Blood Veil

by Megan Erickson

  She clutched the sheet tighter around her. “Turned? Did he…turn her into a vampire?”

  “It was her choice.”

  She stared at me like I was an idiot.

  “It’s…complicated. You might meet Tendra one day. But Athan won’t let you anywhere near her unless he knows he can trust you.”

  “Fuck you,” she spat, the swiftness of her anger surprising me. “I don’t need to meet your precious Queen Tendra. Just get me food I can live on and leave me alone.”

  Her eyes were wet again. She tossed herself onto the bed and rolled away from me, showing me her back. Her shoulders shook and I ached to touch her again, a reaction that confused me. So I stood up from my chair. “Be back in an hour. Maybe get some sleep.”

  When I opened the door, I heard the slight muffle of her sobs. I shut the door behind me and headed to one of the staircases that would take me upstairs. All around the city were portals, magic our Elders had bestowed to give us a safe place underground to live. All I had to do was leak some somnus at a portal, and the solid wall would turn transparent, allowing us to pass through. Only Gregorie clan vampires could activate these portals.

  I walked through the wall, made sure it was sealed once again, before taking off into the darkness of the Mission streets.

  My skin felt transparent, porous, like everything flung at me was hitting soft organs. I needed to feed, but I wasn’t confident that would fix the uneasy feeling slithering over my skin like snakes.

  I hadn’t expected Celia to make me feel so off-kilter. I’d spent most of my life feeling little attraction to anyone. Feeding was the only time I wanted to fuck, and even then it was infrequent, and I always found a vampire. But with Celia…I was hard all the time. I couldn’t stop staring at her lips, the delicate line of her collarbone, and her long fingers. Her slender feet with a high arch. I remembered how she felt in my arms, her heat settled over my cock, her tits pressed against my chest, and that soft hair slipping through my fingers.

  Fuck this. Fuck it. She was a Valarian, and I’d kidnapped her. She was scared of me, and all I could think about was screwing her. Why was this so fucked up?

  I inhaled deeply, hoping the fresh air of the early morning would take the edge off my mood. My father had always said my greatest weakness was my impulsiveness—that I was ruled by my emotions and didn’t think about consequences. Not like Athan, who weighed every decision, thinking everything through before he acted.

  I couldn’t fuck this up. This was my chance to prove that I wasn’t the weak link my father thought I was.

  My phone chimed and I answered the call without looking who it was. I knew.

  “Idris.” It was Athan.

  “Brother,” I said.

  “I’m getting reports of a dead Quellen in a human apartment. Care to fill me in?”

  In all the confusion of securing Celia, I hadn’t called Athan. Fuck. “I’m sorry. Everything has been a bit of a whirlwind.”

  “You have a minute now?”

  I didn’t miss the sarcasm in his tone. “Yeah, I’m on my way to get her supplies. Long story short, I was watching Celia in her apartment. I saw a Quellen sneak in while she was sleeping. He was going to kill her. I killed him, and then took her before more could arrive.”

  “He was going to kill her?”

  “Yep, saw it with my own eyes. He was about to plunge a knife right into her chest.”

  “This doesn’t make sense.”

  “I know the Valarians use the Quellen a lot, but why would her father keep Celia’s existence a secret only to kill her now?”

  “I don’t know. According to Zeb’s informant, very few people know about Celia, and the king is sensitive to any mention of her at all.”

  “So do you think this is the work of another clan? Maybe Queen Rena of the Soros clan? Or the Quellen working independently?”

  “Not sure. I’ll reach out to Queen Rena. First of all, you have Celia secure?”

  “Yeah, she’s in the apartment I had prepared for her. She needs food and clothes, which I’m going to her apartment to get now.” I had to scout it out first to be sure the Quellen were gone.

  “How is she?” That was just like Athan to ask.

  “She’s okay. Scared, a bit confused. But she’s strong, and she’s reasonable.”

  “Does she deny any knowledge of who her parents are?”

  “Yes, she denies everything. But she has the dreams. She admitted that.”

  Athan waited a beat before speaking. “And how are you handling her?”

  My mouth went dry, and my stomach cramped. I needed to feed soon. “I’m handling her.”

  “I know this is all still so raw to you—”

  “You lost a father, too,” I sneered. “Don’t act like I’m the sensitive one that needs coddling.” But even as I said the words, I knew why Athan was worried. I squeezed the phone until the edges dug into my palms. “I’m sorry. I’m fine, Athan.”

  “It’s okay to say you’re not.” His voice was softer, kinder. He was truly always meant to be king.

  “I’m not used to being around a human this much. The way she looks at me…she studies me in a way that makes me feel like I have no skin. Like everything in me is hanging out there for her to see.” I cursed how much I said. I didn’t talk like this. Not to Athan, not even to myself in my head. I chalked it up to delirium because I needed to feed. “It’s probably because I’m hungry,” I muttered.

  When Athan spoke again, concern dripped from his voice. “I know how it feels, brother. Watch yourself around her. We’re still not sure we can trust her. Do you believe her?”

  I answered the first word that came to mind. “I do.”

  Athan hummed. “I see.”

  “If she’s lying to me, then she’s a damn good actress.”

  “Maybe she is.”

  “You’re not here. You don’t see the look in her eyes, the way her entire body shook when she talked about her nightmares, and how she had a panic attack in my arms. You don’t know!” I ended my tirade panting. Fuck, I was losing it. Completely. And it’d only been one day. I was the worst kidnapper ever.

  “Idris…”

  “I need to go. I’m almost at her apartment.”

  “One thing, brother.”

  “What?”

  “Do not touch her.”

  I stopped in my tracks. “What did you say?”

  “She’s half Valarian. I hear how you are talking about her, and it worries me. She is not yours, Idris. She will never be.”

  My entire body flushed red-hot, and it took every ounce of my willpower not to throw my phone against the wall. “You have a lot of balls saying this to me after what you did with Tendra.”

  “That was different and you know it. The prophecy pulled us together—”

  “Fuck you, Athan.” I was the only Gregorie who could get away with talking to him like that, and even I was on thin ice. “I know who she is and I know my duty. If you think I’m going to get blinded by a decent set of tits, then assign someone else. Oh, wait. Zeb fucks anything that moves.”

  “Don’t get angry with me for reminding you of what’s at stake.”

  “I fucking know.” My anger was boiling over.

  He sighed. “Okay, then. Be safe.”

  I ended the call and went about feeding my human. But my brother’s words rang in my ear. She is not yours, Idris. She will never be.

  I prayed a Quellen crossed my path. I was feeling a little like killing something.

  Chapter 4

  Celia

  I cried until my eyes were swollen and sore to the touch. I might have dozed off for a bit, because when I woke, my mouth was full of cotton and it took me a minute to get my mind to register where the he
ll I was.

  I wanted clothes, and maybe a chai latte, which I rarely bought because the calorie count was some ungodly number like 300. I wanted comfort food, and most of all, I wanted to go back to yesterday, before all of this happened.

  I wasn’t fully convinced that Idris was telling the truth, but it was hard to deny when he knew about my nightmares. I started to think about my life, all the moments I passed off as nothing.

  The nightmares. My job as a nurse—blood had never made me squeamish. In fact, I’d always been drawn to injuries. I’d thought it was my desire to help others, but now I wondered if it went beyond that.

  I avoided being out at night, because I’d always felt spooked, like someone was watching me. Did my…vampire father have spies?

  God, even thinking all that was crazy. This was crazy, wasn’t it? Maybe I’d finally cracked. Maybe none of this was real. I pinched myself on the arm, digging in my fingernails until I left crescent indents on my forearm.

  But I was still in this small room, lying on a bed. I had to pee, so I slowly rolled off the bed onto shaky legs and headed toward a curtained-off doorway. Inside was a toilet, sink, and shower stall. I quickly did my business and washed my hands. I was too tired to get into the shower, so I wiped myself down as best as I could, shaking when I caught sight of the blood on my skin that wasn’t mine. After that, I took a look at myself in the mirror. Yep, I looked like shit. Swollen face, hair a mess, and bloodshot eyes. I looked half vampire already.

  I checked to see if the door was locked, just to be sure. It was. I shuffled back to the bed and slipped under the covers. I didn’t want to sleep, afraid the nightmares would be worse, so I stared at the ceiling. I had thought for a minute about searching the room for a weapon, a way out. But what was the point? That thing had tried to kill me. I couldn’t imagine it’d been a ploy to get me to come with Idris. He’d killed it. The disembodied head had rolled across my floor. The thought of more of them out there…

  I didn’t want to die. For the first time in my life, I was sure of it. There was more to learn about myself, about my family, and if Idris was the ticket to that knowledge, then this was where I’d stay. I couldn’t go back to my peaceful life in Mission anymore, not knowing what I knew now.

  I’d always wanted a family. Growing up I’d had a friend in school—Elaine. She used to always talk about how she had her father’s nose, and her mother’s hair. She’d ask me all the time—who do you look like, your mother or your father? Even now I could recall the hole in my heart, the soul-sucking empty blackness. I’d lied. I’d told her that I had a twin sister who was homeschooled, and we looked exactly like our mother but had our father’s teeth.

  She’d believed me. I’d changed foster homes the next week and never saw her again.

  As an adult, I’d grown out of that urge to find family. I hadn’t bothered to look into my parentage, but there were plenty of times I wish I had someone, anyone. A family. Home.

  So according to Idris, I had a father, and he was alive. But he was apparently a goddamn vampire. Merry Christmas, Celia. Check your stocking. I put in some extra plasma for ya.

  I’d always lived in Mission, so some of the cases that came into the hospital seemed normal to me. It wasn’t until I met some nurses and doctors who did not grow up in Mission that I realized there was something a little different about this city. There were a lot of adult disappearances. People who just…never came back. Left their apartments and their lives. I chalked it up to their finally getting out of Mission, of seeking something beyond this city. But then I’d learned that was not normal, not something that happened most places. Of course, I’d never in my life believed the explanation could be something like…vampires. Could it? Could this really be true?

  If Idris was the ticket to learning about my father, maybe meeting him, then I had to play nice. What did I have to lose? That Quellen had tried to kill me, and I wouldn’t be breathing now without Idris. My situation couldn’t get worse than it was now, could it? So I’d wait, and I’d play it smart, and I’d try to make the most of this…before I figured out a way to get out of here.

  A key rattled in the doorknob, and I braced, just in case it was someone other than Idris. When the door opened and his dark eyes settled on mine, I sighed in relief. That was my life now, relieved at the sight of my vampire kidnapper. Stockholm Syndrome was a thing, apparently.

  My head was a bit clearer now, like the tears now soaking my sheets had dissipated the fog in my head. Idris drew closer, several bags in his hands and a gym bag slung over his shoulder, watching me carefully. “You okay?”

  Be agreeable, Celia. “I guess so. Better.”

  He sat down and placed the bags at his feet. “I went back to your apartment to get some clothes for you. It’s…a bit ransacked.”

  I probably should have felt sorrow, but that place never felt like home. I moved around all the time, always looking for a better and cheaper place. I’d only been in that apartment for a month. There went my security deposit. “The Quellen?”

  He nodded and rummaged through the gym bag and pulled out a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt. “Kinda damp down here, and some humans say it’s cold for them. This okay?”

  I took the clothes from him and immediately slipped on the pants and drew the shirt over my head. “Down here?” I asked.

  “Ah, guess I didn’t tell you. We’re underground. My clan lives down here in old subway tunnels. We access it by ports we open using the somnus in our wrists.”

  I looked up at the ceiling, thinking the smell made sense now. Earthy and damp. “Why did your clan choose Mission?”

  “These tunnels,” he said. “They’d never been used heavily. Built, then abandoned because there was a collapse during construction. About ten workers killed. The city sealed it up, so it was completely vacant—no homeless. Nothing. We installed the ports, and now it’s ours.”

  “I see,” I said in response, because it made sense. Was I really believing this was all true? Seeing is believing….

  Plastic rustled. “Grabbed some food from your cabinets. Here’s…” I glanced over to see him frowning at a box of cereal. “Some rainbow rings in milk.” He looked at me with one raised eyebrow. “This is edible?”

  I smiled in spite of my situation and took the box from him. “Froot Loops. My favorite.” I took out a handful and poured them into my mouth. “Want to try some?”

  He wrinkled his nose. “Is that healthy?”

  “What do you think?”

  “I think it looks like fake food.”

  “Well, I’m sure there are some fake flavorings and stuff. But it’s delicious.”

  He shot me a look of disgust as I ate another handful. I smiled again, and his gaze dipped to my mouth before he focused back on the bags. “You can look through what I brought, then. And I can get whatever else you want.”

  “You know, usually people complain about prison food.”

  Again with the one-eyebrow raise. It made him look a whole lot less intimidating. “Prison?”

  “Never mind.”

  I ate a bit more cereal before my stomach protested and I set the box aside. I wasn’t quite hungry, but knew I needed to fill my belly with something. Still, I worried I’d throw up if I ate too much. I looked through the gym bag he packed while he watched me silently. He hadn’t done too badly. He’d even brought my bunny slippers. If I had any more tears to cry, I might have sobbed again.

  I looked up when movement caught the corner of my eye. Idris scratched his beard. “For what it’s worth…I’m sorry.”

  I tilted my head, surprised at the words. “Sorry for what?”

  “I’m sorry that you don’t know your parentage. Sorry that you dealt with those nightmares without knowing why. I’m sorry that this is how you found out—because a Quellen tried to kill you
and a strange vampire took you from your home.” He ran his tongue over his upper teeth, and it caught on a fang. “I’m sorry that I plan to use you to further the interests and goals of my clan. I recognize you haven’t had a choice in any of this.” He looked away, like he was embarrassed at his words.

  “Tell me,” I said, “what your plan was originally with me. If the Quellen hadn’t tried to kill me.”

  His hand tightened into a fist on his thigh. “I was going to observe you for another week or two until my king gave me the go-ahead to take you and hold you for ransom.”

  “Another week or two?”

  He didn’t look ashamed. “I’d been observing you for about three weeks.”

  God. God.

  “That night in the parking garage, when you were walking to your car. I was there.”

  I remembered now. The glowing eyes. “That was you. My headlights caught on your eyes, right?”

  He nodded.

  “I felt someone watching me.”

  “You were right.”

  “So you saw—”

  “That man,” he nearly growled.

  I couldn’t help but flinch. He wouldn’t hurt Landon, would he? “My coworker.”

  Idris’s eyes narrowed. “He wants you.”

  “I don’t—”

  “He does.”

  “Okay, fine. He does. He asked me out at the end of my shift yesterday.”

  “Asked you out?”

  “Yeah, on a date.”

  He pressed his lips together.

  “I said no.”

  “Good.”

  “Why do you care?”

  “Because I do,” was all he answered.

  I waved a hand. “Well, whatever. He probably won’t see me again, will he?”

  Idris didn’t answer that, only gazed at me steadily.

  I blew out a breath. “Okay, so forget about him. You said that my father is the king of a clan that despises humans?”

  He ran his hand over his short hair. “They don’t despise humans. They don’t respect them. They see them only as a food source.”