Lisbeth turned from Balthazar and leveled Hades with her serious face. No one could match her serious face. “If it wasn’t for my mother, we’d all be dead. Deny it. I dare you.”
He withered under her ire and looked away. “The fact…” His voice cracked. “The fact remains that someone, or something, is killing our people. What if your mother went cray cray again? How do we know it’s not her?” Hades saying ‘cray cray’ was worse than his ghastly fashion statements.
“I highly doubt this is one person,” Arthur interjected from his laptop. He straightened and opened his holo-phone to text really fast. “Another team went dark. Brazil. That makes three.”
“Mom,” Jason said quietly, brokenly, and not even Arthur was exempt from a reaction to it.
Lisbeth reached for his hand again, keeping her face very still. She was holding it together for his sake. “Kitty is in Canada. She’s fine.”
“Your family isn’t more important than others,” Hades huffed, pulling at his vest.
Lisbeth poked a finger at him. “You hush. My son is worried about his sister, and you’re not helping.” She turned to Arthur who was still typing away at his holo-phone, ignoring her just enough where she looked pissed. “I need answers, Arthur. I need them now.”
“Apologies,” he said, switching back to the laptop. “I have nothing yet.”
Lisbeth sighed and pulled her holo-phone up. She typed with one hand, the other still holding Jason’s, and then flicked her wrist to turn the holographic projection off. “I need to drink. Can we?” She motioned to me and I nodded back. Holding a hand out, I walked her to her office, closing the door behind us. She put her arms around my neck as soon as we were alone and held me close for several minutes. I wrapped her in my arms, felt her breathing become ragged with sobs. She sniffed, trying to hold back tears of worry. “If a leaf hit me right now, I’d fall into a thousand pieces.”
“Putting you back together would be the best jigsaw puzzle ever.” She shook against me with laughter, but it didn’t last long. I stroked her hair and lifted her chin up to kiss her lips. Neither of us was in the mood for passion, we just needed the intimacy of each other’s touch. A reminder that we weren’t alone. One more kiss and she had her arms around my neck again. “You need to drink.”
She shook her head. “I can’t, I’m not thirsty.”
“For Jason.”
Groaning, she loosened her grip on me and sank her teeth into my neck with a pop. Godddd, that pleasure-pain. I pushed away the way it went straight to my groin. Her fangs retracted and she licked my neck to clean it up before her plump lips sucked my skin in a kiss and I had to pull her away.
“Woman,” I admonished. “Totally sexy. Not the right time.”
“Sorry,” she said with a smile. “I forgot where I was for a few seconds. You’re just so devastatingly attractive.” Her smile faded quickly when she remembered why we were there. “Let’s go.”
Lisbeth’s furious texting was apparently ordering takeout because Jason was paying for it when we came back into the meeting room. There was fried chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, biscuits, and hush puppies. Nothing like Southern food to make you forget your troubles. Even Hades was interested in snagging a plate.
We stayed there all afternoon but Arthur had no new information for us, so we went home to sleep. Sleep was a relative term because none of us could relax enough to nod off, and eventually, we sat in the living room on the couch, all three of us, watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. By the cock crow, we’d all managed to slip into a doze that was interrupted by furious pounding on the front door.
“Fucking ass, what does he want?” Lisbeth groaned, and stumbled over to the door to un-click the security bolts. Arthur came in like a hurricane and immediately grabbed the remote from my sleepy hand.
“Hey, man. My house, my remote,” I complained drowsily, wiping my eyes with my fingers.
“Shut up,” he ordered frostily and clicked the buttons on the remote until it switched off Netflix and onto the cable channels.
Lisbeth was the frosty one now, about to go full blizzard on his ass. “Do not talk to him like that. I don’t care what’s happening out there.”
“You shut up too,” he ground out, his words like a slap in the face. “How do I get it to show the fucking Weather Channel?” He didn’t use the word ‘effing,’ I’ll say that much. Lisbeth had switched from pissed off to worried, and she locked eyes with me. Something was wrong. Arthur would never behave like this unless something was wrong. Like catastrophic wrong. The sky is falling wrong.
Jason stole the remote from Arthur and quickly switched it to the Weather Channel with little effort. “You know my mom is going to rip you a new one for talking to her like that.” His smirk died when he saw what was on the screen.
A female news reporter was sitting at a desk with a stack of papers in front of her. “Authorities are calling this the worst epidemic in over a century, spanning all corners of the globe. Symptoms of this mystery disease include cold skin, manic behavior, and an unnatural surge in strength. Those affected are being restrained in order for doctors to treat them. We urge everyone to stay in their homes and try to get anyone affected by this disease to a hospital as soon as possible. We’re now going live to our reporter on location for more insight on this epidemic.”
Lisbeth wordlessly held her hand out for the remote and muted the television as soon as Jason gave it to her. We watched footage of the diseased humans restrained in hospital beds, fighting with everything they had to get free. A doctor pointed towards one human’s mouth and showed the beginnings of fangs growing on the canine teeth. The screen switched back to the newscaster and Lisbeth turned the sound up again.
“No word yet on what this disease is, but doctors are working on a cure, and remain hopeful to get the affected back on their feet as soon as they can. Coming up next, how hurricanes affect the weather.” Lisbeth clicked the television off and dropped the remote onto the carpet.
“That wasn’t a disease,” Jason said, almost phrasing it as a question.
“No,” Arthur confirmed grimly. “That’s the early stages of creating a drone. Somehow it’s not happening instantaneously like it’s supposed to. The humans are turning into vampires, and if they aren’t given human blood at the moment of turning, they’ll go insane. They’ll kill anything in sight with a pulse.”
“They can’t be turning… they can’t…” Lisbeth wrapped her hands around the back of her neck, pacing the floor slightly in her worry. “How? Is someone biting them? Dropping blood in the water supply? I’ve seen it happen.”
“I have as well. But even those humans turned the instant the vampire blood touched their lips,” Arthur said, running his hand over his stubble.
“If it’s Alistair, he’s an Alchemist,” Jason said, making us look over at him. “He’d have figured out how to prolong the turning. Maybe that’s why he made that drone we found?”
“Genius,” I praised, and reached a hand out for a fist bump, which he accepted. “What’s our next move, team vamp-wolf-vae?”
“I’m not calling us that,” Arthur protested with a grumpy sigh.
“I have an idea,” Lisbeth offered, her face pinched in worry. “And none of you will like it.”
I raised my eyebrows at her. “Ooo, do tell.”
“Town meeting.”
“You’re right, I hate town meetings,” Arthur said.
She shook her head at him. “Nope. That’s not the part you won’t like. Let’s round up the troops.”
Half an hour later, everyone from our village that hadn’t left to search for Alistair was sitting in the meeting hall, waiting for Lisbeth’s plan that she insisted we would hate. When everyone had found a seat and quieted down, Lisbeth stood up at the front of the stage, away from the committee table where the remaining members sat. Jason was sitting in for Kitty, and a silver-haired Alexander sat in for Jamie. The human spot remained empty without Clara.
“G
ood morning, everyone,” Lisbeth opened. “I’m sure you’ve seen the news. The humans are fighting an epidemic, only it’s not a disease. It’s humans slowly turning into vampires. We suspect the difference in the change is because of Alistair. He’s finally made his move to get revenge for what we did to him.” She hesitated and fiddled her fingers together, Arthur and I sharing a mutual look of concern over her behavior. “I have a proposal. I can promise you that no one here will agree with me, but I urge you to understand that this is the only course of action that I believe can change the outcome of this situation for the better.”
“Has the committee discussed this?” someone asked in the crowd.
Lisbeth shook her head and twisted her fingers more. “No. I didn’t bring this to the committee first, because I wanted everyone to be aware of this before it is discussed and voted on.”
I sent out a thought to her. ‘Tell me first. It’ll be easier.’ I saw her flinch slightly but she didn’t answer me.
“The only way we can salvage this epidemic of mass turning is…” She gulped.
‘Lis, please.’
Resolved, she raised her head. “We have to go public.”
7. Drastic measures
The outrage that erupted in that room after Lisbeth said those five words was indescribable. The shouting, the panic, and the finger-pointing. Lisbeth stood still through it all, her hands turning red from the constant twisting and turning. Arthur hopped up onto the stage to stand beside her to try and quiet the crowd, but it was no use. They were outraged, and no amount of shushing would shut their asses up.
I felt Lisbeth send a thought to me.
‘Do you hate me?’
My heart broke into a thousand pieces. She actually thought that I’d be mad at her for this. If I truly thought it over, this probably was a last-ditch plan, but I didn’t know of any other options. I shot from my chair and walked across the red-carpeted stage to stand beside my wife.
“Shut your pieholes and sit the eff down!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. While the room quieted, I took Lisbeth’s swollen hand. “The committee is going to discuss this down the hall. We ask you to please stay here and wait for us to finish.”
I heard Jason whisper, “Title of your sex tape.” I snapped a finger at him and led the committee to Lisbeth’s office.
“This is madness,” Hades said when the door had shut behind us.
“I’m pretty sure this is Sparta,” I muttered, because I couldn’t help myself. He leveled me with a glare and ran his fingers through his oily black locks.
“We have remained in hiding for thousands of years, and this wet-nosed female thinks she can undo that? Poppycock.”
“I suggest you chill out, Nosferatu,” I ordered and flicked a finger to him in warning.
“I agree with the plan,” Alexander said suddenly. He had found a chair to sit in and was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.
Hades crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, that’s two votes for insanity.”
Balthazar was perched on the desk, legs crossed effortlessly like this was a Sunday picnic. “There are no other viable options?” He looked at Arthur for confirmation. The room held its breath for the stoic warrior to speak his peace. He chewed on it for longer than I would’ve thought necessary, even for this situation. Then his icy blue eyes found me.
“What do you think?”
Arthur. Asking for my opinion. Someone get the paddles, I’m going into shock.
I looked down at my doe-eyed wife, so afraid that she would lose me with this decision. I kissed her on the head to comfort her and she held onto my waist tightly, like I was going to float away if she didn’t.
“This is for the humans?” I asked her.
She nodded against my stomach. “Yes. If we don’t act fast, the humans might suffer a catastrophic population failure. We can’t exist without them.”
“So they get reduced in number, big deal,” Hades reasoned, being as unhelpful as possible. “We can survive.”
“It’s not just that,” she countered. “Say they start to hunt the drones. They develop a test to see if anyone is affected. A test that vampires won’t pass. They’ll shoot us on sight.”
Arthur stroked his chin and studied the ceiling in thought. “But if we come forward first, and help the humans prevent the drones from turning as much as possible, they’ll view us as allies. They’ll hunt the drones, but not us.”
“Exactly,” Lisbeth affirmed. Hades muttered under his breath some very unkind things. I signaled with my fingers that I was watching him.
“There are no other options,” Arthur told Balthazar, and all of us as well.
Balthazar uncrossed his legs and plopped his feet down onto the carpet. “That settles it. I vote yes.”
“Me too,” Jason said.
“Humph, he’s not even an official member,” Hades complained.
“I vote yes too,” I echoed. “Five against one.”
Lisbeth was chewing her lip now, and I was starting to smell her blood. “They won’t like it.”
“Of course they won’t,” Hades commented dryly. “Our way of life will end. Nothing will be certain. If they don’t unseat all of us over this, I will be shockingly surprised.”
“They can’t unseat me,” I pointed out, not that it helped.
Hades rolled his eyes. “I’m sure they will find a way if they’re pissed enough.” He straightened his black jacket. “Let’s go break the news, and pray we leave with our heads attached.”
To put it mildly, the crowd didn’t take it well when we stood on the stage and told them that a vote of five to one had decided we would go public to the humans.
“I will not be party to this blasphemy,” a vampire shouted.
“The agreement of this committee is that you would represent us fairly, and if we thought you were misrepresenting us, we could replace you,” another yelled out, his ugly, pale finger pointed at my wife. “I vote we replace this traitorous woman, and leave her in the gutter like her harlot mother!”
And like that, the crowd turned ugly.
Funny how we always feared humans taking up their pitchforks and trying to burn us to the ground when we should’ve feared our own kind doing just that. The people we’d sworn to protect and fought for with our damn lives no longer wanted us to help them. The vampires replaced Lisbeth on the committee, and the Lycans quickly did the same with myself and Alexander.
To make matters worse, they locked us inside our house to make sure we wouldn’t go public to the humans. They would’ve locked us in prison, but we didn’t have jail cells anymore.
An hour into our imprisonment, Alexander was lying down in Kitty’s room, I sat at the kitchen table with Balthazar, Arthur was pacing the carpet raw, and Lisbeth was on the couch with Jason, petting his hair so he’d fall asleep. She had the television tuned to news coverage about the plague with the volume on mute. Every hour the news got more and more heated, and the epidemic was the only thing discussed on the air.
“It’s getting worse,” Balthazar commented, drumming his fingers on the table.
“And we’re stuck in here like criminals,” Arthur ground out. He didn’t like being caged. Score for finding his pressure point, though.
Lisbeth kissed Jason’s head and left him on the couch. “If we want to go forward with the plan, we have to do something drastic.” Arthur stopped pacing, turning to her. “We have to go rogue and break vampire law.”
“Oh fuck no,” he muttered. “I am not doing that. I literally hunted our kind for that. Literally.”
“Yeah,” she said with a smile, batting her eyelashes at him. “And now you work for me. And I say you’re not allowed to hunt me for it. Checkmate.”
“Fuck,” he swore under his breath. “Also,” she added, turning her grin on me. “They made one fatal error locking us all in here. They let me keep my food supply. No offense, honey.”
“None taken.”
“A quick binge and I’ll be a
ble to control anyone we encounter long enough for us to leave. As long as you’re okay with it, dear.”
I shrugged. It would never be like the first time she blood binged. She’d never go too far again. “Fine by me.”
“Part two of the plan.” She turned to Balthazar. “We’re outing supernatural beings to humans. Humans with guns, and bombs, and happy trigger fingers. I want my son nowhere near this. Balthazar, I’m asking you to take him far away from here. If we never come back, you have to be his guardian.”
“I recall the last time you asked me to take a child away for safety you offered to let me marry a sexy librarian. Is that part of this deal too?” Balthazar smiled and drummed his fingers against each other. She glared, asking him to be serious. “What’s wrong with the other wolf? Alexander? Shouldn’t the boy be raised by his own kind?”
“It would be ideal, but we need him to come with us. I can flash fang all I want to the humans and they might not believe me, but a man turning into a wolf will be hard to ignore.”
Balthazar sighed in defeat. “As long as Knight is fine with it, I will agree. The boy will be safe with me.” He looked at me, and I nodded. He wouldn’t have been my first choice to raise Jason, but considering the circumstances, he would do his best. “Very well. I own a secret island. We’ll be safe there.”
“A secret island where?” Arthur asked curiously.
“Secret as in secret, icy one.” Balthazar stood and kissed Lisbeth reverently on the forehead. “I’ll pack my bag, I suggest the boy does the same. We will await your orders.”
“On it,” Jason said from the couch, apparently not as asleep as we’d thought. “Also totes going to drive him insane. Just saying. Can I bring my console?”
Balthazar looked like he was already regretting this. “The flashy game thing? Fine. As long as you never say you’re bored.” Jason got up and gathered his console with the controller and wires and went to his room to pack a bag with Balthazar following behind him.
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 62
