisbee option then, I’m afraid.”
“But we compelled someone to get rid of all of Lawrence’s stuff for us,” Shaun said.
“I’m not sure how quick it’ll be to trace the items.” As Shaun spoke, Kit realised he might be the only one of them who still knew where to find something Lawrence had owned.
His nightmares reminded him often of his past, though he’d prefer not to speak of it.
“We didn’t get rid of everything!” DJ exclaimed, giving Kit hope. “Van kept those Russian nesting dolls.” DJ looked at Roxy and Xavier. “Sorry if that’s offensive.”
Roxy shot him a blank look. “What about that did you think would offend me?”
“The Russian part?”
“And why would that offend me? I am Russian, and so are the dolls.”
“Oh, good,” DJ said, visibly relieved. “Then how about we get Van to send them to us?”
“One problem with that,” Rake said. “She thinks we live in Australia.”
“Van totally knows we don’t live in Australia,” DJ said.
“Not to put a downer on the idea, but the dolls are wood, and Lawrence only liked them for being expensive,” Shaun said.
Kit had been holding back, but it seemed like they were out of other options. “The manor house,” he whispered.
Shaun caught his eye. “What manor house?”
Everyone’s attention redirected to Kit. He fought to keep his expression neutral. “It’s near the Borders. The place where I spent the last few months of my mortal life.”
“Wasn’t it sold with the rest of his properties?” Rake asked. “I don’t remember seeing it in the portfolio.”
“It was condemned after I set the fire,” Kit said, avoiding meeting Quin’s gaze.
He hadn’t told him this part yet. Doing it in front of the others was like digging a stubborn skelf out from deep in his finger.
“I burned it down during the day with us both inside. It’s far out in the middle of nowhere, so there’s little chance that anyone would have bothered to fully demolish it.
He had a lot of things he cared for there.
It might not be in the best condition, but anything gold probably survived. ”