The Office, as it was unofficially called, was rapidly becoming the center of coven activity in this city. Back during the reign of Night Razor, the previous master, it had been primarily used as storage as well as a nest during daylight hours. Considering its proximity to NYU, this made it a handy spot for vampires to crash after a night of hunting coeds.
Under my rule, though...
Oh who was I kidding? I ran Village Coven on paper, sure, but in reality I was a figurehead at best. The real power behind the throne lay with Sally, my so-called silent partner. The problem there was twofold: she wasn’t particularly silent and, as far as our partnership was concerned, she considered herself first among not-so-equals.
She was a fifty-year old vamp in the body of a twenty-something stripper – and what a body it was. She had a figure to die for – quite literally.
That in of itself made her dangerous, but what made her truly lethal was her mind. Though she looked as hot, or better, than any of the other glamourous Village Coven babes, she was far from being the vapid fashion model the majority of them aspired toward. She possessed a quick wit, a venomous tongue, and a complete disregard for anything that stood in her way – including pesky things like the law.
I reminded myself of these things as I rode the elevator up to our main floor. I stepped out and found myself in a dank expanse of a room. The smell was overpowering, even to me. Bodies hung from meat hooks and rats scurried to lap up any of a dozen pools of blood that lay in this accursed place.
Just kidding!
Shit like that only exists in the movies. In the real world such things tend to not go unnoticed for long, especially in a city this size. Also, the smarter vamps were just as grossed out by crap like that as any sane person.
Though I seemed to always just miss getting a peek at our bank books, I was well aware that the coven was flush was cash. One didn’t own several pieces of prime Manhattan real estate only to spend their nights eating out of dumpsters – well, unless one were batshit crazy.
Sally wasn’t, though. The pristine carpet on the floor, expensive looking paintings lining the wall, and hardwood double doors at the end of the hall all attested to a sense of power and wealth. Hell, this place made the online gaming company where I was still forced to earn a paycheck look like a shithole in comparison. Still, all of this was fairly new too. Sally had wasted little time in switching the coven’s focus from the SoHo loft to this place.
I approached the door and tried the handle – locked. Okay, that wasn’t too surprising. I mean, it was well after dark and our floors were surrounded by actual legit businesses that kept relatively normal hours. If we left things opened up at all hours of the night, we’d either look like what we were – a coven of bloodthirsty beasts – or an escort service.
Unfortunately, despite being lord and master of this merry bunch of monsters, I somehow didn’t have a key – forcing me to knock like I was here to deliver a late night pizza. My enhanced strength helped ensure that even the thickest doors didn’t fully muffle my entreaties for entrance. Regardless, I still had to wait several seconds before my acute undead hearing picked up the sound of footsteps approaching.
The door cracked open and a pretty brown face surrounded by a permed cascade of black hair greeted me. Alice. She was a rarity among vamps – a sweetheart who actually cared. I didn’t really consider that a recipe for longevity amidst a group of psycho assholes, but to each their own.
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Anyway, she’d been somewhat jittery around me the first few weeks I’d been in charge. Sally and I had been forced to put a bit of a scare in her and the others during my first month as a vampire. It had been a case of either earn their respect or end up permanently dead. All of our machinations had been bullshit, of course, and, judging by the unflinching way she stared at me from the half-open door, I suspected she was beginning to understand that.
“Oh, hi, Bill.” She sounded disappointed as if she’d been expecting someone else. Not quite the welcome wagon one would expect for the head honcho. Oh well, it was still better than the greeting I’d gotten from Dusk Reaper.
Not being the type to complain about a nonviolent hello from a beautiful woman, I gave her my best ‘please give me a pity fuck’ smile and then stepped in.
The place was a mess of construction, with various coven members scurrying back and forth on some errand or other. Sally was having the place gutted, but for reasons she didn’t elaborate on other than to tell me it was time to inject this coven with a modicum of professionalism. Considering the dress that Alice was wearing, as well as the attire of some of the other ladies present, a part of me wondered if I was standing in the beginning act of Bordello of Blood. Oddly enough, I wasn’t entirely against that concept. Go figure.
I opened my mouth to ask where Sally was, when her voice rang out from somewhere further in. “Who’s at the door, Star? That had better not be fucking Brian back so soon. There’s no way that asshole could score some...” She stepped around a corner near the back and stopped when she saw me. “Oh ... it’s you.”
It wasn’t her words that struck me as strange so much as her tone. Normally, Sally was a hundred pounds of attitude in a size four dress. Her clothes were often sharp, but not nearly as much as her fangs or tongue. Tonight, though, she appeared to falter when she walked into the room. Despite knowing that she had no pulse to speak of, I could have sworn her face turned a shade paler at the sight of me.
“Freewill,” she said with a reverent nod of her head.
I couldn’t help but notice all activity in the room had ceased as vamps turned to watch us. Okie-doke then. What a bunch of fucking weirdos.
“What?” I asked, after a moment of uncomfortable silence. “You expecting the FedEx guy or something?”
Several eyes hardened in my direction and I saw a few sets of fangs being flashed my way. Jeez, you tell one bad joke...
“Starlight,” Sally said, addressing Alice by her former coven name – the one she’d discarded when Night Razor’s rule had ended, “I need to talk to our esteemed master. Please wrap up here and then dismiss the team for the evening.”
Again her tone was strange – no hint of attitude, just pure seriousness. Hell, I almost didn’t recognize her. It wasn’t exactly like her to not at least throw a sarcastic eye-roll my way.
Alice nodded at Sally’s request, although she didn’t need to do much to let the rest of the place know. Vampires have ridiculously good hearing, so it was a safe bet that every set of ears on the floor had heard them being given the night off. A few moments later, this was confirmed as more coven members – many looking like they’d just stepped out of an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog – came into view. Most of them barely paid me any heed as they headed to the door, although I could have sworn I caught at least some shade from the various gazes that did meet mine. What the fuck?
I walked toward Sally as the rank and file continued their escape, no doubt wanting to get the fuck out of Dodge lest she change her mind and put their asses back to work.
As I approached to within ten feet, she trembled and took what appeared to be an involuntary step back. Sally was a petite thing, barely five feet in heels, but she seemed to shrink in on herself becoming even smaller, more vulnerable looking.
“Is all to your liking, coven master?” she asked timidly.
“Sure. Just peachy.” I couldn’t help but be worried. What the hell had spooked her so badly? Had someone in the coven rebelled and challenged her ... my ... err ... our authority? Had we been attacked? I knew there was another nearby nest of vampires, the Howard Beach Coven – HBC for short. They had a mad-on for me thanks to a misunderstanding from a few months back. Had that finally escalated into something worse?
The sound of the front door slamming shut came from behind me, echoing in the now mostly empty space. I glanced back at Sally and saw her spying the door over my shoulder, her head cocked as if listening for something.
After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, I opened my mouth to question her odd behavior, but a fist to my face derailed that train of thought before it could leave the station.