The Queen of Swords (Villainess Book 1) Read online

  I considered telling him I could just rip the knowledge out of his mind for a moment, but kept my mouth shut in the end. He knew I was a ‘path already, and no matter how I phrased it, it would sound like a threat. “Alright, Sadowski,” I said. “What’s the job paying?”

  He fished a card out of the manila envelope and slid it over. When Michael turned the card over and showed me the figure, I had to admit I was impressed. This could pay off my bill at the Doctor’s, with some left over… and let me stress again: the Doctor didn’t work cheap. Of course, I would have to split the take with Mike, but maybe I would luck out and he’d buy it during the job.

  I let out a tendril of thought towards Michael, mentally knocking and asking for an invite. He accepted of course, and I asked him, What do you think?

  It sounds good to me, sexy, he sent back, purposefully sending images of the two of us naked together, fucking hard. I shivered at the thought as he took great care to detail the image: me on my hands and knees, him behind me shoving his huge cock into my wet and willing pussy. He’d been doing this with me long enough he even had the knack of adding the other senses to his mental visions. The smell of sweat and sex drowned out the smell of cheap booze and aftershave in the room, and I could feel his phantom cock as if it were between my legs already. Down the middle, fifty-fifty?

  Yeah, I replied, shoving the images aside. Did you know about any powers Sadowski was supposed to have? This is news to me.

  He shook his head slightly. Could be a new development. He redoubled his efforts and added in his hands gripping my hips, the how tiny half moons were cut into my flesh by his nails as he slammed me into his cock over and over again mentally.

  I suppose, I sent back then cut the contact, a little regretfully. He really was getting good at painting an image in his mind. “We’re in.”

  The fixer smiled broadly at us. “Excellent.” He slid another card from the envelope over, “Meet at this address, nine o'clock tomorrow night. I’ve a list of suggested extras you may want to bring with you, just in case, in there. Take the time to review the other materials… and thank you.”

  “Later, Sadowski,” I said, elbowing Michael to let me out of the booth.

  “Call me Harry,” he said, standing as Mike did. “If we’re working together, we should be on a first name basis.”

  I smiled sweetly. “Later, Harry.” It never hurt to have a fixer happy with you, and a few smiles and a bit of sweet talk would go a long way.

  Chapter Two

  Michael and I met before the appointed time close by to watch the area and check for an ambush. It might have been paranoid, but that was why both of us had been around for a while. If you got sloppy, you got dead. Both of us could fly, me through my teke and him through channeling the vamp, so we perched on top of one of the taller buildings in the run down area, scanning for any potential problems. The site didn’t look like an ambush, and more importantly, it didn’t feel like one either. Just to be on the safe side, I established a mental link with Michael so we didn’t have to talk aloud, and could anticipate each other’s moves. Since it was work-time and not play-time, he didn’t bother with giving me any images of sex after a quick phantom lick to my pussy, and got straight down to business.

  He used a sword as well in his work, but while his was hard, long, and brutal looking, mine was more delicate, bladed only on one side as katanas were. It wasn’t quite as long as a katana should be, though. The length somewhere between a katana and a wakizashi, properly called a o-wakizashi. It had been made specially for me by my teacher, using a metal alloy which made it resistant to most damage. It could still break… it just took a lot more. Michael went through his blades like tissue paper, and … I really thought he just used different ones for the moods he was in. The more spurs and the bigger the blade was, the more he was into it, or wanted to do some damage or wanted to fuck… I couldn’t quite tell that yet. His motives were sometimes a mystery to me, but the psychopath and I got along very well despite that.

  Since the security was pretty tight, and there were an unknown quantity of metahumans present, I brought out the armor as Sadowski… oh, excuse me, Harry… suggested. It was segmented, covering most of my arms, legs, chest, and back, but there were weak spots around the joints and sides. It couldn’t be helped. I had to have maneuverability. I braided my hair so it was out of my way, and the mask completed the outfit. Michael didn’t bother wearing anything armored at all: just his jeans, heavy stomping boots, and leather vest. Of course, when we were working, he would let Nosferatu come out to play. From what I could tell, the vamp in his was nearly indestructible… except for sunlight and holy items. The two shared a symbiotic relationship; it worked out for the betterment of both. Plus, the vamp freaked people the hell out, and I loved hanging around him when he did.

  I don’t see anything, I sent to him, and it’s getting close to the time. Want to head down?

  He nodded in agreement, and we both took off, heading to the address we were told. We took different paths, but got there at the same time, doing a last sweep as a ‘just in case’. It remained clear. With my mind at ease, I knocked on the door. Sadowski opened it, and smiled at me. I smiled back, and he let us inside.

  The house itself was run down, and the furnishings inside were non existent. Boards and paper covered the window so that the light of the battery powered lantern he had couldn’t be seen from the outside. A card table stood in the middle of what would have been a living room, but no chairs. On the table laid maps of the place we were going to rob, only in greater detail than the ones Michael and I had been given. Other notes lay scattered around.

  Harry himself was dressed rather normally, in jeans and a t-shirt with a peacoat over the ensemble. He still didn’t impress me, but I’d reevaluate once the fighting started. “Gather ‘round, children, ‘cause here’s the plan,” he said.

  We talked the plan over for an hour. We’d break in an hour before shift change at eleven, when the security staff would most likely be at their slowest and most inattentive. Nosferatu would go and create a diversion--Sadowski helpfully supplied some small explosives for this purpose, but Michael waved them off. Once the guards were diverted, Harry and I would sneak in, grab the thing, trash the place, and book. Anyone we crossed paths with would die. Simple, sweet, and to the point. The only tricky thing about the whole job was the building itself, which seemed like a madman had designed it. The layout of the halls and offices made no sense to me, and when I asked, Harry shrugged it off. We checked and re-checked our paths several times, making sure we all had them memorized. This would be a fast, brutal, and well-paying job.

  As we moved our little party to the staging point, I thought about it. The money didn’t make sense. Maybe it was a time sensitive thing, or maybe no one knew about this target. Maybe he just wanted to hire the best. I was worth it after all, but the little bit of niggling doubt didn’t leave me completely. It would be best to play it safe. If I had to, I’d throw Harry under the bus so I’d get out. Michael was completely on his own. It didn’t feel right planning to betray one of my companions, but survival above all had been hardwired into my mind. Maybe it wouldn’t come to that, and I was just being paranoid.

  The building we were set to raid stood had five stories, but only the first floor was above ground. That could make things interesting as our target was on the very bottom floor, and even though my teke was pretty strong, it wasn’t strong enough to punch through metal. I brought Sadowski into our mental link--with his permission--so we didn’t have to use any sort of mundane communications. Are you ready? he asked us.

  I sent an affirmative, and Michael held up a hand, indicating for us to wait a second. I turned to watch his transformation in the dim light, and had the pleasure of feeling it second hand in his mind as well. It took no concentration at all, but rather a relaxing of a certain vigilance he kept in his head. His body shape didn’t change, but the skin changed color, going from that beautiful dark skin to a tan, then a
pale brown, then to white, then to bone white. Every vein and wrinkle was highlighted in that stark white, giving him an eerie, otherworldly, look. Every tooth in his mouth grew and sharpened into fangs. His eyes glowed softly in the dim light, a very dark red which you could barely see at all. Lastly, claws grew from his fingertips, elongated nails which could scratch stone.

  His mind… that was a trip. Michael receded from me with a last mental wink and saucy nod, and coldness filtered in. I had been linked with Nos before, and the coldness startled me every time. Age… unthinkable amounts of time lay heavy on his mind, giving his mental landscape an alien feeling. As Nosferatu’s eyes raked me from head to toe in a once over, I could feel a lust for me, but it wasn’t like Michael’s lust, hot and red and passionate and thick like a pulsating heart. This lust was cold and dry, a brief curiosity about how much pain I could take before I died, wondering how much blood he could wring out of me, thinking of all the delicious things he could do to me to make me scream and beg to be killed.

  I shivered, and sent to him telepathically, Try it. Try it and see. I couldn’t help my own lust at the challenge, and the thought of the cold dead body underneath mine turned me on like nobody’s business. Here, of course, is where being an empath and a telepath worked against me sometimes: I couldn’t tell if that desire came from me, or from him. That second it was the same, a perfect circle of sadism, wanting to see how much the other would take before they broke, and not just break, but break completely. I wanted to snap his bones and suck out the marrow. I wanted to lick his heart while it was still beating. I wanted to squeeze his head and pop his eyes out of his skull. I wanted to snap his fingers off, one by one. And I wanted to fuck him, hard, getting every last bit of juice out of him….

  See what I mean? I knew some of those thoughts weren’t mine. We struggled back and forth for a heartbeat in a mental tug-of-war, two vicious personalities clashing for the dominance we both knew we deserved. Harry was shoved out of the link, and he looked at us as we became locked in a stare down. Another heartbeat passed, and we both mutually agreed to back off. There was no conversation, no verbal or telepathic agreement… we just knew we were a match for each other. A perfect match.... he sent, sensing my thoughts.

  Work first, I sent, reestablishing the link with Sadowski. Sorry about that. Had a tussle. I’m ready.

  Nosssferatu isss ready… came the vampire’s thoughts, eager for the night’s blood spilling.

  Right, Harry’s mental voice said, giving both of us a wary look. Do your thing.

  Nosferatu literally melted into darkness. I kept the link between us, and when I sensed his approval, I rode along with his senses and feelings. If anything could make a sociopath look like a social worker, it was this vampire. I realized I needed people to survive. Purely a selfish reason, but I still felt… proprietary towards the people I used. They were mine, my toys, no one else’s. Nosferatu felt nothing for anyone. People, things, objects: those words all meant the same thing, they were to be used and tossed away after the moment’s diversion. He thought of it like a moment too, days, weeks, or years... all mere moments in his long life. He wanted no one and nothing, only diversions. I shuddered lightly when he let his thoughts slide over me, that I might be a few moments of a diversion. I would never be anyone’s toy.

  I saw him speed through the courtyard of the building, easily past the electrified fence, and hide near the nearest guard station. He waited until the guard was calling in a routine, and then stepped out, bold as brass, brandishing his sword. “Want to... play?” he asked in that slow, dead voice.

  The guard called it in and as he began to move, Nosferatu moved faster, slicing the guard’s throat open with a single slash of the blade. The hot spray of blood hit his head and chest, and the vampire rubbed it over his face, licking the crimson droplets off of his fingers as he waited the twenty seconds for the responding team. They burst out of the front doors of the building, a team of three. That won’t be enough, I thought to myself, and I was right… but they gave him a run for his money.

  Nosferatu let them see him, then he cloaked himself in darkness once more. He laughed, quietly, letting the laughter echo through the eerily still yard. The first of the responders, a woman, fired a blast of energy in the area, sweeping it, but he had already moved to position himself behind them. When he struck, he clipped one of the responders who flipped out of the way. Without pausing, Nosferatu brought his sword down on the limb of the third, chopping it cleanly off while the victim screamed.

  I lessened the contact and nodded to Harry. Time to go, I said. By the time we would get into position, there would be more out there, trying to take down the vampire. We were already at the back of the building, but Sadowski moved us along the side. He took out some device and fiddled with it, explaining as he did so, EMP scrambler. I don’t fancy us getting on camera while we do this.

  That’s why you wear a mask, silly, I sent back, amused that the saying ‘boys and their toys’ was entirely too accurate for some men.

  And cover my pretty face? Never, he laughed, mentally. I smiled behind the mask and sent him a mental chuckle. He nodded towards the building. Up and over the fence we went, both of us flying. We briefly stopped at the window where he punched it out with one of his green, glowy hands. Now that we were in the building, we headed directly to the secondary elevator, just to the right of us. When Harry hit the button, the doors swung open and we got in.

  He closed the door, but didn’t press any of the sub level buttons. I waited, checking in on Nosferatu (who was making a game of hide and seek with deadly consequences--and the number of responders had increased to six) and seeing he was doing alright, concentrated on what Harry was doing. He knelt on the floor and dug his hands into the bottom of the elevator, slowly, like they were sinking into a thick pudding. When he got all the way through, he withdrew them and did it again in a different spot, slowly but surely making a hole in the floor. Don’t have a security key to get down there, he thought at me, surely sensing my confusion as to why he was going to this much trouble. Catch this when I punch through it, OK?

  When he punched, the sound reverberated through the elevator, but I caught the hunk of metal with my teke and floated it up, putting it aside. He slipped into the hole and I followed him, flying in near blackness save for his glowing hands. He seemed to be able to see where he was going, so I kept close on his heels, pulling up short when he did.

  Without the elevator in the way, all we had to do was pry open the elevator doors. We did it easily, and stepped inside. Although no alarms were blaring, lights flashed indicating the alarm had definitely been tripped. Whether it was by us or Nosferatu, I had no idea. Either way, the two of us moved quickly down the hall, to the right, to the left… down the memorized path.

  As we rounded a corner, three security guards almost bumped into us. I didn’t hesitate, throwing one of them down the hall with my teke while I drew my sword. Harry dropped down low and punched one of them in the gut. The last one drew his weapon and fired. Too late I put up a telekinetic shield, and the bullet hit home in my shoulder, burning a white hot trail of the unfun kind of pain through my flesh. The guard Harry hit recovered, and grabbed the smaller man while the one I threw down the hall picked himself off of his feet.

  I slashed wildly with my sword, causing the shooter to step back. As he did, I tripped him with my teke, and stabbed down. He rolled out of the way and fired again, this time grazing my leg. There was no way he should have even been able to make that shot, much less hit me in all the confusion and fighting in the narrow hallway. He had to be a meta. Harry struggled to get out of the guard’s grip, and the guard began squeezing with all of his might. As I heard ribs crack, Sadowski let go with his powers. His hands glowed like two small suns, and he shoved his hands upwards, into the guard’s gut. The guard screamed and let him go, and I smelt the aroma of burning flesh. It reminded me I needed to eat after this was done.

  The far guard didn’t approach us. Instead
he stopped by a panel and flung it open. Using a wired communicator, he called for backup on the bottom floor. Enough playing around; things were getting serious. I lowered my sword as the shooter took aim. Concentrating, I made him turn the gun upon himself. He wasn’t expecting the mental attack. I had the drop on him, and almost before he knew what he was doing, he fired on himself. At the last second, he was able to jerk the firearm mostly away from his head, but not before shooting himself. Sadly, it wasn’t a lethal shot, but his eye socket blew apart from the force of the bullet traveling through the side of his head. He screamed in pain and clamped both hands over what remained of his eye.

  Sadowski, in the meantime, punched his way up to his feet, trading blows with the guard who struggled with him. Every green, glowing punch left an imprint on the guard’s uniform, burning fibers, leaving ghostly fire behind. One last uppercut and the guard went down. I lifted my sword and stabbed him through the throat. Get the last one, I told Harry. I’ll finish this.

  He left without saying a word, bounding through the hall with speed. The last guard ducked into a side hallway, leaving me alone with my eyeless wonder. I turned back to him as he breathed roughly through his mouth. “Take what you want, just let me live,” he said.

  I watched him, using all my senses. Fear rode strongly through his mind, and determination too. Ruefulness that he was giving up, and hatred. All of these threads wound together, stained by the white hot overwhelming pain of his missing eye. I turned slightly, letting my blade swing with me. I couldn’t help but to let the blood drip dramatically from the sword. It was the last sight he was going to see, after all. Without further ado since I was in a hurry, I stabbed him through the other eye. I rocked back and forth with him as he screamed, feeling his pain as an echo in my own eyes, wondering how it would feel for real. I would have dwelled on that further, but Sadowski poked his head around the corner further up, gesturing for me to join him. I left the guard there to die, knowing he would as I felt the last of his consciousness ebb from his mind.