Courage Runs Red

by W. J. May

  He leaned in close, his breath almost stinging her face. “This isn’t a game, child. These things are monsters! They don’t care about your innocence or who you are. They are only out to sate their sick desires. Stay inside from now on.” He turned and then spun around, his finger pointed at her as he spoke, “Don’t play the hero. Do you hear me?” The man before her looked more menacing than he perhaps realized. She simply nodded, too scared to say anything back.

  He sighed, his shoulders dropping and his hands hanging by his sides. “What do you know about the vampires? Who have you been talking to?”

  “I told you. The detective at the station. He said there are two types of vampires. The Red Bloods, which you are, and the Blue Bloods.”

  “And you believed him?” He shook his head. “It’s a game to all of them, with high stakes that are our lives.”

  “No. He’s different. I want you to meet him. He’s a little concerned with getting together with you because apparently your two factions don’t get along instinctively, like cats and dogs, oil and vinegar.” She shrugged and picked at her lip. Her father carefully swatted her hand down, his eyes closing for a moment before opening, the iris a brilliant red. She licked her lower lip and realized she’d made it bleed.

  “I have to go back to the basement.”

  “I’m not leaving you until you agree to meet with Liam.”

  He was already heading toward the stairs. He threw his hands in the air. “Fine. I’ll meet him, but this means nothing. Stop snooping around, Kallie. So help me, if your curiosity hurts you or your mother...” He sighed, his shoulders stooped. “They are private people, Kalls. If they find you looking into them or figuring out anything they don’t want you to figure out… God help us if they come for you. I will kill them all with my bare hands.” Blood dripped down the side of his mouth, his incisors piercing the soft skin around it.

  She nodded, partially regretting she had brought the conversation up. “I’ll be here all night until mom gets home. Let me know if you need anything. There is blood in the fridge.”

  “Where’s your mom?” He glanced toward the back door, nervousness clear on his face. “No more talk of this until I can think.”

  “Yes, sir.” She held back from saluting him. She watched him leave her. “She’ll be fine, Dad,” she whispered after he had disappeared into the basement.

  Dark circles rimmed her eyes, her hair looking less healthy than normal. Usually she had a bounce in her step, the world giving them lemons. Today Kallie was too tired. She had lied to her father’s face last night. She wasn’t letting this go. She was going to figure out exactly what happened and then work with Liam to understand what it meant.

  If they were able to uncover who changed her father, what good would it really do? She wanted to kill the monster who had done it, but it wouldn’t change how things were now. Was it in hopes of gaining protection from the vampire or possibly looking at a cure? If she killed the vampire who turned her father, would that give her father his humanity back or kill him too? Could you kill a vampire? How in the world did one go about doing that?

  Liam had been clear that her father was dead at the scene of the accident – his neck broken. He had to have taken vamp blood before the accident.

  She got into her car, the public library quiet and full of information about everything that occurred in their busy city. She pulled on her sunglasses, the world not needing to be made aware of her weariness. Turning on the radio, she checked her phone and wondered what Liam had done last night after they parted ways. Most likely sat around his house in his shorts, his beautiful chest and stomach on display for no one. After he had killed a bunch of Red Blood evil vamps. Caleb excluded. She smiled at the thought of Liam near naked, weaving through traffic with little patience. She’d grab a muffin and a coffee on the way home, but duty called, as Liam would say.

  She parked under a large shade tree and walked quickly into the library, the town silent and still resting on the early Saturday morning. A quick wave to the librarian and she jogged up the dilapidated stairs toward the free access computers. She sat down and put her purse on the ground beside her, grateful that the sunlight pushed back the monsters, unlike the night.

  The Internet was older than dirt and took forever, but she finally got to the article of the accident from two years ago. She leaned in to look at the picture of her old little Honda, the body completely crushed. It was a wonder she lived at all. Liam making mention of her father’s death made complete sense. No one should have survived that night.

  She searched the article quickly for mention of Liam, the handsome detective saying he was at the scene of the crime. He’d made mention of her swerving to miss hitting someone in the middle of the street, but she just couldn’t remember anything. She’d need to quiet her nerves to really allow herself to go back uninhibited in her mind. She needed answers desperately.

  Most of the day was wasted diving into the various rabbit holes about her accident and others like them around the country. Seemed they weren’t the only ones to have survived something miraculously to never really be seen again. Her father’s friends had written him off, their gratefulness that he was alive and well soon overshadowed by his unwillingness to do anything during the daylight hours and often refusing to go anywhere at night. Kallie usually made the excuse for him, saying he preferred staying near the house.

  Something nagged at her about the picture of her car. She should print it off. She sat back and ran her fingers through her hair, the clock on the wall shocking her with the information that the sun would be setting in the next hour. Her stomach growled loudly in protest, the elderly librarian whispering for her to hush as if she had done it on purpose.

  Ignoring the librarian, Kallie pulled the photo up on the computer again and leaned in, her leg bouncing up and down below the small desk. Standing and pushing herself away from the desk, she paced around the small room, her eyes on the various shades of blue forming an uneventful pattern on the ground. Something was there, she could feel it.

  Information was staring at her in the face and she was ignoring it. Oftentimes when things were too hard to deal with, people not only blacked out in the moment, but locked away the memories until they could deal with them.

  “I’m ready. I can deal with it,” she whispered harshly, only to garnish the attention of the librarian again. She looked over and apologized, took a deep breath and moved toward the screen, whispering softly once more – pleading, “Show me… please.”

  She let her gaze blur as she stared at the picture.

  The car took center stage on the picture, the tree bending over the destroyed metal. It was post-accident, after they’d already been pulled out of the wreckage. She silently begged, her eyes moving along the car and then to the surrounding area.

  What she saw almost stopped her heart.

  Just across the street, squatting on the top of Old Man Walker’s tall white brick fence was a man, no a boy. His eyes were focused on the camera as if he wanted them to know he was there. His jacket was black, as were his boots and pants. His eyes red like blood. The flash of the camera that night had caught him, or rather he’d caught it. She leaned in as chill bumps broke out across her skin.

  “What the hell… Caleb?”

  Chapter 12

  Food would have to wait. She needed to talk to Liam. He would know what to do. He had been right about the Red Bloods. She had been an idiot not to mention Caleb to him last night. It hadn’t seemed like a good idea to get Liam upset over Caleb the night before, as he seemed to just be an average vampire who wanted to date.

  She scoffed at the ridiculousness of her thoughts, her car racing through the streets of the city to get to the police station. She was supposed to meet Liam so that they could go see her dad, but that was still an hour off.

  He had sent her a text earlier to say he would be at work before coming over to see her dad. He’d changed his shift, or cancelled it, or something. He mentioned he needed to st
op by the office to check with the guy taking his shift. Hopefully he would be at work now because she needed time to talk things through with him first. She parked in the first available spot, ignoring the handicap sign on the small placard before her and painted in bright blue on the asphalt.

  Getting out, she pulled at her shirt, her skin suddenly crawling. She stopped and turned in a full circle, looking into the dusk to see if she could pinpoint the reason for her sudden discomfort.

  She wanted to yell she knew he was there, but decided against it as a few policemen made their way to the station entrance just in front of her. They held open the door and she thanked them before stopping back at the front desk to get a badge.

  The portly woman looked up and sighed. “You again?”

  “Yes ma’am. Sorry to bother you.”

  “Then don’t.” The woman looked down at her computer. “Name?”

  She started to reply as a hand slid around her waist, Liam leaned over her shoulder and smiled down at the woman as her disposition changed. “She’s with me. She doesn’t need a badge. Thanks.” He didn’t wait for a reply, but nudged Kallie to move down the hall with him. He looked at her and smiled, the expression turning into concern as he studied her. “You’re not sleeping. What happened?”

  “Nightmares. I went to the library today and you’ll never guess what I saw.” She was going to tell him right in the bloomin’ hallway with whoever was around to hear. She didn’t care.

  Liam obviously did. He moved up the stairs with her, the look on his handsome face a warning that she better be careful. He didn’t have to voice his concerns as they were both aware of the danger that lingered all around her.

  She knew she had to watch herself. Just because the bastards were asleep during the day didn’t mean that they didn’t have eyes and ears everywhere. They hadn’t survived this long by being daft.

  “Let’s talk in my office.” He looked over his shoulder, moving in front of her to unlock the door.

  The musty smell slapped her in the face, her hand reaching up and covering her nose. “I need to fumigate this office for you.”

  “The cleaners do that.” He let her pass and shut the door. She yelped softly as he jerked her back by her wrist, her body coming flush against his. He reached up, one hand getting lost in her hair. “I should have let you come home with me last night. I haven’t stopped thinking about you. Crazy. I’ve been alone since I changed and one day by chance you end up here.”

  She started to respond, but his lips pressed to hers, the soft push of his tongue asking for permission. She moaned softly, her arms wrapping around his neck as her fingers from one hand ran through the hair at the back of his neck. He turned her and walked her back, pushing her against the door of his office as he pressed himself against her. She moved back, pushing at him. “I need to tell you something, Liam.”

  “It had better be something horrible,” he teased. He leaned in, pulling her face toward him.

  She put her hand between them, the sexy look of lust on his features beautiful and intoxicating as he closed his eyes and leaned in, accidentally kissing her hand. He jerked back, confusion gathering his brow. “I found the guy you said was on the road the night of the accident.”

  His blue eyes bright with lust, burned brighter. He didn’t move or say anything, apparently waiting for her to continue.

  She moved back, turning to walk across the room before facing him. She crossed her arms over her chest, his eyes running along her. Maybe he had his mind set for one thing and discussing the accident and handsome new vampires in her life wasn’t it.

  “What? Who? How did you find out who it was?”

  She bit at her lip, knowing she needed to be careful not to re-break the cut on her lower she had made last night. It might make him hungry for blood or something. She also felt the need to be cautious with what she told him. Setting him off wasn’t going to do her, or her father, any favors.

  “Stop deciding what parts to tell me. What happened, Kallie? All of it.” His voice shook the room, the deep timbre rolling over her and causing her breath to catch. He was far more powerful than she imagined.

  “I met with some of my friends last night before meeting up with you. They had invited a few guys. One of them was a Red Blood.”

  The expression on Liam’s face changed to something like indifference. He walked toward her and stopped before her. “How do you know he was a Red Blood?”

  Really? “His eyes were burnt orange and he knew me, offered protection for me if I ever needed it.”

  A vein ticked angrily in the side of Liam’s head, though she knew good and well that he didn’t have blood flow as someone alive and breathing would. Fury sat on him and she wasn’t sure if it was directed toward her or Caleb.

  “Why didn’t you tell me this last night?” he demanded.

  “I saw him again at the club with you last night. I thought you had seen him also.”

  “I have no damn clue who ‘he’ is. Maybe because you didn’t tell me you’d had a run-in with one of them. They shouldn’t know about you, and you’re telling me this guy told you to call on him when you needed protection?”

  “Yes.” She shrugged, not sure all of a sudden if she should continue.

  “What does this dickhead have to do with you supposedly finding the guy who turned your dad at the scene of the crime?”

  “I found the photo the cop on duty took after the accident. It was in the newspaper. The guy I met last night is the vamp you said made me swerve and lose control of the car.”

  “You remember?”

  She shook her head. “Not really. But he’s in the photo staring at the camera, his body perched on the top of a brick fence that sits across the road.”

  “The white one?”

  “Yes. I know it’s him. It’s as if he wanted someone to see him there at the accident.” She shuddered, her heart and mind having a difficult time reconciling the sexy protective male from the night before was someone who would want to see her father killed… only to watch him rise again. For what purpose?

  “Do you know his name, Kallie?”

  “I don’t remember. It was something common, like John or…” She turned and began to pace. Why didn’t she want to tell him about Caleb? Was there power in a name? Even if there was, Liam was the good guy. He was the one trying to help her, the one that made her blood boil and pushed her into having hope for love in the future. Why not just give him Caleb’s name? She wasn’t sure of Caleb’s part in the whole thing, but he to be involved, right? Why else would he be at the scene of the accident?

  What if he had been there for the picture because he knew that she’d need help in the future and she would be looking? What better way to get her attention and whisper that he was there that night and would be there again if she needed him. Liam had admitted to being there that night too.

  She groaned with inner frustration. Why in the world would both boys never say anything to her or her dad? Why stay all hidden and then suddenly, when she starts asking questions, they both suddenly show up?

  More questions begged answers. What if Liam was the guy in the dark hoodie that had caused the accident? She looked over at him, the pensive look on his face not giving her any confidence.

  “What are you thinking? I’m ticked, just so you know. You can’t go off and get yourself involved with these people. I told you they have no conscience.”

  She folded her arms over her chest. He was not going to make her feel guilty. “And do I know that’s the truth pouring from your lips, when I met you a week ago? Why the hell were you there that night? You never bothered to tell me that! What is it? You just happened to be there, walking in the torrential downpour that evening?”

  Liam’s face hardened. “You think I was involved in some nefarious plot to harm your dad? You wanna play cop. Great. What’s my motive?”

  She rolled her eyes and walked toward the door, her hand on it as she glared at him. Regret filled her for even bringing i
t up. There was no way to win the fight they were headed toward. She would keep accusing him until he confessed to his involvement, or she’d bend beneath his will and spout all she knew, which didn’t feel like the right thing to do. “I’m going. My dad’s expecting me home. I’m not putting any more on him than what he’s dealing with already.”

  “Kallie.” Liam moved at her faster than humanly possible. He pulled her into a tight hug, his finger brushing along her neck. “It wasn’t me.”

  She stood stiff against his hold even though her insides were begging her to wrap her arms around him and press her lips against his.

  “I didn’t do anything that night, but try and help you. I’m not lying. I’m right here now to help again. I’ve done nothing but prove myself a good person. I know you haven’t known me long, but I’ve been here every night for a long time putting the bad guys behind bars and taking out the Red Bloods. This world is new to you, but it’s not to me. I’m just asking that you trust me until you find a reason not to.”

  Tears filled her eyes, one running over and dripping down her face. She hated her weakness and yet the world swirled precariously around her. She couldn’t figure out what the truth really was and it was so damn ignorant to trust strangers, but they all were new to her. She nodded and leaned into him, releasing the door and pressing her cheek to his chest.

  He pressed his lips to the crown of her hair, his strong fingers rubbing circles on her back. She exhaled softly and just let everything go. She needed Liam to meet with her father tonight. It would be truth time – they would find out tonight. If her father reacted poorly to Liam it wouldn’t matter how much of a great guy he was – she would walk, or send him walking.

  A sudden thought nearly threw her. Caleb was the better choice if the reality of the Red Bloods and Blue Bloods was as drilled into the other’s mentality. He couldn’t be the one who had caused the accident. She didn’t believe it.