by Donna Ansari
Demon Blood:
Vampire in the City
Book Five
Donna Ansari
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DEMON BLOOD: VAMPIRE IN THE CITY—BOOK FIVE
Copyright © 2014 by Donna Ansari
All rights reserved.
Chapter One
“How many humans have you killed since you became a vampire?” Michael, the vampire leader of New York, asked me.
“None,” I said automatically. Then I thought about it. I had forgotten about Franklin, the old witch who had asked me to kill him to save New York from the zombie apocalypse.
“Oh, wait, one,” I said. Then I also remembered that Chantele, the zombie master, had technically been human as well. “No, two. I guess two.” I had to think back a little further to remember my old frienemy, Renee, and an old, dying homeless woman.
“Are you sure you don’t want to think about it a little more first?” Michael asked me. His smile was in no way a sincere smile. Or a friendly one. Or even an attractive one.
“No, I’m sure. It was definitely four humans,” I said.
“And the bodies were properly disposed of?”
In all honesty, I wasn’t sure what had happened to two of the bodies. I had passed out after killing both Chantele and Franklin. But it didn’t seem like a good idea to get into it at the moment.
“I’m going to say yes.”
“Very good.” Michael glanced briefly at Alex, who was presumably writing my answers down on a clipboard.
I felt vaguely irritated that Alex, who was second-in-command to Michael and also my boyfriend, hadn’t notified me as to the exact nature of this meeting beforehand. Also, I couldn’t help but wonder why they felt the need to take notes on paper, when there was a computer sitting right on the desk in front of them.
“Blood dolls?” Michael asked.
Blood dolls were humans who we vampires regularly took blood from. Even though I could see how the practice was beneficial, and almost necessary, it wasn’t one of our better habits. Not that there were many good vampire habits anyway.
All of my internal speculation had caused me to forget about answering the question, so Michael repeated, “What are the names of your active blood dolls?”
“You want names?” I asked, frowning. “Why?”
Michael didn’t answer me, or even react, and Alex gave me a barely perceivable eye roll. I was beginning to see how this whole “being an officially recognized vampire” gig wasn’t all just fun and blood sucking.
“I just have one blood doll, and his name is Ethan Grey.” I said that despite the fact that I couldn’t remember the last time I had taken blood directly from Ethan. Our relationship had been strained at best for a few weeks.
Both Michael and Alex frowned and looked at each other.
“Why does that name sound familiar?” Michael asked.
“I’ll have to go back and look through the other reports, but I believe the human was mentioned as belonging to someone else.”
“Look now,” Michael told him.
Alex turned to a large file cabinet, and began rapidly sifting through some paperwork.
“You know,” I had to break in with. “If you had a digital database, it would make this whole process go tons quicker. I’m sure if you asked any recently turned vampire, they could show you how to work Excel.”
Alex still had his back to me, but Michael said, “Are you offering your services, my dear?”
“Me? No, I’m a graphic designer. I’ve never been very good with numbers, data, or what have you.”
Michael was shooting me daggers. “Then I would suggest you keep your thoughts to yourself and let us do things the way we’ve always done them.”
I shrugged and probably would have gone on to say something else to evoke his ire, when Alex turned around and handed him a sheet of paper.
After a moment of contemplation over said paper, Michael asked, “How long has the human in question been your blood doll?”
“A few months, maybe since Halloween?” I said, remembering that I had first met Ethan in a goth club on Halloween night.
“It seems another party has made a claim to this human, as of about a week ago.”
“What? How can that be? Maybe it’s a different guy.” It was true that I hadn’t seen Ethan in a few weeks. Supposedly, he was staying with his parents in New Jersey because his grandmother had been sick.
“We will have to look into this,” Michael said. “In the meantime, you must not drink from this human.”
“Why?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Because we don’t share our blood dolls.”
“Tell that to the other person,” I said. “I saw him first.” My answer even sounded childish in my mind, but that didn’t stop it from coming out of my mouth.
“That may be the case, but up until now, you weren’t an officially recognized vampire. Therefore, the other party has more claim to him.” Michael laid aside the paperwork and continued. “There are millions of humans in the city, Emma. You’re going to have to find another. Most of us have at least five blood dolls.”
I ground my teeth together; it was not usually a habit of mine, but this was a case of extreme frustration. Also, a test to see if I could keep my mouth shut.
Luckily, Michael had already moved on to his next question. “Have you had any encounters with a werewolf?”
“Multiple,” I answered at once.
“Describe the nature of these encounters.”
“Well, just tonight he was eating dinner on my dining room table and forgot to use a coaster,” I began. “He said he would clean up, but I didn’t trust him, since the table is old, so I did it myself. I need to buy more coasters anyway.”
Michael looked bewildered and stared at me for a moment before turning to Alex.
“Emma lives with a werewolf,” Alex said to him.
“Of course she does,” the Prince continued. “No encounters with other werewolves, then?”
“No.” I was glad that at least one of the questions had a simple answer.
“That’s all for the regular monthly questions, but since this is your first meeting, we have a few other things to go over. We’ll need you to fill out a form with all your contact information.”
Alex passed over the form to me, and I tried to give him a bad case of stink eye. I took a pen from the desk and started filling in the information, which consisted of your basic address and telephone questions. There was also a section about living relatives, in which I checked the “None” box.
The rest of the form asked for information about “Cover/Employment” and I filled in the pertinent facts about my freelance job as a graphic designer for an advertising agency. When I was done, I handed it back across the desk to Alex, again attempting a dirty look, and again getting no response.
Michael glanced at the form briefly before saying, “I think that’s all we need from you at the moment. Work on getting some more blood dolls as soon as you can, and we’ll be in touch soon.”
I stood up abruptly. Michael seemed to expect me to say something, so I forced out a terse “Thank you,” before turning around and going to the office door. It was opened from the outside just as I put my hand on the knob, and I looked up to see Henri, a tall and imposing African American vampire. Despite his appearance, he was more pleasant than most in my limited experience with the undead.
Henri smiled and nodded to me as
I walked by him. Then he said, “Next” to what appeared to be a sullen teenager, who had also presumably been waiting for his monthly vampire check-in with Michael. The man stood up and winked at me as he passed into the office. It struck me then that even though he looked to be about seventeen years old, he could very well be several hundred. At least teen vampires didn’t get acne.
I walked out of Michael’s office space and into the long hallway of Jones & Greystone, an investment firm. I knew that at least this branch in Queens was owned by Michael, and he used it as his base of operations when he was in this borough.
Feeling a bit out of sorts, I ducked into the ladies room. Since the cleaning crew was long finished and gone, it was both clean and empty. Dropping my purse on the counter, I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Ethan’s number. He was a nurse who usually worked nights, and even if he wasn’t at work at the hospital tonight, I knew him to be an insomniac.
The phone rang a few times before going to his voicemail. “It’s me, Emma,” I said into the phone. “I haven’t seen you in a long time and was wondering when you were coming back to my place. Tammy is thinking of having a get-together for May Day, and I hope you will be able to come. Call me.”
What I had left on Ethan’s voicemail was a lie, almost. As a practicing witch, I had no doubt that Tammy was indeed planning something for the upcoming first day of May, known to witches as Beltane. But it was more likely to be a pagan ritual than any sort of party. However, I hoped it was enough to get Ethan to call me back.
After hanging up and stowing the phone back in my purse, I got out my make-up bag and started to put on lipstick. Now that my curiosity about what was going on with Ethan had been piqued, I found it hard to think about anything else. If I could only see him in person, I could easily hypnotize him and get to the bottom of whatever was going on. I thought about going to his job, but it seemed silly, considering I didn’t know his schedule.
I began running a brush through my long, black hair, and examined myself in the mirror. Before becoming a vampire, I had worked nights, and thus didn’t have the need to dress business causal. Almost my entire wardrobe consisted of black jeans and t-shirts, which I usually wore with Doc Marten’s boots.
My best friend, Tammy, had recently moved into my parent’s old bedroom, and since then, had been a source of fashion advice. As such, I was now wearing a new, tight black dress with knee-high boots. And even though I was not adversely affected by temperatures, I was wearing a thin, mid-length black leather jacket over it.
My attire may sound a bit on the risqué, dominatrix side of things, but remember, I live in New York City. Such an outfit is perfectly acceptable office attire, which is why I chose to wear it to my very first vampire status meeting.
Now I was thinking that it was also a great outfit for going out to some local bars to meet potential new blood dolls. I had just put my make-up back into my bag and decided what bar to go to, when Alex came into the bathroom.
“This is the ladies room,” I said automatically, even though there was currently no one in the building who would actually need to use the facilities. “And why didn’t you tell me what kinds of things Michael was going to ask?”
But Alex said nothing, and instead kissed me. For a few moments, I let him. Then I forgot that I was at all annoyed and wrapped my arms around his neck.
It was only the fact that I had backed up into the hand dryer, which came on suddenly, that brought me back to my senses. Remembering what had pissed me off, I pushed Alex away. Or tried to anyway.
He stopped kissing me, but kept his mouth by my ear, and said, “Michael would have been able to tell had I prepared you in any way.”
“Okay, but what’s the deal with Ethan? Don’t you remember meeting him a few months ago?” I whispered back.
“It’s just one human, Emma. Let it go, and find some other blood dolls.”
“Who’s the other vampire?” I had to ask. “Is it a woman?”
“No, you’re still the only female vampire in the city that Michael knows about. It’s no one you know.” His mouth had remained at my ear, but his hands had started moving. I squealed and jumped backward, onto the counter.
“Maybe I will go out right now and find some other blood dolls.” I said it in a teasing way, even though it was my actual plan. “Did you ever get any?”
Alex had gotten rid of all his blood dolls in Queens when he moved to Manhattan. He didn’t answer at first, so I repeated the question.
“Any what?” he finally asked.
“Do you have any blood dolls?”
“Yes,” he said simply, and resumed kissing my neck.
“Oh,” I frowned, in a way upset that I was upset about it, especially when he had answered me in such an offhanded way. I sat there for a moment, indecisive as ever, wanting us to continue in the direction we were headed, even with the vague feeling of annoyance in the back of my throat.
So it was almost a relief when there was a soft knock at the bathroom door, and Henri’s even softer voice, saying, “We’re leaving now.”
Alex’s mouth was at my ear again, “I’m sorry that I have to go. Can I come by your place later?”
“No,” I said quickly, before I changed my mind. “Sorry, I’m busy.”
Alex frowned. “Emma….” Then, he seemed to remember something, and took an envelope out of the inner pocket of his jacket. “This is for you. It’s a map that delineates your hunting territory.”
I took it from him and stuffed it into my bag. “What about blood dolls? Can I pick any humans I find inside my hunting territory?”
“Yes, that should be fine.”
Alex turned to leave when something else occurred to me. “But if Ethan lives with me, isn’t he automatically in my hunting area?”
“Let it go, Emma. He may have given a false address or any number of things. If I remember correctly, I advised you to dispose of this human when he first began acting oddly.”
Then Henri’s knock came again, a little more loudly this time, and Alex quickly kissed me once more and was out the door.
Chapter Two
For a few seconds, I stared after Alex as he left the room. It occurred to me that as immortals, we could be dating for decades; I should get used to his hasty exits.
A glance into the mirror told me that my hair and make-up needed to be fixed once again, so I did that quickly. When I put the brush back into my bag, I saw the envelope that Alex had given me. Curious as to my “territory,” I pulled it out and removed the papers inside.
One sheet was a section of a map of Queens with an area highlighted in yellow. I saw that the two bars that were nearest to my house were indeed in my official territory. Since I was hungry anyway, it seemed as good a time as ever to go out to one.
I started to fold the map back up when I noticed there was another piece of paper behind it. Across the top of the page were the words, “Open Court”, and underneath this was a number of dates and locations, the locations all being nightclubs in Manhattan. One of the dates was tomorrow.
Since I wasn’t sure what “Open Court” exactly meant, I put the envelope back into my purse and left the bathroom. The vampire at the reception desk nodded to me as I was on my way out, as did the vampire at the desk downstairs in the lobby.
Both bars were relatively close to where Michael’s office was on Queens Boulevard, so I simply picked the larger of the two.
Even on a Saturday night, bars in Queens can be somewhat empty. When I got there, however, I saw my worries were unfounded. Maybe it was the fact that many colleges were closed for spring break, but the place was pretty full, to the point that there were even people milling around outside.
There could have even been a line, but of course, as a vampire, that didn’t concern me. I walked right up to the bouncer, locked eyes with him, and breezed in.
The Sly Fox was large enough a bar to also have tables and serve food, so when I walked in, the smell of the patrons’ dinners filtered into my
nostrils. It was fairly unpleasant to my undead nose and made me stop in my tracks for a moment to compose myself. That may have been why it took a while for me to notice that I was being waved at.
“Em! Over here!” Tammy yelled above the din of the crowd.
She was seated at a small table with her boyfriend, Gregor. There was an extra chair, which she motioned toward.
As I sat down, the smell of their hot wings wafted up to my nostrils. Unfortunately, I needed to take air into my lungs to speak.
“Hey guys,” I said.
The waitress immediately came over. “Can I get you anything?”
“No, thanks,” I said, relieved that I didn’t have to pretend to eat or drink in front of my roommate and her boyfriend.
“So, what are you doing here?” Tammy asked.
“Just, you know....” I started to trail off, but then I thought of a way to recover. “I’m looking for Ethan. I guess you guys haven’t seen him?”
Tammy shook her head as she dipped a wing in blue cheese dressing. “No, we haven’t seen him, but don’t you think it’s better off this way?”
“Better off what way?”
“Maybe he’s finally gotten over you, or whatever.” She wiped her hands on a napkin. “Maybe you should just let him be so he can find someone else.”
“That’s what I’m worried about,” I mumbled, too low for her to hear.
Gregor was frowning at his cell phone. “Why aren’t you at home?” he asked. I assumed he was talking to someone on the phone, until he looked up at me and repeated the question.
“I wasn’t aware I had a curfew,” I said. “Other than the obvious sunrise one, I mean.”
“We dropped Amy off at your house. She said she was spending the evening with you.”
“Oh.” Amy was a teenage witch who was not actually Gregor’s biological child, even though he seemed to feel some sense of parental responsibility toward her. “I didn’t know she was going to be coming over.”
Gregor finished his beer in a gulp and looked at Tammy. “We should get going then. I don’t want her to be alone for too long.”
