by E. Blix
Christoph moved her hand and sipped his tea.
“This—” Analie tugged Christoph’s collar and her whole arm lit up in pins and needles. “—is our worst nightmare. Try to understand. Anyone can get used to anything, but Christoph is going to need some time before he sees that you’re not Lev or Gil or Rosa or Ryuji.”
If it was possible for a vampire to look ill, Mouse did.
She didn’t move or react for quite a long time. Eventually, she reached out for the pad of paper, and started to write.
I wasn’t always without voice. Max Carlyle told me that I would be a better singer and actress if I had centuries, not just a few short years, to perfect my art. He made me what I am.
Even though I did everything he ever asked, it was not enough. He was displeased with my rate of progress. Said I embarrassed him in front of his friends.
He took other things, but first he destroyed my ability to be heard. I’m not sure, but Alec says based on the times between his visits to Max when he stopped seeing me in Max’s company, he thinks it might have taken about twenty to twenty-five years for the damage to set in enough to be permanent. Once he realized what Max had done, it was too late. Alec still saved me, but I wasn’t me anymore.
You have every reason to be afraid of us. I’m sorry for that. I’ll leave you alone.
It took her a while to write it all down. Not necessarily because she had so much to say, but because of how hard it was to express what had happened to her. She wrote in fits and starts, then hesitated about giving it to them when she was done.
After she worked up the courage to tear the page off and hand it over, Mouse didn’t wait for them to read the note. Instead, she rose silently to her feet, passing the paper to Analie before shuffling off to her bedroom.
Analie read the note and when she had finished, she handed it to Christoph. He took it, but didn’t read it until Analie grabbed the back of his head and forced his line of sight to the paper. When he reached the bottom, he sat back.
“Shit,” he muttered.
“I didn’t know they did that to their own,” Analie said quietly. “I thought they were just mean to humans. I mean, not all of them, but you know what I mean.”
Christoph frowned. “Look at Ashi’s behavior.”
“Even breaking bones isn’t like this,” Analie said, gesturing to the note. “This is something else. Something horrible.”
Christoph set the note aside. “I get the feeling maybe those Rattlesnake Talks left out some stuff.”
“This sort of thing probably isn’t broadly known.” Analie looked over to Mouse’s door. “I know what to do for a Were that’s feeling down, but I don’t think it applies to vampires.”
Christoph let out a small laugh. “Oh, God. Are you talking about puppy piling?”
“It’s perfectly natural to want to smoosh in with a bunch of your friends,” Analie said defensively. “You weren’t born into Goliath. You don’t understand puppy piling.”
Christoph shook his head. “I swear, sometimes you’re more wolf than human.”
“That’s generally the idea.”
“That’s freaky.”
“That’s Goliath.” She hugged her knees up to her chest. “Our pack name doesn’t come from David and Goliath. It comes from the old Goliath language. It’s supposed to be Garar a’ath.”
Christoph tried and failed to pronounce the choppy phrase. “Christ, what does that mean?”
“Eaters of all.”
Christoph felt a little shivery at that. He’d been in the pack for a while now, but he had spent a lot of his time cracking skulls instead of learning the history of the ancient pack. “No shit?”
“No shit.”
“Jesus.”
“So you get the idea, more wolf than human. Anyway.” Analie looked back to the hallway Mouse had disappeared into. “What do you think we should do?”
“I don’t know. You’ve been here longer than I have.”
“Maybe you should go over there and tell her you’re not afraid of her.”
“But I am—slightly nervous around her.”
“Just say something! She likes you.”
Christoph got up and shuffled over to Mouse’s door.
“Uh... hi. It’s, uh, Christoph. I just wanted to let you know that I don’t think you’re Lev or—I mean, duh, you’re not Lev, he was a guy and—okay, I don’t think you’re evil and bad and all that shit.”
He looked at Analie for encouragement. She had her face in her hands.
“It’s like you’re a snake.”
“Oh, God,” Analie groaned.
“Like, at first everyone’s all, ‘Oh, no, it’s a snake, aaaah,’ and then you find out it’s not the kind of snake that makes your limbs go necrotic if it bites you. It’s a good snake. Like—a snake that—that—is cool. Like maybe it grants wishes. Or something.”
Analie fell facedown on the couch, shaking her head.
“It’s—it’s like—I’m not afraid that you’re going to pull a John. Okay, maybe I am, but only a little bit. But mostly it’s just this knee-jerk reaction to the fact that you’re a vampire. I mean…” Christoph ran both hands through his hair, eyes turning heavenward. “I know you’re not like Lev or those other vampires. So don’t think I think that you are. I just arrived a few hours ago. This is new to me.”
He looked at Analie. She just stared at him, then gave him a weak thumbs-up.
Apologizing was not a skill Christoph had honed. Fighting was.
“But, I swear, if that fuckface Max ever shows up, I will tear him apart.”
“You’re very romantic,” Analie commented dryly.
“I mean it.”
Mouse didn’t know what to think. She’d bared some pretty raw emotion that she’d thought had been buried long and deep enough not to hurt her anymore. Obviously, that wasn’t the case. Knowing that all those times Analie flinched unthinking from her when she moved too fast or from Alec when he placed a hand on her was from those horrible stories didn’t do a thing to make Mouse feel any better.
Mostly because she was sure some of her own heinous acts committed for her love and devotion to Max might have made their way into Goliath legends. Hearing those stories was too much of a reminder of the person she had been and the evil she’d done for the sake of her own or Max’s pleasure.
She really wished she had the bear Ari had given her.
When Christoph started speaking, she didn’t listen at first. Too involved in her worries—but then he startled some choked, silent laughter out of her with the comparison to a snake. Fitting enough, she supposed. And Analie urging him along was amusing, though she was embarrassed that Analie told Christoph she liked him.
The thought of him or Analie actually meeting Max made the sluggishly pumping blood in her veins feel as though it had very abruptly turned to ice. Frantic, she scrabbled for a pen and paper, though since she never took anyone in her room, she couldn’t find anything to write on right away.
As soon as she found what she was looking for, she hurriedly scrawled another note, practically tearing her door off its hinges as she rushed out.
Don’t ever try to face Max just run!
It scared the hell out of them both that she was moving at about the same speed as Royce had when he attacked Ashi and Christoph—not just a blur, but too fast to be seen until she paused in front of one and then the other. If not for the obvious fright and concern on her features as she dashed back and forth, intent on making both Weres see what she wrote, it would’ve been incredibly intimidating.
Analie squeaked in surprise at Mouse’s speed and almost threw herself off the couch, but by the time she’d even had the thought Mouse was already across the room. Christoph jumped back, but it was far too late and he wound up mov
ing only six inches before crashing to the floor.
Analie looked at the note and then at Mouse, offering a weak smile. “Hell, if he moves like you do, it won’t matter if we run.”
“Thank you for that comforting thought, Analie,” Christoph grumbled from the floor.
“If we ever see him—”
“If I see him and you’re squinting at what I’m staring at—”
“We’ll run. We promise. Right, Christoph?”
“Yes, Ms. Tannerson.”
“Oh, shut up.”
Ashi was exhausted, had a headache that could end worlds, and had used up his next week’s supply of adrenaline. He still couldn’t sleep.
Maybe it had something to do with being in a vampire pit and that there was one in the very apartment he was in. There was a human as well, but he didn’t seem to be very welcoming. Small wonder, what with Ashi technically kicking him out. It didn’t bother him, though—not being accepted by humans was as usual as a blue sky.
What really bothered him was the bite. He refused to touch his neck. He wanted to pretend it hadn’t happened. The dull ache on his throat was merely some blow he’d suffered during the fight with Royce.
Damn it, it wasn’t supposed to happen this way! Ashi shifted his weight in the small closet. He was supposed to be on his way back to California, Analie in tow, to be received as a hero and climb a rank or two. He wasn’t supposed to be here, hiding in a dark closet, afraid of the bogeymen outside.
He was supposed to be the monster.
While Ashi was having his pity party in the closet, Thad was trying and failing to immerse himself in some shoot-’em-up movie with lots of explosions and boobs. His muscles were aching from carting his stuff to his new room.
Royce had warned him and Sebastian against bunking in the same room for a while as there was a possibility Sebastian could wake up, spaz out from hunger, and attack Thad. It took a while for new vampires to be able to control themselves enough to sleep in the same room as a human. As all of the vampires in Royce’s coterie were particularly well fed and Royce mostly picked his people for their temperance, there was little danger to the humans here—most of the time. The idea that Sebastian might turn on his own brother did freak Thad out, though. Since it had been a couple of years since he was turned, he might be okay now. Maybe.
Thad thought it a better idea to hang out in the living room until Sebastian calmed down. Sebastian was pissed off that they hadn’t had any notice, that John had been such an unreasoning prick over it, that he was hungry after expending so much energy moving his and his brother’s stuff around, and that he couldn’t feed on Ashi. John had said that he could once he collected him, but he was sorely disappointed to find out that Ashi had already been bitten and was badly traumatized, according to Mouse. He’d been able to see as much for himself and hated being looked at like he was a monster on top of everything else. So he’d stalked off into his room in a huff, still too new and embarrassed by his needs to ask one of the other donors and unwilling to feed on his brother.
Thad thought, for the most part, that he understood Sebastian’s problem, and tried to help him as best he could. He wasn’t contracted, and glad of that, but that didn’t mean he was blind to his brother’s needs. He’d been standing right there when John said Ashi was free game for anyone who wanted a taste and that Sebastian could take his fill from him in payment for the inconvenience.
John really was a dick sometimes, he thought.
The guy was probably freaking out at having been bitten and wasn’t thinking about what his body needed to repair any damage John might have done to him. Glancing down at the beer in his hand, then at the TV again, Thad sighed, levered himself up off the couch, and shuffled over to the kitchen to put together some water and vitamins for Ashi.
Mouse relaxed only marginally once she had Analie and Christoph’s promise to run from Max should they ever be faced with him. She started using her hands to sign, realized belatedly that they couldn’t possibly understand her, and threw her hands up in frustration. She scribbled something else down on the pad before tossing it at Analie and moving at a much more sedate pace over to Christoph, offering her hand to help him back to his feet. This time, she moved deliberately slowly, self-conscious for having reacted so badly and trying to make up for it by being careful and unhurried.
Max = as old as Alec
Faster, stronger than me. Bad news. Stay far away.
Christoph tried not to seem hesitant as he grabbed Mouse’s hand. In comparison to hers, his own hand was massive, but she pulled him to his feet with unnatural ease. Christoph nodded his thanks, trying to wrap his wits around all of this.
“Okay, that makes sense, the thing with Max being as old as Al—err, as Royce, but how old is Royce?” Analie asked.
“He’s probably hundreds of years old,” Christoph said, testing his knee. He was thankful that Mouse was holding his hand and helping him keep his balance. Despite the chill, there was something reassuring about her touch. “Like, six hundred or something.”
“Really?” Analie looked to Mouse for confirmation, eyes wide.
Ashi ventured out into the bedroom. He sniffed the air but didn’t detect anything. He scurried across to the bathroom.
He didn’t look in the mirror. He just scrubbed his face, hair, and hands in the sink. There was blood on him, which he didn’t want to look at. After a few long moments of staring at the copper-tinged suds spiraling down the drain, he lathered up his hands again and rubbed his neck.
Son of a bitch! He gritted his teeth. The bite stung like a mother. He wasn’t used to feeling this kind of pain. It wasn’t acceptable to him.
Still, he scrubbed his neck until his fingers stopped coming away with tiny brown flecks of dried blood. Then, still wet, he scurried back to the closet and hid inside.
I was one of the top twenty high-ranks. Now Analie is braver and stronger than I am. Damn it.
Less than a minute after he’d retreated back to the closet, a loud knock came on the bedroom door.
“Hey, this is Thad. I’m… uh… I guess I’m your other new roommate. Can I come in?”
Mouse listened to their speculations with amusement. Once she was sure Christoph wasn’t about to fall over, she released him and held out her hand to Analie for the pad and pen.
Mouse wrote down a couple things, frowning over the pad, doing some math in her head.
I’m a little over 400.
Not sure of exact year he was turned, but est. Alec is 2300 years. Prob. a bit more. He was part of Alexander’s army before he was made one of us.
She settled back to wait for their reply, brown eyes twinkling with her mirth at their very low estimates of Alec’s age. It might force their alpha to show the vampire more respect once word got back to him.
Ashi jumped, slamming the back of his head against the wall. When the stars cleared somewhat, he exited the closet in a low crouch.
After screwing up one possible alliance, he wasn’t too keen on alienating everyone. On the other hand, he was terrified of these people. Of course, a human wouldn’t be so tough to handle, and what would one want with him anyway? Thad wasn’t about to suck his blood.
It also did away with the whole now-I-have-to-introduce-myself thing.
He retreated to the far wall, still in a crouch. He needed allies here. Not even his own packmates wanted to have anything to do with him.
“Uh, yeah,” he said, still unsettled at the lack of substance to his voice. Sure. Come in.”
“Holy shit!” Analie exclaimed. “He’s been around since forever!”
“Because the world started 2,300 years ago,” Christoph said dryly.
“Shut up, you know what I mean. Jeez.” She shook her head, eyes wide. “I had no idea. No wonder he’s alpha.”
�
�No wonder he’s what?” Chrisoph asked, looking sharply at her.
“Alpha of Sh—of his pack. This pack.” Analie gestured around. “I don’t know what you call a vampire alpha! Come on, Gavin says even humans have alphas, even if they don’t call ʼem that.”
Christoph ignored her. “Alexander’s army. Damn. He saw the shaping of Western civilization.”
“That is wicked cool,” Analie said, grinning.
If I had known, I would have never come here, copious amounts of Miller be damned. Christoph shook his head.
Mouse took back the pad and pen again, smiling wryly at Analie’s reaction. She wasn’t sure what to make of Christoph, but was pretty sure from his expression he was regretting having tangled with Royce.
He is unusually sympathetic to humans for someone so old. He also values humanity in his people. I know sometimes he does cruel things, but it’s always for a reason, and never more than he thinks is absolutely necessary for our continued survival.
John is not a sterling example. He was not turned by Alec, and sometimes he acts poorly toward people, but he has good sense and helps run the businesses so Alec can focus on other things.
Very sorry for scaring you earlier. Please don’t lump me or Alec in with John/Max.
Thad opened the door and paused, nonplussed seeing Ashi smashed in the corner. Now that Thad had mellowed after all the hard work and was not quite so angry from being shuffled around, he could see that the Asian guy was pretty ragged. No shirt, no shoes, ratty sweatpants that had obviously seen better days, and a look of fresh terror gleaming in his eyes was enough to make Thad wonder what the hell John did to him and where they found him.
“I brought you some water and vitamins. I heard John bit you and figured you’ve probably already had a shitty enough day without adding weakness or headache from blood loss on top of it,” he said, holding out the glass and a small handful of mixed vitamins. “Do you need to borrow some clothes or something? I didn’t see any luggage.”