Spooks & Specters: A San DeLain Short Story Collection

Chapter Three

RAVEN DIDN’T need to feed, but this human’s scent was mouthwateringly delicious, so why the hell not? It was a deep, earthy scent that reminded Raven of the woods after a light rain, with an electric hint of metal. It brought back memories of another time in his life, memories that had no place here.

“Beg? Are you sure you won’t be the one begging?”

Stu teased.

Raven chuckled as he unbuttoned Stu’s jeans. He needed to get his snack naked, then they’d see who did the begging before the night was done.

Just as he slipped his fingers into Stu’s underwear, there was a soft knock on the door.

Raven swore silently in his head. His bartenders had clearly seen him take a human back there, so they wouldn’t be knocking unless there was something wrong.

“Okay, what?”

Stu asked.

Perceptive human, wasn’t he? “It appears as if something has come up.”

“Besides me?”

Raven gently squeezed the hard cock in his hand. “Unfortunately so.”

“Duty calls, huh?”

“Again, unfortunately so. But depending on the issue? We may be able to pick this up momentarily. I do need to see what’s wrong, though.”

Raven slipped his fingers out of Stu’s underwear.

“I understand.”

Stu rebuttoned his pants.

Irritated with the entire situation, Raven didn’t attend to business quite as fast as he normally would. Instead, he crowded the human, buried his nose into his throat, and inhaled deeply.

Stu laughed softly as he ran his hand down Raven’s long hair. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to memorize your scent. I hope you taste as fabulous as you smell.”

“Just so you know? That doesn’t creep me out at all. And I’m not being sarcastic. I totally mean it.”

If only Raven had time to bite Stu, but he didn’t. That wouldn’t be fair to either one of them, and when he finally did get the chance to indulge, he didn’t intend to rush. “I know. I can smell that on you.”

Reluctantly, Raven stepped away as there was another soft knock. “While I deal with this, why don’t you hang out on the dance floor? Hopefully this won’t take long, and I will find you later.”

“You think you can find me in this mad crush?”

Raven had to admit Stu did have a point. It was very crowded in the club, it was hot, and there were a lot of different scents that could hide Stu’s. If he had tasted Stu’s blood, it would be no problem at all. But a simple scent? Well, that just wasn’t as good.

Raven pulled his billfold out, opened it, and reached for a business card. “Here. This doesn’t have my private number on it, and I don’t see a pen close by to add it, so this is the best I can do. Call me if I can’t find you later. Your call will be rerouted to me.”

Stu took the business card and slipped it into his front pocket. “I most certainly will.”

“Please do.”

With one last look at the human, Raven opened the door.

One of his bartenders quickly entered, glanced at Stu, then bowed his head slightly to Raven. “I need to speak with you.”

“I’ll see you around,”

Stu said as he slipped by the other vampire.

“I certainly hope so.”

Raven watched Stu leave. His gums tingled as the monster inside him snarled as the human left. Surprised at his reaction, he quickly covered it as he faced his coven member. “Yes?”

“I’m so sorry to interrupt you, and you know I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t important. But the dragon king is on the premises with his Right Hand, and he says hunters are on the property.”

“Son of a bitch! Is he sure?”

Raven immediately held his hand up to stop his vampire from speaking. “Of course he’s sure. He wouldn’t have said anything to you if he wasn’t. Dammit.”

“He told me under the guise of ordering a drink. I told him that we were out of what he wanted in the coolers up front, so I had to duck back here to get what he ordered. I’m hoping we didn’t alert the hunters.”

“So, more than one?”

“We’re unsure, but probably.”

“Return to the bar, give Hudson his drink, and pass the word quietly. I’ll be out shortly.”

“I will, Master.”

“Be careful.”

Raven didn’t leave immediately in case the humans were watching. After a few moments, he stepped outside the back room.

As he walked through his club, he noticed several paranormals making eye contact. Word was getting around quickly. Good. Raven made a point to stop here and there, speaking to his paranormal customers as if he was nothing more than the owner stopping by to say hello to certain people.

Instead, he was passing along a warning.

He was also trying to pick up the scent of any hunters. The oddness to their human scent was the main giveaway, but there were a lot of humans there, along with paranormals. He nodded to Hudson as he walked by. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blur of movement… then nothing. The air had barely been disturbed as one of his coven moved through the crowd.

It was as if nothing had occurred, as it should be. It was one reason why vampires were apex predators. They moved at speeds humans had no hope of following, and very few paranormals could either.

Raven watched as his vampire suddenly disappeared into a hallway with a very startled and scared human. Good. He started in that direction. But before he had taken two steps, the lights in the club went out. This time he swore loudly and violently as the screams started. Humans were the only ones who’d have trouble seeing in the darkness and would most likely panic.

That was bad enough, but this was the United States. Nearly everyone and their brother owned a gun in this country, and a certain element liked to shoot up gay clubs. Guns were not allowed on the property, but that didn’t mean a few didn’t get in, regardless of their best efforts.

“Annabel. Felix.”

Raven didn’t yell his coven members’ names. He didn’t have to.

A few seconds later, both of them were standing in front of him.

Felix’s gaze darted around. “Master?”

“What do you need of us?”

Annabel asked.

“I—”

Then the fire alarm went off.

“For fuck’s sake,”

Raven growled. The shriek of the siren hurt his sensitive ears. But oddly enough, he didn’t smell smoke. But he didn’t have to, because the result was still the same.

The humans panicked.

“Shit, they’re going to stampede,”

Felix swore. “People are going to get hurt.”

“Of course. It’s a distraction,”

Raven said softly over the screaming. “No smoke.”

“The bastards.”

Annabel glanced at the terrified crowd. “But what’s the point?”

“That is the question.”

If the hunters—and apparently there were more than one—were trying to escape, the threat of fire would certainly be a good cover for them to get out of there. But even if they were trying to save their buddy, again, a fire was still a perfect distraction.

As Raven watched people search desperately for the exits, he noticed Hudson and Connie were on their feet. A human man shoved a human woman into the dragon king. Hudson helped steady her even as he cussed the male.

“This is going to get ugly quickly,”

Raven mused. “They’re desperate to get out because they think there is a fire.”

“It’s dark and they don’t know there really isn’t one. And in the dark, everything is confusing for humans.”

“And the red lights of the fire alarm and the screaming don’t help matters either,”

Annabel added.

“From what I see, though, paranormals are not panicking,”

Raven said. “We need to evacuate the club. Immediately, before someone gets hurt.”

“Fucking hunters,”

Felix snarled. “I see other paranormals have the same idea, though. The dragon king and his Right Hand are helping too.”

Raven was relieved for any help he could get. Sure enough, one of the exit doors had been thrown open and paranormals were trying to direct humans through.

For a second, just a second, Raven scanned the crowd looking for Stu, even though he knew the odds of finding him were next to none. There were simply too many panicking humans.

Regret curled around his dead heart. Instead of letting the human go, he should’ve just locked him up in that little storeroom or sent him to his private office. But like an idiot, he’d let Stu walk away.

“Felix? Use your talent of persuasion to calm the humans.”

“I’ll try, but I think there’s too much fear for it to work,”

Felix said. A few seconds later he shook his head. “It’s no good.”

Raven also tried and got nowhere. “Dammit. All we can do is help evacuate. Go.”

Annabel and Felix bowed their heads, then blurred away.

Raven stumbled as a human was thrown into him. Grabbing the pretty woman, he dragged her to the nearest exit. Fucking hunters. The acidic scent of fear canceled out everything else. Even if a hunter passed Raven on his way out of the exit, there was a good chance he wouldn’t know.

He had barely stepped outside when he heard sirens off in the distance. Well, it appeared the police were responding in a timely manner. Hopefully, they could calm the crowd and not incite them.

Not too far from him, he saw that Connie was outside and trying to calm a group of young women who were crying hysterically. One lady’s lip was busted and bleeding, her dress was torn, and she’d scraped her knees pretty badly. Several people were bleeding, in fact.

Just what he did not need. There were a few fledglings in the club too. A few seconds later, Frederick appeared next to him. Fortunately the good doctor was no longer a fledgling, although he was still a very young vampire.

Raven peered at Frederick. “Are you… having any problems, doctor?”

“No, thank goodness. The ones who might have are being… tended to. They are safe. I made sure of it.”

Raven had a fondness for the young man he had gifted eternal life to years ago. Frederick was a Black man who had fought for civil rights in the sixties.

He’d marched with some very prominent figures from that time, been beaten and gassed by police… and eventually murdered for his beliefs.

Well, the men in white robes had tried to murder him. It just so happened Raven had stumbled across where they’d hung Frederick, and Raven had slaughtered everybody there. Unfortunately he’d had no choice but to turn Frederick.

“Thank you for taking care of them.”

“Always, Master.”

Some humans were quickly vacating the area, while others were standing around aimlessly staring at each other. Most likely shock was setting in.

Unable to help himself, Raven scanned those groups, but no. Nothing. No Stu. It bothered him more than he wanted to admit. Where was the human? Was he okay?

It appeared as if people had finally figured out the fire alarms were false and were calming down a little. Raven scanned the groups of people standing around talking, still searching. Now several of them had their cell phones out. Because of course they did.

A decrepit white van stopped a little way down the street from the club and its door slid open. Alarms started going off in Raven’s head immediately. “Shit.”

Suddenly he was afraid he understood what the hunters’ mission had been.

“What?”

Felix asked, suddenly appearing.

“Look.”

Raven pointed. “White van with the door open.”

“Tell me they aren’t seriously trying to kidnap humans for their experiments right here in front of everyone.”

“They’re trying to kidnap humans for their experiments in front of everyone.”

“Shit, Raven, I said not to tell me that!”

Felix complained.

A human male dressed all in black had his arm around a young woman, consoling her as he gently herded her toward the van. In fact, Raven noticed several humans were being led that way.

“Hudson and Connie also seem to have noticed what’s going on too,”

Raven said. “Lend them assistance.”

Felix bowed his head slightly. “I will.”

Raven watched Felix speed off as he directed the vampires who were outside to help the humans and other paranormals.

After he had that in hand, he darted around the back of the building because he had a feeling there was more than one van, and sure enough, he was right.

But shock rolled through his body as he saw his human fighting. Shortly after that came a feeling he hadn’t felt in a long time—fear. Stu was fighting a partially transformed hunter, and the yellow eyes were a dead giveaway of what DNA had been spliced with the hunter’s—werewolf. Deadly sharp claws slashed at Stu, ripping through his shirt and into his skin.

Blood spurted.

The air current carried the scent of the precious substance to Raven. His monster roared to life as the scent enveloped him. The smell. The taste on his tongue. He’d never smelled anything like that during his long life. It made him need.

Stu lifted his hand, and a glowing whip of electricity snapped from his fingers. It wrapped around the hunter, electrocuting him.

Electrocuting him.

Raven stumbled back as it dawned on him what his human was. Well, first off, his human was not human. How had he missed that? Stu was a Lightningbender, meaning he had the power of electrokinesis.

Those who had such powers were sometimes called Lightning Lords and were considered dangerous. Very dangerous, because they had the ability to control living creatures through the precise manipulation of electricity and electrical fields within a person.

In other words, they could control a person’s movements by manipulating the electricity used by the nervous system to send signals to the entire body.

Lightning Lords were powerful, morally gray, and not well-liked by the paranormal community.

“By the dark gods,”

Raven whispered as Stu killed the hunter.

Turning, Stu stared at Raven, then jetted into the air, disappearing.

Raven was sure he’d seen regret in Stu’s eyes, but he didn’t know if it was because Raven knew what he was or because Stu had killed the hunter. And he hadn’t hung around to find out.

Common sense told Raven to avoid Stu like the plague. Wasn’t it fortunate that the plague could not kill Raven? One way or another, he’d be seeing Stu again.

Special thanks to Ash A. for the name Asher. When I do the vampires of San DeLain, we’ll find out that Stu’s name is actually Asher Stuart lol. Sneaky non-human.

Rubies and Red Roses