All the guards in the city were vamps. Low level, of course. None of them over the age of one hundred or so. The older, more powerful vamps wouldn't risk themselves with security. That was what the walls and the lowers were for.
After a minute of silence, she dared to peek her head out. The man stood at the edge of the dock nearby. Her breath caught when she got her first real glimpse of him in a stray bit of moonlight. Being a vampire did have its benefits, but beauty and innate grace, were not among them no matter what the fairy tales said. This vampire, though, he was gorgeous. He had long shaggy blond hair, a smooth square jaw, and deep-set eyes. There was a faint air of menace about him. Not a man anybody wanted to piss off. He couldn't have looked more out of place on the dock in his clean black suit and crisp silky white shirt if he’d tried. He scanned the docks, obviously looking for something.
She tilted her head and contemplated him. She'd seen him before, earlier today. Not one of the guards sent to pick her up. No, she’d seen him when she'd left work on the way to her mandatory physical, he'd stood outside, arms folded, watching the door. His was not a face one forgot. He'd looked familiar then, too. His being here couldn't be a coincidence. His sheer presence radiated power, too much power to be a simple lower.
Had Jack somehow given their plan away? He'd wanted to get out of the city almost as much as she did. She still found that surprising given his nightly proclivities, but he seemed sincere. At least as sincere as he ever was.
She held her breath while the vampire’s eyes traced her current resting place. She hadn’t cut herself anywhere. Vampires tracked blood, the copper in the scent, but not normal smells. She’d be fine. She inched back so her movement didn't attract any attention and hid her face.
Cramped and hyperaware of any noise, she waited.
“Isa.” The guard pronounced her name with a slight Spanish accent, emphasizing the E sound of the first syllable like her father used to.
How did he know her name? She tensed and refused to answer his summons.
He tried again. “Isa, I know you're here. The guards are coming. It isn't safe for you here. Please...” Lapping waves were his only answer. A sigh drifted in the air. “I saw you walking here, Isa. I know you're close. This is important. You're in danger. Please.” A faint growl filled the air, and he kicked the barrel by her head.
Isabelle jumped, but remained silent. Faint shouts of guards converging on the area reached her ears. She leaned forward to peek out again. Her eyes met his, the vampire’s. He'd crouched and looked right at her.
Well shit. She blinked. He blinked. She blinked. The skin crinkled at the corner of his sage green eyes, pulling at the small scar over his left eyebrow.
“Isa.” Triumph laced his voice.
She stood up with arms crossed, defiant. “Yes?”
Light danced in his eyes as he looked at her. She knew what he saw. As a product, she was well aware of her value. Her looks were one of her greatest assets. Thick ebony hair framed light olive skin and dark chocolate brown eyes. She had an oval face with sharp cheekbones and sculpted brows. Her face edged toward playful with just a twitch of her lips, a curve of the perfect bow of her mouth. A look that she used often to get her way. She contemplated him while his eyes roved over her body.
When he finished his perusal, he held out his hand. “I’m Roke. It isn't safe for you here. You need to come with me.” His hand hung in the air between them.
“Do you really expect me to trust you? I don't even know you. How do you know who I am?”
“I know all about you Isa but it isn't safe to discuss here. Can't you hear the guards coming for you?”
“You're a guard, asshat.”
“I’m not just a guard, Isa, and I promise to keep you safe.”
For some weird reason, she believed him. Something in his eyes drew her. The color reminded her of the grass in the ballfield next to where she grew up.
Plus, Jack wasn't here, and she’d no clue which boat to get on. What would it hurt to go with him?
The sounds of the other guards getting closer prompted her to reach out and take his hand.
Her hand twitched in his, then settled.
Chapter Three
It felt strange to hold a vampire’s hand. She'd expected his skin to be cold and clammy, lifeless, yet she felt the pulse of his blood beneath her fingertips.
Isa knew vampires were made. They were born human and had a genetic predisposition that when exposed to the Inmortalus virus, meant they died and were born a vampire. Faster, smarter, stronger, yet their heart beat.
She'd never been this close to one before, unlike Jack who got as close as possible as often as possible. As a rule, she kept to herself and did her job, attracting little attention, just like her mom always told her to do. Her job didn't require any interaction with the vampires and, until now, none had shown any interest in her for anything other than the obvious. She wondered exactly how different a vampire was from a human and why she hadn’t ever thought about it before. Their heart beat. How weird was that?
She didn't realize she'd been staring at him until he tugged on her hand and dragged her from behind the barrels.
“Come,” he said.
Isa tried to jerk her hand free, and he responded by pulling her against his side. He started running with Isa wedged upon his hip, her arms now twined around his neck, feet hanging a foot off the ground.
Lights flooded the docks behind them, but too late, for they were already gone. The city flashed by them in a blur.
He took the side roads, dodging guards along the way as he ran through Market Square toward PPG place. Most of the lowers lived there with the higher-ranking vampires occupying the towers. He slowed and set her on her feet as they got closer. “Act natural.”
“What?”
Roke rested his right hand on her waist. Isa couldn't suppress an unwelcome shiver. Roke laughed and trailed a finger down her cheek. “Act like you like it.”
That she could do, she'd been doing it most of her life. She let her eyelids droop and looked up at him through her lashes, lips curving just so, her hand skimming under his shirt to rest along his lower back.
His quick indrawn breath was his only reaction.
“Like this?” Isabelle responded innocently.
He tightened his arm around her, reeling her in closer. His head dipped and his mouth parted. Warm breath breezed across her lips. She tensed in sudden fear. She knew better than to tease a vampire. What was she doing?
A guard’s voice rang out, “Identify yourself.”
Roke jerked. She buried her face in his chest while he identified himself to the guard and escorted her to the tenth floor in silence, blocking her from the camera’s view in the elevator.
As soon as the apartment door shut, she backed away from him. None of this made any sense. Why would he help her? Where was Jack? “What am I doing here?”
“You were in danger. They knew of the ship offering passage to those wishing to get out of the city. It was a trap. You would have been scooped up as soon as you got on board. They aren't lenient to runners.”
“Why do you care? You don't know me.”
“I know your mother.”
Isabelle's heart skipped at beat as her world tumbled off its axis. How dare he? “My mother’s dead,” she shouted and pushed him against the door before stalking into his living room. Her hands curled into fists.
“No, she’s not,” he said as he followed her.
He lied. “That's impossible. I know she’s dead. I saw her die.”
“No, you saw her get bitten.”
“Where is she, then?” Isa faced him, chin raised. “Tell me where she is. She wouldn't have left me.” She wouldn't.
“She didn't have a choice, Isa. Not then.” He brushed his fingers down her face. Heat trailed in the wake.
She recoiled backward and slapped his hand away. What the hell was wrong with him? Why did he keep touching her? “What do you mean no choice?— and st
ay away. Over there.” She motioned him to the other side of the apartment.
Distracted, she focused on the room. The vampires really did live better than the rest of the peons. Her whole apartment could fit in his living area. Thick, soft gray carpet on the floor. Cream walls and expensive abstract art in swirls of blue and green matched the dark green sofa. A small kitchen loomed off to the left and a hallway led off to the right
While she'd been looking around, Roke moved closer and leaned into her personal space. “No.”
Isabelle froze, refusing to look up at him.
His finger touched her chin, nudging.
“Don't be afraid, Isa boo,” he said, his words deliberate, his tone light and loving.
That was her mother's nickname for her and the way he said it, just like her father, jolted her.
The last time she’d seen her mother was right after she got her first period. The vampires smelled the blood. The guards came to round her up the next day. Only a few weeks earlier, the council had decreed all reproductive age women have mandatory mates, thus her marriage to Jack.
Rosa Mendes thought the edict was barbaric and abusive. She wouldn't give her daughter up without a fight.
Isabelle remembered with vivid clarity the day her mother died. She had rushed the guards, they would not take away her daughter. Isabelle watched in terror as the baton cracked across her mother’s head. Blood arced across the walls and her body hit the floor with a thud.
The guards laughed. That laughter, bright and out of place, made her so angry. She charged them and fought to no avail. She’d been fifteen and they were bigger and stronger. They wouldn't let her go to her mother.
The captain kicked Mom when she was down. She didn't groan, she didn't move, but Isa saw her mother’s hand twitching, almost grasping. Isa knew she was still trying to get to her, to help her. Soon, it became clear her mother wouldn’t get up again.
The room had fallen silent for a second, a precious second, as grief filled her, and she screamed and screamed while the guards took turns draining Rosa dry.
Isabelle gulped. The sound of their lips smacking, the greedy sucks and her mother’s last moan before her hand stopped moving, still filled her with horror. No, she could never be a banger like Jack, addicted to the pleasure of the bite. Not with her memories.
Her voice husky, she asked, “Where did you hear that nickname?”
“I told you. She's alive. Rosa's alive.”
“Where is she?” Her gaze remained focused on his Adam’s apple. His fingers remained on her chin.
“Outside the walls where we need to go.”
“You just kept me from going outside.”
“I just kept you out of jail!” he growled, his breath huffing out.
“How do I know what you say is true? How do I know this isn't a trap as well?”
“Do you remember that app you made for school on the day the Madness fell? Little Dig, the program that you made for Tech Ed. Your mother told me about it. You named the main character after your dad.” This time he managed to angle her face up to his. Their eyes met. Soft green eyes flickered down to her lips.
Goosebumps spread across her skin. This was crazy. She didn’t know him. Why did he keep touching her? She rubbed her arms and backed up a step.
“You could have gotten the information under duress. Why would I trust you?”
“Because you have to. Your mother told me this information so that you would know to trust me when the time was right. I’m the only thing that can keep you safe and get you out of this city.”
Something about him tugged at her. She knew she shouldn't trust him. He was a vampire, after all. While there had been no choice earlier when the guards approached, she had a choice now. But...he knew her mom. Could she really be alive? Isa smacked his hand away again and stepped back, moving toward the couch. “Not just me, me and Jack. I have to find Jack.”
Roke snorted. “Jack's occupied elsewhere. You're going to want to avoid that.”
“I don't care how he occupies himself, he’s my husband and there’s no such thing as divorce anymore.”
“That they make you marry so young is a travesty.”
Her mother used to say the exact same thing.
“How old are you?” He didn't look that old, but they said one couldn’t tell a vampire's age until they saw the scars. Wounds happened, and the older the vamp, the more they showed the marks, if not true age. She let her gaze track down defined muscles, a lean waist and thick thighs then back up as his smile grew. He really was hot.
“Older than you.” His mouth twisted and his eyes reciprocated her appraisal.
Her face flushed under his regard. What was wrong with her? She hated vamps.
“Tonight,” he stated.
Wait, what? “Tonight what?”
“We leave tonight,” Roke stated somberly.
“I'm missing something vital in this conversation.”
“We’ll head to see your mother tonight.”
Her heart thumped. “We will?”
“We will,” he said.
Suddenly nervous, she walked to the sliding glass door and out onto the balcony. The air cleared her head, and the sight of the river in the distance soothed her.
She had a perfect view of the walls. Pure steel, they rose up a hundred feet over the city, sealing everyone in. Only gates at the bridges and to the north broke the seamless boundaries. Those gates took over two years of concentrated drudgery to construct.
After the madness, the vampires in their Clan Homes had full contingencies of the best in business, construction, infrastructure, computer and entertainment. Within days they rounded up all the survivors. Every man woman and child either cleared the dead or built the walls. There was enough food at the start to make the walls a priority. Then electricity, gasoline production, and natural gas production. Farms were established, once the people were properly cowed and sorted, that is.
Sometimes, the world didn’t seem that different. People did their jobs and worked. There were approved activities but travel was not among them. There were still private planes in the sky but no jet liners, no vacations. Isa hated the city.
“I have a way out.”
His words pulled her out of her funk. “Why?”
“You're just full of questions, aren't you?”
“I don't trust.” Not after Jack. Not after everything that’d happened between them. Not anymore.
Roke moved up beside her. He braced his arms on the railing next to her as she looked outward. He was so close she felt his body heat when he leaned toward her and stopped just short of touching her, his mouth at her ear. “Isa, you’ll have to trust I would never hurt you.”
A shiver wracked her as she turned her head, frowning. His lips were a hair’s breadth away. The moment lingered. She felt this insane urge to kiss him. What was wrong with her? She turned back to the view. “I wish I could believe that.”
The rivers looked glassy and perfect from here, in the dark, like they had at the dock. No hint of the turbulence that normally filled the water. Ever since the Madness, weird creatures turned up in the free lands, the wastes. How would they get out and through that? At least Jack had had a plan. They would escape in the boat all the way down to Louisville. There was a walled city there, too, but it was smaller and the reigning vampire clan more lax.
“I will make you believe.” He said the words like a vow.
She turned and put her back to the rail, addressing him. “Say I go along with this. How will we get out?”
Roke didn't move back. His arm brushed hers. “A boat.”
She rolled her eyes. “That was how I planned to get out this time and you stopped me.”
He snorted. “That boat was a snare. This one is real, but the ride will not be comfortable.”
“What exactly do you mean by that?”
His laughter hung in the air. “We’ll ride in coffins.”
She paused a second. “That is just so damn c
liché.” They grinned at each other, bonding. His gaze flicked down to her lips again.
Isabelle looked away as heat rushed to her cheeks. “I still need to find Jack.”
“Why?”
“He is my husband.”
“Only legally.”
She shrugged. “I want to know what kept him. Make sure he's okay. He may not be much but...” He was hers. Kind of. Not really. He helped her when she was younger. She couldn’t leave without checking on him.
“Your loyalty is misplaced.” He walked down the hallway to the right. She missed his heat immediately.
He continued. “We can try to find him. Let me pack a bag and grab some weapons. We need to be at the docks by three.”
Damn, only an hour way. Her shoulders sagged. They wouldn’t be able to get to her house that fast even with his speed.
He returned, carrying a katana and short sword both in scabbards and a dagger tucked into his belt.
Despite the weaponry, she found herself trusting him, just a little. Maybe it was the memory of her mom. Maybe it was the soft way he looked at her, or maybe she was too damn tired of everything to be afraid anymore. “Okay, let’s go to my place.”
“I wish you said that under different circumstances and that you appeared happier about it.”
Isa groaned. “Do you ever stop flirting?”
“With you? No. We vampires have great endurance.”
She grinned reluctantly. “Awful. Just awful.”
He smiled, a wicked gleam in his eyes. “But you liked it.”
Chapter Four
Roke ducked into the kitchen and opened the fridge. A dim light glowed overhead, and blood bags lined the inside. Relief filled Isabelle when she saw the supply. She hadn't wanted to ask if he was hungry. How did one do that with a vampire without it seeming like an invitation? And she couldn’t offer. She just couldn't.
Roke took one of the bags out and heated it fifteen seconds in the microwave before he hung it up and started an IV. He looked up at her after he expertly hooked up the blood. “This will take a few minutes. Are you hungry? There is food in the shelves.”
Blood Will Tell: The Blood is the Key (The Blood series Book 1) Page 2
