Skin Trade

by Hamilton, Laurell K.

  I stood there, caught between pain and pleasure, while my body tried to decide which box to put it in. Truth sat up, away from the wall, his hands so strong around my arm, his mouth feeding harder, his throat swallowing, swallowing me down.

  I had to put a hand on the wall to keep me kneeling and not falling over, because my head had finally decided that it felt good. Good enough that I was getting weak-kneed.

  It was Truth who stopped, pulling his mouth away from my wrist. He kept his hands on my arm and laid his forehead against my skin. I leaned into the cool concrete of the wall, heavier, fighting not to give into that weak-kneed feeling. I was wet, my body prepped for what usually came afterward. When was the last time I’d let a vampire take blood when sex wasn’t involved? I couldn’t remember. I didn’t donate blood outside sex. Shit.

  Truth’s voice was still rough but not breathy, a little deeper. It wasn’t sickness or tiredness that deepened his voice. “You taste . . . your energy . . . You didn’t taste this way when you fed me last.”

  “You were dying. You just don’t remember.”

  He raised his face and looked at me. His eyes glowed flat silver-gray in the dimness. “A vampire doesn’t forget the taste of blood, Anita. Something has changed in you since we first met.” He licked the wound on my arm, one long, sensual movement. He closed those shining eyes and licked his lips, as if to catch every drop of blood. The wound was still bleeding, and would for a while, because of the anticoagulant in vampires’ saliva.

  “Let go of my arm, Truth,” I said, and my voice was a little uncertain. He wasn’t acting like himself, and I didn’t like the idea that my blood tasted different. What did that mean?

  He opened his eyes but didn’t move his hands. He stared up at me with his eyes gone blind with vampire powers. “I feel amazing, Anita. Your blood has more kick to it than a shapeshifter’s does.”

  “Let go of me, Truth, now.” My voice was firmer this time.

  He smiled and let me go.

  I pushed away from him, using the wall to stand. I’d never seen Truth smile, not like that.

  He just sat there against the wall, smiling up at me.

  “Are you drunk?” I asked.

  “Maybe.” He smiled happily.

  I’d seen only one vampire react like that, and that one had taken a feeding from both Jason and me. Werewolf with a chaser of necromancer had made Jean-Claude giggling drunk.

  “I need to go, Truth.”

  “Go,” he said, his smile wide.

  “I need to know you’re all right before I leave you.”

  “Oh,” he said, and he stood, in one of those too-fast-to-see movements. One minute on the ground, the next standing. Vampires are quicker than human-normal, but for the standing trick, they have to use vampire mind powers to appear that fast. If I’d had a gun, I’d have tried to aim it, just out of habit.

  I had moved back out of reach, but after that speed, I knew that it did me no good. “Shit,” I said.

  “I didn’t mean to frighten you, but as you can see, I’m very all right.”

  My heart was in my throat. “That wasn’t mind tricks,” I managed to say.

  “You mean the speed?” he asked.

  “Yeah, the speed.”

  “No,” he said.

  “I’ve never seen a vampire that could move quite like that.”

  He gave a little bow from the neck. “High praise from you, but it was a trait of our bloodline.”

  “You mean the speed without mind tricks, all of your bloodline could do it?”

  “Yes.”

  “No wonder you were the warrior elite. That’s faster than most lycanthropes.”

  “Once, if the vampire council wanted shapeshifters killed, they sent our bloodline.”

  “But now you and Wicked are the last, right?”

  He nodded.

  “I’ve seen you fight; you weren’t this fast.”

  “I haven’t felt this good in a long time.” He stretched his arms skyward, making the muscles in his arm bunch and move. “I feel made new. I feel”—he looked at me, as his eyes drained from silver glow to normal—“like I did before we killed the head of our line.” He frowned. “You bound me to Jean-Claude with your blood and his power. What have you done, or what has been done to you, since that last feeding?”

  “I don’t know what you mean by that,” I said.

  He was frowning harder, thinking harder. “I mean, Anita, that I feel born again, as if our old master should walk down the street and greet us.” He moved toward me, and I moved back, keeping our distance. It made him stop. “Are you afraid of me?”

  “I don’t know what just happened, so let’s just say I’m being cautious.”

  He nodded, as if that made perfect sense to him. “I will see you safely to your friends, and then I will go back to the hotel.”

  “Good,” I said, and then because it was me, I couldn’t leave it alone. “No offense, but you don’t seem bothered that I’m nervous about you now.”

  He shrugged those broad shoulders. “I startled you, and I don’t know what happened just now, either. Until we know whether it was your blood, your power, or mine, caution is not a bad thing.”

  “Okay,” I said, “then just watch me walk around the corner, and you can go.”

  “Agreed.” He gestured me forward. I walked wide around him, and we sort of circled each other until we got to the corner of the building. All I had to do was walk around the corner, and a few yards away were Edward and all the rest. A cluster of cars whirred by on the street, oblivious to what we were doing. It was almost startling to see the cars and know there were people just over there, as if we’d been in some little pocket world of our own for the last few minutes.

  One thing I noticed in the circling dance we were doing was that Truth’s gun in its belt holster showed without the leather jacket. The black T-shirt wasn’t long enough or wide enough to hide the gun.

  Did he have a carry permit for this state? I didn’t know, but I did know that being a big guy all in black, flashing a gun, could make some eager cop stop him. Being a vampire would not help him when it happened.

  I took off the leather jacket and held it out toward him.

  He shook his head. “I told you, I don’t feel the cold like you do.”

  “It’s to hide your gun,” I said, “I’d rather not have you stopped by a cop for brandishing.”

  He almost touched the gun at his back, but stopped himself in midmotion. He took his jacket, being careful not to touch me while we made the exchange. That let me know that the fact that I was still spooked showed. Oh, well.

  He took the jacket and slipped it on. He hugged the leather around him. I thought he was cold for a moment, then realized he was smelling the coat. Smelling me on it. Again, it was more a shapeshifter gesture than a vampire one. I stared at him in the stronger light of the streetlights, and he looked rosy cheeked and healthy. If I hadn’t known what I was looking at, even I might have said human. What the fuck?

  I stood on the sidewalk and asked, “Did your bloodline have any other superpowers?”

  “We could pass for human, even to witches.”

  “Anything else?” I asked.

  “A few, why?”

  “Nothing. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

  “Aren’t you planning to be home before dawn?”

  “I wouldn’t count on it.”

  “I feel torn, Anita. I should be by your side, guarding you, yet I must let you go into danger without me. It seems backward.”

  “It’s my job, Truth.”

  He nodded. “I will await you at the hotel. I hope you get home before dawn.” He turned and said over his shoulder, “You’re still bleeding.”

  I looked down to find blood trickling down my hand to drip on the sidewalk. I put pressure on the wound and held it up. How had I not felt that?

  “How are you going to explain the wound?”

  “I’ll think of something. Now go, Truth, just go.�
��

  Classical music played, a little high-pitched but recognizable as Beethoven. Truth reached into his jacket pocket and drew out his cell phone. He answered with, “Yes.”

  I waved good-bye and started for the corner.

  Truth called, “Anita, it’s for you.”

  I stopped and looked back at him. “Who is it?”

  “Your marshal friend, Ted Forrester.”

  I went back to him, taking the phone he was holding out to me. “Ted, I’m just around the corner from you.”

  “I don’t think so,” he said. I heard noises.

  “Are you in your car?”

  “We got a call out.”

  “What’s happened now?”

  “Club invaded by vampires. They let some of the customers go but kept all the dancers. The released hostages described a vampire that fits the holy water scars that you described on Vittorio.”

  “Shit,” I said.

  “You said he’d up the body count tonight, Anita. You were right.”

  “Believe me, Edward, I didn’t want to be right on this one.”

  “I’ll give you the address.”

  “Is there anyone home to drive me?” I asked.

  “It was an all hands, Anita.”

  “Shit.”

  “Don’t you have transport?”

  “Yeah, Truth is still here. I’ll let him bring me to you.”

  “Make sure he sets you down well behind the police barriers. I wouldn’t want the uniforms on the barriers to see a vampire flying with a woman in his arms tonight.”

  “I understand.”

  “We’re here, but I can’t wait for you, Anita. They sent the ear of one of the dancers out with the customers they released. The vampires are threatening to send the rest of the dancer out, a piece at a time.”

  “I will be there ASAP, Edward.” But I was talking to empty air. He’d hung up.

  “Fuck,” I said, and put a lot of feeling into it.

  “I heard most of it. What’s the address?”

  I told him. He asked for his phone back, and did some things on the screen. I peered at the screen and found a little map. He studied it for a few minutes, then said, “I’ve got it. Are you ready?”

  “I can’t feed you again this soon, Truth.”

  “I feel fine, Anita; trust me, I won’t need to be fed when we land.”

  I just had to take his word for it. I let him pick me up again, and I had to keep pressure on the wrist bite instead of holding on to him. I was hoping if I kept pressure on it, the bleeding would stop before we landed. If it did, it would be the only thing that had gone right tonight.

  61

  I TUCKED MYSELF in against Truth’s body as hard as I could without being able to hold on to him, but finally I couldn’t stand it anymore. I stopped pressing on my wrist and wrapped my arms around his neck. I held on and buried my face against him. He felt warm now, warm with my blood, my energy. There was a pulse in his neck to move against my cheek as if the beat of his heart were calling to me.

  The bend of his neck smelled clean, fresh, like clean sheets that had been dried outdoors in the wind and sun. It was almost like his skin held a hint of all the sunlit days that he would never see again.

  I felt something change in the way Truth held me. It made me move my face so I could see. There were flashing lights and a lot of cops down below, but not too close. Truth took us down on the far side of a darkened strip mall. He had to run a little to take up momentum, but it was smoother than the last landing. Either he was getting in practice, or he just felt better.

  He stepped into the thicker shadows by the darkened store and looked up the street toward all those flashing lights.

  “The police barricades are just up ahead.”

  “You can put me down now,” I said.

  I got a flash of his smile in the dimness. He put me down without a word. “Are you still bleeding?”

  I looked at my hand and found the blood drying. “No.”

  “Good.”

  We stood there for a moment awkwardly. There was a tension like you get on a first date, where you don’t know if you should kiss or just hug. This was wrong; I’d never felt like this around him before. He leaned down toward me, and I stepped back. “I’m sorry, Truth. I don’t know what’s happening, but I don’t think it’s voluntary on either of our parts.”

  He stood straight, looking at me, his face still mostly in shadow. “You think I’m bespelled by you.”

  I shrugged.

  “But it’s not just me, Anita; you feel the pull, too.”

  I remembered something Jean-Claude had told me once. “A lot of Belle’s line of vampire powers cut both ways, and it only cuts as deep as the vampire is willing to be cut.”

  “Then you must be willing to be cut to the heart,” he said.

  I didn’t know what to say to that, so I hid behind work. “I have to go. You have to go.” I shook my head. “Go, Truth, just go, be somewhere else.”

  One moment he was there in the shadows; the next he was skyward, blowing my hair across my face.

  I turned toward the crowd and the police barriers. I’d have to get through all that before the uniforms would let me through to talk to SWAT. I wanted to find Edward, not for police work or practical reasons, but because I needed a friend. I needed a friend who didn’t want to fuck me or fall in love with me. I needed someone who didn’t want anything from me. The list was getting smaller every night.

  62

  I WAS ALMOST to the edge of the crowd when a man in a gray hooded sweatshirt turned and blocked my way. I opened my mouth to say, Excuse me, sir, but I got a glimpse of the face in the hood and the words froze on my lips.

  I had a glimpse of dark brown eyes, black hair, skin darkly pale, a handsome, masculine face, until he turned into the light and the burn scars on his right side showed.

  My hand reached for the Browning, but it wasn’t there, nothing was there. I was unarmed, and he was standing in front of me.

  “Do not contact your vampires via mind; I will sense it, and I will tell my vampires to kill the temptresses inside the club. And, yes, I knew you were unarmed. I did not think you would ever be that careless, but it gives us a chance to talk.”

  I licked suddenly dry lips and did the only thing I could think of: stepped back, gave myself room, for all the good it was going to do me.

  “Why take the club? Why give the police time to trap your vampires?” I asked, voice still calm. Point for me.

  “It was bait, for you, Anita.”

  “Gee, and most men just send flowers,” I said.

  He looked at me with solid brown eyes. I couldn’t read his expression completely, but I think my reaction wasn’t what he expected, or maybe not what he wanted. “If you call for help in any way, I will have the vampires that I control start killing the harlots.”

  “They’re dancers, not prostitutes,” I said, “but I get it, you’re master enough to contact your people mind to mind,” I said.

  He nodded. “As are you,” he said.

  I took a deep breath and fought to get some control over my pulse and heart rate. I didn’t know what to say to that, so I let it go. I rarely got in trouble keeping my mouth shut.

  He was staring me up and down, not the way a man will a woman, but like he was looking over a car he planned to buy. It was definitely more purchase than date, that look.

  I tried to get him talking, “Fine, you want to talk to me, let’s talk.”

  “Come with me, now.” He actually held one large, long-fingered hand out to me. It was a big hand, bigger than I liked, but graceful, like his voice.

  “No,” I said.

  “I will have them kill the whores we have taken unless you come with me.”

  I shook my head. “You’ll probably kill them anyway.”

  “If I give my word?”

  “I know you mean that, but you’re also a serial killer and a sexual sadist; sorry, but that makes me not trust you.” I shrugged
and started thinking furiously in Edward’s direction, not magic, just that wish in my head that he would look this way, come this way, notice. But I was too short and the crowd blocked the view. I realized that the vampire in front of me was blocking the view even more. I doubted it was an accident.

  “I see your point,” he said. He moved the hood more from his right side. “Take a good look, Anita. See what the humans have done to me.”

  I tried not to look, because I wasn’t sure if it was a distraction technique, but some things are hard to look away from. Asher’s facial scars were just on the side of one cheek, trailing down to the chin. The entire right cheek of Vittorio’s face, from where the hood hit it to the edge of his mouth and the tip of his chin, was all hardened scar tissue.

  He let the hood drop back to hide his face, and I realized he had his left hand held out to his side, for all the world as if he expected someone to come take his hand. A young girl reached for him. I thought for a moment she was another vampire, but one look into those wide, gray eyes and I knew better. She was dressed in tramp chic, skirt too short, midriff showing, small breasts as mounded as she could get them. Before it became the style I’d have said hooker, but so many of the teenage girls were wearing this kind of shit, it made me wonder what the real hookers were wearing.

  He smoothed her straight brown hair back from her face. She smiled dreamily up at him.

  “Leave her alone,” I said.

  He caressed her cheek, and she cuddled into it like a kitten. He turned her face to me, so I could see how young the face under the makeup was: fourteen, maybe fifteen, no more. It was hard to tell in that much makeup and the clothes. It tended to make you add years that the girls hadn’t earned.

  “I said, leave her alone.” My voice wasn’t shaky anymore; it held the first edge of anger. I embraced that, fed the anger with sweet thoughts of vengeance and what I’d do to him when I had the chance.

  “If your beast rises, I will tear her throat out.” He drew her in against his body as he said it.

  I had to master my anger then, swallow it down, because he was right; I couldn’t guarantee with this much stress that anger wouldn’t tip me into some kind of lycanthrope problem. If I could have shifted for real, it would have given me weapons, but it wasn’t a weapon for me, it was just one more problem.