by Helen Keeble
Van shot me a look suggesting that now I was just being silly. “No. I just know she’s your sire and Hakon’s descendant.” His surly expression smoothed into a slight, introspective frown as he folded down a long, narrow shelf, revealing it to be a simple bed with vampirically neat sheets. “I’m sure she’s not in any of our databases,” he muttered down at the covers, sounding like he was talking mainly to himself. “Odd. We’re supposed to have records on Hakon’s entire current Bloodline.”
“Whoever she is, she’ll be able to find me no matter where I am,” I said. “You can’t outrun her forever. But if you release me—”
“I am a fully trained vampire hunter,” Van said icily. “I’m aware of the problem. But I’m not about to free you to go off and slaughter innocents.”
“I want to rescue innocents, you moron. I thought you were all about protecting humans.”
“I am.” Van threw me his habitual glare, but I could see the worry lurking around the edges of his bravado. “I’ll go back to look for your family myself, if they’ve been captured.”
Okay, I had to admit, Van had his good points, and they weren’t just his torso and arms. Of course, his major bad point of treating me like an evil monster did kind of outweigh any positives. “Thanks. I do actually appreciate the offer. But I’m by far the better choice for any rescue mission.”
“Right. You, the bloodthirsty, undead killer.” Van’s voice dripped sarcasm. “Give me three good reasons.”
“I’m superstrong, can’t be killed, and there is no one on this planet who cares more about my family’s safety than I do,” I said promptly.
Van blinked.
“Look,” I said, taking advantage of his momentary loss for words. “When are you going to get it through your thick head that I’m just your average girl, only dead? An all-liquid diet and serious lack of tan don’t make me a psychopath. You think I wanted to be a blood-drinking freak?”
Van looked at me oddly, as if seeing me for the first time. “Like me,” he said so quietly I barely heard it. For a second I thought he might actually start behaving like a rational human being—but then his jaw set. “No. Vampires can’t be trusted. I have to keep you secure and get you to a safe location.” He glanced at Sarah. “Both of you.”
“There are places that are safe from vampires?” Sarah sounded dubious. Even her voice was a weak, fluttery thing, like a butterfly.
“Many, in fact.” Van’s mouth quirked, which was the nearest he ever seemed to get to a smile. He helped Sarah up. She had to lean heavily on him to go the few steps to the bed. “It’s not that difficult to keep vampires out, once you know their weaknesses. All you need to do is scatter a lot of objects around. You can always tell a hunter’s house by the army of garden gnome statues covering the lawn.” His expression turned glum again. “But in order to take you to a hunters’ safe house, I’ll have to call my uncle. My leader,” he added at Sarah’s puzzled look. He squared his shoulders and pulled his phone out of his pocket, looking about as enthusiastic as a kid contemplating a trip to the dentist. “Best get it over—” The phone buzzed in his hand. Van glanced down at the screen, and his eyebrows rose. “Well now. That changes things.” He pocketed the phone again, looking much happier. “That was my employer—I texted her earlier to explain the situation. She’s offered us a safe house and, as it happens, it’s very near here.”
Even when you’re bound hand and foot with your family missing, there’s always a way for the situation to get worse. “No way. I’m not going to the home of someone who sent a hit man after me!”
“I wasn’t offering you a choice,” Van said with a pointed glance at my chains. “Anyway, I wasn’t hired to hunt you. I’m contracted to stake Ebenezer Lee. I only ran into you because I was following him.”
“I was some sort of two-for-one deal?” I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or insulted.
Van shrugged. “I couldn’t miss the opportunity to end the unnatural existence of another monster.” He tucked the sheet in carefully around Sarah and put her backpack at her feet. “Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked, voice softening. For a six-feet-plus, leather-clad vampire hunter, at the moment he had a rather striking resemblance to a big, overprotective dog, bristling with eagerness to defend his owner. I could practically see his tail wagging.
“I’ll be okay.” Sarah rested her head against the wall, her eyes closing in exhaustion. “I’ve been getting these blackouts and dizzy spells all week.”
“Do you need medicines?” Van ran a hand through his close-cropped red hair, frowning. “I could … hijack an ambulance, I suppose.”
“You had a seriously disturbed upbringing,” I told him—and blinked. “Hang on. Sarah, you started to feel bad just now, and you’ve only been having this problem for the past few days?” She nodded. “That was when I, uh—” There was no non-crazy way to put it. “That was when I rose from the dead. I think you’re blacking out whenever I tap my vampy powers too hard.”
“I,” Van growled, “am definitely keeping you chained up.”
Unfortunately, it turned out that Van had a lot more bondage gear at his disposal, including a vampire-proof gag. I was reduced to trying to kill him with the sheer force of my glare as he triple-checked all my bindings. “All right, she’s secure,” he said at last. “If she moves, bang on the wall.” With a last backward glance, Van left, shutting the door. A moment later, the van started up again.
“At last,” Sarah muttered. I heard rustling sounds, and then the beam of a flashlight cut through the dimness. A moment later, she was at my side, the light playing over the fastenings of the gag. “Give me a sec … there.” She tossed the gag aside, then bent over the locks securing the chain. “Hmm. This is going to be harder.”
“Uh …” It was probably stupid to say this before I was free, but— “You do know I’m a vampire, right?”
“Of course I know you’re a vampire.” Sarah rattled the chains, looking for any give. “Why do you think I’m trying to free you? I would have done it earlier, but it took forever to persuade that dhampir to let me back here. He only relented when I really did faint.”
I gaped at her. “Van told you what he is?”
“No, I just guessed from the way his glove compartment is organized. Only vampires sort their change that way.” Sarah sounded perfectly matter-of-fact. She frowned at me with a mixture of exasperation and concern, as if I was the helpless tweenager in need of protection. “We don’t have time to do this the slow way. Mutual brain dump?”
“Huh?”
“I’ll start,” she said, charging straight over my bewilderment. “Hello, I’m Sarah Chana, otherwise known as Superluminal. When I was little, I met Lily in the hospital—I bumped into her when she was sneaking in to steal blood out of the blood banks. She felt sorry for me because I was a poor, sick orphan, and ever since then she’s been like a secret fairy godmother, only with fangs. She always finds me, no matter what hospital or foster home they dump me in. Anyway, ever since meeting her I’ve been preparing to become a vampire. Lily said that after the transplant she’d finally be able to turn me—but then she disappeared, and I didn’t see her again until last night when you guys burst in and tried to stake her. Now I need to find her.” She sat back on her heels, looking at me expectantly. “Your turn.”
“Uh … okay.” I took a deep breath. “Hi. I’m Xanthe Jane Greene—JaneX. Don’t use my first name. I’m a vampire. It is not really turning out as I imagined. I think you’ve got my heart, which is letting me drain your blood without me actually biting you. I have no idea how the heck any of this happened—Ebon said I was bitten by a really ancient, renegade vampire called Lilith, but I’m starting to seriously doubt that he’s trustworthy. Um, anyway. I woke up dead last week and promptly had one guy turn up to kill me and another guy turn up to rescue me—except that now it seems he’s the one who really wants to kill me, and the other guy is trying to save me, though possibly only to kill me later. My family’s
currently missing, and I need to find them. Uh … you really didn’t know any of this? I mean, you sent me that IM, so I assumed—”
“You tripped my Google Alert. I keep an eye out for anything that might be vampiric activity, just in case.” Her brown eyes narrowed as she studied me. “Lilith. Lily. Hmm. Well, she obviously is your sire. I’ve been waiting for years, and yet she vamps you first?”
I rattled my chains meaningfully. “From where I’m sitting, it’s not really something to get jealous over.”
Sarah looked levelly at me. “You’re going to always be young, have superhuman strength and speed, never get sick, and basically have all the time in the world to do whatever you want. Explain to me why I shouldn’t be jealous.”
“Uh …” I had to admit, when she put it like that … “Okay. You totally should be jealous.”
“Damn straight,” she said, which in that butterfly-soft voice sounded as out of place as Cinderella breaking into rap. “I should resent you and bitch about you and leave you to the dhampir.” She pulled a pair of bolt cutters out of her backpack. “But that would be dumb. Lean forward.”
“I have to ask,” I said, shifting as much as I could in my chains to give her access. “Why are you carrying bolt cutters?”
“I told you, I’ve been waiting to become a vampire.” The jaws of the cutters squealed over metal as Sarah tried to snip through the chains. “I prepared an emergency kit, in case Lily had to take me away without advance notice.” She jerked her chin at her backpack. “Stuff like my laptop, cash, fake IDs … that sort of thing. I always make sure to keep it handy.”
“But … bolt cutters?”
“I might need to steal a bicycle. Or break into somewhere to shelter from the sun, if I haven’t got enough energy to mist. You never know.” She leaned back again, slightly out of breath. “This isn’t working—I planned on having vampiric strength if I needed to use these. Guess I should have packed that crowbar.”
“Maybe we can call for help.” I nodded in the direction the phone had disappeared. “I had an iPhone, but it slid somewhere under there.” I watched as she poked around under the bed shelf. “Anything?”
“Yes.” She reemerged, brandishing a dog-eared paperback. “An alphabetized box of Buffy the Vampire Slayer romance novels.”
“Huh. Who knew?” Fortunately, she’d also found the phone. “Great. I can’t get in touch with my family at the moment, but maybe you’ve got someone you trust you could call?”
“Sure.” Sarah started dialing as she spoke. “Good think I’ve got Lily’s number memo—”
“Whoa, whoa!” I nearly gave myself whiplash jerking upright. “I kinda meant someone other than Lily.”
Sarah cocked her head at me. “Why? What’s wrong with Lily?”
“She did try to kill my friend, you know. That doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.”
“Uh-huh. That would be the same friend who tried to kill you.”
She had a point. “She also slaughtered a whole roomful of innocent people.” Sarah looked at me blankly, as if that had no possible relevance. “Look, just not Lily, okay? You must have someone else you could call. A relative, maybe?” Sarah shook her head. “Uh, a friend? A foster parent? A social worker?” More head shakes. “Don’t you know anyone?”
Sarah shrugged. “I don’t bother to make friends with alive people. What would be the point?”
“Oookay. You are now officially even scarier than my little brother.” Giving up on the idea of calling in the cavalry, I tested the chains again, tugging against the links she’d weakened with the bolt cutter. “I nearly got free myself earlier … I might still be able to break these, if I Hulk out enough.” I bit my lip, eyeing her. “Um, there’s no real good way to ask this, but do you mind if I kinda drain your blood?”
Sarah wrinkled her nose at me. “Actually, yes. I like my plan better.”
“What plan is that?”
Sarah pulled a syringe out from her backpack with a flourish. “Next time the dhampir comes back here, I drug the hell out of him and take the key from his unconscious body.”
My mouth hung open. I shut it. “Right. Is there anything you haven’t got in there?”
“I wanted a portable power generator, but it was too bulky.” She patted her backpack. “It’s easy enough to steal drugs when you’re a long-term hospital patient. I’ve got enough stuff to last years. For feeding,” she explained, at my blank look. “For when I don’t feel like killing people. I can knock them out or get them high before I bite them, and then they won’t remember a thing.”
“That’s … very practical, I guess—what do you mean, when you don’t feel like killing people?”
“Oh, I’ve got a shit list too,” she assured me gleefully. “For when I do.”
I made a mental note to never, ever piss Sarah off. “Fine, we’ll try it—”
The van lurched, making us both fall back against the sides. A second later the engine cut off.
“Shit!” Sarah hissed, hiding both syringe and iPhone in the waistband of her pajamas. She scrabbled back onto the bed as Van’s footsteps sounded round the side of the van, heading for the door. “Don’t worry, I’ll find an opportunity—” She cut herself off, collapsing into a totally convincing imitation of innocent slumber as the door squealed open.
Van frowned at me. “How did you get this off?” he asked, kicking the discarded gag to one side. He unhooked Brains and shoved the jar in a pocket, then knelt down to unshackle me from the wall.
“I’m a supervampire, remember?” I resisted the urge to bite him. He’d only taste awful. “You have no idea what powers I have. You better let me go, before it’s too late.”
Van’s only response was a derisive snort. He heaved me up and shoved me toward the exit—unable to keep my balance, I fell out of the van in a clatter of chains, and found myself lying on the doorstep of an ordinary-looking town house. Van had backed the van up so close to the house, he’d practically parked the vehicle in the front hallway.
“Quickly now,” I heard him say. A second later, he stepped over me, carrying Sarah in his arms. He kicked the door a couple of times in a distinctive rhythm, all the while glancing nervously around. “We have to get out of sight before we attract atten—”
The door swung open. And there, on the other side, smiling, was Lilith.
Chapter 19
Van yelped as Lilith, still smiling, clobbered him over the head. Sarah yelped as he dropped her. I yelped as they both fell on top of me.
“Sorry, darlings.” Lilith fastidiously rolled Van’s limp form over with the tip of her high-heeled shoe, excavating me from underneath his bulk. “Sarah dear, since you’re down there anyway, would you be a sweetie and find the key for these chains? Xanthe here seems to be in quite a predicament.”
In a few minutes, I was free. I occupied myself with fishing through Van’s pockets to retrieve Brains. It gave me an excuse not to meet Lilith’s eyes. I had no idea how to behave—last time we’d met, I’d tried to kill her, but here she was smiling away as if I was her best friend in the world. It didn’t help that the heat of the Bloodline between us made me feel like a stupid schoolgirl standing next to a catwalk model.
Sarah had no such problem. “Lily!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms around the vampire. “How did you know where to come to rescue us? Did you kill the hunter’s employer?”
Lilith—or Lily—threw back her head and laughed, her sharp black bob swinging. “Darling, I am the hunter’s employer. Vampire hunters are always hired by vampires. Who else knows that we exist?” She prodded Van with her foot. “The hunters are just pest control—no one wants to be neck deep in baby vampires, so the Elders hire them to get rid of all the victims who spontaneously rise after death. Though personally I’ve always used a much cheaper way to avoid that problem—no one rises as a vampire if their heart has already been destroyed. And I must say, crunching people’s rib cages when I’ve finished with them is so very satisfying. Like crus
hing the can after finishing a soda.” Bending down, she picked up the unconscious Van by the scruff of his neck. Her lips pursed as she studied his slack face. “Hm. So that’s how he turned out. Shame about the ginger hair.” She turned away, carrying Van like a shopping bag. “But let’s not loiter in the hallway. Come in, darlings.”
Sarah followed her without hesitation, trusting as a puppy. I trailed after them, clutching Brains’s jar against my chest like a teddy bear and feeling badly out of place. The house didn’t help—knickknacks and lace doilies littered every surface of the battered furniture. Though someone—presumably Lily—had scrupulously straightened everything into precise alignment, the clutter still set my teeth on edge. The air held the faint aroma of boiled cabbage. It was not exactly how I’d pictured the lair of a mysterious vampire queen.
I ended up perched next to Sarah on a rock-hard, ancient sofa, watching as Lily manacled the still-unconscious Van to an old-fashioned cast-iron radiator with disturbingly practiced efficiency. “There now,” she said, looking down at him with satisfaction. “All secure. Now, my dears, I think we all need a long chin-wag. But first, who would like a nice hot drink?”
For Sarah, this turned out to be tea. My own beverage, served in a martini glass, was lukewarm, thick, and crimson. “Uh,” I said, holding the thin crystal stem as gingerly as I could. “I really don’t think so.”
Lily swirled her own glass. “You need to keep your strength up. It’s lovely and fresh, I assure you.” My gaze shot straight to the door that led to the as-yet-unseen kitchen. “Oh, you funny little thing. Not that fresh.”
I set the glass of blood down on the coffee table, where Brains eyed it with interest through his jar. “Um. Look. You aren’t really Lilith, are you?”
“Good Lord, no.” Lily shook her head. “What an interesting story Ebenezer spun for you. No, I was turned in 1926. I’m the youngest of our Bloodline—well, until now, of course.” She raised her glass to me. “Lillian Larkspur—Lily Lark, if you want my theatrical name. I practically grew up on the stage.” She fogged, and for an instant a slim, blue-eyed young man lounged in her place. “Which has paid dividends in unexpected ways, as it turns out.”