by Lucy Lyons
“Find your own servant, bitch,” I hissed at her. “I’m loyal to my masters.” The blade bit into her skin in a thin red line and the vampires with her backed away from Rachel. The captive vampire collapsed to the floor and shivered, too weak from hunger to break her bonds or try to escape.
“You have made a mistake, hunter,” Glory snarled and pressed her throat into the blade so blood flowed more freely. Rachel’s head lifted and she scented the air like a dog.
“Shit. Stay sharp guys,” I ordered the hunters at my back. “You need to get the hell out of here and never come back,” I hissed at Glory through my clenched jaw. “Next time we meet, I will end you.”
“Next time we meet, you’ll be bleeding out from every orifice while I watch.” The Master of Seattle leaned back and I watched her wound close before my eyes. It was so disturbing, I failed to see her flex her power before Rachel’s bindings snapped and the half-crazed vampire was freed.
I leaped backward and landed in a crouch, placing myself between Rachel and the other hunters, and Glory disappeared as her guards lunged forward, their guns drawn. I watched Simi and Clay fall into practiced formation, with Alyson circling back to protect the professor. I called out to Rachel, trying to get her attention. I needed to get close enough to tough her, so I could bypass whatever metaphysical crap Glory had layered on her so that Nicholas couldn’t find her.
Nicholas. I cursed his name aloud, furious that he’d had me at his side, blamed me for his weakness, but hadn’t bothered to reveal to me that his second in command, and the one vampire I truly trusted, had been taken by Glory and her people.
“Rachel,” I called her name again and her eyes flew to my face. Not in recognition, but in hunger. She dragged herself forward on her hands, scrabbling to get her knees under her and gain purchase on the smooth tile floor. I continued to back away from the fighters and the professor, with the goal of turning her around so the fight was at my back and I was physically between her and my friends.
I had no doubt that Simi and Clay could take on the vampire guards, even without Alyson to help. But Rachel was my friend. I didn’t want to risk her getting killed, by leaving her capture to anyone else and I didn’t want to have to execute her for murdering my people.
Suddenly, there was a loud bang and shouting. I glanced over my shoulder automatically and Rachel lunged. She hit me high, snapping my neck back and rolling me with her, so that when I stood, we were inches from Clay and the guard he’d tackled to the ground. I was stunned by the blow to my head as it hit the floor and Rachel leap-frogged over me, slamming Clay into the ground and biting down, worrying the leather strap around his neck like an animal. Alyson screamed and tried to aim for Rachel, but the guard dragged them both closer to him. The were-rat was too new to guns to get a clean shot. Simi was fighting all out with the second guard and the professor was circling, his cane in hand, ready to draw the sword as soon as he saw an opening.
I grabbed Rachel’s ankle and yanked as hard as I could, shaking her and jerking her leg as I twisted and righted myself. My head still ringing, I gave one giant tug and she snarled and released Clay, turning around in my grip. She used my momentum and threw me down again, but as she landed on top of me, I shielded us both, so I was holding her, but she was trapped in an energy bubble like the one I’d used to surround the library.
I heard a muffled grunt, saw a guard go down out of the corner of my eye and heard the slap of running feet as the second guard escaped. I could sense his pain and knew Simi had badly injured him. I called her back to help me control Rachel, who knew Simi and might respond to us together.
“Caroline, I need you!” Professor Eldritch shouted. I swore and hastily bound Rachel’s hands and feet and dragged her across the floor with me.
When I got closer to the Professor and Alyson, I could see Clay, holding his neck, gasping for breath as blood clogged his airway. Alyson spun on us with a snarl and lunged for Rachel, but the professor grabbed her and held her back.
“Shit, oh, okay. Simi, shoot her if she moves,” I called out, pointing at Rachel as Simi loped back, panting from the effort of her sprint after the guard.
“What happened? Oh, crap. Okay. What can I do?” She started toward Clay, but I shook my head. “I need you to hold Rachel until I can feed her. She doesn’t feed on human blood, so we need to get her something that isn’t.”
“Oh, she doesn’t feed on human blood huh? What the hell do you think this is?” Alyson snarled as she held her hands out to me.
“Alyson. I know you’re upset. I’m going to do what I can for Clay. He’s my friend too. But put the blame where it belongs, not on Rachel. She’s a victim too.” I tore Clays’ shirt, pulled his hand away from his wound quickly, and pressed the shirt to the ravaged mess. It wasn’t just a bite. The flesh had been torn down to the cartilage of his throat. I wasn’t sure why he was still alive and my power wasn’t equal to the task of healing him.
“I guess I know where I can put that blame, don’t I?” Alyson paced the floor, her rage-filled eyes boring into me as I tended to Clay. I did my best to ignore her and focused on my friend.
“Clay, you’re dying. Right now, we have two options. I let you drink Rachel’s blood or I ask Alyson to bite you in rat form. It’s up to you, bud.” I felt his mind weakly pressing on the channel I’d opened between us after he found out about my abilities. I leaned in closer to hear his words, which seemed to be jumbled between his thoughts and his lips. Finally, he shook his head.
“Alyson, come here. Now.” She wanted to argue, but I met her eyes and whatever she saw there, made her understand it wasn’t a request. She crouched down with us and I explained his options. Certain death, to become a shape shifter, or to possibly get hooked on or infected by vampire blood.
“Clay, I’ll just bite you, okay? It won’t hurt much, and you’ll be completely healed.” She turned to me and curled her lip in a snarl. “I won’t let him become a vampire.” I nodded and backed away, but in my head, he shouted.
“No, no, no, no. Let me die.” Clay was shaking and even the pressure Alyson was putting on the wound was doing little to stop the bleeding.
“Alyson, he doesn’t want to be bitten. He wants us to let him go.” I reached for her and she snapped at my hand, her face already elongated into a muzzle as she shifted there on top of Clay.
“Alyson, stop!” I yelled and grabbed her jacket, trying to pull her off him. In a spray of hot mucus and bodily fluids, she shed her skin, but I grabbed her around her torso and threw her backward, falling to my back as I tossed her into a bookshelf, knocking priceless tomes to the floor, covered in the slimy stuff she had shed.
Clay and I were covered too, and I slipped and slid forward to check his wound. I didn’t think she’d had time to bite him, but as I watched, I saw that it didn’t matter. The clear slime that filled the gaping hole in his throat began to disappear, and the wound closed over as it did.
My mouth made a large “O” as I glanced back at the professor and Simi. Eldritch slid to his knees next to me and tried to examine the wound, but it was closing in so fast, we could see it happening.
“Oh, no.” Eldritch and I shared a look. “Well, that’s an interesting development.”
“How the hell do we keep shapeshifting from becoming an epidemic, if you don’t even have to be bitten for it to happen?”
“Right now, the better question is, how do you keep Clayton from ripping Alyson’s head off for turning him against his will?” Simi asked.
I glanced up at her and she was straddling the giant rat that had been Alyson just moments before, her guns pressed to either side of her caramel-colored head. I shot Simi a look and crab-walked over to Alyson so I wouldn’t slip and fall in the muck that dripped from every part of me.
“Hey, Alyson. You and Clay are going to have to work this out. If he chooses to kill you, we won’t stop him. But, we’ll make sure he understands when he comes to, that you didn’t bite him.” Beady black eyes stared
up at me and I sighed. “Now, nod if you knew that the change would infect him.”
Alyson the rat shook her muzzle from side to side, and when I probed her thoughts, I could feel her pain that Clay might hate her for this. He’d made love to her. They were inseparable, but he hated that she was subject to her king’s wishes first and foremost. Clay didn’t judge her for what he considered a disability. But he didn’t want to be her, either.
Eldritch was finally able to call for help and radioed for triage assistance and for Somayo to be summoned as soon as he completed his nightly patrol. The professor handed me his handkerchief and I tried, ineffectively, to clean the thick liquid from my face and neck.
“We were jammed.” I wasn’t asking, but he nodded and gave me a long look. “I’m finished with the disloyalty of the Venatores, Professor.” I scoffed. “I would never, never attack my Venatores family.” Simi removed her jacket, which only had a few small splatters of mucus on it, and used it to scrape me clean as much as she could.
“War has been declared, Caroline,” Eldritch sighed, as he tucked a folded rug under Clay to elevate his head. “But, who do you fight, when the enemy hides in your own camp?”
There was more than one way to find a traitor. I’d played by the Venatores rules and almost died so many times, I’d stopped counting. If it was war they wanted, then I was going to give it them. Not as a Venatores watcher, or a hunter, but with all the power at my disposal as a sorceress and vampire servant. They had driven me to the one place they said they didn’t want me to go.
Chapter 5
“Do you have him?” I asked, and Eldritch nodded his head. Rachel lay behind us, unconscious and barely breathing. She’d made a desperate attempt to save her own life, but the effort had pushed her right to the brink. Vampires couldn’t starve to death, but I’d seen cases where the Venatores had starved them to study them. The cadaverous creatures become something entirely different, never able to emulate humanity again, dragging themselves over the ground like lizards and devouring any living thing in their paths.
I reached out for Nicholas again, and like the jammer on our cell signals, whatever had blocked me was gone.
“I have Rachel, you selfish son of a bitch,” I cursed him before he even acknowledged me. “Now, how do I keep her alive? Because she just tore the hell out of a hunter’s throat and I won’t be able to stop them from killing her, as weak as she is.”
Instantly, I had an image in my mind of Alki Lighthouse, and sighed. How was I supposed to get an unconscious vampire who had probably fifty pounds on me, out of the compound and to the lighthouse without being killed by her or the hunters?
I explained what I had to do to Eldritch and his eyes widened. I peeled my soaked clothing off, dropping it on the floor without any thought to who saw me. I couldn’t stand the thought of being coated in that muck one more second. Even though I didn’t think any of my wounds had included broken skin, I was already scared that I was going to wake up furry on the next full moon.
Clayton was beginning to rouse, flinching and whimpering, but not regaining full consciousness. I stood shivering in my underwear and bra and hugged myself tight. None of us wanted to be the one to tell Clayton that he wasn’t a human anymore. He’d always been accepting of hybrids, after all, he was one of my best friends, and he was dating a were-rat, while the rest of us were still trying to wrap our heads around the fact that they existed. But I knew that compassion towards others wasn’t equal to self-acceptance.
“Well, the good news is, you don’t have to be the one to tell him,” Eldritch quipped and I snorted.
“The bad news is, when Alyson tells everyone I absconded with the murderous vampire, I’m as good as dead.”
“Oh, Alyson won’t be saying anything, will you, honey?” Simi said from behind me. In one hand, she had a black tank top and leggings for me. In the other, a phone. I shrugged and shook my head, but Alyson the rat cowered at the professor’s feet.
“Oh, God, no. Tell me she wasn’t the one jamming us,” I groaned. I jerked the tank top over my head as the triage nurses rushed into the room. I pointed at Clay and the professor moved a little to help obscure the still unconscious vampire from their view. I pulled the leggings over my butt and directed that the rat be locked in her quarters until I returned. I reminded Simi to seal the HVAC to her room so she couldn’t escape the way I always had.
My sneakers were a little wet, but I was a lot better off than I had been. I waited until the medics had loaded Clay onto the gurney and Simi had Alyson hobbled so she couldn’t escape, then the three of us moved Rachel to the empty classroom across the hall from the library. I asked Nicholas to help keep her under if he could and we gagged her and tied her up with sliver and hemp rope to keep her weak enough that she wouldn’t escape or make too much noise. I felt terrible, but if I was going to get her out of there alive, it was worth the risk of her despising me.
The three of us waited together for Somayo and the hunters to arrive and question us. When they arrived, we told them about the vampire dignitaries’ impending visit to Seattle and Glory’s demand that I make her more powerful. Her attack gave me justification to blame her for the quorum choosing our city. As we were letting them know we’d been jammed before Glory arrived, Vladikk Agnarrson, one of the lead hunters, skidded to a stop as he entered the room and searched until he saw me.
My blood chilled and I shrank back from his glare as he ran at me and slammed me back into the bookshelf behind me. I fought back, but he had over a hundred pounds on me and was a more skilled fighter. Within seconds, he had me pinned, my aching head knocking against books as he checked me over for bite marks I already knew he wouldn’t find.
“You did this?” He asked in an accusing tone.
“No. Glory did this, with the help of a hunter. We almost died tonight.” I shoved him off me and half-turned away from him. “Clay almost died tonight, because you wanted more shape shifters!” I snarled and hit him in the face. I put my shoulder and all my weight behind the punch and I felt something in my shoulder give as my fist exploded painfully on his cheekbone.
“Caroline!” Somayo gasped, but the professor held out a hand to keep him back. I flew at Vladikk with everything I had, but after the shock of my initial strike, he was on his guard and it was harder to land blows while protecting myself from him.
I heard someone call my name as something flew toward my head. I glanced to the side and saw my Beretta arching toward me. Without thinking my hand reached out of the air, cocking it as I spun it upright and cupped my left hand under my right in a teacup hold.
“You’re stronger than me, but you aren’t faster, and you sure won’t be faster than a bullet. So, I think it’s time for you to stand down, Viking. Clay’s going to live, but he’s going to be a rat now, thanks to you and your experiments on poor Alyson. Did she know the whole time, that you planned on her turning her boyfriend into a rat?”
“Of course she did,” he hissed. “Why do you think she agreed to it?” I let out a wordless roar of rage and pulled the trigger, firing close enough to his ear that he hissed in pain.
“I am done with the infighting and betrayers and ambitious hunters who try to destroy the Venatores while blaming me!” I fired again and I nicked the other ear. I watched him touch it and stare at the blood on his fingers.
“You going to kill me, little one?” I laughed and aimed between his eyes. My breathing slowed and I could hear my heart in my ears. The room and everyone in it disappeared until my whole world was Vladikk, me, and my finger pulling gently on the trigger of my 9mm.
“Vladikk, you great ginger giant. You and your cronies have taught me that I can’t trust the Venatores to deal in justice. So, yeah, I think I am going to kill you.” I released the trigger and lowered my gun as I stepped back. “But not here and not today. Too many books ruined with your pet rat’s slime already. Now, get the hell out of my library. God knows you don’t care much for our history or the lessons we should’ve alr
eady learned from it.”
Vladikk looked at me for a long moment, but backed away with his hands away from his weapons. Simi took my gun from my shaking hands and put her arm around me, while I focused on simply not crying. The hunters had all heard my accusation and even though Vladikk hadn’t confessed, he hadn’t denied it either. Not every hunter was like Vladikk and David. Hell, Vladikk wasn’t like David. David was sociopath. Vladikk was a zealot, which in some ways was worse. But he believed in the Venatores and he truly believed he could make the world safer for humankind.
I didn’t want Vladikk dead. I just wanted him to figure out that he was losing it, before I had to pull the trigger for real.
Chapter 6
Rachel was conscious, but barely breathing and so weak she couldn’t even struggle against her bonds as Simi and I and covered her with a light sheet and hefted her onto a gurney we borrowed from the clinic. I whispered to her, hoping she could understand me, and tried to project the same feeling of calm onto her that she did to others. Her calming aura was one of her vampire powers and I couldn’t do it justice, but I got the feeling there was enough of her still in there to stop her struggling when I loaded her into the back of my Land Cruiser.
Simi drove so I could focus on keeping Rachel calm and before I knew it we were at Alki point.
“Do you think we were followed?” I asked in a hushed voice. I tried to sense anything out in the darkness around us, but I was too exhausted to concentrate. “I can’t feel anything,” I confessed. “I can’t even begin to try right now.”
Simi palmed her gun and flashed me a quick smile. “I got you this time, okay? Just stay with Rachel.” My gut wrenched as my friend disappeared into the darkness alone. After a few minutes of panicked listening for her return, I opened my door to look for her
I heard a gasp and Simi materialized at my side as Nicholas set her down next to the car. I felt equal parts jealousy and relief as she grinned broadly at me. I glared at her until the smile slid off her face.
