“Let’s go now,” she said. “Or I won’t want to leave at all, and that will be dangerous for any person who comes into contact with me later.”
Damn her need for so many feedings. That would lessen as time went on, she’d been assured, and she couldn’t wait. It would be a relief when all she needed was a cup of bagged blood a day, and that was it.
“Yes. Now,” Mencheres murmured. His lips brushed across hers for one last, seeking kiss, almost making Kira decide to forget feeding, but then he stopped, and they exited the noisy equipment room together.
Chapter 21
It only took a few flashes from Mencheres’s gaze to make the employees they encountered forget that two unauthorized persons strolled through the underbelly of the park. When they reached the stairs that led to the park level, Kira’s eyes were already tingeing with green and her fangs began poking out from her upper teeth. This was her first time around mortals after her transition. Their blood would be calling to her even louder than normal because of her hunger. Her hand tightened on his until she would have shattered his bones if his power hadn’t automatically protected him.
“Don’t let me hurt anyone.” Her voice was hoarse, her fangs growing even longer.
He lifted her chin. “You won’t. You are strong enough to handle this. It will feel overwhelming in the crowd at first, but don’t focus on their heartbeats. Concentrate on the other noises. It will help.”
Kira managed a short nod. Her fangs retracted a bit, and some of the glowing green left her eyes as she mustered her resolve. He waited until almost no traces of emerald remained in her light green gaze before he opened the door.
A bush trimmed into the shape of an elephant hid the side door from the view of the tourists as they came out. He drew Kira along with him to the main walkway, right in the midst of the crowd. Though it was past sundown, the park was still busy. The extended summer hours accounted for so much activity after dark.
A shudder went through Kira, and her eyes flashed green again, but Mencheres didn’t stop. She needed to learn to control herself around a crush of mortals. It was far sooner than he’d let other new vampires brave a crowd, but this harsh crash course was necessary. While Kira slept earlier, he’d attempted to see into the future again, but nothing had changed except that the dreaded darkness seemed to be closer. His time was running out, and Kira needed to be ready when he was gone. That’s why he’d deliberately thrown away the blood bags that he’d brought in his coat before she awoke, and why he didn’t simply let her feed from one of the employees under the park.
“Lower your head,” he directed her.
She dipped her head, shielding the flash of green in her gaze from any inquiring people around her. They passed through Frontier Land into New Orleans Square, where he procured Kira a pair of sunglasses. She gave him a grateful glance as she settled them onto her face. Now any green flashing from her eyes would be muted or probably thought of as a trick enhancement of the glasses.
Her confidence seemed to grow as they continued to thread their way through the crowd, but though Mencheres knew she still struggled with her hunger, he couldn’t feel it. Kira was turned vampire through his blood and power, so she was part of him and could sense his emotions whenever his shields were lowered. He, however, could only catch glimpses of her feelings the same way he had before; through her scent, her expressions, the tone of her voice, and her body language. All those were telling him that though her hunger continued to rise, Kira’s strength did as well, matching the challenge of being thrust into this living feast around her.
“Do I just . . . pick someone, then find a bush or alcove to hide behind?” she whispered.
That would be sufficient, but he wanted her to learn how to feed even in plainer sight than that. He regretted the lack of time to ease her into this more gently, but Kira’s ability to survive on her own was of primary importance.
“We will do it here,” he said, pointing to the structure ahead of them on the hill.
She stopped walking. “You want me to bite someone while on the Haunted Mansion ride?” she asked incredulously.
He shrugged. “It is darker inside there than it is in most places in this park, and the other humans around you will be too distracted by the ride to pay attention to what you’re doing.”
She started walking again, but she shook her head. “Just when I thought I couldn’t feel any weirder about this,” she muttered.
K ira stood next to Mencheres as they proceeded through the first segment of the Haunted Mansion ride. They’d been hustled inside a small circular room. Then the ceiling and the portraits stretched above them while a faux-spooky voice went on about all the various ghoulish delights awaiting the visitors. Some more than others, Kira thought dryly.
She tried to focus on that recorded voice. Or the crank of various machines and the overlapping music and sounds from the rooms beyond. Anything except all the blood-filled bodies around her. This room was packed, with people brushing up against each other every few seconds. If she concentrated, she could drown out all those tempting heartbeats under the commotion from the rest of the noisy attraction.
When the doors to the room opened, she was relieved. They went into a much larger room, onto a sort of conveyor belt where the caricatures of carriages called Doom Buggies were being systematically filled with guests. Much easier to control herself here, without being in a small confined room with the equivalent of five-course meals all around her.
Mencheres ignored the order of the line to stride up to one of the ride’s attendants. An almost imperceptible flash of his eyes later, and the employee was all too happy to seat them with a single rider instead of giving Kira and Mencheres their own carriage. She found she couldn’t look at the young man in the Doom Buggy that the employee directed them to join. Only the steady pressure of Mencheres’s hand on her arm, leading her into the mechanical domed seat, kept her from fleeing altogether.
“Hey,” the guy said in greeting when Kira sat next to him, Mencheres on her other side. She couldn’t bring herself to respond. Guilt and hunger competed in her. Could she really bite this young man and drink his blood?
The attendant pulled up a metal safety bar, checked to make sure it locked, then they were on their way into the next section of the ride. A recorded voice blared out from speakers inside the carriage as the narrator continued to drone on. It wasn’t dark to her eyes inside the ride, but with the various spots of shade, Kira knew the other guests would have a hard time seeing what occurred inside this aptly named Doom Buggy—except for the times when the ride deliberately twirled the buggies.
“I don’t think I can do this,” she whispered to Mencheres as the guy laughed and waved at his friends when the ride spun the carriages to briefly face each other.
His gaze was steady. “You must.”
The pain spreading throughout her body with ever-increasing intensity seemed to agree. Mencheres was right. She was a vampire now. She still might not be used to the idea, and she certainly hadn’t asked for this, but it didn’t change the facts. Either she learned how to harmlessly take someone’s blood, or she’d risk killing someone later when the need rose beyond her control, and there wasn’t a plasma-vending machine conveniently nearby.
Mencheres leaned forward, catching the laughing young man’s attention. His eyes flashed green before he spoke.
“Lean back with her into the corner. Say nothing. You feel no fear.”
That familiar complacent look settled over the young man’s face as he draped an arm around Kira and leaned them into the side of the carriage. She almost gasped. With half his body pressed to hers, his pulse seemed to drown out all the other noises around them, focusing her attention on that delicious, steady rhythm.
“The hand is safest until you have more experience. Then advance to the wrist, then the neck—but never bite the jugular unless you mean to kill,” Mencheres instructed in a calm voice. The ride entered a faux ballroom filled with images of dozens of
dancing ghosts dressed in eighteenth-century attire.
Kira looked at them instead of the young man’s face as she slowly drew his hand to her mouth, reminding herself to exert no more pressure than she had when handling those eggs. If anyone could see them, all they’d notice was a couple huddled in the corner of the Doom Buggy, the man’s hand over a woman’s mouth as if urging her to silence. Her glasses hid her glowing eyes, and the young man’s hand blocked her fangs from anyone’s view when they popped out as that throbbing pulse beneath his thumb neared her mouth.
She closed her eyes, chanting “gently, gently” to herself as she pressed her fangs into the vein jumping against her lips.
The ambrosial flavor that immediately filled her mouth washed away her last vestige of hesitation. What she swallowed was richer than chocolate, smoother than cream, and it spread with luscious warmth all through her. Her mind hazily mused that this wasn’t anything like when she’d fed from those bags. That always had a faintly acidic taste and left her with a sense of wrongness, but this felt entirely natural. Like she was part of an ancient chain of life that was at turns sacred and mysterious, dark and beautiful.
After her fourth swallow, Kira’s eyes fluttered open. The young man’s face was the first thing she saw. She braced for an accusing glare, but his eyes were slitted and a smile of pure bliss wreathed his face. He’d pressed closer to her, until his head lay on her shoulder and his body was an insistent brand against her right side.
One look at his lap revealed that he was enjoying this a little too much. Kira’s gaze flew to Mencheres, but instead of jealous or censuring, his expression was faintly amused. Carefully, Kira pulled out her fangs, surprised when Mencheres gripped the boy’s hand before she could even ask what to do next.
“One way to heal the punctures is to cut your tongue on a fang and hold it over the wounds before you remove your mouth,” he said. “Or you could draw your thumb across your fang and press your blood across both holes. In either choice, preventing more blood loss and stained clothing is the intent.”
She thought it was ironic that the ride took them through a singing graveyard as she followed Mencheres’s directives. She opted to cut her thumb instead of her tongue, placing it over the twin punctures she’d made when Mencheres lifted his hand. Seconds later, when she checked, those puncture wounds were completely healed and so was the slice on her thumb. No evidence at all remained of what had happened, except the satiated warmth spreading throughout her body in place of that former gnawing hunger.
The guilt and shame Kira expected to feel was curiously absent. Instead, she felt better in a way that wasn’t only due to her lack of hunger. All the heartbeats and the warm bodies inside this building no longer felt like temptations seeking to turn her into a murderer. The people around her felt like people again. Who would have thought that feeding from a human would make her feel more connected to her lost humanity instead of less?
“Take your glasses down,” Mencheres said quietly. “Then look into his eyes and tell him he remembers nothing of what transpired except the entertainment of the ride.”
She shot a glance at Mencheres. “I can do that . . . already?” She felt worlds better, stronger even, but not like someone who could alter a person’s memory with a mere stare and a comment.
His mouth quirked. “Yes, already you have that ability.”
Kira tried to muster her inner hypnotist as she slipped her glasses down her nose, directing her gaze at the young man who still leaned against her with a dreamy smile.
“So, ah, nothing happened except, um, you liked the ride,” she stammered. God, that was a pathetic attempt at mesmerism. She’d have to do better to make this stick.
The young man sat up, that blankness leaving his eyes as the buggy started its trek toward a set of mirrors where the automated voice informed them that soon they’d see if one of mansion’s ghosts had hitched a ride in their carriage. Mencheres reached over and pulled Kira to him, his arms encircling her in a loose embrace.
“That worked?” Kira blurted to him in astonishment.
He still had that faintly amused expression. “Of course.”
She was overwhelmed with how smoothly everything had transpired when the young man turned to her with a grin.
“Look. You’ve got a ghost sitting on your lap.”
She looked at the mirrors lining the wall across from them to see video footage of a plump bespectacled man superimposed over her in the carriage. The sight of the three of them with their grinning ghostly passenger only added to the surrealism Kira felt. Her first feeding as a real vampire was graced by a fake ghost.
The ride slowed as the next room revealed the disembarking platform with its large conveyor belt. An employee took down the safety bar in front of them and the three of them exited the carriage. The young man waved at his friends with the same hand Kira had bitten before he walked away, never realizing he’d been involved in a true supernatural event on the fake haunted ride.
Chapter 22
Mencheres and Kira were almost back at Big Thunder Mountain when he felt a shift of power in the air around him. For an instant, he tensed, but then that wave of energy struck a chord of recognition in him. Bones. How like him to be early.
“My co-ruler will be here momentarily,” he told Kira.
She took her sunglasses off as if just remembering she didn’t need them anymore. Her eyes hadn’t flared once after her feeding, and her manner was far more relaxed. He hoped she’d recognize the wisdom of forgoing those plasma bags in the future. Not only would fresh blood taste better and make her stronger, it would also satisfy her hunger more thoroughly.
He saw Bones and Cat part through the crowd on the other side of the roller coaster. His co-ruler did not look happy.
“Bloody hell, grandsire,” were Bones’s first words as he approached. “You’ve left behind a wreckage of burned bodies, dead vampires, missing persons, threatened Guardians, and video evidence of our race’s existence. Then you go on holiday. You really do have a death wish.”
Kira’s jaw dropped. Mencheres gave her hand a squeeze, noticing Bones’s sharp brown gaze follow the gesture.
“Not anymore,” he replied coolly. “I knew that establishment was being monitored; only a fool wouldn’t expect those rooms were videoed. Yes, I intended to kill those three vampires, but not anyone else, and certainly not while leaving a tape behind with my actions documented. I did not do this deed.”
“You were going to kill Flare, Patches, and Wraith?” Kira asked, shock plain in her voice. “I didn’t believe Radje when he said that . . .”
Mencheres glanced down at her. “They tortured you. Of course I was going to kill them.”
Cat cleared her throat in the tense silence that followed. “Uh, before this goes any further, let’s at least introduce ourselves to your friend. I’m Cat, and this is my husband, Bones. We’re part of Mencheres’s twisted little fang family.”
Kira shook the hand Cat extended to her after replying with her name. Bones shook Kira’s hand as well, but with a far more speculative gaze than Cat bestowed on her. Mencheres met his co-ruler’s gaze impassively, not answering the silent question Bones directed at him.
“Normally I would believe you, because you are the most patient, calculating person I’ve ever met,” Bones said, getting back to the original topic. His gaze flicked to Kira again. “Yet in this instance, I’m tempted to believe Radjedef’s assertion that you were motivated to act without your usual careful planning.”
“Is it safe to talk about this out here?” Kira asked, nodding at the families who passed by on their way through Frontier Land.
Mencheres gave Bones a challenging look. “It is if you weren’t followed.”
Bones let out a snort. “I was careful, grandsire.”
“That ‘grandsire’ thing is too weird, considering you look older than he does,” Kira muttered.
A dark brow rose even as Cat laughed. “You know, I never noticed, but she’s
right. Especially now, with his whole baseball cap and Disneywear thing going on. Quite a different look for you, Mencheres. Don’t think anyone would recognize you like this.”
“Yes, you’re full of surprises, aren’t you?” Bones agreed, with another pointed look at Kira.
“You told him you weren’t the one who torched the club. If he doesn’t want to believe you, we should just go,” Kira said quietly, but with underlying steel in her tone. “I’m sure you have other friends who will be willing to listen to your side of the story.”
Mencheres felt a swell of pride as Kira squared her shoulders and returned Bones’s hard stare. She might have choice words for him later about his lethal intention toward those three miserable vampires, but all Kira showed now was her steadfastness—and her inability to be intimidated. She was a strong woman. Strong enough to survive this murky human and inhuman world once he was gone.
“That may be true, yet I don’t see anyone of them here,” Bones replied, encompassing the park with a wave of his hand.
“Nor will you see them. I’m meeting them without you,” Mencheres stated calmly.
Both of Bones’s brows went up. “Indeed? And why is that?”
“The less you know about my plans for Radjedef, the more that ensures the safety of our line if I do not succeed,” Mencheres replied, his tone hardening when Bones’s expression darkened.
“You know, I could really use a drink,” Cat said, again breaking the tension. “Kira, mind keeping me company while I hunt for some gin and tonic?”
Kira glanced at Mencheres. “I won’t be long.”
It both amused and touched him that Kira felt protective of him. How long had it been since anyone felt the need to shield him from others?
“Gin and tonic, huh?” Kira asked as she walked away with Cat. “I’ve got some bad news for you. I don’t think this park serves alcohol.”
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