Diamonds and Deviants
This picture my own - others from Google Free to use images
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Celtica leaped over the desk and took the shocked Demonica by the throat. She was far stronger than Demonica could ever have imagined and the vampire scratched her long fingernails across Celtica’s skin to try to break her grip on her throat.
“Once more then, I hate repeating myself. Why did you order the hit on Celtica Diamond?”
“She was getting too close. She was about to go and interview a human that had a lot to do with the court case. I don’t think she’d get past the glamour that had been put on him, but why take chances?”
“And you’re ok to tell me this because, by now, the human will be dead or gone, I suppose.”
Demonica nodded her head with great difficulty because Celtica had a firm grip on her throat.
“Ah well, if you can’t give me any more information, I suppose I’ll just have to kill you,”
Celtica knew that wouldn’t be any kind of threat to Demonica, she would be reanimated by a warlock and start all over again.
“Oh, I forgot to mention something. The reason that the other vampires, the ones that I call Humpty and Dumpty, can’t be put back together again was because my bracelet is treated with holy water and I seal the edges of the wounds when I decapitate them. They aren’t gonna get their heads back, not ever, nuh-uh.”
Celtica felt the vampire’s fear then. She jerked under her grip and began struggling in greater earnest.
“Yeah, I thought that’d have you in a tizzy,” she said.
“Now, to save me a trip to go and find a human that may or may not be there, what do you have to tell me?”
The struggling stopped and the vampire seemed to sag. Celtica didn’t loosen her grip though, She’d dealt with these tricky creatures before.
“The human would have told Celtica that there was something dodgy about the murder of Simeon Grey. The man that was convicted for his murder isn’t the one that murdered him, although he thinks he is.”
“He’s been glamoured too. Nice. You lot certainly get around don’t you. Now, if I promise not to kill you, today, will you tell me who it is that’s been putting the more permanent glamours on the humans? I know you put the one on the mongrel that accompanied the human that tried to kill Celtica, but there have been others, deeper and longer lasting ones. Who put those on?”
“You promise not to kill me?”
“I promise.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Ok then, don’t. I haven’t got all night,” Celtica said and she squeezed her hand tighter around the vampire’s throat. It took more effort than the two others had, they were a lot younger, but she still managed to snap the neck with one hand and with the help of the other hand, she tore off Demonic Monica’s head.
Again, the head was still sentient, still very much aware, which creeped Celtica out somewhat, but that was all taken care of with the bracelet.
She hadn’t been entirely truthful about the bracelet, it wasn’t treated with holy water at all, it was made from holy water. Her grandad had made it for her when he knew that she was going to the big city to ‘play with the vampires’ as he put it.
It took a few months to distil enough holy water to mix with silver ore to manufacture the metal that the bracelet was made from and then it took only a few days for the dwarf to fashion it. Dwarves are brilliant smiths, expert in metal craft, and the diamonds and gold that it cost was worth it, especially these past few days.
The reason that Celtica didn’t want to waste time negotiating with Demonica was rushing up the stairs. She didn’t know how many, but she knew that if she wanted to stay one step ahead of them, she’d have to make a very swift exit.
She stepped out of the office and backed up along the corridor and as the vampires, mongrels and one other, very interesting young man rushed up, she managed to be in their way to the office so that they had to push her aside in their urgency.
Celtica made the right kind of annoyed threats as they rushed past and before they had found what was left of Demonica the vampire, she had made her way down the stairs and out of the door. She was highly amused to see the sweaty man still prostrate before the cashier’s desk.
Celtica didn’t bother going to see the human that had the information about Simeon’s murderer. It wasn’t worth the effort.
He had already proven that he was glamoured to the extent that he would tell of her visit and from how Demonica had behaved, she had thought that Celtica was dead until she found out about the deaths of the brother and sister mercenaries.
There was little point in giving them the right impression on that score. Demonica hadn't known who Celtica was, whether by accident because of Celtica’s appearance, or because she really didn’t know who she was. It didn’t matter now but there was the little problem of a dead end in the investigation. Maclaren wouldn’t have stuck around, she was sure of that, so there was no point re-treading old ground. Onwards and upwards as her dad always said.
Celtica needed to find information on the interesting young man that had accompanied the vampires and their cronies to rescue Demonica. Celtica had an idea that he may be useful to her enquiries.