Michael leapt into the bushes, heading for the next street over. I followed him, losing sight of him for a moment, listening as Maggie snapped directions in my ear. I leapt a fallen tree, went down into a ditch and up the other side, then vaulted a guardrail. I got my eyes back on Michael the moment he came parallel to my truck. The driver’s door suddenly swung open, hitting him with enough force that he bounced off it, hit the ground, and began to roll through the middle of the street. Olivia stepped out as I reached Michael. I tossed the blood tally toward my truck and did my very best football tackle as Michael tried to get back on his feet. I was not letting him get away again.
Michael tried to fight me off, but it was almost sad. He slapped and kicked, but a fighter he was not. I flipped him onto his stomach and knelt on the spot between his shoulders. “Hold on,” I told him. “Just hold on, damn it. If you’ll calm down for just one second …”
“I’m not going back to him!” Michael wailed. “I can’t do it. Not now. I’m not going back. The blood tally!”
“I damn well know what it is, and I’m not giving it back to him.” That got his attention. He fell still long enough that I could handcuff him and drag him around behind my truck so anyone passing casually wouldn’t see us. “Look at me,” I told him. “Look! I’m not going to hand you over. I’ve got plans to keep the blood tally from going back to Boris, but I need you to disappear.”
Michael flinched away from me, but he kept his gaze locked on mine, only shifting it long enough to glance toward Olivia. “What do you mean?”
“I mean …” I was cut off by a warning prick of pain on my ring finger. Mags?
You have company, she snapped. It’s coming in hot from the south.
Almost as soon as the warning was out of her mouth, I saw a big black Suburban take a turn going much too fast down the road. It barreled toward us, then slammed on its breaks to come skidding up next to my truck. There were only two occupants, and they emerged before the Suburban had come to a complete stop. One of them was a tall, muscular black man wearing sunglasses. I would have bet anything he was a vampire, though I couldn’t see his eyes. The other was Jacques. The dhampir was dressed in his tailored suit, wearing sunglasses and holding a sheathed rapier much like the one Adrian had.
Goddamned vampires and their swords.
“Olivia,” I hissed. “Get back in the truck and get the hell out of here.” I tossed her the keys and didn’t bother to hide my surprise as I turned back toward Jacques. “How the fuck did you find me this time?”
Jacques grinned. He grinned at me, at Olivia, at Michael, and most especially at the blood tally lying next to my back tire. “It took us a while, but we got a contact at the phone company to pinpoint your location just after you and I talked an hour ago. Well done, Agent Fitz.” He walked around my truck and down onto the grass to stand next to me. I backed up a couple of paces, jerking my head at Olivia. “Don’t go anywhere, witch,” Jacques said. The tone was amicable, but there was a warning there that stopped Olivia in her tracks. Jacques nodded at the tome. “Is that Boris Novak’s blood tally?” he asked Michael.
Michael trembled noticeably. “Who are you?” he asked.
Jacques drew his sword in one smooth motion, pressing the point against Michael’s cheek before I could react. “I asked you a question.”
“Ye … yes. It’s his bl … blood tally,” Michael managed.
“Good. Then we don’t need you anymore.” Jacques adjusted his aim slightly and leaned. His sword slid into Michael’s shoulder. Michael let out a horrible rasp and stiffened. I took two steps forward, reaching for Jacques, but he had already pulled his sword out and pointed it at me. I had to slam on the brakes to avoid the blade, tripping over my own feet as I stumbled backward and landed on the ground.
Michael’s body slumped to one side. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. After all this work and headache, he was dead just like that. That death rasp played out in my ears again and again in the course of a few seconds, and I raised my eyes toward Jacques.
“Now,” Jacques said. “Your part of the deal. Hand me the blood tally, please.”
I looked over to see that I’d fallen just within reach of the tome. I felt a great pain shoot across my left eye and, without so much as a thought, felt my tusks rip out of my lower gums and emerge their full length, the tips hovering in my vision. Maggie.
With pleasure.
I reached out with my right hand and slapped the blood tally. Molten heat shot from Maggie’s ring, wrapped around the tome, and consumed it in a way that only sorcery can do. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jacques leap forward, a scream on his lips. His sword flashed almost faster than my eye could follow. I tried to roll to one side, but it hit the edge of my flack vest just below my shoulder. It snagged, pushed, and I could feel a sharp pain as the blade punched an inch into my chest. Grendel’s claw flared on the back of my right hand and I jerked my left hand upward, slicing neatly through the blade.
Jacques stumbled as his sudden weight threw him off balance. His companion was almost as quick as he was, leaping past us both and snatching the burning blood tally out of my hand. He juggled it, swearing, and dropped it as the cuffs of his suit jacket went up in flames. I balled my right hand into a fist, my tattoo of Mjolnir flaring to life, and took a swing at Jacques. It was a clumsy blow, thrown while lying down, and Jacques was able to leap out of the way.
I rolled to my feet, watching Jacques warily. The mist had descended over my eyes and I snapped my teeth at him, the troll berserker in me wanting nothing more than to tear his face off. I could see Olivia fumbling, rolling her hands around each other in an arcane gesture and then throwing them toward the second vampire just as he got the flames out on his sleeves. The powerful odor of garlic filled the air and something wet slapped into the vampire’s face, knocking him off his feet. He went down screaming, clawing at his face.
I growled at Jacques. The dhampir looked at his broken sword and then discarded it haughtily. He stripped off his suit jacket. “You’re a fool, Alek. A fool at every turn. You should have done your job and gone on with your pathetic life.”
“Go to hell,” I spat. I was ready for a fight. Yearning for it. But I needed an answer first. “What did you use to blackmail Ada?” I lifted both fists, my tattoos glowing.
Jacques laughed and began to roll up his sleeves. “I told her that I had a copy of your birth certificate and the contract from when she sold you. If she didn’t do the job, I was going to hand them over to you.”
That bit of information was like a punch in the gut. I blinked back at Jacques, some of the fight gone out of me. “Do you?”
Jacques glanced at the still-burning blood tally. He scoffed. “Of course I don’t. But she didn’t know that.” He raised both fists. “If it’s a fight you want, troll, it is a fight you will get. I’ll be sure to leave enough of the two of you alive to feed to my master. You won’t …”
I drew my Glock and put six silver bullets into his chest. A shocked expression crossed his face as he twitched backward with each impact, then fell over backward into the weeds.
I lowered my weapon, summoning enough peace of mind to check and see whether Olivia was okay. She seemed fine, if shaken. The vampire she’d hit with what appeared to be a glob of pure, magical garlic was now sobbing as he clawed at his own face. I touched one of my tusks, then put a hand to the spot where Jacques’s sword had punched through my vest. I was bleeding quite badly. “Take Eddie back to the AirBnB,” I told Olivia weakly.