“What are you talking about? I don’t understand any of this.”
“Your eyes. They were telling me something, something no one had ever granted me . . .”
“Forgiveness?”
“That completely unsettled me. Suddenly I could control myself again. When I realized what I had done . . . I infused you and I had to make you drink my blood to heal the wound on your arm.”
I wouldn’t know what he’d felt. Too bad. But what did he say? He’d made me drink his blood? I blanched.
“Don’t act disgusted. Your arm was in a sorry state.”
“If you say so. But I find it revolting.”
We stared daggers at each other. Then I asked, “Um . . . is it morning now or evening?”
“Afternoon, actually.”
It was my turn to be surprised. “But you should be sleeping.”
“And who else could check to see that your condition was stable?” he said sarcastically.
With that information, I plucked up my courage and said, “You . . . you were worried about me?”
I asked the question, but I had no idea how I would react to his answer. Would I be disappointed if he told me he hadn’t been?
I didn’t need to put him to the test.
He came closer and removed the IV from my arm. “I think that will do. I must sleep. We shall talk about this later.”
He left the room without another word.
Later that evening, Phoenix joined me in the kitchen as usual except this time he opened the fridge and retrieved a bag of A+ without hiding what he was doing. Seeing my reaction, he shrugged his shoulders.
“I do not see why I should hide this given that you have already discovered my pantry. Fortunately, of course, or else I would no longer be here.”
“Is that your way of thanking me?”
“It is my way of saying don’t forget to close the fridge door from now on.”
Har-har.
“I’ll think of that the next time you drag yourself in here after taking a beating,” I said scornfully, my arms crossed.
He smiled while pouring the blood into a glass. He was going to have to say something by way of explanation.
“What happened to you?”
“I made a mistake.”
I didn’t know he was even capable of questioning his own judgment. Interesting.
“What mistake?”
“That vampire who wanted to kill you in Kentwood, I did not take his threats seriously. He told me to watch my back.”
“But how did he find you? You travel all the time.”
“He and his henchmen came across me near where my employers live. Their address is not so secret . . . In any case, I am surprised they waited so long.”
“Maybe that’s because we were on the right track, searching Kerington’s industrial areas. They wanted to warn you off.”
He looked at me as though I had just come out of a psych ward.
“One of them had a silver ax! It was more than a warning.”
“Oh . . . at least they didn’t kill you. How many were there?”
“Six, I think. But I didn’t see the faces on the other five. They were wearing hoods.”
“Six? Well, I’m glad I’m on your side.”
“Thanks. Before everything got out of hand, how was your relaxing day off?”
Super. This was the perfect moment to want to make small talk, and on that particular subject. I must have made a funny face, because I was treated to a sardonic pout and a new sarcastic remark.
“Gauging from your expression, it would seem that the company of the living is not all that you wished for. You are not too disappointed, I hope.”
“That’s not it at all. The people in Scarborough are charming, and I’ve made friends.”
“Very good. So what are you complaining about? This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”
It was a delicate subject. I didn’t want to talk about it with Phoenix, but the intensity of his expression made it clear he was expecting an answer from me. He should have been a detective. With him, there’d be no mistakes: seeing his eyes would make criminals hurry to confess to their crimes, and much more.
“I went to take a walk with someone. His name is Matthew. I met him at Danny Robertson’s restaurant. He’s Danny’s son. We’ve known each other for a few weeks, and I was happy to develop friendships with him and his friend Angela. And then he told me that he’s attracted to me. There! Happy?”
I was on the defensive because I could never know with Phoenix if he was going to be understanding or sarcastic. He raised an eyebrow—a bad sign.
“In the end, I think that your love stories are none of my business.”
It was like the air had suddenly cooled at the sound of his voice.
“But you’re the one asking me so many questions! You don’t know what you want.”
He turned around and came closer.
“And you, Samantha? Do you know what you want when it comes to this Matthew?”
“Of course I don’t know what I want. My life has always been a romantic desert. But I’m not going to throw myself into the arms of the first person who comes along just because he finds me attractive. I have a bit more of a brain than that.”
“Thrilled to hear you say it. Love is a distraction that risks making you lose focus in your work.”
“I said that I was going to take time to get to know him, not that I’m going to be a nun. You’re not going to forbid me from falling in love.”
Dreadful. Even if I’d never been confronted by love, I still hoped to find it one day.
“Oh, humans and love,” he growled, rolling his eyes to the ceiling.
He disappeared for a moment, then returned to the kitchen, dressed to go out.
“You didn’t tell me we were going out tonight. Wait, I’ll go get ready,” I launched in, heading to the door.
He grabbed me by the arm and made me take a step back.
“I’m going, you’re staying.”
“Why?”
“An attack on an angel is not insignificant. I have to make my report in person to Talanus and Ysis.”
“Why aren’t you taking me with you?”
“Please understand. There’s a rumor already circulating that a human woman is following me around in my travels. I prefer not pointing you out. You never know. And no human has ever been authorized to enter my employers’ home.”
“Even the plumber?” I said sarcastically.
“Humans are not allowed. Talanus and Ysis are the highest authorities in our region, and no one can approach them like that.”
“OK, OK, but be careful.”
“If I were not careful, I would have reached hell several centuries ago. And you—you must not do anything stupid while I am gone.”
“Never fear. I’ll lock the door.”
He left, and I had the evening to recover from the previous night.
Phoenix’s meeting with Talanus and Ysis came to nothing, so my boss and I resumed our usual routine. I’d quickly recovered from my arm wound, and I asked Phoenix to start my combat training again. For some time he’d been teaching me to fight with knives and swords, but I was clearly less at ease with blades than with firearms.
One evening, Phoenix ordered me to practice avoidance and attack maneuvers. I had to avoid wooden knives he threw at me and send my own blades at the targets he pointed out. That exercise turned sour when instead of hitting my targets, my knives were planted in my employer’s stomach. My blood froze in my veins.
“Oh my God!” I ran to him.
He rewarded me with a look of exasperation and a heavy sigh, and then he pulled the knives out as if they were nothing, even though they would have killed him if he’d been human.
“Luckily this is steel. How many times have I told you to aim before you throw.”
“I’m sorry! Are you hurt?”
In lieu of response, he lifted his T-shirt a little. There, where he should have had an open, blo
ody wound, there was just perfect, uncut skin, lightly tanned, and well-defined abs.
“Wow, your healing speed is remarkable.”
“It is an asset when you are facing someone with two left hands.”
I deserved that, but I hadn’t had centuries to train. We decided then to drop knife training for a bit.
We’d spaced out our sweeps of Kerington’s industrial area. Phoenix thought that if the kidnappers felt safe again, they would pick up their activities and he could catch them red-handed.
I kept to a well-established routine. I trained and I ate. I did the paperwork before noon (I didn’t let myself give in to the appeal of sleeping in). I took notes and did some research on the Internet.
I also went to town at least two times a week. My relationship with Matthew had become normal again, and Danny showed me a surly affection that warmed my heart. My friendship with Angela grew so close that she was starting to become the sister I’d never had.
But the disappearances continued without us finding a single clue, and Phoenix was starting to get truly irritated when he finally got a call from Kiro. The strange nocturnal activities in Kerington’s industrial zone had started up again. My boss was ready to go there the following evening, and I was going too.
“In April, don’t remove a single layer of clothing.” This French saying about the unreliability of April weather was rather appropriate given the temperature outside. It was April, and it was bitterly cold.
I had anticipated the need for warm clothing: black corduroy pants, boots, a thick white sweater, and my big black coat. Phoenix was on edge. He was convinced that he would discover something that evening. I was rather skeptical; until then, we hadn’t found anything in all those warehouses. Except this time, Kiro had given us information that helped us to reduce our search perimeter.
The trip was pretty unpleasant for me. My boss was so absorbed in his thoughts that he stayed as still as the grave. Additionally, I’d barely turned on the radio when he turned it off to concentrate. What about me? I could only sit in the silence and be bored.
We arrived at our destination around midnight. Kiro’s contacts had discovered that that zone only started to show activity around that time of night.
Once in place, we started driving around the warehouses, bouncing from one to the next like a marble in a pinball machine. I was starting to yawn when suddenly Phoenix stopped short.
He signaled to the right with his head. There was a light on a bit farther down. I began to prepare myself to get out and investigate, but he put his hand on my arm to stop me.
“Not yet. Stay in the car and watch your phone. I’ll call you if it is clear out there.”
“Very well.”
He got out of the car and walked in the direction of the light, his silhouette ghostly in that heavy darkness. I hoped he wouldn’t take too long to call . . .
The wait was very stressful. I was wondering what he was up to when suddenly I noticed movement. Luckily, our car was well hidden and no one would see it. Shadowy figures headed toward one of the warehouses. Two vehicles that looked like refrigerated trucks were parked in front of it. Suspicious indeed.
What to do? I couldn’t call Phoenix at the risk of having the ring signal his presence, but I also couldn’t wait in the car and let the men get away. I plucked up my courage and got out.
It was very cold. As I was cursing the manufacturers for exacerbating climactic disturbances with their pollution, I moved forward as discreetly as possible.
The way was clear outside, and there were no guards. That wasn’t very smart.
I noticed a trash pile that looked over one of the building’s windows, and I headed toward it. Even for me it was a piece of cake to climb it. I’d had the great idea of putting on boots without heels and taking a cross-body bag to free my hands, so it was easy.
I finally arrived at the summit of that randomly assembled tower of trash, and I could see what was happening inside . . .
At my first glance, I had to hold back a wave of nausea. I turned away from the window to get my breath back and recover from the horrible scene I had just witnessed. It took me a few seconds to pull myself together. Finally I found the courage to turn back and observe again.
What a horror. It was something beyond imagination, but what was in front of me was the exact description of cruelty Phoenix had told me vampires were capable of.
You would have thought it was a medical center where the doctors were all psychopaths. There were hospital beds everywhere; on each were ashy-faced people. From my vantage point, I recognized one of their faces: she was one of the kidnapped people listed in the police database.
It was Kate Savage, a beautiful young blond woman, nineteen years old. Her parents had appeared on television to make an appeal to her kidnappers; her mother had been desperate. But that was nothing compared to the expression I read on the face of her daughter at this very moment: she had resigned herself to death. Then I looked at the other people long enough to see each of their faces. There was Samuel Hurt, thirty-five, rising business owner, and Milly Kent, twenty-seven, Miss Falk City 2000. I didn’t know the others. They might have been homeless or from socially marginalized groups.
They were naked under bed sheets, which covered them but didn’t protect them from the cold. The explanation of their weakened state was simple: numerous red tubes led from their bodies to plastic pouches, which were filling up with vital liquid—the blood that was being removed from them.
As soon as a pouch was full, a man came along and replaced it with an empty one; then he put the full pouch in a large-capacity refrigerated case. On each case were labels indicating the blood type. The cases that were full were brought outside to the refrigerated trucks.
I finally had confirmation that vampires were behind the kidnappings, and I learned that their motivation was blood trafficking. Vampire law was only enforced in rich countries; members of the vampire community got their supplies strictly from blood banks and authorized hospitals, which allowed them to maintain a certain control over the population. What I was seeing went against all the established laws. But for what reason?
My attention was drawn to a movement at the back of the building. Two armed Asian vampires were monitoring a group of ten bound and gagged people, surely the next group of “donors.” They were well aware of what was awaiting them, because one had collapsed onto a neighbor, shoulders shaking with sobs. My heart sank. There was nothing I could do.
But when I looked again, my heart had a different reaction. It skipped a beat when I caught sight of the blond vampire I’d encountered in Kentwood. He was firmly gripping the arm of a young woman, eighteen or nineteen years old, very beautiful with porcelain skin, short brown hair in a bob, and long, slender legs. Naked, she was no less dignified amid the absurdity and cruelty of her situation. She wasn’t fighting; she must have known it was futile.
However, when the big blond vampire pulled the woman to his chest, she found the courage to spit in his face. This seemingly inconsequential gesture was an act of supreme rebellion when confronting a vampire. I felt a great flash of admiration and at the same time a feeling of infinite pity. She had only hastened the hour of her death.
Indeed, my former attacker wouldn’t tolerate a human challenging him. In a split second, he turned her around, pulled her head back by her hair, and swooped down on her neck, fangs out.
The woman uttered a dreadful shriek and pathetically kicked her legs before finishing her cry with a sickening gurgle. It took all my self-control to not vomit.
Once sated, the killer let his burden drop to the ground like garbage and turned his attention to another vampire. I could only see his back and his fair hair, but given the deference with which the others spoke to him, I identified him easily as the leader.
I couldn’t stop myself from contemplating the cadaver of that courageous unknown woman. By spitting on him, she had chosen her death. She had manipulated the bloodthirsty vampire into carrying out
the fate she’d chosen. He hadn’t broken her spirit; she’d freed herself.
I realized that tears had started flowing down my face. The fate of that extraordinary young woman wrecked my heart as it simultaneously established a fierce and ruthless hatred for her killers. I only wanted one thing: to see them all dead, and soon. I had to warn Phoenix.
As I was dialing his number, the unthinkable happened: my phone rang. Good heavens. I’d forgotten to put it on silent! I jumped, turned it off quickly, and then, horrified, I looked through the window to see if my presence had been discovered.
The luminescent eyes of the big blond had turned in my direction. His predator smile was directed at me, making my hair stand on end.
Panicked, I didn’t wait for him to react. I tumbled down my tower as fast as I could. As soon as I hit the ground, I started running like a maniac, terror seeming to lend me wings.
In the distance, I saw the warehouse that Phoenix had gone to check out, but I knew that I would never reach it.
There was only one thing to do.
“Aaaahhh!”
Still running, and despite the fire in my lungs, I yelled as loudly as I could, hoping that my boss would hear.
Then, as in a nightmare, I felt resistance on my right arm. In an instant, I was propelled backward by a Herculean force that sent me flying onto the concrete and then against the sheet-metal wall of one of the buildings.
The shock was violent, but I was still conscious. I had scratches on my hands and my pants were torn, making my bloody knees visible. The pain in my torso suggested a broken rib. And I won’t even mention the headache.
I didn’t have time to dwell on my wounds. I got up and leaned against the metal wall so I could look at my adversary while remaining upright. It was the big blond.
“Well, well, well . . . we meet again . . . my little snoop from Kentwood. So, Phoenix let you live. He’s getting old, poor guy . . .” He burst out laughing at his own joke. A second later, he was fixing me with a stare, a lion ready to pounce on his prey. “Where is he?”
I thought about the stranger from earlier and decided to fight in tribute to her while performing just as bravely as she did. I straightened up and looked at him scornfully. “You can go fry in the sunlight! I won’t tell you anything, you swine!” I spit out with all the hatred he inspired in me.
Chronicles of an Extraordinary Ordinary Life Page 14
