The Vampire's Lineage (Fatal Allure Book 13)

by Martha Woods

  I wasn’t certain but I felt that he was pouting underneath his mask, so I left it at that and pulled us out onto the road. I did feel sympathy for him of course, I hated the heat, winter was definitely more my style as of late. Maybe because now I finally had someone to share the cold winter nights with, maybe because I finally had the time to myself to enjoy the snow on the streets, but it definitely beat the summertime. Even if you love summer, a life of working crime scenes will do its work to make you absolutely hate the heat, the first time you find someone that’s been there just a little too long will make sure of that. Compared to that, finding one just a little too stiff in winter was a cake walk.

  The radio was talking about the news of the city, and though things had mostly been quiet, on account of my request of Joseph to have some vampires looking out for particularly suspicious people, it was still a city, there was still crime. You’d never be able to stop crime, to actually do so probably meant that you were doing some horrendous things in order to make it happen, and I wasn’t looking for that anytime soon. But thankfully of all the things that were being mentioned, whether it be muggings, murders, whatever, none of it had anything to do with any mysterious sightings of animals or shadowy people in the night, so far the masquerade was being upheld.

  I know that eventually there may come a time where it may collapse and knowledge of the paranormal might become widespread, but I’m hoping that it’s not for a very long time. People as they are now wouldn’t react very well at all, no doubt we would be launched right into another war that may or may not be never ending, and once that happens I feel that the alliance wouldn’t really hold for long.

  Or maybe the world will change to a point where their existence is accepted with little more than a bit of fear and a heap of curiosity, maybe I shouldn’t be so cynical. I should be realistic, but not cynical, they weren’t necessarily the same thing.

  “You’re doing that thing again,” Damon said, voice muffled through the scalves, “What are you thinking about?”

  “I’m just… thinking about things,” I said, aware that this topic might be just a bit too broad to cover in a single car trip, “What do you think would happen if the rest of the world figured out that vampires exist?”

  “A bunch of them would probably try to kill every vampire in sight, they’d probably get the military involved, and it would be all out war that the vampires would have a decent chance of winning unless the hunters got involved. Given the shift recently… I’m not sure they would, but loyalties to species might prove stronger.” He looked over at me, raising an eyebrow at the curious look on my face. “What?”

  “Nothing! It’s just… that was a much more detailed answer than I was thinking I was going to get.”

  “It was something that I thought about a lot a while back, what if one of us just blew the whistle and let everyone know they existed?” He chuckled, thumping the side of his head, “I figured that it would let us do what we needed to do out in the open, which would let us be more effective without having to worry about secrecy as well. It was actually Tristian who let me know that if we wouldn’t have to worry about secrecy, neither would the vampires. When he put it that way I decided that it would be a bad idea.”

  “The odds wouldn’t be in your favor?”

  He shook his head. “Hunters are good, believe me, we trained our entire lives more or less and we treated every day like we were at war But vampires? They’ve spent much longer fighting, decades, centuries, millennia, and they don’t have a natural time limit, their bodies won’t start breaking down the older they get, if anything they get stronger. And they spend that entire time either fighting or training others to fight, because for all their hedonism that need for blood, that need for conflict is always the strongest.”

  “So vampires are destined for war?” I asked, thinking of the times that I had seen Joseph practically moaning in the midst of battle, “Is that what they’re always going to look for?”

  “A few years ago I would have said yes, probably very unkindly too, but now… now I don’t think so, at least not in the way that would destroy what we are building here.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Well think about how Joseph treats his two lovers, even if they tried to push aside their feelings out of the belief that it was weak or whatever, it was obvious that they had incredible loyalty to each other, and now that they feel comfortable letting themselves feel again you cannot even walk by them without feeling that intense love that they have for one another. That is the vampire clan in a nutshell, utter loyalty to the point of near fanaticism around each other, they will fight and kill and die just to protect those that have earned their loyalty.”

  I nodded slowly, still going through every vampire that I’d met in my mind. “And you think that’s what’s happening here?”

  “Think? No, I know that’s what’s happening here. I’ve been out a lot during the night in the last couple of months, trying to… watch people, and become more comfortable with what I am now, and you know what I see?” Now he was definitely smiling. “I see vampires and werewolves drinking together, playing pool with hunters and witches. Just last month I saw a vampire and a hunter hanging off of each other like they’d been best friends since birth, I saw the vampire extend their fangs and hiss at some poor human that had insulted the hunter walking by, before calming at just a single touch from the hunter. Things are changing here Amy, and for the first time I really, truly believe that they are changing for the better. And it’s all because of you.”

  It was tempting to try and downplay it, after all if they were forming friendships and relationships between each other surely the credit rested with each individual person right? But… I guess it wouldn’t hurt to acknowledge that I managed to do something good here, that any improvements we see really may not have been possible without me, I got on other peoples asses enough to tell them to take compliments, why couldn’t I?

  “I guess you’re right,” I said, looking at the people walking along the streets completely unaware of the turmoil that was occurring in this city at night. How many of the people that I passed in the street knew the paranormal wasn’t just superstition? How many of them went home after their jobs and instead of slipping into bed they slipped out of the window to go to a bar, to mingle with hunters and vampires alike? Just because someone wasn’t part of our alliance didn’t mean that they didn’t know any of our members after all, how many of them would be trusted with the secrets that we keep so closely guarded?

  Maybe Damon was right, maybe things really were shifting in a better direction. If we were discovered it would almost certainly coming to war, that much I’m sure of, but our alliance… our community? After everything that we’ve gone through, everything that we’ve built and the bridges we are finally mending, I’m not so certain that we would fall apart. Wouldn’t that be something to see, hunters standing side by side with vampires, defending them from annihilation. I would hope to never need to see it, but if I did? I suppose that I could be satisfied with building something so miraculous.

  Now, I suppose I should concentrate on defending us from just one group, before thinking about defending us from the entire world.

  “Are you seriously not sweating in this?” I asked, pulling away yet another scalf and raising an eyebrow at the dry skin of his neck, “I really wasn’t expecting that.”

  “No sweat, just heat. It’s actually worse than I’ve ever felt before.” Damon shrugged off the coat, ignoring where it fell on the ground before peeling off the sweater he’d been wearing underneath, leaving him only in the t-shirt and jeans that he’d been wearing when I’d found him at the apartment. “It feels like my insides are a pressure cooker right now, stick a turkey in me I’m pretty sure it’d be done in an hour.”

  “I think I’ll wait to put anything inside you until we step out of the lobby,” I muttered, picking up the coat and tossing it into one of the empty offices to my right. Everyone else had been sent ho
me on paid leave, Joseph’s idea to keep them out of the line of fire, given that they all knew exactly who we were and what we did. It wouldn’t do to put anymore people in danger that couldn’t defend themselves.

  Finally satisfied that he wasn’t going to spontaneously melt where he stood, Damon followed me down the hallway towards my office, swiping two of the donuts that had been left behind by one of the secretaries and offering me one. “No flies anywhere, it’s clean.”

  “That’s… all right, this is a clean building.” I wasn’t going to eat anything that had been sitting there for a day or two, but the building had only been cleared a few hours ago, that wasn’t nearly long enough to cause concern. Besides, the filling was grape today, I wasn’t going to pass up something like that.

  The door to my office was already open when we got there, the moment of alarm passing by when I saw Claire lounging through the crack, legs draped over the arm of the chair and her head resting in her palm. God, if I didn’t know they were related before that definitely confirmed it. “Hello,” I said, knocking on the doorframe, “Made yourself at home?”

  “It’s a really nice office you have,” She said, glancing up at me, “You’ve definitely made a life for yourself.”

  “You wouldn’t believe the shitstorm that I had to go through to get it though,” I laughed, flopping into my seat on the other side of the desk, “Even if I told you everything you wouldn’t believe me.”

  “Probably not.” She smiled, just the barest lift of the corner of her mouth. “But maybe one day you might get to tell me.”

  “Maybe…” I looked up at Damon, still stood motionless by the door. “Are you going to sit down Damon?”

  “Y-yeah,” He stammered, taking hesitant steps into the room, “It’s just… a little much, that’s all.”

  Claire snorted, still not looking at him but nodding in his direction at least. “Tell me about it, I wasn’t really expecting this either when I started the week.”

  Damon stepped closer, rubbing the back of his neck and reaching for the chair next to her. He barely made a noise as he took his seat, and if she found that strange she didn’t show it, though she did look slightly more to her left as he finally got himself settled.

  “All right, so… should we get started?” I asked, absolutely desperate to just get rid of the awkwardness already, “You had some things that you wanted to tell us right?”

  “That’s right,” She said, seeing exactly what I was doing and nodding her thanks for it, “That’s why I wanted you to be here as well Damon, you’re probably not going to like this, if the things I know about you are true.”

  “Things?” He asked, clearly afraid that she already knew about his… condition. “What kind of things?”

  “You know, that you’re a hunter, you keep tight ties with the others in this city, what else would it be?” She looked over at him now, narrowing her eyes more in concern than in suspicion. “You told me those things, are you all right?”

  “Yeah, yeah I’m… I’m fine,” He chuckled, running a hand over his eyes to try and clear the last of his jitters, “Sorry, I guess I just can’t get used to actually seeing you again.”

  Seemingly satisfied with that answer, and looking like she agreed with it as well, she turned back to me. “There’s at least two spies in your city right now, who are both involved with telling us your secrets and revealing any perceived weaknesses that you possess. As far as I know they’ve been here for at least a few months now, they got bought by us a few months before that.”

  “As far as you know?”

  “Like I said on the phone, I’m not the spymaster, I’m just piecing this together from things that I’ve overheard around the camp. They’re in your organization, they really hate what it is that you’re doing, and apparently it didn’t take much at all to get them to work for us.”

  “Fantastic,” I sighed, pinching my eyes closed and rubbing my temple. As great as everything else was going with the alliance, and as wonderful as the little talk with Damon made me feel about our chances, I guess that it was foolish in hindsight not to foresee people who didn’t agree with our goals getting in so they could sabotage it from the inside. Of course that was bound to happen, it’s happened in literally every organization through history that tries to change the way society functions, it was naive of me to think we would be immune to it.

  “Now for the part that neither of you are going to like, but especially you Damon...” Claire sighed, looking at him more than me, guessing correctly that the news was going to affect him more, “From what I can gather, the two spies are hunters, and they’ve been hunters for a long time now, so they’re trusted.”

  Damon didn’t yell or scream, he didn’t even really seem to be that shocked, he just closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, a noise of pure disappointment if I’d ever heard one. “Of course they are,” He said, “everything that goes wrong is always a hunter, of course.”

  She looked at me, brow pinched in concern. Evidently she didn’t know the full details of a few months ago, not surprising since we were choosing as a group to ignore it for the most part. It was far from a pleasant memory after all.

  “We had a run in with a group of rogue hunters just after forming our alliance,” I explained, “they were rather close friends of Damon, it was far from enjoyable for any of us.”

  Not to mention deadly, considering Damon’s condition as of today. Of all the things that I hated Tristian for, that was maybe the biggest one, forget trying to kill me, forget trying to kill my friends, the fact that he successfully managed to strip Damon’s life away from him, to necessitate him being turned into one of the creatures he had spent his entire life hating, that was the greatest sin that he committed.

  “Well, at least you’re experienced,” She tried to joke, the tension leaving her shoulders as Damon huffed the briefest of laughs before leaning back in his seat.

  “God, I am so sick of people not just… moving on with everything,” He said, “times are changing, that’s inevitable, just… fucking grow up and deal with it.”

  “People hate change, they always want everything to stay the same. Especially if they’re the only ones that benefit from it, idiots tend to be selfish like that.” Spying the unopened box on my desk, I raised an eyebrow and pointed at it. “I don’t know what this is.”

  “Oh, I saw that on the front desk,” Claire said, “it's some of the food that came in today, since no one else is here it’ll probably just go to waste.”

  “Well, you give me information, you bring me food, I think that we’re going to be good friends.” I smiled, reaching over and patting the back of her hand. “I like making new friends, and you were already so nice when you were still my captor!”

  “I’m glad you think so,” She laughed, “good thing that I like you too, especially considering that it’s pretty obvious that you’re sleeping with my brother.”

  The forwardness took me by surprise, but Damon was far less shocked. I’m guessing that degree of honesty was fairly standard for how she acted when they were growing up, it made sense considering what he was like, I guess I was just shocked to see it be more of a family trait.

  “Was it really that obvious?”

  “Aside from us being told that you two were a couple? Anyone who reacts the way he did when we came out of the forest was evidence enough, no one who doesn’t care a lot about someone reacts that way.” She thumbed her chin, considering something briefly. “But that vampire reacted the exact same way, you know that right? Or am I accidentally revealing something very awkward right now?”

  “No,” I giggled, “no we’re all very aware of it. I’m living with the both of them, we have a… very simple understanding actually, love isn’t as complicated as I thought it would be.”

  “All right…” She nodded, eyebrows high and looking between me and Damon. “A hunter and a vampire, that’s definitely a pair to have.”

  Damon froze, before deflating once more. If there was
any moment for him to open up I suppose this was it. “Actually… it’s more like two vampires…”

  She looked over at him, quite clearly confused before her eyes lit up in recognition. “What…”

  Claire was speechless as he reached up, lifting his top lip and revealing the set of fangs nestled comfortably amongst the rest of his teeth. His eyes flicked from their normal state to a pitch black, and I’ll admit that not even I knew that he could do that at will.

  “We didn’t exactly win that fight cleanly last time,” He said, “I’ve only been like this for a few months but… I can’t imagine what it was like for you.”

  “Oh Damon…” Claire gasped, still staring at where his fangs had been but not recoiling in fear. I imagine that things rarely made her react so anymore. “How did it happen?”

  “My old friend Tristian from my hunting days, I was more or less his second in command for… years actually, we went through a lot of things together, killed a lot of things together, I guess you could have called him my best friend. He wasn’t really someone that you could be friends with, but when you’re a hunter you’ll take what you can get.”

  She snorted, “Yeah, I know the feeling.”

  “After we started up the alliance he made it very clear that he wanted nothing to do with it, I had my skepticism but compared to him… Jesus I may as well have been singing its praises constantly. When we were dealing with another threat, our first real test of group loyalties actually, he pulled out and took a bunch of his hunters with him, leaving us high and dry to deal with it. Most of the hunters that you see with us now stayed behind that day, they’re the true believers in this.”

  I continued where he left off, “A few weeks after that witches around the city started dying, when we were close to capturing the killer his group took us by surprise and tried to kill my whole coven. He hated every paranormal that he could see, but he had a real hard on for witches. I suppose that I’d definitely made an impression on him.” I rolled my eyes, I could remember all the moments where he’d spoken down to me or even thought about treating me as anything other than a child. No, I definitely wasn’t sad that he was dead. “They failed, now we all knew that he was behind it, and after a few weeks of us searching for him he decided to take all my friends hostage and use that to try and draw me out so that he could kill me.”