Blood Song

by Lynda Hilburn

  Chapter 5

  “Where ya been, man?” Nelson asked, his face serious, the corner of his lip twitching. He shifted his weight back and forth from one foot to another. “Alexander was pissed that he couldn’t find you. I told him you needed some alone time and he nearly split a gut laughing. He said if you want alone time, he can arrange your true death, then you’ll have all the alone time you want. He needs us out on patrol. He said there are lots of newbies roaming the streets. Shit, dude. Don’t bail on me like that again.”

  Nelson’s right. I shouldn’t have taken off. I know how Alexander likes to use us to hurt each other. The sadistic bastard. “I’m sorry, man. Leaving was selfish of me.” Ethan punched him lightly on the arm. “Am I forgiven?”

  “Sure.” Nelson threw his shoulders back and raised his chin, making an unsuccessful effort to mask the Alexander-inspired fear. “If you do it again, I’ll have to kick your ass.”

  “Deal.” They bumped fists. “So, where to?”

  “You need to ask?”

  “You’re shittin’ me. Again?” Alexander liked to assign them to the busiest part of town—the bars along the west end near the foothills. The Master didn’t choose the location because Ethan and Nelson would do a good job. Not even close. He gave them the hardest route—filled with brain-dead newbies trolling for blood—because he liked doling out punishments when humans inevitably got killed on their watch.

  Ethan looked up at the full moon and noticed the hazy ring around it. That was a bad sign, but he wasn’t going to say anything to Nelson, who tended to worry enough for both of them. “Lead the way, my friend. Let the games begin.”

  “Yeah, what fun.” Nelson deadpanned and shoved his hands into his jeans pockets.

  Keeping to the shadows as much as possible, they prowled along buildings and crouched behind cars until they reached the alley running near the noisy clubs.

  They’d barely staked out a position alongside a dumpster, when a woman’s scream pierced the air. They bolted toward the ear-curdling shriek.

  A short, thin female wearing only an oversize bloody University of Colorado T-shirt, struggled with a much taller woman dressed in bicycle-racing clothes—spandex tights, cropped shirt featuring the logo for an energy drink, cycling shoes and a neon-orange helmet—trying to hold her still for neck biting. “Help me!” The bicyclist’s screams ended abruptly with a choking sound as the vampire struggled to rip the helmet off her head, but couldn’t because it was fastened with a strong chin strap. The victim fought against the rabid bloodsucker, making gurgling noises as she tried to breathe. Finally giving up on the strap, the attacker threw the woman to the ground and ripped into the vein in her arm.

  Nelson leaped on the vampire. He pulled her off, and held her in a steel grasp while Ethan hefted the cyclist—who’d passed out by this time from shock and blood loss—into his arms and ran farther down the alley. He found an unlocked car door, opened it and thrust his passenger inside.

  Nelson struggled to subdue his prisoner, who was now flailing and making loud “Gah! Gah! Gah!” sounds, while blood dripped from her fangs. Ethan ran back to help.

  “Damn, man,” Nelson said, momentarily losing his grip on the newbie and then regaining it. “This is one wild little blood-seeking missile. Kinda cute, though. Too bad she has to die.”

  “Let me grab her feet, while you turn her face around and hypnotize her into submission.” Ethan closed the distance between him and the woman and she went crazy, managing to propel herself out of Nelson’s arms and onto Ethan. The force of her leap took him down with her. She latched onto his shoulder, stuck her fangs in and sucked.

  “Hey! What the fuck?!” Ethan yelled. “Nelson, get this thing off me! She’s actually drinking my blood!”

  Nelson pounced on the small woman, and angled his arm around her neck to force her mouth from Ethan’s shoulder.

  Ethan rolled away, and then jumped to his feet. Nelson wrestled the newbie onto her back, then restrained her wrists over her head with one hand while he straddled her hips. Sniffing the air, he leaned down toward her mouth, which still kept up a constant stream of obscenities while she kicked her legs. “That’s weird. I don’t smell your blood on her. Only human.”

  Nelson grabbed her by the hair with his free hand and stared into her eyes. Every muscle in her body went slack, and her head flopped to the side.

  “What the fuck just happened?” Ethan rubbed the already closing gashes on his skin. “Hasn’t Mordecai taught his minions not to drink from other vampires?” He looked down at himself. “Damn. She trashed my T-shirt.”

  Nelson released the woman’s limp wrists and sat up, frowning. “That’s really bizarre, man.” His voice shook.

  “What’s bizarre?” Ethan crouched down next to Nelson, confused about what had his friend so freaked. Was Nelson having some kind of breakdown? He wouldn’t be surprised. All that constant anxiety had to take some kind of negative toll.

  Nelson lifted his nose into the air and sniffed again, his nostrils flaring. “Let me smell your shoulder.”

  “What?” Ethan leaped to his feet. “You want to smell me? Now that’s fuckin’ weird.”

  Nelson slowly rose. “I know what your blood smells like. I’ve been covered in it often enough when we’ve fought these vampo-zombies together.” He looked down at the woman. “I saw her suck blood from your shoulder. She has it all over her mouth and chin.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  Nelson’s eyes narrowed. “So, all I smell is human blood—several different kinds from her recent victims—her own blood, a little of mine from where she scratched me, and nothing else. Your blood isn’t there.” He stared at Ethan. “Come on, man. Help me out here. What’s happening?”

  Wow. Nelson is obviously losing his mind. But, no. That can’t be it. He isn’t old enough to mentally fragment. “I don’t know, Nelson. Why does it matter if you can pick out my blood? What’s the difference?”

  Nelson lunged, grabbed the shoulder of Ethan’s T-shirt, and breathed in. “Fuck, Ethan!”

  “Hey! Get your hands off me!” Ethan stared into his friend’s frightened eyes.

  Nelson let go and backed away. “What the hell’s going on with your blood? It smells... human. But that’s impossible.” His lips were pressed in a tight, quivering, thin line.

  Damn! Is Nelson losing it? “Really, man. Cool your jets. You’re starting to wig me out. Talk to me. Why does the fact that you can’t isolate my blood scare you?”

  “I don’t know. I have a really bad feeling.”

  Ethan noticed a fine trembling in Nelson’s hands. The poor guy had been so traumatized as a human it was astounding he’d survived the turning process without even more side effects. If he was having a burnout, somehow they had to keep that knowledge from Alexander.

  “Okay. Wait.” Ethan grabbed the bloody part of his T-shirt and pressed it against his nose. “See? It’s my same old vampire blood...” He sucked in air, then his breath caught. What the fuck? It wasn’t the same. He sniffed again, and then licked a saturated portion with his tongue. Not his blood. He smelled his hand where he’d pressed against the newbie’s bite wounds in his neck. Startled, his head jerked up and his wide-eyed gaze met Nelson’s. His mind spun. Did the newbie have some kind of poison in her saliva? Did she pollute my blood? “What’s going on, Nelson? Did that vampo-zombie do something to me?”

  Nelson jumped to his feet and backed away. “I dunno, dude, but this isn’t good. You’re flippin’ me out. You don’t smell like yourself anymore. Does anything hurt?”

  Ethan thought for a moment and patted himself down. “No. I feel like I always do. Dead.”

  “Fuck, Ethan. I’m whacked. What if there’s some new threat to vampires and you’re the first casualty? We need to tell Alexander—”

  “No!” Ethan cut him off. Alexander would simply destroy both of them if anything threatened his dynasty. “Let’s think for a minute. Maybe whatever the newbie did to me will wear off soon. So far, the
only change is that my blood smells different.”

  “Yeah. Like you’re human. Do you know what that means? It means other vampires will attack you for your blood. They won’t realize you’re a vampire.”

  “Okay, I guess that’s a possibility—if this situation is permanent. And it probably isn’t. I mean, how could it be? I haven’t been human for forty years. Nothing I’ve ever heard of could restore me from death...” He stopped and stared off as something impossible occurred to him. A strange, niggling suspicion. Chills rushed through his body as he remembered how odd his behaviors had been since encountering Grace and how she’d affected him. He’d watched her heal the dying woman. Somehow she’d changed him. He felt it.

  But it couldn’t be. There was no such magic. Was there?

  Nelson’s frightened pleas faded as Ethan bolted away into the night.