Blood Melody

by Val St. Crowe

  “Yum,” I said, throwing the covers aside and scurrying over to eat. We hadn’t had anything since that burger joint yesterday. I was starved.

  “Ondine came by,” he said. “She said that she wants to go tonight.”

  I sat down and popped a grape in my mouth. “Tonight?” I said, chewing the grape. “So soon?”

  Landon grabbed a grape too. “Also, she said she wanted us to know that if she found out that we double-crossed her, she would drain both of us of blood and leave us to die on the street.”

  “Oh, great,” I said, picking up a piece of toast. It was already buttered, but there were some small pots of jam, and I looked around for a knife to spread that out. “Well, it’s good that she has threats, anyway. I don’t know what we’ll do to her if she betrays us.”

  “Complain loudly,” said Landon. He sat down at the table and picked up a knife. “Looking for this?”

  I snatched it from him. “Thank you.” But instead of turning my attention to my toast, I got mesmerized by the ripples of his stomach again.

  He looked down at himself. “What?”

  I blushed again. “Nothing.” I forced myself to look at my toast.

  “You’re weirding me out.”

  “You’re, you know, nice to look at,” I said as I spread out some strawberry jam.

  “What?”

  I looked up at him. “Okay, I’m not repeating it.”

  He hunched his shoulders, like he wanted to hide. “Camber, I’m… I’m a monstrosity.”

  I shrugged. “A hot monstrosity.”

  He was stunned for a second, and then he laughed. “Yeah, well, what can I say? Hours in the gym, sweetheart.”

  I snorted.

  He got up and went back into the bathroom. When he came back, disappointingly, he was dressed.

  * * *

  We boarded Ondine’s plane that evening around 5:00. In case Landon hadn’t given me the message, she reiterated to me, in great detail, how she would kill us both if we double-crossed her. I said I just wanted to get my sister out and that was all I cared about.

  “Sure,” said Ondine. “And the bloodhound? He’s in love with your sister?”

  “What? No. He hates her for making him her blood slave.”

  Ondine raised an eyebrow. “Then why would he be helping you?”

  “Uh… he just likes to do me favors,” I said. I narrowed my eyes at her. “You’re the one who put us in the same room.”

  She shrugged. “I thought it was some kind of complicated love triangle thing.”

  “No,” I said. Except she was sort of right, I guessed. Well, not really, because there wasn’t anything between Landon and me, his rippling chest notwithstanding. And I was pretty sure if there was, it would bother Desta. So, that was two strikes against us. It was impossible.

  But when I thought of the future without Landon in it, it hurt.

  When I thought of going back to the pack and trying to choose a human mate, my stomach tied itself into knots. So, I shoved that aside and focused on the present.

  The plane was small. It wasn’t the sort of luxurious plane that I had pictured. It was tiny. There was a bench seat in the back, right behind the cockpit, where the pilot and Ondine were sitting. I had never been in a plane before, and the prospect of going up in the air in this tiny hunk of metal was not really reassuring to me. I was scared.

  I thought that Ondine would be bringing more people to help her overthrow Viggo, but it seemed that all of her help would be meeting us at the airport.

  We climbed aboard the plane and buckled up.

  The pilot was a quiet man, somber. He said that he wished us luck, as long as we weren’t shot out of the sky by the vampires.

  Great. That made me feel supremely safe.

  “Look, the vampires don’t really do a lot of military surveillance,” Landon said. “Why should they? There’s no other power out there strong enough to challenge them. We’ll be fine.”

  My heart started to patter. I tried to take deep breaths to calm myself, but it didn’t work.

  The pilot asked us if we were secure.

  I squeaked.

  Landon said yes.

  The pilot started the plane and we began to drive forward, first slowly and then quicker and quicker.

  There was a strip of trees up ahead, and it looked to me as though we were headed straight for them. I was horrified. We were going to wreck before we even got off the ground.

  But then the plane tilted a little and suddenly took to the air and we were soaring up over the tops of the trees and my heart was pounding even harder, but now it was a mix of fear and excitement, because we were flying.

  I gazed down at the ground, which grew smaller and smaller beneath us. Soon, we were soaring in the clouds, and they were fluffy and beautiful. I actually liked being in a plane, I decided. It was glorious.

  The flight wasn’t long. Soon enough, we were landing, which was an experience in and of itself, the ground rushing up to meet us and the plane’s wheels engaging again. It was smoother than I had hoped but still a bit scary.

  We disembarked quickly in the middle of a field in the woods.

  Ondine climbed out, carrying a bag that contained the potion. We scrambled out after her. She headed for the woods, and we followed her. Soon, we could see that there was a road there. Within a few minutes, the plane took off, and then some cars appeared on the road, their headlights cutting through the darkness.

  They pulled up to us. There were ten cars at least, all packed with vampires. One got out and spoke to Ondine in low tones. She gestured to us, and he nodded.

  Ondine came over to us. “You’ll ride in the last car. How many doses of the potion do you need? Two each and two for your captives? Six?”

  “Yes,” I said, even though I only really wanted one each. The other two were insurance in case one busted or something.

  Ondine handed them over.

  Landon and I climbed into the last car.

  We were off.

  We drove through the woods until the road dead-ended at the fence. Instead of climbing it, like we were used to doing, the vampires used bolt cutters to cut a big doorway in the fence and we all went through it. We emerged in the park behind Viggo’s building.

  There, we all took the potion and winked out of sight, one after the other.

  “Good luck,” came Ondine’s voice.

  “And to you,” I said back. It was very strange talking to someone who I couldn’t see.

  Landon took my hand. “Listen,” he said, “we might not have a lot of time before the potion wears off. I think we should split up. You go and get Desta, and I’ll go and get Waterfield. I know where his lab is. From what I remember, he was there all hours of the day and night. I can find him.”

  “All this time, you knew where to find Waterfield?” I said. “Did I ask you?”

  “No,” he said. “You never did.”

  “And you didn’t volunteer it?”

  “Well, when we were ever making concrete plans to go get him?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I guess it makes sense for you to get him and to get Desta.”

  “Meet on the other side of the fence where you left the car,” he said.

  “How will we know the other has arrived if we can’t see each other?” I said.

  “Give me your cell phone,” he said. “I’ll call Desta’s number, and you can call this one.”

  “Okay, that works,” I said.

  He let go of my hand.

  I felt worried and very alone. “Landon?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Good luck.”

  “You too.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  I sprinted through the darkness of the park, heading for Desta’s building. It was strange, because I had never run before while invisible. I hadn’t realized how used I was to seeing my body out of the corner of my eyes. But there was nothing there. It was a little panic inducing, to be honest, because it felt oddly
as though I had ceased to exist. I wanted to be able to see myself again.

  But I had to admit that gaining entry to the building was easy.

  Getting onto the elevator was a little more tricky. I was worried that people would think it was strange that the doors were opening on their own.

  But, while people did look up when the doors opened, they didn’t react with alarm. They simply assumed the doors were malfunctioning. They shrugged and went on with their day.

  I couldn’t get off at the penthouse apartment without permission from Desta, so I used the intercom to contact her.

  “Camber, what the hell are you doing here?” she said. “I told you not to come.”

  “Just buzz me in, please,” I said.

  “You need to go.”

  “Desta, trust me,” I said.

  She muttered a bunch of unintelligible words that sounded like swear words under her breath, but she buzzed me up. The elevator started moving.

  When I got to the top, the doors opened and I stepped out.

  Desta was there, but of course she couldn’t see me. She gazed into the empty elevator, worried. “Camber?”

  “I’m here,” I said.

  She jumped. “Where?”

  “I’m invisible,” I said. “You can be too.” I moved into her living room and placed one of the small bottles of the potion on her coffee table.

  She screamed. “What the hell? That just appeared!”

  “It’s an invisibility potion,” I said. “I found it, and we’re going to use it to get out of here.”

  “Oh, Camber, how many times do I have to tell you that I don’t want to leave the city?”

  “You don’t want to?”

  “No!”

  “That’s really not what you said. You said that it was impossible and you made a bunch of excuses, but never once did you say that you wanted to stay here.”

  Jack appeared in the doorway. Jack was Camber’s boyfriend. Er, blood slave. Man, I had forgotten my sister had one of those. That was so uncool. I had been like this guy. He was in love with Camber against his will, and it wasn’t fair.

  “You’re leaving,” I said. “You have to, because we also brought vampires into the city who are going to overthrow Viggo and do who-knows-what-else. So, if you have any self-preservation, you’d better leave with me.”

  “What’s going on?” said Jack.

  “Compel him to calm down,” I said.

  “Wait!” she said. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Compel Jack and take the potion,” I said. “He’ll be better off without you, and you know it.”

  “But where are you taking me? Is there going to be blood there?”

  “We will figure that out later, now do as I say.”

  She crossed the room to Jack and cupped his face with her hands. “Jack, I want you to forget all about me.”

  Jack looked startled. “But Desta—”

  “When I disappear, you’ll forget you ever knew me, and you’ll be happy, and you’ll find a safe way to get away from the vampires.”

  “Okay,” said Jack, looking like a forlorn child.

  Desta turned to me, taking a deep breath. “Well, all right. Let’s do this.” She came over to the coffee table and picked up the potion. “Do I drink it?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  She downed it and disappeared right away.

  “Let’s go,” I said.

  “What the hell?” said Jack. “Who said that?”

  I reached out for Desta and found her. She thrust her hand into mine. Together, we went to the elevator. We climbed inside, and I pushed the button for the bottom floor.

  The elevator started to descend.

  And then it stopped. On the fourteenth floor. The doors opened and some vampires got on.

  Desta and I pressed ourselves against the back wall, trying not to come in contact with any of the vampires.

  But one of them brushed me. “Hey,” he said. “What is this?”

  I bit down on my lip. Oh, hell, what were we going to do?

  Now all the vampires were trying to touch me.

  I darted out of their grasp, moving to the other side of the elevator.

  They stayed at the back, feeling around.

  “I swear I felt something,” said the vampire. “I couldn’t see it, but I felt it. It’s some kind of weird magic.”

  “Well, there’s nothing here now,” said another vampire. “Maybe it left.”

  When the elevator stopped again, we still weren’t on the bottom floor, but I grabbed onto Desta and yanked her out of there. There was no point in tempting fate.

  We took the stairs instead.

  At the bottom of the steps, we hurried into the lobby, which was full of vampires running to and fro and panicking.

  “What’s going on?” said Desta. It didn’t matter that she spoke, because it was too loud down there for anyone to distinguish her voice.

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  We hurried out of the building onto the street.

  The top of Viggo’s building was on fire. Flames and black clouds of smoke were pouring out of the windows. Vampires were all gathered around. Some were sobbing, some were screaming, others looked pretty happy about the whole thing.

  “You didn’t say they were going to kill him,” said Desta.

  “Do you care?” I said. “He’s been horrible to you.”

  “I know,” said Desta. “That doesn’t mean I want him dead.”

  “We have to go,” I said.

  We rushed through the streets.

  Desta’s phone rang.

  “Oh, I guess I should get rid of this,” she said. “Viggo could use it to track me.”

  “Wait,” I said. “It could be Landon. He was going to call your phone.”

  “Well… I can’t see who’s calling,” she said. “I can’t see the screen to answer.”

  “Set it down,” I said.

  The phone appeared on the street.

  Then it disappeared again and stopped ringing. Desta had answered it. “Hello?” Silence. “Um, yeah, she’s here. She’s taking me somewhere, out of the city… Okay, we’re on our way.” Another pause. “Camber, let’s go.”

  “Was that Landon?”

  “Yes,” she said. “He’s already at the meet-up point.”

  “Does he have Aston Waterfield?”

  “I don’t know. He didn’t say.”

  “Well, call him back.”

  “It would be crazy hard to do that,” she said. “Without being able to see the screen unless I’m not touching it? Let’s just go.”

  We went.

  We got to the fence, and all I could see was the dark woods. “Landon?” I called.

  “Camber?” he called back.

  “Do you have Aston Waterfield?”

  “Yeah, I got him. He’s knocked out in the back of this car.”

  “Oh, thank goodness,” I said. I started to climb the fence.

  “Where do we go from here?” Desta asked.

  “Climb the fence,” I said.

  “Into the woods?” she said.

  “Where else would I take you?”

  “Oh, Camber, I don’t know if I like this.”

  “That’s Desta for you,” came Landon’s voice, tinged with irony. “You risk your life for her, and she’s not even grateful.”

  “When have I ever done that to you?” said Desta. “I’ve been good to you, Landon.”

  Landon laughed.

  “Maybe it’s better if you guys don’t talk,” I said, swinging over the top of the fence and jumping down.

  “Fine,” said Desta.

  Within a few minutes, she and I were both safe on the other side of the fence.

  “We’ll have to take both of the cars,” said Landon. “There’s not enough room with Waterfield spread out on the back seat of this one.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Well, that’s good, then. We can get them both back to the pack where they belo
ng.”

  “Are you taking me to your pack?” said Desta.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “I’m a vampire, Camber. Werewolves hate vampires.”

  “Would you stop worrying?” I said.

  “No, because this is insane. Maybe I should go back to the city.” But one look back at the city was a look back at smoke and flame. Whatever was going on there, Viggo’s kingdom was being burned down.

  “Come on, Desta,” I said.

  “I don’t know how this is going to work,” she said. But she came.

  * * *

  We turned back visible right before we arrived back at the pack.

  It was a relief, and Desta seemed to think so too. She spent the rest of the drive studying her hands, as if she’d never seen them before. When we got back, it was the middle of the night. No one was out and about.

  Aston Waterfield was still unconscious. Landon threw him over his shoulder and brought him back to my place. We laid him out on the couch.

  Desta walked around my house, proclaiming it was so cute, but she didn’t sound like she liked it. She sounded a little bit horrified by her surroundings. I could see that she wasn’t at home. I didn’t know what to do. All this time, I’d been sure that Desta wanted free of Viggo, but maybe I’d read it all wrong. Viggo was a monster, sure, but Desta belonged in the city.

  Maybe she couldn’t stay here after all.

  But if Ondine had been successful at overthrowing Viggo, maybe it would be safe for Desta to go back. I would miss her, but certainly Ondine would be grateful for the way that we had helped her. She would allow Desta and me to visit each other.

  However, there was no way that Desta was going back to the city right now. Everything must be chaos there. She was safer here.

  Of course, I needed to figure out places for everyone to stay and to sleep. I only had one extra bedroom in my place, and I had both Desta and Landon here. The problem was, I didn’t want to leave either of them out on their own. I wondered if I could find someplace bigger where we could stay for the time being. Typically, it wouldn’t be a problem, but we were still in the process of rebuilding after the bloodhound raid. My house had been spared which was why I’d been able to move in, and lots of houses had been rebuilt. But empty buildings where no one was staying were not exactly a priority. They were going to be the last things to be rebuilt.