Vertigo Vampire: a Supernatural Thriller (The Specials Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Epilogue

  Vertigo Vampire

  The Specials

  Book 2

  Tricia Owens

  Copyright © 2017 Tricia Owens

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Read more from Tricia Owens at

  http://www.triciaowensbooks.com

  The Specials series

  Demon Leap

  Vertigo Vampire

  Light Strike (coming soon)

  Shadow Mad (coming soon)

  Moonlight Dragon series

  Descended from Dragons

  Hunting Down Dragons

  Trouble with Gargoyles

  Forged in Fire

  Rise of the Dragon

  I Dream of Dragons (coming soon)

  Glossary of Terms

  Atomization Arts (AA) – magic science focus on the atomization of organic and inorganic material, with or without functional infusions

  Inanimate Matter Transfiguration (IMT) – magic science in which inanimate objects are physically transformed into other objects, states, or materials via molecular manipulation

  Kinetic Energy (KE) – magic science of the controlled generation and application of kinetic energy

  Telepathic Projection (TP) – magic science ability to telepathically project alternate or augmented realities into the minds of conscious humans

  Time Manipulation (TM) – magic science ability to alter the progression of time through the use of fabricated wormholes

  Animalia Science – practitioners, called Mediums, present the ability to control or affect the behavior of non-human species

  Electro-Magnetism – the magic science of spontaneous electric charge generation and the production of magnetic fields

  Pyrology – the magic science of fire creation and heat manipulation

  Cohabitating shifter (cohab) – species that may present as either human or non-human, alternating between forms via conscious command

  Chapter 1

  The phone rang. I picked it up, still mostly asleep.

  “Sorry to disturb you, Arrow, but you have an urgent message from Mr. Tower.”

  That snapped my eyes open. “Are you allowed to read it to me?”

  The caller—Sheridan the Front Desk Receptionist—hesitated. “If you’d like. These are usually private.”

  “I trust you. Please.”

  “It says, ‘A bounty has been placed on Mr. Aaron Peerage of room 309, effective immediately. He is a Time Manipulation specialist, therefore three Specials must work together against him. However, please note that there is an individual bonus incentive for whoever takes him down. This job must be completed immediately and on the property or there will be consequences for all three of you.’” Sheridan cleared her throat. “The names of three Specials are listed at the bottom: you, Taurus, and Calia.”

  I groaned.

  “Good luck, Arrow.”

  “Thanks. I think I’ll need it.”

  ~~~~~

  We hunted in the near dark.

  Had it been up to me, I would have called this off for later, after the lights were fixed. Why make an already challenging job even more so by moving around beneath flickering wall sconces?

  Because it wasn’t my call, that’s why. I was only a contractor. Maybe a pawn. The jury was still out on that.

  I ducked as the wall behind me exploded. Chunks of plaster and bits of pale yellow silk wallpaper rained down like industrial confetti.

  “Watch it!” I demanded of the young man standing at the other end of the hotel hallway. He appeared as an ominous bulk within the flickering lighting. I would have been afraid of him if he weren’t on my side. Allegedly. As it was, I kept a wary eye on him.

  When Taurus spoke, the words came from somewhere deep inside him. “You were in the way.”

  “If I’m in the way, then you shouldn’t blast,” I retorted.

  He brought his hands together, index fingers extended, and pointed them down the hallway. I followed his aim and felt the pressure build in the air. A whoomp and I could nearly track his invisible energy blast as it hurtled down the hallway and smashed into another wall, cratering it.

  I studied the damaged section of the hallway. “What are you aiming at? At this rate, you’ll destroy the hotel within ten minutes.”

  “He’s fast.”

  “Playing with Time does tend to give you a slight advantage.”

  “I thought I saw him…” Taurus trailed off and simply shook his head. “He’s here. Somewhere.”

  He could have been right, but it was more likely Taurus was trigger happy in his eagerness to collect the bonus on Peerage’s head.

  He was excited about this job. I wasn’t. Two things were unusual about it that I didn’t like: one, we Specials typically worked alone; we weren’t team players. Second, the man named Peerage was a guest of the hotel. I hoped it wasn’t normal for us to be hunting down guests for extermination. However, the Sinistera Hotel was anything but normal.

  “Wait. Just wait,” I urged. “We need a target.”

  Taurus narrowed his striking silver eyes. He was attractive with his close-cropped dark beard and impressive build. He was also probably a killer. “I don’t take orders from girls.”

  “Good thing I’m a woman, then.”

  He didn’t like that, but he stopped blasting everything in sight. I held no illusions that he was obeying me because I was the new Head of Security. To him, I was simply competition for the bounty.

  I thought I saw movement and turned toward it. The vase of flowers at the far end of the hallway abruptly appeared directly in front of me, hurtling toward my face. I gasped and ducked. The cool porcelain skimmed the top of my head before flying down the hallway and tumbling across the carpet, disgorging water and orchids.

  “He’s here,” Taurus said with a smirk. “Unless you think that happened naturally.”

  “He’s here,” I agreed.

  As a Time Manip specialist, Aaron Peerage could open wormholes through which he could throw himself or other objects. You needed quick reflexes to go up against someone like him. I thought I stood a better chance than the bulky Taurus, but I didn’t think it wise to bruise his ego by saying as much.

  “How about you lead the way?” I suggested.

  Taurus nodded his head once before slowly stepping toward the vase-less table at the end of the hallway. The heels of my boots tangled in the thick pile carpeting as I followed.

  “I’m going to try to stay behind you no matter what,” I told Taurus as we advanced through the semi-dark. “Always aim forward or to the sides.”

  He grunted. “In return, don’t turn me into a frog.”

  I didn’t dignify that with a response.

  “Peerag
e can only throw Time in straight lines,” I said, just in case Taurus didn’t know the particulars. “He’s opening mini wormholes. So try to keep him away from intersecting hallways.”

  “I’m aware of this. You do your job, Arrow, and I’ll do mine.”

  I let the attitude go for the sake of getting along with him. This was my second time doing a side job for the hotel manager, Mr. Tower. The bounty I’d earned from the first job had gone straight to my grandmother’s care and paid for the drug that she needed. Whatever I earned from this job would give me some spending money and allow me to begin storing away a bit of savings. In other words, it wasn’t necessary, but it could definitely help.

  “Do you know anything about Peerage?” I asked. We passed multiple guest rooms with peepholes occasionally flickering with light as whoever was inside peeked out at us.

  “Mr. Peerage checked in two days ago. He’s a VIP.”

  “What makes a guest a VIP?”

  “Tower’s orders. That’s all I know.”

  I didn’t doubt Taurus’ information. He worked in the Housekeeping department along with other exceptionally muscled young men. His department would have nearly as much information as the front desk did about a guest.

  “He’s Tower’s VIP and now we’re hunting him,” I said. “Does that make sense to you?”

  “He broke into another guest’s room and attacked him. Attacks by guests against other guests are not tolerated here.”

  I questioned the no guest-on-guest violence since I knew of at least one guest who regularly sucked the blood out of the others with no apparent repercussions. Rules, however—and as I knew intimately—were made to be broken.

  We had reached the midway point of the hall. It was empty and silent both ways, the Art Deco style sconces resembling sick glow bugs whose light was failing. “Sneaking into another guest’s room to attack him is premeditated. Strange, don’t you think?”

  Taurus didn’t answer. He was the strong, silent type. He was also the type who would keep valuable knowledge to himself. All the Specials were that way. Each man was out for himself, with a couple of exceptions.

  I tugged my walkie talkie off my belt and thumbed it. “Arrow to Elliott, come in.”

  He answered within three seconds. “Elliott here. What’s going on, Arrow? Have you finished your job yet?”

  I glanced at Taurus’ broad shoulders, which had subtly tensed as he listened to our conversation.

  “Not yet,” I replied. “How’re you holding up?”

  “Just completed the first half of my rounds. I’m staying away from those floors you mentioned until you give me the all-clear.”

  “Good.” I didn’t want Elliott accidentally stumbling into our line of fire. He was sweet and kind and absolutely didn’t fit the profile of your typical Special. I felt like a big sister to him even though I was only a year older than him.

  “Um, something feels funny, though. I can’t say what it is. Just that, I don’t know, I feel like something’s about to happen in the hotel. Something bad.”

  “We have our target narrowed down to this floor and are about to nab him,” I said, raising my voice slightly to try to make Peerage panic and do something stupid. “Just sit tight until we wrap this up. We’ll finish tonight’s rounds together.”

  “Okay. Be careful, Arrow!”

  I smiled slightly at the pained earnestness in Elliott’s voice. “I will.”

  Taurus turned his head so his strong, blunt features were in profile. “He’s too young for secur—”

  The punch to Taurus’ face rocked his head back. I jumped to the side as a middle-aged man with wavy, dark blond hair blinked into existence in the hallway in front of Taurus. It was Peerage, his face sheened with sweat, his right arm already drawing back for a second punch.

  I didn’t give him the chance to throw it. I aimed one of my guns at Peerage and fired. As soon as the bullet hit the target velocity it exploded into a metal net that wrapped around Peerage’s upper body and snapped tight to itself via magnetization. Peerage staggered backward, arms bound to his sides. His dark blue eyes were wild and panicked.

  “You shouldn’t have done that, old man,” Taurus rumbled as he rolled his head casually on his neck.

  “It’s okay,” I said calmly and distinctly. “We’ve got him now.”

  Taurus ignored me as he stepped toward the struggling man.

  “Taurus,” I said. “Don’t.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do,” the big man countered. He curled one meaty hand into a fist.

  “Why are you doing this?” Peerage demanded as he continued to stagger back, his heels occasionally catching on the thick pile carpeting. “I’m a guest! I was invited! Why are you treating me this way?”

  His panic and confusion felt real to me. I didn’t like that.

  “You attacked someone,” I reminded him.

  His gaze swung to me, hot with outrage. “I did no such thing. I’ve never laid a hand on another person in my life. That’s preposterous. Someone’s setting me up!”

  A chill moved through me. Not so long ago I’d been framed for a murder I hadn’t committed. It had forced me into the Sinistera’s employment. My resentment over it hadn’t disappeared, only subsided to a low simmer. At Peerage’s claim, it threatened to bubble up again.

  “If I’d done such a thing,” Peerage continued, “do you think I’d still be here?”

  I looked uncertainly to Taurus, but the Kinetic Energy specialist had only one thing on his mind: revenge for the cheap shot to the face.

  Peerage seemed to recognize it. I watched his vision go out of focus. The next second he was thirty feet ahead of us up the hallway, where he tripped on the carpet and fell to his knees, unable to keep his balance with his arms pinned. His ability to throw Time meant he could fling himself as far ahead as he trusted his skills to carry him safely, usually in short bursts to avoid running into anything.

  It meant he could escape us completely if given the chance.

  I cursed and ran after him, but Taurus beat me to Peerage. With a roar, Taurus directed an energy blast at him. The older man cried out and vanished, only to reappear again leaning against the opposite side of the hallway a mere three feet away. Peerage rolled his shoulders against the wall as Taurus threw a punch at him. The punch missed, so Peerage threw Time so he could reappear directly behind Taurus.

  I jerked to a stop about fifteen feet away from the men. “Here!” I called to Peerage. “I won’t hurt you.”

  He glanced at me only briefly before Taurus spun a one eighty and aimed an energy blast at him. Peerage threw Time to dodge the blast.

  “You can run all you want, old man,” Taurus said in a low voice as Peerage reappeared midway between us. “I’ll catch up to you eventually.”

  I waved at Peerage in exasperation. “You can’t keep running from him! Hurry!”

  One of the doors near Peerage opened and a grizzled head leaned out into the hallway. “What in the hell is going on out here? I’m trying to sleep!”

  Taurus took advantage of the distraction to blast down the hallway. With a cry, Peerage threw Time and disappeared. The guest in the doorway slammed the door shut as Taurus’ energy partially obliterated the wall beside him. Peerage, meanwhile, reappeared in the middle of the hall again, now only six doors ahead of me.

  “You can’t keep this up,” I warned him. “You’ll make a mistake.”

  “The hell I will,” Peerage shot back. “I’m not surrendering for something I didn’t do.” He struggled against my magnetic net. “How do I get this thing…off of…me?”

  I saw Taurus behind him, taking aim again at Peerage’s back. I extended my hands to him. “Please. Please trust me.”

  Peerage sent me a panicked look that turned bleak. “Okay,” he gasped. “Okay.”

  He blinked out of sight just as Taurus’ energy blast rushed through the space where he had stood. I felt the pressure of the blast shoot past my right shoulder. I heard a crack! Then Pe
erage appeared in front of me. For a second, he looked relieved and I smiled encouragingly. Then his head fell off his neck and tumbled to the floor.

  A stunning, red-haired woman stepped out from an alcove to my left, where two vending machines sat. Calia buffed her nails on her shoulder and blew lightly across them as she regarded Peerage’s decapitated body.

  “Big Achilles Heel with these Time Manip guys: if they don’t check that the coast is clear, they can run straight into an electric bolt or two. Such a pity.”

  The ferrous tattoos that ran up both her legs—revealed thanks to her black mini skirt and stiletto heels—still glowed faintly from her application of magic. The ozone tang of her electricity and the smell of burned meat and the faintest hint of fruity bubble gum combined to nauseate me.

  “You didn’t have to kill him!” I cried, my voice breaking. I tightened my grip on my guns. “He was going to surrender to me. What’s wrong with you?”

  “Maybe. Or maybe he was going to be a pain in the ass.” She shrugged carelessly. “This is much simpler. Plus, I get the bonus.”

  Her grin was smug enough that I nearly shot it off her face. I’d gone up against Calia in the past with little success. She was an Electro-Magnetist, so my net gun bullets were useless against her. With her magic she could reverse the polarity on my nets and repel them.

  However, I could meddle nearly anything into a weapon that wouldn’t be affected by her magic.

  I stepped toward her. I could feel my hands shaking. “You’re a murderer, Calia. I’ve seen you leave bodies wherever you go.”

  “So? You killed Morrison.”

  “I was framed for that.” I motioned at Peerage’s body, though I couldn’t bear to look at the cauterized wound that was his neck. “You did this willingly. You’re a stone-cold murderer.”