by Cindy Mezni
“We aren’t Parinrä,” I said, my voice icy. “Is it so hard to get it? By Satan, why do you always complicate everything?”
“I lost control. It’s certainly not an excuse, but I—”
“Stop that,” I snapped. “I don’t care whether you’re sorry or not. We aren’t Parinrä, period. Make sure that your defective brain assimilates that or there will be nothing more between us.”
He didn’t even appear to hear me. He seemed to be deep in thought.
“I wonder why you don’t accept any bite or exchange of blood between us.”
Why was he asking me these stupid questions? He knew I didn’t want any of that, so there was no reason to bring that topic up again.
“I refuse because these practices are only for Parinrä. We’re not and I’ve already told you time and time again that we’ll never be,” I said to him, emphasizing the last word.
We shot daggers at each other. He was the first one to give up. At least, I believed so until he spoke again.
“Ezekiel, of course . . . Why didn’t I think of it earlier? How did it go between you two? You exchanged your blood every time you fucked? Because I wonder if you forced the same stupid rules on him as you do on me since you weren’t Parinrä either.”
I was suddenly invaded by such a fury that a vision of Nathanael, dead at my feet, appeared in my mind’s eye. I got a grip on myself.
“No, I didn’t force the same rules on him,” I answered, annoyed, before more words got away from me, “Maybe we weren’t Parinrä, but for us, it was like we were. And we didn’t sleep together. You and I, we sleep together. Ezekiel and I, it was something else entirely. And, you see, it’s the reason why you and I don’t exchange our blood and aren’t Parinrä.”
His features became a mask of disgust and hatred. I didn’t know if it was directed toward me or Ezekiel. In any case, the murderous gleam in his eyes proved he was ready to tear somebody’s guts out. For my part, I was totally stunned by what I’d just pronounced. How could I have said that? My problem wasn’t to get things straight with Nathanael for the umpteenth time, as it was obviously necessary. No, what disturbed me was what I’d said about Ezekiel and I was false. Totally, completely false.
“Thank you for this invaluable clarification,” Nathanael said, as cold as ice. “By the way, I have info for you too. You can look for another male to fuck you.”
On these lovely parting words, he disappeared from the room without even a last look in my direction.
7
When the Vermin Invites Itself
“Nemesis!” Shane said, interrupting my discussion with Edenaï in the Council room.
Given his expression, I knew right away that my security supervisor didn’t come to bring me good news. I held back a sigh. Hardly one week had passed since the events with Venom and the Nëphyr called James who had eaten his kin. The respite—manner of speaking given everything I had to deal with since then—couldn’t have lasted a little longer?
“Edenaï, we’ll finish our discussion later. Oh, one last thing before you go. How’s your task going?”
“Nothing goes unnoticed by me,” she said with a confident smile.
“Good. You can leave,” I dismissed her.
Edenaï got up from the Council table. She left the room and closed the door behind her, leaving Shane and I alone. With Venom locked in the basement, somebody had to take her place as a Councilor and run the residence as she did—or rather as she was supposed to. Edenaï had seemed quite appropriate to me. In spite of the reluctance of Caine and Logan, I was sure she could only be more effective than Venom. Affable-looking and petite, she looked all but threatening, but I knew her appearance was more than misleading. She was dangerous, and when you entrusted her with a mission, she did it and well. I needed somebody like her to spot the Nëphyr who were close to doing the same thing as James or those who were plotting against me.
“This is a Council room, so next time knock before coming in,” I told Shane while beckoning him to sit down. “So? What bad news are you going to give me this time?”
His gaze was fleeting and I recognized the signs of nervousness I’d seen on him when he’d told me the Reserve had been attacked. I hoped he wasn’t going to report a similar incident to me, or this time, his death warrant was signed. As that of his security team.
“There are humans on our territory. They sneaked in several hours ago.”
I had expected many things but certainly not that.
“What?” I asked him, my eyes wide open.
“I said—”
“I heard you,” I said, my tone curt. “How the Devil did mortals come onto our lands? First vampires, and I can understand that because they’re tricky creatures and far from stupid, but now humans?”
He opened his mouth to speak. I raised a hand to silence him.
“What do your henchmen and you do in front of your cameras? What use are you? Seeing your incompetence when it comes to supervising or finding the vampires you let come in New Hell, I could very well have your eyes torn out and put you back behind your monitor screens and it wouldn’t make a difference. Or better, I could just kill you all. And I have to say that right now the latter option really appeals to me.”
“I—”
“Shut up!” I said, thumping my fist on the table. “All your excuses would only further irritate me and I’d risk killing you myself!”
“I noticed something,” Shane said hastily.
I took a good breath, trying to silence the beast in me, which told me to slit the throat of this idiot.
“What did you notice?” I asked him curtly.
“Judging by what I could see while following the humans on the monitors, they know how to navigate themselves.”
I frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean they know which streets they had to take to arrive quickly here, at the Headquarters.”
“Are you sure of what you say? I don’t see how such thing could be possible.”
“I’m positive,” he said confidently while looking at me in a strange way.
I didn’t linger over his sudden change of attitude, a reason for the behavior of these mortals suddenly dawning on me. The vampires who were behind the attack of the Reserve had all the necessary information to know where the house was. Were these humans also blood slaves, like Venom’s Släva? If so, what interest did the vampires have in sending their food here? And if it wasn’t that, what would mortals do here? Unless they had suicidal tendencies, this intrusion made no sense.
“Where are the humans now?” I questioned Shane.
“Still on their way to the habitation.”
“You didn’t intercept them and bring them back here?” I said, astounded.
It was certain: they didn’t come any stupider than Shane and his team.
“We had no idea what you wanted us to do with them. If you wanted us to kill them or bring them here alive,” he defended himself.
I rolled my eyes.
“You and your incompetents better hurry up to catch them and take them back to the basement. And be discreet.”
I ran my hand through my hair, irritated by so much idiocy. It was necessary for me to remedy to that, in addition to the problem the arrival of these mortals represented.
“I want you and your group to be in the basement with the intruders in twenty minutes,” I ordered him.
Shane didn’t move and stared at me again with this weird look. I lost my patience.
“What are you waiting for?”
He left. If I hadn’t been so eager for these humans to be intercepted, I’d have asked him what his damned problem was. Anyway, he’d soon get what he deserved, as well as the members of his security team.
“Who did that to this human?” I asked, having a hard time holding back my anger when Shane and his henchmen showed up with the intruders.
They’d caught a group made of six people; two women and four men. By taking a closer look, I’
d noticed that one of the men had a wound in his throat which left no doubt about what had happened.
“Who’s the one who tried to feed on him?” I repeated because of the persisting silence, pointing at the wounded person on the floor who was putting his bloody hand on his neck.
I knew a mutiny when I saw one. Since they were standing their ground, I was forced to talk directly to the vermin. But these assholes of Nëphyr were going to pay for their disrespect. I’d informed Xander, Caine, and Nathanael, who I’d called for backup, that I’d give them the signal when they’d have to deal with the security team. I wasn’t going to call them now, but they were going to be pretty busy soon.
“Which one of them did this to you?” I questioned the injured man, crouching down to his height.
He had thick brown hair, his eyes were as gray as a rainy sky and his features were hard and sharp. He had to be in his early twenties and have lived unfortunate events from what I could read in his eyes. Strangely, observing this man brought back something buried deep in my memory. I could only see the similarities between him and me. I’d worn this mask of sadness, a long time ago, when I’d lost a loved one.
“Go to—hell—demon,” the man stammered with difficulty, some blood flowing out of his mouth.
He was in a poor physical condition, but in spite of his state, he stood up to me. I had to admit that it wasn’t every day I was confronted with this kind of reaction. Usually my mortal interlocutors were terrified. Still, despite his words, fear emanated from him.
“Honey, I’m already in Hell,” I said with a smile, a bit amused. “And you are, too, by the way.”
That gleam in his eye left me no doubt about what he had in mind: if he hadn’t been hurt, he’d have tried to kill me. Lucky for him he was too weak to do it or his neck would have already been broken. I kept staring at him and the human, getting uncomfortable, eventually pointed out one of the males of the security team. I looked at the responsible, already knowing the fate reserved for him. He and his group had made many mistakes and this time, it was one time too many. Anyway, his teammates weren’t going to be alive much longer.
“Xander, deal with him,” I ordered.
He obeyed and pounced on the member of the security team who’d been designated. The male struggled, but Xander grabbed him by his hair and forced him to follow him up to a cell. Then he did what he had to do. The Nëphyr’s body fell on the ground, inert. Xander dropped on the ground the heart he had just extracted after having smashed it to pieces. The mortals screamed in horror in front of this gruesome sight. One of the women even began to cry her eyes out. Pathetic.
“Nathanael, Caine, Xander, you can—”
I stopped talking when I caught sight of somebody coming toward us. What I saw was beyond belief.
“By Satan! What is . . . this?”
A blond male Nëphyr, Parker I thought his name was, was standing there with a girl of barely ten years by his side. She looked terrified.
“She was following them at a distance,” Parker said, holding the child’s arm firmly.
They hadn’t even noticed that a child was following them while they went into our territory? They were more stupid than what I’d thought.
“Ivy!” one of the women, the blonde one, said. “Please don’t touch my sister! Have mercy and—”
Her voice cracked. As she began to sob noisily, I motioned for Xander, Nathanael and Caine to put the humans in a cell. They had a hard time doing so, given how much our prisoners were struggling. Between their annoying noises and their infuriating fragility in front of the strength of my kin, I started to get tired of this. It was a real waste of time resisting and crying now, given the fact they’d chosen to come to the lion’s den. Caine moved toward the child to lock her up too.
“Not the girl,” I groaned. “She doesn’t go in there. She stays with me.”
Caine’s eyebrows furrowed and suspicion flashed in his eyes.
“Give me the child,” I ordered Parker in a final tone.
He ended up releasing her, even if he didn’t seem to be eager to trust her to me, without doubt because he thought I was going to feed on her and steal a potential meal from him. He was forgetting that the rules of the Ameïan clan forbade eating children. The brown-haired little girl raised her head with shyness, and just for a moment, my eyes met her big, tearful hazel eyes. She was totally frightened.
For the first time in ages, I felt something unpleasant akin to indignation mixed with compassion. As if what I was seeing, the terror of this child, was an unbearable thing, even for the non-human that I was. And, as weird as it sounded, it was. For me, at least.
I held out my hand to her slowly to not scare her. She observed it. Then my face. Then my hand again. And she did this for a very long time. But I didn’t move, didn’t lose my temper. Even if her slowness was playing on my nerves. I didn’t want to frighten her more than she was. Little Ivy eventually came toward me and grabbed my hand with such hesitation that her own hand had been shaking. In spite of myself, my eyes went to our interlaced fingers. This gesture was strange for me. It’d been quite a while since I’d had a contact so simple, prolonged, normal . . . and human, in fact. Usually, the slightest touch was violent. The contrast was radical, unusual, but not disagreeable. I lectured myself mentally. Why was I thinking such idiocies? Touching her was unnatural considering what I was. Yet I didn’t let go of her hand.
“I’ll deal with the mortals later when I know what to do with the child,” I declared.
I then took off for the hallway, the girl still holding my hand.
“No! Ivy! Let my sister go!” yelled the same woman as earlier, rushing at the very thick bars of the cell. “Monster! Devil! Don’t touch her! If you dare—”
Annoyed, I released the hand of the little girl and turned around. Obviously, I had to deal with the adults first. It would be a real trial for my self-control, I could sense it. I told myself to have no untoward gesture or cause no scream in order to not alert the whole residence.
“Nathanael,” I called out to him. “Take the kid discreetly to my apartment.”
Sensing he was about to protest, I reacted before any sound could come out of his lips.
“Now, Nathanael.”
He obeyed and took the child in his arms, the girl having no reaction. He walked down the dark corridor. The smell and the wild heartbeats of the kid were getting more and more distant until they eventually faded out. I spun around to look at Caine, Xander and Parker.
“Take hold of the security team.”
Caine and Xander did so right away but Parker didn’t move, plunged into a complete confusion. Caine was busy with two of them—one of them being Shane—while Xander was seeing to another one. One of them remained free and got ready to take off when he understood the fate awaiting him and his companions. Seeing that Parker was still inactive, I dealt with him before he could run away from us. I seized him by his arm. He responded by turning around and kicking me in the stomach. I released him, bending over. I recovered very fast and pursued him, using the Pyronnaë to create a wall of fire to block his way. He stopped in front of the impassable flames. He did an about-face, looking panic-stricken, and stared at me, ready to defend himself in case of attack. I didn’t take a step toward him and settled for discreetly taking out my dagger from the sheath tied to my thigh. During a fraction of a second, he cast a glance behind him to consider his chances of getting through the flames without being burned too much. I took advantage of this moment to throw my dagger, which stuck in his chest. He screamed. He extracted it as I pounced on him and tore his head off before dropping it on the floor. A second later, his body collapsed on the ground. Kneeling down, I got my dagger back and wiped the blood staining the blade on his shirt. I then put the weapon back in its case. I glanced at the Nëphyr in the cell where Xander and Caine had put the other members of the security team. All were shaken and frightened. All but Shane. He was resting against the back wall, his arms crossed over his ch
est. He had a poker face and his eyes only expressed a cold resolution. Both intrigued and suspicious, I frowned upon seeing his attitude.
“Oh, Lord, you’re—”
The human in the cell didn’t have time to say more. I’d just caught him by the throat by putting my arm between the bars.
“Don’t mention God between these walls again. Here, you’re in Hell and your Lord can do nothing for you,” I said to all the mortals, my voice ringing harsh in my ears.
Being forced to say the name of the Almighty felt like having my tongue ripped off. I’d kill the next person who would dare to mention Him again under my roof. I finally released the mortal who fell on the floor, out of breath. So ridiculously fragile, I thought with a touch of disgust, the predator in me slowly taking possession of me and considering his prey as the weak being that it was. One of the women ran to his side to help him.
“What are we going to do with them?” Caine asked in a neutral voice before clarifying, “I speak about the Nëphyr, not about the vermin.”
“We’re going to keep them here for now,” I answered without explaining myself further.
I wanted to let them rot in the basement until I decided which kind of executions they’d have. For now, I had more urgent matters to attend, like these mortals and finding out why they’d come here.
“And for the vermin, what are you going to do?”
“Regarding the humans, they’re also going to stay here some time,” I answered him and I insisted on the word “humans” so that he got that they weren’t prey—not for the moment, anyway.
Parker, still motionless, listened to all this, looking utterly lost. I had to make sure that when he went away, he wouldn’t say a thing about what had happened down there.
“And after?”
“You’ll know everything in due time,” I told him, putting an end to the discussion.
A concert of murmurs came from where the mortals were. Apparently, they weren’t delighted to stay among us. Well, no surprise there.
