by Pepper Pace
I thought that it was a compromise that I could accept. "Yes."
Paul smiled. "Okay. I won't speak of our relationship with anyone."
Mei Wah had followed Paul and me, and had parked at a discreet distance. When I left Paul's loft, Mei Wah drove up to the door and hurried out to let me in.
"Did everything go well, Miss Kim?" He asked politely.
"I think it did. I've made arrangements to meet him here tomorrow, at midnight." Somehow I had thought our relationship would be more—Me master, you Zombie. It wasn't going to be like that at all. Our relationship was not going to be a dictatorship.
When I got back to the house Mei Wah informed me that Tony wasn't home. He had stepped out. I took that to mean that he had gone to pay a visit to one of his donors.
I stripped out of my new outfit and checked it to make sure I hadn't left any drops of blood on it then hung it neatly in the closet. Mei Wah had hung the rest of the clothes in the closet while I was out. The bowl of silver jewelry was no where in sight. Not that I should have been worried but I checked to make sure the crucifix was still in its tidy little bundle in the bedside table. It was just where I'd left it.
I put on lounging pajamas and a robe then slipped on fur slippers that I had found next to my bed. I wanted to find out something and I needed to use the computer to do it. Tony had said that I could make myself at home. And he had never said that I couldn't enter any of the rooms. I crept upstairs to his private office.
I hoped he didn't have a code to get logged on to the Internet. I made myself comfortable at his desk. I wanted to find out just how much blood was safe for a human to lose. I didn't want to kill Paul by taking too much too often. But I could already foresee that Paul alone wouldn't be enough to satisfy me.
Damn. If my Mama could hear what I just thought, she would beat my ass!
I looked around for some paper and a pen to take notes. Tony had a notepad setting next to the computer with something jotted on it. When I went to flip the pad to a clean sheet I jumped at what was written there.
-CALL GIGI
-MEET AT HOUSE BEFORE KIM WAKES
-COUNCIL MEETING 2 AM—INITIATION OF JOHAN’S REPLACEMENT
-KIM? KEEP HER OCCUPIED…SEND HER HOME TO PACK HER THINGS? TOO SOON. TAKE TO CLUB MIDNIGHT TO FIND BLOOD DONORS!
I replaced the pad and got up carefully, making sure to leave everything as it was. I hurried downstairs using my quick speed.
I didn't know exactly what I was going to do. All I know is that I was soo pissed right now. If what I had read was correct then Tony had been trying to distract me from the Council meeting tonight. You know, maybe I didn't want to be a Council member or maybe I didn't want to be a lowly Third. But I'd be damned if Tony or anybody else was going to make the decision for me!
I went to the bedside table and grabbed my crucifix.
I knew that my car wasn't going to be of any use to me. I tried to zero in on that invisible line that was between Tony and myself. But unlike the first time I didn't want him to know that I was doing it. I thought about Tony's smell, his taste and suddenly I could feel it clear as day. I could trace it, I knew.
I snuck outside so as not to alert Mei Wah. The sounds were loud outside now that I had opened myself to Tony. I had forgotten to change into street clothes, and was still even wearing the fur slippers!
I checked the time then cursed. It was close to 3:00 am! Not sure just how to do this I first started at a run. Then I concentrated on the smell, that taste and it seemed like I could almost see him. I thought about being there and I was moving faster than I could think. I can only describe it as teleporting...but not, because I could sense myself moving through space. Maybe I was in that limbo that Tony had tried to describe to me when I had been asking him questions last night. He had said that Vampires had a number of theories about how they had come to be, but the prevailing belief was that their bodies were being shared by something otherworldly. And that this otherworldly creature existed in some limbo between our worlds. He had tried to make me understand that we could do the seemingly impossible because we weren't completely apart of this world anymore.
It was hard to understand because I had never believed that I had ever left the world in the first place.
I finally stopped the sickening motion just outside of a house that was immediately familiar to me. It was the house that William had brought me to days before. I headed toward the house then kicked off the fancy fur slippers in irritation. I checked my watch. I'd lost 15 minutes. Not bad but that meant that it was after 3 a.m now.
They'd be in the basement, and someone would probably be at the front door as greeter or security. I scurried around back and peeked through a kitchen window.
The lights were out so I knew this is where I'd make my entrance. I turned the knob. Locked. I kept turning it anyway until it snapped the mechanisms inside. Then I pushed it open hoping that I wasn't setting off any alarms.
Most people had a downstairs entrance off the kitchen and I was lucky to find that this one did, too. I used that super speed to find myself crouched at the bottom of the long, stone stairwell. I truly did not want to be down here after my last bad experience at the Council house.
I hadn't been spotted. The room was filled with thirty or forty people! I pressed myself against the curved entranceway out of sight.
A long table had been set up at the head of the room, opposite to where I was hidden. Tony was sitting behind it with the other council members and a man that I'd not seen before. I eyed Kaniji. She was wearing a long Japanese robe whose sleeves were long enough to conceal her hands. Again her make-up was flawless. Her hair was swept up again in intricate loops and rings that would make the baddest hoochie Mama salivate.
I eyed Tony. That Bastard! He was talking to a tall blonde man that looked really dangerous. The man had hair that ran past his shoulders and a thick beard and moustache. He looked like a biker even though he was dressed in a thousand dollar suit.
I ran my tongue over my flat teeth. Shit! I squeezed my jaw trying to make them drop. I peeked at the table of Council members remembering how Kaniji had said that I didn't even know how to retract my teeth. Remembering pissed me off, and also that Tony was doing something behind my back that put me in a position of being someone's underling. That did it! My teeth dropped. I ran my tongue over them happily.
The K.D. Lang look-a-like was standing. "The ceremony is now complete. Everyone, please welcome our newest Council member Antoine Mancini. From this moment on he will reign over sector 7. All that reside there will answer to Antoine. All monies, lands and people default to his rule. As second in command to Johan Cissero, Antoine has come to this honored appointment unchallenged-
I cleared my throat. "I challenge his appointment." I had spoken the words in a normal tone but all that were in the room turned to face me.
Tony shot to his feet as I stepped forward.
"The...honor...of this appointment rightfully belongs to me."
Everyone in the room began to murmur and ask questions.
I continued to walk forward. I drew in a deep breath then stopped three steps in front of the table.
"It's my right to replace Johan, since I am the person responsible for his death."
Antoine leaped over the table and landed right in front of me. Truth of the matter, it would have scared the hell out of me if I hadn't been preoccupied with giving Tony the evil eye.
As it was, I didn't see Antoine's approach until he was already in front of me, and then all I could do was stare at him.
"You? You are responsible for Johan's death?"
Tony was suddenly next to him. "Back off, Antoine." Antoine gave him a look of pure anger.
"You can't tell me what to do. I'm a Council member now, too, Tony. Now back to you. You smell strangely of human. You wouldn't happen to be a Third would you?"
There was a rumbling in the crowd. It occurred to me that they didn't even know the events surrounding Johan's death.
"I'm a VAMPIRE...strong enough to kill a Council member and therefore the rightful owner of the position that you have wrongfully been appointed."
"Kim, don't do this." Tony pleaded. I ignored him.
"His death was an accident!" Kaniji stood. "I will swear to it."
"Just like losing your hand was an accident?"
Her mouth opened and closed but she didn't deny it. I could now understand what the crowd was saying. They were wondering if Kaniji had lost her hand to me. They wanted to know exactly how Johan had died. Had I been strong enough to harm not one but two Council members?
The man that had been standing behind the table with the Council moved to the front of it. When he moved everyone grew silent. With alarm I noticed that he glided around the table...not walked, but glided.
I didn't need to breathe, but I was panting like crazy. Dude was scary. It wasn't just his look but there was a sense of true power about him.
His chronological age seemed no older than thirty or so, and he was fairly short at no taller than five feet nine inches. Had he not been so pale I would swear that he was of some type of Arabic descent; it was in the arch of his nose and the sleekness of his hair. He had dark brown curly hair with golden streaks much like mine. His eyes scared me because they were black. His entire eye was black; the white and all. It was like his eyeball had bled black from his pupils. I swallowed.
He glided over to stand in front of me.
"Do you believe that I will know if you lie?"
"Yes." My mouth grew dry.
"Then recount the events that caused the Councilman's death." He commanded in an even voice.
Tony turned away from me and crossed his arms across his chest.
I told the story as much to him, this...Elder, I assumed, as to the others in the room. "It is true that I'm a Third. I was brought her under false pretenses and judged without an opportunity to prove myself. Then I was handed a death sentence."
"And tell why you were judged unfit, Human!" Kaniji demanded angrily.
The Elder swiveled to face Kaniji. The temperature seemed to drop suddenly. Something was about to happen and I was already scared as it was. I didn't need to see Kaniji get a psychic back hand.
I interrupted whatever was about to happen. "I don't have a problem telling anything." I said angrily. "I was judged unfit because I had no memories. But I was told that I had no instincts and that's a lie! I have a survival instinct! And that's what caused Johan to die and me to survive."
"We toyed with you!" Kaniji yelled. The craggy faced Council member standing next to her instantly scooted away from her. And not a moment too soon because Kaniji went flying as if a hand was gripping her throat. She was yanked! The way your Mama used to threaten to do you!
She ended up kneeling before the Elder who hadn't flinched. Incidentally she was also kneeling in front of me, too.
"P...Pl...please!" Kaniji gasped from her obviously crushed larynx. The hold must have been released because Kaniji collapsed then threw herself prostate at the Elders feet.
"A million apologies for my rudeness." She croaked.
The Elder turned to me. "Continue."
I paused, trying to keep the tremor from my voice. "Maybe...that was their mistake; thinking that I should be toyed with." The crowd murmured. I didn't know all this Elder could do because I didn't have their memories. I had just seen Kaniji yanked! So I at least knew that I had to be cool right now.
"And this one's hand." As if she were a marionette, Kaniji's hand was yanked upwards to the ceiling. Her loose sleeves fell back to reveal a red, angry stump.
I wanted to be sick at the sight of it...but she really had deserved what she got. Though, truthfully, I couldn't really take the credit for the injury. It was an unfortunate accident. And I wasn't going to have that Elder yank me for lying. But somehow...I didn't think I was going to have to lie.
I looked at him. "If you don't mind, I'd like Kaniji to tell what happened to her hand."
She looked at me shocked. Her mouth opened then a look of pure hatred covered it. If she had been an Elder I know that the Bitch would have annihilated me! Instead all she could do was lower her eyes.
"She...took my hand." I wasn't quite surprised. To be stupid enough to stick your hand where it didn't belong was apparently worse than just loosing it to a Third Generation Vampire. Her hand was dropped and Kaniji gracelessly came to her feet.
"Johan died from a stake to the heart. Did you put that stake there?" The Elder asked.
"Yes." He waved his hand in front of himself.
"The initiation is invalid. The rules are quite plain on this matter. In the event that a Council member loses his life at the hands of another that individual then gains his position."
He looked at me closely and I felt an unpleasant itching in my brain.
"Kim Russell, the initiation has already been performed. Once a Council member has been named no thing can revoke that. No thing but death. But because it is invalidated...you will have an opportunity to battle for the position."
Tony closed his eyes. I was starting to lose some of my confidence.
"I decree that Kim Russell and Antoine Mancini will fight to the death for position on the Council."
"Kim doesn't have our memories." Tony spoke. "This fight is one sided. As her liege I ask to be her second."
"There will be no seconds in this battle."
"Sir, if I may ask a question?" I interrupted.
"Speak." I squeezed my right fist tight. "It's true that I don't have any memories so...I apologize in advance if I'm asking a question out of line. But..." I frowned. "even without Vampire instincts I have survival instincts. If I have to bite, scratch...or play dirty I will to survive. Is that okay?"
I saw a hint of a grin on the Elder's face. "It is a battle without rules you request?"
"NO!" Tony said.
"Yes!" I replied. Tony blew out an annoyed voice. "And once either of us is dead, the survivor will earn his/her place on Council uncontested?"
The Elder's smile was complete now. "Totally uncontested."
Kaniji smiled for the first time. She moved to her place behind the table with a smug look.
Tony looked sad. He followed her.
I just squeezed my fist tighter.
A place was cleared in the center of the room. Antoine chuckled. He stood in the center rotating his massive neck while I listened to it crack. I heard a voice in my head that made me jump.
"He will go for your throat first. Protect your throat." It was Tony speaking in my head.
"Okay." I whispered.
"Kim, I'm so sorry. I never meant for this to happen-"
"Shut-up will you. I'm trying to concentrate."
I strolled forward slowly and tried to concentrate on Antoine totally. He would be quick. The last time he had moved I didn't even sense it.
He was still laughing. He cracked his knuckles and then lunged at me.
I was expecting it, I know. But when he lunged at me with that super Vampire speed of his, I cringed. Still, it was kill or be killed so I threw up my fist and opened my hand with the crucifix hidden in my palm. He took my hand to be little more than a child trying to stop a speeding train as he continued to move forward. But when his chest made contact with my palm, he stopped cold as if he had run into the side of a concrete building! There was a cracking and a bright streak of fire. Antoine stumbled backwards and looked down at himself.
A small flame appeared on his chest and there appeared a small black brand in the shape of a crucifix located right on his chest over his heart.
I tightened my fist again as he screamed in agonizing torment. Everyone in the room except the Elder gasped and hissed at me.
Antoine ran as his chest began to smoke. He was trying to outrun the brand.
I was so disgusted! I had never heard anything so gross. He was screaming and howling. I could hear not only his voice but something more. Not something of this world; something older then time.
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Finally he sank to the ground and fell on his face. A hole ran clear through his back! I could see the friggin floor in that hole! After he dropped dead within seconds he turned to ash and blew away in an invisible wind.
Kaniji was holding her wrist in her hand. She looked really ill.
Tony was staring at me in disbelief.
The other Council members looked like they were about to go into attack mode. But the Elder...he was still smiling. I think...he had known all along that I had the crucifix.
He disappeared.
I had to get out of there; a room full of angry vampires, another dead council member. Somehow I was feeling very insecure. Before anyone had time to react I thought about being outside. Instantly I was standing in the grass in front of the mansion, but I felt anything but safe. It was getting late and I had no idea where I would sleep the night...all I knew is that I had no intentions of going back to Tony's...not after killing my second Council member in so many days. Besides Tony and I had some major trust issues.
