Tainted Night, Tainted Blood (Kat Redding)

by E. S. Moore

  “I’ll make a new pot,” Ethan said, rising. “And thanks for the eggs, but I had a late-night sandwich. I’m not hungry.” He grimaced as he went to the kitchen.

  I sat back in my chair and watched him make his coffee. It was nice just to do something normal, even if I had screwed it up. We didn’t have those moments where we just sat without worrying about whom I did or didn’t kill.

  I looked down at my plate. Could the eggs really be that bad? He hadn’t even tasted them.

  I picked up my fork and scooped up a large helping. They looked pretty bad, but I’d seen worse. I held my breath as I shoveled them into my mouth. Ethan came back into the room just as I finished wiping my tongue off with a napkin.

  He sat down across from me, crossing his arms over the big Superman “S” on his shirt. He rubbed at his arms like he was cold. “So what’s this all about?” he asked. “You aren’t exactly Little Miss Homemaker. It’s kind of frightening.”

  “I was just trying to be nice,” I said. “And I wanted to let you know I was sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “For the other night. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. It was a bad night and I took it out on you.”

  “I understand.”

  “Then why were you avoiding me?” The question slipped out without me really meaning to say it.

  He cocked his head to the side and raised his eyebrows. “What gave you that idea?”

  I felt stupid having asked the question, but there was nothing I could do but plow on. “I don’t know,” I said. “I didn’t see you last night and just assumed you were avoiding me. I wasn’t exactly being pleasant.”

  “It was a busy night,” he said. “Since you left so early, I figured you had something important to do, so I didn’t bother coming up to check for you. I got some other things done.” He smiled nervously. I wondered what it was he worked on. Maybe I didn’t want to know.

  I tried to think of something to say to change the subject, but my brain was stuck. I was such a fool thinking he had been avoiding me. I’d put him through worse before. What made me think this time would be any different?

  Ethan rose and got another cup of coffee, this one of his making. He took a sip and let out a contented sigh as he sat back down. “So, did you get into anything exciting last night?” he said. “Any super-secret killings that will require my weapon-repairing expertise?”

  I shook my head. “I just needed some time alone. I didn’t even draw my weapons.”

  “Wow,” he said, grinning. “I’m impressed.”

  I gave him a dirty look. “I don’t get into fights every night.”

  “Mmhmm.”

  “I don’t.”

  Ethan’s grin widened. He took another sip of his coffee and held the cup out to me. “You want a cup? I’ll show you what real coffee is supposed to taste like.”

  “No thanks.”

  We sat in silence for a few minutes. Ethan stared out the glass back door, sipping his coffee. I sat there just looking at him, wondering what I was doing wrong.

  I couldn’t help it. My black mood was slowly returning even though I had done everything I could to push it away. Things were fine. My life was just the same as it always had been. I would eventually get up and leave, deal with some vampires or werewolves, kick some ass, then come home to wash it all away.

  It might not be much of a life for most people, but it kept me going. I could easily have given in to my darker nature and tried to form a vampire House of my own. I could have joined with others, could have killed Purebloods for the sake of killing.

  But I hadn’t. I was better than that.

  So why was I so fucking depressed?

  Ethan glanced my way and must have seen the misery on my face. “What’s wrong?” he asked, turning back to face me.

  “Nothing.” I pushed away from the table and stood. I didn’t want him worrying about my mental state on top of everything else. “I was just thinking.”

  He studied me a moment. I don’t think he quite believed me. “So, you going out tonight?”

  I looked down at myself as if to say, “What do you think?” I was wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top, not exactly fighting gear.

  “Right,” he said, reddening a little. “I think I might take the night off too.” He glanced toward the stairs and shivered. “It’d be nice just to get away from things a bit.”

  I agreed wholeheartedly. I really didn’t want to think about my last few days. I’d have to deal with my problems sooner or later. It just didn’t have to be tonight. There wasn’t much I could do anyway. I didn’t have any leads.

  “Then what do you want to do?” he asked, looking around the room. “It’s not like we ever do much around here.”

  “Television,” I said immediately. “Let’s sit on the couch and watch the television.”

  He gave me a strange look, but agreed.

  We hadn’t watched the TV together for years. I hadn’t even turned the thing on for so long, I wasn’t even sure how. I knew Ethan watched a few shows here and there, mostly during the day when he couldn’t sleep. We were always too busy during the night to watch anything then.

  Ethan grabbed the remote from an end table and plopped down on the couch. He started flipping through the channels, taking small sips of his coffee every few moments. He looked content, like this was something he had wanted to do for a really long time.

  I sat down on the other end of the couch, legs pulled up under me, and just watched. I divided my attention between Ethan and the television, not really seeing either.

  Something was bothering me. It took me a good long while to figure out what it was. When I did, my face reddened and I felt like a fool. Unfortunately for me, Ethan chose that exact moment to glance my way.

  “What’s up?” he asked, brow furrowed.

  “Nothing.” I could feel my face heating up even further.

  That only egged him on. His grin returned and he sat up straighter. “You thought of something,” he said. “And it embarrassed you. I have to know what you just thought about.”

  I glared at him, which caused him to smile wider. I turned toward the television and stared at it like I could burn a hole straight through it. Ethan watched me a moment longer, chuckled wryly to himself, and resumed his channel surfing.

  I hadn’t realized what I had been doing until then. The getting up to make him breakfast, the sitting down and watching TV together. I wasn’t just trying to make things up to him. There was far more to it than that.

  Delai. The goddamn town and its happy little citizens going about their happy little lives had gotten into my head. Did I really think I could have that sort of life? I wasn’t about to lean over and cuddle with Ethan. I mean, no way.

  Ethan glanced at me and smiled again. And just like that, all my worries vanished. Why did I have to overanalyze everything? Couldn’t I just sit back and relax with my one true friend? We didn’t have to do anything more. We would both be happy just spending a nice quiet evening together without any attachments, any blood.

  I started to tell him how much I was enjoying myself when there was a knock at the door. All my good feelings were wiped away just like that.

  Ethan immediately turned off the television and rose. I was already standing and halfway to the door by the time he turned around. The door was closed and locked, so whoever was out there wouldn’t be able just to walk in on us. The curtains over the windows were closed and when I glanced toward them, I couldn’t make out our visitor.

  “Downstairs,” I said, veering away from the door and heading for the stairs. My weapons were still in my room where I had left them, but I didn’t want to leave Ethan’s side to get them. “Get to your lab.”

  He moved without hesitation. He dropped the remote on the couch and headed for the stairs in a crouch, his coffee mug clutched to his chest like it was the only safe thing he knew.

  We hurried down the stairs into the sitting room. Ethan continued on into the basement wh
ile I checked the windows facing the front of the house. The knocking came again as I glanced out the window, but try as I might, I couldn’t catch a glimpse of who was out there. Since it was night, there was no shadow to give them away.

  I turned away from the window and headed downstairs. Ethan was standing in front of his lab door, waiting.

  “Go into the lab and don’t come out,” I said, grabbing a gun and slamming home the cartridge. “I’ll call you on the intercom when it’s safe.”

  The knock came again, this time more insistent. While I was checking to make sure I was ready, Ethan unlocked the door and slipped inside his lab. He closed the door behind him. I caught a glimpse of his face as it closed and it was clear he didn’t like being locked away while I faced all the danger.

  Tough. We never had visitors, and I wasn’t about to risk his life just because he didn’t like being left out. I wasn’t so sure why I thought whoever was out there wanted to hurt us, but I wasn’t about to risk it. A careless mistake could get us both killed.

  I took the stairs by threes and went back to the foyer. There were two vertical frosted windows by the door. I could see a vague shape moving outside but couldn’t tell whether it was male or female, large or small.

  The knock came again and I moved to the door, keeping myself out of the line of sight to the windows. I pressed my ear against the wood and listened, hoping to catch my guest mumbling something so I could identify who it was.

  But there was nothing. Anyone could be out there. It could simply be a pizza guy who managed to get himself lost to one of Adrian’s goons, sporting a submachine gun full of silver bullets.

  There was nothing to do but check. I didn’t want my guest to go away. I had to know who it was so I could stop them from ever coming again.

  My hand moved toward the lock. I turned it slowly, hoping they wouldn’t hear the click on the other side. For the first time since moving in, I wished the door had a peephole. We’d never needed it before. I guess it was time I had Ethan install one.

  I counted slowly to three and then yanked the door open, bringing my gun up to around head level as I did.

  Jonathan Alucard, Luna Cult Denmaster, stood on the stoop, a surprised look on his face. His eyes widened for a fraction of a second before he raised his hands in surrender.

  “Sorry to drop in on you like this,” he said, his glamour-perfect face breaking into a coy smile. “I had no other way to contact you and we really need to talk.”

  I stared at him, my gun wavering for a second before my aim firmed. No one came to my house and lived. It was a rule, damn it.

  Jonathan’s eyes traveled from the barrel of my gun, to my face, and then to the house behind me. He didn’t seem all that concerned I was ready to blow his brains out. “May I come in?”

  My muscles tensed and I really considered doing it. He was a werewolf. Not only that, but a sorcerer as well. I shouldn’t trust someone who might be able to do bad things to me with a flick of his wrist.

  But instead of blowing him into next week, I dropped my arm, cursing myself as I did. I stepped aside and let him pass.

  “Thank you,” he said, nodding slightly as he stepped past me and into the house. He looked around for a moment before heading to the dining room.

  “Fuck,” I said. I glanced out into the driveway to make sure no one else was lurking out there before closing the door and following him to the dining room table.

  So much for the rules.

  Damn it.

  7

  “I know you don’t like visitors,” Jonathan said. He looked uncomfortable sitting at the table. He kept lacing and unlacing his fingers as if he wasn’t quite sure what to do with his hands.

  “No shit.” I placed the gun on the table, the barrel aimed right at him. I kept my hand on it to let him know how much I didn’t like having people show up unannounced on my doorstep.

  “I wouldn’t have come if it wasn’t important.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Then speak.”

  He sighed and ran his fingers through the hair on the left side of his head. He looked much better than he did the last time I had seen him. It had been at The Bloody Stake, and he’d still been suffering the results of our semi-successful joint run against House Tremaine. The limp was gone and all his wounds appeared to be healed, though that could be deceiving.

  Jonathan was a sorcerer, which allowed him to hide what he wanted to hide. He claimed he could only cast glamours, but I refused to believe it. Any sorcerer who wanted to live would claim they could do very little. Anyone stronger was sought out and killed.

  Jonathan used his glamours to keep the Luna Cult Den hidden. He was able to hide the Den, making the old library on the Ohio State campus look run-down and abandoned from the outside. On the inside, it was anything but.

  He’d used his glamour on me once as well, making me appear as a Luna Cult member so we could infiltrate House Tremaine together. It had worked, to a point. I hadn’t been able to keep myself from killing a few wolves along the way, which, in turn, gave us away when Adrian Davis sniffed me out.

  Before I met him, Jonathan had kept his face hidden with a dark hood aided by a glamour that made his face all shadows and darkness. Only recently had he started using his magic to hide the damage done to his face, reconstructing it so that anyone looking at him wouldn’t cringe.

  The slightest hint of guilt crept into me. I’d been the one who’d ruined his face. He was once a member of House Valentino, a House I had taken down after they had turned me into a vampire. My blade had cut a large chunk of his skull off, leaving him mutilated and near death. He survived and had a change of heart, choosing to turn against his vampire masters and fight for the liberation of the werewolf.

  Yeah, I wasn’t so sure why I was siding with him either.

  Jonathan looked up at me and a sadness came into his eyes. “I was wondering if I would ever see you again,” he said. “I thought we had gotten past our differences and could at least be friends.”

  I frowned. “Is that what this is about?”

  “No,” he admitted. “But I needed to get it out. I dislike the thought of you risking your life alone when you could have my help.”

  “I manage.”

  He rubbed at his forehead like a headache was coming on. “Things would be much easier if we could learn to work together. This animosity between us need not exist. Maybe things wouldn’t have gotten so far gone if you had come to me.”

  I frowned even harder. “What’s happened?”

  He licked his lips and brushed off his jacket, though there was nothing on it. He looked downright nervous, and it was making my trigger finger itch.

  I moved my hand away from the gun just in case. I would probably feel bad if I killed him because he sneezed at the wrong moment.

  He took a deep breath and leveled a stare at me. “Are you the one who has been killing all those vampires and werewolves?”

  My blood ran cold. Could he really be talking about House Telia and the rogues Mikael had told me about? Or was this something else? I’d had a few kill runs since I had last seen Jonathan, so it could have been anything.

  “Which ones?” I asked. I managed to keep the unease out of my voice.

  He stared at me as if he was trying to discern the truth from my expression. I kept my face carefully blank as not to give anything away, though I wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t like I’d killed anyone he would care about. The vamps I had taken down were of Fledgling Houses with barely any wolves amongst them.

  Jonathan seemed to reach a decision and eased back in his chair. “I don’t think you’re the one doing it,” he said. “Even though the kills bear your mark, they aren’t your style.”

  “House Telia?” I ventured, wanting to make sure we were on the same page before saying something I would regret.

  “Among others,” he said. “No one in the Luna Cult has been harmed, but I fear it is only a matter of time until something does happen. There is a lot of talk on
the streets that Lady Death has gone mad and is slaughtering everyone as quickly and as messily as she can.”

  “I didn’t do it,” I said. “And I’m not crazy.” I considered how much to tell him. I still wasn’t positive he didn’t blame me. “Countess Telia was dead before I got there. I saw the mess. It wasn’t me.”

  He nodded as if he already knew. “While there are things that hint at you being involved in the kills, there is so much else that eliminates you as a suspect. To someone who knows you, it’s clear you could have nothing to do with them. You of all people wouldn’t use werewolves for your runs.” He smiled at that.

  “So if you didn’t think I was the one doing it, then why are you here?”

  “I need you again,” he said. “We cannot let this continue. I don’t like the idea of someone else running around killing weres and vamps uncontrolled. People are turning up dead in alleys at an alarming rate.”

  “How bad is it?” I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. I knew I would have to face this eventually, but to have the Luna Cult involved too ... It just made things worse.

  “Like I said, the Cult hasn’t lost anyone, but others have. There have been weres we were looking to recruit who have turned up dead. All of them were beheaded, though it doesn’t appear to be your work. There were claw marks on the bodies, and it looks as though they had been fed upon.”

  I nodded as he spoke. It sounded exactly like what I’d seen.

  “And the more this happens, the more the vampire Houses will become interested in what is going on.” Jonathan frowned down at his hands. “How long before they really start looking for Lady Death in the hopes of putting a stop to her before she comes after them?”

  “They’ve searched for me before.”

  “But it’s different this time. Wolves from Major Houses have died. You usually can only handle smaller Houses.”

  I bristled a bit at that. I knew I couldn’t handle much beyond a Fledgling House. I just didn’t like being reminded of it. “What’s your point?”

  “Many of the larger Houses used to use you as a buffer. You take down the weaker, most dangerous of the small Houses, keeping them from rising through the ranks. The Major Houses like having you around so they can focus on keeping the stronger Houses in line.”