A Devil in the Dark

Chapter 4 - Blane

"I promised Jack that I wouldn't mess around with strangers anymore."

Ah, a vampire with a conscience. A true novelty. And in all likelihood, Vee was also the only vampire in Plane Five who was dating a cop. Jack Callahan was a detective with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, and he was far better at keeping secrets than I'd ever imagined. When a friend was murdered in my nightclub earlier in the year, he'd headed up the investigation, and the killer wasn't the only person whose dark side had been revealed. Perhaps it was Callahan's near-death experience that had made him bite his tongue? Or maybe a touch of fear?

Whatever, Callahan was dating Vee now, and he also provided her with sustenance, a situation that both of them found acceptable. Vee no longer had to suck blood from drunkards and drug addicts, and Callahan didn't have to investigate any reports of unexplained puncture wounds. Although Vee had always been careful while dining out, I had to concede. Her saliva contained a healing enzyme, and as long as she didn't drink past the point of death, the holes disappeared fast.

"A little sip won't hurt."

The prisoner's gaze pinged between them. "What you talkin' about?"

"Your fate," I told him. "We wouldn't want to let you go, only for you to spill the beans about our meeting to Zion."

For the first time, the man seemed to realise he might be in serious trouble.

"Hey, I'm not gonna do that, I swear. You can trust me."

"Can I? They say there's no honour among thieves, and I'm sure the same holds true for kidnappers."

"I wasn't exactly gonna kidnap the girl. It was more of a relocation."

"You still planned to take her against her will."

"How many more young women have you 'relocated'?" Vee asked.

"She was the first. I'm a good guy, honestly. I just needed to make a few bucks."

Really? A good guy? Well, we'd see about that. Did you know that you can tell a person's character by the shade of his soul? In the Planes, we referred to it as karmic tint. The darker the soul, the more negative karma had accumulated over its lifetime. Theoretically, two separate earth-based teams—the Electi and Opus Vi—were meant to weed out those folks and send them to Plane Three so they didn't find their way back to the mortal world. The Electi had the power to condemn the dark souls right away—do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars—while Opus Vi sent them to face Ad Tabulam, a council that sat in final judgment. Ditto for the light souls, which actually took on the appearance of a rainbow with the accumulation of significant positive karma. Factora Angelus should have been nominating them to spend eternity in Plane Two as reward for their good works. The problem? Both Opus Vi and Factora Angelus had gone AWOL, and the Electi had only recently gotten their act together after several centuries of absence. As a result, Planes Two and Three were under-populated while Plane Five—aka Earth—was full of assholes.

And Ad Tabulam spent much of their time playing poker.

So, was this man a good guy, as he claimed? Was his attempted "relocation" of Wren a one-off? Fortunately, I had a way to tell.

When my siblings and I were created, the Celestial Council had bestowed a gift upon each of us. My ability to move souls around had been useful in the unruly environment of Plane Three, but in Plane Five? Not so much. Tonight might be a rare exception. With a flick of my wrist and a little concentration, I separated Wren's visitor into his constituent parts—the meat-covered skeleton that was stuck here on Earth, and the soul.

Vee gasped as the body crumpled to the floor.

"What did you do?"

"I'm just checking something."