“Where’d you get blueberries, dad? Is it a special occasion?” At my words, his aura shimmered with some gray before the pink replaced it. Ahh. So the blueberries weren’t just because. He was trying to cheer mother up. “She asleep?”
“She’s having a bad day, love.” He flipped a pancake and stirred the batter a little before adding another to the griddle.
“I can see what really bothers her when she’s thinking about him,” I told dad, watching him purposefully face away from me.
“Attempting to unravel the mystery that is your mother is a daring feat, Dreya.” He finally faced me, and I saw streaks on his deep brown skin where he’d been crying and hadn’t washed them away. “I’ve been married to her for fifty-five years and I still find myself surprised sometimes.”
Patting across the kitchen tiles, he put a plate in front of me stacked with blueberry pancakes, set one down for him, and took a tray from the counter over to the closed door on the right side of the kitchen where their bedroom was. I took my fork and watched him knock on the door, wait for her response, then he stepped into the room and came back without the tray. Digging into my breakfast, I took a bite of the pancake and savored the rare taste of the fresh blueberries. Dad sat across from me and started eating his too.
“Dreya,” he started, hesitating over his plate. “You know I don’t parent you very often. Neither of us do. But…” He trailed off and reached out a hand for me. I took it and his colors shifted into a rainbow of emotions. “Please don’t tell your mother that Arthur is coming back. She can’t handle it. I know you were just trying to help, but please don’t say things like that.”
A very rare emotion rumbled through me and I narrowed my eyes at the man I called dad. “I wasn’t trying to comfort her. I know he’s coming back. I may see auras, but I also sense things. And I’ve known since the day he was sent away that he would return.”
“You were seven, Dreya.”
“Knight,” mother said, interrupting us as she appeared at their bedroom door. Dad’s spine straightened and he shut his eyes, knowing she’d heard him. All around her, the blue started giving way to pink, and I was almost blinded by the sight of it. I had to look away, blinking several times.
“Shit, mom. You’re so bright. It’s like the fourth of July. I can’t see.” I heard her come into the room, set her tray onto the table, and put her arms around Dad, kissing him somewhere. I opened my eyes to see her leaning against his back, her head on top of his and his hands clutching hers across his chest. They had a look on their faces that meant they were communicating telepathically, a skill I very much envied. She smiled and kissed him on his long, dark hair. With focus, I turned down the volume of my powers and their sunlight auras dimmed down to a thin line around them.
“I’m sorry, Dreya,” dad said as mother sat down beside him.
It took me only a second to smile at him, and I imagined my colors were bright pink too. “As you said, you don’t parent me. Why start now?”
“Yeah. All that snark. Totally yours, my love,” he said to mother.
“Please. Arthur could snark with the best of them.” She picked up her fork and cut into her stack of pancakes. Her hand shook slightly, but she put a few pieces of it into her mouth.
She was wrong. So wrong.
Father would come back. I knew it.
I left the pink lovebirds to their business and exited the clock tower we called home out onto the city streets of Salvation. Human guards stood here and there with their vampire piercing bullets, and I chose to nod to them with a smile as I passed each one, pretending their sole purpose wasn’t to shoot my people.
Even in the market, the guards remained on their silent vigil, but I ignored them this time. Salvation ran on ration credits. Every month, we were all given a book of ration coupons, as was done many years before during war time. One for eggs, one for bread, and so on. I had my coupon book ready to get something hot for breakfast before I had to journey to the edge of town for my daily blood ration.
Once I’d reached the food stand I wanted, one with steaming fresh cheese bread, I tore out one of my fresh meal coupons and waited in line behind several humans. When it was my turn, I smiled at the woman serving the food and presented my coupon, but instead of smiling back, she sneered at me and wrapped up a small loaf of the cheese bread, roughly pressing it into my hands. Still, using that practiced patience, I nodded my head to her in thanks and headed on my way.
The bread was stale and moldy, I discovered. The humans here mostly tolerated us, but there were some that blamed this all on vampires. To be fair, we did have a hand in it, but it wasn’t our fault. Mother had even risked imprisonment and exile to warn humans about the drones when the mass turning began. Her help had saved thousands of lives. It didn’t matter much when humans believed their loved ones were still lost to them, even if the only difference was they preferred blood over steak.
A few of the city’s dogs roamed the streets and I tossed bits of the moldy bread to them as I struggled to find edible parts for myself. By the time I reached my destination, I’d eaten enough to fill my stomach, and the dogs’ as well. When the dogs stopped to sniff the ground, they ran in the other direction, away from the building I had to go inside.
Two guards stood at the door, a vampire and a Lycan. Since both species had a vested interest in the building’s occupants, we kept them safe with one of our own. Both guards were known to me, but I could hardly call them friends. I flipped to the back of my coupon book and tore out one sheet to hand over. The vampire took it and rapped on the door with his knuckles before it opened, and I stepped inside.
I’ll say right now that this was my least favorite part of town. Mother and Darius hated that I had to go there, but I was not permitted otherwise. Maybe if Darius and I were married, things would be different. I doubted, but I could dream at least.
The room I stepped into had several scents attached, and most were ones I didn’t want inside my nose. The scent of sex and sweat. To remedy that, there was incense burning in every corner for those with sensitive senses. The girls inside the room knew my face and several got up from their lounges to greet me.
“Dreya, you’re looking lovely today,” one said in a syrupy voice. She draped herself over a column near the door and breathed heavily. She was strung out, hyped up on Night Shadow. Most of them were.
The head girl gave me a hug when she approached and kissed me on my temple. “Governor Hendrix continues to be a cruel man, making a sweet flower like you come to this hell hole.”
“But his son is easy on the eyes,” the strung-out girl noted with a grin. The girls went by stage names, and as their real names were unknown to me, I never referred to them by a façade. They were simply nameless girls. “Tempted to use one of those coupons in the back of your book, Dreya?” She winked with her heavily mascaraed eye and her equally heavily dilated pupils.
The back of every adult’s coupon book had coupons for this very building, coupons allowing possession of the bodies of these women when they already gave us enough. I burned those coupons every time I got a new book.
“No thank you,” I said, smiling even though I didn’t feel it. They were all beautiful girls, but I had no desire to have sex with someone who was obligated to do so. “Just my ration.” The head girl took my hand and walked me to the designated side room, closing the door. This room only smelled like blood, and I welcomed the change.
“I’m sorry about the girls,” the head girl fussed as she sat down on the sofa. I joined her and picked up her arm to inspect the skin there. It had several bite marks already, fresh ones.
“You’ve already given today,” I noted, dropping her arm.
She held it back up for me, insisting. “You can’t drink from the girls with Night Shadow in their system, your mother would have my hide. I’m always available for a clean drink, I don’t mind giving extra.”
With a sigh, I took her wrist again and picked a spot of skin that wasn’t bruise
d or pink from the bites, and brought it to my lips to sink my teeth in. I swallowed a few mouthfuls of the life-giving liquid, nowhere near how much I really needed, and pulled away from her, licking the spot clean before I dropped her arm.
“Mmm,” she let out a sigh. “That wasn’t enough for you.”
Silencing her protests, I leaned in and kissed her on her sweaty forehead. “It was all you could spare.” I searched and found a blanket on the floor to drape over her so she could rest from the blood loss.
Waiting for me outside the building was my friend, Thomas, another Born vampire. Dressed in camo, his brown hair was arranged in a messy look and his green eyes looked like crisp leaves. He nodded to the guards outside the door and turned as I joined him up the path.
“I’m surprised your boyfriend doesn’t pitch a fit over you having to drink at the blood brothel every day,” Thomas mentioned, as if he hadn’t said it before. Twenty-three times in the past year, my perfect memory recalled. The fact that he always mentioned my boyfriend along with the complaint spoke volumes.
Practiced patience.
A smile touched my lips, and I tried to keep my tone even. “A small sacrifice to keep the peace. So my mother says.”
Thomas shrugged and looked away, silent for once. We passed through the market again and went past the clock tower to the back of town where Thomas signed us out at the guard tower. The official record said we were leaving to hunt for meat to bring back to the humans, a task many of the vampires and Lycans took part in daily. While Thomas did in fact find something to bring back for food, that’s not what I did during our trips out of the city. It was our secret, mine and his. No one else knew, not even my parents.
We walked past the fence that gave us safety from all the human turned drones, down the shoe trodden road we’d carved over the years. Thomas remained silent, thoughtful, and I didn’t like it at all. We had an easy friendship, built on years of spending time together during school, and now that we were graduated, this trip every few weeks was the only time I saw him. I missed the times when words came easy between us. The times before Darius.
Our journey took us far from the city, so far I felt the familiar anxiety that came with being away from my family. Maybe I was afraid if I went too far, I’d return and they wouldn’t be there. They’d be gone like father. My feet stilled, and I stopped on the road before we’d reached our destination. Thomas came up beside me and held out his hand for me to take, his dusty fingertips peeking out from his half-gloves.
“They’ll be fine,” he said gently, his voice deep and soothing, and I ignored the loving pink that came like a beautiful halo above his head. He knew me so well even though we spent so little time together now. Slowly, I brought my hand out and slipped my fingers between his, sparking a shiver up my spine.
Warmth spread over me, and in the midst of my sadness and anxiety, I regretted for one second the path I’d chosen, the path that took me away from Thomas. And then the second passed and I let go of his hand.
“Let’s go, we’ll be late getting back,” I said, looking away. Thomas dropped his hand and sighed, then he turned on his heel and kept walking down the road. I followed behind, keeping my gaze on the back of his boots.
Soon, far too soon, we reached the building hidden behind a barrier of trees and bushes. Thomas brought out one of his knives and pressed it into my hands.
“I’ll be back in a few hours. If I’m not back by then—”
“Go back on my own so I won’t get in trouble,” I finished. He nodded at me, reached out to squeeze my shoulder, and left the way we’d come. With his fading smell behind me, I walked up to the door and knocked three times. It opened and the scent of fresh bread came to me, releasing the tension in my shoulders.
“Lucas!” Clara exclaimed at the sight of me. “Dreya is here!”
9. Plans in motion
Kitty
“Kitty,” Arthur said in greeting when the three reached me and dropped their kill on the forest floor. His short, blonde hair was in that perfect rugged style, and his icy blue eyes seemed more distant than I remembered. His voice still had that rough edge to it, as rough as his own edges. I felt like apologizing for making him think even for a second that I was my mom, but he would’ve just ignored it. “This is Dominic.” He gestured to the other vampire, an also ruggedly blonde man who tipped his chin to me. He smiled and I saw his eyes were two different colors. One was blue and the other brown, an anomaly similar to my own. My wonky iris kinsmen. It was weird to feel a connection to him, but there it was.
“Hello, Kitty,” he said in a slight accent. Australian? “Arthur has told me a lot about you.” He held out a hand for me to shake, and I did so, only to feel a shock of electricity race up my arm at the touch of his fingers, the way I’d always reacted when Thalia touched me.
“I’m surprised he stopped talking about my mom long enough to mention me,” I snarked, throwing Arthur a saucy grin. He gave me a look I knew was him rolling his eyes in his silent way.
Arthur and Dom skinned the deer, and we sat around the fire pit as the sun started setting, the deer meat cooking on a spit that Dom slowly turned. Arthur passed around some fresh cornbread and sat across the fire from me, next to one of the Lycan females. Maybe they were more than friends, considering how she smiled at him. I couldn’t say why, but seeing them sitting together like that made my teeth curl. I bit into the sweet cornbread and tried to focus on something other than the vampire sitting across from me.
“I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to, Kitty,” Arthur said with a slight smile. He was smiling now. Dude followed my mom like a lovesick pony my entire life and he was happier without her. Ass.
“I too would like to hear what you’ve been up to, Arthur,” I mimicked, giving a hard look to both him and the Lycan female. Arthur’s smile fell and he returned to the icy blankness.
“I asked first,” he retorted evenly. I leaned back and could swear I heard Dom snickering from the spit handle.
“Well, I started out with my team in Canada twenty years ago. We stayed together after everything went dark.” The fire popped and I glanced at Dom, still cranking the spit. He had his head half turned towards my voice with his eyes still focused on the meat. “Every so often we’d find more vampires, and we had a sizable coven before…” I looked down at the fire and I could see it all before me, that day that had changed everything.
The screaming. The blood. And Thalia…
“Shark attack?” Dominic guessed, and I nodded, my eyes still on the fire.
“I was the sole survivor, because I was the only one who could drink from the sharks. The rest… we didn’t have any humans nearby, so they bled out. I left Canada and I came down here, trying to find Jason. When that didn’t work, I focused on finding Lisbeth.”
“That’s why you were in the Night Shadow den?” Simon asked, having stayed silent until then like the rest of the Lycans. Arthur’s eyebrows lifted before his entire face dropped in a scowl, making sure I knew just how he disapproved of me messing with drugs. I made my face as ‘you’re not my fucking dad’ as possible.
“Finding you is the closest I’ve come to her in twenty years. I take it you know where she is?” He nodded once, and I could’ve cried with the relief that flooded all over my body. I sighed and my voice cracked with the sound. Swiping a hand over my eyes, I focused up at the stars. “Is Jason with her?”
“No.” The relief crashed down to earth like a comet and more tears came for a different reason.
“God fucking damn it,” I swore under my breath before I could stop myself. Finding my mom was perfect. My goal for so long, yes. But knowing Jason was still lost made me feel even more empty.
“We don’t know where he is,” Arthur continued, silencing my next question. He looked as grave as I felt, and though it was odd, I felt a kinship with him over the crackling fire.
I swiped my nose again. “Can you take me to her?”
Arthur pressed his lips into a
thin line and he focused on the fire like I had, lost in thought. “That would be difficult.”
“I’m sensing a really long backstory. Can you give me the cliffs notes?”
He glared at me. “I put up with your mom’s sass because I care about her. You, I’d much rather put in time out.”
“Je-sus, cowboy. You’ve gotten grumpy in your old age.” As much as I hated his attitude, I enjoyed getting under his skin. I’d never seen him this way.
“Kitty,” he admonished with a snap. “Stop being such a twat.”
“Rawr,” I mimed a cat noise with my claws out. He continued glaring at me, so I rolled my eyes. “Fine, I’m sorry. Tell me what happened.”
Arthur pierced me with his icy stare, but he continued his tale of woe. “Lisbeth and I had a child together.”
What.
I was certain my eyes were the size of saucers when I asked, “Is Knight dead?” And though I would’ve never expected it, despite my desire to reconcile with him, my stomach churned at the thought of Knight gone.
Arthur looked away and I felt sick enough that I worried my lunch might come back up. “No, he’s not dead. At least I don’t think. It was before the drones came.” Before the world ended then, before we’d all been separated.
“And I was never told because…” I let it hang off, flipping my palm up, waiting for him to explain.
“It was one attempt, so we hadn’t had the chance of telling you and Jason because we didn’t know if it had worked yet.”
“So you and she fucked?” I motioned with my fingers and he scowled at me so deeply I felt like my head would explode.
“It was a clinical procedure. There was nothing physical between us. There hasn’t been since before you were born.” Giving him a ‘whatever’ motion, he continued like I hadn’t interrupted. “After the press conference, we escaped from the newly turned drones, and that’s when Knight and I discovered that Lisbeth was already pregnant. We stayed hidden during her pregnancy and only came out once the baby was strong enough to be on the road. We bounced from place to place for a few years until we found Salvation. The town, I mean.”
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 71