A Taste of Crimson

by Marjorie M. Liu

  “I understand that your word is as good as mine.” Marcus shrugged. “Your wolf is safe from me.”

  Keeli touched Michael’s hand and he pulled her close; he looked around the bar, through the blue haze at the vampires who had attacked her. They sat like statues, dark eyes set within pale faces that were detached, pitiless.

  They are not all like this.

  No, but it was easy to forget, to see only darkness. Perhaps it was so easy because Michael was intimately familiar with his own monster, the horrific face of his own heart.

  Keeli stirred. “If you really mean it, that I’m safe from you, then show us the back door.”

  Michael tried not to show his surprise. Marcus merely tilted his head and gestured for them to follow. They walked through his office; Keeli glanced at the blood on the floor and looked at Michael. He shrugged.

  The Bloody Pulp’s back door was inside a closet filled with sunscreen and other sundries. Marcus tossed Michael a bottle, along with a package of wet-naps. Michael eyed them with some amusement; he broke open the package and cleaned his face. Tossed everything to Keeli. She wiped her hands.

  Marcus said, “I am sorry.”

  Michael blinked. “For what?”

  “For what was done to you. All of Malachai’s children committed crimes, but you were the only one punished.” He smiled, bitter. “And in some ways, you are the only one who has redeemed yourself.”

  “I do not feel redeemed.”

  Marcus shrugged. He unlocked the door at the back of the closet and opened it. Michael saw another closet, this one filled with cleaning supplies. Keeli slipped through and stood on the other side, waiting. Her pink hair stuck out in wild directions. Michael wanted nothing more than to find a quiet place and hold her. He felt so tired.

  Marcus did not say good-bye, and Michael did not turn around as the door shut behind them. He wrapped Keeli tight in his arms. Relief made him weak.

  “Rough,” he said, voice muffled by her hair.

  “Yeah.” Keeli clutched his shoulders. She was shaking. “I shouldn’t have come in, but there was a Tracker nearby. I’m sorry, Michael.”

  “There is no reason to be sorry.” He moved just enough to look into her eyes. He studied the cut in her cheek. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

  She shook her head, swallowing hard. “I was in trouble. There were too many of them.”

  “You looked like you were doing fine.”

  Keeli briefly closed her eyes. “Fine. Yeah.” She looked around the closet. “Where the hell are we?”

  “We could open the door and find out,” he suggested, and then kissed her smile. Keeli pushed against him, soft, and he felt her desperation in the way her lips moved, the hard suck and pull of her mouth.

  I almost lost you, he wanted to say, but he let his body speak for him, and Keeli seemed to understand.

  They opened the door and found themselves at the back of a very normal, and completely incongruous, health food store. Boxes of green tea and organic dried fruits covered the tables around them. Low-carb snacks, seeds, and seaweed lined the walls. Michael smelled incense.

  “Whoa.” Keeli stared at a rack full of herbal sexual aides. “Did we just cross into another universe?”

  “Hello!” A pert little brunette with shells around her neck flounced toward them. “I didn’t see you guys come in.”

  “Uh,” said Michael, but the woman looked past him at the open closet door and giggled.

  “Isn’t that cute? I just started renting this space, and I still can’t get over how much fun it is to have a”—her voice dropped to a whisper—“secret entrance. Were you guys just at the club? Marcus is such a sweetie pie. He said I should stop by some night and see his bar. I still haven’t gotten around to it. Is it nice?”

  “Um,” said Keeli.

  “Well, never mind. Feel free to look around. I’ll be up front if you need anything.”

  They did not need anything. They left the store as quickly as possible, and stood outside, looking up and down the street.

  “We’re just on the other side of the Crimson Light district,” Michael said. “The Bloody Pulp must back right up against this building.”

  Keeli shook her head and raised a hand to a cab. “Whatever. Did you find out anything before I crashed the party?”

  Michael blinked back the memory of Keeli, alone and surrounded. “Apparently, our murderer liked to go to the bar. All the victims had some kind of presence there; slumming it, maybe. Which makes me think he was actively hunting them.”

  A cab pulled up to the sidewalk, responding to Keeli’s wave. “I’d high-five you, but that would look tacky.”

  Michael opened the cab door. “Marcus implied that our man lured Walter away with promises of sex.”

  “Sounds fascinating,” said the cabbie. Michael smiled, and gave the man his apartment address. They did not talk about the case again until they reached his building. The old brick facade looked more dilapidated and dirty than Michael ever remembered it being. He felt embarrassed, but when he looked down at Keeli, she was studying him with an intensity that stole his breath.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Just thinking how glad I am to be here with you,” she said. “It’s a good feeling.”

  “You can say that, even after everything we’ve been through?”

  “Can’t you?”

  “Of course.”

  “Then why would I feel any different?”

  Michael smiled. “I would never presume to predict your emotions, Keeli.”

  That made her grin. She tucked her arm around his elbow and he led her down the alley, the back entrance to his apartment. “Marcus thought our attacker was a demon. The red eyes. Apparently, he never drank blood while he was at the bar. Only water.”

  Keeli shuddered. “If he won’t touch humans, then I’m not surprised water was his choice of beverage. What a messed-up place.”

  “Maybe the perfect place to plan a murder,” Michael said.

  “So … what? Our guy is a vigilante?”

  “Some of the vampires who died were not known for harming humans.”

  “But they were vampires, and if our murderer is working for a rogue element of the government—”

  “It might not matter if they were good or bad,” Michael finished. “We are all the same, after all. Just monsters.”

  Keeli’s brows furrowed. “He acted so hungry, Michael. Almost vulnerable—in a lethal, psychopathic sort of way. How could he have the control to sit down in a bar and listen to conversation if he were that starved?”

  “Maybe he has better control than we give him credit for. I identified with him because of his words, because there was something familiar in the way he carried himself, but I was irrational when I committed my acts. This man is clearly not. He knows what he is doing, and has enough composure to plan—to stop himself, even. Like he did with us.”

  “And that was because we smelled like each other. Vampire and werewolf.”

  “Tell me,” Michael whispered, “is it possible for a vampire to love a werewolf?”

  Keeli smiled. “What did you tell him?”

  “Nothing. But the next time he asks, I’ll be ready.”

  “You think there’s going to be a next time?” He simply looked at her, and Keeli sighed. “Yeah, I know. I just had to ask.”

  Michael pulled her into his arms and flew them up to his fire escape.

  “Careful,” she whispered. “There could be a Tracker in there.”

  “Or Richard and Suze,” he said.

  Michael set Keeli down, gently, but refused to release her from the loose circle of his arms. Ignoring the possibility of danger, he carefully broke off a white rose and stuck it behind her ear.

  “Perfect,” he said.

  Keeli smiled. “You think you’re going to charm my pants off?”

  “You’re not wearing pants.” He patted her backside and hitched up her skirt. Keeli slipped out of his embrace. She
took a deep breath, opened the window, and jumped into his apartment. Michael followed, but had to stop himself fast—Keeli stood perfectly still in front of him. She stared at the door, at the man leaning against it.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Hello,” said Hargittai quietly. “I thought I would find you here, Keeli.”

  Michael gently pushed Keeli aside so he could get into his apartment. Richard and Suze were nowhere to be seen. The briefcase was gone.

  He did not miss the way Hargittai’s lips tightened, the hard pulse in his cheek.

  “Why are you here?” Michael asked. “How did you find us?”

  “The Grand Dame had your address. She was going to send a Tracker, but I convinced her to let me come instead.”

  Keeli stepped forward. Michael wanted to snatch her back, but he knew that if he made any move toward her, Hargittai might react badly. After what Celestine had told him last night, any response was possible.

  “Alpha Hargittai,” she said. “Please, I don’t want to go back.”

  “It’s for the best,” he said, his voice as hard and dull as his eyes. “This won’t last.”

  “Because it did not last for you and Celestine?” Michael shook his head. “Do not compare us.”

  Hargittai went very still. “How … ?”

  “We overheard you last night,” Keeli said, with more compassion than Michael had ever imagined she possessed. He watched Hargittai, and it seemed to him that the Alpha had trouble breathing. Muscles moved convulsively in his neck; his dead eyes suddenly blazed bright with pain.

  “If you overheard,” he said finally, his gaze darting to Michael, “then you know what Cel—what she said about him.”

  Keeli’s chin jutted out. “Michael told me everything.” Which implied she had already known the story before Celestine’s revelation, but Michael was not going to lecture her about absolute and perfect truths. “It’s not what you think.”

  “When you love someone, it never is.”

  Michael finally did step forward. “Celestine must have told you her own history. Did she ever mention a vampire named Malachai?”

  Hargittai’s eyes darkened. “She hated him. He made her. Tortured her.”

  “We shared the same master,” Michael said. “He tortured all his made children, and there were many.”

  Hargittai hesitated. “All right. Fine. Perhaps I can see why your story might not be what I think. I’ll give you that. But I do not know you, and I do not know how this can last. Keeli, your grandmother is furious. I do not agree with the way she treated you, but she is the Grand Dame. Her word is law.”

  “She’s afraid for me. Too afraid to think straight. I didn’t mean to make a bid for Alpha, but now that I have, she seems to believe the other leaders will try to murder me.”

  “History, repeating itself.”

  Keeli nodded. “Maybe it will. Maybe no one will tolerate a Grand Dame who has a vampire for her lover.”

  “You could rescind your bid. Explain it away as a mistake.”

  “I tried to tell her that, but she doesn’t seem to care. She won’t listen to me. All she can talk about is my relationship with Michael. She’s terrified of how I’ll be treated because of it.”

  “You have your own power now,” Hargittai said. “You defeated an Alpha in battle.”

  “Power doesn’t mean anything without respect,” Keeli told him. “And I’m not looking to rule. I just want to live my life the way I want. I want … I want to be able to go home without being treated like a criminal. But if that can’t happen—if my grandmother won’t let me—then I’m out of here. I’ll leave my clan.”

  “For him?” Hargittai said. “For a vampire, you would do this?”

  “Wouldn’t you have done the same for Celestine? Didn’t you love her that much?”

  Hargittai turned away. Keeli followed him, seeking out his face.

  “Why did you do it?” she asked softly. “Why did you force that bid on me? Don’t pretend. You knew what would happen when you said those things to Jas.”

  Hargittai threw back his shoulders. “At the time it seemed like the perfect opportunity. I respect Jas Mack, but he is not the right wolf for Grand Alpha. He is too … inflexible. He has no sense of what it means to deal with humans, to live topside. He is incapable of diplomacy outside our species, of any long-term planning that requires finesse. He knows it, too. He knows all these things, and still he pushes. All because of her.”

  “You cannot blame him for wanting to protect his wife,” Michael said.

  “Yes, I can.” Hargittai clenched his fists. “In this, the clans must come first.”

  “And why do you think I would be any better?” Keeli pressed forward, her face an urgent mask of confusion and hunger. “Please. Why me? I don’t know anything. Everyone’s afraid of me.”

  “Some fear you, yes. But that is just ignorance. After what you did today … Keeli, do you have any idea how important that was? Not only did you unseat an Alpha and three of his men, but you did it without the support of your clan. You protected your wolves.”

  “It was the right thing to do.”

  “But you were the only one there who did it.” Hargittai bowed his head, staring at his hands. “They respect you, Keeli. If not now, then later they will learn to respect you. They already respect the Maddox legacy. Of all the wolves, and all the bloodlines, yours is the oldest. The most powerful, both in character and instinct.”

  “Blood doesn’t mean anything,” she whispered. “The men who murdered my family taught me that.”

  “Blood alone does not mean anything,” he agreed quietly. “But your strength is not just blood and a name. I have watched you ever since you were a child—all of us have—and you have what it takes to become a great leader.”

  “You are so full of shit,” Keeli said, and it was clear to Michael that she was so lost in her own fear that she had forgotten who she was talking to. “I couldn’t lead a pack of goats to water.”

  “Then why are we arguing about this?” Hargittai leaned forward, his gaze intense. Shrewd. “You are right: The actual bid was my fault. But you beat that Alpha, and you went along with everything I said. Why, Keeli? Why do that, unless deep down, you think you could lead the clans? Lead them well, even.”

  “My temper—,” she began, but Hargittai shook his head.

  “That is an excuse, something your grandmother should never have forced on you. She was so afraid you would turn into your father, she made sure you learned to be afraid, too.”

  Michael wrapped his arms around Keeli’s shoulders and she leaned into him, warm and small. “I loved my father. He was a good man. He fought too much, but he was good to us.”

  “Yes,” said Hargittai faintly. “Your mother was a good woman, too. They just made the wrong people angry.”

  Keeli shook her head. “It always comes down to anger. What to do with it, how to control it. How not to be an animal. I don’t know if I’m ready to face up to that kind of thing on a large scale.”

  Michael turned her around to face him. “Perhaps you are not meant to lead the clans, but do not deceive yourself, Keeli. Do not denigrate your abilities. Do you have any idea what you’ve done, the strength it took to be here, with me? To make the sacrifices you have, all in the name of helping your people and mine? You are the rarest person I have ever met, and the wolves would be lucky to have you as their Grand Dame.”

  “You’re only saying that because you like me.”

  “I love you. But love is not the same as truth, and Alpha Hargittai and I both know what you are capable of, even if you do not.”

  Keeli squirmed. Michael let her go, and she stood apart from both men, staring helplessly. “None of this solves the real problem. I can’t go back to my grandmother. Not now, anyway. We’re getting close to solving this crime, and if we can do that, we might be able to save the alliance.”

  Hargittai frowned. “The vampires are demanding full access to the underground in case of an
emergency. They also want us to retrofit a good portion of the tunnels to suit their … needs. More luxury than survival, if you ask me.”

  “What are they offering in return?” Michael asked.

  “Ten million dollars.”

  Keeli’s eyes widened, but Michael shook his head. “That is too small a number. The Grand Dame should be asking for at least one hundred million.”

  “What?” Keeli looked incredulous. “There’s no way they would pay that much.”

  “The vampires will pay what it takes, and trust me, they have the money. They have more than enough. And if they want the tunnels retrofitted, then they must pay for that in addition to any fees the wolves require.”

  Hargittai snorted. “The Grand Dame has not even talked price yet. She’s still trying to get the vampires to compromise on their access to the underground. Or at least, she was. Fleur Dumont ordered the envoys to remain in the Maddox tunnels until an agreement is reached. Your grandmother was very displeased. She’s refusing to talk to them until tonight. I think her disagreement with you has something to do with her decision.”

  “Tonight is the full moon. No one’s going to be doing any talking.”

  “Exactly.”

  Keeli covered her face and groaned. “She planned this out perfectly. We are so screwed.”

  “No,” Hargittai said, and there was something in his eyes that made Michael want to shake his head, plead silence, but it was too late—too late—and the Alpha moved close and whispered, “Not if you challenge her.”

  “I threatened her with that,” Keeli said softly. “But I was angry. I didn’t really mean it.”

  “And if it means saving the alliance?”

  “Stop it.” Keeli glared at him. “Why are you here? Why are you saying these things to me? It’s the same as treason.”

  “Wolves do not believe in treason. You know that, Keeli. We believe in survival. Survival at any cost. And right now, our survival depends on people like you and Michael. We have no time for pettiness. The humans say a rogue element was responsible for the recent attacks on the major vampire family, but what if that is a lie? We are not prepared for the possibilities.”

  Michael moved to the window. He soaked in the bright dazzle of his roses, thinking about the ephemeral qualities of beauty and pain. He said, “How did you meet Celestine?”