The Feeder

by E. M Reders

  “I should hope so.” I had a reputation to maintain. I didn’t need it getting out that I was passing on information about contracts. “If I give you the information, it is for you and you alone, understand?”

  “Understood. You know I wouldn't ask unless it was of the utmost importance.”

  I did know. Didn't make telling him any easier, though. I had a strict code of trust that I had always followed, and now I was going to break it. If this got out, I would be out of a job. But Sebastian was not just anyone; he was a Master, one of the most powerful of them. He was also a friend. “Josiah. The vamps name is Josiah.”

  “Crap.”

  “What is it?”

  “Josiah was the leader of a large group of vampires who were starting to concern the old council a bit. They were quickly growing in power and strength, creating a huge turf war in the east. Nothing was ever done about them – you know how the old council were. Well, a few years back, a large chunk of his group was taken out when their base was attacked. We decided to investigate and sent a group to check things out. Josiah was nowhere to be found, and the place was trashed, so we were concerned. What worried me most was what our guys discovered in the cellar. Josiah had a whole lab set up down there, along with cages and cells he used to keep humans under lock down. All of them were empty, but there was evidence of recent use. We got someone to look over all the documents and samples we found in the lab to try and find out what they were doing down there. From what we can tell they were studying blood, trying to figure out if there was any way possible to change it, give it the unique qualities that can only be found in the legendary Feeder blood.”

  “But surely that is impossible.”

  “Most likely, unless you have a sample of Feeder blood in which to test and compare. Or even better, a Feeder... a live one. All we know is that they had done extensive research upon this, were actually at the stage where they were testing on human subjects. Now we have these samples of Feeder blood in Gideon's possession, who is showing the same power build as Josiah and his group. Josiah has been MIA since his lab was destroyed, but from the intelligence we have gathered, his power has now diminished since the loss of his lab, and I’m guessing it has to do with this lost human he is looking for. You need to find this human, Thayne. We need to know if they have been genetically altered to strengthen the blood in their veins, or if they are in fact a true Feeder. But whichever they are, it seems that Gideon may have gotten his hands on them first. We need to deal with him.”

  “What else do we know about Feeders?” I asked, thinking back to Eve and the remarkable way in which she had healed. Was there anything special about them apart from the qualities their blood gave us?

  “Next to nothing. Why?”

  “No reason,” I lied.

  I hung up the phone after a few more minutes, a large ball of worry forming in my gut. I had just broken one of the primary rules of my job – never give away information about the person that put out the contract – but that wasn’t what was getting to me. No, what worried me most was the fact that Gideon was feeding on Eve, the woman I had fallen in love with. The woman that had just made a miraculous recovery after nearly bleeding to death without any intervention from me. The woman that had a deep, large scar hidden by a tattoo upon her right shoulder blade, the exact place the tracker had been embedded within Josiah’s missing human’s flesh.

  My good mood had just officially plummeted, majorly.

  Eve was still asleep when I returned to the room, so hearing the noise of the others waking, I made my way downstairs to check in with them. I met up with the guys in the kitchen, Trent pouring himself a glass of blood from the fridge. “This stuff tastes like shit, but it's better than nothing.”

  “I'll stick with nothing,” Reese groaned. “How’s she doing?”

  “Better, much better.”

  “No shit,” he laughed. “I could scent the sex on you before you even entered the room.”

  “That's not what I meant.” A smile pulling at the corner of my lips. “She’s healed. Like, completely healed.”

  “But how?”

  “I don’t know. But that’s not important right now. What is important is dealing with Gideon.” It was obvious in so many ways to me that he was not the man for the job, that his title of Master was not deserved. He was selfish and arrogant. He needed to be removed from the position and soon.

  “What about him?” Eve asked, walking into the room, her scent causing my mouth to water. At least now that she was healed, it didn’t push at me so much. I could tell that her effect on the guys was the same and that they felt just as relieved by it as I did. They all cared for her and would never want to cause her any harm, but she was just too mouth-watering for her own good.

  “He needs removing.” It was as simple as that.

  “What?”

  “Removing from the title of Master. It’s obvious to me that he isn’t the right vampire for the job. Ever since I came here, he has done nothing but neglect his duties. He hides away in that office of his, pushing everything he is meant to do off onto others. And not once have I seen him take an interest in getting to know any of the vampires in his area. The whole point of being a Master is not just to rule but to guide. A Master is meant to care and protect those within their area, not bully and neglect them.”

  “While I totally agree with you about the type of Master he is, wouldn’t the other Masters be pissed if he was to be removed from the position?” Trent asked.

  “No,” I laughed. Obviously, these guys had no idea how unliked Gideon was among the other Masters. “I doubt it.”

  “He was right then,” Eve said, eyes wide. “They sent you here to spy on him, didn't they?”

  “Sort of, but I have other reasons for being here.” New reasons, ones to do with the beauty that stood before me. If Gideon had gotten himself someone with Feeder quality blood, then Eve was it. And from what Sebastian had told me, I suspected she was the one Josiah had misplaced and was searching for.

  Eve

  We headed back to the club shortly before sunset. When Thayne had said that we were going back, and I had seen the sun was still out through one of the many UV tinted windows in the house, I had been sceptical that we would make it back before Gideon arrived there. But once he showed me through to the underground garage with the fully decked out SUV parked in it, one specially designed for a vampire to use during daylight, I was all right.

  No one brought up the conversation from the kitchen again, it having already been decided by all that Gideon needed to be removed from office, so to speak. I wasn’t quite sure what to think of that. While I hated him for trapping me in a deal I had never wanted to make; I was also grateful to him for being there when I had nowhere else to turn to.

  I was a Feeder, a unique race of human that had been farmed and almost made extinct due to the greed and lack of control of vampires. Josiah, the vampire that had been the owner of my family since before I was even born had kept me locked away in a cage all of my life, not giving me one ounce of freedom. Gideon, while demanding that I feed him, had allowed me free rein of the club, had given me a home outside of a cage.

  Okay, so maybe the club was a cage, kind of. But it was a much larger, nicer cage than the one I had previously been in. Could I really just stand there and let them take away everything Gideon had worked for? Not that he had actually worked for it, but still, could I betray him like that? Five minutes after we had walked through the doors of the club I had my answer… Hell yes!

  “Eve! My office. Now!”

  As I made to follow Gideon down the corridor to his office, Reese gripped my wrist. Thayne had left me in his care while he went to deal with something. Though what that something was I had no idea. But if every time he left me to deal with something he said goodbye like he had done a few minutes before, I would never complain. The kiss he had given me had been truly mind-blowing.

  “Are you sure this is wise?” Reese asked, bringing me back to
the present.

  “No, but right now I see no other choice. I’ll be fine. He won’t hurt me.” He needed me.

  Forcing a smile, I stepped away and entered the office. “What can I do for you?” I asked, shutting the door behind me and taking a seat across from Gideon, doing my best to act as if nothing was wrong. But in all honestly, I was shitting myself.

  I knew exactly what he wanted. Why he had called me there. He wanted to feed. But after the savage attack from Vince the previous night and almost being drained to death, I was no way near mentally ready to feed another vampire.

  “What the fuck happened last night?” he growled.

  Was this some kind of joke? He knew exactly what had happened. “Vince kidnapped me.”

  “How could you have allowed that to happen? How the fuck could you have allowed him to feed on you?” he raged. He was angry, majorly angry. And while I should have been scared, terrified, knowing Thayne and the others were in the building helped keep me at ease. They would protect me.

  “You belong to me, Eve, understand? You are mine, and no one else is to touch you, nevermind get a taste. You are to stay away from Thayne and the others from now on. You will not be allowed near any other vampire.”

  He couldn’t be serious? “What? That’s ridiculous. It’s not my fault that Vince knocked me out and fed on me. And why would I have to stay away from the others? They saved me. Thayne saved me.”

  “That he did, and from the stench of you, you decided to reward him with your body. It better have been only your body you rewarded him with and not my blood!”

  His blood? It was flowing through my veins, giving me life, but as far as he was concerned it belonged to him, just as it had belonged to Josiah before him.

  I would never be free. If it weren't Gideon that claimed ownership over me, it would be some other vampire. “You know I would never allow another to drink from me.”

  “But you let Vince.”

  “I had no choice! He almost drained me. I was closer to death than I have ever been be-fore.” And I had been close once or twice back in the lab. It was only when everyone else was gone, my whole family drained of life, that Josiah had been more careful with the amount of blood that was being taken from my body. He had refused to allow anyone to feed on me, instead concentrating on cloning the qualities of my blood. Any chance he’d had of doing so had been spoilt when his base had been attacked, and I had escaped.

  “It doesn’t change the fact that we had a deal that you would feed only me, and you just broke that deal. Due to that, you are to remain upstairs until I have further need of you. No longer will you have anything to do with the running of this place, or have any contact with Thayne. Not that he will be here for much longer.”

  “What’s that meant to mean?” Dread for what Gideon planned to do filled my heart. He’d never like Thayne, hated him from the first moment he had entered the club. How far would he go to keep us apart?

  “It means that before the week is out, he will be gone… for good. I will not have him taking away what is mine!”

  Thayne

  The night had gone by so slowly, every moment that I wasn’t by Eve’s side seeming like an eternity. I couldn’t even pop into the office to check on her as I had planned as Reese had overheard Gideon ordering her to stay up in the apartment, away from the club and me.

  I felt possessive of her - I could admit that - but it was for an entirely different reason than Gideon was. She was a possession to him, a source of food. To me, she was everything I hadn’t known I was searching for. I loved her and had never even told her so. That was going to change, soon. But right now wasn’t the time. I had some important things to deal with.

  “We need to find a replacement for Gideon. Someone to challenge him and take on the role of Master.”

  Everything in the club was running smoothly, and the place was pretty quiet after the events of the previous night, so while Gideon was still held up in his office, being his usual unsocial self, we had taken the opportunity to meet with some of the permanent vampires in the area. In total, we’d rounded up around twenty vampires.

  Gideon needed removing, but we weren’t going to do so just so some other lowlife could step into the role. If we were going to get this region back in order, there needed to be someone that everyone trusted and respected in charge.

  “There’s Kenneth? He’s well liked in the area,” Quin said, a young vampire that was a regular at the club.

  “True,” Reese added. “But he’s nowhere near strong enough to keep the position. The last thing we want is to get Gideon out, only to get our new guy boosted out of the job a week later.”

  “Zander?”

  “Too short a temper.”

  “Paul?”

  “Leaving to go overseas.”

  Names kept getting thrown in, but none of them felt right. Every single one of them mentioned, reason was found as to why they were not the right person for the job, and I could agree with them all.

  “Look, we are getting nowhere. Let’s leave it for tonight and we’ll arrange another meeting soon, give everyone time to come up with some new ideas. Hopefully, we can get a larger crowd gathered with more notice.”

  Once everyone had left, and the club had closed its doors for the night, I headed to down the corridor to Gideon’s office, only to find it empty. Where was he?

  Walking further down the hall, I listened out for any signs of life but heard nothing. He hadn’t left yet, of that I was sure. He never exited the building without one of the other guys debriefing him upon the events of the night. The majority of the time it was me he wanted to speak to. Though, I doubted he had any interest in anything I told him and just wanted to question me. He still didn’t trust the lie that I was here for no reason other than to give me something to do between jobs.

  Closing my eyes, I sent out my other senses, the ones that allowed me to pick up on things many others of my kind could not. Back in the club, I could detect Reese’s boredom and Dean’s sadness – the guy was still mourning over the loss of Pippa. Their emotions were weak compared to the ones screaming from the floor above. Anger and pain. The anger belonging to the bastard I was looking for. And the pain? Coming from the woman I had promised to protect, a task that I was failing miserably at.

  Racing towards the apartment, I didn’t even bother to try the door, instead smashing my way through it in my desperation to get to her and end her pain.

  The moment I entered the large lounge space, I found out what the matter was. One hand wrapped tightly around her wrist, the other gripping the top of her arm, Gideon fed.

  The pain radiating from Eve was immense, her eyes closed as tears streamed down her face. She fought the bite with everything she had, even as she gritted her teeth to stop from calling out in agony.

  Gripping Gideon by the shoulder, afraid to yank him away as I would have liked in case it caused her more pain and damage, I sneered. “I think you have had enough.”

  Lifting his mouth, keeping a firm grip on her wrist, he growled. “I don’t think so. We have a deal. One that she has been ignoring ever since you showed up. It’s time she paid up.”

  Turning his focus back to Eve, he made to feed on her again. I couldn’t let that happen. If she had been willing, it would have been a different matter, but the pain and agony on her face made my decision for me. Before Gideon had a chance to sink his fangs back into her abused flesh, I moved to rip him from her, to send him flying to the other side of the room… but that didn’t happen.

  “What the fuck?” Arms around him, I yanked him back, only moving him slightly before his feet found purchase and his body froze as if he had turned into a statue. Trying again I attempted to move him, but still nothing.

  Laughing, he sneered, “She belongs to me, Thayne. She is mine and always will be.”

  Suddenly I was the one that was being thrown to the other side of the room, my back slamming hard enough against the plaster wall to create a Thayne shaped hole.
“This is your one and only warning,” he growled, fisting his hand in my hair and slamming my head down to meet his bended knee before storming from the room.

  “Thayne?” Eve cried once Gideon was gone, his footsteps no longer heard. She crawled over to where I lay slumped on the floor. “Are you okay?”

  Okay? Was she serious?

  Physically I was fine, a little sore perhaps, but fine all the same. Mentally, though, I was confused. Only a few hours ago I had gotten into a scuffle with Gideon, and unless he had been majorly holding back on me, he had not been that strong back then. Somehow in the past few hours, he had gained power, strength, and the only way I could think of him gaining that power was if he had drunk this fabled Feeder blood. Gazing up into Eve’s beautiful face I wondered, could my suspicions have been right? Was Eve a Feeder?

  “What? You’re looking at me funny.”

  “What are you?”

  So there may have been a better why of phrasing that question, but right at that moment, I couldn’t care less. Eve had been keeping secrets from me ever since the moment we first met, dodging any question about her past or her connection to Gideon. Now I had an idea why.

  “I think you may have banged your head a little too hard,” she said with a forced smile. “You’re making no sense.”

  “My head is fine. Now answer the question, Eve. What are you?” I shouldn’t be angry. Everyone had their secrets, but for some reason, the fact that she was keeping secrets from me after everything that had happened between us hurt.

  “I don’t understand,” she whispered, Inching away from me, her fear hitting me full in the face, but still I continued.

  “I think you do. Only last night I got into a fight with Gideon. Reese and Chad had to pull me off him before I pummelled his face in. Now he’s suddenly stronger, massively stronger. How?”

  “I… I…” Tears formed in her eyes. “I can’t tell you.”

  “Can’t or won’t?”

  “Won’t.”

  Pushing myself up off the floor, I made my way towards the door. I couldn’t stay here, not with her blatantly keeping things from me. I loved her, trusted her. Or at least, I had trusted her, until now. She didn’t return my trust, so she had lost my own.