I shall have to find out.
IAN
The rain started again on the way out. Seattle. Good for coffee, clubs, and rain. A hundred tiny pellets of water hit the roof when Sebastian pulled out of the garage.
“You prefer feeding in clubs?”
“Not the Half-Moon,” I said quickly. I didn’t want to set foot in that place again. Ever.
He nodded once and drove toward the Pike Pine Corridor. There were lots of clubs in that area. I’d find something.
I listened to the shoosh of the tires on wet pavement, stared out the window, watched the windshield wipers go back and forth.
“So your pack was pretty much your childhood,” I said.
Sebastian flicked an eyebrow. An acknowledgment.
“So did this Specter guy change you, or someone else?”
His face stayed the same. “Someone else.”
I watched rain trickle down the tinted glass. “But Specter’s the leader, right?”
“Yes.”
“What was it like to be a young vampire with them? How did they teach you stuff?”
“I started out on my own,” Sebastian said. “By the time they found me, I already knew what I needed to survive.”
“On your own? All by yourself? Your . . . parent didn’t stay around to help you?”
“He or she did not.”
I blew air into my chin-length bangs. They fluttered around my face. “If you already figured out what you needed to know by yourself, why did you hang out with the pack when you met them?”
He didn’t answer. I knew he’d heard me, even if he didn’t act like it. He didn’t sigh or shift in his seat, like I would. I let Sebastian be, waiting, until I was sure he’d forgotten, lost in his own thoughts. Or he didn’t want to answer.
I traced the shape of the moon, the buildings, drew the pictures the raindrops suggested on the glass with the tip of my finger.
“I don’t know.”
I flinched in surprise, even though Sebastian’s voice was soft.
“I have wondered that since I found them and joined them.” His voice stayed flat and calm. I dropped my finger from the glass and listened.
“I think I stayed because they were the first I had found like me. I thought, at the time, that they might be the only ones. They offered me knowledge of what I was, others like myself to associate with. I craved that at the time.”
His eyes were far away. Wistful and bright.
“You were lonely,” I said.
He nodded. “Yes.”
I hesitated. Then asked. “Are you lonely now?”
There was a long silence, with only the swoosh of the car tires and the rain to fill it.
“I don’t know,” he said at last.
That didn’t sound like all he had to say. I waited for him to organize his thoughts and keep talking.
“I find your company and Josephine’s pleasant,” he went on. “But I do not think either of you truly know me, or would want to once you did.” His voice had gone softer. His eyes dark.
I reached out and set my hand over his on the shift-nob, like he’d done for me so many times. Reassuring without invading.
“I know your past isn’t pretty,” I said. “But I also know you changed your mind about it and started doing things differently. I think that by itself absolves you. But if you ever need to confess . . .” I paused, wondering if I would regret this. Then plowed on. “I’ll listen.”
His eyes glittered briefly.
“I may test you on that one day, Ian.”
I just nodded.
We passed a club I knew. He pointed to it.
“Will that do?”
“Yeah,” I said, without really looking.
He went on until we came to a parking ramp, pulled into it, and parked. He flipped his coat over his sword, settling it, as we walked away from the car.
I reached out a hand and stopped him. While he stood looking at me, puzzled, I put both my arms around his shoulders. For a moment, he didn’t react at all. After a second, slowly, like he couldn’t remember how this worked, he put his arms around me and accepted my hug. When I let him go he stood there, still and uncomfortable.
I smiled. “What are friends for?”
His mouth flicked up, just at the corners, just for a second. A warm, real smile, however quick.
I smiled back and walked with him to the club.
CLUB
Sebastian nodded to Ian and separated from her at the door, keeping a subtle eye on her. He found a seat on the edge of the dance floor that would afford him a broad enough view to continue watching.
He watched her dance, lithe and liquid among the mortals. This was the natural grace he’d seen while training her. She moved like a cat now, rather than a cub, every muscle under conscious control – that flick of the hip she just did, that took practice, an amount of discipline to move as if it were nothing.
Hm. Perhaps he would try to relate her fighting exercises to dance. That might make them easier for her to understand.
He frowned to himself. If I have the time.
He turned away from Ian to inspect the club. Searching for entrances, exits, hiding places. On guard for members of the pack, playing at being human themselves, spying. The dim lighting in the club would make the telltale signs somewhat difficult to see. He would need to be near enough to smell, to touch, to be sure of the other signs. Cold skin, the faint smell of blood that always seemed to cling to vampires. He contented himself with looking for pale faces. He swept the club once, taking in dancers, bystanders, staff and Ian, smiling at a dark-haired young man who had joined her on the floor.
And another vampire, just stepping in through the main doors.
Sebastian took in the new one, too pale for human, too still. The eyes, though, they truly tipped this one’s hand. His eyes glowed dangerously, and they found and fixed on Ian far too quickly.
Sebastian did not recognize him from the cemetery. So he had not seen the true number that were present in Seattle. Nor did he recall this one from his time with the pack. A new one, then, young, put on spy duty because no one else wanted it. The hunt, the thrill, that was what they craved. Why stalk someone if there would be no kill?
Hence those dangerous eyes. This one knew that if he disobeyed he would be killed, yet he knew Ian was sentenced to death and longed to carry out her punishment.
Guesses, all. For all Sebastian knew, this strange vampire had no connections to the pack. He could be watching Ian only because the sweetest nectar was another vampire’s blood. But Sebastian would be a fool not to assume all possibilities.
The new one turned to look at him, finding him without fail, as if he were searching for Sebastian. Quite possibly connected with the pack.
Sebastian nodded once.
The young one stiffened and took himself out of the club. Sebastian stood to follow him. Across the club, out the door – but when he reached the street, the new one had vanished.
Sebastian scanned the street and found no sign. He considered trying to track the strange vampire – but the night was no longer so young, the streets were crowded and Ian was still inside the club, alone. He returned to his post, standing where he could see Ian but remained out of the way himself.
His first instinct – to track the new vampire back to Specter, to observe, discern Specter’s weaknesses, then kill him while his guard was down – Sebastian had never considered such action before. There were rules, codes of conduct, and none of them allowed for such a thing.
But whether Specter acknowledges it or not, I am no longer a member of his pack. Nor do I wish to be.
That was a new realization. He had left them in part to decide if he wished to remain among them. He had not noticed that he had already come to his conclusion. Dwelling on that surprise served no real purpose, however.
Assassinate Specter.
The punishments that came from even thinking such a thing were severe. To attempt it and fail would bring a tortu
rous death upon himself and those nearest him.
Which has already been threatened.
It would not be easy. Specter had taught Sebastian most of what he knew. And the leader did not let his guard down often, if at all. This would take every ounce of Sebastian’s skill. But it might offer some hope of survival. Perhaps their only hope.
And he had one week to accomplish it.
Not now. This moment his duty was to guard Ian as she fed and return her safely to his home. After that, the stalking would begin.
He performed another visual sweep of the club, then settled back to wait. Watching Ian. Thinking of their conversation in the car. And wondering what Sarah would have thought of the child he had somehow managed to adopt.
IAN
It had been a damn long week and I wanted to get buzzed. So when Sebastian left me at the door to make my own way around, I took my time, getting into the groove of the music and keeping one eye on the people around me. The drunk ones tended to dance with a little more abandon; the more drunk, the more abandon. I didn’t want to get shitfaced, just lifted. I actually wanted a stoner or an Xer – something designed to make you feel good. Depending on what they were on, the high ones tended to dance slower, fascinated by every move they made. I kept an eye out for those. Of course, the best way to know who was on what was to taste them. The blood gave it away every time.
I spotted a guy with a glowing green mouth guard flashing between his lips. Slender, maybe a little too much so, with long dark hair well past his shoulders, dressed in the bright colors of a raver. He danced with his head down, eyes closed, feeling everything around him instead of looking at anything. Perfect candidate. I moved in.
The nice thing about Xers was that they liked being touched. I moved up to my target so he could see me coming, moving to the beat in a gentle swaying motion that I knew would hypnotize him. Sure enough, his eyes locked on me. After a few moments he started to move with me, probably not even aware he was doing it.
Xer for sure. It was almost too easy. In minutes I had him held in my arms, moving to the beat, face buried against his neck. His body stiffened as my fangs went in just behind his ear. He wasn’t in pain or even afraid, just a little sensory-overloaded. Being bitten felt like an orgasm all by itself. With the drug running through him, the feeling must have been multiplied until his brain almost couldn’t process it.
I swallowed once, twice, then one last time, savoring, letting a little whimper come out of my throat. When I let go, reluctantly, he staggered a little against me. He stared at me for a long, awestruck moment, like he wanted to say something but didn’t know what. I could almost taste the words on the tip of his tongue. Who are you, what did you do to me, do it again . . .
He reached up to touch my face. I kissed his fingers and slipped away from him before he could speak.
I started out walking towards the spot Sebastian had taken, but of course I didn’t make it that far. After only a few steps the strobe light caught my eye, flashing over undulating, pulsing bodies. Mesmerizing. I stood and stared at that for several minutes, then found my gaze slowly drifting more to the people than the light. How they moved. How much emotion they each put into what they did; anger, joy, grief, delight . . . Even the shy girl in the corner, rocking in time to the beat but too scared to dance, too embarrassed to let loose in front of others no matter how much she wanted to. I found myself drifting towards her, thinking of asking her to dance. She wanted that – I could see the longing in how she watched the people around her, how she tightened up whenever anyone came close, so nervous, but so hopeful, too. Thinking, look at me, see past the outside, see who I really am . . .
I could do that. Was doing it right now, actually. Already on my way over to her, I paused. Watching. Her eyes followed the people walking past her, and I just knew how bad she wanted one of them to stop and notice her.
How could I know what she was thinking?
Well, just look at her, came the instant response. What else could she be thinking?
I stood where I was, taking in the scene, her and the people around her. The way their eyes flicked away from hers when she tried to meet them, how people seemed to lean an inch or two away from her as they went by. None of them wanted to pay attention to some poor little mouse who probably had a lack of personality and some serious attachment issues.
I knew it. I just knew.
That was what the whole psychic business was about. Body language. Being able to read people this accurately. Something I’d already been doing for a long time. It was almost a let down to realize this was it.
Except . . . I glanced back at Sebastian, standing off to the side. He looked at ease, but not completely so. Nothing else. But I knew better than that. I couldn’t see his eyes from here, but they always showed me his emotions.
Maybe there was more to this psychic thing than just body language. Maybe I was still too much of a baby vamp to have more than just the very beginning.
Maybe. And maybe I was high as a kite and the drug was playing tricks with my head. Maybe I should take my buzzed self back over to Sebastian and let him take me home.
I licked my lips – because my tongue felt sooo soft and smooth and wet – and headed back over to Sebastian.
CLUB
After mentally tagging Ian’s location, Sebastian swept the club once more. Searching now not for just pale faces but for a particular face. He did not find his target. Wherever the strange vampire had gone after Sebastian spotted him the first time, he did not return. Satisfactory. Sebastian kept his guard up just the same. Once he had swept the club for vampires, he checked back on Ian. She was making her way toward him.
Sebastian waited for Ian to reach him, watching. “Finished?”
She nodded, pleased with herself. Her eyes looked faintly glassed over, her motions a little too careful. Drugged, if Sebastian knew anything about it.
“Ready to go?” she asked.
“Indeed.”
He supposed he could not blame her for wishing an escape from the stresses suddenly introduced into her life. The pack had used drunken or drugged mortals frequently themselves, and not always as a means of relieving stress. Without comment, Sebastian started for the door. Ian kept pace and made no objections. As they left the protective surrounding of the club, Sebastian kept his eyes sharp for the strange vampire – did not see him –
Ian snorted once at the same moment Sebastian’s eyes caught a familiar profile.
“What’s he doing here?” she growled.
Sebastian raised an eyebrow in response to Alec’s glare. Ian’s brother lifted a lip, then vanished around a corner. “Ascertaining that I have not killed you,” Sebastian said to Ian.
She made a rude noise in her throat. “Jerk.”
“Mm.”
The new vampire seemed to have fled.
Straight back to Specter, no doubt.
Where he would report that Sebastian still saw to Ian’s safety. That would irritate his former teacher.
Let him be irritated.
“– why he has to be such a prick,” Ian was saying.
Sebastian tilted his head in acknowledgment.
“It’s like he thinks he can just pop into my life and take everything over.” She snorted again.
“He can’t,” Sebastian said, since Ian seemed sincerely upset by the possibility. She sighed and nodded in response, as if she had known but had needed the reminder.
They walked on, away from the noise and the smell of the club. It was once they came closer to his car that Sebastian noticed yet another vampire.
This one he knew. Shroud stood in plain view, across the street from the parking ramp where Sebastian had left his car. He perked up when he saw them, as if he had been waiting. Sebastian set his hand on the hilt of his sword. To his surprise, Shroud approached them.
“Peace, brother,” the pack vampire said as he grew near. He held both hands up in plain view.
The words were a request for a truce, to t
alk to a pack sibling when there might be animosity between them. Sebastian left his hand on his blade but did not draw it. Ian moved around to the side of him opposite that of Shroud. He did not dissuade her.
“Specter doesn’t know I’m here.” Shroud did not look at Ian. “I came to talk.”
“Then talk,” Sebastian said.
Shroud shifted uneasily. “I came to find out if you’re considering Specter’s deal.”
Sebastian made no move to indicate any reply.
“We need you,” Shroud went on. “The pack hasn’t been the same since you left. I trust Specter, of course, we all do. But Specter trusts you. Without you, we haven’t been able to accomplish nearly as much. Our territories in the Soviet Union are weak. We’ve already lost East Germany –”
The pack vampire stopped speaking as Ian shifted, as though he had suddenly noticed her. Sebastian watched him.
“You always were one of our greatest strengths,” Shroud continued, his voice lowered a notch. “Remember when you poisoned that princess? I forget her name. Specter wanted to toy with her, but you said our message had to be direct if we were to convince her father to obey. And you were right! The monarchy in eastern Europe has been pointless for decades, yet we still hold territory and influence. Because of you. Because of your decisiveness.”
Sebastian sensed Ian’s discomfort at his side more than anything else. Less at Shroud’s words than at the pack vampire’s very presence.
“Have you come for anything other than to throw praise at my feet?” Sebastian asked.
A slight hesitation from Shroud. Then, “I’ve come to ask you to consider Specter’s offer. To tell you that we need you. I’ve come to ask you to return.”
Keeping himself between Shroud and Ian, Sebastian tilted his head to indicate that Ian should move towards the Vector. She paused, then did so. Cautiously.
“I have heard you,” Sebastian said to Shroud. “Now hear me. I have sworn to protect Ian. Any who approach her with any intent to harm her will incur my extreme displeasure.”
With that, he turned to follow Ian to his car, leaving Shroud standing alone on the sidewalk behind them.
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