Vex #3
“Vex,” Ophelia hisses, “what the hell is going on?”
“I’ll explain later,” I promise, though I’m not sure there will be a later. Not if this goes badly.
Otto turns his attention back to me. “Dot owed me. A lot. When she died, I thought I was out of luck. But then I heard you’d come back from the dead.” His tongue flicks across his fangs. He did not always have fangs. “Imagine my surprise when I claimed her debt with your life, and you’re alive.”
“Fledgling.” Soren relaxes just a fraction.
“Asmodeus.” Lazarus’s voice spills through the shop like the gauntlet thrown. “To what do I owe the pleasure.”
He slowly steps from the shadows. Tonight wearing black jeans, and a shirt I’m sure costs more than the rent here.
“Dagon,” Otto hisses.
“Long way from the West Coast, aren’t you, Otto?” Lazarus lazily walks toward the three of us, his eyes rolling over me. Then over Soren. The pause on Ophelia, annoyance rolling off him in waves.
Otto grinds his teeth. “I came back for what I’m owed.”
“There’s nothing here for you, Otto Knight.” Lazarus plants his feet wide, his eyes on Otto, on the vampires closing in. “Tell me, Otto, how long have you been a Knight?”
He hits a sore spot as Otto’s nostrils flare and his lip curls.
“Nothing?” Lazarus presses.
“I chose to remain as I am.”
“The last rung on a ladder,” Lazarus counters. “Tell me, who do you report to these days?” He tilts his head, amusement licking at his cheeks with the slightest of smiles. “Zaz?” When nothing happens he continues. “Zephir?” Nothing. “Drax?”
The slightest of huffs from Otto. “I’m here for what I’m owed.”
“What does Drax want?” Lazarus begins to pace. “Don’t tell me, I will find out.”
I’ve never been more nervous in my life. It’s one thing to wake as a vampire. Another to be told the world is real, that it exists. Another to find yourself surrounded by them.
“Leave,” Soren demands.
“Okay, okay.” Otto holds up his hands. “I’m taking her with me.”
He tries it, he tries to go for Ophelia. My sister. My person. My fucking anchor to this world.
The anger comes fast and hot but it’s no match for Lazarus.
The snap of a neck echoes all around us, and before I can ever register what happened he’s kicking Otto out the door.
Ophelia doesn’t scream, she gasps. The bat finally trembling in her hands.
“Relax, he isn’t dead.” Lazarus crouches before Otto whose eyes flicker between him and Ophelia, his mouth opens and closes like a frightened fish. “Who made you?”
Otto just gasps.
“You snapped his neck, did you think he’d talk?” Soren chuckles as the other vampires can’t decide to get closer or run.
I want to know why they don’t move. I want to know why they look at Lazarus as though he’s terrifying.
“He will.” Lazarus rolls him to his back, his neck twisted so he’s breathing in the gravel. “Eventually. Or I’ll find out what Drax Asmodeus wants on my own.”
“What the fuck.” Ophelia mumbles again. And again.
“Soren.” Lazarus doesn’t look up, says it like he’s bored.
Soren looks to me. “I need to clear her.”
I push Ophelia behind me. “Excuse me.”
“Her memories.” He steps closer.
“No.”
“I agree on the No.” Ophelia finally sounds like she is in over her head. She is. But I don’t want him fucking with her memories. How is that even an option?
“Vex, this isn’t up for negotiation.” Lazarus turns behind him. “If I were you, I’d run.”
They take one look at him and run.
“Okay why are they afraid of you?” I break because that is what is important right now. My fear is gone. Sure I’m nervous about Ophelia but this, this is something else entirely.
“Soren,” Lazarus says again.
He moves too fast. Faster than me, faster than I can do my dissolve trick.
“Sleep,” Soren says to Ophelia.
“Fuck you.”
Soren tilts his head. “Sleep.”
“Fuck.” Ophelia doesn’t sleep, she stares him down. “You.”
Lazarus just sighs. “Should have known. Vex transitioned too easy.” He finally looks at me. “Your sister is immune to memory wipes.”
“Huh.” Soren’s hands settle on his hips. “That’s new.”
“Is it?” Lazarus sounds almost irritated at the fact. “Finally.” We all look over at that singular word. “Leave, go back to the west coast. There’s nothing more here for you.”
Otto chokes and rolls over, gasping for breath as his neck snaps into place.
“Otto, if you return I will take your head.” Lazarus crouches to look him in the eyes. “And then I’ll kill the one who made you. Do you understand?”
Otto gasps again, his head still doesn’t sit quite right on his shoulders as he takes off down the street. Neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
“He’s only a couple years old.” Lazarus turns to me. “When did Dot die?”
“Seven years ago,” Ophie answers.
“Some vampires once turned believe it is a way for them to take control of everyone who wronged them.” Lazarus turns to us finally. “He thought killing you was a part of his revenge. Why would he think that, Vex?”
Some secrets, we take to the grave.
But what happens when those secrets don’t just die with us but come back with us to haunt us.
“Wait,” Ophelia interrupts. “Did you say vampires?”