by Yvette Ford
“Hey, calm down.” Blake laughed. “You might have heard, grunts can be enslaved. The one driving is a slave to the head dude. He does what our leader wants, asks no questions. I know by the look on your face that you don’t like it, but that’s how we live. Better get used to it.”
“What about—”
“Ugh! Tanesha.” He glared at me. “I’m happy to answer questions, but not now. Do you know it’s not natural for us to be awake during the day? I’m sleepy as all get out. Once that ball of fire hits the sky, I’m out. So please, dude, just give me some time. K?”
I settled back in my seat, twisting my hands together. “Okay.”
I liked Blake. He was cool, blunt, up front with me. He didn’t seem to take life seriously, but he knew what he had to do. The best part was he didn’t get my heart going or make me feel like I was a little girl who should be home with my mommy. Not like Lorcan, and for that mater not like Adrianne, who for her slutty look still made me feel ugly. I thought Blake and I could be friends, but right then I was missing Ronnie. Blake was nice and would be fun, but it had seemed like Ronnie cared about me. Of course that could have been years of lies.
I closed my eyes thinking I’d get some sleep along with Blake. If a battle was coming, I would do much better if I was rested. At least I wasn’t craving blood, even though I was sure the red pill had faded out of my system. After a quick fifteen minute nap, I intended to practice bringing up that energy thing. I had a feeling I would need it and more.
Chapter Nine
I couldn’t see it, but Blake told me the members of the coven lived in a mansion set on eighty acres of land. He said the driveway alone went on for a mile. I couldn’t imagine, but we were turning into it by afternoon. If the place was so far, why were they in my city? I asked Blake since he looked more rested now and wouldn’t snap at me.
“Vampires don’t hunt near their home. We like to keep the two separate.”
I swallowed as the car slowed. “Hunt. You mean the grunts?”
He laughed and flashed his fangs. “Hunt. For our food. Grunts are for fun.” He tilted his head to the side like he was listening to something. I tried to tap in, but it didn’t work. The car stopped. “We’re here. Let’s go.”
The driver opened the door, and as I stepped out I tried to look closely at his face to see if I could spot any evidence that he wasn’t human, but he didn’t meet my eyes. I wondered if that was part of his job. It wasn’t right that they made these beings slaves. Not that I had too much sympathy for them, cause for real, they creeped me out, but it was still wrong.
We were in a darkened garage, brightened by a small light overhead. Not even a crack of daylight got in that place. There were no windows. Blake led me over to a door, and we came into a hallway. I looked around. They had money, I know that. I guess whoever was in charge had been around for long enough to save a few lifetimes’ worth of money. Must be nice.
Hardwood floors, giant pictures of landscapes on the walls, and every room we passed decorated to the hilt. I was impressed. So why they led me to that empty prison room place I didn’t know. It was all kinds of cruel. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they had a grudge against me, but I didn’t do anything to them, except avoid being killed.
Before I was taken to the empty room, I had to meet with the head guy. Blake handed me over to a woman no taller than four feet and rail thin, with dry, flyaway red hair.
“Lin’ll take you to the big dude,” Blake told me. He started to walk off but then stopped and grinned at me. “Don’t let her size fool you. The smaller they are, the more vicious.” He winked and disappeared in a breeze. I chewed a thumb nail.
“This way,” she told me. I followed.
“Hey, um, have you seen Lorcan?” I told myself I wasn’t going to ask about his lying ass, but I couldn’t help it.
She didn’t answer.
“Did you hear me?” I called out. She turned a corner, and we came across some stairs. While we walked up, I concentrated on the back of her head, narrowed my eyes, and tried to get in her thoughts. I actually felt it, like pressing on a balloon. At first it seemed like I was getting through, and then I’m not sure what happened.
One minute, she’s looking the other way going up the steps, and the next her fangs are out, her face is scary crazy, and she’s coming at me. I don’t know where the clawlike fingernails came from, but she would have sliced me like bread if she got to me. An instant before she did, someone passed between us.
“You came.”
I glanced up, and almost fell on the floor seeing Lorcan. “Oh, it’s the loser, the liar,
the—”
“I didn’t lie to you, Tanesha.”
I waved my hand. “Whatever, homeboy. I don’t want anything to do with you. Now get out of my way. I have a date with the leader.”
He paled, if it was possible. “Don’t say that.”
“I said get out of my way.” I put my hands on my hips and dared him to stop me. He stepped back but not to the side.
“I’ll take you to him.” He took my arm and almost dragged me up the rest of the steps, around a corner, and down another hall. At the end were double doors that opened onto a huge room set up like a dining hall. Twelve people in black shirts and slacks sat around a massive wooden table. At least they’re not in robes, I thought, before I remembered that every one of them could read my mind with no trouble whatsoever. I tried to empty my head, but wouldn’t you know, all I could think about was how it felt to kiss Lorcan at the lake.
Twelve sets of eyes shifted to Lorcan, and I looked at him too. His cheeks turned light pink. I wanted to die of embarrassment. After a few minutes, one of the men at the table stood.
“Come in, Tanesha.” He nodded to Lorcan. “That will be all, Lorcan. Take your rest.”
Can you believe, Lorcan actually bowed and then left, shutting the doors behind him? I felt like I was in medieval times. Lifting my chin to hide the fact that I was shaking, I walked forward and stopped a few feet from the door.
“So why have you been after me? I didn’t do anything to y’all. I’m just a teenager, trying to do my thing.” They all looked like they wondered what “my thing” meant. I wasn’t going to enlighten them. They were probably all like nine hundred million years old or whatever, ten men and two women.
The head man smiled. “Our ages range. The oldest is six hundred, and the youngest is two hundred fifty. Of course there are covens where older vampires exist.”
“And I’d appreciate it if you’d stay out of my head!” Those last words seemed brave, but in reality my voice cracked every other word. I was not feeling any better knowing Mr. Big Shot had noticed. He was the only one who showed any emotion, while the others were stony-faced.
I squinted at them all around the table. “A good laxative will fix you up.”
That got them riled. I laughed at the noses rising, and whispers filled my head. The leader waved his hand. “Enough!”
I tried to say something more or even to think something, but I couldn’t. This guy was so powerful he could control my body inside and out. Fear gripped me. I had to blink a few times to keep myself from crying.
“I was kind,” the leader began, “by sending those that looked like they were closer to your age. I thought friendship would lead you out of your protection.”
There was that protection talk again.
“As usual, I was right.”
Arrogant anyone? Damn, this man thought he was the stuff. Someone needed to knock him down a few pegs, but I knew already I wasn’t going to be that one. Whatever he had in mind for me was coming, like it or not.
“You’re here, and you will be useful.” He breathed deep. “Mm, I smell it. Brothers, sisters, don’t you smell it? I told you she was more than we thought at first.” He smiled at me. “You should be happy about the oversight. We thought you were an ordinary human for sixteen long years. It worked to our enemy’s advantage, but something happened when you turned sixteen. Ma
ybe it was maturity, whatever. That scent, that key to what we want was turned on, and we sent Lorcan to scout you out. His first taste of your blood confirmed it.”
He must have let me go because I could speak. “Confirmed what?”
“That you’re half vampire of course.”
“Half what?” My legs gave out, and I fell on the floor. I know they could have moved fast enough to catch me, but they didn’t. They didn’t give a crap about me. They just wanted to use me for something. I wanted to know what it was, but then again I didn’t. I just wanted to go home and forget every one of them existed, that what I believed was real, and what I believed wasn’t stayed that way.
I crawled across the floor like an insane person, until I reached a chair set against the wall. I used it as a crutch to get to my feet, and then I flopped down on it, gripping the sides so I wouldn’t crash down on my face again. “Let me get this straight. You think I’m already half vampire, even though Lorcan didn’t suck out much of my blood? You’ve got to be crazy. You must be, ’cause I’m not buying it. I won’t!”
“Poor thing,” the man said. He crossed the room and stood over me. I willed myself to knock his hand out of my face when he ran it down my cheek, but like before I couldn’t move. “You’ve been lied to for so long. Didn’t your daddy tell you?”
“Look, if you have something to say, why don’t you say it and get it over with?” I grumbled. “I don’t have time for this.”
“You have time.” His eyes darkened, and his nostrils flared. I could almost hear the fangs lowering in his mouth. He licked his lips while he watched me like I was his next meal. “We’ll give you all the time in the world.”
“Tell her, Jett, and stop tormenting her.”
I gasped at the voice. The person had deliberately spoken in his head and mine so I could hear what she said to him. It was one of the women at the table. I checked the two, but their faces were still blank. Neither of the two sets of eyes seemed to have spoken to me.
Jett, the leader, turned and pointed at the lady with the red hair and the green eyes. I thought she looked like Adrianne. She was the one who had spoken. She seemed too calm, too put together to be related to Adrianne, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. The smirk on Jett’s face said she and all the others already knew what I thought. I dropped my head and drew my knees up to my chest. My mother had taught me better than to be rude to my elders, but that had never meant I couldn’t think rude thoughts. This was too much.
“For you, my dear,” Jett said with all the attitude of a drama queen, “I will tell her who she is.”
His hand shot out to me and wrapped around my wrist. He jerked, and I winced when he twisted my arm. All my life, I had this freaky little birthmark just above the bend in my arm. I thought it looked like a target, the kind where you’re aiming your gun in a video game, and that circle with the cross in the middle shows you where to shoot. But one time, Ronnie and I had been messing around on the Internet, and we looked up symbols. We found one that looked like mine. It was a sun cross, the symbol for the sun.
“This marking means that you’re from the day walkers’ clan,” Jett explained.
“What the heck are day walkers?” I asked with total disrespect. I had jumped off the deep end already. There was no since in coming back and pretending I respected these people.
Adrianne’s relative seemed to show some life at last with a raise of her eyebrow. I thought if she felt like speaking, she would fuss at me with my mother’s tone, when she wanted to lecture me on what I’d done wrong.
Jett went on. “Day walkers are vampires that can do just that, walk in the day. The sun does not bother them to the extent that it does us. They will not die if they are exposed to it, although their eyes tend to be sensitive to the light. In the Eastern world, the sun cross symbolized both the sun and the tree of life. Do you know what that means?”
I tilted my head up at him and rolled my eyes. “Why don’t you save us both the trouble and just tell me?”
He raised his hand to my face like he was going to smack me but resisted. I think that woman stopped him again. “Fine,” he growled. “In addition to walking in the light, day walkers can eat regular food and reproduce.”
“Damn, somebody sounds bitter.” I laughed and was sure I heard a titter in my head.
“Anyway,” Jett almost shouted, “you are one of these special ones, or rather half. At first we thought the genes were latent in you, but we were wrong. We know now that your father protected you.”
“My dad?”
He leaned down so his face was level with mine, and tilted his head, mocking me. “Yep. Isn’t that special? Your dad is a great big liar. He didn’t tell you he’s one of the most powerful vampires since we came into existence. And you know what else, girlfriend?”
I resisted smacking him.
“Your blood is going to make us just as powerful.” The door opened, and Lin came in. “Take her to her new room, Lin, where she can await her fate.”
* * * *
I rattled around in my prison—because that’s what this room was—for hours it seemed. I had stood at the door with my palms on it and my eyes closed, trying to will my mind outside to see if I could pick up anyone’s thoughts. But it didn’t work. I didn’t know if they had reinforced this room to keep vampire powers in or if I was just too weak to get anything. I needed more of Lorcan’s blood. From what I could figure out, him sucking my blood would eventually make me a full-fledged vampire, but him giving me his awakened my inner half vampire abilities. Whatever. Either way, I needed out of here. First stop, the toilet. I had to pee bad.
A sound outside the door caught my attention. I moved away from it and stood with my back to the wall and took on a phony fighting stance. Phony ‘cause I didn’t have a clue how to fight, but I could talk—and show—a good game. I expected the doorknob to turn or to hear a key in the lock. What I got almost made me wet my shorts.
This dark brown goo, which reminded me of the apple butter my great-grandmother would try to get me to eat, oozed under the door. I stared at it, and then looked around to find a broom or something to sweep it back out. The stuff was alive. It paused, rolled one way toward the left and then rolled back to the right. My heart stopped when it focused on me and continued to come in.
Next thing you know, it rolled to the middle of the floor and started layering itself, getting taller and taller. When it stopped rising, it started forming into a person, solidifying, and you could have knocked me over with a puff of air at who was standing there.
“Ronnie!” I shook my head and scrubbed my eyes. No way. No freakin’ way was my best friend...well...whatever he was. “What are you? How did you...” My mind was jumbled. I was scared silly, and I wanted to cry, but instead I just stood there with my mouth hanging open.
I had just learned that I was half vampire, if it was even true, and now I was facing this? No! “This is too much,” I shouted, like doing that was going to throw a reset button, and all the craziness would disappear. Fat chance.
The pained look on Ronnie’s face put an ache in my chest, but if I could have stomped on it, I would have. He was obviously not what he had been claiming to be all these years, and now he showed up just dripping into the room. I knew that couldn’t be called dripping, but I was pissed off.
“I-I’m a grunt,” he admitted.
I screamed.
He flew at me with his hands out to cover my mouth, but I dove to the side so he couldn’t touch me. I had flashbacks of those things’ original form, and it wasn’t cute and fluffy, that’s for sure. A grunt. A tall, thin creature that could shape-shift and use magic. The only time they weren’t following their own evil instincts was when they were made slaves. I remembered those facts and spun around to face Ronnie, who hadn’t chased after me when he realized I was scared of him.
I gasped. “You’re a slave?”
He shrugged. “Don’t even worry about, Tanesha. I came to get you out of here, so if you’r
e ready—”
“Don’t even worry about it!”
He darted to the door and listened. “Keep your voice down. If they suspect something up, all they have to do is read your mind.”
I ignored his words and threw my hands up on my hips, facing him. “How can you tell me not to worry about it? I didn’t even know you existed until a couple weeks ago, nor vampires for that matter. I can’t just not worry about it. So who locked your heels, Ronnie? Tell me!”
“Your dad.”
I just stood there in silence, a million questions going through my mind, but I couldn’t make myself ask any of them. The one that made me want to cry the most was, is the man I thought I knew and loved real or was he faking all my life? Was I real? Or anything around me?
I couldn’t help it. I started blubbering like a fool, and Ronnie tried to touch me again, but I slapped his hand away. He looked like he would argue, but I got all up in his face. “Don’t you touch me! You lied. All these years, you’ve been lying. Are you even a boy? Are you even sixteen? I don’t get it. What’s going on?”
