Blood Revealed

by Tracy Cooper-Posey

  Patrick suppressed the sigh that wanted to emerge. He looked her in the eye and lied without a quiver. “Absolutely.”

  Chapter Two

  The Lobby Level Ballroom, Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverley Hills

  Dominic had never been afraid of cameras, until now. It wasn’t exactly fear. Yet the highly-focused activity waving across the room as dozens of journalists and cameramen set up the gear, quietly talking to themselves, made him uneasy.

  He kept sidling away from the mass of bodies and equipment, over toward the fire escape door where the red light shone.

  It took him a while to realize what he was doing. At first, he simply felt fidgety. It was only when he realized he was continuously looking toward the fire escape door, that he knew what was bugging him.

  He silently laughed at himself. He only had to dip into the minds around him to know that he was absolutely the last person anyone would focus on in this room. The invitations to the press conferences had been phrased in such a way that the media had been compelled to come, to find out what this earth shattering news would be. That was all they were interested in.

  Also from his discreet dipping into minds, Dominic knew that they were highly cynical about what was to come. They were wondering if their time was about to be wasted in a massive way. If that happened, Nial’s people here today would be skewered by the media and hung out to dry. They didn’t appreciate being messed with.

  Oh, they are in for a surprise! Dominic thought.

  He set up the laptop on the table in front of the microphones. The laptop was hooked into a network that Sebastian had set up. The screen would let the four of them coordinate their announcement with London, Sydney, Washington, St. Petersburg and Delhi.

  He fired up the laptop and called up the application that would display the five other conference rooms, then arrayed the feeds across the laptop screen so all of them could be seen at once. There were people moving about in front of the remote cameras, busy setting up just as he was.

  As he worked, in the back of his mind Dominic gave thanks for Sebastian’s willingness to teach him a new trade. He had learned more in the last year about computers and the subdued artistry of a live network than he had thought could possibly exist.

  That was what he was now, he thought, as he finished setting up. He was a computer hacker, one of thousands. It gave him a warm glow of belonging, at the same time he felt the usual dollop of regret for what might have been.

  When the interviewees stepped out onto the low dais and the media straightened up and cameras began to snap, Dominic moved well out of the way to a dark corner where he would not be noticed and settled in to watch.

  * * * * *

  The Ritz Hotel, London, United Kingdom

  The blazing camera lights created pockets of dark shadows. Marcus found one and put his back against the wall. He watched as Rick and Ilaria stepped out from the small green room the hotel had found them, following the distinguished gentleman in front of them.

  Ilaria glowed. She was wearing a multihued dress that seemed to be made up of blues and greens and the dusky brown that played well against her skin and made the most of her eyes. Marcus forced himself to pull his gaze away from her in order to look around the room and try to measure the media’s reaction.

  There was a low murmur of surprise and interest as they recognized the man with the silvered sideburns who was leading Rick and Ilaria over to the table.

  “Sir Stephens-Bowes,” Marcus heard someone mutter. “What the hell?”

  He kept his face expressionless even though a grin lit up his insides. They had fielded dozens of irate media calls demanding to know why they were being summoned to the Ritz, accompanied by veiled threats that if their time was being wasted they would rue the day. It was good to be able to surprise them in return.

  James Stephens-Bowes stepped up behind the centralized microphones, while Rick and Ilaria stood behind him and to either side.

  Rick looked calm and icily self-contained, as he always did when he was in public and Marcus marveled once more over his control. In the early hours of the morning, when Ilaria had been busy doing something that took her out of the room, Marcus had finally been able to get Rick to confess his fear over the upcoming revelation. He had spent dozens of human life-times keeping himself hidden, his true nature buried. In the next few hours all that was about to change. And despite the best political and analytical minds trying to figure it out, the vampires still were not entirely sure how humans would react to them.

  Marcus admired Rick’s courage and a warm glow touched his chest as he realized he was probably the only one anywhere on the globe permitted to know that much about Rick, to see his vulnerabilities.

  Then he saw Ilaria reach out and grip Rick’s hand and squeeze it gently and knew he was not the only one after all.

  The room fell silent except for the sound of clicking cameras as Stephens-Bowes began to speak.

  * * * * *

  The Watergate Hotel, Washington DC, United States

  To Winter, the fifteen second pause before the senator began to speak felt like a small ice age in length. She didn’t like the sensation of being exposed that standing up on the stage delivered. There were too many lights and too much attention. She had spent her life behind a mask. Now that was gone. It wasn’t just vampires who were about to be exposed today and it was too late to turn back now. The senator had begun his announcement and the room was so silent she fancied she could hear the cameras whirring, even though they were all digital. She could certainly hear the breathing of the journalists in the front row.

  Sebastian leaned toward her just a little bit and murmured, “Relax!”

  It was unfair, she reflected. Sebastian had been hiding from humans for far longer than she had, but he was responding to this with almost giddy delight.

  She swiveled her gaze to the corner of her eye where she could just see Nial standing silently next to her. Sebastian was making up for Nial’s complete lack of reaction. Of all of them, Nial had the most to lose. If there was to be a strong reaction from humans, then it would focus on him, who was the oldest of them all. He had been alive when Rome was the center of the universe. That was something that humans could grasp, while the rest of their fantastic story would most likely be met with complete disbelief. Nial had put Senator Corcoran in front of them for the media to focus upon, to try to add weight to the message.

  So far, judging by the total silence coming from the other side of the room, the disbelief they had anticipated was in full swing.

  Winter breathed. Then took another breath. Then another.

  * * * * *

  Blythe hated taco salad with a passion. She hated the chemicals in the spices, she hated the taco chips and the way they would spear her gums unexpectedly and she hated the way the lettuce wilted and became soggy. Her kids, on the other hand, loved the stuff, so she made it at least once a week, in between meals that were secretly healthy, with their hidden vegetables and dense nutrition.

  “Explain to me one more time,” Simone said as she labored over the cheese grater, “why we can’t just buy the shredded cheese instead of fighting with this stupid thing every time?”

  Simone asked the same question every time they had the meal, so Blythe didn’t even have to think about her answer. “Because the shredded cheese has cellulose in it,” she said, just as Eloise said the same thing.

  “You ask that question every time you do the cheese,” Jake pointed out. He was hunched over Blythe’s laptop, his finger moving over the mouse pad, his eyes glued to the screen. He spoke absently.

  “You say exactly the same thing every time she asks the question, too,” Eloise replied.

  “Then you should do the cheese,” Jake returned, “and we won’t have to repeat ourselves.”

  “Sixty seconds,” Blythe warned as she gave the salad one more toss. “Jake, put the laptop away.” She carried the big bowl over to the table and settled on her usual chair as the twins ar
ranged themselves on either side of her. Jake was on Simone’s left and still staring at the laptop. “Jake.”

  Jake lifted up his hand, his attention on the laptop. “Wait.”

  “I’m hungry,” Eloise complained. “Hurry up.”

  Jake spun the laptop around so that everyone at the table could see the screen. “I think this is major.”

  “That’s Patrick Sauvage,” Eloise said. “I don’t recognize the others.”

  “Kathrine Lindenstream,” Blythe said softly, for she recognized the director from the hysteria surrounding her private life and relationships. Blythe didn’t usually have time for TV watching, but late at night when her brain finally shut down, she would soothe herself into sleep by watching mindless Hollywood reports on the gossip and scandal of the day.

  “That’s Calum Garrett,” Simone said, pointing to the red-headed man on Lindenstream’s left. She and Eloise exchanged glances, the way they did when their minds were in sync, which happened more often than either of them would ever admit.

  “She calls him Micheil,” Eloise said. “They both do.”

  “Micheil,” Simone echoed, with a small smile that was far too sophisticated and knowledgeable for a sixteen-year-old girl.

  “That has to be the other guy, then,” Eloise added, her attention returning to the screen.

  “Roman something,” Simone finished.

  They both bent to look at the screen more closely and Blythe realized uneasily that they were both fully aware of the threesome living arrangements that made Kate Lindenstream such a public figure these days. Blythe could feel her cheeks heating with embarrassment that her own kids were so well informed.

  Jake was frowning. “Shut up!” he said sharply and stabbed at the keyboard. The volume leapt. The laptop was an older model that he had updated with the latest software and soundboard to cope with the games he liked to play on it. Patrick Sauvage’s voice drowned out Simone’s protest at being told what to do by her baby brother.

  “…represent a threat to humanity that many of you will find hard to believe. You must believe us, though, for the danger is real and has been growing steadily for the last four weeks. Kate will explain the history and we will all tell you about the new factors that put our lives in danger, now. Then we’ll open the floor to questions. You’ll have dozens of them, I know.”

  Sauvage stepped back and the blonde woman moved up to the microphones arrayed on the table in front of the small group. The two men the twins had pointed out arranged themselves on either side and just behind her.

  Something in Blythe’s heart shifted as she studied the way they stood so close to the beautiful director. It didn’t seem to be rehearsed. Neither of them had glanced at the floor to find their marks. They had moved together in a natural instinct to protect her back and support her.

  Not for the first time, Blythe wondered how it was possible to love two people at once, with the intensity that these three seemed to share. She recalled the night they had “come out” and the kiss the two men had shared on camera, live for the world to see. The passion had not been faked, as far as she could tell. Kate’s happiness as she watched the two of them together had also been quite genuine. That single moment had burned itself into Blythe’s brain, as she had tried to understand the dynamics such a relationship would generate.

  It was a puzzle that Blythe pushed to the back of her mind, where most puzzles and questions and concerns lived. She didn’t have time, from day to day, to worry about anything beyond keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table.

  “What is he talking about?” she demanded, as Kate Lindenstream glanced around at the cameras, pausing for a moment to draw everyone’s attention.

  “I guess we’re about to find out,” Jake said. He reached for the bowl of salad, still watching the screen.

  * * * * *

  Sir Stephens-Bowes had one of the plummy English upper class accents that Marcus always found fascinating to listen to, regardless of what was being said. Every word they spoke was different, imbued with meaning that went far beyond what the commoner meant when he used the same word, which he often didn’t—not the way they said it.

  Marcus forced himself to focus on the words themselves.

  “…stone was found by American film director Kathrine Lindenstream nearly three years ago whilst conducting a research trip in Turkey. The significance of the find was not properly understood by anyone except a handful of people.” Stephens-Bowes paused. Then he looked up from his notes directly at the cameras. “What I am about to say next will sound fantastic to you, but it an absolute and indisputable truth that you must accept in order to understand the true size of the threat that faces humans everywhere.”

  The silence in the room was complete. Marcus wasn’t sure anyone had the guts to even take a breath right at that moment.

  Certainly, no one was looking bored or cynical.

  * * * * *

  “There is a race of people who have been living amongst humans since human history began,” the senator said slowly, carefully pronouncing his words, just as Nial had rehearsed with him for hours and hours. He paused, letting that sink in. “I am one of that race,” he added and deliberately paused again.

  The pause was needed for there was a reaction from the arrayed press corps—something like an atavistic shiver that rippled over them as Corcoran spoke words that had once been the realm of pure fantasy to them. A murmur, like a breathed sigh, washed over them.

  Disbelief? Disappointment? Winter was too keyed up to analyze the myriad expressions of the journalists she was facing.

  “You know something of us from legend,” Corcoran continued. “Stories and movies have distorted the truth. However, there is one thing the stories got right and that is our name. You have known of us as creatures of the night, which is demonstrably not true. Not anymore.” Again, a small pause, for emphasis.

  Winter drew in a breath, fear almost choking her. Here it was. This was the moment.

  “We are vampires,” Corcoran said flatly.

  * * * * *

  “You’re shitting me!” Jake cried at the small screen.

  “Jake!” Blythe protested automatically. Yet she was staring at the screen in disbelief, too.

  “Vampires?” Eloise and Simone chorused together.

  Kate Lindenstream was still speaking.

  “Shut up!” Jake cried once more.

  “…this is not a joke. It was once the stuff of movies.” She gave a small smile. “Not my movies, because fantasy has never been one of my genres. I have learned in the last few years that vampires are not fantasy. They are very real. They have been living among humans in silence and peace since humans walked upright. Events have been happening that make it imperative that humans know about them. About vampires and about the three ancient species that vampires were created to protect us from.”

  She glanced around, as if to assure herself she had everyone’s attention. “You must know about vampires because these three ancient species are now roaming Earth once more, free from their pre-historic prison inside the Blood Stone. They have been released…and they are mankind’s mortal enemies.” She looked over her shoulder. “Roman?”

  The shorter of the two men standing at her shoulder moved forward to take point.

  “Hi,” he said simply. “Many of you know me as Adrian Xerus, yet that is only part of my name. My full name is Adrian Romanus Xerus. I was born a human in 1437, shortly before Constantinople fell to the Turks. I was enslaved like so many of us were and in 1457, I was made a vampire.” He held up his hand, even though no one spoke. “I tell you this only because you must understand that when I say I made researching the Blood Stone a pet project of mine, it means the research I did lasted centuries and I had access to sources that humans have never known existed. I will share all of that research and the resources will be available to anyone who wants them. For now, I must explain to you the enemies that you now face. These are enemies you had no idea existed, that
you must now learn about as swiftly as possible.”

  Blythe glanced at the red-headed man, Garrett, standing with the two of them. The world’s most successful finance guru and entrepreneur was a vampire? Her brain seemed to twist on itself one more time. Vampires really existed? Really?

  “This is just a joke, right?” Jake said, glancing at her. “A big bullshit session to promote a movie or something.”

  Blythe didn’t bother chiding him over his language. The question he asked was too loaded. “They look pretty serious to me,” she said slowly.

  “Mom, does that mean that Patrick Sauvage is a vampire, too?” Simone said. “Patrick Sauvage?”

  Blythe looked at the handsome man standing in the background. “I don’t know,” she said flatly. “I don’t know any more than you do. That’s what this press conference is for, I think. To tell us everything we need to know.”

  “Then…humans really are in danger from monsters?” Eloise asked, her dimples fading as her eyes grew larger.

  “Honey, I just don’t know,” Blythe said helplessly and truthfully. “Let’s just listen, huh? They’re trying to explain it all.”

  * * * * *

  “The Ĉiela are what early humans first thought of as angels.” Rick’s voice was firm, authoritative and controlled. None of the fear he must be feeling right now showed. He had been exposed as a vampire. He had to be freaking out of his sweat socks, yet none of it showed. “They are drawn to the light, to mountaintops and high places, wherever the sky is open and the sun is bright. We believe their leader died while incarcerated in the Blood Stone, along with many of their number, for they would have been denied light while captive. What their political structure and strength will be now is unknown to us. They have not been seen since the Stone was broken.”

  * * * * *

  “The Elah have a leader whose name has come down to us through eastern historical documents,” Nial explained. “The Chinese referred to him as Dai Chi and we believe he might be somewhere in the great forest in northern Russia. They prefer the trees to open plains and of these three new enemies, they are the most human-looking. That does not mean they are human in any way.” He looked around the room and Winter followed his gaze. The journalists were all scribbling or typing, their expressions absorbed. They were in full reporting mode, but Winter suspected that their questions were already forming. Of course, they would have many of them, just as she’d had when she had first learned about the Blood Stone and what the breaking of it meant.