What would Knight do?
I didn’t even have to guess that answer. I opened my purse and pulled out several hundred dollar bills, and then I waved them in the bouncer’s face. “How’s three hundred bucks sound?”
He swiped them from me and slid the bills into his pocket. “Enjoy the club, baby.” He motioned and the big guy at the entrance opened one of the doors for me. If I’d thought the music was slightly loud outside, the music inside was deafening. I stepped into the large room packed with sweaty dancing humans.
My prey.
I recoiled at the thought. Humans weren’t considered prey anymore, but to rogue vampires like me, I suppose they were. Oh yeah, I guess I was a rogue vampire now. That sounded mysterious and sexy.
I forced myself to focus. The room stunk of sweat and pheromones. Anger, passion, jealously. Music poured through the speaker system, and it wasn’t a bad tune so I had to keep myself from swaying to it as I herded through the crowd of people to get a drink.
The club was lit by strobe lights that moved and bobbed with the beat of the music like someone was controlling them. Smoke machines poured out steam around the dance floor, making the dancers look ethereal and haunting as they swayed in a hypnotic dance.
When I got to the bar, I ordered a Bloody Mary and leaned against the LED lit counter to watch the humans dance. I’d started thinking of ways to feed that were discreet when my nose smelled lilac. I turned, and standing one inch away from my face was Balthazar dressed in black leather pants, a white shirt, and a black leather vest.
He always had to look so fucking delicious.
I had to lean in close to his ear for him to hear me over the noise. “You’ve been wearing the same suit for 120 years, but you should wear those leather pants more often. Can I see your ass in those? I need that memory for later.”
He gave me a dry smile and searched around me for someone. “Where’s the dog?”
I shrugged and sipped my drink. “He bailed.” The words, or the drink, left a bad taste in my mouth.
“Good. You smell like him. It stinks.”
“I do not stink!” I smacked his arm and he laughed, showing all of his perfect teeth and accidentally drawing the attention of every girl around us. Balthazar noticed for once, and dropped his smile so the females would leave him alone. Not that it worked, since they were now gathering in small groups around the bar to watch the sex god standing next to me.
He ordered a pink martini and leaned against the bar, pretending to be oblivious to the humans staring at him. “Did you make love to him?”
I almost spit my drink out. “What. The fuck,” I coughed.
Taking a sip of his drink, he looked at me from over the rim. “I said you smelled like him. I failed to mention where you smelled like him.”
“You are….” I downed my drink in one go and ordered another.
“You’re low on blood. Interesting hunting ground, this.” He gestured with his drink at the dancing humans.
“It’s not like I have options,” I told him. He shrugged so we sipped our drinks and surveyed the masses on the dance floor. I spotted a skinny boy wearing tight jeans and a striped shirt. His scent wasn’t too bad, so I left Balthazar at the bar to approach my target. The lights in the club were so dim that the humans wouldn’t be able to see me do some sleight of hand, so long as one of the strobes didn’t hit me.
I was two seconds away from discreetly slicing the boys arm and filling my glass with his blood, but I stopped suddenly as Knight’s face came to me, and everything we’d shared, as weird as it all had been. He thought I was a monster for drinking blood. Maybe I was if I did it like this. This wasn’t right. I couldn’t drink without someone’s consent. It went against everything I stood for. I almost wished I was hungry enough for a frenzy. At least in that state, I didn’t have the option of asking first and biting later.
Balthazar didn’t comment when I stomped back to him and slammed my empty goblet onto the bar. It shattered from the force of my vampire strength.
“Damn it,” I swore as the shards tore into my skin. I couldn’t afford to waste precious blood. I left the club with Balthazar behind me. We walked to the alley where my bag was and I started picking the glass out of my hand.
If anyone else had been standing there with me, I would’ve expected a lecture, or at least pelting me with questions, but Balthazar wasn’t like that. “I suppose you’re raiding a hospital now?” he asked me quietly after my hand had healed. I groaned at the thought of bagged blood, but if I wanted to keep my morals, it was the only option open to me. Balthazar produced a small wrapped box from nowhere and held it out to me. “I got you this. Happy Hallows Eve.”
“It’s September.” He shook the box in my face so I’d take it. Inside was a familiar set of car keys. Stunned, I started to ask him why, not to mention how, he had them, but he put his hand up and gestured for me to follow him. Sitting in the parking lot across the street was Excalibur, safe and sound.
I couldn’t think of a response beyond hugging his arm, which I did. “I’m impressed,” I told him with a smile. How he’d managed to find and buy my car back was beyond me. Though, if it had belonged to a female, I doubted he had to pay anything for it.
“You’re on your own now, you need to take care of yourself,” he said. “I would’ve helped before but I was busy.”
“Busy with some ladies in Copenhagen?” I joked.
He rolled his eyes, grinning down at me. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“I would actually. With details.”
He kissed me on the cheek, and then he disappeared.
When I sat inside my little fuel efficient car, it felt like I’d never left. I sat there for a few minutes, waiting for something, and I realized I’d been waiting for Knight to open the passenger door and sit next to me. But he was gone, and I was still alone.
Damn him. I had to erase him from my mind and continue on my path. I drove Excalibur for an hour before I pulled over and started planning my next activity: robbing a hospital. It seemed simple enough. If I found a small one, maybe they wouldn’t be on alert about someone stealing blood and Arthur wouldn’t find out. Maybe. I was doubtful on that account, but if I waited any longer, I’d go into a frenzy and then it would all be over. Arthur would find me, no question about it. And then no more running, no more friends, no more me. No more… Knight.
No, stop thinking about him. I wasn’t going to let four hundred plus years go to waste, werewolf or no werewolf.
One crappy hotel room, a large order of Japanese take away, and a case of soda later, I had a solid enough plan put together. I rolled up the paper I’d written my game plan on and started picking up the take away trash when my phone rang. I’d considered buying a new burner phone since Renard had called me and the number could be traced if Arthur felt like doing so, but the thought of someone at the castle needing me and not being able to find me, mainly Olivier or Cameron, kept me from doing so. Plus, I’d given my number to Knight as well. I picked the phone up and saw ‘Unregistered number’ on the screen.
I pressed the answer button, having no idea who was calling me. “Hello?” I waited for Arthur’s deep scratchy voice, but it was someone else.
“Hey.”
My throat constricted as I heard Knight’s voice on the other end. I searched for something to say since the only thing I wanted to ask him was where he was. If he was okay. If he missed me. “I umm… I’m not dead.”
“Yeah… I noticed.” I sat in awkward silence for a few minutes before he cleared his throat. “Have you fed?”
Why would he ask me that? “No.” I wanted to tell him about the club, but I felt embarrassed at what I’d almost done. “I’m going to raid a hospital.”
“Can’t that Incubus help? You know, steal it for you?”
“I can take care of myself, thank you.”
“Makes sure you’re okay but leaves you high and dry? What a friend.”
I scowled and felt my nails le
ngthen. “At least he doesn’t attack me and leave me for dead in a pool of water. If that’s your idea of foreplay, I’m not into it.”
Knight made a grumbling noise under his breath. “Right. Because I always have complete control when I shift. Can’t believe I fucking forgot to mention that.” He sighed loudly. “This isn’t why I called you. I just want to make sure you’re eating.”
More like make sure I’m not snacking on innocent people for fun. “I’ll have blood before the sun rises.”
“Fine.” The line abruptly cut off.
12. An unexpected discovery
After an hour of blaring the car radio so I wouldn’t have to think about that buttfaced werewolf, I arrived at the hospital.
The parking lot was quiet when I approached, and most of the hospital lights were turned off. The town around it was equally silent, something you wouldn’t find in a larger city, which was perfect for me. It was very late at night, and that meant pretending to visit a patient was out of the question. I’d opted for a more secret agent spy approach. I entered the hospital through the emergency room door and slipped out of the ER waiting room down an empty hallway. I push my senses out to examine the rooms around me until I found the scent of hospital scrubs. I followed the smell to a hall closet that had spare doctor robes and blue nurse scrubs. The nurse scrubs were the last thing I’d ever want to be seen wearing, but I swallowed my fashion sense and put a set on over my clothes.
My next move was tricky. This was a small hospital in a small town and I had no doubt that everyone knew everyone else, or at least remembered faces well enough to know that my face hadn’t been there before. It was unfortunate that I hadn’t drunk several times that day or I’d be able to manipulate my way to the blood bank. Since I was a rogue vampire now, what was another law broken? Luckily, the doors I needed to pass through were either unlocked or locked from the opposite side, so I didn’t need to steal anyone’s keycard. I made my way to the stairs after checking a hospital map for the location of the blood bank.
Lack of blood was making my head pound, and it was only getting worse. I was dangerously close to a frenzy. My senses were so closed in that I could barely smell the humans even when they stood nearby me. I stumbled on the stairs and over my own feet several times before I got to the right floor. Move, legs. Don’t fail me when I’m so close. The orders to my legs did no good, forcing me to hug the wall slightly to stay upright.
As I got to the blood bank, I was greeted with a locked door. I smacked my head on the door a few times and wondered why I thought I could even get away with this. Espionage wasn’t my thing, a fact I had just proved. Of course, the door would be locked. Why would it not be? I groaned and beat my head against the door again. Black was coming into my vision. I was so close to the edge.
“Need something?” Startled, I whirled around and leaned back on the door when my equilibrium failed me. Standing two feet away was a handsome Indian man wearing typical doctor scrubs with a white coat over them. “Oh my,” he said in slightly accented English. “You look quite close to the edge.” What was he talking about? Maybe he thought I was high on drugs. I thought about playing it up, but I hadn’t been playing before now and he was already convinced I was a stoner. “What you need isn’t in there, my friend. Come with me.”
He held out a hand to me, and I saw no reason to not take it. Once he took me somewhere and we were alone, I’d just bite him and pretend he agreed to it. Knight could shove it up his hairy ass.
“We don’t have time, let’s go.” The doctor gripped my hand tightly and put his other one around me to tote me along. He was surprisingly strong for a human. He half carried me to a nurse’s station on the other side of the floor. Two women were sitting in chairs eating popcorn, and I couldn’t even smell it. They got up when we arrived and started fussing over getting me to a chair. “She needs a gift,” he told them.
I was about to ask what the fuck he was talking about when one of the nurses unbuttoned her collar and pulled it aside to reveal her neck. There was no time to ponder what was going on, why a human was offering her blood to me so willingly, why she knew that I needed it, or who these people were and if they’d turn me into Arthur.
I dove for her neck and sank my teeth in, and her blood flooded into my mouth like water in a desert.
A hand slipped around my neck, the Doctor’s, no doubt monitoring how much I took and ready to rip me off if I drank too much. As soon as the first mouthful slipped down my throat, I regained control and pulled away when I could tell the nurse had given almost too much. Her blood had a weird flavor, almost like I’d been feeding from an animal instead of a human. It sustained me, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. I’d have to brush my teeth later.
“You are Born,” the doctor remarked as I used a tissue to wipe my mouth. “I wasn’t sure at first, you were so pale, so like the dead. But there it is, the color is returning to you.” His stance had changed from cautious to relaxed since now he knew I wouldn’t attack the humans. “My name is Ahmed.” The nurse’s blood raced through my system and I could suddenly feel his essence. He was old, slightly older than me. I hadn’t noticed, so low on blood, that he was also a vampire.
“Lisbeth,” I said back.
He nodded and appraised me for a moment before moving back to the hall. “Come, I will show you the city.” At this point, it was too late to run if they were going to tell Arthur about me. I might as well stay. We left the nurses and walked down the hallway. “That was quite a bit of espionage to get into the hospital.” He turned his head to look back at me and smiled. “But you were so far gone, your eyes were turning black. Another second and I would’ve had to kill you.” He said it casually, like killing me was the same as getting me coffee. What a kidder.
I’d almost forgotten what being around my kind was like. More so, those of my kind that didn’t live like I used to. “I had a moral dilemma in the feeding department,” I explained shortly.
I expected him to scoff at me, but instead, he gave me a solemn look like he understood and respected me. “It is immoral to take without consent. It sullies the gift of blood. I am pleased an outsider also understands this. But you are old. The young have never been without as we have.” He gave me that smile. The smile that spoke of years and cultures long past. It was a sweet secret the oldest of our kind shared. He led me to the hospital entrance and held the door open for me.
A limousine sat in the parking lot right in front of the entrance. Several humans stood around it, guarding its occupant. Wait. Were they humans? They didn’t smell quite like humans. Kind of like how Knight didn’t smell quite like Lycan. No, fuck. Stop thinking about him.
One of the not-humans opened the limo door, and their master stepped out of the vehicle as soon as we were close. He was tall with long white-blonde hair, and wore an expensive suit that probably cost as much as the limo. He looked young, about sixteen, but I could sense his age was older than Othello, though not by much. This Born was the leader of this town.
“So,” he said when we were in front of him. “You’re the one who broke into the hospital.” He was well informed, considering it had only been five minutes, ten at the latest, since Ahmed had found me. “The nurses were very concerned for you as you were so close to a frenzy.”
“You spoke with them?” I asked him.
He looked me over like he was studying a work of art. I felt naked under his gaze. That was awkward considering he looked like he had barely left puberty. “We don’t often get visitors, much less one of our kind.”
I pulled my jacket closed, as if it would erase his eyes on me. “I didn’t plan on running into a den of vampires. Your territory wasn’t marked, I didn’t smell it. I apologize.”
“My name is James,” he said as if I hadn’t spoken. I had a slight feeling that he wasn’t listening to anything I said, but I introduced myself anyway. He didn’t react, again, and said to Ahmed, “Give her a room at the inn.” He looked back at me, his eyes looking me over ag
ain. “I’ll check in on you soon. I have business to attend to.” His strange guards got into the limousine after him, then it pulled smoothly out of the parking lot and was gone with barely a crunch on the pavement.
“He’s, uh…” I searched for a word that was more flattering than ‘a fucking oddball.’ Thankfully, Ahmed had a sense of humor and was already chuckling at me.
“I know. Not many of us are as old as James is. I suppose it’s just his age.”
I had a feeling it was more than that, but I held my tongue. Ahmed forwent a car, so we walked down the streets of James’ city. It felt good to stretch my legs. It also felt foreign, being exposed like this, but I tried to forget about the past few months and just enjoyed my surroundings.
Every tree downtown was decorated with Christmas lights, as well as the edges of some of the buildings. It wasn’t December, the decor was just something the humans enjoyed, Ahmed explained. I supposed that much light made them feel safer around so many vampires. Every street we walked through, our kind was intermixed with the humans. When we stopped at a park, Born were eating ice cream with humans, walking dogs with humans, some were even playing games with humans. I could easily see myself and Knight sitting on the grass together, laughing.
“You find it odd,” Ahmed said after I’d been staring silently at the crowd in front of me. I nodded, no words coming to me. “We live in harmony here. There is no need to hide from them. They give us what we need –blood– and we protect them. There is only one rule. We do not turn them. Under any circumstance.”
Then I realized that every vampire I’d seen was Born. None of the turned were among the masses. “Why?” I asked him. “Why don’t you turn them?”
“Humans don’t understand what it means to be a vampire. They think it means strength, power, and to be above humans. Better than humans. We are not better than anyone. Not humans. Not the Lycans. We are equals. We just… don’t break as easily.”
I chuckled at him. “A philosophy I’m used to living by.” The only thing I didn’t see was Born and human couples, which was comforting, and made the oddness of the city slightly less odd. “The turned also don’t listen. They’re almost impossible to teach.”
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 10
