#I’m lying actually. I’m still polishing the second the last panel and THEN I gotta do the illustration

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Well lads… 🫡

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CHILDREN OF LILITH CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Pacing in front of the doorway, Tasha flipped her dagger in her hand and glanced over at Boz.

“How’s it going?” She asked.

“Their system is way more intricate than I gave them credit for,” he said, keeping his stare on the computer monitor in front of him. “And they’ve got more firewalls than some branches of our government.”

Tasha frowned. “Can you hack it?”

“Pssht, can I hack it,” Boz laughed.

“I’ll take that as a yes?”

“Uh-huh…” Boz’s fingers flew across multiple keyboards. “C’mon baby, open up for daddy. I promise I’ll be gentle…”

“You know a total weirdo, right?”

“Been aware of that since Pre-K,” he said, rolling his chair over to another monitor.

Tasha smiled as she watched him move between units, typing with skill. One of the screens beeped angrily at him and he shushed it.

“Hey, don’t be that way,” he murmured, fingers dancing over the keyboard. “You’re still special. She was nothing to me, an indiscretion. I promise I still love you…”

“I’m upgrading you to ‘freak’.”

“It’s my method,” Boz told her.

And then the overheads dimmed and red emergency lights began to flash, followed by a shrieking siren.

“Does your method include this?” Tasha called over the noise.

“Shit.” Boz double-timed his typing speed. “I must’ve tripped something.”

“You think?”

“Hold on, I can fix it,” he said, going to another computer.

Tasha sensed several Vampires prowling closer. “Hurry, Boz,” she said, reaching for another knife.

“You know, I think this situation is stressful enough, I don’t need your added-”

He was cut off by the sudden clamoring of a fight in the hallway, and he jerked around to see Tasha ripping her blade through the throat of a tall male.

“Right, okay, definitely hurrying,” he called.

Stabbing the last Vampire through the heart, Tasha stepped over his decaying body and strode back into the room. Wiping blood off the dagger’s handle, she nodded to him.

“Thanks, B.”

* * *

It started as a low rumbling. Like the beginning of an earthquake, it vibrated upwards, knocking the ash loose from her bones.

Darkness was whitewashed, light reaching every crevice, searing away each imperfection it found. Once satisfied, it withdrew from the edges, curling into itself.

From the center, it pulsed.

Once… Twice…

Nikki’s eyes opened.

Air rushed into her lungs with such strength the single breath arched her off the floor. She gasped and collapsed back, staring at the ceiling with clear vision. Her body revived with every beat of her heart. The second inhale came easier, and the next easier after that. She peeled herself from the floor in a single motion, first sitting, then pushing onto her feet.

Spreading her fingers wide, she stared down at her hand, testing her joints. Nothing ached, not even the places that had been struck by her lightning. Lifting her shirt, she looked down at herself, expecting to see bruises the color of ink.

She was fine, perfect even. The smaller wounds she had acquired in the last few days were all healed, without a single scar. The light caught her skin differently, creating an unusual shimmer.

This new surging pulse brought with it a powerful instinct so wild it made her bow inwards. Pressing her hands to her thighs, she breathed, and tried to put a name to what she was feeling…

The lights in her cell dimmed just as red emergency lights began to flash, and a siren went off. Through the noise she heard a faint beep, followed by the turning of a mechanism in the door.

She moved to the door much faster than anticipated and shoved against the paneled steel. It opened with ease and she stepped the empty corridor, glancing around. No one was there.

She was free.

The energy in her core pulsed again, guiding her towards the stairs, and she listened.

Nikki’s sensitive ears ached from the siren, but she focused on where she was led- up several floors and down another long corridor, to an office that looked just like all the others. But when she stopped in front of the door, her fingers itched just like they had at Amsterdam’s when she’d found that book.

She was in the right place.

Hurrying inside, she closed the door behind her and halted.

Every wall was lined with floor to ceiling glass cases filled with hundreds, possibly thousands, of items that had no obvious connection to one another.

Walking further into the room, she stared at the nearest shelf that was eye level. In a line were a dirty baseball, a half-completed knitting project, a leather wallet, a broken heel from a woman’s shoe, a tea cup…

And then Nikki noticed the dates written on small cards next to each one. They spanned decades.

Disgust clenched her stomach.

This was Alexander’s trophy room.

And I wanted one, his voice repeated in her head. For all his sophisticated posturing, at his most basic level, Alexander was still a murderous creature who’d had centuries to indulge any psychopathic tendency he wanted. And he was a collector.

That need in her core pulsed again and her hands closed into fists. She was close to what brought her there.

Turning, she stared across the room, and flickering under red emergency lights was a silver broad sword. Propped up on two wooden display stands behind the glass, it gleamed. The blade was elegant, polished and well made, with tendrils of fire etched into the flat plane of metal going from the hilt to the middle of the sword. At the end of the handle was a mark she’d never seen before, but knew immediately.

A crescent turned upwards, with three lines snaking out from its center, the middle line tipped like an arrow.

Yours.

It was the Luminari sigil.

Nikki wondered if Alexander had any idea he was in the possession of a Luminari’s sword, or if owning it only fueled his desire to find a Blooded Hunter fit to hold it.

Reaching into the case, her hands warmed at first contact with the metal, and then she felt… relieved. A part of her had been returned.

She gripped the handle, savoring the weight of it. The balance was perfect, the handle made for her.

The sword, however many years it had been lost to the clutches of a Vampire, had found its way home.

Carrying it at her side, Nikki strode out of the room, filled with a fresh need she understood a little more.

The siren still blared as she moved down the corridor. Just as she was about to reach the stairs, someone emerged from an office, blocking her path.

Instinct told her he was human, but that didn’t make her trust him.

When he lifted his gaze to hers, she recognized him.

“You’re the man from outside my apartment,” she said, grip tightening on the sword handle. “You’re one of Rex’s Familiars.”

Henson nodded, his dull eyes searching her face. “You’re the Luminari. The one he wanted.”

Nikki didn’t say anything as he took a step forward. He was disheveled, thinning hair clinging to his head from sweat, and his skin sallow.

“You’re here to stop him aren’t you?” Henson asked. “You’re going to kill him.”

She nodded once, thinking back to the last Familiar she’d had a standoff with, and dreading the outcome of this one.

But Henson only ducked his head and took several steps to the side to let her pass.

Stunned, Nikki could only stare at him.

“You should hurry,” he said, tipping his head toward the stairwell door. “They’ll be looking for you.”

Her feet started moving, picking up the pace to a jog. As she passed him, he said, “Good luck,” before shuffling back into the room he’d come out of.

* * *

Griffin felt a hard yank at the back of his skull, and the dogs did a one-eighty so fast it nearly gave him whiplash. Something else had popped up on their radar and they wanted it. He stopped abruptly, boots scuffing the floor. All he could do was stand there and try to refocus.

Lisa turned to face him. “Griffin?”

He blinked, pulling at the dogs’ leash, hoping they’d catch the scent of a pack and get back to work. But that…thing had their full attention.

“Hey,” Lisa said, moving closer. “What’s going on?”

He shook his head. “Nothing,” he said, voice rough.

“It doesn’t look like nothing.”

“I’m okay,” he said, not really sure if he was lying or not. “I just need a second.”

He manhandled the dogs back into place and started forward again.

“Griff,” Lisa called after him. “Are you sure you’re good to go? We can wait-”

“No, it’s okay,” he cut her off. “I’m good now.”

She didn’t say anything else, but he could feel her eyeing him. Her concern filtered through with the other emotions pumping into him, and he was actually relieved to have a change from the constant flow of hatred and hunger.

The dogs found a pack of six, but they went down harder than expected. One of the males got in a couple hits to Griffin’s abdomen before his dagger found its mark deep in the Vampire’s chest. The two females of the group had come at him simultaneously and he fired several rounds into their torsos, but missed their hearts by centimeters. After a rough brawl that brought him to the ground, his silver finally found the targets and they disintegrated around him.

“Oh yeah,” Lisa commented, walking over to him. “You’re definitely in top shape.”

Her sarcasm was not appreciated.

“I’m tired,” he muttered. “That’s what happens when I’m tired.” He rolled over onto his hands and knees and stood up.

“I think you mean distracted,” she said, dusting off his shoulder. “So what is it?”

“I don’t know,” he answered with a sigh. “I just… I felt something.”

“Something bad?”

He shook his head. “No, just different. I don’t know what it was, but it sure got this thing’s attention.” He tapped his temple with his index finger and shrugged.

“Should we go find it?” She asked, glancing over her shoulder.

“Not yet,” he said. “We gotta catch up with-”

The overhead lights switched off and red flashing ones took their place, followed by the loudest siren he’d ever heard.

“Son of a bitch.”

“What the hell’s going on?” Lisa scowled, looking up at the ceiling.

“I don’t know,” he said. “C’mon, we gotta find Otto and Nikos.”

Starting to round the corner, Lisa grabbed his arm, pulling him to a stop.

“You good?” She yelled over the screaming siren.

“I will be,” he answered honestly. “Now let’s go.”

* * *

“Boz, you’ve got to cut that siren,” Tasha called, rubbing her temple. “The whole building is pissed off, and guess who gets to hear that noise too?”

His fingers ached from how fast he was typing. “Sorry, I’m trying,” he told her.

“Maybe try a little faster?”

“I think I’ve got it,” he exclaimed, hitting several more keys.

The screeching alarm stopped, and the lights came back on.

“Better?” Boz grinned, spinning in his swivel chair to look at Tasha.

“Much,” she said.

Turning back to the computer, he murmured, “Okay sweetheart, be good to daddy this time. That’s it… Nice and easy, gorgeous, just like that…”

“If you talk to computers like you called a one-nine hundred number, I’d hate to think of how you talk to a flesh and blood girlfriend.”

Boz shrugged, keeping his gaze on the monitor. “No complaints so far.”

Tasha stared at the back of his head. “Huh. Well, you’re not lying, so… congratulations on finding kindred spirits.”

Hitting several more keys, Boz brought the security cameras back online and Tasha walked to the row of split-screens. She recognized a lot of the figures brawling in the different corridors and stairwells.

A dark auburn blip streaked by one camera and a moment later was flashing past another, making Tasha gasp.

“What?” Boz asked, unable to look away from the computer. “What’s going on?”

Tasha shook her head. “I think…” She swallowed hard, staring at the video screens. “I think I just saw Nikki.”