Ah, phones. How I missed texting.
Mom, where r u?
Jason, ur not 2 cool 4 school.
Knight, I borrowed your razor to shave my legs.
Dad, you suck incorporeal ass.
Arthur, stop mooning over my mom and kiss her already.
I packed up my stuff, now all covered in cat hair, and started down the hallway. Several cats followed me. Maybe they thought I was their leader. A vampire was totally part cat part human. We both had fangs, at least. Once I hit the stairs, the cats stayed behind to continue their lives in the tower without me. Maybe I’d come back and steal a kitten or two. Who knew how much they’d get me in the right city? Everyone loved cats. A puppy though, that would’ve been worth its weight in gold. Most dogs had gone feral or rabid after the sharks came, and people were very hard up for guard dogs. I figured a barn cat would hold the same value if I found a farm.
Just as I’d reached the bottom floor, I turned to re-consider going back up and finding where they’d stashed the kittens. Sitting on the last step was the black cat with yellow eyes, still staring at me.
“Puss,” I said in salute again. Maybe he knew I was considering taking their babies. They sent him to spy on me. Fluffy bitches. “Fine, fuck you. I won’t take the babies. I’m leaving. Bye.” I rolled my eyes and wondered at my sanity for addressing a cat like it could understand me. My boots crunched on the lobby floor and I left through the broken doors to my motorcycle outside. Mounting it, I clipped my backpack in front and noticed the cat jumping over the broken door, coming up to me like this was normal behavior. “No! Bad kitty. You’re not coming…” He jumped up onto my legs and swished his tail to smack me in the face, silencing my protests. Maybe it was because he was so desperate to be with me, or maybe I was just desperate for another heartbeat. Either way, I gave in. “Alright, god. You can come with me. Fluffy manipulator.” Carefully, I picked him up and unzipped my jacket to stuff him inside against my chest before zipping it back up. He wiggled a bit before he settled against me and tucked his head under my chin.
Seems like I’ve become a crazy cat lady after all.
My motorcycle came to life with a thrust, and kitty and Kitty left the tower behind.
It took me several hours to find the supplier’s location, owing to the fact that the ledger simply specified ‘37 miles in that direction, past this old restaurant, and turn when you see a roost of chickens.’ The bleeder clearly had seen no value in writing down fucking street signs or using a compass. If I hadn’t already killed him, I might’ve again just for his shit accounting.
Knowing my value for human life had sunk over the past two decades was enough to sober me. My mother had fought a damn war trying to protect human life. She valued it almost over her own, and now I was shooting bleeders for being stupid. She’d be ashamed of me.
Sniffing, I wiped my face with my gloves and unzipped my jacket to let the kitty out once we’d arrived at our destination. He bounced from the handles to the ground and trotted around to rub against an old stop sign before looking back at me expectantly.
“We’re about to go in hot, puss. Could be dangerous,” I informed him. He lifted a paw to give it a delicate lick, completely unfazed. Lifting an eyebrow at my furry companion, I checked the chamber in my gun and slipped Artemis back into her holster, giving her a comforting pat for what we were about to face. “Saddle up, puss. It’s time to lock and load.” I adjusted my vest and started towards the building with the black kitty trotting beside me.
Standing in front of the building, it was hard to tell what this place had been before as all the windows were boarded up and the front had been painted black. Cautiously, I tried the handle on the front door, and it swung open to show several bleeders holding rifles.
They’d been waiting for me.
“Human, drinker, or mutt?” the biggest one demanded, clicking the safety off his gun. Puss stepped past the enemy lines and rubbed against the bleeder’s leg. He lifted his boot to lightly shoo the cat away. “Answer before I shoot you between the eyes.”
“Rude,” I mumbled, casually darting my eyes around to assess my odds if they decided to go postal on me. “No one ever asks my name first. Can’t a lady demand a bit of wining and dining?” The bleeder worked his jaw and narrowed his eyes at me. He reminded me so much of the stoic blonde that loved my mother. “Drinker,” I answered after a few beats.
The bleeder tightened his hold on his gun, checking behind me for something on the street. “Did you bring sharks with you?”
“Do I look like I’m that fucking stupid? Of course not.” He seemed less certain and waved two fingers for the rest of his group to come out and search the block, just in case. “Can’t see sharks being the best thing to bring to a dinner party,” I snarked as I watched them. Satisfied I wasn’t planning an ambush, the bleeders led me inside before closing the heavy door and slamming a bar across it. Emergency lights came on across the ceiling, lighting up the dirty metal entrance.
“Weapons,” the bleeder demanded as his eyes adjusted to the dim light, lowering his gun to hang on his side.
I resisted the urge to scowl at him. “As I’ve said many times to bleeders much stronger than your bitch ass, Artemis stays with me.”
He looked down and saw the cat at my feet. “Your cat’s name is Artemis?”
Rolling my eyes, I lifted my gun from her holster. “The gun, bleeder. I don’t fucking name cats.”
“On the talk of names, mine is Marcus. Yours?”
I curled my mouth inward with a grimace. He was definitely going to laugh at me. “Kitty.” A titter went around the bleeders standing beside me, making me roll my eyes again.
Why did my mom have to give me such an adorable name?
“Kitty with a kitty,” one teased. He ended up with my gun in his face before he could giggle again, and Marcus reached up a hand to get between us.
“Now, now. Calm down, kitten,” he cautioned. “There’ll be no shooting today.”
Artemis went back into her holster, but I still leveled the bleeders with my glare. “Call me kitten again and I will make no promises.”
“Fair enough.” Marcus lifted his hand again and signaled for them to all stand down. “What’s your business, drinker?”
I tilted my chin in motion to the rest of the building. “Looking for your boss man. He around?”
“Nearabouts. You lookin’ for some red?”
“I’ll take my business with your boss, thank you.”
Marcus’s mouth tilted down, but he nodded wordlessly and turned to walk down the hallway. I followed, one hand on Artemis in case the bleeders turned on me.
Horror stories had circulated amongst vampires about humans capturing us to become their own personal Night Shadow farms. One vampire and one Lycan in a cage would set a bleeder up for decades.
Puss didn’t care if we were being led into an ambush as he followed at my heels like we were off to a picnic with the Queen. Various scents wafted up to me from the slightly damp and poorly lit hallway, but none of them were blood. That boded well. Or it just meant they were good at cleaning up their kills. I couldn’t afford to be completely trusting of anyone, but most especially I couldn’t trust fuckwads like these.
At the end of the hall was a door with two guards, and Marcus nodded at them to open it. They eyed me, a sneer curling on their lips, but they stayed silent. I tapped Artemis with a single finger and grinned as I walked past them.
Inside the room they guarded was a bald man wearing a white suit that had seen better days, but was still presentable enough for guests. He sat at a table eating a steak and potatoes dinner, complete with a glass of wine. Fuck, I could hardly think with the smell of his food in my head. It had been a very long time since I’d had meat. Blood didn’t count. It was too risky to spill blood and build a fire to cook it when there were sharks literally everywhere. They’d be on me faster than it would take to brown the meat.
“Marcus,” the boss man said, h
is nose still tilted towards his plate as he sawed at the steak and brought a bite to his lips. “Bring a chair for our guest.” The meat went into his mouth and I felt my own start to water. Marcus brought up a folding chair for me and placed it across his boss at the table, then motioned for me to come forward and sit in it.
Puss waltzed up and jumped into the chair, swishing his tail back and forth.
“Yours?” the boss asked, flicking his fork at the cat. I nodded, trying not to put my hand on Artemis as I often did in tense situations. “Don’t suppose you’d sell him to me?”
“Is that what you’re eating? Cat?” I shuddered inwardly.
“Buffalo,” he answered with a dry laugh. “There’s a herd about fifty miles east of here. They’ve re-populated much of the region. We eat hearty.” Hungry and weakened, I couldn’t hide my lust over his spread, and he motioned to someone who left the room. “Sit, please.” Puss jumped down for me and just as I sat, the other bleeder came back with an identical plate of steak and potatoes that he set in front of me.
I didn’t wait for niceties, I took the fork and knife, cut into the meat as daintily as I’d been taught by my mother, and put it to my lips to smear them with grease before taking a delicate bite.
Fuck almighty. I had never tasted anything so damn delicious.
The juices. The flavors. All rolling around my tongue filling me with sensations. He’d salted and seasoned it to perfection. Even Knight would’ve cried having something this good to eat. I was seriously regretting not taking the time to hunt for meat.
“I’m Morpheus,” my dining companion said as he watched me cut another bite and plop it into my mouth.
“Kitty,” I offered around my bite, cutting off another piece and shoving it between my lips before my previous bite had been fully chewed.
“Not often we get drinkers here.” He lifted his wine glass to his lips and drank of the red liquid. “I suppose you’re here for some supply?” Not wanting to stop eating, I reached for the baggie in my back pocket and tossed it onto the table in front of me. “Ahh. You already have some.”
“I need to know where you got it. Whose blood it is.” Lifting my bag off my shoulders, I pulled out the ledger and laid it beside the baggie. “I got it from a bleeder.”
“Hmm,” Morpheus said, taking the ledger and opening it. “This belongs to Andrew.” He waited a breath and looked up to catch my gaze. “Belonged…” It ended almost as a question.
My fingers tightened on my fork and I slowly worked my jaw to chew the meat in my mouth. I’d have felt sheepish if I actually cared about it, but I had no idea if Morpheus would be pissed at me for killing his friend. “He called me girlie.”
“A mistake I will not repeat,” Morpheus said with a slight grin, apparently not caring in the slightest about me killing the bleeder. “I gave Andrew a new supply three months ago. It came from Salvation. I don’t know more than that, I’m sorry.”
I speared a potato with my fork and bit into it with my fangs, just so my dinner companion was reminded of what I was capable of. “Salvation? What’s that?”
“The last human city, so they say. Drinkers, mutts, and humans living together.” He sipped his wine again and adjusted one of the rings on his fingers. A twitch if I ever saw one. Studying him carefully, I took another bite. He was hiding something.
“Any idea where it’s located?”
He tilted his head in a shrug. “Can’t rightly say.”
My eyes flicked cautiously to Marcus and the other bleeders standing around us. “You must have some idea.”
“It’s not exactly a place I’d want to go to,” he explained, his shoulders relaxing slightly, but not enough to bring my guard down.
Leaning back in my chair so he wouldn’t be tipped off that I was suspicious of him, I brought another potato to my fangs and tore into it. “Too many drinkers for your taste, I’m guessing?”
With a distant look in his eyes, he folded his hands on his belly, making my pulse shoot off so rapidly I was glad he couldn’t hear it. “There’s a woman there. We’ve heard stories about her. She commands the vampires with a single word. Her power over them keeps them in line, makes them ignore their carnal instincts of destruction so they can work with the humans.”
Intrigued, I sat up, my food forgotten. “Is there a name attached to this woman?”
Morpheus grinned at me, like a ten-year-old telling a ghost story. “They call her the Countess.”
The name sent a shiver up my spine. Fuck. It had to be her.
I stood, my chair skidding on the concrete floor. “Thank you for the meal and the information. I’ll be on my way.”
“You may just want to rethink that part,” Morpheus cautioned. Marcus had snuck up to me, grabbing Artemis before I could stop him, even with my enhanced speed.
“There’s another tale I’ve heard, much more interesting than the Countess,” Morpheus said as he stood. “A tale about a black haired purple eyed girl whose blood makes the best Night Shadow on the planet. Know anyone like that?” His mouth rose in a sickening grin and the bleeders lifted their guns at me.
My fangs dropped, and I flung my hands out as my nails grew into claws. “You’re a damn fool if you think you can capture me.”
He laughed at me again and took a gun from his belt, pointed it at me with wasted confidence. “I doubt that, girlie.”
Then he fired.
5. He’ll come back
Dreya
“Darling, you look pale.”
I smiled, showing several of my perfect teeth. “Darius, that joke started getting old when we were still in high school.”
My boyfriend leaned in to kiss me, his aura bathed in the colors pink and yellow, and then he straightened to look out at the sunset with me. I looped my arm in his and leaned my head against his shoulder, watching the blue sky be engulfed with shades of red and orange. We stood on the tallest building in Salvation, the clock tower where both of our families lived.
“Your mother is going to see red if I keep you out any later,” Darius warned as he leaned in for another kiss. And another. And another, until I was breathless against him. His short, brown curls were soft under my fingers and I tugged on them to get him closer to me, standing on my tip-toes. The scent of his human blood was a perfume that swirled around me in temptation, but just as I didn’t allow Darius to go further than kisses, I also would never drink from him. I pulled away after another sweet kiss and planted my feet on the floor.
“Let’s go. Mother can be a bit of a pill.” We grinned and left the balcony hand in hand. The clockwork gears moved beside us as we went down the stairs and stopped at the fifth-floor landing for another kiss.
“Good night, Dreya.” Darius planted a soft kiss on my nose and stroked my cheek, staring into my blue eyes like he was looking at a priceless piece of art. “I could stand here for an eternity, just waiting for one more kiss.”
“And I think you’re a sweet-talker who likes goading my parents,” I chided with a smile.
Sighing, he leaned into the stairwell wall, still holding my hand. “You’re nineteen. Almost twenty. And you still have all these ridiculous restrictions on yourself. You’re an adult, Dreya.”
I felt like sighing too, but I held it in with practiced patience and tucked a strand of my blonde hair behind my ear. “Darius, you know it’s different for us. I’m a vampire. We mature slowly. It takes decades. My sister was still acting like a moody teenager at thirty. I suspect the same will be true for me.” I wiggled our clasped hands. “Let’s not fight, hmm?” He smiled when he saw an answering grin on my face.
Pushing away from the wall, Darius came to clasp my face between his hands. “Dinner tomorrow at my place?” I nodded happily and he gave me another peck on my nose. “Night. For real this time.” I finger waved at him and slipped out of the stairwell and onto the hallway, tiptoeing my way down to my bedroom door. Quietly I opened it and slipped inside, making sure to keep the doorknob twisted until it was fully
closed so it wouldn’t make a sound.
“Hi.”
“Fuck,” I swore, putting a hand to my chest. Sitting on my bed was my mother, her arms crossed over her nightgown and her purple eyes staring me down. “I’m sorry I was out so late, mother.”
She rolled her eyes. “Dreya, you’re not five. You don’t have a bedtime.” Her gaze scanned me, and I knew she was feeling my power levels, just in case I’d gotten a little fang happy with Darius.
“I didn’t drink from him,” I told her as I put my bag down onto my desk
“You’d better not have. You know I don’t give two shits if you do, but the humans will throw you in prison before you can say, ‘verisimilitude.’” Her face softened and she shut her eyes with a sigh. “I’m sorry. You know I don’t like being snappy.”
With her walls down, I reached out with my power. Her aura was a deep, inky blue, and it brought a frown to my face. “You’re sad. You’re sad because Kitty and Jason are missing. And father is gone.”
Her lip trembled and she looked away. She stared out my window as if it held secrets she longed to know. “Every year it gets harder.”
I stepped across my carpet and sat next to her on my comforter. “I know.” We both looked out and I could still see a hint of the sunset between the buildings of Salvation. “I remember his face. His eyes.” She reached between us to take my hand and her aura fluttered with a slight pink underneath the blue. “He’ll come back. I know he will. I feel it. One day those eyes will be looking at you again.”
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 69
