The Blood Bargain (Book 1)

by Macaela Reeves

  I pulled up the first page and gasped.

  It was dated three weeks before the outbreak first hit the news.

  Chapter 11

  Seated in the cramped confines of Smittys warehouse, everyone was edgy. I watched from the side as Cole explained in detail the entirety of our findings. With each word the crowd’s eyes grew wider, Sammie brought a hand to her throat at one point and gasped. Was probably

  hard to swallow that her boss may as well have been Dr. Frankenstein. When he was done, Cole sat down his wide shoulders resting back against one of the cardboard boxes in the room.

  “I don’t think we should go to the council.” Adam spoke quietly.

  “Why not? They owe us answers!” Ben hollered, still holding the very upset Sammie.

  “You trust them to tell the truth?” I interjected on Adam’s defense.

  “I don’t trust them to do anything.”

  “What if there are more deadheads floating around town in basements?” Offered one of the guys whose name I hadn’t learned yet.

  “We need to patrol the streets!” His friend added a me too, which got many nods of agreement.

  “If we do that they’ll know we know. Plus we don't need to cause a panic! There are hundreds of people here.” Adam tried to keep them calm. He made legitimate points.

  “I still don’t see what this has to do with the caravan.” Ryan whined, pushing his glasses further up on his nose. Leave it to the accountant to want to zero his books above all else. From there I was lost in the sea of voices, everyone was talking at once. Sammie started crying which made its own drama. I looked across at Cole, who was trying to get the two hot heads in the corner to calm down. This was unproductive and pointless. We weren’t getting anywhere.

  “Hey.” My voice was drowned out by the chaos.

  “HEY.” No use.

  I stood up and did something very unladylike like. I threw a small cardboard box labeled bulbs across the room. The resulting glass shatter sound did the trick.

  Heads whipped around.

  “All the papers at the clinic have the same government logo that all my dad’s stuff has. If you think about it...our candle maker was a chemist...we’ve got engineers working on solar tech on roofs. Doesn’t it seem a bit strange to all of you to have a bunch of highly educated folks in this small town?”

  “What are you saying Liv?” Adam asked.

  “I’m saying I want answers. They said the scav’s are gone but I’ve seen one. They said there was no caravan but we know there was...plus they knew about the outbreak before it spread. The way I see it. There is only one place we can go.”

  His arms still wrapped around his quietly crying girlfriend, Ben raised his head and asked. “Where’s that?

  “We go into the city and we search the agencies building.” I announced trying to look impressive at my short height.

  I may as well have thrown a grenade into the room. The guys erupted. Cussing and arguing, mostly yelling at me.

  “Are you insane?”

  “That whole area is crawling, scraping and moaning! It’s a suicide run.”

  I held up my hands in defense. “It could be, but I think I have a way to get in and out without loss of life.” They continued to bicker. Then Adam jumped down off a box and let out a

  whistle. A high pitched shriek of a sound that drowned everyone out. While everyone stared at him in shock-surprised such a sound could find its way out of his slender form-he turned to me.

  “What way is that?” Adam asked me in a level tone. Okay here we go. I couldn.t believe I was letting the cat out of the bag.

  “My ahh...I have a friend who...” Deep breath.

  “He’s kind of a vampire.”

  I expected the room to erupt again. Instead it was quiet.

  Dead quiet.

  I shuffled my feet, trying not to look as awkward as I felt at the moment.

  A thick hand grabbed me by the forearm.

  “Excuse us for a minute.” Cole growled to the confused crowd.

  He led me into the back office and shut the door.

  His shoulders were tense, his eyes wild. The guy looked like he could pick up a car and throw it through a house at any minute.

  “Your new roommate?” He hissed.

  I nodded.

  “And he’s a he?”

  “Yes I said he! Okay?” I snapped back.

  “I...you.re dating a vampire? And here I thought we were...”

  I cut him off. “I’m not dating him!” Well he hadn.t asked. “He offered me an out of marrying that idiot Zack, I took it. We.re just...” I threw my hands up in the air. “And what exactly do you think we are you’ve never mentioned any thi-”

  He wrapped his big arms around me and kissed me so hard; I thought he may have broken one of my teeth. I tried to pull back but he held me in place.

  Then Cole stepped back.

  My brain couldn.t really process what happened. He was smiling at me like he had just pulled out some club and knocked me over the head for ownership. Is this how guys operate really? I had to admit even to myself, standing in that closed room with him raging like a

  Neanderthal, it was kind of a turn on. Even if he wasn’t the guy for me.

  There was a knock at the door.

  “You guys okay in there?” Adam.

  “Yeah.” I scooted by Cole and back into Smittys main storage. A couple of the guys were smirking; Cole gave them the ‘I’m the man’ smile.

  I really wanted to kick him where it hurt. Make him think twice about whatever claim he thought he had just staked.

  “If Liv thinks this bloodsucker will help us get some answers. Let’s do it.” Cole announced. There was a lot of nodding around the room.

  “Thanks.” I smiled, meeting the eyes of everyone present. “I’m sure he will.”

  “No.”

  “That's it? Just no?” Dimitri stared at me, his lips pursed into a thin line. I had waited until after dinner to bring it up, figuring this would be an easy conversation.

  “Oh come on D! Please? I know you can do it.” I flailed my arms around in a hissy fit.

  “I never said I could not, I said I would not.”

  “Why not?”

  He growled. “I do not to involve myself in the affairs of humans.”

  “But you’re involved with me?” I crossed my arms.

  “That is a private matter. With one human not plural.” He raised his index finger as though I were a child that had forgotten how to count. I took a deep breath. I wasn.t a child, I wasn’t thirty seconds away from stomping my feet and running off to my room and slamming my door. I was an adult I was going to handle this like an adult.

  Or punch him in the gut. One of the two.

  “So you are reducing our relationship to semantics?” I asked through gritted teeth.

  “Relationship?” He raised an eyebrow, looking down at me with that ancient gleam in his blue eyes. I felt immediately embarrassed and guilty, had I misunderstood his intentions? He was thousands of years older than me, a different species and pretty much perfect across from the

  looks to education spectrum. Furthermore I had just got done screaming at my best friend that I wasn.t dating this guy...so why did I use the R word? I backpedaled.

  “Well it is on one level or another, I mean, I live here, I feed you, you’ve...kissed me.” He didn’t speak.

  “Whatever, maybe I am being human again.”

  Dimitri ran his hands through my dark hair then brushed his soft lips on my forehead.

  “You are mine.” He spoke softly, his lips still on my skin. A shiver ran down my spine, I found myself wanting his words to be true. We stood there like that for what seemed like ages.

  “Why won.t you do this with me? Really? I don’t buy the whole I just don’t care.” I muttered.

  “What do you plan to do with this knowledge once you possess it? You cannot change the events that have transpired so far.”

  “I think I have a r
ight to know exactly why my entire life, everyone’s entire life, was ruined.”

  “Change is not ruination.”

  “Semantics!” I took a deep breath to calm myself. “If the government knew...if they did this to us...I...”

  “Your government is gone.”

  “Are they? Why do I find papers marked with their stupid seals in secret labs?”

  Dimitri frowned and stepped back. “What did you say?”

  I told him what we had done, what I had found.

  “Stupid humans. They were not to bring the mindless within the colony.”

  “What?”

  “Our arrangement explicitly prohibited such actions that had the potential to reduce the human population.”

  “Please stop talking about us like we’re cattle.”

  “’.m sorry...it has been a long time since I have felt one among your kind.” He smiled at me. “Since I met you that has changed a bit.”

  “Funny. I never feel ‘one’ with anything.” His statement made me uncomfortable so I shuffled my bare feet in the living room carpet.

  “You are one with me.”

  “I’m going whether you help me or not.” I crossed my arms. It was a half empty threat.

  “You will get yourself killed.”

  “If you help me I won’t.”

  “That is not playing fair.”

  “I don’t want to play fair.” I had enough of him staring at me from a distance, from getting close and pulling away. It was my turn to be aggressive. I kissed him, pushing him back onto the couch. I knew he felt something for me when he didn’t fight as I crawled up on his lap. I pulled back from him and tilted my head to the side. Offering my vein.

  There was no hesitation. Only the quick strike of his fangs and the tight grasp of his hands on my back. The first time he had done this, I had cried. Feeling violated and used. Now as he drank from me I felt different, I was giving him strength. No. I was giving him life.

  I thought about Zack's little fit at the wall. Perhaps I had become a bloodsucker groupie. I ran my fingers through his soft dark hair. Dimitri never judged me, never forced me into anything, never put me down and never made me feel anything but special. If I had joined the ranks of the fang fans, I didn’t care. He was the best guy I had ever met.

  Even if he was a vampire.

  When he was done feeding he kissed the puncture marks on my neck, and then slid me off of his lap to the side. Dimitri slipped into familiar euphoria, basking in the gift I had given him.

  “Like the ripe cherry fallen from a tree, your taste is wonderful to me. The fear and the bitterness are gone from your soul when you think of me, my Althene.” Such sweet words, but that’s how he always was. Sweet.

  “I’m going to miss you.” I told him, my eyes fixed on the stitching details of the couch cushions.

  “Why?” He asked, eyes still shut after his feeding.

  “They’ll figure out soon enough someone was in there. Won.t take a rocket scientist to finger my involvement. I’ve been a wild card lately.” I pictured fresh disappointment in my Dad’s eyes. I still hadn’t seen him since he forbid me from leaving the house. I hated to admit it, but I really missed him. Dimitri captured my left hand in his olive skinned grasp.

  “I will claim your actions as my own. As I have stated keeping the dead within the group is not allowed.”

  “You’re going to cover for me?” I whispered, staring into his blue irises.

  “I do not want anyone to try to take you away from me.” He sighed, like he was having an internal argument. After a moment he spoke quietly. “If I help you...will you stop needlessly risking your life?” I snorted.

  “That’s a loaded question if I.ve ever heard one.”

  “What is loaded?”

  “This world is dangerous. Our lives will never truly be safe.”

  “The world has always been dangerous. Plagues, beasts, rival humans. There has always been danger, these walking ‘corpse buckets’ are just a new variation of it. Your kind got so secure over the centuries with your security systems, vaccines and urban sprawl that you lost track of the reality of existence. The instinct of your ancestors however was not to go looking for risk. You my

  lovely Evelyn, go looking for it. It makes me wonder if you have a death wish.”

  “Corpse buckets?” I snickered.

  “Do not bring levity to a serious subject.” He was adorable when he was irritated with me.

  “I don’t have a death wish. I wanted a life with proms and college. Kids, a fancy house, a husband with a good job. The normal stuff everyone wanted. However that world is gone. In this world, I don’t want any of that. I just want to know the reality I live in and keep on breathing. Since the outbreak I’ve felt...lost.” I swallowed hard. “Lost and angry.”

  “Whatever you find will not rid you of those emotions.” He warned me.

  “I know. But in order for our kind to not repeat this horrible tragedy, if we live through it, we have to know what it was in the first place. If we did this to ourselves...”

  The thought made me sick to my stomach, what if this had been some attempt at a biological agent or an artificial flavoring gone horribly wrong. So many dead...and for

  what?

  “You get in, I’ll get you out on the roof.” Dimitri begrudgingly agreed to help me.

  My head snapped up. “Really?”

  “We agreed to protect the colony, you walk back you’re going to bring the whole damned stream from downtown with you.” I threw my arms around his neck, startling him.

  “Thank you.”

  “Not every female has a boyfriend that would brave a undead horde to bring her home you know.”

  “Boyfriend?”

  “Is that not your term?” D tilted his head to the side slightly; obviously worried he had used the wrong word.

  “You’re my boyfriend?” I smiled at him, a smile of the thousand watt variety.

  “Thought you knew that.”

  “You’ve never said it.”

  “I just told you that you were mine...not moments ago.”

  “A belt is mine, doesn’t mean I’m dating it.” I retorted.

  “Your words are difficult to process.”

  “If you just called me a pain in the ass, I’d have to agree.” I leaned my head on his shoulder. “Will you come with me to the Garage tonight?”

  He snorted. “Patrol.”

  “You wouldn’t even if you didn’t have to.”

  “No. I would not. Many drunk humans lack intelligence and tend to be belligerent. I would end up killing a few.” On that note I made it a point to never tell Dimitri that Cole had kissed me earlier today. I got the feeling that my new boyfriend was the possessive type and I kinda wanted Cole to not end up dead. He was still a really good friend, even if he was romantically misguided.

  “Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow night then?”

  “I will find you when Antonia and I get back, I cannot wait till morning to see you.” As excited as it made me that he had to see me as soon as possible...he just had to have dropped the A word.

  “Antonia...” I mumbled, my face must have revealed more than I wanted because his pleasant expression immediately fell.

  “Stop that.” It was a quiet request, not a demand. I shuffled my feet, wrapping my arms around myself.

  “I hate thinking that you...” I glowered, picturing that mean woman with her arms around Dimitri. With her perfect face and model figure...

  “Stop. that. Antonia and I were centuries ago. Centuries.” I managed a half smile. It did seem silly to be bothered by something that happened before my great great great great -and a few more greats- grandmother was even born.

  He nodded at me once, then was gone in a blur.

  That was still a hard thing to get used to. Poof you’re here, poof you’re gone. Poof I bought back apples...

  Grabbing my coat, I shoved on my boots and headed out the door myself.

  I was still kinda
grumpy when I got to the Garage. Adam had a booth in back; Ben and Ryan were smashed in on either side of him. Cole sat directly across, hogging a whole side of the booth. He nodded at me as I approached, patting the bench next to him.

  Great he saved me a seat.

  I slid in, just as Ryan popped out of the other side to go get another round.

  “So how’d it go Liv?”

  “If we can get in, he’ll get us out.”

  “You trust him?” Ben asked gruffly.

  “Absolutely.” I responded, I absentmindedly wondered if they could see the puncture marks on my neck. Would kind of screw my credibility. Ryan returned with the drinks, which he spread around the table.

  “So how do we get in?”

  “Highways are definitely a bad time.” Cole pointed out.

  “Back roads?” Adam offered. To which Ben frowned.

  “Don’t even end anywhere near downtown. We’ll be mobbed before we get to the bridge.” Ryan’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. “What about the river?” When no one immediately protested he continued, talking with his hands. “Downtown cuts right through the Des Moines

  River…we could take five north till we hit a boat dock then coast right through the bridges into downtown. Land at the River Walk?”

  “What about grabbers?” Cole asked slowly, grabbers were something we had only heard about. Some of the last survivors to get into Junction had the displeasure of running into the creeps; deadheads stuck in the muck below the rivers like a people trap just waiting for someone to swim by.

  “This whole thing is pick your poison. Just trying to come up with the best way...” Ryan countered, looking a little disappointed. I took a swig of my drink then spoke up.

  “I think it’s a good idea Ryan. That river is deep and the current is kinda strong. I remember reading of a lot of drowning deaths in the paper. If they pour over the sides to reach us they’ll never make it to the sides of the boat.”

  “They are gonna notice if we’re all gone.” Adam chimed in. Ben’s big shoulders seemed to tighten at his statement.

  “You’re coming Adam?”