Thirst

by Jacquelyn Frank

  There was time for self-recriminations later. Right now she had a crime scene to get to. She then stopped in the center of the room.

  Damn it. Rafe had used a keycard to use the elevator last night. Was the card required for going down as well as up? Should she just take the card from his pocket and bring it back later? Hell, depending on how long he slept, she might make it back before he even woke up. Maybe he had a second card somewhere so he wouldn’t be trapped. It made sense that he would have one. There were security guards at the entrance to the building. He could always call one of them to come get him. But would he be embarrassed about that?

  She sighed. She hustled into the bedroom after finding his card and knelt by his side of the bed. She touched his shoulder and gently shook him awake. He opened his eyes slowly and she waved the card in front of his face.

  “I have to go. Can I take this?”

  He blinked then sat up slowly.

  “You’re dressed,” he noticed.

  “And late,” she added. “Can I take this?” She waved the card again.

  “Yes, but…let me come with you.”

  “I don’t have time to wait for you,” she said impatiently. “And it’s not like I can bring you to a crime scene.”

  “You’re going to a crime scene? I thought you said you had the day off. The weekend off. You cannot go anywhere alone. We’ve already established this.”

  She huffed out a sigh of frustration.

  “I’ll be fine! The streets are way crowded this time of day.”

  “I’m coming with you,” he said, getting out of bed. He was all deliciously naked and for a minute she was thoroughly distracted.

  “You can’t,” she insisted. “Aren’t you listening to me?”

  “I’ll stay on the sidelines. In the crowd of onlookers. I’m watching out for you whether you like it or not.”

  He went into a drawer and pulled out a pair of jeans. He pulled them on, going commando, and was in the next drawer a moment later. He withdrew a cable-knit sweater and had it on before she could blink. Honestly, she was pretty impressed with his speed. He ran a hand through his hair to settle it and then brushed that same hand over the stubble on his jaw along the edges that were not a part of his goatee. But he didn’t even ask if he could shave; he simply took the keycard from her and went in search of his socks and boots and wallet and phone.

  She realized he was just as comfortable in casual clothes as he was in a suit. He wore them both very well and she couldn’t decide which she liked better—the sharply dressed businessman or the casually dressed weekend man. She decided she didn’t have to choose, she could clearly have both, so she was content to enjoy him either way.

  He made a quick trip to the bathroom and she was tapping her foot impatiently by the time he emerged. He took her hand and guided her into the front room. He took their coats from the closet and she slid hers on quickly. She realized then that he had been very quiet this entire time. As he led her out into the hallway she remarked on it.

  “It’s nothing,” he said, clearly lying. It was definitely something.

  “Liar,” she accused lightly.

  A corner of his lips kicked up as they stood waiting for the elevator.

  “It’s just that, with all that’s going on, I can’t believe you were thinking of going out there without me to protect you.”

  “I can take care of myself. What will you do if I go undercover? You can’t protect me then.”

  “Don’t remind me,” he said darkly. “And anyway, who says you can go undercover? If they have someone watching you already, they know your face.”

  “I hardly think the leader of the phants is going to personally know my face.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  He had a point, but she wasn’t ready to admit it.

  “He has flunkies to do his dirty work. And it’s not just me being targeted. He can hardly get to know all of his targets’ faces. He has his little army doing it.”

  She was probably right but he wasn’t going to let it go.

  “You’re different. You’re mine. I’m third in command under the queen. Only Danton is ranked above me, and that is only because he is in her protective detail and in charge of all of the authoritarians everywhere.”

  Then something occurred to her. “If you all came from the same place all those years ago, why doesn’t Danton have the same coloring?”

  “Danton is…special. I’ll explain it one day.”

  “We have time, why don’t you explain it now?” she said as the elevator arrived.

  They stepped inside. Rafe scanned his card and selected the sky lobby. They would switch elevators and head down the rest of the way from there.

  “I want to explain it, but I’m not certain I’m allowed to. We very closely guard our secrets. You’ve been let inside, but that doesn’t mean I can tell you everything.”

  She understood his reasoning but for some reason it still hurt her. She wasn’t usually so sensitive, but this stung.

  “Let me think about it,” he said. “Let me consult with my queen. It’s not that I don’t trust you,” he added firmly. “It’s that others do not trust you.”

  She gave him a nod, but she looked away from him. Rafe could tell she was injured by his recalcitrance, but there was nothing he could do about it. He had gotten into trouble for telling her so much already. If he crossed the line again, he would most certainly face a tribunal. And by the time a person reached a tribunal, their guilt was pretty much a given—as was their punishment. And since capital punishment was usually the way things went, he had no desire to lose his life. He had risked it once for her already—and he would probably willingly do so again if it meant her life or death, but he would not be the only one facing a tribunal in this instance. Now that she had been let into the inner circle, she was subject to vampire law. He was certain no one had explained that to her as yet.

  “Has anyone told you that you are now, as an insider, subject to vampire law?”

  She went still and looked up at him quickly.

  “What does that mean for me?”

  “It means if you break any of our laws you are bound to face a tribunal and receive punishment.”

  “But I don’t know what vampire law is!”

  “Ignorance will not be an excuse.”

  She sighed. “That’s true with human law as well. Maybe you should start telling me what vampire law is.”

  “Well, luckily there is a very short list of laws that, if broken, will put you in front of a tribunal. They are rules such as telling a human being about us. It seems I have escaped that fate thanks to the committee’s approval of you.”

  “But the committee only approved of me because they want to use me.”

  “Yes. I am aware of this. This is usually the case when the committee decides to let a human into our world. It is so that they can use that person to the benefit of vampires. Granted there is very little your race can offer us, which is why humans who know of us are so rare, but still…”

  “I don’t know if I should be honored to be let in on this little secret or pissed off.” Renee huffed out another sigh as they switched elevators. “Tell me more.”

  “No vampire can reveal what it is I am not revealing to you now.”

  “I kind of figured that one out already,” Renee said rolling her eyes.

  “There are special exceptions. I believe you can be one of those exceptions. But as I said, I have to consult with the queen.”

  “I find it relatively amusing that you have a vampire queen. It’s so…B movie of you. And rather archaic. Ever hear of democracy?”

  “We do have a democracy of sorts. The queen has the last say in almost anything, but she is also put into her position by a vote from all the princes all over the world. She does not inherit her title by blood, although Simone comes from a long line of blood royalty, which means we tend to elevate vampires from her family first. Her line is the most powerful, both politically an
d literally. She is a wicked creature in battle. I know I would not wish to face her alone in a dark alley.” Rafe flicked his keycard against his fingertips, a sign of his anxiety. “There is a hierarchy. Every ten years we elect a queen or king and a successor in case they should die. The successor would serve out the ten-year term of the queen or king and another vote would be taken. If the successor dies too then a new vote is taken and a new head of our government elected. So you see? We are a democracy after all.”

  “So it seems. Only, our president can’t make unilateral decisions. He has others to answer to. An entire nation, the Senate, the House. Heads of other countries.”

  “The queen may have unilateral power for her tenure, but she does answer to others. For instance, she will not be re-elected if she abuses her power. Also, if enough princes get together, they can overthrow her government.”

  “How many princes?”

  “Ninety percent. Anything less is considered a rebellion and a coup that must be put down using any means necessary.”

  “Well hell, I’m going to get myself killed my first week here.”

  Alarm crossed his features. “Why do you say that?”

  “Because I am known to protect laws I feel are unjust or punishments that are too severe—or not severe enough. I love my job. I’m very good at my job, but I don’t always agree with it. I don’t always like it. Because we have free speech here I am allowed to voice my opinion quite loudly.”

  “But you wouldn’t be where you are in your job if you railed against the system too much,” he said knowingly.

  “This is true. I pick my battles and I don’t fight when I know I cannot win. But I will speak up. I will protest. Even if it’s just to complain. Otherwise I use my voting ability and other such methods to express my agreement or disagreement. It seems in vampire land, there’s no such thing as a protest. A protest goes against the queen. Going against the queen gets you in trouble.”

  “These are all false assumptions,” he said with a wry chuckle. “You are jumping to conclusions about us. We do not punish you for speaking your mind or protesting our ways, we only punish you if you physically or politically try to undermine the queen. And when I say politically I mean a rebellion of massive proportions. Rather like what the phants are trying to do now. Speaking against the queen is one thing, trying to overthrow her is something else entirely.”

  “Okay so…what else? What other vampire laws are there?”

  They had reached the parking lot and he let her out of the elevator before him, guiding her toward where he had parked in case she didn’t remember.

  “One is we don’t discuss vampires outside of the building unless it is an emergency. It is too easy for someone to listen in on a conversation.”

  “Wait, what about the vampires who don’t live here?”

  “This rule is specific to each of their locations. No vampire is allowed to live out in the world alone. They must work out of a protected environment.”

  “That sounds very restrictive.”

  “There are protected environments all over the world. Vampires can live in many places and can travel anywhere for short periods of time. They could conceivably live outside of a protected environment, but they would never be allowed to say the word ‘vampire’ to anyone else. That kind of life would be too isolated. So every vampire lives in a protected environment. Also, it allows us to sleep easy when there are phants out there looking to attack us.”

  “I see. But phants have the freedom to do anything they wish?”

  “Phants have their own protected environments. But we hunt them actively. There are very few safe places they can lay their heads without the threat of an authoritarian or a bounty hunter on their ass.”

  “You have bounty hunters?”

  “For very special cases who manage to elude the authoritarians or who have inside knowledge of our working government. We recently lost someone who gave in to the sickness. We believe that’s how the phants learned of the treaty.”

  “Who was he?”

  “His name was Roth. Is Roth. He’s still out there…if Halo hasn’t gotten to him yet. Halo’s one of the best bounty hunters we have, so it’s conceivable he’s already gotten Roth and I just don’t know about it yet. Roth’s betrayal was a bad one. We still don’t know why he gave in to the sickness of sycophanthropy. Then again, why does anyone?”

  “So this Roth guy was important?”

  “Yeah. Really important. If he’s found his way to Killean, the damage will be massive…as you can see by Killean just learning about the treaty and the fallout you are caught up in because of it. Roth was pretty high up in the queen’s service. He had access to a lot of sensitive information, not the least of which was the queen’s entire schedule. The logistics and personal inconvenience of her being forced to change her entire routine was a nightmare.”

  “And Roth’s stomping grounds before all of this was here in this building? In Midtown?”

  “Yes. Why?”

  “Well, if he’s gone rogue, he sounds a little like my perp.”

  He frowned deeply. “All the more reason to stay away from this.”

  “So you think it could be him?”

  “It could be. He matches the description you gave me, looks like your picture.”

  “Then it could be him! We have to stop him!”

  “He’ll be stopped. As I said, we have our best bounty hunter on his tail. If it is Roth he’s being dealt with. But it could just as easily be a vampire wholly unrelated to all of this speculation.”

  “I know. It just seems very coincidental that you have a vampire go rogue one day and the next bodies start popping up.”

  “I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m just saying there are hundreds of sycophants out there. It could be any of them.”

  “True,” she admitted. They got into the car and buckled up. “So once we leave this building we can’t discuss vampires?”

  “That’s the idea.”

  “But I have so many questions,” she said with a frown.

  “Just use the word ‘friend’ instead of vampire. Try it.”

  “All right. So when you told me all about vampires, er, friends while sitting in the middle of a restaurant, you were breaking the law?”

  “Yes. But telling you about friends was the worst crime.”

  They drove out of the parking structure after she gave him the address.

  “What else?”

  “I can’t think of anything more important than what we’ve already discussed.”

  “But there are other things.”

  “You’ll learn those along the way. These are the ones with the stiffest penalties.”

  “So let me get this straight. It’s possible you can be put to death just for talking about va—friends outside of this building?”

  “It is a serious infraction. No mention of it in emails. Texts. Over the phone. None of it. All of these things can be compromised.”

  “All right. But what about your treaty? How did you tell all those other princes in all those other territories about your treaty?”

  “It is carefully worded in an electronic format that is protected by very advanced encryption. The words ‘friends’ and ‘nation’ are used in place of the word ‘vampire.’ ”

  “Ooh, you said the word,” she teased.

  “It’s the last time, I assure you.” He reached across the gearshift and took hold of her hand. He brought it to his lips, kissing the back of it. It was oddly intimate all of a sudden and she flushed warmly with unexpected pleasure. She didn’t know what to make of the reaction. She wasn’t one to get all flighty and fluttery over a man’s attentions. She was a practical woman. Down to earth. She didn’t swoon or whatever it was they did in romance novels. Hell, she’d never even read a romance novel. Not on purpose anyway. She’d read stories with sex and romantic elements, but not one geared specifically for romantic fluttering.

  She turned her gaze away from him. It hurt to look at
his handsome face just then for some reason. Confused, she blinked hard. What was wrong with her? She barely even knew the guy when it came right down to it. Sure, the sex was fantastic, and sure, she’d never jumped into sex so fast in her life, but there had been special circumstances.

  At least…that’s what it had seemed like at the time. Really, would it have been so tragic if she’d had her memory of him wiped? It wasn’t as though she had any feelings for him. No. She’d just been worried about the danger aspect, she told herself.

  It was far too soon to have developed feelings for him. That is, she cared about his well-being and safety as she would any other human being’s, but she didn’t feel anything outside of a grand case of lust and, in spite of his being a vampire and she being human, a warm sensation that the possibilities for the future were very good.

  She shouldn’t feel that way. Hell, any sane person would have walked away the minute the word “vampire” came into the picture—before that even. When he had brought danger into her life. Apparently she wasn’t a sane person. She was a crazy person. Crazy to be attracted to such danger. Then again, she’d never really been the type to say no to an adrenaline rush. She’d even bungeed off a bridge over the Colorado River. Well, an offshoot of the Colorado River. Still it had been high and dangerous and thrilling.

  Was that what this was? Was Rafe high and dangerous and thrilling? She suspected he was. But he was also much more than that. She could tell he was a kind and caring person. He’d been nothing but polite and forthcoming, almost to his own detriment.

  No. There was no almost about it. He had risked everything for her. Realizing that vampire justice often required capital punishment, he had risked his life for hers. There was no looking at it from any other direction.

  She squeezed his hand as she tried to imagine a world without such an incredible man. Not only was he beautiful on the outside, but he seemed to be a treasure on the inside as well. She wanted to get to know him better, and he needed to stay around in order for that to happen. He needed to take better care of himself.