When he woke up, he still carried the smell with him.Not understanding where it had come from, he took off his shoes and set them outside.When that didn’t help, he tried everything else he could think of, but all it did was—the nudge to his mind had him pausing.There was no ignoring the call from the person who had contacted him.
“It is I, your king, Brewster Smith.I command you to come to me immediately.”He said that he had a problem and wasn’t going to be able to make it anytime soon.“I didn’t ask you to come to me; I commanded it.Make your way to me beginning now, or I shall have to come to you.”
“Good luck finding me.I’ve been working on my lair for decades.”The laughter startled him, and he decided that he didn’t have time for this.“If you’re so set on coming to me, then try that.As I said, I’ve been working on keeping people out of my business for too long to let some pussy ass try and find me now.I’m busy.”
The entire cave shook enough that the walls came down around him.The bed was ruined, and his dressers, stuffed full of clothing, were smashed.As he ran out of the cave, more walls came down, and he knew he’d never be able to enter his domain again.Even as he left the mouth of his home, a great stone came from the top, blocking his entrance for now and forever.
“Now you have time.Come to me immediately, or I shall come to you.And you don’t want that to happen.I have commanded it, and so it will be.”He started to protest once again, but the ground beneath him shook a bit more, and he fell on his ass.“Immediately.”
~*~
If asked, Brew wouldn’t have thought that he’d had that much power.All he’d meant to do was throw the man off his feet and be done with it.But once he decided he didn’t want to play around with the man anymore, his power seemed to come to him in great waves.Sitting down with a glass of wine in front of him.Brew looked at his dear friend Rance and asked him what he wanted to do now.
“Not piss you off is one thing I’m going to work very hard in not doing.Did you mean to do that?”He said that once he started, it was like he couldn’t stop.“Good thing to know.You’ve no idea what you can do when you’re pissed.I don’t think that’s a good thing, Brew.”
“No.But when I thought of him standing there while the flames were burning her house down,masturbating, my temper got the better of me.Do you suppose that he does that?Sets fires to houses and jerks off as they burn?”He said that it sounded like something he’d do.“He’s a sick fuck, you know that, don’t you?”
“What I know is that he’s sick about something.Did you see in his mind before you started your show of power?”He said that he knew what his plan for Kimber was.“Is it bad?”
“He plans to flay her alive while you watch.He doesn’t know what she means to you or that she’s your mate, but his only concern is that you’ve been hanging out with her and he doesn’t want you to have her.”Rance started pacing the room, and he let him.Knowing the kind of power that he had made him slightly ill.He looked at Rance when he stopped pacing.“You know, I’ve heard of his work before.About ten years ago, a family of five was killed the same way.I don’t remember what the circumstances were that made him do it, but it couldn’t have been that much.Some slight that he felt they’d done to him.”
“There’s more.”He sat down and looked at him.Brew didn’t want to tell him, but he knew that he had to do something.“Also, he thinks you have no power or magic.You have more magic than I do…thought I did.You should read his mind.”
“I’ve not reached out to him in decades.I’d have to search for the link.”Brew told him that it would be well worth it.“What are you not telling me?Something important that I should know about him?”
“Yes.He’s had the ‘‘council under his thumb for some time.He’s also lost some of his vampirical powers.He can’t hold shadows, nor can he change his clothing at will.”He asked what else.“He can only show his fangs when he’s ready to feed.And the person that he feeds off of, their wounds will seal even if he doesn’t do it.That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t kill them anyway, but those might prove to be important sometime.He has no ability to tell what a person is.I’m not sure why that’s going to be something that they did to him.Not even when he feeds from them can he tell what they are.Also, he had plans to go to the council to have them reverse the punishment that he’d had given him.He might well have done it too if they hadn’t been fired by me.”
“There’s more?”He nodded.“Just tell me.I’m on pins and needles waiting for you to tell me in bits and pieces.”
“He killed your parents.I don’t know how he was able to do that, but he practiced his ability to flay a person on them.The council knew about it, too.One more thing that I have to talk to them about.He’s killed every person or thing that he’s fed from as well.His death toll is higher than that of any other vampire that lives right now.”
“You’re kidding me.”He said that he’d not joke about something like that.“So he’s been murdering humans and shifters, I assume, for as long as he’s been able to feed.”
“Yes.”When he left it there, he thought about the other things that David had done.He’d been murdering children in their beds, killing animals that meant no harm to him.But his worst crime to date was killing his parents.That was a big law that he’d broken, and there was no way that he should have been able to live after the council found out about it.“I’m going to take him to task when he gets here.”
“Do you think he’ll come here?”He said that he’d better.“I don’t know why, but I think he’s going to avoid you pretty much like he has every other law that we have for our kind.He doesn’t strike me as a man who has any qualms about doing what he wants when he wants to.”
For some reason, he believed he might be right.So far, rules hadn’t meant shit to him, and that kind of scared him a bit.Not that he thought the man was more powerful than him, but he might come after his Calla Lily and harm her.If he did that, then all bets were off, and he was going to be one dead vampire.He was going to kill him anyway, the rules of their kind said that he must, but he could worry about his wife if—
“I’m going to have to talk to Kimber about him.He’s not going to wait around before finding her and trying to kill her.And if he tries to flay her, which you said is in his mind, her being immortal will not go well for her.She’ll not die, no matter what he does with her, unless he removes her head.And since he doesn’t have the ability to tell what she is, then he’ll hurt her badly before he’s finished with her.”Brew said he’d not thought of that when he was telling him about that inability.“It’s all I can think about.He’s going to die if he tries to feed from her.He’s going to die anyway, but if he feeds from her, being his step-sister-in-law, he’s going to be poisoned.”
“It would be better if you were to bond with her as soon as possible.”He said that he’d talk to her about it.“She’s going to have to understand that her very life depends on her having more power than he does.She might already, but we’ll have no way of knowing until he comes for her.And by then it might be too late.”
“I’ll talk to her tonight.”He knew that he would, but it worried him that she was still trying to trust him.“I’ve explained about David, but I’ll have to tell her the entire story.Perhaps she’ll understand it better if I were to tell her about his parents.”
“I’ll have Calla Lily give her those books, too.That’ll help her to understand better what she’ll be up against when he comes after her.”He asked if he was sure that he would.“As sure as I am of my love of Calla Lily.”
“I have a lot of making up to do.I didn’t treat her right when I first met her.I told her that I didn’t want her and discovered that I can’t live without her.”He asked him if they were all right now.“Well, she’s living at my house until she decides if she likes it or not.The only way now is that she lives with me until we find something else or make it our forever home.Having her place burnt to the ground didn’t help anything at all.”
“No, it wouldn’t.”He asked about how she was taking it.“As well as can be expected.She lost everything but her computer.The only reason that she had that was because when I brought her to my house to look around, she asked for it to come along with us.When I think about him doing what he did, Brew, it’s all I can do not to find him and kill him.”
“You’d be justified in it, too.I’d make sure you were.”Rance looked so dejected that he wanted to do more for him.What was it?He didn’t know, but there had to be something he could do.“When the two of you come up with a plan, let me know about it.I’m sure she’s devastated right now, but she’ll have to get over it soon.She needs to focus on what David could do if he’s going to find her.”
“I’ll talk to her once I get going home.”He looked at the clock.“I said I’d be home by six.It’s nearly that now.I’ll go and talk to her tonight and take those books to her.She might like reading them while she’s at the house.We’ll take good care of them.”
“I know you will.”After gathering up the books that Calla had had, he sent him on his way.Brew wanted to do something more to David, but until he brought him before him in a formal setting, there was little he could do.He was going to send a few faeries to watch over him, but to make sure they weren’t hurt too.So many lives had been taken by the monster that he found that even the smallest creatures made his heart hurt because of what he’d done to them.
Brew called the ex-councilmen to his home.He wanted answers, and the only way he was going to get them was if he used his power to get them.As they sat in his office, the three of them looking none the worse for wear, he asked them about David Smith.
