Holidays Are Hell Read online

  “Damn,” I whispered, then took a deep breath to feel the cold slip in to replace the warmth. He certainly knew what he was doing. Not only had he gotten me to stay, but I wasn’t angry with him at all. Must be a charm.

  Charm. Yeah, he was charming all right. Like that changed anything?

  Pulse fast, I went inside. I flicked off the coffeemaker, and then seeing the dusty box sitting there like a red flag waving in the breeze, I scribbled a quick note for my mom, telling her Robbie was at the I.S. and that I had fled with someone I had met at the square who knew who had taken Sarah. I had the car and was going to help him. I’d be back about sunrise.

  I looked at it, then added, love you—rachel.

  I shivered as I stuffed an arm into a coat sleeve. I was going to help a ghost rescue a missing child from a vampire. God! A dead vamp, probably.

  “This is what you want to do for a living,” I muttered as I snatched up a set of keys, my fingers trembling. “If you can’t do it now, you may as well go to the coast with your brother.”

  No way. I felt alive, my heart pounding, and my emotions high. It was a great sensation, and it stayed with me all the way out to the garage. A spring in my step, I yanked the garage door up and into the ceiling with a satisfying quickness. I usually had to have my mom do it.

  As I strode to the driver’s side, my fingers traced the smooth lines of the beat-up Volkswagen bug I had bought with what had been left over from selling The Bat. It ran most of the time. I got in, feeling how stiff the vinyl seats were from the cold. The temperature had been dropping steadily now that the snow had stopped, and I was freezing.

  “Please start…” I begged, then patted the steering wheel when it sputtered to life. “Tell me I can’t come?” I whispered, turning to look behind me as I backed out with a tinny putt-putt of a sound. Okay, I didn’t have a real license yet, but who was going to give me a ticket on the solstice? Scrooge?

  Still riding the high, I putted down the street, lights on and scanning the sidewalk. I found him two blocks down. He was still running, but he was in the street now, probably after finding too many of our neighbors hadn’t shoveled their walks. I rolled my window down and pulled up alongside of him. He glanced at me, then stopped with a look of ambivalence.

  I grinned. “Sorry for ruining your farewell speech. I really liked it. You want a ride?”

  “You can drive,” he said, his eyes tracing the car’s odd shape.

  “Of course I can.” It was cold, and I flicked the heat on. The almost-warm air shifted my hair, and I saw him look at the drifting strands, making me wonder what it would feel like if he ran his fingers through it.

  He stood in the freezing night, not a puff of breath showing as he stood to look charming in his indecision. “It’s powerfully difficult to run and not try to breathe at the same time,” he finally said. “Do you know the streets to the east hills?”

  I nodded, and my grin grew that much wider. His head down dejectedly, he came around the front, the lights flashing bright as they hit him. I stifled my smile when he fumbled for the latch, finally figuring it out and getting in. He settled himself as I accelerated slowly.

  “You will stay in the carriage when we get there,” he grumbled, stomping the snow from his boots, and I just smirked.

  Yeah. Right.

  Chapter 7

  Faint on the cold air was the singing of Christmas carolers, obvious now that I’d turned the car off. My car door thumped shut, the sound muffed from the mounds of snow the plows had thrown up, and I breathed slowly, pulling the crisp night deep into me. Above, the stars looked especially sharp from the dry air. It had gotten cold, ice-cracking cold. The faint breeze seemed to go right through my coat. It was about four in the morning. Only Inderlanders and crazy humans were up this time of night, which was fine by me.

  Pierce’s door shut a moment behind mine, and I smiled at him over the car. He didn’t smile back, his brow furrowed in an expression of coming nastiness. While he paced around to my side, I leaned against the cold metal and gazed at the house we had parked across from.

  We were way up in the hills in the better part of town where the well-to-do had lived ever since inclined-plane railways had made it easy to make it up the steep slopes. The house in question was older than that, making it remote and lonely in Pierce’s time. It was a monster of a structure, clearly added to and rebuilt along with the times, with multiple stories, turrets, and a wraparound porch of smooth river rocks: old money, big trees, and a fantastic view of Cincinnati. Bright Christmas decorations were everywhere, flashing in an eerie silent display.

  The sound of Pierce’s shoes crunching on the frozen slush jolted me into motion, and I pushed off the car and headed to the wide porch.

  “I would request you retire into the carriage and wait,” he said from beside me.

  I kept my eyes forward as we crossed the street. “It’s called a car, and you can request all you want, but it’s not going to happen.”

  We reached the shoveled sidewalk and Pierce grabbed my wrist. I jerked to a stop, startled at the strength he was using.

  “Forgive me, Miss Rachel,” he said, lips pressed thin and tight. “You’re full of grit, but I simply will not be able to live with myself if harm comes to you because of me.”

  My own anger stirred. “Then it’s a good thing you’re not alive, huh?”

  Shaking his head, he started to tug me back to the car. “I’m sorry for using my advantage to force you. Truly I am.”

  Here comes the him-hoisting-me-over-his-shoulder bit, with me kicking and screaming as he locks me in my own car? Not going to happen. “Let go,” I threatened as he pulled me a step. “I mean it, Pierce. Let go, or you’re going to be in a world of hurt.” But he didn’t.

  Glad now I didn’t have on mittens, I yanked him to a stop, spun my wrist with a loop-de-loop motion into a modified acrobat twin-hold on his palm, stepped under his arm, and flipped him into a snowbank.

  He hit it with a puff of snow, staring up at me in surprise. “Land sakes, how did you do that?” he stammered, eyes wide in the low street light.

  I stood over him with my hands on my hips, utterly satisfied. “Try to lock me in the car again, and I’ll show you.”

  Pierce started to get up, and I reached to help him. Making a grunt, he accepted, rising to brush the snow from his long coat with sharp, bothered motions.

  “I’m going in there,” I said, nodding at the house.

  “Miss Rachel,” he started, and I took a step forward, getting into his face.

  “This is what I want to do with my life,” I said. “I have a circle amulet. I’m not helpless. And you can’t stop me.”

  Shifting on his feet, he started to look annoyed. “Rachel, I’m schooled for this.”

  “And you still ended up dead,” I shot back.

  “That’s my very argument. A body can see it’s too dangerous.” I made a face, and he took both my hands in his, adding sincerely, “I know you’re of a mind to help. You’re a brave, courageous woman, but you mustn’t kick. This vampire is several hundred years dead, and you are eighteen. Consider it logically.”

  I rather liked his fingers in mine, but I pulled away, not wanting him to make me into putty. Again. “Logically?” I said, starting to get cold. “Yes, let’s look at this logically. Training or not, you don’t have anything but a few trinkets to help you if you can’t tap a line. You don’t have a chance to rescue that girl without me, and you know it.”

  He hesitated, and I surged ahead at the worried slant to his eyes. “Tell me you don’t need me,” I said, pointing. “That being able to tap a line isn’t going to make the difference between saving her or not. Tell me that.”

  Pierce’s gaze went to our feet, then rose. “I can’t,” he said firmly.

  “Then I’m coming with you.”

  Again I started for the door. Pierce walked a step behind, slow and ponderous. “Now I have to watch for you, too,” I heard him mutter, but I didn’t care.
I was going.

  I slowed to slip my hand into his. He started, and I tapped a line. Energy flowed coolly into me to make my hair start to float around the edges of my hat, and I gave his fingers a squeeze. “It’s going to be all right,” I said firmly, and I shivered when he pulled a thin trace of power into himself.

  We were almost up to the wide porch with its stylized Christmas tree when I realized his intent was to storm the front. “Uh, shouldn’t we go in the back door or something?” I asked, and he smiled.

  “You’ve listened to too many adventure tales. They never expect the front door.”

  “Still,” I said as he knocked briskly.

  “The front door,” he said, glancing askance at me and tugging his coat straight. “They undoubtedly have made note of our presence, and it looks foolish to be caught skulking behind the trash bins.”

  I jumped at the rattle of the doorknob. A surge of adrenaline, and my pulse quickened. I stood wide-eyed beside Pierce as the door opened to show Sarah, standing alone and beautiful in an elegant dress of old lace. Her face was pale, but her look of fear set one of my worries to rest. She hadn’t been bitten and bound yet.

  Pierce saw her, and he smiled. “And sometimes, it’s that easy.”

  Sarah’s mouth opened. “It’s a trap!” she shrilled, still standing there. “Help me!”

  With a thump, my heart tripped into overdrive. I stumbled back when two men in black came from around the doorframe. One yanked Sarah inside. The other reached past the threshold, and before I could find the breath to scream, jerked us over the threshold.

  Now I shrieked, finding myself skating across the hardwood floor to slide into the wall in a crumpled heap.

  A loud “Ow!” pulled my head up, and I found Pierce askew on the stairway leading to the upper floors. I got to my feet, tense and hunched. Sarah was gone, but I could hear her crying. Her sobs grew fainter, but never disappeared. A door slammed.

  Pierce rose and tossed his black hair out of his eyes. His lips were pressed together, and he seemed mad at himself more than anything else. The remaining man, a vampire by the glint of fang and telltale grace, was fronting him. I stumbled to stand against the wall, and he focused on me.

  “Don’t touch me,” I said, feeling a faint pull from his charisma and a lot of fear.

  Pierce touched his lip, surprise widening his eyes when his hand came away red with blood. “Inform your master I wish to parlay,” he said, his words almost laughably formal. “We have a small gentleman-matter standing between us.”

  “Where’s the girl?” I blurted, thinking I could hear her under my feet somewhere.

  The vampire between us and the door smiled, chilling me. “I’d be more worried about your own neck, little witch,” he said to me, but looking at Pierce, clearly the greater threat.

  “Christopher!” Pierce shouted, and I felt a wash of dizziness. “Come out of your hole, you disgusting spawn. We have a matter of early interment to discuss!”

  The vampire moved. I pressed against the wall as he took a too-fast step to Pierce and smacked him.

  “Pierce!” I shouted as the small man fell backwards into the stairs again. “Leave him alone!” I shouted at the vampire.

  Standing at the foot of the stairs, the vampire smiled. “Do you have a mommy, little girl? Will she cry for you?”

  Fear slid down my spine, pushing out the fatigue and the dizziness. I stood, alive for what seemed like the first time. Too bad it was about to end. Right when it was getting good.

  “Pay me mind, not her,” said Pierce, picking himself up again.

  The vampire took one step to me, and Pierce pulled a charm from his pocket. I had an instant to prepare, and then he pulled the pin.

  The front hallway shook in a boom of sound. I cowered as the chandelier swayed, and the windows in the door blew out. Falling into a ball, I crouched in the corner where the wall met the stairway, feeling my ears throb.

  Someone touched my shoulder. Panic gave me strength. Wide-eyed, I turned to strike, stopping at the soft pull of ley line running through me.

  Pierce.

  Exhaling in a wash of relief, I found him close and worried. He crouched beside me and fingered another amulet. “Grit your teeth, and close your eyes,” he said. “Forgive me if it’s too much.”

  I nodded. Hunching down, I tried to become one with the floor. My breath caught as a silver-lined ribbon of ever-after iced through me to leave the taste of tinfoil in my veins. The soft presence of Pierce’s body covered mine, sheltering me.

  A second boom of sound pulsed over us, and in a visible cloud, the scent of dust and broken wood rose. Coughing, I looked up as Pierce slipped his hand in mind and helped me stand. The vampire was out cold against the wall beside the door. But even more startling was the four-foot-wide hole in the floor between us.

  Pierce peered into my eyes, striking me silent with how concerned he was. “Are you well? Did I hurt you?”

  I shook my head. “There’s a hole in the floor.”

  Pierce pulled me to it. “I’ll catch you.”

  I held my breath as he nonchalantly stepped off the edge of the floor and dropped from sight. From across the room came a soft groan, and the vampire moved.

  Pulse hammering, I sat on the floor and dangled my feet. “Here I come!” I warned him, then dropped.

  I stifled a shriek, but it came out as a yelp when he caught me and we fell in a tangle of arms and legs. We were in a lower living room with soft carpet and lighting, and expensive paintings on the walls. An entertainment center stood in one corner. There were two doors, one beside us, the other across the room.

  “You’re heavier than you look,” Pierce puffed, and I scrambled off of him.

  “Yeah, well, you’re a lousy catch.” I glanced up at the hole in the floor, then back to the TVs. There were a couple of them, and my lips parted when I recognized a black and white shot of my little car looking funny out there against the expensive estates. Closer to the house was the imprint in the drift where Pierce hit. It made me glad we’d come in the front.

  A frightened whimper caught my attention. Together Pierce and I looked to a far corner dusky with a soft light. My hope withered to nothing as I saw Sarah in the grip of a small man dressed in casual sophistication. His silk-clad arm was wrapped around her, covering her mouth. Tears marked her face, and she was terrified.

  “Gordian Pierce,” the vampire said in a soft, almost feminine voice. “You should have stayed dead.”

  I pressed back into Pierce, then realizing it made me look afraid, I rocked forward. I was still holding his hand. I was telling myself it was so he could do his magic, but the real reason was I was as scared as Sarah.

  “You haven’t changed,” Pierce said, a new accent coloring his words. “Still the same Nancy boy forcing your putrid self on little girls, I see.”

  Sarah made a heartbreaking sound, and the vampire, Christopher, I guess, stiffened. His knuckles went white where he pressed his hand over her mouth. “I saw you in the ground,” he said bitterly. “You shouldn’t be here.”

  Pierce’s hand clenched on mine in a bitter anger. “Your first mistake was putting me in blasphemed ground,” he said shortly. “It left me in a mind to return. Eliminating your filth of existence is worth postponing heaven for.”

  Christopher’s chin rose, and a snarl curved his lips up. I knew he was several hundred years old, but he looked thirty. Witch magic at its finest.

  “Good,” he said, shoving the girl to a nearby couch, where she collapsed to sob. “I’ll enjoy hearing your screams again between the beautiful thumps of dirt hitting your casket.”

  I felt a chill, imagining it. Pierce’s hand on mine went damp with sweat. Mine probably.

  “You foul bastard,” Pierce said, his voice shaking. “I will not leave without the girl.”

  Intuition and the shifting of light pulled my attention to the hole in the ceiling. “Look out!” I cried, pulling Pierce and myself back when the two vampires fro
m the front door dropped down. Pierce’s free hand started making gestures behind his back, and my pulse raced to make me lightheaded. Smiling like death, they started to advance.

  “No!” their master shouted, and they hesitated. “Let them stand.” He flicked his eyes to the one who had carried Sarah down here earlier. “You, man the outside grounds,” he said, then turned a disparaging look at the other. “You mind the stairs. From outside. I don’t want to be disturbed.”

  He turned to Pierce and me, and I thought I heard the small man beside me mutter a curse. “I enjoy trespassers,” the vampire said. “The law is going to see you dead again, Pierce. All you have brought to me is more terror to lap up. What a timely gift. Thank you.”

  He nodded curtly at the two vampires, and they slipped away, one through the door and stair behind us, the other jumping straight up through the hole in the floor. Sarah was still crying, and the twin clicks of two doors shutting were ominous. Great. I think it was about to get ugly.

  “Believe me,” Pierce whispered, his hand giving mine a quick squeeze.

  I flicked a look at him, then back to the vampire. “What?”

  Pierce angled to get in front of me. “He’s going to kill me, but I’m already dead. Trust me. As soon as he thinks I’m dead, I’ll move against him. Get the girl out. Please.”

  I didn’t want to leave him here. I wouldn’t! “Pierce…”

  But his fingers slipped from mine.

  A jolt of line energy burst in me as I took the entire line myself. Pierce had been siphoning off of me, and I hadn’t even known it. Stumbling back, I barely saw Pierce jump away from me, shouting curses at the vampire.

  Lips curled to show his teeth, Christopher went to meet him.

  “Pierce, no!” I shouted from where I had fallen to one knee, transfixed when they met. The man didn’t have a chance. My heart pounded in fear as they grappled, the vampire finding his neck and sinking his teeth.

  Pierce’s groan struck through me, and I almost panicked. “This can’t be happening,” I whispered. “This can’t be happening!”