Ana had taken to pacing opposite of William and was leaning against the bookshelf leaving me sitting on the couch alone. I had once thought the bookshelf was just that, a huge floor-to-ceiling inlaid bookshelf, but William later revealed to me it also doubled as a secret passageway to a weapons stockade underneath the house as well as an escape tunnel that opened up in the separate garage out back.
She stopped her pacing and came to sit in front of me on the couch.
“My role in the Council is to work in the ER, and morgue, in order to pick up any patterns of attack that fit those of vampire attacks. If I am ever approached or come across a rogue vampire working for the Coven I act sympathetic to their cause garnering any information I can. I pass the information along to William whose role is to actually infiltrate and attend meetings; he is slowly moving up the ranks of the Coven itself. The Coven’s purpose is to out vampires to the human world, but they want to do it on a massive scale bringing humans cowering on their knees in terror, leaving no room for an uprising.
They believe that will be the only way to ensure humans don’t rise up and war against them. The only thing standing in the way of the Coven taking over many of the major cities of the world right now is the Council. Our two factions of vampires are on the brink of starting their own war with each other, just to prevent humans from ever discovering our kind. Nathaniel was a high ranking member of the Coven, not to mention a master vampire. When we killed him, all of our Coven contacts in the city of Chicago went underground. We were supposed to be monitoring another faction of the Coven that has fled since Nathaniel’s death. I can’t find them anywhere or get any leads on where they’ve gone.”
“What do you mean by all of them?”
“Just that, we haven’t been able to contact a single one.”
“This means either they know we had something to do with it, and that’s why they are avoiding us --”
“Which is also why you can’t be alone until we know what is going on. If they know we had a part in it, they know about you, and will be coming for you,” Ana interrupted.
“As I was saying,” William continued, “it could also mean that this is just the standard M.O., if a higher up is taken out, the rest of the rats flee. We simply don’t know at this point, but we need to find out quick, before Sebastian or Martin intervenes.”
“Oh God, I really messed everything up.”
“Don’t. We knew what we were getting ourselves into when we agreed to help you. We didn’t think all of our leads would up and flee without a trace, but still we knew the risks. It was worth it to help you Jules,” William said. He was finally looking at me again, I looked over at Ana and she nodded her head in agreement.
I leaned my head back on the couch and blowing out a breath of air. I believed what I was about to do was the right thing, and so help me God, if I was wrong I would kill every last one of them.
But I knew I could trust William and Ana. I knew they would never betray me, even though I had just accused them of that and fled, not twenty-four hours earlier. I looked from William's eyes to Ana’s as they looked back at me steady and sure. They knew we were about to be up against something big, but weren’t even thinking of backing down.
Yeah, I could trust them.
“Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but . . . well, I am. You see, the thing is . . . when I went to see Christian, I went to compel him into forgetting Victoria, Nathaniel, and me. Pretty much everything vampire related . . .”
“You told me this earlier at the hospital,” Ana interrupted.
“Right. Well, it didn’t exactly work,” I told them cringing waiting for the fight to begin.
“Which part didn’t work?” Ana asked me narrowing her eyes.
“Um, all of it, none of it. I tried to compel him every way I could think of, and nothing would work. I even started to wonder if perhaps I could compel him into doing something physical, and it was just the memory I couldn’t affect, but that didn’t work either. I told him to lie if anyone came to see him, and I lied as well. I didn’t know what would happen, and I didn’t know what your whole story was at that point. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
They just stared back at me, expressionless. They didn’t give anything away as far as how they were feeling, I didn’t know if they were pissed, surprised, about to throw me out of the house. No clue whatsoever. The only thing I did know, and that was only because of the blood bond with Ana, was she wasn’t feeling surprised.
“We know this already Juliana. We couldn’t be sure of the extent that it didn’t work, but we knew Christian still knew of your existence, and mine as well,” Ana finally said at last.
“What! How did you know?” I jumped up to face them both.
“I went to see him last night after my shift was over. I told him I was a doctor on call and one of the nurses asked me to take a look at him. He did a great job of hiding his recognition of me outwardly, but his heart started racing the second he got a good look at me. When I nonchalantly mentioned you, and that I was sorry for his loss, he started to sweat, and his heart rate almost became erratic. To any human in the room he would have appeared calm, bored even. He is very good at covering his emotions, but to a vampire you can’t hide your physiological response. He knew what I was, and who I was. I knew instantly you didn’t compel him. What I wasn’t sure of was whether you didn’t do it and lied or couldn’t do it.”
“I couldn’t, trust me when I tell you I tried. I want him to forget. I want him safe!” I was almost yelling I was so adamant in my response.
“I know. I believe you now,” she said.
“Why didn’t you say anything to me sooner?”
“You just got here!” Ana yelled back at me.
“That was my call,” William started saying at the same time, “We already knew he hadn’t been compelled. The reason was the only thing missing. I wanted you to trust us enough to tell us the truth. We can’t work with someone that’s afraid of us or can’t be honest with us.”
“Well, what about now? Do you trust me again? Is this why you started acting indifferent toward me since this evening? Is that when Ana told you?”
He remained silent while looking at me before deciding to answer. He was uncharacteristically solemn tonight.
“Yeah, she called and told me right before you rose, and whether I trust you depends on why you’re telling us the truth about Christian. Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”
“Because I trusted you both with his life once, and I know I always can. I’m sorry I forgot that. I didn’t say anything last night because I was pissed off and let my emotions keep me from thinking, and tonight I was too distracted by you treating me so coldly.”
He eyed me for a moment trying to gauge the truth of my words before he finally softened his stance, just before responding he looked to Ana and she gave him a nod telling him I wasn’t lying.
“Yeah, I believe you, and we’ll do whatever we can to keep him safe again.”
“Great, so now what do we do?” I asked them.
“Now, we get you ready for New York. That means shopping and sparring.”
“Why sparring? I thought this was going to be like a business meeting or something.”
“Technically it will be, but lesson one for you is to always be prepared for the worst. You may be a naturally good fighter, but we need to pick it up a bit. Training starts today, you never can tell what you will be involved with especially when it comes to the Council. Everyone immediately underestimates you which you can always use to your advantage. Don’t let them know the full extent of your abilities, or Christian's either for that matter. Don’t let them know we’ve been training you for anything other than how to survive as a vampire.”
“It sounds like you’re starting a coup,” I told William half joking.
“There are no coups or uprising within the Council, there are no resignations, only a silver stake in the heart for trying it,” he told me seriously.
“Got it,” I replied solemnly, “and you are sure these are the good guys?”
I silently wondered what my own fate would be at the end of this meeting. I could understand what the Council was working for, and that they were trying to prevent a vampire-human war, but the measures they went to to keep their soldiers in line was a little extreme for my liking.
Ana spent the next few days dressing me at various designer shops; I swear she was in heaven. We went to the Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago and spent most of our time looking through the racks to find something suitable to meet the head of the entire vampire community.
“I hate shopping off the rack,” Ana told me as she was pushing her way through various dresses and skirts at Michael Kors. “I guess we don’t have much time before we have to leave though, so it leaves us no other choice.” She threw a few dresses in my direction without looking to see if I was still there.
“Hey, where’s the rest of it?” I asked her while holding up a very small, off the shoulder charcoal colored dress.
“That is all of it. You’ll look great in it.”
“Yeah, but what’s going to cover the bottom half of me? I can’t wear something like this.”
“Sure you can, you have the legs for it, and besides it’ll be perfect for fighting if it comes to that. You can kick, run and move it in.”
“Yeah, while flashing everyone within eyeshot,” I replied incredulously trying to hand it back to her.
“If it comes down to that it won’t really matter will it? Besides nothing will happen while we’re there, William and I are just being paranoid. Try it on, I’m sure it will look great.”
Realizing I wasn’t getting out of there until I at least tried the thing on, I left her to find a dressing room. She was right, it fit like a glove. The sequin-like look to the material made the light hit in all the right places really showing off my curves, the short cut made my legs look long and lean. It would look even better with some heels on.
“You were right, I’ll get it. Do you want to look at some shoes before we go?”
“No you can wear some of my silver heeled ones at home. I even have some Michael Kors black stilettos that will look great with it.” Ana had an entire shelf of shoes in the weapons room that she had taken the heel out of and replaced with a silver stake. She was always armed, even if you couldn’t see it.
“Nothing like fashion in the name of weaponry,” I said wryly.
We made it back to the house in no time and I went upstairs to put my bags away. Even though this wasn’t a trip any of us were looking forward to, it was going to be a nice change in scenery. I hadn’t really been out at all really since I was turned. If we could avoid any violence this could actually be fun. Who was I kidding, with William still giving me the cold shoulder, and Ana flipping back and forth between being a Pyscho Sire one minute and infatuated with me the next; this was going to be a tense weekend at best, even without dealing with the Council.
I came downstairs to find Ana waiting for me.
“What’s going on?”
“I need to show you something in the basement,” she said turning to head downstairs.
“Why? What’s going on?”
I hadn’t budged, I knew something was up. I could also tell I wasn’t going to like it from the tension she was radiating.
“Ana, where’s William?” I yelled after her.
“Come down here and see.”
“Dammit, I hate going into the basement. Nothing good ever comes out of going into the basement,” I was mumbling to myself as I, of course, was on my way down into the basement.
I got there to find Ana standing near a man and woman, a human man and woman.
“Ana? What’s going on? I thought you said William was down here.”
“No, I said to come find out if he was down here. He isn’t by the way, he’s out, not sure what he’s doing. There’s no way he’d approve of this, but since I am your Sire it doesn’t really concern him.”
“What doesn’t concern him? Who are these people? I think we should talk about whatever it is you have planned.”
I started backing up toward the door when Ana flashed over to my side. She didn’t grab hold of me, but she might as well have. She leaned into me and brushed my hair back over my shoulder. She let her lips slide across my cheek until she found my ear, and whispered ever so softly, “No, we won’t discuss it. You will sit in that chair over there and not move a muscle. Consider this part of your training.”
I swallowed audibly as I stammered out, “Training? Training for what?”
She put her hand on my chest and slowly walked me backward toward the only chair in the room; the couple was still standing there, not saying a word. They hadn’t moved or seemed to be alarmed in any way with what was about to happen. Ana pushed me gently into the chair and leaned over to look me in the eyes as she spoke to me.
“I have seen Sebastian execute vampires on the spot for not being able to control their blood lust. He justified it by saying they were a danger to both the vampire and human society alike. He said if they lost control of their blood lust in public, around humans, they could risk exposing all of vampirekind to the human world. With the Coven trying so hard to do that very thing, I wouldn’t put it past Sebastian to try to incite your hunger. William trusts him not to; I however, trust no one but myself and William. Well, and you now.”
She grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled it back over my shoulder, and into her face smelling it. Then just as abruptly dropped it and went to stand near the couple by the bed.
“What do you think he’s going to do to me?”
“To you? Nothing. But I do think he is going to put us into an environment that will definitely make you uncomfortable. You are a newborn and by nature are still more human than vampire.”
She was now standing behind the woman as they both faced me. Ana was slowly undoing the buttons of the woman’s shirt. I really wasn’t sure where this was going, but I wasn’t about to sit here, and watch her have sex with someone; if that’s where this was headed.
“Ana, what is going on? I’m not going to watch you have sex with someone! What are you doing?”
I started to get up from the chair when Ana suddenly yelled out, “Sit down!”
Her eyes were starting to become ringed in black, but that could mean anything at this point. I slowly sat back down not wanting to incite her anger. I had seen what she could do when pissed off before. As a matter of fact, I thought, as I looked around the room, I generally woke up in this room after she was pissed off with me. God I hated the basement.
“As I was saying, Sebastian will use this to make you feel vulnerable. He will also try to incite your blood lust.” She had completely pulled off the woman’s shirt now, and was carefully pulling down the straps of her bra. The entire time the woman neither said, nor did anything to try and stop her.
“If you give in to it, it will give him a reason to execute you, if that’s what he wants, or he can use it as leverage to pull you into the Council.”
The woman was standing there completely topless, her blond hair falling to hit just the tops of her pert breasts so her nipples were entirely visible. She was wearing loose short shorts that barely covered anything on her tan legs. She looked to be in her early twenties. Ana moved over to the man standing on her other side, never taking her eyes off of me. The ring of black was increasingly growing larger. I still hadn’t figured out what she was trying to accomplish. She also took up the position of standing behind the man and ran her hands up his muscular chest. He didn’t appear any more frightened or concerned than the woman had. Ana reached up to the collar of the man’s shirt and split it in half tearing it completely off of him.
“I don’t think he wants to execute you though, I think he wants you to work for him. Which isn’t going to happen,” she said with a steely glare.
“I don’t want to work for him! Not after what you and William told me about never leaving.”<
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“Good. Now when was the last time you fed, exactly?”
“The night before last, while we were in Chicago. Why?” She of course didn’t answer me.
“Do not move from that chair, do not respond in any way to anything you are about to see. This is extremely important Juliana; you must be able to do this. If you can handle it when it’s time for you to feed, you should be okay in New York when you will have already fed.”
“Handle what? Seeing two half naked people?” I asked her confused when she suddenly bit into the neck of the man she was standing behind. I gasped out loud at my shock at seeing her do it so unexpectedly. She pulled away from his neck after only taking a swallow or two; not licking his neck to slow the bleeding. The blood was making a steady stream down the side of his neck and running its own trail down his collar bone, to fall on his chest, and make a bloody path all the way down his chest and abdomen.
Ana turned to look at me blood covering her lips, eyes an inky black, to see if I was going to respond any further than my initial shock. I sat back further into my chair and tried to school my face into the blank expressionless look she and William could always manage. I’m sure I wasn’t doing it very well. All I could think was his blood smelled so good, it was a deep, earthy musk. I needed to feed, and I wanted him.
Ana walked over to the woman, and brought my attention with her. She reached over and cupped the woman’s breast in her hand then leaned over and took it into her mouth. I thought back to the first time I was with William and how he had bitten me there and was instantly turned on. She pulled away and released her breast. I was surprised to see she hadn’t bitten her as I suspected she was going to. Instead she leaned into the woman for a second time as she sunk her fangs into the woman’s throat. Ana pulled away from her letting the blood drip down her neck and onto her breasts, it started to trickle off the tips of the woman’s nipples before landing on her stomach.
Rising Son (The Juliana Lucio Series) Page 5
