Bloodlust

by Kramer, D. L.

  “What are you planning?” Rosie asked.

  “Can you convince them he was lying?” I asked Gianna. “Sow some discontent or possibly find some who will help us?”

  She seemed to consider this for a moment. “I think so,” she finally said. “A few maybe, at least.”

  I wasn’t sure if she could sound anymore unsure or not. Oh well, I’d take what I could get. “Go to work on that,” I told her. “Be at the meeting tonight—and be prepared to make up with your boyfriend beforehand.” I ignored her growl at that. “Oh and Gianna.” I stopped walking and turned to face her, extending my claws to their full length. I felt her flinch inwardly as she took a small step back. “When you cut off someone’s head, don’t have your claws straight across.” I showed her how she was likely holding her fingers when she slashed at someone. “Put them at an angle and move them like you’re scooping something so each one cuts a different layer. Then you do it in one swipe.”

  I saw her watching my claws, working it over in her head, then nodding. “I wondered how you did that.”

  “That’s how.” I retracted my claws and turned to Rosie. “Now, let’s get you somewhere safe.” I turned to the street and hailed a taxi.

  It took a few tries before one stopped. I gave him an address, then shuffled Rosie into the back seat and got in after her.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “You’ll see,” I told her.

  She sighed at me and watched out the window as the taxi driver took us to the address I’d given him.

  The white roof of the church came into view after about thirty minutes and the shelter just after that.

  “A shelter?” Rosie asked me. “Michael, I’m not staying in a women’s shelter.”

  I paid the driver then climbed out of the taxi, holding the door for Rosie.

  “No, you’re not,” I told her. “You’re staying in the church.” I took her hand and led her towards the heavy double doors.

  Aleksander had fed all his followers a healthy dose of myth and lies about us. I was willing to bet most of them believed entering a church would be very dangerous for them.

  Father Mallory was near the altar, setting out new candles to replace those that had burned down to nothing. He looked over as we came in, then seemed surprised to see me. When he saw Rosie, his eyes widened slightly and I felt his heart speed up and practically skip a beat.

  “Michael?” he asked me, coming over. “Is everything all right?”

  “At the moment, probably not,” I confessed. I still didn’t like the idea of lying to a priest, regardless of what I believed or disbelieved. “Father Mallory, this is the granddaughter of an old friend of mine, she needs someplace safe to stay for a little while. I was hoping she might find sanctuary here.” I glanced at Rosie and she was looking up at me, one eyebrow raised. “Trust me,” I told her.

  “I want to help you,” she insisted.

  “And I don’t want to face your grandmother if she found out I let you come with a possible concussion and who knows what else hurt,” I shot back at her.

  She frowned at me, but I felt her give up her determination. Maybe.

  “Rosie, this is Father Mallory, Father, this is Rosaline De Santis,” I introduced them to each other. Rosie had taken Marcella’s name when her father died and kept it after marrying Nicholas.

  “She’s going to have a fit anyway,” Rosie argued. “This isn’t a Catholic church.”

  “We’re a lot more fun than the Catholics,” Father Mallory nodded to her, his tone serious but I could see the humor in his eyes. “And I only make people feel guilty for half as many things.” It was obvious he’d been answering the comparisons between religions for a long time.

  I pretended not to notice the faint quirk of her lips when he spoke. Father Mallory looked back at me. “Of course she’s welcome here,” he told me. “For as long as needed. If it goes to Sunday, though, I’ll have to put her to work to help earn her keep.”

  “Thank you,” I told him, my tone sincere. His light touch of humor took the edge off. He’d obviously noticed the stress and emotion in Rosie’s expression at least. Yes, he was a very good priest. “She hit her head, but for…specific reasons I’m not willing to go into right now, I can’t take her to the hospital.” Yes, let’s see how that bloodwork comes back if she’s been infected. “If she gets sick and needs medical attention, then please call whoever you need to.” I hoped he didn’t ask for details. I’d deal with the fallout from it later if he did have to call for an ambulance.

  Mallory nodded his head, then turned to Rosie. “Miss De Santis?” he waved one arm out and motioned for her to come with him. “I’ve got a room in the back with a sofa where you can lie down and rest. I’ll even try to keep the noise down so you aren’t disturbed.”

  Rosie looked up at me. “If you four aren’t back by midnight, I’m coming to find you,” she told me.

  “If we aren’t back by midnight, pack your bags, take whatever money is in the shop and get out of here,” I told her. The only way none of us would be coming back is if we were all dead. I knew Aleksander well enough to know he’d make a straight line for her if that happened.

  I dare say she growled at me as I walked out of the church.

  I left the church and made my way to the riverfront and the warehouse. Now would be the hard part. Waiting. Waiting for Gianna to see if anyone else would help. Waiting for her to find Aleksander and try to convince him to take her back. Waiting for everyone to get there.

  I found Marcella and Jozef about a half mile from Aleksander’s warehouse. I picked up their scents and followed them to another empty warehouse, then went inside to find them. This one looked like so many of the others in the area; run down, spray painted, piles of trash, reeking of urine and rat droppings, stale human sweat, cheap alcohol and nicotine.

  Jozef met me at the top of the stairs as I made my way up to the second floor.

  “Rosie?” he asked, his tone low.

  “Alive,” I told him, nodding. “And as safe as possible for the moment.”

  He sighed, visibly relieved. “Marcella’s been ranting and wanting to kill anyone who came near,” he told me, leading me down to the office. Marcella was inside, pacing and growling each time she exhaled. She stopped when she saw me.

  “Where’s Rosie?” she demanded.

  “She’s safe,” I told her. “I took her to hide in a church, I’m betting most of Aleksander’s followers won’t go near it.”

  She nodded, then let out a long, slow breath. “But she’s all right?” she pressed. “She’s not hurt?” I could hear the almost desperate tone in her voice. Rosie was her life and Marcella’s reason to get up every morning and fight this curse we had.

  Oh, I really didn’t want to do this. Not at all. Maybe I could whisper it to Jozef and he’d tell her while I got a head start out the door.

  “She’s probably got a concussion,” I told her, choosing my words carefully.

  Marcella caught my tone. Damn. I could see it in the narrowing of her eyes and slight downturn of her mouth.

  “And?” she pinned her gaze on me, unblinking.

  “And apparently she was bit sometime between when she was knocked out and when she woke up.” I tensed myself for any attack from her, extending my claws slowly and hoping she didn’t notice. Jozef did, I saw him glance from my hands to my face, then at Marcella.

  Marcella’s face went a full range of emotions in her expression. Anger, despair, shock, back to anger. I heard her growl, low and dangerous.

  “I looked at it,” I told her. “I didn’t see any specks, but it had happened long enough before, I can’t be sure.”

  “Could you smell it on her?” Marcella demanded. Her accent was getting thicker, her voice low and almost snarling.

  I shook my head. “No,” I answered. “But I don’t know if I could on someone just exposed.”

  “Probably not,” Jozef said quietly. “Not until it started taking hold, which coul
d take anywhere from a day or two to a few weeks.”

  I nodded at him.

  Marcella turned her back on us, walking over to the small, dirty window near the back of the room. I could tell by the rise and fall of her shoulders she was fighting to contain her anger. I could feel it in her, boiling, seething, building.

  “Aleksander tried to take Rosie from me,” she said. “And still might have.” She turned to look at me. “Thank you for finding her and bringing her home to me, Mikhos,” she told me. “Tonight, I won’t stop you from killing him.”

  I nodded. Good, she wouldn’t interfere.

  “Expect about a hundred there,” I told her, then looked at Jozef. “Where’s Rasmussen?”

  “He was looking for the best place to sit with his guns,” Jozef said. “Hopefully he doesn’t just shoot at anyone and hits one of us.”

  “He won’t,” I assured him.

  “A hundred against four,” Jozef noted, walking to Marcella’s side and taking her hand then leading her back into the center of the room. “Those aren’t very good odds, even for someone who’s a poor gambler.”

  “I know,” I nodded. “But I’ve got some things in motion that will hopefully help us a little more.”

  Marcella looked up at me. “We will take care of the others,” she nodded, her tone resolute. “You bring me Aleksander’s heart.”

  “All we need to do is scratch them,” Jozef nodded to her. “The venom will distract them long enough for us to kill them.”

  Marcella nodded.

  The venom.

  Wait.

  My dream came back to me. My claws oily green and black, dripping fire.

  My fingertips still burned. I looked at Jozef and Marcella.

  “Does the venom burn you?” I asked them.

  They glanced at each other.

  “Only when the glands are full,” Jozef said. “A gland grows near the base of the claw sheath, it grows along the bone, so it’s long and slender and can’t be detected under the skin.”

  I stared at him.

  Dripping fire.

  I turned my attention to my hands, extending my claws. That did nothing to ease the burning.

  Jozef sniffed the air, then fairly leaped over in front of me. He grabbed my hand, turning it so my claws were facing outward away from me.

  “Flex the muscles in your fingertips,” he instructed me. “Try not to move the whole finger, just the top.” I did as he said, my years spent painting making it easy to only move the tip of my fingers. It took a couple of tries before I felt a pressure, then almost like something ripped in my fingertips. A greenish black fluid rushed along the center of my claws, filling the veins within and easing the burning in my fingers.

  Marcella stared at me as Jozef started laughing.

  Venom.

  But I wasn’t the monster.

  It was old and it was powerful.

  Jozef nodded his head. “Flex them back to drain it back down,” he told me. “That one’s harder, it might take more practice.”

  He was right, it did. Where releasing the venom had been fairly easy, draining it took me several tries before I got it to work and even then it didn’t drain completely. It took several more tries before I got it all. Which only brought the burning back.

  “How long was it burning?” Marcella asked me.

  “Since last night,” I replied. “About the time I left Aleksander’s.” I didn’t mention pointing the single claw at him with my threat.

  She nodded. “The veins didn’t look grown in, but perhaps it was hard to see them finished.”

  “Or he finally accepted it,” Jozef was watching me. “The venom glands take weeks to grow, he was probably ready for it long before now, but couldn’t feel it because his head wasn’t in the right spot for it.”

  “I am here, I can hear you talking about me,” I pointed out to him.

  He waved a hand at me, dismissing my comment as he looked at Marcella.

  “Now, we wait,” he said. “And end this tonight.”

  “One way or another,” I nodded as Marcella snorted and growled her agreement.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Finality

  Rasmussen showed back up about an hour before the others started coming for Aleksander’s meeting. He was carrying one rifle and I could see he’d attached a scope to it.

  “I’ll be on the east side,” he said, coming into the office area. I could hear his heart beating even stronger now. It seemed each day the infection spread within him, his body was growing stronger, accepting what it did to him. Probably because he’d been in the peak of his health when he was bit.

  I nodded to him. “I’ll probably be somewhere inside with Aleksander,” I said. “Someone else was going to try to find others who might be willing to help us. Because I don’t know who they might be, it might be better if you just concentrated on Jozef, Marcella and myself and took out any direct threats to us that we might not be aware of.”

  Rasmussen nodded. “That would probably be best,” he agreed. “Is sharper vision part of this? I swear I’m seeing more detail out there than I could before. I’m not having to use my scope nearly as much to gauge distances.”

  I nodded to him. “Your hearing will improve, too and you’ll become physically stronger.” I paused for a moment. “You’ll find if you concentrate on someone, you can hear their heart beating. That’ll usually be one of the first things you notice.”

  “I hear them breathing,” Jozef said. “Sometimes even before I hear their heart.”

  Marcella waved one clawed hand at us. “I smell them,” she said. “I can smell Mikhos coming from five or six blocks away and that’s when he’s showered that day.”

  I frowned at her, even as she cackled her laugh at me. She knew I was fastidious about my personal hygiene.

  “I guess it’s just personal preference,” I shrugged at Rasmussen. “Are you close enough that you can alert one of us if you have a problem? If Aleksander or one of his followers figures out they’ve got a sniper, they’ll go looking for you.”

  “I guess we’ll find out,” he said. “I’m sure if I yell one of you could hear me.” He paused. “Or one of you could wear a radio and listen to me that way.”

  “Aleksander would hear it,” I shook my head. “Some of us are very sensitive to sounds like that and he’s one of them.”

  “That just means you can’t wear it,” Jozef pointed out to me. “Marcella or I could.”

  “You can,” Marcella nodded to him. “I’m not getting involved in any of that.”

  It was nice to know nothing could stop her from distrusting technology.

  Rasmussen and Jozef left the office. Jozef returned shortly, fiddling with a tiny earpiece in one ear. It was virtually impossible to see and I couldn’t hear anything from it, but I could tell by the slight twitching of her face that Marcella could.

  “I can hear him,” Jozef nodded. “He can’t hear us, though.”

  “All right,” I nodded. That made me feel better. I knew if Jozef had to go save him, there weren’t going to be any that could stand in his way.

  I hoped.

  It wasn’t long after that they started showing up. I could smell them, as could Marcella. Jozef heard them coming before either of us did. We watched from the small windows in the office as they made their way down to Aleksander’s warehouse. Some traveled by roof, others walked along the road. A few lurked in the shadows trying to be stealthy.

  Marcella snorted at those last type.

  They were male, female, all ages and races. I saw some who were obviously teenagers, some who had to be pushing retirement age. They ran the full gamut of those who had been infected, anywhere from within the last couple of months to well over two or even three years ago.

  He’d been doing this for a lot longer than I thought.

  Bastard.

  I checked my watch. Time to go.

  “All right,” I said. “I’m heading over. When I know I have an opening and a
good chance of getting the upper hand, I’ll make my move for him.”

  Marcella nodded her head.

  “You’re sure Rosie’s safe?” she asked me one last time.

  I nodded to her. “Father Mallory’s a good man, I trust him to keep an eye on her.”

  Jozef clapped me on the back of my shoulder as I walked past him to the stairs. Once downstairs I went out the back way, then backtracked a short distance before circling out to the road and walking down to Aleksander’s warehouse. Those who were coming from the same direction regarded me warily, eyeing me and whispering between themselves. Even those I approached as I walked shuffled out of my way, giving me the road and hanging back from me.

  Run, children, run.

  I wondered if Trina had told them who I was. I wondered what she’d told them about me. I wondered what Aleksander had told her later to tell them about me.

  I didn’t sense any hostility, though. But they were afraid. I made a show of adjusting my hat. Even with it tilted to the right, looking close enough would get them a glimpse of my scars.

  What would they think had caused them? They were obviously burn scars. Aleksander didn’t know the real story behind them, he only knew I’d been in a burning building and the roof had collapsed on me. Perhaps he thought someone had been trying to kill me. He’d never guess I got them saving two lives.

  The two barrels were once again outside, fires once more lit in them. There was a different smell in the smoke this time, though. One that was familiar and sickening.

  Human.

  I didn’t need to look in the barrels as I walked past. I knew what I’d see in them. Charred, broken limbs, blackened bones, and knowing him, the empty eyes of someone’s skull staring up through the flames. Judging from the smoke, there was one in each barrel.

  Yes, I’d played this game of his before.

  I waited outside the warehouse for him. I wasn’t about to go inside and walk into any possible traps. Besides, better to see what was coming than be holed up where I couldn’t.

  It didn’t take long before I heard the steady rhythm of his expensive boots on the pavement. He came around the corner, Gianna once more hanging on his arm. She was dressed in the black trousers and corset again, the blonde wig once more covering her natural hair.