by Pace, Pepper
He waved my words away as if they were inconsequential. ”You tell me what you want, and I’ll get it for you—money, whatever. Don’t ever worry about money. But ... will you kiss me?”
”No. Paul, Amanda’s your girlfriend, not me.”
”But you could be my girlfriend.”
”No!”
His shoulders sank. “Okay.”
I patted his hand. “I’m sorry, Paul. I don’t need a boyfriend. What I need is blood ... and for you never to discuss this with anybody.”
He didn’t respond. It worried me. Which part was he rejecting—giving the blood or keeping the secret?
Paul looked at me. “I think I understand. You need my blood, plus I’ll give you money.” He paused. “You feel good ... but ...”
I was worried. I wanted Paul now that I had tasted his blood.
”It doesn’t seem right that you would make me feel so good but not ... you know.”
I didn’t respond because that was not negotiable. We stood there for another moment or two while Paul thought about it.
He turned to me. ”Kim. I simply cannot experience the feeling you give me without touching you. Do you think I could hold you, you know, during?”
I thought it was a compromise I could accept. “Yes.”
Paul smiled. “Okay. I won’t speak of our relationship with anyone.”
Mei Wah had followed Paul and me and had parked at a discreet distance. When I left the loft, Mei Wah drove up to the door and hurried out to let me in.
”Did everything go well, Miss Kim?” he asked.
”I think it did. I’ve made arrangements to meet him here tomorrow, at midnight.” Somehow I had thought our relationship would be more like “Me, Master, you, zombie,” but it wasn’t going to be like that at all. Our relationship was not going to be a dictatorship.
When I got back to the house, Mei Wah informed me that Tony wasn’t home. I took that to mean that he had gone to pay a visit to one of his donors.
I stripped out of my new outfit and checked it to make sure I hadn’t left any drops of blood on it before hanging it neatly in the closet. Mei Wah had hung the rest of the clothes in the closet while I was out. The bowl of silver jewelry was nowhere in sight. The crucifix was still in its tidy little bundle on the bedside table where I’d left it.
I put on lounging pajamas and a robe then slipped on fur slippers. I had found next to my bed. I wanted to find out something, and I needed to use the computer to do it. Tony had said that I could make myself at home. And he had never said that I couldn’t enter any of the rooms. I crept upstairs to his private office.
I hoped he didn’t have a code to get logged on to the Internet. I made myself comfortable at his desk. I wanted to find out how much blood was safe for a human to lose. I didn’t want to kill Paul by taking too much too often. But I could already foresee that Paul alone wouldn’t be enough to satisfy me.
Damn. If my Mama could hear what I just thought, she would beat my ass!
I looked around for some paper and a pen to take notes. Tony had a notepad sitting next to the computer with something jotted on it. When I flipped the pad to a clean sheet, I jumped at what was written there:
CALL GIGI -MEET AT HOUSE BEFORE KIM WAKES COUNCIL MEETING 2 AM—INITIATION OF JOHAN’S REPLACEMENT KIM? KEEP HER OCCUPIED…SEND HER HOME TO PACK HER THINGS? TOO SOON. TAKE TO CLUB MIDNIGHT TO FIND BLOOD DONORS!
I replaced the pad and got up, making sure to leave everything as it was. I hurried downstairs using my quick speed.
I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I was pissed. If what I had read was correct, then Tony had been trying to distract me from the Council meeting tonight. Maybe I didn’t want to be a Council member or maybe I didn’t want to be a lowly Third, but I’d be damned if Tony or anybody else was going to make the decision for me!
I went to the bedside table and grabbed my crucifix.
CHAPTER 8
I knew that my car wasn’t going to be of any use to me. I tried to zero in on that invisible line between Tony and me, but unlike the first time, I didn’t want him to know I was doing it. I thought about Tony’s smell and his taste, and I could feel it clear as day. I knew I could trace him.
I sneaked outside so I wouldn’t alert Mei Wah. The sounds were loud outside now that I had opened myself to Tony. I looked down in alarm. I had forgotten to change into street clothes and was wearing fur slippers!
I checked the time—close to three AM! I cursed. Unsure how to begin, I first started at a run, then I concentrated on Tony’s smell and taste, and before I knew it, it seemed as if I could almost see him. I thought about being there, and I was moving faster than I could think. I can only describe it as teleporting though I could sense myself moving through space. Maybe I was in that limbo that Tony had tried to describe to me. He had tried to make me understand that we could do the seemingly impossible because we were no longer completely a part of this world anymore, but it was hard to understand because I had never believed I had ever left the world in the first place.
I stopped the sickening motion outside of a house immediately familiar to me. It was the house that William had brought me to days before. I headed toward the house then kicked off the fancy fur slippers in irritation. I checked my watch. I’d lost fifteen minutes, and that meant it was after three AM.
They’d be in the basement, and someone would probably be at the front door as greeter or security. I scurried around back and peeked through a kitchen window. The lights were out so I knew this is where I’d make my entrance. I turned the knob. Locked. I kept turning it until it snapped the mechanisms inside. Then I pushed it open, hoping that I wasn’t setting off any alarms.
I was lucky to find a downstairs entrance off the kitchen. I used my super speed to find myself crouched at the bottom of the long, stone stairwell. I truly did not want to be down here after my last bad experience at the Council house, but I was not leaving until I got some answers.
I hadn’t been spotted, but the room was filled with thirty or forty people. I pressed myself against the curved entranceway out of sight. Luckily everyone was facing forward and I was behind them.
A long table had been set up at the front of the room, opposite where I was hidden. Tony was sitting behind it with the other council members and a man I hadn’t seen before. I eyed Kaniji, who wore a long Japanese robe whose sleeves were long enough to conceal her hands. Her makeup was flawless, and her hair was swept up again in intricate loops and rings that would make the baddest hoochie mama salivate.
I eyed Tony. That bastard! He was talking to a tall blonde man who looked really dangerous. The man had hair that ran past his shoulders and a thick beard and moustache. He looked like a biker even though he wore a thousand-dollar suit.
I ran my tongue over my flat teeth. Shit! I squeezed my jaw, trying to make them drop. I peeked at the table of Council members remembering Kaniji saying I didn’t even know how to retract my teeth. Remembering pissed me off, and Tony was doing something behind my back pissed me off more. That did it! My teeth dropped. I ran my tongue over them happily.
The K.D. Lang lookalike was standing. “The ceremony is now complete. Everyone, please welcome our newest Council member, Antoine Mancini. From this moment on he will reign over sector seven. All who reside there will answer to Antoine. All monies, lands, and people default to his rule. As second in command to Johan Cissero, Antoine has come to this honored appointment unchallenged—“
I cleared my throat. “I challenge his appointment.” I had spoken the words in a normal tone, but all who were in the room turned to face me.
Tony shot to his feet as I stepped forward.
”The ... honor ... of this appointment rightfully belongs to me,” I said.
Everyone in the room began to murmur and to ask questions.
I continued to walk forward. I drew in a deep breath then stopped three steps in front of the table. ”It’s my right to replace Johan since I am the person responsible for his
death.”
Antoine leaped over the table and landed in front of me. ”You? You are responsible for Johan’s death?”
Tony appeared beside Antoine. “Back off, Antoine.”
Antoine’s face twisted in rage. ”You can’t tell me what to do. I’m a Council member now, too, Tony. You smell strangely of human. You wouldn’t happen to be a Third, would you?”
There was a rumbling in the crowd. I imagined they didn’t know the events surrounding Johan’s death.
”I’m a Vampire, strong enough to kill a Council member and therefore the rightful owner of the position for which you have wrongfully been appointed.”
”Kim, don’t do this,” Tony pleaded.
I ignored him.
”His death was an accident!” Kaniji stood. “I will swear to it.”
”Just like losing your hand was an accident?” I asked.
Her mouth opened and closed, but she didn’t deny it. I could now understand what the crowd was saying. They were wondering if Kaniji had lost her hand to me. They wanted to know exactly how Johan had died. Had I been strong enough to harm not one but two Council members?
The man who had been standing behind the table with the Council moved to the front of it. When he moved everyone grew silent, and he didn’t walk around the table—he glided.
I didn’t need to breathe, but I was panting like crazy. Dude was scary. It wasn’t just only his look. There was a sense of true power about him.
His chronological age seemed no older than thirty or so, and he was fairly short at no taller than five feet, nine inches. Had he not been so pale I would swear that he was of some type of Arabic descent from the arch of his nose and the sleekness of his hair. He had dark brown curly hair with golden streaks much like mine. His eyes scared me because they were entirely black, the white and all. It was like his eyeball had bled black from his pupils. I swallowed.
He glided over to stand in front of me. ”Do you believe that I will know if you lie?”
”Yes.” My mouth grew dry.
”Then recount the events that caused the Councilman’s death,” he commanded in an even voice.
Tony turned away from me and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
I told the story as much to him, this Elder, I assumed, as to the others in the room. “It is true that I’m a Third. I was brought here under false pretenses and judged without an opportunity to prove myself. Then I was handed a death sentence.”
”And tell why you were judged unfit, human!” Kaniji demanded.
The Elder swiveled to face Kaniji. The temperature dropped suddenly. Something was about to happen, and I was already scared as it was. I didn’t need to see Kaniji get a psychic backhand.
I interrupted whatever was about to happen. “I don’t have a problem telling anything.” I said angrily. “I was judged unfit because I had no memories. But I was told that I had no instincts, and that’s a lie! I have a survival instinct! And that’s what caused Johan to die and me to survive.”
”We toyed with you!” Kaniji yelled.
Craggy Face scooted away from her, and not a moment too soon because Kaniji went flying as if a hand was gripping her throat. She was yanked, the way my mama used to threaten to do me!
Kaniji ended up kneeling before the Elder, who hadn’t flinched, and in front of me, too.
”P ... Pl ... Please!” Kaniji gasped. The hold must have been released because Kaniji collapsed and then threw herself prostate at the Elder’s feet.
”A million apologies for my rudeness,” she croaked.
The Elder turned to me. “Continue.”
I tried to keep the tremor from my voice. “Maybe ... that was their mistake, thinking that I should be toyed with.” The crowd murmured. I didn’t know all this Elder could do because I didn’t have a Vampire’s memories. I had just seen Kaniji yanked! So I at least knew that I had to be cool right now.
“And this one’s hand,” the Elder said.
As if she were a marionette, Kaniji’s hand was yanked upwards. Her loose sleeves fell back to reveal a red, angry stump.
I wanted to be sick at the sight of it, but she deserved what she got. I couldn’t take the credit for the injury. It was an unfortunate accident. And I wasn’t going to have that Elder yank me for lying. But somehow I didn’t think I was going to have to lie.
I looked at him. “If you don’t mind, I’d like Kaniji to tell what happened to her hand.”
Kaniji’s mouth opened then a look of pure hatred covered it. If she had been an Elder, I know that the bitch would have annihilated me! All she could do was lower her eyes. “She ... took my hand.”
I wasn’t surprised. To be stupid enough to stick your hand where it didn’t belong was apparently worse than losing it to a Third Generation Vampire. Her hand fell, and Kaniji gracelessly came to her feet.
”Johan died from a stake to the heart,” the Elder said. “Did you put that stake there?”
”Yes.”
He waved his hand in front of himself. ”The initiation is invalid. The rules are quite plain on this matter. In the event that a Council member loses his life at the hands of another, that individual then gains his position.”
He looked at me closely, and I felt an unpleasant itching in my brain.
”Kim Russell, the initiation has already been performed,” the Elder said. “Once a Council member has been named, nothing can revoke that. Nothing but death. But because it is invalidated, you will have an opportunity to battle for the position.”
Tony closed his eyes. I was starting to lose some of my confidence.
”I decree that Kim Russell and Antoine Mancini will fight to the death for position on the Council,” the Elder said.
What? I have to fight again? How is that fair?
”Kim doesn’t have our memories,” Tony said. “This fight is one-sided. As her liege I ask to be her second.”
I gave him a hopeful look.
”There will be no seconds in this battle,” the Elder said.
”Sir, if I may ask a question?” I asked.
”Speak.”
I squeezed my right fist tight. “It’s true that I don’t have any memories, so I apologize in advance if I’m asking a question out of line, but ...” I frowned. “Even without Vampire instincts I have survival instincts. If I have to bite, scratch, or play dirty, I will to survive. Is that okay?”
I saw a hint of a grin on the Elder’s face. “It is a battle without rules you request?”
”No!” Tony shouted.
”Yes!” I replied. “And once either of us is dead, the survivor will earn his or her place on the Council totally uncontested?”
The Elder’s smile was complete now. “Totally uncontested.”
Kaniji smiled for the first time. She moved to her place behind the table with a smug look.
Tony looked sad. He followed her.
I just squeezed my fist tighter.
A place was cleared in the center of the room. Antoine chuckled. He stood in the center rotating his massive neck while I listened to it crack.
I heard Tony’s voice in my head: ”He will go for your throat first. Protect your throat.”
”Okay,” I whispered.
”Kim, I’m so sorry. I never meant for this to happen.”
”Shut up, will you?” I thought. “I’m trying to concentrate.”
I strolled forward and tried to concentrate on Antoine. He would be quick. The last time he had moved I didn’t even sense it.
Antoine was still laughing. He cracked his knuckles and lunged at me.
I was expecting it, I know, but when he lunged at me with that super Vampire speed of his, I cringed. Still, it was kill or be killed so I threw up my fist and opened my hand with the crucifix hidden in my palm. He took my hand to be little more than a child trying to stop a speeding train as he continued to move forward. But when his chest made contact with my palm, he stopped cold as if he had run into the side of a concrete building! There was a cra
cking and a bright streak of fire.
Antoine stumbled backwards and looked down at himself. A small flame appeared on his chest, and the flame singed a hole through his clothing. A small black brand in the shape of a crucifix appeared on his chest over his heart.
I tightened my fist again as he screamed in agonizing torment. Everyone in the room except the Elder gasped and hissed at me.
Antoine ran as his chest began to smoke. He was trying to outrun the brand.
I was so disgusted! I had never seen anything so gross. He was screaming and howling. I could hear not only his voice but something more—not something of this world but something older than time.
He sank to the ground and fell on his face. A hole ran clear through his back, and I could see the friggin’ floor in that hole! After he dropped dead, within seconds he turned to ash and blew away in an invisible wind.
Kaniji was holding her wrist in her hand. She looked really ill.
Tony stared at me, his jaw dropping.
The other Council members looked as if they were about to go into attack mode. But the Elder—he was still smiling. I think he had known all along that I had the crucifix.
He disappeared.
I had to get out of there. I had a room full of angry Vampires and another dead Council Member. Before anyone had time to react, I thought about being outside and was standing in the grass in front of the mansion. I felt anything but safe, it was getting late, and I had no idea where I would sleep tonight ... today. I had no intentions of going back to Tony’s, not after lying about the holy relic and killing my second Council member in so many days. Besides, Tony and I had some major trust issues.
But I had an idea. It might be as much of a death sentence as anything else I’d done since dying.
I was going back to Paul’s.
It was harder to find Paul’s line. It melded with the other humans in the city. If it had been a day later I don’t think I would have been able to trace the feel of him. I concentrated on Paul, and then I began traveling to where he was located. I could feel myself in a different place, that other world. There was nothing to focus on and nothing to feel, but I could sense myself moving through space.
