by Lisa Olsen
“What’s your pleasure?” Bishop asked after we were seated, leaning back in his chair to watch the spectacle.
“I guess I’ll have a zombie,” I replied, engrossed by the display. The humans were all beautiful, and either compelled to give one heck of a performance, or genuinely into it.
“No, which one will it be?”
“What do you mean?” There wasn’t anyone to hunt, like in a normal bar. I had to think the establishment would frown upon us eating the waitstaff.
“This is a feeder bar, Anja. Pick anyone you like.” He gestured to the row of lit windows.
“Seriously? You mean pick one of them out like they were in the freezer case at the grocery store?”
“That’s what we’re here for. I thought you might like the change of pace. No need to compel anyone, or worry about taking too much. There’s a monitoring chip embedded into all of the staff here. If any vampire takes too much it delivers a shock to the vamp as a warning, and they’re heavily fined if it goes too far and the human dies. Very civilized, don’t you agree?”
Heavily fined was supposed to make it okay if someone died? Still, it was safer than feeding on the streets. So why did I feel so squeamish about it all? “Pick one and then what?” I could guess before he opened his mouth to reply.
“Then we join them in one of the booths and feed.”
As I watched, one of the windows went from clear to frosted, and a second figure joined the dancer. “I guess it’s better than a dirty alley.”
“Trust me, it’s a lot better,” Bishop chuckled, and I wondered how many times he’d been to a feeder bar. How many times had he pressed up against one of the beautiful dancers and drunk his fill in semi-privacy. Did more go on behind those frosted windows than feeding? Some of the intimate movements on display seemed to suggest so.
“I… have no idea who to…” My head swiveled as I took a deeper look at the women, since I knew Bishop wouldn’t want me to pick one of the men.
“What about her?” Bishop tilted his head towards a dark haired beauty making eye contact with our table. She exuded sensuality from every pore, and I knew I could never join her in that booth.
“No, I don’t think so.” I wrenched my eyes away from her and Bishop let out a breath.
“That’s alright, we can pick something else. How about her?” He gestured to a petite blonde who didn’t pay attention to anyone outside the glass. Lost in her own dance, she moved with fluid grace, nothing in her bearing suggesting seduction in any form.
“Ah, sure. I guess so,” I agreed, more wanting to get it over with than wanting her particularly.
“Great, then let’s go.” Taking my hand, he led me to a curtained doorway, pausing to tell the attendant that we wanted number six. She scanned our wrists, and we were allowed down the corridor, stopping at a door marked six. Bishop walked in without hesitation, flipping a switch set into the wall which frosted the glass.
The girl stopped dancing, but her body still swayed to the music as she waited, eyes looming large in her face. Up close, she looked like she wasn’t more than fifteen. Neither eager nor afraid, she swayed and waited for us to make the first move.
“Are you sure about this?” I couldn’t help but ask, not sure how to proceed without compulsion.
“Anja, it’s simple. You don’t mind, do you?” He smiled at the girl in a kindly way, brushing the hair back from her shoulder.
“No, not at all,” she replied softly. “It’s twenty more for the two of you at once.”
“See, she does this all the time.” Bishop drew me forward and I hesitated, torn between the direct stare and the steady pulse at her throat. I brushed back the hair from her other shoulder, and she tilted her head obligingly, but there was something lost in her eyes.
“I can’t eat that,” I backed off. “She’s looking at me with sad cow eyes.”
“Anja… you’re being ridiculous,” Bishop’s jaw clenched. “Close your eyes,” he ordered the girl, and she shut them obediently, but that didn’t make it any better.
“No, I can’t do this.” I got out of there, heading straight for the bar where I ordered a zombie to cool my parched throat. I knew Bishop hadn’t partaken of number six’s charms because he was right beside me less than a minute later, ordering a pint.
Bishop steered me back to our table, and I sat with my back turned to the blonde girl, not wanting to look at her anymore. “Anja, try to understand,” he began after our drinks were delivered. “These humans are here by choice, they make good money at it. There’s nothing wrong with drinking from them.”
“You don’t really believe that, do you?” I scoffed. “Any more than someone chooses to be a prostitute.”
“I hate to break it to you, Anja, but people do choose to be prostitutes. Humans make all kinds of decisions that might not line up with your morals. It doesn’t make it a crime.”
“I still think it’s sad. You can’t tell me that girl back there is happy with her career choice, I could see it in her eyes. Isn’t there something we can do to help her?”
“Are you nuts? What are you gonna do, adopt her as your own feeder?”
I hadn’t thought it through that far. “Well… maybe. At least she won’t have strange men feeding from her every night.”
“How is that any better? She’s still being fed from in exchange for certain comforts.”
“Can’t we help her find some other kind of job then?”
Bishop let out a long breath. “Anja, if she wanted another job, she’d have picked one. Like I said, the girls are all here by choice.”
So he said. How easy would it be to compel a girl to work there? They’d have to compel her to keep vamps a secret anyway — what was one more compulsion in the mix? “Well, I can’t eat here.”
“Fine,” he bit out. “I’ll take you out to hunt then, give me a few minutes to settle up.”
“Fine,” I replied, taking another sip of my drink before I said something I might regret later. Bishop left without another word and I stared moodily into my drink, not wanting to watch the dancers on display. The other patrons in the club didn’t seem to share my concerns though, as they all watched the dancers with obvious delight.
Except for one vampire who watched me instead.
He wasn’t devastatingly handsome, the way so many of our kind were, but good looking enough in a hard way. His blonde hair was cut in a short in a no-nonsense style, not bothering with any hair gel or product. Dressed in a worn corduroy jacket over a dark, shapeless hoodie and jeans, he picked up his beer and took a sip, his blue eyes never leaving mine. I didn’t sense any hostility or even that he was checking me out, the way a man usually checks out a woman in a club, just an intense curiosity.
“Are you ready to go?” Bishop asked at my elbow, drawing my attention.
“Yes. Listen, do you know that guy?” I turned my head back to show him my watcher, but he was gone.
“What guy?”
“Nevermind, it’s not important.” Mostly I just wanted to get out of there. We left the car in the underground parking lot, taking to the streets of London on foot. I had no idea where in the city we were, and I didn’t care. Anything was better than seeing that girl’s eyes.
“What would you like to eat then?” Bishop said stiffly once we were on the sidewalk, and I wrapped my arm around his.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be a pain. That just wasn’t my scene.” I offered the olive branch, and he laid a hand over my arm.
“That’s okay. You wouldn’t be who you are if you didn’t feel that way, I guess.”
“And… that’s a good thing?” I fished, and Bishop patted my arm with a chuckle.
“It’s a very good thing.”
I know, you probably think I’m crazy for feeling better about picking some woman off the street and feeding from her instead of one of the girls in the club. But I justified it in my own way as doing less harm in a single feeding to a random person than the repeated use of those
dancers again and again. I couldn’t sanction that kind of lifestyle.
So, it was with an easier conscience that I scanned the people on the street for a likely candidate, and it wasn’t too hard to find. It was early enough for a lone woman on the street to be approached without fear, especially by another woman. Bishop melted into the shadows to let me make contact with her on my own.
“Excuse me,” I offered a smile. “I’m sorry to bother you, but I wondered if you could help me find something?” I put in a touch of compulsion to make her agreeable, pleased when she smiled back.
“Oh, an American, how fun! I’d love to help if I can.” Dressed well for the winter weather in a plum colored Burberry coat, frizzy brown hair peeked out from a matching beret.
“I’m looking for a bite to eat. Would you be able to steer me towards a good place nearby?”
She gabbled on about chicken and chips, and something about a pie. While she expanded on the subject of neeps and tatties, I linked my arm through hers, steering her towards the nearest alley.
“You’ll want to go back the way we came,” she objected once she realized we were headed in the wrong direction.
“No, this is the way we want to go,” I corrected her with another pulse of my will. Once we were away from the lights of the street and I was reasonably sure there were no windows facing that part of the alley, I relaxed. “This won’t hurt a bit, and when I’m done, you’ll have no memory of meeting me at all.”
“Not a bit,” she smiled blankly.
The throb of her pulse called out to me, but instead of going for the vein at her neck, I picked up her hand, pushing back the heavy winter coat to reveal the smooth skin of her wrist. My fangs descended with a snick, and I pierced her flesh without any further foreplay, turning my body away to keep from indulging those instincts to draw her close. I didn’t want a connection with her; all I wanted was enough blood to keep me going until the next time I had to feed. Despite my best intentions, I felt her pleasure as I drew upon her flesh, and I consoled myself with the fact that at least she wasn’t in any pain as I drank.
My senses on overload, I was barely aware of Bishop joining us in the alley, and it took me long seconds to realize he wasn’t connecting with her either. With supreme effort, I pulled away from the pulse at her wrist, wondering if something was wrong. “Aren’t you going to have any?”
“I already ate.”
“You ate that girl!” It made me sick to think about it — his dark head bent to the curve of her throat, but Bishop met my accusation squarely.
“No, I kept to our agreement. But it did make sense for me to drink from one of the men, especially since I knew we’d be going out.”
“You didn’t want to feed with me?” I dropped the woman’s wrist, the blood forgotten as I remembered the last time we’d shared a feeding and the incredible need that built between us. Was he that mad about my turning down the club?
“Not like this, no,” he replied, and my heart sank. “I didn’t want to share something like that with another person between us.”
“Oh.” That was something else entirely, and I lost my worry. “It’s probably a good idea, now that you mention it. I’m still working on figuring out how to do this without it being so… intimate.”
“Your control seems much better, but you ah, left her on the hook.” One finger pointed, reminding me that I’d left her leaning against the building, a trickle of blood dripping into the alley.
“Wode tìan!” I scooped up her wrist, using my own blood to seal the puncture wounds. Luckily there hadn’t been more than a dribble of blood spilt and with a couple laps of the tongue, she was all cleaned up and good as new. “How do you feel?” I asked her, pulling her sleeve down.
“I feel fine, perhaps a bit cold,” she replied easily enough.
Listening to the steady beat of her heart, I took her at her word. “Alright, like I said, you won’t remember seeing me or him, and you’ll continue on your way to wherever you were headed when I stopped you. Do you understand?”
“I understand,” she nodded.
We watched her leave the alley, her steps steady and sure as she rejoined the world.
“It’s like you’re an old pro at this,” Bishop smiled proudly, but I still didn’t feel good about the whole process. There didn’t seem to be a space between pleasure and pain for humans when I fed from them. Which reminded me…
“Hey, I forgot to talk to you about something.”
“Sure, go ahead,” Bishop replied, steering me back onto the street to resume our stroll.
“You know that girl, Maggie?”
“Who?”
Of course he wouldn’t know her by name. “She’s the human that belongs to Jasper.”
“What about her?”
“He’s holding her against her will.” I waited for outrage, but didn’t get more than a flicker of a response.
“So?”
“So? We have to do something about it.”
“He hasn’t broken any laws, my hands are tied.”
I stopped in my tracks. “It doesn’t have anything to do with laws, it has to do with right and wrong. Please tell me you see that.”
“Anja…” Bishop stopped to choose his words carefully. “I can appreciate that you feel for the girl, really, I can. But most vampires have feeders and I can’t go around taking away their property.”
“She’s a person, not property.”
“How is that any different from you compelling the woman you fed on tonight?” His voice fell for my ears only. “Do you think that was her free will following you into the alley?”
I recoiled like I’d been slapped, no… this was worse. “Bishop, he hurts her. We can’t do nothing.”
“We can, and we will.” Bishop’s face shuttered closed and I recognized the coldness there. He was done with the discussion, but I wasn’t.
Chapter Thirteen
I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or sad when I woke the next night to an empty bed. Bishop had driven me around to some of the more famous tourist spots the night before, but my heart wasn’t in it. He begged off to work when we got back to the mansion, and I didn’t object. Not that it would have made the slightest difference anyway. There were fundamental differences in the way we viewed human life, and I hoped to God I didn’t end up as disconnected when I got to be his age.
Deciding it was probably for the best to let us both cool off and agree to disagree, I got ready to go downstairs, wearing the best dress I’d brought with me — cream colored silk with fluttery sleeves and pink embroidered rosettes along the neckline. I left my hair loose, but swept back with a pair of pretty hair combs with crystals that sparkled as much as any diamonds.
Bridget was already down there when I got to the hall, practically in Felix’s lap. She looked happy though, so I tried not to worry about her. Instead of her usual tight skirt and low cut top, she took an elegant turn in a simple black dress that hugged her curves and showed off a healthy expanse of leg.
Maggie looked acutely uncomfortable, corseted within an inch of her life in a daring red dress that set her assets up front and center for anyone to ogle over. She sat very, very still, as if afraid the slightest movement would have her spilling out of it. I flashed her a sympathetic smile, and she looked away.
But it was Rob who drew my attention, absolutely smashing in a finely tailored suit. For someone I happened to know fit in plenty well with the roughest and toughest of vampire society, he sure cleaned up nicely. “You like?” he asked, tugging at his cuffs.
“You should wear a suit all the time. That look definitely works for you,” I nodded.
“Might could get a bit messy when I’m under a car, but I’ll keep that in mind,” he gave me a half smile.
“So, is this what vampires do every night? Sit around in their shiny clothes, drink and talk?” It seemed like it would get old after a while.
“Course not, sometimes they go drink in town,” he chuckled. “Speaking of, a
re you and your boy going out later, or should I stick close?”
“To be honest, I have no idea. I’m assuming he’ll have to work for at least part of the night. But you go ahead, you look like you have plans. I can stay in if Bishop’s not available.”
“Nah, I’d rather pal around with you than be seen in my old neighborhood dressed like a toff, if it’s all the same to you.”
“Okay, that sounds like fun,” I agreed instantly. There were worse things I could do with my time. Speaking of which… “Oh, is there somewhere I can make a call? They must have changed the password on the internet or something, I couldn’t get into it tonight and I wanted to try and reach Hanna.”
“Sure, right this way.”
Rob led me to a study where I could use the computer to Skype my sister, excusing himself with a frown when his own phone beeped. Agreeing to meet back in the hall when I was done with my call, I slipped into the study, realizing only too late it was already occupied.
Thomas sat with his back to me, an elegant brunette on the computer screen before him, her beautiful face twisted with scorn as she scolded him. “I don’t care if you’re scared. You don’t leave until you get that deal signed, sealed and delivered.”
“I don’t get why I have to be here for this,” Thomas complained. “Can’t Felix handle it? Or what about you? If it’s that important, why didn’t you come? I’d feel much better if you were here. Then we could spend some time together, take in a show. You keep canceling on me.”
“Tommikins, we talked about this,” her voice dropped to a honeyed purr. “You know I want to be there with you, but I simply can’t leave the East right now. Now… are you going to be my big, strong man and take care of business for me?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Get it done and then I’ll take care of you, I promise.”
