by Joshua King
“Sometimes that means several vampires will bite the same victim at the same time, but then it doesn't matter what's going to happen. That person's dead by the time the group's done with them. But you...you're in the middle of your turn. I have no idea what would happen to you if I bit you as well. It might mean I would need to give you some of my blood as well as you needing some of Aurora's, but it might also just kill you. I don't know.”
“Thanks for not deciding today was the day to take risks,” I said.
Ashe shrugged.
“Aurora would be pissed if I managed to kill you before she even got the opportunity to decide whether she's going to turn you or not.”
I stared at her blankly for a few seconds.
“I'm glad that's your priority,” I said.
“Actually, my priority right now is figuring out how you could hear what I was thinking,” she said.
“I don't know why you're so worked up,” I said. I reached out and took her wrist, trying to pull her toward me. “Maybe it's just one of the abilities I'm developing during my turn. I'm sure there are plenty of other vampires who are able to read thoughts.”
She shook her head.
“Do you really think I'd be reacting like this if it was a completely normal thing for vampires to be able to do? Regardless of the fact that you are still in the middle of your turn, you shouldn't be able to do that. Even fully developed, high-powered vampires don't just go around listening to other people's thoughts. Is this something you've always been able to do?”
“Seriously?” I asked. “If I could just hear what everybody around me was thinking, I wouldn't have been wasting my time out on the football field. I would have been able to find a way to manipulate the shit out of it, and I’d have all the money I ever wanted. Yours are definitely the first thoughts I’ve heard.”
“I don't know what this means,” she said. Then she looked at me with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “But I don’t really want to think about it anymore right now. Where were we?”
She dropped back to her knees, and I felt her tongue glide along me again. I let her suck for a few seconds, then pulled her to her feet and into my lap. Slamming up into her, I kissed her deeply and fucked her hard until she came. Ashe pulled her mouth away from mine to let out a scream, then dropped her head to my shoulder. She didn’t lift it again, and for the first time since waking up I wondered what time it was. It had been the longest day of my life, and I was ready to go to bed. I jostled Ashe until she lifted her head, and looked at me with equally sleepy eyes.
“Let’s go to your apartment and go to bed,” I said.
I didn’t want to drag myself all the way back to my apartment. Part of me also just wanted to stay near Ashe. At the back of my mind, I could feel the time ticking away, and something told me to stick close to her if I wanted to live. She was the one telling me how to get through this, and I didn’t want to do anything that might decrease my chances of surviving. She nodded her agreement and we got dressed.
The next thing I knew, I was being woken up by the sound of someone pounding on a door. I didn't even remember getting into bed. I remembered walking out of the VIP room with Ashe, but everything else was fuzzy. The pounding continued, and I opened my eyes. Looking to my side, I saw her stretched out in the bed beside me. She was sleeping completely naked. The sight of her body against the cool white sheets was enough to get my blood pumping again, and I wanted to flip her onto her back and go for another round. The knocking was getting louder, though, and I knew I wasn't going to get away with it. She shifted in her sleep, moaning slightly.
“What the hell is that?” she asked.
“Someone's at the door,” I said.
Ashe rolled over and lifted her head to look at me questioningly.
“Who is it?” she asked groggily.
“I don't know,” I said. “I'll get it.”
She nodded and I got out of bed, pulling on my pants as I crossed the apartment to the door. I pulled it open and saw one of the Shade guards from the night before standing just outside. His expression was stony, but his stance told me he wasn't happy to see me. I tensed, ready to fight him again. I noticed his friend wasn't there with him.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“What are you doing here?”
I looked over my shoulder and saw Ashe coming into the room.
“I'm here with a message,” he said. He looked back at me. “You are to come back to Nakatomi Tower. Aurora requested a meeting with you.”
He didn't say anything else, just turned around and stalked away. I closed the door and faced Ashe.
“Is this a trap?” I asked. “If this was a movie, I’d be screaming at the characters not to go.”
“Do you see someone filming?” she asked. When I didn't answer, she shook her head. “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about,” she said. “You don't have to be afraid of them.”
“I'm not fucking afraid of them,” I said. “I just want to be prepared for what I'm walking into.”
“What are you going to do? Go buy some wooden stakes first?” she asked.
“Hilarious,” I said, following her back into the bedroom so I could finish getting dressed.
“The Shade have plenty of ways to, let's say, convince people to do what they want them to do. They don't need to resort to thinly veiled traps. Complex and intricately planned traps, perhaps, but they aren't going to walk up to the door and tell you someone wants to talk to you and then toss you in a dungeon when you show up. If that Shade was sent as a messenger and not as a guard, it means Aurora really did send him. She wants to talk to you.”
“Beats the hell out of searching around for her,” I said.
Ashe shrugged.
“We'll see. Get ready. We don't want to keep her waiting.”
13
We walked out of the apartment a short time later and found a note stuck to the door with a push pin. Ashe pulled the note off the door and handed it to me.
“Looks like our Shade friend wanted to make sure we didn't forget he came by for a visit,” she said.
“Who travels with their own push pins?” I asked.
I unfolded the piece of paper and looked down at the note. Any thoughts that it might have been the Shade who wrote it were gone as soon as I saw the handwriting. Any man that big and rough would have handwriting that matched. Either his big hands and strength would make his script messy and illegible, or his intense control would make it chunky and square. The handwriting on this note was neither. Instead, it was smooth and flowing. The script felt formal and old-fashioned, like it came from a different time. I remembered what Ashe had told me about Aurora, and knew the note had to be from her. I didn't know why, but I got a thrill out of holding the piece of paper and knowing she had written the words on it. It was like I felt like I was getting closer to something I didn't yet understand.
“You are hereby summoned to Nakatomi Tower. Thirty-seventh floor,” I read.
“That's it?” Ashe asked.
I nodded, flipping the paper over to make sure I hadn't missed anything.
“That's it,” I confirmed. “She sure doesn’t waste time on niceties, does she?”
“I told you, Aurora isn't the warm and fuzzy type. She's not going to go out of her way to make you feel...well, much of anything, to be honest. Not unless she gets something out of it. She wants you at the Tower, so she's going to tell you that. Plain and simple. She doesn't need to invite you, or hope you want to come. She wants you there, so you'll be there.”
We got to Nakatomi Tower twenty minutes later and walked in through the revolving doors. Despite what Ashe had said about the Shade, part of me expected the guards to jump us as soon as we got into the lobby. I was on edge until we'd gotten all the way inside and hadn't been smashed into the marble floor. We looked around, but didn't see anyone who seemed to be waiting for us. Ashe started across the lobby toward the desk where she had gone the day before, and I fell into step behin
d her. As we approached, the same woman looked up at us. She gave what looked like a corporate smile, one of those half-grins that only seemed to tug up part of her lips and didn't reach her eyes.
“Good morning,” she said in a bland, not quite cheerful voice that matched the smile.
“Hi,” Ashe said. “I was here yesterday.”
The woman nodded once.
“I remember.”
“We’re meeting someone here. She's expecting us.”
I didn't know why Ashe was being evasive. She didn't seem frightened, or like she was trying to protect Aurora or the Shade. Instead, it sounded almost like a test, like she was trying to determine if this woman knew all the inner workings of what was happening in the building. When the woman stared back at Ashe without a response, I stepped up to the desk. I held the note out to her.
“We got this,” I said. “It was left this morning.”
I didn't feel the need to tell her about our visit from the Shade. I'm sure she remembered the run-in from the day before. She took the paper from my hand and looked at it, then lifted her eyes to me before handing it back.
“Just a moment,” she said.
She picked up a phone on the desk beside her, and pressed a button.
“He's here,” she said without greeting.
She hung up the phone just as promptly, and gestured further into the lobby.
“You can wait there,” she said. “Someone will be with you in a moment.”
Ashe and I walked past the columns in the center of the lobby and stood amongst the plants that had shielded the Shade guards from my view yesterday. I noticed they weren't standing by the elevator this time, and wondered what had come of the guard I had left lying on the ground in the alley. Only seconds passed before the elevator doors slid open, and the guard who had been at the apartment stepped out.
“Come with me,” he said.
Ashe and I followed his instructions, crossing the rest of the lobby and walking into the elevator. When the doors shut, the guard pulled a keycard out of his pocket and inserted it into a slot on the control panel. Only a few of the numbers had been illuminated, but once his card was in place, the others lit up as well. He pressed the button for the 37th floor, and the elevator started to slide upward, moving rapidly. Soon the car stopped, and the doors slid open again. The Shade stepped out and waited for us to follow him. He escorted us down a long hallway with grey carpeting and lights in elaborate sconces every few feet.
“What's with the card?” I asked.
“Nakatomi Tower has several purposes,” the Shade responded. “It's best only some enter certain areas.”
“There are forty floors in the tower,” Ashe explained. “But the top 10 are only accessible by special authorization. That was technically a private elevator and no one is supposed to use it but those on the top floors. The keycards are just another layer of security. The elevator would be unable to access those floors without it.”
We reached a door at the end of the hallway and the guard used his key again to open it. As soon as we stepped inside, I felt like I had walked into an invisible wall. Aurora was sitting at an ornate desk in the center of the room, and the force of seeing her and being in the room with her, was tangible. It hit me so hard I could barely breathe. It was as if the attraction I felt for her was physically pulling me toward her. As I looked at her, I could see her breaths become deeper. An even larger guard stood to one side of her. She gestured toward him with one graceful hand. All I could think about was how it had felt for that hand to run along my body.
“This is Jaxxim,” she said. “My personal guard.”
I nodded an acknowledgement toward him, but I couldn’t tear my attention away from Aurora for long.
“Touch me.”
Just like when I had heard Ashe's thoughts, I heard Aurora speak, but her mouth didn't move. I didn't say anything. The way Ashe had reacted was strong enough. I didn't want to do anything that might push Aurora away before I got what I wanted from her. Her hands were folded on the top of the desk in front of her, and I could see them tense, like she was trying to control herself. The way the women in the park had acted came to mind, and I wondered if she was feeling the same attraction Ashe had described. I decided to take my chances. I took a step toward the desk.
“I know what you did to me,” I said.
“Of course you do,” she said. “You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t.”
“Stop, Aurora. Not yet.”
She was holding back, fighting with herself to resist me, but I didn’t know why. All that mattered was getting her blood and finishing this turn. It wasn’t something I relished the thought of doing, but it was better than the alternative.
“You need to complete the ritual,” I said. “Ashe told me you sometimes just don’t finish turning people. Not me.”
The draw I felt to her was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. It was more powerful than any attraction I could have imagined. It was challenging just to keep my thoughts straight enough to talk to her.
“You think I should complete your turn, do you?” she asked. “And you know what the ritual involves?”
“You took my blood when you bit me – which still hurts, by the way – so you have to give me some of yours. That will complete my change.”
Aurora looked amused and made a quiet, affirmative sound.
“That’s a lot to ask, you know,” she said. “To have some of my blood. I’m not just any old vampire you might find on the street.” Her eyes slid over to Ashe. “Or in a bar.”
It was a nasty, snide comment, but I didn’t get the impression she expressly disliked Ashe. Instead, it felt like a subtle barb, a comment made to remind the people around her of her station, and of theirs.
“I know,” I said. “But it’s also a lot to ask for me to just sit around and wait to fucking shrivel up like a raisin and die. You didn’t ask me if I was up for that.”
“Unfortunately for you, it’s not up to you,” she said. “I can do as I please. And I haven’t come a decision yet as to whether I’m going to allow you to have some of my blood.”
“Then why did you bring me here?” I asked.
Her smile got only slightly larger.
“You’re a clever one, aren’t you? Why would I bring you here if I didn’t have the intention of completing the ritual? Or…perhaps…of just finishing up and killing you?” She lifted her hands so they folded in front of her and rested her chin on them briefly as she looked at me. “There’s something about you, Hayden. Something I can’t quite put my finger on.”
“So I’ve heard,” I said.
She gave a nod.
“I’m sure you have. I want to know what it is. I want to know what makes you different.”
I had the feeling she was going to deny me, and the image of my poor dick rotting away flashed through my mind again. I couldn’t let that happen. Remembering what Ashe had said about Aurora either giving me her blood, or me taking it, I made a split-second decision and rushed the desk. I had taken only a few steps when Jaxxim shot away from his position and grabbed me around the neck. He lifted me off my feet and glared up into my face as he held me off the ground. It was instantly obvious that as fast and strong as I thought I was, Jaxxim was greatly more so. I clawed at his hands, and he finally put me back on my feet.
“What the fuck?” I asked, struggling to drag in a breath.
“Now you see why I have him as my personal guard,” Aurora said. “He is very strong. Very fast. Very powerful. Things you could be, if you were to complete your change and come into your full powers. The operative word here being ‘if’. That’s still a decision I have to make. You see, finishing the ritual to turn you isn’t just about you. Changing you would make a major impact on my life as well. If I was to give you my blood and finish the ritual, it would tie you to me forever, make you my lord, and eventually my king. I don’t take that lightly. I haven’t lived this long and stayed free just to be locked down to a human wit
h a glow. I want to know what it is that makes you so different, and then, and only then, will I consider finishing the ritual.”
“So, that’s it?” I asked. “You’re dangling my life over me because you can’t decide if you want to be linked with me for life?”
“Not life, Hayden,” Aurora said. “Eternity. Or until one of us is decapitated.”
“Beautiful sentiment,” I said. “You should really add that to your online dating profile. Look. Why don’t we just decide that’s not how it would have to work? We don’t have to be bound to each other just because you change me. I’ll just say thanks for the offer, but no, and we’ll move on.”
“That’s not how it works.”
I turned toward Ashe, who was still standing just inside the room.
“What do you mean that’s not how it works?” I asked.
“Just that,” she said. “You don’t get to decide how the change affects either of you. Aurora is a princess. Her station sets her apart. The depth of her bite and the amount of the toxin she puts into you when she bites you determines the intensity of your bond to each other if she chooses to complete your turn.”
“You’ve always been such a good little student, Ashe,” Aurora said. “She’s right, Hayden. My bite is special. It can mean little, or it can mean a lot. Most of the people I change I can’t even remember. They go on having whatever existence they’re going to have, and it literally has no impact on me. For some reason, you strike me as different. The night I saw you at the bar, I was drawn to you, and I wanted you right then. Giving you the amount of venom that I did was a spur of the moment decision. But if I choose to finish the transformation, it can’t be changed.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. “Do you want me to give you the run-down of myself? Tell you all the names of my childhood pets, my favorite sushi spot, and that I love long walks on the beach while discussing fine literature?”
“I don’t need you to romance me,” Aurora said flatly. “I’ve had enough people try during my existence. I need answers. Find out what makes you special, and I will trade you my blood for the answer. Seek out Malakan in Solon City. I will hear the answer from him.”