by Lisa Olsen
Maybe I was just hungry, but the mental picture of me going from vamp to vamp, tearing glasses out of their hands to guzzle the sweet nectar had me pressing my lips together in determination to hold off. Okay, so I probably had enough self control to keep from freaking out over a simple glass of blood, but I decided not to take the chance. Besides, I was still under a doctor’s orders not to drink anything but straight from the vein.
“Are you not thirsty, my dear?” Corley asked politely and Thomas looked up from his already empty glass.
“I’ll have yours if you’re not hungry.”
I sensed it would be rude of me to pass the glass on. Was this what vampire peer pressure felt like? “No, it’s just… is this from bagged blood?”
A ripple went through the gathering and I saw any good will I’d managed to foster with Corley go down the drain as his lips pinched together. “I can assure you, I do not serve anything but the freshest blood to my guests. Or would you prefer to see the vein pierced yourself?” He lifted a single brow. “I shudder to think what passes for society in the colonies these days.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sure it’s great,” I backpedaled. “I’m on a strictly live, from the tap, diet only, so I have to be careful…”
“I prefer it straight from the source as well,” Jasper gave a nasty grin, pulling the human girl into his lap. Before anyone could say boo, he took her roughly into his arms, and I felt it the instant his fangs pierced her throat. Instead of the usual moan of delight, the girl’s breath hitched in pain, and I saw tears gather at the corners of her eyes as he drank his fill.
No one else in the room paid them any mind, even Corley, who’d only just talked about opening a vein as horribly gauche in polite company, didn’t bat an eye. Any hunger I felt at the scent of fresh blood in the air was dampened by the girl’s obvious discomfort, and I felt horribly dirty for watching it in the first place. Didn’t anyone care if she was in pain?
I was so transfixed by the display of torment coupled with the sweet scent of blood, I hardly noticed when someone approached from behind until he laid a hand on my shoulder. “Bishop!” I clung to his hand like a life raft in a storm, drawing strength from that simple contact.
Bishop pressed a lingering kiss to the side of my neck. “I’m sorry to leave you alone for so long. It’s been a busy night.”
“That’s okay, I’m used to it.” I waved the apology away. “I’m just glad you’re here now. You are here now, aren’t you?” I pressed at seeing the regret on his face.
“I need a half hour or so to wrap some things up and I’ll be all yours, I promise. I’ll take you out and show you the sights, how does that sound?”
“It sounds awesome,” I beamed, glad to finally get some alone time with him, though I could care less about going out.
“Have you caught that maniac then?” Corley asked, and I’d forgotten we had an audience.
“We’re still working on that, but we’ll catch him. We always do,” Bishop replied grimly.
“What maniac is that, honey?” I asked, wondering how come he hadn’t mentioned it before.
“The one who’s been picking us off one by one,” Corley replied and Felix sat up straighter.
“How come this is the first we’re hearing of this?”
“Because there isn’t cause for panic,” Bishop assured us, flashing an annoyed look to Corley. “There have been a few deaths, it’s nothing to be worried about as long as you follow standard security protocols.”
Felix hadn’t taken his eyes off of Corley, and now they narrowed to dangerous slits. “Still, it’s something you think a guy would mention when making plans for a trip. Especially knowing we planned to make this an informal visit without the usual security detail.”
“I’d be happy to supply you with any security you require, my boy,” Corley replied with a thin smile.
“Are we in danger, Felix?” Thomas cued into the anxiety in the room. “Maybe we should cancel the tour later?”
“It’s fine, Tommy,” Felix replied. “Corley here just vouched for our protection, it doesn’t get any safer than that, does it?”
“I’m sure the Order will provide ample security,” Corley said. “Perish the thought of anything happening to the venerable Elder of the West.”
“With all due respect, Warden, that’s not for you to decide,” Bishop bristled. “The Order has its own agenda to pursue, and that’s putting an end to this guy before he gets anyone else, no matter their political leanings.”
The tension boiled thicker, and I found myself more uncomfortable than when I’d tried to ignore violence and spilt blood. I cleared my throat. “I’m sorry, but how do you know it’s the same person killing off vampires? That’s what you’re talking about, right? A vampire serial killer?”
“Because the M.O. is always the same. It’s not a serial killer in the traditional sense, it’s a vampire hunter, which is something altogether different. Look, you’re in no danger as long as I’m with you.”
Easy for him to say. “But you’re always working…”
“Which is why I want Rob with you whenever you leave the mansion and I’m not around. Now, I really have to get back to file my report. We can talk more about this later, I promise.”
“Alright,” I agreed, letting him know by a single look that we would absolutely talk more about it later. “I think I’ll go change before we go out then. Not that I don’t love this gorgeous dress, but it’s probably too fancy for sightseeing.”
“I’ll see you up there in a half hour, tops.” He pressed another kiss to my shoulder before giving a curt nod to the others.
Fisher stood ready to escort me upstairs, but I begged off. “I’m pretty sure I can remember the way. Besides, it sounds like you have way more important things to do with all this vampire hunter stuff.”
“I dunnae,” Fisher hesitated, clearly torn between his sense of duty to Bishop and the lure of an actual investigation. “Bishop said I’m to escort ya when Rob isnae around.”
“I’m just going upstairs.”
“I’ll go with you,” the pallid girl said in a small voice, as if she expected Jasper to contradict her. But he paid her no mind, already engaged in a conversation with another vampire who hadn’t changed his hairstyle since the death of disco.
I waited until we were alone on the stairs before I attempted any conversation. “I didn’t catch your name. I’m Anja,” I began, with a friendly smile.
“I know,” she replied with a timid smile of her own. “I’m Maggie.”
“Pleased to meet you, Maggie. Sorry, but… are you okay?” The trickle of blood at her neck was distracting to say the least, and I couldn’t not look at it. Weird that Jasper hadn’t seen fit to heal the wound in a room full of vampires.
Her hand flew to her neck like a broken bird, shoulders trembling as she drew in an uncertain breath. “I’ll be fine. He didn’t take much this time.”
This time. “How long have you been with him?”
Maggie’s eyes took on a faraway cast. “Nearly a year now.” Her lips moved with barely a sound, as if she could hardly believe it.
“You must really like him then,” I said, not believing it for a moment, but mostly wanting to see what she said in reply. Instead she focused on the hallway, and that was an answer in and of itself, I supposed.
“Does he always hurt you like that?” I had to believe it was only for show, some kind of macho posturing in front of the other big, bad vampires. He couldn’t always make her suffer like that, could he?
“It’s no more than I deserve,” she mumbled, feet moving faster. “I’ll say goodnight now.” Disappearing into the room across from mine, Maggie was gone before I could get another question in.
“Weird,” I breathed, opening my own door. Weird and inexplicably sad, to think that not only did Jasper hurt her on a regular basis, but Maggie actually believed she deserved it. Then again, the world was filled with bizarre symbiotic relationships. Maybe in a way they co
mplemented each other?
Once inside my room, I was bummed to find out my luggage was still nowhere in sight. Should I change back into the clothes I’d arrived in? Chewing on the inside of my lip as I thought it over, I decided to pick up the house phone to see if anyone could track it down. A rough voice promised to send someone up immediately and not two minutes later, there was a light scratch at the door.
I opened it to find a man standing there. He was tall with a wiry build, and straight blonde hair that hung into his eyes. There was no sign of the luggage.
“Hi there,” I greeted him, ducking lower to see more of his face, but he wouldn’t meet my gaze. He was younger than I’d thought at first glance, maybe eighteen. “Do you know where my bags are?”
“Th-They’re not ready, miss.”
“What do you mean they’re not ready?” Ready for what?
“I w-was f-f-fetching them and they s-s-s-said y-y-you-y-y…” He had trouble getting the words out and I lost my patience when he couldn’t come up with the last word.
“Who said?”
“S-s-security s-said you’ll h-have them when the s-s-s-s-security ch-check i-i-i…”
“Security?” I frowned. What the heck would security want with my bags? “Okay, hold on a sec, let me see if I can get this straightened out.” Leaving him stuttering in the doorway, I picked up the house phone again, this time asking for someone from security. A familiar voice clicked on a few seconds later, Mr. Smiley from the front door.
“Brody,” he said succinctly.
“Mr. Brody, this is Anja Gudrun in the swan room.” I wasn’t sure what else to call it. “I understand you’re holding my bags. Can you tell me what’s going on?”
“We haven’t got your bags, you must be mistaken.”
“Okay, well somebody’s got them and… I’m sorry, what’s your name?” I asked the blonde who loitered in my doorway, his face red and splotchy.
“T-T-Tuck…Tuck…”
“Tuck said you’ve got it for some kind of security check.”
“Goddamn, inbred…” His voice muffled for a moment, then he came back on the line. “I’ll be right up.”
Tuck visibly paled, and I wondered if he’d been able to hear the other side of the conversation. “H-he’s com-m-m-m…”
“He’s coming up to help straighten it out,” I nodded and the guy hung his head miserably. “Hey, it’ll be fine. I’m sure missing luggage is not that big of a deal,” I offered a comforting smile. The look on Brody’s face was anything but comforting when he arrived though, his eyes boring a hole through the top of Tuck’s head the moment he came into view.
“What did you say? You lousy dog…” He backhanded Tuck without skipping a beat. “How many times have you been told not to speak unless spoken to?”
“Hey!” I objected as the boy cringed. “He was spoken to. I asked him directly about the luggage. He didn’t do anything wrong.”
“We’ll see about that,” Brody growled. “His filthy lies won’t help his case any.”
“N-not a lie,” Tuck whimpered. “Her b-b-b-bags are ch-ch-ch…”
“Believe me, security doesn’t have your bags.”
“Y-y-you’re wrong.”
“Shut it!” His hand came back to cuff Tuck on the back of his head, and I heard the boy’s teeth rattle. Brody’s arm cocked back again and I grabbed for it, surprised at how easily I stopped it in its tracks.
“Leave him alone!”
Brody seemed to swell even larger when his head swiveled to stare me down. “Let go.”
I heard a growl behind his voice and it struck me again that he was human, but not. And very, very angry. Let go of him, are you nuts? A little voice inside my head prompted, but I was more afraid of what he’d do if I backed down. Not to me, but to Tuck. Come on Anja, you can do it. You’re a strong, confident vampire… the other angel on my shoulder cheered me on.
Very deliberately, I brought his arm down to his side, well aware that every cord of muscle stood out on his arm as he tried to resist. Out of the corner of my eye I saw his other arm start to move and quick as anything, I shot out to grab it with my other hand. Wrenching both his arms painfully behind his back, I shoved him against the wall face first in my best interpretation of bad cop.
“It’s Brody, isn’t it?” I said by his ear.
“Yeah,” he snarled, giving one last attempt at wrenching out of my grasp before he went still.
“Brody, I’d better not hear about you smacking Tuck around anymore. It’s not his fault you’re too incompetent to know what happened to my luggage. Nod once if you understand me.” He gave a curt nod. “Now, I’m willing to forget this happened, but I want you to go and find out where my bags are without another word. If security doesn’t have them, find out who does. Is that clear enough?”
“Yes.”
I smacked his head into the wall again. “It must not have been all that clear, I said without another word. Now, is that clear enough?”
Another nod was given.
I let go, prepared to try and subdue him again if he turned the least bit ornery, but Brody backed away, his eyes on the floor, head canted slightly to one side. He continued to back away along the length of the corridor, only turning once he reached the corner.
I let out a long breath once he disappeared from sight, turning cartwheels on the inside for having pulled it off. Wanting to woot for joy, I raised my hand in a high five to Tuck, but he flinched away from the movement. “Hey, no… I was going to… You know, like a celebratory thing?” I picked up his hand gently and patted it in the air.
“Th-th-thanks,” he smiled timidly. For a moment I thought he might say more, but then he looked down again. “I n-need to g-g-g-g…” He brushed close as he went past me and I caught the same whiff of otherworldliness about him that surrounded Brody and the other human guards.
“Super. Now I just need to figure out what to wear,” I sighed, watching him high tail it out of there.
The door cracked open from across the hall, Maggie’s doe eyes filling the gap. “I could lend you something to wear if you like,” she offered shyly.
I thought about politely declining, I could always borrow something of Bridget’s, but curiosity got the better of me. “Thanks, that would be really nice of you.” I stepped into her room which mirrored mine, only with a more masculine feel. The furniture was heavier and sturdier, and I could see the bed was a gargantuan four poster with heavy dark curtains done in blue with gold trim. Where my room had more of a temporary feel to it, her room gave the appearance that they’d been in the house for quite some time.
Maggie led me to a large bureau in the corner of the bedroom. “That was nice of you sticking up for Tucker like that.”
“Oh, it’s Tucker, not Tuck?”
“Yes. He’s not slow or anything, he just doesn’t do well with new people.”
I digested that for a few moments. “What is he?”
“He’s a bit of a fetch boy, really. He does some work gardening and running errands for security.”
“No, I mean, he’s not human, is he? None of the security force is.”
“Didn’t you know? They’re werewolves.”
“Shut the front door. Real live werewolves?” How awesome was that? And not at the vampires’ throats as Hollywood would have us believe, either. Cool beans on toast.
“Have you never met one before?” Her brow wrinkled in confusion.
Uh oh… “Um, we don’t get a lot of werewolves in my neck of the woods.” Which was probably a lie. San Francisco could be teeming with werewolves and I’d never thought to ask about it before.
Maggie seemed to accept my answer readily enough, pulling out a pair of soft jeans and a pink blouse. “Here, you can have these to keep. He doesn’t like me to wear dungarees anyway.”
I accepted the bundle of clothes, trying to decide if I should meddle anymore or if I’d reached my quota for the night. Nope, not yet… “Look, about what you said before. Nobody
deserves to suffer like that. If you don’t like how Jasper is treating you, you can always leave him.”
“No, I can’t. I can’t talk about it.” Maggie immediately withdrew into her shell again, but I couldn’t let it go.
“I’m just trying to help you.”
“You don’t understand, I can’t talk about it.” Her eyes begged me to leave it alone and all at once, I understood. She’d been compelled not to discuss it.
“Yes, you can, you can talk to me,” I urged her gently, catching hold of her will. I wasn’t sure if it would be enough to break the compulsion, but I wasn’t convinced Jasper was as old a vampire as his cockiness would lead others to believe. “Maybe it’s none of my business, but I can’t watch him hurt you like that. He does, doesn’t he? He hurts you all the time.” I could see the confirmation in her eyes. “It’s not supposed to be that way. It’s supposed to feel good for you. Has he ever done that, made it feel pleasurable when he feeds?”
Her head shook from side to side before hanging in shame. “Jasper is the only one to take pleasure in what he does to me. He prefers to taste my fear,” she said softly and it occurred to me that feeding wasn’t the only violation she had to endure. It was worse than rape in so many ways.
“How can you stand it?”
“What choice do I have? I haven’t been allowed a moment of happiness in so long… he feeds from my misery as much as my blood.”
“Everybody deserves to be happy. Why not leave the jerk?”
“I can never leave him,” she insisted stubbornly and I wondered what I was missing.
“This is ridiculous. How is anyone else okay with this?” I knew vampires compelled humans to do their bidding, I’d done it more times than I was happy with in my short time as a vamp. I consoled myself with the knowledge that I didn’t set out to hurt anyone, and maybe I was kidding myself. But to deliberately compel someone to misery day in and day out… Jasper was a sick bastard.
“I can help you,” I offered, unable to sit by without doing anything. “I can break his compulsion on you and you can get away.”
