Sweet Last Drop

by Melody Johnson

  “You’ve done very well, Cassidy,” Dominic continued. “I won’t forget it. How was dinner otherwise?”

  I glanced at my reflection, at the bruises around my neck still darkening as we spoke. I thought of Walker seizing and vomiting on the stone of Bex’s dining room floor. I thought of our argument on the way home, and I looked away from the mirror.

  “About as good as could be expected, I suppose,” I said. “We both made it out alive and with all our limbs accounted for.” I couldn’t say the same for Bex. I thought of her eye and shuddered.

  “You’re not telling me something.”

  I sighed. “I’m not telling you a lot of things, but I did what you wanted me to do. I stabilized your alliance with Bex. You should be grateful.”

  “I’m very grateful, and I thank you for acting as my loyal night blood. I appreciate your efforts, but—”

  “This wasn’t a favor,” I reminded him. “We had a deal. Do you have any leads on Nathan?”

  Dominic made a noise over the phone. It sounded like a sigh and a groan and something more, something like pain. “I’ve doubled my efforts and scoured the city for his scent. I fear that any trace of him that once existed may no longer.”

  “You haven’t found anything,” I accused.

  “I will find out what happened to your brother, Cassidy. As you so often remind me, we made a deal, and you upheld your end of our bargain. I will uphold mine.”

  I didn’t like his phrasing. “I don’t want you to find out what happened to him. I want you to find him,” I snapped. “Deal or no deal, you need to find my brother because his disappearance means that a vampire in your coven kidnapped a night blood behind your back.”

  “Or killed.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath. “Don’t.”

  The silence was a palpable, throbbing bruise between us. I refused to break it. I feared that if I did, I wouldn’t sound rational.

  Eventually, Dominic spoke. “I think you should prepare yourself, Cassidy, for the distinct possibility that your brother is dead. He disappeared three weeks ago, and there has been no trace of him since.”

  “No,” I said, but my voice was reduced to the raw whisper of restrained tears. Nathan was my little brother. It didn’t matter if he was missing for three weeks or three years, I was still holding on to hope.

  “A young vampire may have fed on Nathan,” Dominic pressed, “and once begun, it’s possible he couldn’t stop. The vampire would need to erase Nathan’s identity to erase his crime, and that may be why we can’t find any trace of your brother. It’s possible that the vampire is still loyal to me and only made a mistake.”

  “A mistake. Killing my brother is a mistake?” I shrieked, and I could hear the hysterical squeak in my voice.

  “Cassidy—”

  “That’s not possible,” I ground out slowly, trying to get a grip on my anger and fear. “Even if the vampire drained Nathan dry, Nathan can survive large amounts of blood loss and still survive.”

  “Assuming he’s a night blood.”

  “Of course he’s a night blood!” I snapped, my voicing squeaking back into hysterics.

  “Calm yourself. You—”

  “Rene’s a young vampire, and he had the strength to stop feeding. When he realized I was a night blood, he brought me directly to Bex.” I said rationally, stamping home my point. “If a vampire was truly loyal, he would have stopped and brought Nathan to you. If Nathan’s dead, which he isn’t, then it’s no accident. Maybe you don’t have as much control over the rebellion as you’d like to think.”

  “Rene who?” Dominic asked softly.

  “Rene R—” I stopped myself, realizing the blades beneath the silk of Dominic’s tone. “He’s a young vampire, Bex’s prior night blood.”

  “And he decided to feed from you during dinner? I thought Bex was more civilized than to substitute the guest of honor for the main dish.”

  I sighed. “He didn’t bite me at dinner. We were in the woods, and he didn’t know who I was, and—”

  “In the woods?” Dominic said, sounding scandalized. “Among the trees and dirt and wilderness?”

  “There isn’t anything here but wilderness.” I thought about that a moment and corrected myself. “And cows.” I shook my head, realizing we were off topic. “The point is, have you asked your vampires about Nathan?”

  Dominic snorted. “Of course.”

  “And?”

  “Nothing. My vampires are loyal at present, thanks to you.”

  “All your vampires?” I asked, thinking of the allegedly executed Jillian still alive in my mind.

  “Every last one of them. I assure you, my vampires did not deliberately harm your brother, and if an accident did befall him, it was not committed in deliberate disloyalty to me.”

  “Fine,” I conceded, not appeased in the least but willing to let it slide for now. At least until I found a lead that proved otherwise. “How’s Greta and her case? Any breakthroughs?”

  “Greta is well, but her case is not. Two nights in a row now the murderer hasn’t struck again.”

  I tapped my finger against the sink, thinking. “One victim a night for two weeks, and then nothing. The pattern shouldn’t have stopped or altered unless the investigation missed something at that last crime scene, something to indicate that his work was complete. What does Greta make of it?”

  “The police are considering the possibility that he suffered an accident, perhaps unrelated to his last victim. There’s nothing to suggest that his last kill went afoul or was a completion of his work. If anything, his kills were becoming more savage. He wouldn’t have stopped of his own volition.”

  “I didn’t ask what the police thought. I asked what Greta thought.”

  Dominic laughed. “Greta’s instincts and will are her greatest assets and will one day be her downfall. She reminds me of someone else I know,” he said, still snickering to himself. “I think it’s the depth of her loyalty that keeps her from listening to her instincts about you, but that will only last for so long. One day she will discover our secret, and that will be the day her instincts fail her. You know that I won’t compromise my coven’s secrecy, so if you don’t keep Greta leashed, I will.”

  “Is that a threat?” I hissed.

  He paused a moment. “How do you usually put it?” he asked. “I’m just calling it as I see it.”

  “You’re avoiding my question,” I snapped. “What does Greta make of the sudden stop in murders? She doesn’t think the unsub was involved in an accident, does she?”

  “No, she doesn’t,” Dominic admitted. “She’s comparing this case to last month’s case and how evidence disappeared. She’s remembering how everyone thought the wounds were inflicted by knives, when in reality, they were animal bites. And she’s remembering that you were the one who knew the truth.”

  “Me? What do I have to do with anything? I’m out of town.”

  “Exactly. It hasn’t escaped her notice that the murders stopped the moment you left.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” I scoffed. “Once again, we were joking that the murders followed me here. I don’t have anything to do with this case!”

  “I know,” Dominic said quietly. “I’m simply telling you what Greta is thinking.”

  “Right.” I nodded, more to myself than to Dominic. The thought that Greta was suspicious of me again made my heart sore. “I’ve got to go. It’s been crazy here, too, and I’m exhausted.”

  “Cassidy, I—”

  “Have a good rest of your night. I’ll call you tomorrow.” I cut him off and ended the call.

  I sat for another few minutes in silence, mulling over everything Dominic and I had discussed and left unsaid. I thought about Jillian’s voice in my head. I thought about Bex and her destroyed eye. I thought about Walker’s seizures. I both mourned and raged at the thought of losing Nathan. I ached over Greta and her case, and I wondered if my life would ever get back on
track. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when everything had derailed, but I feared that the track I’d always known and had planned to continue traveling was too far gone to ever find again.

  If I hoped to restore a semblance of a life worth living after this nightmare, I’d have to lay down new tracks of my own.

  * * * *

  I flushed the toilet for appearances' sake, opened the bathroom door, and nearly walked into the chest of a lanky red-headed boy I recognized as one of Logan’s sons.

  “Oh, sorry,” I said, looking up. “You’re Logan’s oldest, right? Keagan, is it?”

  He nodded. “And you must be the infamous Cassidy DiRocco,” he said. His voice was just as deep as his father’s.

  “I don’t know about ‘infamous,’ but you’ve found me,” I said, holding out my hand.

  Keagan took my hand, his shake firm but gentle, and I could tell he’d had practice despite his age. He pointed behind me to the toilet. “You’ve got to run the water after you pretend to use the bathroom or people won’t want to shake hands.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, cracking a smile. “How much did you hear?”

  “Enough to know you weren’t actually using the toilet.”

  I nodded. “Fair enough.”

  “And,” he glanced sideways to the kitchen where Walker was attempting and failing to placate Ronnie before leaning down to whisper, “enough to know you were talking about Lydia.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “I didn’t mention anything about Lydia.”

  “Maybe not this time, but you’ve talked about her in the bathroom before.”

  “You’ve been eavesdropping on me?”

  Keagan shrugged. “Jeremy’s not the only one who cared about Lydia. I want to know what really happened.”

  “You knew Lydia, too?”

  “Of course. Everyone knew Lydia. Jeremy’s story doesn’t check out, does it?”

  I pursed my lips as he voiced my own suspicion. I doubted Jeremy was capable of the carnage I’d witnessed, but still, Keagan was right. His story didn’t quite check out. “I thought you two were friends.”

  “We are, but Lydia deserved a lot better. Growing up a night blood is hard business for everyone, but Jeremy doesn’t get it. He lived with his uncle as a regular human for too long to really understand.”

  I frowned. “To understand what?”

  “That we can’t live like everyone else. We can’t stay late at football practice and date pretty girls who can’t see vampires. That’s how you and people around you end up dead. He didn’t grow up on hunts and stakings and fallout shelters. As shelters go, though, this is the best one we’ve ever lived in.” He spread his arms out, indicating Walker’s house.

  “It certainly is a beautiful home,” I commented, but something in the way he’d specifically said, “fallout shelter,” as opposed to, “home,” stuck with me. “What makes it the best?”

  Keagan shook his head. “I have questions of my own.”

  “What kind of questions?”

  He smiled, and I noticed that his left canine endearingly overlapped with its neighboring tooth. “Bathroom questions.” He nodded his head at me. “Get back in there.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Do you want to know about fallout shelters or not?”

  I narrowed my eyes. “You mentioned that on purpose, knowing I’d be interested.”

  Keagan shrugged. “Walker said that you’re new at being a night blood, that I should be informative and make you feel at home.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “This bathroom interrogation is supposed to make me feel at home?”

  “I’m being informative. Did you know that you can turn your city apartment into a relatively safe fallout shelter in less than an hour? Not as sealed tight as this house, but better than nothing in a pinch.”

  I bit the inside of my lip. Walker had never mentioned turning my apartment into a fallout shelter.

  “Would a fallout shelter work, even after giving a vampire permission to enter?”

  Keagan nodded. “For sure. It wouldn’t be the best protection, but like I said, anything’s better than nothing. It’d certainly be more effective than in the country. More witnesses to slow them down.”

  I laughed. “Have you ever lived in the city?”

  Keagan shook his head. “My dad’s got roots that run pretty deep. We move a lot, but he prefers the country.”

  “Most city vampires, in my experience, don’t care how many witnesses they incur. I’ve had a vampire attack me in front of an entire police department, take down the officers and surrounding witnesses, and then take a hostage to bargain with me.”

  “Attack you?” Keagan asked, looking shocked. “To kill you? But you’re a night blood.”

  “It doesn’t matter, not in the city. The Master vampire there doesn’t have control over his vampires like Bex does here,” I said, and I couldn’t keep the bitterness from my voice as I admitted the truth to myself.

  Keagan shook his head. “That’s insane.”

  I nodded. “More witnesses don’t necessarily mean less danger. It just means that the vampires have more people to entrance.”

  Keagan was still shaking his head in awe.

  “So about fallout shelters…” I began.

  He pointed into the bathroom.

  “I just told you about city vampires. It’s your turn to spill,” I countered.

  “That wasn’t one of my questions, but I appreciate the information all the same.”

  “You want to play hard ball?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

  “I have specific questions, and I’m willing to trade information for answers.” He raised his hands innocently. “That’s all.”

  “That’s all,” I grumbled, but I stepped back reluctantly into the bathroom. Keagan followed, shutting the door behind him. “You’re a pretty persuasive kid. You should consider becoming a reporter when you grow up.”

  He leaned against the sink. “Remember what I said about Jeremy living a normal life? Having a career is part of living a normal life. Night bloods don’t get that.”

  “I have a career,” I pointed out.

  “Yeah,” He said, flashing that snaggle tooth. “And how’s that going for you lately?

  I narrowed my eyes, his question too on target for comfort. “You get three questions.”

  “Deal.”

  “And you tell me about fallout shelters after question two.”

  He hesitated this time, but then nodded. “That’s fair.”

  I cocked my head and waited.

  “How do you know that the person who killed Lydia also killed Mr. and Mrs. Dunbar?”

  “There’s evidence to suggest they were killed by the same person,” I answered vaguely.

  Keagan snorted. “Obviously. What kind of evidence?”

  I crossed my arms. “That’s confidential information in an ongoing investigation. Next question.”

  “Confidential information that you told Dominic. How would Walker feel about that?”

  I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter what Walker feels. I can’t answer that question, so I guess we’re done here.”

  I stepped to the door and grasped the handle.

  “No! I have more questions!”

  I turned back to face him. “Then ask them.”

  He nodded, but a moment past before he gathered his thoughts. “What’s the Leveling?”

  I raised my eyebrows. “They don’t teach you about the Leveling in night blood university?”

  He snorted. “I must have skipped that class.”

  I grinned. “Every seven years, on the anniversary of their making, Master vampires lose their powers to their successor for one night. It’s the coven’s opportunity to empower a new Master, if they so choose. If the current Master survives the night, his powers are returned to him, and he continues his reign over the coven.”

  “And if the Master doesn’t surviv
e?”

  I sighed, this problem all too real. “Then the successor would take reign as Master vampire.

  “Is Dominic your Master?”

  “I get my question now,” I interrupted. “Tell me everything you know about fallout shelters.”

  Keagan made a rude noise in the back of his throat, but he didn’t argue. “Any place can potentially be a fallout shelter, granting that it’s essentially an enclosed space with a threshold to cross. The easiest way to prevent a vampire from crossing the threshold is to not invite him, but as you probably already know, vampires can be persuasive.”

  I nodded. “Exactly. And once invited, you can’t take it back.”

  Keagan frowned. “You can take it back.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  Someone knocked on the door.

  Keagan stared at me, eyes wide.

  I held a finger up to my lips. “Sorry,” I said to the door. “The bathroom’s occupied.”

  “I know,” the person whispered. “Let me in.”

  I stared at the door, shocked.

  “It’s Jeremy,” Keagan said and let him in.

  “Don’t—” I hissed, but Jeremy was already inside and locking the door behind him.

  “When you didn’t come out, Ronnie got worried, so I said I’d look for you.”

  I snorted. “How magnanimous of you.”

  “I heard what you said.”

  “Is that so?” I asked dryly.

  Jeremy nodded. “Is Bex losing her powers? Is that why she didn’t remove my DNA from the scene?”

  “Wait your turn.” Keagan elbowed Jeremy in the ribs. “I get one more question.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Actually, I believe I get information on fallout shelters before either of you get anything.” I pointed my finger at Keagan. “Go.”

  “Fallout shelters?” Jeremy looked at me and then Keagan like we were insane. “What’s there to know about an underground safe room? It’s made of silver because vampires are allergic to silver and you hide in it.”

  Keagan rolled his eyes. “There’s more to it than that. There’s precautions you can take, like having a location that’s clear to the east with lots of windows. Soaking blood into the earth helps, too, if you have access to that sort of thing. You need a lot of it.”