Demon Blood (Vampire in the City Book 5)

by Donna Ansari

  “Fine, check it later. Meanwhile, my next question is, where is Emma’s mother?”

  I watched with interest as the crystal spun around in a large circle, not settling on anywhere. As my mother had died a few years ago, it was understandably confused. Her remains were in the cemetery behind my house, but it was obviously looking for some more ephemeral essence.

  The pendulum probably would have continued, but Amy grabbed it, and then asked “Where is my father?”

  Immediately the crystal started spinning in a circle, but instead of a slow, controlled movement, it was flying at odd angles, and at times, almost seemed to be pointing upward.

  Amy struggled a bit, but eventually caught the rock. “It does that every time.”

  “Does it do that for anyone else?” I asked. “Like what about me? Maybe it goes crazy for the undead.”

  “Interesting thought,” Amy admitted, and posed the question to the crystal. But it was back to behaving normally, and quickly pointed to New York.

  For a few minutes, we both stared at the map, not speaking. “Do you think he’s alive then?” I asked.

  Amy continued to look at the map. “I hope we’ll find out soon.”

  Chapter Four

  When I went downstairs the following night, Amy, David, and Tammy were sitting at the dining room table and finishing their dinner.

  “Johnny Depp is filming a movie in Australia,” Amy said, sprinkling grated cheese on her spaghetti.

  Tammy looked up in surprise. “Emma, I didn’t know you still had a thing for him.”

  “He’s still hot for an old guy,” David said.

  “Did you hear anything from him today?” I directed to Amy.

  She shook her head and bit into a meatball.

  “You’re talking to Johnny Depp?” Tammy asked. “Is he a vampire?”

  “No, I was talking about a spell we did last night.”

  “You did a spell on Johnny Depp?” Tammy asked.

  Then I noticed that Amy was staring down at her plate and shaking her head. “No,” I said quickly, “the spell has nothing to do with Johnny Depp.”

  “Who, then?”

  Amy and I stared at each other intensely for a few seconds, during which time I realized that the blood I had drank from her the night before was in effect, as I could see every minute detail of her face, including her eyes, which were a striking hazel that seemed to include every color.

  But sadly the witch’s blood did not give me the talent of mind reading, because I still had no idea what she was thinking or why she didn’t want the others to know about her spell. Unless she was worried that Tammy would reveal the details to Gregor, who would then possibly spill to her mother, Diana.

  Just as I was realizing that was probably it, Tammy said, “You didn’t try to do any sort of love spell on Ethan, did you? Because you should really just leave him alone. Maybe he’s actually happy now, or even in a normal relationship.”

  Since I had become a vampire, my previously nearly non-existent temper had blossomed, and now I felt my blood start to boil. A part of me wanted to scream, and tell them that no, Ethan was not in a normal relationship, but in fact was the blood doll of another vampire, perhaps even a vampire who treated him worse than I had.

  But what Tammy had said had hit a chord in me, and I began to wonder exactly why I was so incised. Whatever it was I felt for the human was not love. It was a fondness at best, and at worst, perhaps possession. A cold shiver went through my already room-temperature body as I realized that was it. Ethan was mine, and I didn’t want anyone else to have him.

  The self-loathing that immediately appeared along with the epiphany did nothing to dampen my selfish feelings, and I turned away before my best friend could see exactly how furious I was. Then, since I was already faced that way, I went back up to my room.

  Tammy was calling my name, but I also heard Amy give a fairly reasonable explanation for what happened. “We were just trying a spell to enchant a pendulum so it could find people when using it over a map. We asked about a couple people, but didn’t do a spell on anyone. That would be wrong, of course.”

  I heard Tammy whisper, “Did she try to find Ethan?”

  “Yeah,” Amy whispered back. “And I think she’s really upset that he’s in New Jersey and doesn’t want to see her, so maybe we should not bring him up. She didn’t even know he moved out a few weeks ago.”

  I slammed my bedroom door to remind them that my supernatural hearing could pick up even the softest of whispers. That sent Gypsy jumping off my bed in a flash and out the cat door I had installed so that she could come and go as she pleased, even when I locked the door during the daytime.

  “Sorry Gypsy,” I muttered to the empty room.

  For a minute I continued to listen in to the conversation from downstairs, but now that they realized I could hear, it was fairly innocent.

  “What movie is he filming?” David asked.

  “Something about a ghost haunting the Great Barrier Reef,” Amy answered.

  “Who else is in it?” Tammy asked.

  I stopped listening then, feeling somewhat stupid for having lost my temper. I also realized that, having stormed off to my bedroom, I had nowhere else to go, unless I jumped out the window.

  Then I remembered something from the night before, and dug the papers Alex had given me out of my purse. Whatever the Open Court was, it was happening tonight, at a small club called The Bank in the East Village.

  Shuffling through my closet, I looked through some of the new clothes I had been able to buy in the winter, when stores stayed open well after I had woken up post-sunset. I realized that during the summer I would have to shop online.

  I ended up picking out a short, black skirt, a metallic grey and black sleeveless shirt, patterned tights, and knee-high boots. Between Tammy moving in and helping me with my wardrobe and me no longer worrying about little things like how to breathe in constricting clothing or walk in high-heeled shoes, I definitely had started dressing better over the past few months.

  Next, I brushed through my long, black hair and gave it a spritz of hairspray for good measure. I didn’t bother with a ton of makeup, but I did put on eyeliner, shadow, and mascara, as well as dark red lipstick.

  Only then did I listen to hear if my roommates were still downstairs. I heard the television, but no voices. When I went down, Amy was laying on the sofa with Gypsy next to her.

  “Where are the other two?” I asked.

  “Starbucks and Gregor’s apartment.” She looked up at me briefly. “Are you going out?”

  “Yeah, there’s a vampire thing tonight. Are you going to be okay here by yourself?”

  The teen rolled her eyes. “No, I’m going to eat all the candy I can find, and when I’m done puking, I’m going to play with some matches and burn the house down.”

  “Right, sorry.” I grabbed my jacket from the closet and put it on. “Did you not want anyone to know about the spell we did last night?”

  “Duh.” She didn’t even look up from the television.

  “Sorry. Can you let me know if anything happens with your dad tonight?”

  “Uh huh.” She waved a slim arm, dismissing me.

  Walking the short distance from my house to the subway station, I passed by the Starbucks where David worked. As an insomniac werewolf, the only times he ever requested off work were the nights of the full moon. We waved to each other through the glass windows, but I didn’t go in, since there was a surprisingly long line for late on a Sunday night. Also, I could no longer drink coffee.

  As expected, the train to go into the city was fairly empty. I had been contemplating finding someone to drink from, since being in large crowds of humans made me feel on edge if I was even slightly hungry. And being a hungry vampire was not a good thing to be. Even though I had been a vampire for about six months, I worried about controlling my baser instincts, especially in front of the ruling vampires of the city.

  But the train was empty of
all people save a few couples and a homeless man, who smelled too bad to bite, so I waited until we got to my stop in lower Manhattan to find a lone man in a small, crowded bar a few blocks from the Open Court location.

  Sated and in a somewhat better mood, I walked to the club. The building was nondescript and the windows were blackened. The only thing that gave it away as a club was the long line of people waiting to get in, even on a Sunday. It was most likely due to our blood sucking being addictive to people. Since the line was made up of all humans, I walked past them and up to the bouncer.

  “Name?” the bouncer asked me.

  My usual interactions with human bouncers was to give them a vampire stare and walk past them, but when I tried it with this person, he grabbed my arm and repeated, “Name?”

  That’s when I realized he, too, was a vampire. “Emma Hammond,” I said, hoping that by giving me the flyer, Alex had also put my name on the list.

  The large vampire scanned down the list and put a check mark next to my name. “Go ahead,” he said, stepping aside so I could go in.

  The door opened onto a dark hallway, in which there were two windows. In the first there was a human man collecting the cover charge. His call of “Twenty bucks,” was met with a stare. I assumed the charge did not apply to vampires. The second was the coat check, which I did not bother with, even though I was wearing a jacket. Since I could not sweat, and my jacket went with the outfit I was wearing, I didn’t think it was worth it.

  At the end of the hall was a flight of stairs that led into the main club area. After going down them, I was somewhat surprised to see how big it was, taking up not only the space of the building it was in, but at least a third of the block. There were at least two bars, a large dance floor, and booths along two walls. The place was so massive and packed with humans that the overall result was a bit disorienting. I was glad that I had already eaten, or it would have been way too overwhelming.

  I quickly scanned the place for vampires, and saw quite a few. Then I started slowly walking the perimeter of the dance floor and looking for Alex. Most of the booths were taken by other vampires who were feeding on humans. One thing I noticed was that all the vampires were indeed male, which would explain why so many of them gave me double-takes as I passed. I wondered how many of them knew about me.

  Eventually, I spotted Henri standing near a larger booth by the bar, and walked over to it. On one side was Michael, and on the other was Alex. Both of them had two human women sitting on either side of them.

  I frowned, remembering that Alex had told me that he had recently acquired a number of blood dolls. I was annoyed at just hearing about it, but now faced with the reality, I found myself near furious. Still, I was right there, and Henri seemed to already have gotten sight of me, so I made my way over and stood in front of the booth, trying to set my facial expression to neutral.

  When Alex saw me, he looked pleasantly surprised. “Emma, you came.” He whispered something into the ear of the brunette next to him, who stood and gave me a shy smile before walking away. “Please, have a seat.”

  “Um, alright,” I managed to get out without too much of a grimace. I slid into the booth as much as I could, considering there was another girl on the other side of Alex, this one a busty blonde wearing a leather top that left almost nothing to the imagination. As soon as I sat, Alex turned and kissed me on the cheek.

  Were it not for the girl on the other side of him, I would have thought it a nice gesture, but under the circumstances, it was all I could do to keep from hitting him. Especially when I remembered another effect Amy’s blood had on me—for a few days, I would have super strength, even for a vampire.

  I was imagining myself throwing Alex through the table when Michael reached across it and took my hand. “Yes, Emma, we are delighted to see you at one of our little events, at last.”

  “Thanks,” I said, never sure how to interpret Michael’s somewhat icky niceness. “It’s a cute place. Very…vampirey.”

  The two women on Michael’s side of the booth were staring at me with their mouths hanging open, probably wondering how I managed to convince him to make me the first female vampire New York City had seen in decades. Obviously, it wasn’t my wit.

  Michael and Alex both laughed, and Alex put his arm around my shoulders. I gave him a sidelong glance and saw that the girl on the other side of him had her hand on his leg.

  To keep my cool, I started repeating phrases in my head, such as, “I will remain in control,” and “Later I will break his every limb.”

  “Since you are here, this would be a perfect time to find some blood dolls,” Michael said, breaking my concentration.

  “I can see that,” I managed to get out.

  “Yes, there are a wealth of human men here looking for a female vampire. You should have a full herd of five or six by time the night is out,” he added.

  “Herd?” I asked with a grimace.

  “Yes, well what else are they?” Michael said, squeezing the shoulders of the two girls next to him, who didn’t seem to mind being compared to cattle.

  “Right.” It was almost enough to make me stop feeling guilty. “Well, I guess I’ll get to it then.” I jumped up from the booth and walked away before Alex could stop me. His grip had momentarily tightened on my shoulder, but with my temporary super strength, he had no choice but to let go or be dragged along behind me. I did hear him call after me, but I quickly walked across the dance floor and out of the line of his vision.

  The first guy I bumped into in my hurry to get away was mildly attractive and seemed to be alone, so I danced with him for a short time before discretely biting his neck. I let go after a few seconds, as I wasn’t really hungry, then proceeded to do the same to another man.

  If I had still been human, I would have drowned my sorrows in a pint of ice cream. But vampire comfort food and vampire regular food are one in the same, so I did what any other woman would do in my circumstance, and overindulged, biting one guy after the other, albeit only for a few seconds each.

  Eventually, I lost track of exactly how many men I had bitten and began to feel a little out of it. This, I remembered, was the vampire equivalent of being drunk. I knew I should stop, but was feeling it difficult to do so all the same. As Michael had said, there were a ton of straight, human guys at the club looking to get bitten by a female vampire. It would be a long time before I ran out of willing blood donors.

  Even as I made my way across the club, I began to be aware of a presence in the area, altogether different from the vampires and the humans. Try as I might to regain my sobriety to pay attention, all I could sense were glimpses of an unfamiliar face.

  More than even seeing the person, I felt its presence, and it drew me in. I started quickly walking through the drunken crowd, and finally, began to see more clearly the person I was searching for.

  He had golden blond hair, which was longish and fell around a somewhat pale and delicate face. His large hazel eyes were staring at me, even from the significant distance between us. Almost unconsciously, I walked across the dance floor. When I finally approached him, he was smirking at me in a way that I found strangely familiar.

  “Do I know you?” I asked.

  His lips curled up into a smile. “I don’t know. Do you?”

  “Are you human?” I felt I had to ask. Something about him was decidedly un-vampire-like. One way to tell our kind is that we are fairly still, inside and out. There is no wasted motion, no twitching of the eyes, or rubbing of the nose, or scratching of the head. In addition, should you get close enough, there is no heartbeat, and no pulse. Plus, we are always perfectly room temperature.

  This man, on the other hand, was somehow all movement. His eyes were sparkling, and I had the feeling that if I touched him, he would be hot.

  Not able to control myself, I reached out and touched his arm, only to find out that I was right. His skin was extra warm to the touch, almost as if he had a fever, and I could virtually feel his blood pumpin
g under the skin.

  Now that I had done that, I was almost paralyzed to do anything else. He smiled at me again, and I felt my knees weaken. “Let’s sit down and talk,” he said, turning to walk to one of the booths.

  Since I hadn’t yet let go of his arm, I had no choice but to follow along. He sat down, pulling me with him.

  “I’ve been looking for you,” he said into my ear, sending shivers up my spine.

  “Really?” I asked. “Why?”

  He stared at me for a second, his odd eyes boring into mine. “I assumed…,” he began. “But no, I suppose I must be mistaken.”

  For one horrible moment, I thought he meant to get up and leave, and in that time, I realized I would rather stake myself than have that happen. “Kiss me,” I commanded, grabbing him by both arms.

  He actually laughed then. “It’s been awhile, but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.”

  Then he leaned forward and his lips met mine, and in that second I understood why movies showed fireworks at such moments. With my super vampire strength, I held him as tight as I possibly could, but after a few moments, he pulled back.

  “As pleasant as that was, some of us need to breath at the moment,” he said, again with a smirk.

  “Sorry.” By that point, I wasn’t even entirely sure what had come over me. I wanted to ask him to come home with me, but I didn’t think I could stand the long trip back to Queens, even in a taxi. But maybe if I had a bit of his blood beforehand, I could deal. The moment I thought of it, I knew I had to have it immediately. I hadn’t felt this amount of blood lust in ever, but I was having too good a time to question it.

  “I’m going to bite you now,” I tried to say in my most commanding vampire voice.

  “Sure, go for it,” he said, in a strangely amused tone that I was unable to contemplate at the moment.

  Instead, I leaned over and licked the side of his neck, unable to help myself from imagining all the things I could do to him at my house later. Then I slowly let my fangs pierce his pale skin, and felt the rush of blood into my mouth.