Lu was more than happy to let the conversation veer into less serious territory. She tried on a little grin.
“Seriously,” Joey continued, “what do you call that dish? Night crawlers verde?”
“And once again, I feel the need to call you a dork.” She smiled, and Joey was delighted that he’d managed to cheer her up.
He was about to fire back a retort when suddenly the entire house rumbled and shook. “Oh my God, earthquake!” Lu exclaimed. She grabbed Joey’s arm and dragged him under the counter with her.
Joey smiled as they hunched together on the floor. “You saved me, how sweet!” he exclaimed. “Even though you think I’m a dork.”
Everything was quiet for a drawn-out moment.
And then once again the house shook violently. Joey put a protective arm around Lu’s shoulders. The pasta launched off the counter and splattered across the polished wood floor, and glass shattered behind them as wine glasses spilled from an open shelf.
An eerie stillness followed.
After a minute of waiting and listening, Joey let go of Lu and said, “I have good news and bad news. The good news is, that wasn’t an earthquake. The bad news is, that wasn’t an earthquake.”
“Then what--” Lu was cut off in mid-sentence as a particularly sharp jolt threw her back, smacking her head against the base of the breakfast bar. “Ow!”
“Let’s go find Alastair.” Joey grabbed her hand and took off running. Lu sprinted to keep up, her heart pounding like it was going to beat its way out of her chest. When they were halfway up the spiral staircase the house shook again and Lu almost fell, but Joey dragged her to her feet and they kept climbing.
They got to the top floor, and Joey let go of her hand and bolted down the hall ahead of her. Another tremor knocked them both down but Joey was up again in an instant, and Lu raised her head to see him hurtling through Bryn’s open bedroom door.
When she burst through the door a few seconds later, Joey was kneeling at Alastair’s side. Alastair looked like he was about to pass out, but still he held Bryn in his arms, cradling him like a child. “It’s going to be ok, Bryn,” he was saying gently. “Don’t worry. You’ll be ok.”
Bryn’s eyes were open but unfocused, blood running from his nose. His dark hair was matted with sweat, his dress shirt soaked through, his skin an alarming grey. After a moment he met his friend’s gaze. “Are you ok, Allie?” he asked, his voice reedy.
“I’m fine,” Alastair told him.
Bryn smiled weakly. “Liar. Let Joey attend to you.”
Lu ran and got Bryn a glass of water and a washcloth from the bathroom, and he accepted both with a whispered thanks and a shaking hand. She helped prop him up as he held the washcloth to his bloody nose, and Joey grabbed Alastair just as he started to fall over.
“Cheers,” Bryn said before taking a few sips of water. Then he pivoted around and leaned against a nearby chair, saying, “What terrible timing. It was all I could do to extract myself from Allie’s mind when the shaking started. I could have accidentally destroyed him.”
“What’s happening?” Lu asked. “What’s that shaking?”
Bryn swept his wet hair back from his forehead and said simply, “Someone’s trying to get in.”
“With what? A giant battering ram?”
“Metaphorically speaking, yes,” Bryn said, the corner of his lips tilting up slightly. “Actually, someone’s bombarding the wards on this house with some pretty powerful magic.” He dabbed his bloody nose with the cloth.
Another shockwave rattled them, then a second one in quick succession. A heavy crystal vase against the far wall fell and shattered, scattering lilies across the floor.
As soon as the tremors stopped again Bryn struggled to his feet with Lu’s help. He sighed and said, “You know, if this were happening at any other time, we’d barely notice this attack.”
“How so?”
“Everything I do takes a certain amount of energy,” he explained. “Going into Alastair’s mind was incredibly taxing, so I must have diverted energy from the defenses on my house without realizing it. And now someone’s trying to break through the remaining defenses at a time when I’m rather compromised.” He leaned heavily against the chair as he spoke.
“Who do you think is coming after you?” Lu asked.
“I don’t know who it is. But I do know they’re not coming after me,” Bryn said, then took another drink of water. “They’re coming after Alastair. I feel all the intention directed at him. Not that Alastair being the target makes any difference. I still take an attack on my home quite personally.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“I’ll tell you what I’m going to do,” Bryn said, standing up straight and setting the glass on a nearby end table. “I’m going to go take a shower.” And with that he crossed the bedroom and stepped through a dark wood door. After a moment she heard water running.
“Okaaay,” Lu muttered, staring after him.
Meanwhile, Joey had guided Alastair to the bed and covered him with a blanket. He brushed Alastair’s hair back from his face and watched him with concern for a long moment. Then Joey took a wooden stake from his waistband and swiftly drew its point across his own wrist. He tossed the weapon onto the nightstand as he held the cut against Alastair’s lips.
His maker immediately grabbed his arm and drew in deeply, feverishly. Joey’s body went rigid and he pressed his eyes shut, his hands knotted into fists.
As with the time before, it was all over quickly.
When Alastair released him Joey licked his wrist, then crossed his arms over his body, sort of hugging himself as he said gently, “Try to rest, Allie. Everything’s going to be ok. Just rest, bro.” Alastair exhaled softly as his eyes slid shut.
Joey and Lu waited for several tense minutes, expecting the shaking to resume.
The house remained still.
Lu went around and peered out all the windows at the bright December afternoon, pulling the curtains back just an inch or two before letting them fall back into place.
“What’s out there?” Joey asked, keeping back a considerable distance from the sunlight that threatened to ignite him.
“Nothing that I can see,” Lu said. She paused at Alastair’s bedside and ran the back of her fingers gently down his cheek. He took her hand without opening his eyes.
“They’re out on the street, beyond the row of barrier houses you had to pass through to get here,” Bryn said, startling them by bursting into the room from a different direction than he’d exited. “So you won’t be able to get a look at them.” He was freshly showered and dressed in a western-style shirt, Levi’s, and a pair of pointy cowboy boots, his wet hair slicked back. Color had returned to his cheeks, and his eyes once again sparkled. Crossing the room to Joey, Bryn tossed a large duffle bag at his feet. “Here pet, you may as well arm yourself. You know, just in case.”
“You forgot the cowboy hat,” Joey told him cheerfully, dropping to his knees and pulling back the long zipper on the duffle. “If you’re gonna go all ‘Outlaw Josey Wales’ you might as well go all the way.” Then he chuckled. “That’s actually really funny. Josey Wales. And you’re Welsh. Sometimes I crack myself up.” He continued to chuckle as he dug through the bag.
Bryn said with a grin, “I was going for ‘Showdown at the OK Corral,’ but Josey Wales is good too. And I didn’t forget the hat. It’s just that my hair’s still damp and I’m trying to avoid total hat-head.”
“Are we safe now?” Lu asked. “Do you think they gave up?”
Bryn opened a small cabinet set into one wall, pulling out a bottle of whiskey as he shrugged. “Maybe the bastards finally ran out of energy.” He took a swig of alcohol directly from the bottle.
“Should you really be drinking at a time like this?” Lu asked him.
“I couldn’t possibly think of a better time.” Bryn winked at her and took another long drink.
“And what if we need you later and you’re
passed out drunk?”
“There’s not enough alcohol in all of San Francisco to accomplish that, love,” he told her, and sauntered from the room with the bottle.
“Great,” she sighed. Then she turned to Joey and said, “Shouldn’t we be doing something right now? Like, I don’t know, running for our lives?”
“The bad guys are out there. We’re safer in here. And there’s that whole pesky me-burning-in-sunlight thing to consider,” Joey said.
“There has to be something we can do!”
“Whatever’s happening right now is sort of a ‘war of the warlocks’ thing, it’s all about magic,” Joey told her. “The only thing we can do is trust Bryn to handle it.”
“But he’s not handling it! He’s getting drunk.”
“Have some faith, Lu. Bryn always knows exactly what he’s doing. We just have to be patient while he gets the situation under control.”
Lu sighed dramatically, but resigned herself to waiting it out.
Alastair shifted slightly and Lu let go of his hand, watching him for a few moments. He was sound asleep. After a while she got up and crossed the room to the liquor cabinet. “See, there ya go,” Joey said. “Suddenly you see the advantages of getting stinking drunk.”
“Hardly. I’m still hungry,” she said as she slid the cabinet open further and revealed a mini fridge. She rummaged around in it, finally producing a carton of strawberry yogurt and a plastic spoon, and went and sat by the fireplace, which immediately sprang to life.
“Oh, that’s way better,” Joey said, nodding toward the yogurt. “Huge improvement over the great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts.”
“Good lord,” Lu said with a grin, glad for Joey’s distraction, “You’re like the annoying little brother I never wanted.”
“Annoying big brother,” he corrected. He was lining up a selection of wooden stakes on the floor according to size.
“No, little. You said you were turned at fifteen. And I’m seventeen.”
“Ah,” Joey said, his eyes sparkling, “but that was six years ago. Next week I turn twenty-one. So I’m a man, baby.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her.
“Or you would have turned twenty-one if it wasn’t for that whole unfortunate getting killed and turned into a vampire thing.”
“My death, my math,” he said. “I’m almost twenty-one. Deal with it, kid.” He winked at her and she rolled her eyes.
“If you say so.” She stirred the yogurt, watching Joey arrange and inspect the weapons. After a while she said, “Can I ask you something?”
He sat back on his heels and looked at her. “Yeah, anything.”
“Does it hurt you when Alastair drinks from you?” She was remembering how vulnerable he’d seemed afterwards.
Joey shifted his gaze to his hands, and paused before saying, “No, it doesn’t really hurt.”
“But it does something to you, doesn’t it?” Lu asked gently.
Joey’s voice was quiet when he answered. “Alastair isn’t doing this on purpose. But, well, when a vampire feeds on one he’s created, it’s a show of domination, an assertion of power.” He fidgeted a bit. “It’s meant to be a form of punishment, and that’s what it feels like to me when he drinks.”
“Like you’re being punished? But you keep offering your blood to him.”
Joey nodded, finally meeting her eyes. “Of course I do, because he needs it. It makes no difference that it leaves me feeling like I’ve just been smacked around. And besides,” Joey glanced over at Alastair’s sleeping form, “I know there’s no malice behind it, he’s not trying to hurt me. He has no idea that I end up feeling humiliated.” He looked back down at his hands.
“I think you need to stop feeding him, Joey.”
“It’s not really like I have a choice. We can’t just order take-out or something. What are my alternatives?”
“Well, I suppose if something else happens and he needs it, maybe I could….” she didn’t finish the sentence, remembering with a vivid blush the lust that had washed over her when she’d been bitten. As embarrassing as it was, she had to ask: “Joey, when a vampire feeds from a human, is there, um, is there usually something sexual about it?”
Joey looked embarrassed too, but he answered her honestly. “Yeah, there can be.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I’m just trying to understand what happened when Alastair bit me.”
“It’s good you asked, you should really know this.” He sat back and crossed his legs, and began distractedly picking at the frayed cuff of his jeans, again not meeting her eyes. Then he said, “Vampires use sex like a lure. It’s how they draw their victims to them. A human may feel attraction or desire when they come in contact with a vampire -- that’s the lure in action. It’s a chemical reaction, an aphrodisiac,” Joey said. “And the act of biting causes an additional powerful release of an aphrodisiac, which distracts the victim and puts them at ease. A vampire can choose to dial it way back, but there’s always at least a little undercurrent of sex during a deliberate feeding.”
“A ‘deliberate’ feeding? As opposed to what?”
“As opposed to ingesting someone’s blood without biting them. Like, if you cut yourself and I licked it, neither of us would get that…that rush of desire.” He looked mortified, but then he continued, “Biting is key to triggering a sexual response, it’s like a one-two punch in conjunction with the lure.”
“Ok, I get it. And I appreciate you explaining it to me.” She was as embarrassed as he was, but she admitted, “I was wondering if there was something wrong with me, because I actually liked it when Alastair bit me.”
“That’s a perfectly normal response.” Joey glanced up at her. “And you know Alastair wasn’t manipulating you on purpose, right? He doesn’t remember anything about being a vampire, including all the nuances of feeding.”
“I know. He was more shocked than I was after he bit me.” After a pause she asked, “Is it the same when a vampire bites another vampire?”
Joey shook his head. “Nope. Vampires, and all supernaturals for that matter, are immune to the lure and the bite reaction, just like we’re immune to being compelled.”
Lu went back to stirring the yogurt, which she still gripped in one hand. After a minute she said, “The fact that I’m attracted to Alastair, that has nothing to do with the vampire lure. I’m just attracted to him.” It wasn’t a question, but she still looked to Joey for an answer.
He grinned at that. “I think the fact that you’re attracted to Alastair is human chemistry at work, not vampire chemistry. I mean, who wouldn’t be attracted to a guy that beautiful?” Lu looked at Joey questioningly and started to say something but he interrupted, holding his hand up. “And no. I’m not attracted to him, so go ahead and skip that question.”
She said gently, “Even if you were, it’s none of my business.”
“Nah. I’m not into guys,” Joey said. “Not that there’s anything wrong with being gay. My boat just doesn’t happen to float in that particular pond.” The grin still played around his lips.
“I suppose that a guy as good-looking as Alastair…well, I must be part of a very long line of girls that have fallen for him over the years.” Lu stared at the yogurt.
“I’m sure that every girl that lays eyes on Alastair finds him attractive. But you’re the first girl he’s been involved with since I’ve known him.”
“Really?”
“Well, yeah. Alastair doesn’t exactly date. He’s like a soldier, focused on his mission. He’s too busy doing his job, hunting vampires, to think about anything else.”
She wondered what it would mean for her once Alastair regained his memories, how she would fit into his life once he remembered who he was.
But she didn’t have long to ponder this, as suddenly the house shook like a toy in the jaws of a giant dog. Furniture toppled and windows shattered as Lu was launched forward, her head coming down hard on the coffee table.
And blac
kness crashed in around her.
Lu came awake to find herself moving quickly down a long staircase. Backwards. Her eyes couldn’t focus as she bounced and swayed, making her even dizzier than she already was, so she pressed them shut. She realized that for the second time in two days, she was being held in a fireman’s carry, draped over someone’s shoulder.
Her head ached like it had been split in two, and she mumbled, “I really hate being carried.”
The person holding her was yelling something to someone ahead of him. After a moment she realized she was being carried by Joey. She mumbled, “Put me down,” but he kept running, and she grasped two big fistfuls of the back of his t-shirt in a futile effort to steady herself.
Joey leapt down a flight of stairs right behind Alastair as he called instructions. “Straight back through the kitchen, last door on the right.” They sprinted across the first floor of the mansion, dodging a big patch of sunlight where one of the drapes was askew.
They descended yet another staircase. At the bottom of it Alastair tugged open a heavy door, and they stepped into a large room. Immediately an unseen light source came on, bathing the space in a warm golden glow.
The air was still and cool down here, the stone walls lined with racks and racks of glass bottles. “We’re hiding out in a wine cellar?” Alastair asked as he dropped the weapons bag he’d been carrying onto the floor.
“I can think of no better place,” said Bryn as he sauntered casually down the stairs and pulled the thick door shut behind him.
A big wooden table and chairs filled the center of the room, and Joey set Lu down gingerly on the edge of the table. He put his face close to hers and looked in her eyes, asking, “Do you think you have a concussion?”
She closed her eyes and lay back onto the table, trying to make the room stop spinning. “How the hell would I know?”
“She’s fine,” Joey announced. “She’s still a smartass, so she can’t be hurt too badly.”
“For future reference, I really hate being carried,” Lu complained. She rested a hand against her chest, then pulled it back abruptly and blinked at it. A huge splatter of yogurt covered the front of her shirt, and now her fingers as well. She sighed and wiped her hand on her pants.
Magic & Memory Page 10