Honor at Stake (Love at First Bite Book 1)

by Declan Finn

  Merle thought on it a moment, still wary of her catlike grace, and flowing, almost boneless movements. “So what are you saying? Vampires are people, too?”

  Amanda smiled. “Da. After resurrection, souls are tightly interlinked with their bodies, so there is such control. With vampires, it is similar. Imagine vampires as an imperfect resurrection.” She paused and chuckled, shaking her head. “We did not quite die, but we are not quite alive.”

  Merle nodded slowly. If she was going to kill him, why bring him all the way to New York to do it? Well, at least this explains why she was in a different class when we came in on the airplane…I just thought it was coach, not cargo. “Okay, let’s say I believe you on all this, that vampires aren’t empirically evil…”

  Amanda nodded.

  Merle dug around in his back pocket for his rosary. “So that means I can’t do something like—this!”

  Merle Kraft hurled his rosary at her, expecting the crucifix on the end to distract her, if nothing else. Instead, she snatched it out of the air, gently took the cross in one hand, kissed it, then handed it back to him.

  “No, you can’t. Get comfortable. This will take a while.”

  As she continued, Merle raised an eyebrow. “Evil” vampires—it’s hard to think of it as not being redundant, like “evil lawyer.”

  Merle sat and listened, letting the information wash over him. He learned that some obscure 12th Century philosopher was relevant even today. I suppose that makes sense where vampires are involved. It's still too early to judge

  As she wound down the lecture she gave Marco – up to and including the theology and philosophy of it all –Merle had one more question to ask. “What about mind control and such? Telepathy?”

  “It has been known to happen.”

  “So if I ever have to come up against one of them—again, that is—are there defensive strategies I should know about?”

  “Knowing your enemy is a good start. Even the strongest vampire cannot connect with your mind without absolute concentration. They need subtlety and only one target. It is not a combat weapon.”

  “So tell me how you know about the ‘master vampire’ in question. By reputation or by style?”

  “What I know so far is that he’s called Mikhail the Bear. Apparently he’s decided New York looks like a proper nesting ground. From what we know, historically he has a set pattern. He nests, trains a replacement to be his equal, and then moves on to repeat the cycle. Now he’s here, and I have no idea what he’s doing. I mean, it isn’t matching up with his pattern thus far. He’s never nested in big metropolises. Attacking FBI agents and cops, or having his people attack them, is completely out of bounds for him. This might mean he doesn't have any choice in the matter.”

  “You think he’s not calling the shots anymore?”

  “You now know everything I do.”

  Merle narrowed his eyes. “How about we all go back to Marco’s place, and we talk about this further…from the start. I can look at the attack sites in daylight, with Marco.”

  “Understood.”

  They headed toward the door.

  “How long has he known about you?”

  “For a while now. We’ve known each other for a bit before that, but the night of the mugging…”

  “He wasn’t in the least bit curious why he never saw you with a tan? Or in daylight?”

  “A heavily clouded day and lots of SPF50 sunblock keeps me from frying.”

  “Lemme guess, because you’re a good vampire, you don’t fry as easily.”

  “It provides some resistance. The farther along one of us is on the good and evil spectrum, the harder we are to kill in general…but we tend to keep a low profile. Even the exceptionally evil vampires don’t want to have people hunting them with thermal scopes. Thankfully, most people know of ways to restrain evil vampires….the more evil, the more restrictions that come on them. This is why I could follow you into this place and an evil vampire could not.”

  “It seems like you have a tightly regulated little community, when even the bad guys play by certain rules.”

  “There’s a difference between playing by the rules and abiding by the rules of nature. You don’t walk through walls, not because you’re playing by the rules, but because you simply cannot. An evil vampire doesn’t come into a home uninvited, not because he is politely following the rules, but because he simply cannot.”

  Then he paused. If what Amanda and Marco had told him was true, that vampires tended to only create vampires if they know what side they’d turn out, how did she manage to be turned into a vampire?

  “I can only guess that this, um, ‘Master Vampire’ is getting too big for his britches. You say you went to Dalf for help, and he referred you to me.”

  Merle went silent for a moment. Demers mentioned dead FBI agents, all working on the oil-for-food deal with Iraq, Kojo and Kofi Annan, the United Nations, Dalf, and Marc Rich. Now there are vampires. What does it all add up to, aside from a migraine?

  “Come on,” he continued, “let’s get out of here before someone decides to shoot us for trespassing. I suppose I should ask if there's anything else we're missing?”

  Amanda smiled. “Unless you want to help us figure out what the vampires are doing in a local cemetery.”

  Merle smiled. “Oh, I can come up with a solution to that. Use you as bait.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Mount Olivet Incident

  April 15th, 11:59 PM

  Mount Olivet Cemetery in Maspeth, Queens, is both well-situated and badly situated. To start with, it is one massive cemetery Right next to All Faith's Cemetery.

  On two sides of the two cemeteries run high traffic roads: Metropolitan Avenue, a heavily-trafficked two-lane road with parking on both sides of the road, as well as a major bus route. A horror to drive, easily jammed, and overflowing with traffic, in tactical terms, it was ready-made bottleneck for any poor fool who needed to use the road.

  On another corner was the heavily-trafficked local street, 69th. This road was an outlet for traffic coming from Queens Center Mall, a major shopping center with five levels of parking structure, as well as a major public transit hub for multiple subways and buses.

  The other two streets were relatively quiet and peaceful…comparatively, anyway. Elliot Avenue was another two-lane road, also with a major bus route. However, Elliot Avenue had Mount Olivet on one side, All Faiths on the other, and connected two residential neighborhoods.

  The cross-street that meets up with Elliot Avenue is the one-lane Mount Olivet Crescent, which separates Mount Olivet from a row of homes. How would you like to live across the street from that?

  On the other end of Mount Olivet, there was Grand Avenue, and a row of houses, where the cemetery bordered the backyards.

  Marco and Amanda came in from the quiet end of Elliot Avenue. The street was poorly lit and strangely quiet, even for a cemetery.

  Then again, what do you expect at this time of night? Amanda thought.

  As she walked along the uneven ground, she tried not to frown. The ground was dug up and replanted so many times, the soil was uneven.

  Also, she didn't like the layout of the cemetery. It was built on the side of a hill, and it didn't even out between Grand Avenue and Elliot Avenue at the top of the hill.

  She glanced to Marco. His arm was around her shoulders. She liked the idea of posing as boyfriend and girlfriend, even if he thought it was a bad idea.

  “Are you going to tell me that they aren't going to know Amanda's a vampire?” Marco had asked the Vatican Ninjas, and Merle Kraft, when the government agent had first proposed the idea. “Even worse, don’t you think that everyone there wouldn't recognize me? Let's face it, I've made an impression.”

  The lead ninja, Hendershot, laughed at that. “You mean that you might be easily identifiable to those vampires who you met and you left alive? Are there really many of those?”

  “And,” Amanda suggested, “if you stay close enough to me, your
scent should hide anything that I might give off.”

  However, now that Marco and Amanda were in the actual cemetery, Marco had no trouble draping himself all over her. If she didn't know any better, she would think that he was more like a horny teenager than the man he was. His arm around her shoulder, his lips were almost constantly making contact with her somewhere. He kissed her covered shoulder, her cheek, her neck, practically anything he could reach.

  Amanda felt giddy at his boyish enthusiasm. He was playful without an underlying current of intensity. He seemed, for once, to truly relax.

  They wandered through the graveyard for a while, mostly with Marco being flirtatious and affectionate. Not that she was complaining.

  Amanda was caught off guard when Marco swung her around towards one of the flatter tombstones. It was just broad and flat enough for a person to stretch out on, if someone could find marble particularly comfortable.

  But Marco laid her out on the marble like it was a wedding bed, and wrapped his arms around her in a warm, more-than-friendly embrace. His eyes burned into hers with an intensity even he had rarely shown. She would have gone so far as to call it passionate. They stared long and hard into each other's gaze.

  Suddenly, Amanda heard his voice in her head.

  “If I whispered to you right now, could vampire hearing pick up on it?”

  Amanda blinked in surprise. He had just reversed a vampire's mind-penetrating gaze, and focused his way into her own mind.

  Amanda scarcely believed that such a thing was possible. She managed to nod.

  Marco smiled with his eyes, and his hug tightened. His face buried itself in her neck. He said, in one of the softest, most gentle voices she had ever heard him use, “Oh God, you have no idea how much I love you. I love how you feel against me. I love your hair. I love how you tolerate me, no matter what I've done.” He kissed her neck softly, where her neck met her shoulder. “I love your mind,” he kissed a little further up her neck, “your walk,” and again, “the way you speak,” and once more with feeling.

  “I love how the corner of your mouth bunches up when you think something over, and the cute way your brow scrunches up when I do something weird that you're trying to understand. I especially love that it goes away in seconds because you're right there with me.” He took a light, gentle nip of her earlobe and tugged on it like a puppy. With his mouth right against her ear, he whispered, “You have no idea the things I want to do with you right now. I would like nothing better than to lay here all night and kiss you senseless.”

  Marco's voice dropped an octave, and became tinged with amusement. “I would like my turn to bite you this time.” He kissed a spot right behind her ear–especially sensitive because it was a major nerve cluster–and it sent fireworks down her spine. He gave a gentle suck on the skin. “I already know how good you taste.”

  His embrace tightened around her, and his whisper became harsh, almost strangled. “I want you so desperately, you have no idea.”

  Amanda restrained a moan, and tried not to writhe against the marble. Not only because his kisses hit all of the right nerve points in her neck, but his words were touching her in places she didn't know existed.

  Then it hit her.

  Marco asked if vampires could hear whispers. This meant he was broadcasting all of his “feelings” to every potential vampire within twenty meters, maybe more.

  Which told her one thing: Marco was putting on an act for the benefit of all the potential vampires in the cemetery.

  Amanda gave a growl deep in her throat. Two could play that game. Only she wasn't playing.

  * * * *

  One of the many things going through Marco Catalano’s mind was, Oh God, the scent of her perfume is driving me insane.

  The feel of her body against his wasn't doing much for his concentration, either. His heart rate had spiked so high, so fast, Marco was terrified that he would give the game away. That Amanda would know that he meant every loving thing he said to her. Things he wouldn't say to her if he thought she would believe him, and take him seriously. All of those kisses were “under the guise of an undercover operation.” He could do everything short of grope her, and it could all be defended in the name of “their cover.”

  Marco could tell her everything, and never have to explain himself later on.

  Granted, there was one thing he was still holding back, but still, it wouldn't fit the image he was projecting to the world: something charming and amorous.

  What Marco held back would have ruined the mood.

  But then, Amanda gave a growl deep in her throat. He blinked. Has she figured me out? Has she realized I’m using this stake-out as a cover for my own feelings?

  Amanda rolled over, taking Marco with her. Before he knew it, he was flat on his back, Amanda straddling his hips, a look of pure, unrestrained desire on her face. His wrists were pinned to the marble, and he was thoroughly surprised to find himself nose-to-nose with her, Amanda's eyes burrowing into his. Their faces were covered from the entire world by her hair, which fell like a curtain around them.

  Wow, Marco thought, she is a really good actress.

  “Do you have any idea what you do to me?” she purred as she rubbed her body along his, doing things to him that he really hoped she didn't detect. “You make my body react involuntarily to you. I have perfect control, yet when you are near, your proximity controls me. I want to bite you every time we meet, and hope I don't drain you completely via droplets. I want to run my hands over your body and give you a sample of everything you do to me.” Her hands released him and glided down his arms. She felt up his arms and his biceps.

  If I didn't know better, she would fool me.

  Her hands drifted down his body, over his biceps, down his abs, then back up so she could cup his face in her hands. “Can you imagine the things I want to do to you?”

  I can imagine what you're doing to me.

  * * * *

  As Merle Kraft watched through his binoculars, he sighed.

  “I think we got the short end of the stick on this assignment.” Without looking away, he whispered to the ninja on his right, “Are they lying to us, or themselves?”

  “Hmm?” Ibrahim, ninja-sniper, grunted in reply. He was already busy scanning the area through his telescopic sight. His .50-caliber sniper rifle was loaded for bear, with enough bullets to drop an elephant, never mind a vampire.

  Merle chuckled and lowered his binoculars to he could look at Ibrahim. “You're not going to tell me that these two are 'just friends,' are you?”

  “Nope.”

  “Though what they see in each other is beyond me. She's a vampire, and he's lunch. Fine, she's gorgeous and all, granted, but still. And him? Meh. Whatever they see in each other, these two might as well have a magnetic attraction.”

  The sniper finally glanced up from his scope in order to look at Merle with something like irritation. “You do realize there are vampires out there, don't you?”

  “Hendershot told me all about your low-level white-noise emitters. He told me they were effective at keeping vampires from hearing noises above a whisper, as long as we're in the protective radius. Since I'm wearing the damn thing, I think I'm okay, don't you?”

  Ibrahim sighed and settle back at his site. “Well, it is obvious that you’re not going to shut up unless we finish this conversation. So, as far as the two of them go, they work together like they were vampire and minion.”

  “Though in that case, I'd have to ask which one was which. She seems more human than he does, and I've only been around him a total of, what, two hours?”

  Ibrahim turned the rifle towards what he thought might have been a bit of motion. He didn't acknowledge Merle's observation, but continued his own. “These two think alike, fight alike, and they move like they've been doing this together forever.”

  Merle nodded to himself, and then went back to looking through the binoculars. “Understood. But if you can see it, and I can see it, why can't the two of them?”<
br />
  “Possibly too close to the situation,” the sniper said without hesitation. “They can see a lot of things coming, but they're already within each other's swing. Make sense?”

  “I suppose, if you want to describe a relationship like a fist fight.”

  The sniper chuckled. “Funny, I thought you were divorced.”

  “Don't make me hurt you, sniper boy.”

  “As if you could, buddy. I fight guys who could eat you for breakfast. Literally.”

  “Tell that to the last guy I met in a dark alley.” Merle watched the two pieces of human bait and frowned. “Are they going to make out with each other, or rape each other on the tombstone?”

  “I don't think you can have two people raping each other at the same time…hold up. On their three o'clock.”

  Merle nodded, instantly sobered. “I see them.”

  “Congratulations, magician. You picked the right bait.”

  “Yay me. Now we just have to keep them alive.”

  * * * *

  Amanda wasn't certain how much more of this she could take. Having Marco near her was one thing. She never imagined how having him this close to her would be like. She was close to doing something she was certain she would regret.

  Then she heard them coming. They walked on the grass as softly as ants.

  Amanda's eyes flicked to her right. Marco noticed and followed her gaze, instantly back in control.

  There were only three of them.

  Amanda didn't know if she wanted to thank the vampires or hurt them.

  “Oh, look,” one of them said. “Dinner for three with enough for leftovers in the morning.” His eyes flicked to her. “And some entertainment in the meantime.”

  Marco bucked and rolled off of the tombstone, sending Amanda off him. They both landed on their feet, Marco with his back to the vampires.

  When Marco spun, he drew out the long wooden knife from the sheath on his back, delivering a backhanded slash through the throat of the vampire who spoke. With a growl, he grabbed the vampire by the jacket lapel and rammed the long blade into the vampire's stomach. The tip of the blade came in at an upward angle, slipping underneath the ribcage, and stabbing into the heart.